Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Deuce Simmons Interview + Alisa Kresge Welcome Reception | Richmond Basketball Update

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Deuce Simmons Interview + Alisa Kresge Welcome Reception | Richmond Basketball Update · Spiders Sound Off

0:06
Hey Spider fans, welcome back to another episode of Spider Sound
0:09
Off. This is Tom.
0:10
And this is Porter. Porter has removed his name from
0:14
the podcast portal and has decided to return for four times
0:19
the pay, which is 0 still. I am.
0:22
I'm back. It was never a there was never a
0:24
question about whether Richmond was going to be my my home.
0:27
It always is going to be my home.
0:30
But you know, for negotiation perspective, it doesn't hurt if
0:32
you, if you get some of the big donors to kind of pony up a few
0:36
extra, you know, dineros, it doesn't hurt.
0:38
So we, we did that as a negotiating tactic.
0:40
And like Tom said, I landed four times the pay, which is still 0.
0:45
Here we are. So anyway, we're doing this pie.
0:48
We got a couple things going on. So this past week we had the
0:52
welcome reception for new women's coach Alyssa Kresge.
0:56
So we're going to talk about that.
0:57
Porter was in attendance. I was out of town.
1:00
Our Congrats to our lacrosse team who won the 810
1:04
championship. That was a nice episode you did
1:06
last last week without me. I enjoyed it.
1:09
It was fun to, to just talk a different sport for a while and
1:11
not a sport that I'm an expert in.
1:13
Absolutely. At some point I, I, you know, he
1:16
started talking about some lingo and I'm like, do I want to ask
1:18
more? Because I'm going to sound
1:19
really stupid. So I backed off the technical
1:21
aspects of lacrosse since I don't know.
1:24
Yeah, but, you know, he was entertaining.
1:25
You did a nice job. I mean, I think, you know, if
1:28
you'd stuck to lacrosse, it would have been a perfect
1:29
episode. But has some of the fans that
1:32
came up and talked to me at the the Kresge event on Wednesday,
1:35
they were very grateful. I'm coming back.
1:37
Yeah, to do the basketball piece again with you, so keep you
1:40
under control a little bit. So just to kind of wrap up the
1:42
lacrosse, so the NCAA Tournament selection show is actually
1:45
tonight. OK, Sunday.
1:48
And the women's selection show was tonight as well.
1:51
I don't know enough of, I mean, are women's team lost in the
1:53
finals of the A10 tournament. So I don't know if there's at
1:57
large potential there or not. But the men's selection show is
1:59
tonight. They will have a home game.
2:03
Awesome. So the first round is set up.
2:05
There's a couple, I'll call them playing game.
2:08
So 18 teams make the tournament total.
2:10
There's a this 2, the I guess the last four automatic
2:13
qualifiers, ranking wise, play almost like a playing game to
2:16
get to the 16. But I mean, Richmond won't be in
2:20
that. We weren't even with last year,
2:21
we weren't in that. But now we're seeded teams, they
2:23
see the top 8. We were four, I think, a team of
2:26
season. So, well, Notre Dame lost UVA in
2:29
the ACC tournament and UVA I think is playing North Carolina
2:33
today so. The second time Notre Dame lost
2:35
Eva this year, I think it is. I think they lost twice to him.
2:37
Could be so UVA was 8th so there's like who knows what's
2:41
happened but but we should we'll get a top eight seed for sure.
2:43
Do we end up top 4? The top 2 actually play the
2:46
those playing game teams. I don't think we'll get top 2
2:49
but anyway. So we'll have a home game.
2:51
I think next weekend we win that we will have another home game
2:55
likely depending on where we're seated.
2:58
Hopefully if we end up top four, you'll have two rounds where you
3:01
could have home games if you win.
3:03
Fantastic, So. That would be great.
3:04
So more of the. Team folks that has a legitimate
3:07
chance of winning a national title.
3:08
So I mean, come out and support them.
3:10
Even if you're not a lacrosse fan, you don't get that many
3:13
chances to capture a national title so.
3:16
Well, Porter, we have an exciting interview coming up.
3:19
We've been working on this for a couple weeks thanks to the
3:22
communication staff at U of R We've got an interview coming up
3:26
with the upcoming freshman, Deuce Simmons.
3:31
He's a point guard from Olathe, KS, one of our three incoming
3:35
freshmen. He's the first recruit we've
3:38
ever had on this show, and he'll be coming up in 321.
3:45
Well, maybe just to start, Sam. And so you're Deuce.
3:50
We've heard kind of both tell tell us the story kind of
3:52
where's Deuce come from? I know you're you're kind of the
3:55
second. Is that how that nickname
3:57
started? Yeah, so my aunt, she she
4:00
created that nickname for me because I'm named after my dad,
4:03
so I'm the second. So yeah, that's that's where the
4:06
nickname Deuce came from. And you've had that like since
4:09
you were just a little kid or. Yeah, I've probably since I was
4:12
born. I'm pretty sure I don't
4:13
remember. It's been my nickname for the
4:15
longest. Let's just announce to our
4:17
listeners, I mean Deuce is a recruit coming into our men's
4:23
basketball team next year. It's the first recruit we've
4:25
ever, we've ever, we've ever talked to here on Spider Sound
4:28
off very exciting recruit for us.
4:30
He was the Kansas Sports Central 6A Player of the year.
4:35
You were the defensive player of the year by One by One source in
4:38
Kansas. You were the Gatorade Player of
4:40
the Year in Kansas. Won a state title, right?
4:43
And you won a state title for your high school, so.
4:45
Yeah, first one ever. Pretty pretty well accomplished
4:48
high school player from the same area as Jacob Gilliard hailed
4:52
from, who most Spider fans will remember is a one of the
4:56
incredible point guards ever to play at University of Richmond.
5:00
And so super excited that you're on the pod today with us, Deuce,
5:04
and looking forward to talking a little bit about you and your
5:07
game and what motivates you and what's how you get excited so
5:12
real quick. I mean, just kind of tell us
5:13
about when did you start basketball?
5:17
I'm pretty sure I started playing when I was like 2 years
5:19
old maybe when I first started walking I just parents put a
5:23
ball in my hands. It's just basketball.
5:25
Been staying with me ever since. Do you have lineage in your
5:28
family? Other people who played your
5:30
father, your mother. Yeah, my dad played a little bit
5:32
in high school and then my sister just, she's graduating
5:35
from Nebraska Carney, that's where she just finished up her
5:38
years of playing college basketball that.
5:40
Oh, fantastic. Nice.
5:41
That's awesome. So how did how did you hear of
5:44
Richmond? Like, what point in your kind of
5:46
recruiting path did kind of, you know, you hear from Richmond and
5:49
Richmond coach come watch you kind of what's that story of how
5:53
you got connected to U of R? The ending, the ending of my, my
5:57
16th year. We, we were in a like AUSA
6:00
basketball event where we played against like different circuits
6:04
and stuff. So coach, coach Guy was there
6:08
and so was pretty yeah, I think it was Coach Guy that was there.
6:12
And they actually weren't there to see me play.
6:15
They were there to see someone else play.
6:17
So then after that game, coach coach guy texted me and they
6:23
just been recruiting me since then.
6:25
And then I just built a relationship with the guys who
6:27
all the with the coaching staff. That was mainly the reason why I
6:31
chose Richmond. And then that's how I mainly
6:35
heard about them. And then plus Jacob went there.
6:37
So I really knew much about him and also the program.
6:40
So that's made my decision really easy.
6:43
I know we had an interview a couple months ago with Darian
6:46
brothers had a similar stories like, you know, the coaches came
6:50
to watch somebody else and he had he impressed and then got
6:53
pulled in. I think it's probably a common
6:55
story of obviously you're kind of still developing your game
6:58
and so not everyone's going to know you at the time, but all
7:00
they got to do is watch it once and they're like, hey.
7:03
Deuce when you show up to a tournament like that, let's call
7:05
it EU sixteens, and you know there's going to be a lot of
7:08
coaches there watching and some may they'd be there for you,
7:12
some may be there for others. Like how do you prepare for
7:14
that? Like, how do you get yourself
7:15
mentally ready to go out there and play your best basketball?
7:19
Just go out there and just do what I do.
7:20
Just compete, play harder than the person that that's in front
7:24
of me, you know, because there's going to be coaches there.
7:26
Like I like. If I know someone there that's a
7:28
highly talented recruit, I just want to make sure I'm on the
7:30
court doing things better than he is, playing harder than he is
7:33
and just doing what I do. That's awesome.
7:36
So when you got when recruiting kind of continued and you at
7:41
some point came to campus, I think typically players get to
7:44
kind of play a little bit like who were some of the players
7:47
that you got to meet that kind of helped either encouraged you
7:51
or you kind of you, you just kind of saw what they were doing
7:54
and how things were run to be like, hey, this could be a good
7:56
place for me. Yeah, so the guard that was
7:59
there last year, Mikhail Tyne. Yeah, yeah.
8:02
I just just watching him and just having a mentor like him, I
8:05
was in my corner just showing me everything what to do.
8:08
Like, because they're like they're, I wasn't really,
8:11
because high school balls definitely totally different
8:13
than college. So like when I when I was doing
8:16
what they were doing out there, I was kind of confused at first.
8:18
And then he pulled me to the side and was just telling me
8:20
like, do this, do that. And then I just kind of got in
8:23
the hang of it and then just started flowing really well with
8:25
the team. That's great.
8:27
What was your initial impression of of Coach Mooney when you
8:30
first met him and kind of started hearing kind of, you
8:33
know, broadly what his vision was, kind of how he liked to
8:36
play basketball? Great coach.
8:38
I, I, I love coach to def. I love the way that he runs his
8:40
practices because he he let he likes to scrimmage a lot to see
8:43
things like in game flow, game speed a lot.
8:46
So I think that would be really great for me this season.
8:50
Fantastic. How do you who did you model
8:53
your game after when you were kind of trying to decide who Du
8:56
Simmons was going to be which who are your kind of basketball
8:58
idols? I was my my main idol was
9:01
probably Kyrie Irving. That's how I really looked up to
9:03
a lot smaller guard like shifty, crafty.
9:07
So I saw just monitored my game after him.
9:11
Nice. When you came to campus and you
9:13
played in a game with the guys or you played in a scrimmage
9:16
with the guys, what did you think of campus the first time
9:17
you saw it? Campus was beautiful.
9:20
I remember coaches were sending me pictures of it and
9:22
everything. I was I was, it was nice.
9:25
And then just seeing it in person just made it 10 times
9:27
better than what it actually really is.
9:29
Absolutely. It's widely considered one of
9:31
the probably the three prettiest campuses in America.
9:34
So can't you can't go. Wrong perspective.
9:37
To who else was looking at you kind of what were the other
9:38
schools that you were thinking about, you know, pre initial
9:42
commitment? My my first, my first offer was
9:45
from Tennessee. They were, I went on unofficial
9:49
there and then things didn't work out there with them.
9:52
So and then I also had an offer from Missouri State, but I don't
9:57
nothing really went too far with them.
9:58
And then main option was Richmond from day one.
10:01
So that's yeah. So, you know, help and we'll
10:06
start kind of a high level. So you're talking to Spider fans
10:08
like how do you describe your game?
10:10
Kind of what what, what do you like watching on the court?
10:14
Just being fast defensively, I'm pretty good.
10:18
I'm a pretty good defender, pretty good at getting my
10:21
teammates involved, so I feel like if I'll bring that to the
10:23
table next year, it would be a really good season for me.
10:27
Absolutely. What?
10:28
What was your best memory for playing high school ball?
10:31
Like what? What game either stuck out for
10:33
you or did you shine in that? You're going to take that one.
10:36
I remember that one for the rest of your life.
10:38
I like I'd say the state championship game for sure.
10:41
You know, we we lost my junior year to a great team and then we
10:45
just came back to next year, which is better than ever and we
10:49
got back to the state tournament.
10:50
We won those first two games, then got to the state
10:53
championship. The team that we played in the
10:55
state championship we lost to early in the season by one point
10:59
and that was my high score game. I had 34 points that game and
11:04
then we we had a chip on our shoulder the rest of the season.
11:08
Got back to the same team in the state tournament, state
11:10
championship game and just the dominated the whole game.
11:15
I had a couple couple points, a lot of assists, couple steals,
11:18
just get my teammates involved and brought back home the state.
11:21
First state championship ever had a way to north.
11:24
That's incredible. Yeah.
11:25
That's gonna be a memory that you you keep forever.
11:27
Yeah, 100%. Getting the state title is is is
11:31
something, so that's fantastic. So what?
11:33
So I'm guessing you've got what, a a month till graduation?
11:38
Or even maybe sooner than that. Yeah, I graduate two weeks
11:42
actually. So I graduate May 16th.
11:45
What's it been like? So you you win the state
11:46
championship, you obviously you got you got college ahead.
11:49
You enjoying the the the last last few weeks of of senior year
11:54
before all of a sudden you know, coach Mooney has here running
11:57
sprints and. Yes, Sir.
11:59
Getting getting at it. Yeah, I just, I just been
12:01
working out, you know, in early mornings, late nights in the
12:05
gym, sometimes on the video games here and there with my
12:09
friends, go on like hanging out with my friends, you know, just
12:12
doing what I can to see all my friends before I leave soon.
12:17
Yeah, what I'm talking about going to the gym.
12:19
So when you look at, you know, going going to college, kind of
12:22
going to the A10, like what, what are the things that you're
12:25
trying to work on the most mainly that you can keep, keep
12:29
improving? Probably I'll say my jump shot
12:32
just being a perimeter shooter coming off ball screens when
12:35
defenders go under, stopping, popping, just taking my my
12:39
shooting to another level and I think that would be very good
12:41
for me. As a as a recruit, do you do the
12:44
coaches send you anything before you show up on campus to get
12:49
ready for practice? Do they give you any like hey,
12:51
here's a package. Read this before you come in.
12:54
No, I haven't received anything like that yet, just only the
12:57
summer schedule so far. OK.
12:59
And when do you when do you get to campus and start practice?
13:02
May 17th, that's that's when I get to campus.
13:04
Day after graduation. I'm you.
13:06
Get like you get like 4 hours to celebrate graduation and you're
13:09
on your way. And then I'm out.
13:10
Yeah. That's incredible.
13:14
I'm, I'm curious when you're like, you know, you're coming to
13:17
Richmond, Like we obviously watched for season ticket
13:20
holders, watch a lot of games. You got Aiden Arger Bright,
13:23
who's a great kind of quick player.
13:26
Like how do you see kind of you and Aiden playing alongside
13:30
playing behind him? Like how do you how do you see
13:32
your freshman year going with kind of having a had a great
13:35
point guard who's, you know, young, you know, he's got one
13:38
year. You know, he's a young guy too.
13:39
Like what, what do you, what do you see as you kind of get to
13:42
Richmond and and really help help Aiden and the whole team
13:46
become great? Yeah I just, I thought me and
13:48
Aiden are going to be a great back court this year.
13:51
Just just me and him both 2 quick guards, great defensively,
13:54
great offensively, just we both are well like getting our team
13:57
mates involved. And I just feel like me like if,
14:00
if he's like something's going on with him, like I can help him
14:03
out and then he can help me out. Like we can both just just keep
14:06
helping each other, building our team, be great leaders, both of
14:09
us, and then just just dominating the A10.
14:13
Iron sharpens iron, right? Yes, Sir, that's basically what
14:15
it would be. Hey, a question for you.
14:17
When did you realize you were capable or you were going to be
14:21
AD one player? How old were you when you said
14:23
you know what? Or your dad said you, you're
14:25
going to make this, you're going to be AD 1 college basketball
14:28
player. Because like I always wonder, is
14:29
that something that you know happens when you're in high
14:32
school or is it like in 8th grade?
14:33
You're just just 10 times better than everybody else and you get
14:36
it right? What's what?
14:37
When was that time for you? When the light bulb went off and
14:39
said I'm going to be AD one ball player?
14:41
I'll probably say ending of my freshman year, so like the start
14:44
of my sophomore year, like 16 year, that's when I really
14:47
started developing as a player and just having like the
14:50
coaches, my AAU coach was telling me is that you keep
14:53
working hard, they're going to come, they're going to come.
14:55
Just wait your turn. And the time was right when it
14:58
when it happened going my 17 year, I got got a call from
15:03
coach Guy, coach Mooney and they offered me a scholarship and
15:07
just dream come true. How do you obviously this is,
15:12
you know, this will be something we'll want to talk to you about
15:14
in a few months from now, But obviously you're going to come
15:16
to campus. There's two other new freshman
15:19
recruits coming in the, you know, the basketball today.
15:22
Like there's all these players coming off the portal.
15:24
So you're not going to be the one person who's like, hey, I've
15:27
never been here before or I've never done this before.
15:30
You've got a, you know, there's going to be, you know what, 9 to
15:33
10 players who are kind of in the in similar shoes.
15:35
Like how do you see that coming together?
15:37
Like what, what do you think you know your role would be in that
15:40
almost just like, how do you how do you bring a bunch of folks
15:43
who were new? And obviously it's coach's job
15:45
in the long run to bring it all together.
15:47
But yeah, like how do you see that experience being when you
15:50
when you get there in May and there's a lot of unfamiliar
15:52
faces, but no one's familiar with each other right now?
15:56
I feel like the first couple days we'll just, I think team
15:59
bond and team chemistry, get our chemistry right, get the
16:02
chemistry going in the summer. I feel like that would be great
16:05
for us. And then just just doing what I
16:08
do, be a leader and just get the team involved in everything and
16:13
feel like that main thing is the team chemistry.
16:16
I feel like if we build that, chemistry will be great.
16:19
I know you're young to ask for me to ask you this question
16:21
because I did not know it when I was your age, but what?
16:23
What do you see yourself majoring in?
16:26
Right now I'm undecided on what I'm gonna major in.
16:28
I'm still talking with my parents about that.
16:30
Probably somewhere around like the business side of things.
16:33
We are both, We will tell you the Business School was
16:35
unbelievable at the University of Richmond and it's a great
16:38
education. Yeah, so.
16:40
Yeah, trained us to be podcasters somehow.
16:45
This is this is a this is a hobby that we have for fun.
16:47
Yeah, that's right. Hey, I'm curious dudes kind of
16:51
maybe a little behind the scenes, like you know, when when
16:54
you're playing in high school kind of pregame is do you have
16:57
like a a routine? Are you a superstitious guys or
17:00
certain music you always want to listen to?
17:01
Or what kind of what's what's your game prep like?
17:04
Yeah, main. Mainly just music, headphones
17:07
stretching a lot. Just sometimes I'll like, I
17:11
don't know, it's just I just stretch a lot with a lot of
17:13
music rolling out and just running, jogging, just getting
17:18
loose and getting ready for the game.
17:20
There's no pregame meal superstition where you got to
17:22
eat something for, you know, breakfast every day, Day you
17:25
have a game. Nothing like that.
17:27
No, I don't. I don't really like, I mean, I
17:29
sometime I'll eat before a game, but sometimes it'll like mess my
17:32
stomach up, so I probably won't eat that much, yeah.
17:35
And I'm curious if you if we talked to all your high school
17:38
teammates, like how would they describe you?
17:40
How would they say both, you know, off the court and on the.
17:43
Court on the court, some might say I'm a little hard on them
17:47
because, you know, I'll just get on the guys a lot.
17:49
They're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, But that's
17:51
just what a leader is. And I'm AI feel like they would
17:54
say I'm a I'm a great teammate and then off the court great guy
17:57
and just funny some I'm funny a little bit when I when I have to
18:01
be and just outgoing and I like trying new things.
18:06
That's awesome. Do you think your parents will
18:07
make it out to watch you play in person this year or is it going
18:10
to be on ESPN Plus? They're going to be, they're
18:12
going to be glued in. Yeah, they said though, they'll
18:14
they'll make a couple games. It'll just be a little hard with
18:17
the distance. But I feel like I I would love
18:19
them to be at as many games as possible.
18:21
Yeah, the good news is almost all the games are televised, so
18:23
you can still watch them from where they are from wherever
18:25
they are. Well, it's great.
18:28
So, you know, pretty soon you'll be in our facility probably, you
18:33
know, practicing both in the queerly Center but also on the
18:35
on the Robin Center floor. I guess we don't really have a
18:39
schedule yet. So we'll see when the first game
18:42
is. But we'll, we'll, we, we've
18:43
gotten out to practice last summer.
18:45
We'll definitely be out there again at some point.
18:46
It's fun watching and watching the when when things go right,
18:51
but it's also very fun to watch when things go wrong and watch
18:53
coach give some lessons. Get to yelling.
18:57
Yeah, get get to to players. It's it's it's always fun.
19:01
You have any, as we kind of wrap up, any kind of message for
19:04
Richmond fans or anything you want to just shout out to the
19:08
fan base before they get to see you in person?
19:11
Yes, I'll just say everybody just come out, enjoy the show
19:14
that's about to happen this year.
19:15
You know, about to it's about to be a great Ryan.
19:18
I feel like we can make it. Awesome.
19:22
Well, we're super excited to see you play in the Robin Center.
19:25
Sir, your, your pedigree is, is incredible and congratulations
19:30
on an incredible high school run.
19:32
Congratulations on getting AD One scholarship.
19:34
To graduation. To Yeah, congratulations on the
19:37
four hours you get to celebrate graduation.
19:39
Yes, Sir. Thank you.
19:40
Yeah, have a safe trip to Richmond.
19:42
Well, that was awesome to get to talk to Deuce.
19:44
What a great kid. Looking forward to seeing him in
19:47
the Robin Center in a few months.
19:49
Absolutely. I mean, this this kid from all
19:52
appearances is a player and we saw last year an exciting
19:57
freshman point guard take a huge leap forward.
19:59
And I would not be surprised to see, you know, this kid take a
20:02
big leap forward and become kind of a star in the future of the
20:05
A10. So yeah, you know, we chose him
20:07
carefully as our first ever recruit to interview on Spider
20:09
Sound off. And I think, you know, good
20:11
things are to come for that young man.
20:13
Yeah. And I think we're going to,
20:14
obviously we can talk a little bit maybe today about the men's
20:17
team, but I think that's we'll do kind of maybe a full deep
20:20
dive on this new roster later this month.
20:23
But I think the the big news this week or the big event was
20:27
the welcome reception for Alyssa Kresge.
20:29
You were there, Porter. Tell us how that went.
20:32
Yeah, it was fantastic. I mean, first of all, shout out
20:35
to all the fans that came out. There was just a huge crowd, so
20:38
every seat was taken, standing room around the edges and then
20:40
people up on top. You couldn't really see this on
20:42
the cameras, people up top, all those seats were taken as well.
20:45
So it was packed to the the brim.
20:49
I there was a line probably 60 people long before it even
20:52
opened. And I was standing in line
20:54
talking to a few of our fans and one of our fans was kind of
20:57
shocked at how tall I was. And I, I said, you know, why are
21:00
you shocked? He's like, well, because Tom
21:01
looks that tall too. And I said, well, Tom puts
21:03
himself 6 inches higher in the chair and takes, lowers my chair
21:07
before we record, make sure that I have wood to sit on instead of
21:11
a cushion. So yes, so I, but he laughed.
21:14
A lot of our fans actually in line told us, told me that they
21:17
listened to our women's episodes.
21:19
So they were like, they're all in it for our, for our ladies
21:21
content. So we'll keep that coming for
21:23
you this year. Have a lot of good ladies comic
21:26
content for you. Let me start with the press
21:29
conference itself or, or the OR the introduction of Coach Kresge
21:33
and. Bob Black was kind of the the
21:35
narrator. Bob did The narrator, John Hart
21:38
did a nice introduction, talked about what a winner she was.
21:43
She was a winner in high school, winner in college.
21:45
Playing made the Sweet 16. She was defensive player of the
21:49
year. She was a winner as an assistant
21:50
coach and then a winner as a head coach and that is probably
21:54
the thing that I think is most exciting for Spider fans because
21:57
we have such a good program situation.
22:00
To get somebody who can sustain that success is is really
22:03
exciting to see and I think this lady's going to do that.
22:07
Everything she talked about brimmed confidence.
22:11
I get the sense that she's a thoughtful, careful person.
22:15
She's not going to shoot from the hip.
22:17
She is going to think things through, make rational decisions
22:22
based on what's best for her success.
22:24
And let's face it, she's earned the right to do that and she's
22:26
coming with a tremendous pedigree.
22:28
So, you know, I don't think there's going to be any
22:31
compromise in Year 1 for the sake of 2-3 and four, cuz she's
22:34
got Ally back and we'll talk about that in a second.
22:37
But I think she's going to make decisions for the four to 10
22:40
year horizon, not for the one year.
22:41
Horizon I did like kind of the one comment I saw kind of the
22:44
the the press piece of it. I didn't see the whole thing,
22:46
but the where she had a remark of like you could.
22:51
What I could tell is that people who have reached out to her or
22:53
have talked to her have made a lot of comments about like, wow,
22:56
this is going to be a great defensive team.
22:58
And she made a comment of like, we like offense and defense.
23:01
Like, well, I mean the. First ever pod we did.
23:04
You're talking about her pace. So like, and I mean, you know,
23:06
we you went back in research. Yeah.
23:07
Back in research and, you know, Russell didn't really have a
23:09
fast pace like there was, there was like one of his last four
23:12
years where our pace was like top half.
23:14
Yeah. But we're kind of, I mean, it's
23:17
like when you have a smooth flowing offense, it doesn't mean
23:20
it's fast-paced versus, you know, running gun team.
23:25
I said 2927 against George Mason.
23:27
That was a mistake. I hope I didn't spook anybody.
23:30
I mean this, this lady knows how to win and she's going to do
23:32
what it takes to. Win.
23:33
Well, we know Ali knows how to score.
23:34
Yes, we'll have some scoring before we talk about the players
23:37
for a second, let's talk about. So after the broader
23:42
introduction, I got to go out on the balcony and ask her a few
23:46
questions. Did you weep at first?
23:47
Because the last time we were on that balcony, we were
23:49
interviewing Coach Roussel. I did not.
23:51
I did not. And I don't know if Bob listens
23:54
to the pod or not, but you know how I said, you know, O'Connor's
23:56
always getting asked the first question.
23:57
Bob turned to me right away. He said, Porter, you have a
23:59
question. So he actually, no fairness
24:01
O'Connor wasn't there. He showed up for the main part,
24:04
but he did not make the balcony. So it was a default to me maybe,
24:08
but I had a couple questions for her.
24:10
But the coolest thing was I introduced myself to her and she
24:12
said, oh, you're the heady Topper guy.
24:14
And so that means somebody close to her listens to the pod.
24:17
And there's one way to win favor from this podcaster is listen to
24:20
my pod. So I'm already, you know, liking
24:22
her because she she listens to the pod.
24:25
OK, so let's talk about the team for a second.
24:28
Ali coming back is the big news. I don't want to shortchange how
24:31
big this is. I mean, we're talking about a
24:36
lady who is going to be a 10 first team preseason guaranteed.
24:42
I mean, there's I looked at the Bartorvic readings, there's
24:44
nobody really even close really. The question is, is she going to
24:46
be player of the year preseason? Yeah, I mean, it is a league
24:49
that lost a lot and not just graduation.
24:53
Obviously we lost some to graduation, but George Mason,
24:57
Rhode Island lost their best players to the portal.
25:00
Some some players came in. So that's like, I don't think
25:03
we've yet assessed right. OK, well VCU got some new player
25:06
in from Marist or wherever. It's like how good is that
25:09
person? But returning A10 players like
25:11
she's top of the list. So there's there's of the top
25:14
six, she she was number six last year in efficiency across all of
25:19
the A10. There's only one other girl in
25:21
the top six that's back and they were virtually tied.
25:23
And that girl was from Saint Joe's.
25:24
So you're talking about somebody who could be pre season player
25:27
of the year. So getting her back is
25:29
absolutely massive, right? The other thing we've talked
25:32
about Ali, I mean, you know, coming back almost assuming she
25:36
stays healthy, assure she's going to be in the Hall of Fame
25:40
because I mean, she's got 3 double incidentally appearances
25:43
a win. She was all A10 second team last
25:46
year. She'll most likely start all a
25:47
10/10 first team. Those are the characteristics of
25:50
a Hall of Famer. So whether or not they make the
25:52
tournament or not, she's also the first Spider basketball
25:55
player in history that could be in the NCAA tournament all four
26:01
years they were at Richmond. Nobody's ever done that, folks.
26:03
Nobody. She's the 1st that has a chance
26:05
to do that, which puts her in, you know, a category of 1.
26:09
So credit to Ally. I actually talked to Ally after
26:12
I talked to Coach Kresge, thanked her for coming back,
26:14
shook her hand, told her we'd like to get her back on the pod
26:17
sometime after the roster is set towards the end of the summer.
26:19
So that was that was that conversation.
26:22
Other players who were there that night, I didn't get a
26:24
chance to talk to all the other players, but I did call Keelan
26:28
and just ask and make sure I got everybody.
26:30
Rainwright was there, Ava Porchetti was there, Anisha
26:33
Scott was there, Peyton Richard was there.
26:36
Shanika Campbell's presumed to be coming back, but she couldn't
26:38
miss it because she had to be home.
26:40
So those five give us a nice core of people with experience
26:44
to put around Allie, especially Ava and Rain, who played a huge
26:49
amount of minutes last year. Anisha had the 20 point game.
26:51
And I think the biggest wild card into our success this year
26:55
is going to be Shanika Campbell because this team is a little
26:57
bit light on the size department as of right now.
27:00
As of right now. So Shanika Campbell's coming
27:02
back? The one thing I'd say you
27:04
mentioned kind of with Ali coming back now, we haven't seen
27:06
it yet, but you needed Ali to come back also to convince an
27:13
upperclassmen portal player to be like, I'm not coming to a
27:17
team that's rebuilding because they don't.
27:18
I mean, yes, money is certainly involved.
27:21
But if the money is similar, like you want to go to a team
27:23
that can go to the NCAA tournament or can win
27:25
championships. And if Ali wasn't there, that
27:28
would be a hard thing to argue. But when you have Ali coming
27:31
back and it's like she's been here and returned, you know,
27:34
multiple years, this is the first time she she could have
27:36
gone somewhere else That tells a a portal player, assuming we
27:40
find a couple soon and give them that motivation to get the rich.
27:44
So you have Allie. Senior you have Peyton, Junior
27:49
you have 4 sophomores, all who got meaningful minutes last
27:52
year, and then you've got the five freshmen, so 3 of different
27:55
5 fresh, yes. That's still 5 fresh 3 of
27:57
ourselves freshmen. Are coming in Schindler,
28:00
Reifenberg and Fontana, so that's exciting.
28:02
They all are coming and there's some size there, I think Fontana
28:04
63 and you got 2 new recruits shown in Van Diver that Kresge
28:08
has already signed. So that's five kids coming in,
28:11
five freshmen, 4 sophomores. It's a young team, by the way, I
28:13
find I. I found myself almost last
28:16
laughing at myself because when Russell took a couple of the
28:19
recruits to UVA, I'm like, like, stop stealing our players and
28:23
then like, oh, we still. Then we stole players from other
28:25
schools to fill those. That's just the way it happens
28:27
fine. When we steal.
28:28
But it's not fine when someone else steals.
28:30
I don't know why you. Wouldn't if you were a young
28:32
player, why you would not want to be on Richmond right now?
28:34
Because there's going to be a lot of minutes to go around,
28:36
right? And so I do think there's room
28:38
for two more gets in the portal. And I think if I am Kresge, this
28:42
is me talking and not Kresge in any way.
28:44
I think you got to go for some size who's got some experience,
28:47
right? Somebody who can compliment
28:49
Shanika in the post, I think is what you're going to be looking
28:52
for now. There's this whole five year
28:54
thing now that you're talking about which if passes it's it's
28:59
it's. They've pretty much said it's
29:00
not retroactive. So they're but I but I think.
29:03
It's not retroactive for people who graduated, but I think Ali
29:06
would be entitled to potentially come back for a 50 years.
29:09
I think that's. The way that that's my
29:10
interpretation, that's an interesting little.
29:12
Dynamic right now, Ali could also take a grad year and she
29:14
could go somewhere else because she will have graduated by then.
29:17
But if this team is good and you can somehow convince Ali to come
29:21
back for a fifth year, it could be just a second.
29:23
She's not drafted it. Could be a second crack.
29:25
At that, a second crack at that in Jubilee thing.
29:27
So one thing, just rosterize. I don't want to forget it 'cause
29:30
I don't think we've talked about it on the pod is how Alicia
29:33
Newells at GW, so it was a strange move, but I know she's.
29:37
From that area, so maybe the parents want to see her play
29:39
every but it will be I mean it's.
29:40
Fun like we don't we didn't want to lose her.
29:43
Porter was kind of the biggest fan, but it'll be fun.
29:46
We get to see her again. Like if she went to a different
29:49
conference, we might have never seen her play.
29:50
She we're going to see her in the I assume if GW is coming the
29:53
Robinson or she'll be there and obviously if we go up there.
29:56
So it'll be at some point fun to see her guarding alley in a game
30:00
now, hopefully it's fun for more fun for us than it is for GW
30:03
fans. But I'm I'm just glad at least
30:04
she's going to be around. We'll get to see what she's
30:07
capable of on a I'm actually excited to see.
30:10
What now that there's all these upperclassmen have graduated,
30:13
what what this group of sophomores and freshmen are
30:15
going to do? I mean, there's so much time to
30:17
be had on the floor this year. Well, think about it.
30:19
We. Were talking when the season was
30:21
over, thinking about next year. It's like with Newell and Allie
30:25
guard and it was a little bit like Anisha Scott has kind of
30:28
proven she needs more minutes so she would be like a backup to
30:30
one of them. Well, now she's gonna play
30:32
submit. Well, now that Newell is not
30:34
here, like is Scott, Scott and Ally the back court?
30:39
Yeah. I mean, I don't think.
30:40
You're going to run too much Scott and Ally together.
30:42
I mean, you probably will some because but that's what makes
30:44
you awful small because you got you're running with two points
30:46
in that situation, but you probably you can rest ally for
30:49
meaningful stretches because Anisha's going to play a lot of
30:51
minutes. A couple other things.
30:54
So you know, we we we now know Maggie did not get drafted.
30:57
She did hook on with Phoenix for a for a tryout.
31:01
She didn't make the final roster.
31:03
That was unfortunate. I would just say, you know,
31:06
Maggie Dugan is good enough to play in the WNBA and sometimes
31:10
based on, you know, how they've scouted you and the and the need
31:13
they have, you don't get necessarily a ton of time to
31:16
prove yourself. I don't she got it maybe what,
31:18
20 minutes in the game to try to prove herself.
31:20
So I think she's going to have a great career wherever that may
31:23
be internationally. Maybe she lands with one of the
31:26
in in one of the WNBA expansion teams, but we wish Maggie
31:31
nothing but the best. Her legend in Richmond circles
31:34
is intact as the greatest player to ever play in Richmond.
31:36
So OK, I. Don't know if you jumped too far
31:40
for me but like what's the staff story?
31:42
It sounds like there were some of the staff there but they
31:44
weren't introduced yet so maybe contracts weren't dry?
31:47
Like what's the story holding off saying that till?
31:49
Like till we start seeing announcements from the school.
31:51
She did introduce two members of her staff.
31:54
One is her husband, who is a great coach himself.
31:57
He's coached for 27 years, both men's and women's basketball.
32:01
There was another lady she introduced.
32:03
I didn't get a chance to go and say hi to her.
32:05
I think let's let's just be a little bit patient because I
32:07
think there's still a lot of interviews going on, a lot of
32:09
work being done on the staff. So we'll probably actually ask
32:12
Keelan about that. He thought it might be finalized
32:14
this coming week. So we released on Monday,
32:16
sometime this week that staff should be.
32:17
Yeah. You think it's part of?
32:18
Like, you know, getting people off the portal and you've got to
32:21
start getting your schedule down like you need the Alyssa can't
32:25
do that on her own. So getting that staff and it
32:28
sounds like the staff was already working.
32:29
That's kind of a little like the folks who were there are they're
32:32
not just, you know waiting. I think we were already.
32:35
Contractually obligated to play in that Henrico tournament in
32:37
December again. So that's, so we've got some of
32:39
that already worked out, which is great.
32:40
And we got AUVA. Game, I assume?
32:42
Not yet, but maybe. But maybe, yeah, I mean, Russell
32:45
has taken a different approach. But this isn't AUVA pod.
32:47
This is a Richmond pod. So let's last, last, I want to
32:51
give a shout out. We mentioned her on a previous
32:53
pod, Olivia Woolum, who's daughter of a friend of of the
32:58
pod 92 grad Scott Wolum, landed the head coaching job at D3
33:03
Moravian this last week and she's 27 years old.
33:08
We both know the family DNA is very competitive, very fond of
33:12
winning, and I think Olivia is a rising star in the D3 coaching
33:16
ranks. And I would say let's keep an
33:19
eye on what she does over the next 10 years because I think
33:21
you're going to see her make some noise.
33:22
So just want to congratulate her.
33:25
Congratulate the Woolum family. Both Scott and Kristen were 92
33:27
grads. OK.
33:29
So more to come. I mean, we everyone keep
33:31
watching the news because the women's roster is not fine all
33:34
of sudden, you know, I think the men might have another ad as
33:37
well, but the women probably need it more.
33:40
And we've got to get that staff nailed down so they can, you
33:44
know, we just, you know, talk to Deuce and he's coming on campus
33:47
in two weeks of the women's schedule is probably very
33:49
similar. So let's get this team finished
33:53
and get a team that, you know, Alec can lead.
33:55
I think I think I'm. After seeing the coach in
33:58
person, seeing that we have 11 players on the roster right now,
34:03
knowing that she's being thoughtful about how she
34:04
approaches things, I think we're in good hands.
34:06
I think we're going to we're going to end this year and
34:08
surprise some people. And I think the future is very,
34:11
very bright for Richmond women's basketball.
34:13
I agree and I I think. You know, I'm not here to pick
34:16
on Coach Roussell, but I do think I, I, I'll say it's like
34:20
Beeline memories that men's fans have where you talk to some
34:24
people and you would think Beeline went 30 and O every
34:27
year. He was here and always took us
34:29
to the tournament and took us to the Sweet 16.
34:31
He was an incredible coach for us, but we also lost at home to
34:34
Liberty. We didn't make the NCAA
34:36
tournament every year, but it's like it's been so long ago.
34:39
And he's one of our, you know, if you were a fan, then he's one
34:41
of your favorite coaches. And I say that cuz like, let's
34:44
not forget like we went to the tournament three times, but we
34:46
lost in the semi finals of the A10 tournament the last two
34:49
years. So it's not like Russell was
34:51
perfect and he wouldn't say he was.
34:52
And I think this, you know, bring in a new coach, we got a
34:56
maybe a stronger defense than we've seen the last couple of
34:59
years. And like I look at our roster
35:02
and all the upheaval in the A10 and there's no reason that we're
35:05
not contending for the A10 championship.
35:07
Yeah, I'll say this though, Russell.
35:09
Left in the right way. I mean, he didn't take two of
35:11
his star assistants with him and I would imagine that was to give
35:15
them an opportunity to to stay in in glom on here.
35:19
Or maybe he just had different needs at UVAI mean he he had a
35:23
tremendous run here, a winning run.
35:26
We're grateful for what he gave the program.
35:28
He tweeted the night that Kresge's press conference has to
35:31
turn the fans out. So he's still a fan of Richmond.
35:34
So no, no, there's no there's no bad blood.
35:37
He's he was a great representative university.
35:38
I wish him nothing but the best. In fact, I told him I would if
35:41
he makes the final four, which I I think they will under resell
35:43
at some point. I'm I'll come to that game and I
35:45
I don't like Eva basketball. So that shows you how far I've,
35:48
I've have come to go see a game that I don't really care about
35:51
because the coach is that good. So.
35:52
But I do think, like with Kresge, I think she's an
35:55
extension of what he built. And I'm so grateful that we
35:59
hired somebody who has a track record of success everywhere
36:02
they've been. This lady is a winner.
36:04
Got to be a little bit patient with her.
36:06
Year 1 is not going to be, you know, a slam dunk, but she will
36:09
build a winner at Richmond and I have the utmost faith in her.
36:12
Yeah, we're winning the A10. This year, OK, so I've put it
36:17
out there. I got a lot of time to retract
36:19
that, but I'm pretty bullish on what we're going to be able to
36:22
accomplish. Obviously some transition.
36:24
But anyway, it's going to be exciting summer.
36:25
We'll get to the practices. Both men's and the women's at
36:27
some point. Have more to report.
36:30
We're still officially in Season 1 for Spider.
36:32
Sound off at some point. Call this the last episode.
36:34
Of Season 1. Well, I mean, let's give.
36:36
Another week or two, see if there's any big news of signings
36:39
that we can talk about. But hey, if May 17th is when the
36:41
players are reporting, we're a couple kind of start Season 2.
36:45
Yeah, we're a couple weeks away. From Season 2, which I'm sure is
36:48
just going to feel just like Season 1.
36:49
To all of your fans, how many episodes did we roll?
36:51
Out so far in Season 1? This is like 6161 two, yeah.
36:55
Some crazy number. Like that.
36:56
But we do have another interview.
36:57
Plan. We'll keep that to ourselves,
36:59
but we have an interview planned and then the the next week, so
37:03
we will be putting out another episode.
37:04
We'll keep that in Season 1 form.
37:07
But anyway, until next time, this is Tom and this is Porter
37:11
and. This is.
37:12
Spider sounding. Ah, see you Porter and Tom
37:14
Richmond. Fans talking hoops women and men
37:22
Spider sound off Spider sound off Spider sound off Spider
37:28
sound off. We will try to be funny and
37:30
entertain. Maybe you'll learn something or
37:36
just complain. Spider sound off, spider sound
37:41
off. Spider sound off, spider sound
37:50
off. Listen to their voices soothe
37:54
your soul, although at times they may lose control.