Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Episode 12: Getting a banner: Addie Budnick and Katie Hill on their Journey to Richmond Women's First NCAA win.

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Episode 12: Getting a banner: Addie Budnick and Katie Hill on their Journey to Richmond Women's First NCAA win. · Spiders Sound Off

• 0:06
  Hi everybody, and welcome back to Spider Sound Off.
• 0:09
  You've heard us talk a lot in the past about how great the
• 0:13
  women's team did last year, and we are super lucky today to have
• 0:18
  two of the stars and leaders of that team.
• 0:23
  And I want to welcome Addie Budnick and Katie Hill to spider
• 0:27
  sound off. Thanks for having us.
• 0:29
  Thank you for having us. Welcome ladies.
• 0:31
  So, so excited to have this conversation with you guys
• 0:33
  today. We're going to take it back to
• 0:35
  the very beginning. So there's we're going to this
• 0:37
  story is going to end with the greatest season in Richmond
• 0:41
  women's history with a win over Georgia Tech in the NCAA
• 0:44
  tournament and a really, really good game against the overall
• 0:47
  number one team in the nation. But let's go back to the
• 0:49
  beginning. You guys in high school are both
• 0:51
  McDonald's All American nominees.
• 0:53
  Tell us a little bit about like what recruitment was like.
• 0:56
  And I know Addie, you were a year before Katie.
• 0:58
  So let's start with you. What was your what was your
• 1:00
  recruitment like coming out of high school?
• 1:03
  Yeah. So I think Katie's going to have
• 1:04
  a similar story where we both met the coaching staff when they
• 1:07
  were over at Bucknell. So we both had a prior
• 1:10
  relationship there. And then they moved to Richmond
• 1:12
  IN 2019. So that was my senior year of
• 1:16
  high school. And then Coach G, who was here
• 1:18
  at the time, he was the old post position coach, reached out to
• 1:22
  me and we just continued to build our relationship.
• 1:26
  I honestly, being from the Midwest, I'm from the Chicago
• 1:28
  area, hadn't heard much about Richmond.
• 1:31
  It wasn't a super popular school by me, but I knew that they had
• 1:36
  great academics from the little research that I did.
• 1:38
  And I was like, you know what, let's continue this relationship
• 1:41
  going and eventually came out to campus for an elite camp.
• 1:45
  Got to meet the all the coaching staff, but then also get to know
• 1:50
  them on the court as well and what they're like in terms of
• 1:53
  coaching and just what their personalities are.
• 1:56
  So I love the people, love the team.
• 1:59
  And then on top of that, having the academics.
• 2:01
  And then it wasn't an established program obviously
• 2:04
  when they came in. So the idea of building
• 2:06
  something from scratch and just not walking into something that
• 2:09
  was already at the top was really appealing to me as well.
• 2:12
  Awesome. How about you, Katie?
• 2:15
  So I did have a very similar recruiting story to Addie, but
• 2:18
  obviously being a year younger, I had developed a really good
• 2:22
  relationship with the whole coaching staff, which he
• 2:24
  brought, I think everyone over from Bucknell to Richmond with
• 2:28
  him. But I developed a great
• 2:30
  relationship with them early in high school while they were at
• 2:33
  Bucknell. So when they moved over to
• 2:36
  Richmond, I just continued to build that relationship.
• 2:38
  And knowing that Richmond is such an outstanding school
• 2:42
  really was enticing to me. I went to elite camp here, I
• 2:47
  went to games, I went to some shootarounds during my
• 2:50
  recruiting process. So just getting to see what the
• 2:53
  coaches were like on and off the court was really helpful.
• 2:56
  It was funny, actually, the first time we drove on campus
• 2:58
  with my parents, my dad went dead silent in the car because
• 3:02
  he was just astonished at how beautiful campus was.
• 3:06
  So that was definitely a selling point.
• 3:08
  But then for me, I actually committed two days after
• 3:11
  quarantine happened, which was my junior year of high school.
• 3:16
  So I was towards the end of my recruiting process down to
• 3:19
  probably my final three schools. And when quarantine happened,
• 3:23
  coach was coach Russell was actually at my state game, my
• 3:27
  state finals game the day before quarantine happened.
• 3:31
  So two days after quarantine, I kind of just decided that I
• 3:35
  needed to make a decision and and the whole process and
• 3:38
  Richmond was the choice I made and I couldn't be happier with
• 3:41
  it. Did you end up having a senior
• 3:42
  season in high school or was it all canceled?
• 3:46
  It was in adjusted season, so we played in 13 games and we didn't
• 3:52
  have our state or we had our Shore Conference tournament,
• 3:55
  which is a smaller one, but we didn't have a state tournament,
• 3:57
  which was unfortunate. And Addie, your first year at
• 4:00
  Richmond would have been during COVID.
• 4:02
  How did that, how did that even play out?
• 4:04
  Yeah, I'm sure Katie's sick of hearing stories from this, but
• 4:09
  we actually didn't know we were coming to campus.
• 4:11
  I remember reaching out to the assistants probably every week
• 4:15
  leading up to that date that we were supposed to arrive in the
• 4:18
  summer. That obviously just kept getting
• 4:20
  pushed back because there was so much uncertainty and nobody was
• 4:23
  on campus. But we eventually got the date.
• 4:25
  It was sometime in late July, and we were told that we were
• 4:28
  going to go and we were going to stay there through Christmas
• 4:30
  basically. So we weren't going to go home.
• 4:33
  All the students went home for that Thanksgiving break and then
• 4:37
  just stayed home until about mid January.
• 4:39
  So it was definitely a weird time on campus.
• 4:43
  But we got there and I remember we would wake up at like 6:00 AM
• 4:46
  everyday and go to the field. It would be the men's team on
• 4:50
  the right field, us on the left side, and we both just be
• 4:53
  running sprints for like an hour.
• 4:55
  And then we'd all go back to our rooms.
• 4:56
  We all had singles over in Gray Court.
• 4:59
  We weren't allowed to room together.
• 5:02
  We'd all go back to our rooms and then just hang out for the
• 5:05
  whole day. And then D Hall was grabbing go
• 5:08
  in plastic containers, so stayed there.
• 5:11
  And then the end of summer came to the end of workouts.
• 5:16
  But we woke up the next week and we were still on campus and we
• 5:19
  continued working out. So definitely an interesting
• 5:24
  freshman season. We got tested every week.
• 5:27
  We honestly didn't have too many games cancelled, which was a
• 5:31
  plus. I think we played probably 20,
• 5:34
  around 20 games my freshman year.
• 5:38
  It didn't get us until closer to winter break, so we lasted a
• 5:43
  while as a team before somebody finally got it.
• 5:45
  But definitely a weird time and we joke about how bad it was,
• 5:49
  but at the same time it was some of the funniest memories that we
• 5:53
  had. No, I bet we're from COVID so.
• 5:56
  OK, well, let's let's talk a little more positive time and
• 6:01
  would love before we get into maybe specific games and how how
• 6:04
  the seasons and and how you guys evolved to to winning that big
• 6:08
  NCAA tournament game. Help the the average fan
• 6:13
  understand the system that you run at Richmond.
• 6:16
  Katie, maybe you could just start on the offensive side.
• 6:18
  Like, how would you explain to an average fan, like what Coach
• 6:22
  Roussell has developed as our offense?
• 6:25
  I would definitely say that it evolved over time.
• 6:29
  So our offense looked a lot different my freshman year
• 6:31
  versus my senior year, and that was partially the chemistry and
• 6:35
  just the level of IQ players that we had.
• 6:39
  So we didn't have a lot of set offensive plays or anything.
• 6:43
  Most of the stuff we had actions that we would call out and do.
• 6:46
  But for the most part, he recruited such high IQ players
• 6:51
  that we just went out there and made basketball plays.
• 6:54
  We read the defense. We're just being smart players
• 6:57
  and we built such good chemistry, especially over those
• 7:00
  last two years, that we knew what our teammate was doing
• 7:04
  before they did it. So it was honestly just a read
• 7:07
  and react type of offense. We weren't within these
• 7:10
  boundaries. We could just play free and he
• 7:15
  trusted us to make the right decisions in those scenarios.
• 7:17
  It's a fast offense, at least what what I observed.
• 7:21
  How much conditioning were you doing kind of preseason during
• 7:25
  the season to to be able to keep up with that?
• 7:28
  We did our conditioning in the weight room on the court with on
• 7:32
  the court sprints machines. But I honestly would say most of
• 7:36
  our conditioning came from just playing.
• 7:38
  So whether that was playing pickup or just playing quarters,
• 7:43
  running up and down during practice because basketball
• 7:46
  shape is so hard to prepare for unless you're actually playing
• 7:50
  basketball. So I think he just trusted us to
• 7:54
  get into conditioning shape by playing pickup and going our
• 7:58
  hardest at practice during all all those drills.
• 8:00
  Yeah, We noticed. We just saw a current team
• 8:03
  practice and the only people who needed water from the managers
• 8:06
  were the freshmen. But you never saw any of the
• 8:08
  returning players need water. So you tell that there's
• 8:12
  conditioning work that everyone's figuring out.
• 8:14
  Addie, how about on the defense? I know you love the block shot.
• 8:18
  What? What was the defensive strategy,
• 8:20
  that coach push that you guys did so well?
• 8:24
  Yeah. So when I first got here, I
• 8:26
  think, Katie, that was your freshman year too, We actually
• 8:28
  were playing more of like a denial defense.
• 8:31
  So we were out in the passing lanes.
• 8:33
  I don't know how much we actually were out in the passing
• 8:35
  lanes, but it really didn't fit our style and our length.
• 8:39
  So we switched to more of a gap defense, really just sitting in
• 8:44
  the gaps, but then also being able to get out to shooters as
• 8:48
  well. And I think that boat went
• 8:50
  really well for us, especially given our length.
• 8:52
  We were able to sit in the gaps, but then also have the length to
• 8:55
  be able to go out and contest shots as well.
• 8:57
  And I think that was a really good shift for us.
• 8:59
  Obviously we still had strides to make in terms of defensively
• 9:03
  and rebounding, but our length made-up for that.
• 9:05
  When did you guys realize that the coaches systems and your
• 9:09
  play in the systems was was working and that you were you're
• 9:13
  starting to figure things out. What was the kind of the aha
• 9:15
  moment for for you guys that like holy cow, we're going to
• 9:18
  we're going to be good. What was the kind of you know
• 9:20
  that when when did it kind of click?
• 9:21
  Honestly, every year there was There's a point in time where
• 9:26
  everything starts to fall together.
• 9:28
  I know you mentioned you went to a practice recently.
• 9:30
  This is the time of year where it looks not pretty.
• 9:36
  You're playing with new people. Whether that's I know right now
• 9:38
  there's the world of transfers. So transfers coming in, freshmen
• 9:40
  coming in like they have to learn how to play with each
• 9:42
  other. Katie mentioned the fact that
• 9:45
  going into something, we don't have a set play, but we know
• 9:48
  what our teammates strengths are, what they're going to do
• 9:50
  Obviously, you know, Rachel likes to shoot.
• 9:52
  So just understanding what people want and knowing where
• 9:56
  they're going to be so you can put the pass in the right spot,
• 9:58
  hit them where they want to be hit.
• 9:59
  So once that chemistry starts to build every year, there's
• 10:04
  usually a moment in time where it clicks.
• 10:07
  And then obviously we've had experience coming back over the
• 10:09
  past couple years. So as new people come in, having
• 10:12
  more people that understand that it's easier to help those newer
• 10:16
  kids out as well. I guess you're not starting over
• 10:19
  as much as it may have felt earlier.
• 10:22
  Makes sense. It's cool in, yeah, I guess 2023
• 10:26
  season, you guys went to NIT and won a game, so that's kind of
• 10:29
  postseason now you've won a postseason game.
• 10:31
  Katie, how did did that feel like a big accomplishment at the
• 10:34
  time? Absolutely.
• 10:36
  At the time we were, I think we that was the first time we made
• 10:40
  the postseason tournament while I was there.
• 10:43
  So we were just super excited about that to get to play on
• 10:47
  past the Atlantic 10 tournament. But I also think at the end of
• 10:53
  that season, like Addie said, things clicked and we knew we
• 10:56
  were making those strides. So we were happy to get into
• 10:59
  that tournament, play that game, prove what we could do.
• 11:02
  But we also started to realize at the end of that season that
• 11:05
  we could have bigger goals for the following season, and we
• 11:10
  wanted to get that March Madness.
• 11:12
  He wants to play in March Madness and I think winning that
• 11:16
  game and getting into that tournament made us realize the
• 11:18
  potential that we had for those upcoming seasons.
• 11:22
  Walk us through that next season.
• 11:23
  So this is be the 2324 season. So it was a it was a special
• 11:28
  season in a lot of ways, but it didn't start off necessarily the
• 11:31
  way you guys would have expected.
• 11:32
  You guys had a tough Duke match up in that first game.
• 11:34
  Yeah. That first game was definitely a
• 11:37
  wake up call for us. We had played them the year
• 11:42
  prior, yes, at home. Yeah, we played them the year
• 11:46
  prior at home. That went horribly.
• 11:49
  I think we lost by even more than we did to start the 2324
• 11:55
  season. So that was like OK, like we
• 11:58
  thought we could compete there. That obviously did not go well.
• 12:01
  We knew that we had to get to work, make some adjustments.
• 12:04
  And I think I remember just having this feeling of like
• 12:07
  things weren't clicking as well as they needed to.
• 12:09
  We were winning games after that, but it wasn't necessarily
• 12:13
  pretty basketball like we know that we could do.
• 12:16
  And honestly, the turning point for a wait was that that year?
• 12:20
  Yeah, The turning point for that year was the Duquesne game.
• 12:25
  At Duquesne, we played horribly, Like worst basketball you've
• 12:31
  probably ever seen. And I just remember going into
• 12:33
  halftime and we all like morale was low.
• 12:35
  Like obviously people were trying to say things to get us
• 12:38
  up. And he came into the locker room
• 12:39
  and he just he he gave us a nice speech.
• 12:42
  I'll say that. We all kind of joke about that
• 12:46
  one, but he'd. Be in Coach Roussell.
• 12:48
  Yeah, yeah, Coach gave us a nice speech at halftime.
• 12:52
  Should ask him about that one. And honestly, we didn't play any
• 12:57
  better the second-half, but after that game, like that's
• 13:00
  where we really started to trend up.
• 13:01
  And obviously we hit our stride in the A10 tournament and won
• 13:07
  that and faced Duke again. And it obviously it was a
• 13:13
  different story. We were winning at halftime.
• 13:16
  Things started to fall apart a little bit in the second-half
• 13:18
  but it definitely set the stage for what was to come with that
• 13:24
  big game or the big loss at the beginning.
• 13:27
  One thing about that year and Katie, I'd love to hear from
• 13:30
  you. I was like, I noticed you went
• 13:31
  14 and O at home that season, so is that something coach kind of
• 13:36
  pushed to you of like defending the homecourt or?
• 13:39
  I think that's something that we've always kind of said before
• 13:43
  games and just during practices and relevance, like we don't
• 13:47
  lose on our homecourt. We defend our homecourt.
• 13:50
  You. We built such a sense of
• 13:52
  community around us throughout my career at Richmond and the
• 13:57
  fans and the crowds that we would have at those home games,
• 14:00
  they definitely were there to support us and we felt the
• 14:02
  support. And I think that did contribute
• 14:05
  to us having such a good home record.
• 14:07
  But I think there's advantages that come with playing at home,
• 14:15
  but I think that sense of community is one of the biggest
• 14:18
  advantages that we would have for those home games.
• 14:21
  Maddie, you mentioned winning the the Atlantic 10 tournament
• 14:24
  that year. That meant you knew you were
• 14:25
  going to the tournament. Tell us about just the selection
• 14:27
  process itself. Were you guys all together when
• 14:29
  you heard you knew where you were going to play?
• 14:32
  Yeah, I, yeah, we were all together.
• 14:34
  I think since the A 10 tournament, we were pretty much
• 14:38
  all together. A lot of that time it was spring
• 14:41
  break, so we were practicing. Obviously morale was super high.
• 14:45
  We were all excited looking at bracketology because this was
• 14:48
  the first time we've ever experienced that together.
• 14:50
  So kind of joked about how we never took off our a 10
• 14:53
  tournament hats. After we won, we would wake up
• 14:56
  and like send a selfie to each other still wearing the hat.
• 14:59
  No, we are all there was a ton of anticipation and then we all
• 15:03
  gathered in Spider Hall. So at the Queerly Athletic
• 15:06
  Center, we had a great turn out for a little watch party that we
• 15:10
  had. We were in the front with the
• 15:12
  camera set up that you see on TV.
• 15:14
  And that was really exciting just waiting, sitting.
• 15:17
  And I remember just keep watching, keep watching.
• 15:20
  Her name wasn't coming up. And I kept thinking like, oh,
• 15:22
  who are we going to play? And then we all saw the Duke
• 15:26
  Richmond pop up and we all were like cheering, excited to see
• 15:29
  her name. And then we were like, oh, Duke
• 15:31
  again. Haven't really heard of a
• 15:34
  rematch in the first round, but no, it was an incredible
• 15:38
  feeling. We didn't care who we were
• 15:39
  playing. We were going to go out there
• 15:40
  and give it our all. Like I said, that was the first
• 15:42
  time it all gotten to experience that and with the group that we
• 15:45
  had and the kind of chemistry that we had built that year,
• 15:48
  like we were playing for one another and it was definitely a
• 15:50
  special moment for us. Full disclosure, I was, I was
• 15:54
  telling Tom before you guys hopped on that my first time
• 15:58
  watching you guys was the this the tournament game against
• 16:02
  Duke. I was I was like, oh, great,
• 16:04
  Richmond is in the tournament. Let me watch it.
• 16:05
  And then so I I started to look back at your year and I noticed
• 16:10
  that, you know, you had played Duke in the first game and they
• 16:12
  had won by 35 and my heart just sank.
• 16:14
  I'm like, what a terrible match up then, right.
• 16:16
  But like you guys are in that game.
• 16:18
  I mean, I was like, I just blown away by how good you were.
• 16:21
  You're up 3728 at halftime. Tell us about just, you know,
• 16:25
  that game for you? Like, did you feel like it
• 16:28
  slipped away or did you feel like, no, we just, you just
• 16:31
  weren't? We need to need one more little
• 16:32
  push forward to get over that hump.
• 16:34
  I think that game showed how much growth we had during that
• 16:38
  season and we went into that game with so much confidence in
• 16:42
  ourselves and our teammates and our coaches, and we just wanted
• 16:46
  to go out there and have fun. And I think we're playing great
• 16:49
  basketball in the first half. And I think we got a little
• 16:54
  tired in the second-half. And I think they just had that
• 16:58
  extra push that we didn't have in that second-half.
• 17:01
  And unfortunately it ended the way that it did.
• 17:04
  But it was a great experience all around and.
• 17:09
  So after the game, you guys are now in the world of the transfer
• 17:13
  portal and you know, some of our teammates, your teammates decide
• 17:17
  to to leave, but both of you guys committed to stay at
• 17:21
  Richmond. Tell us about what led to that
• 17:23
  decision, Why it was so important to you to finish out
• 17:26
  your career at Richmond? Like what was the what was that
• 17:30
  decision process like for you? Yeah, I can.
• 17:32
  I can start. So I think I'll start off with
• 17:36
  this. My, I think it was my sophomore
• 17:39
  year. I remember like talking to one
• 17:42
  of our managers at the time and just saying like, I really could
• 17:47
  see myself staying here. Like I can't imagine myself
• 17:50
  wearing a different jersey. And that was just a small
• 17:53
  conversation, but it definitely happened.
• 17:55
  And then get to the end, and I think I knew deep down I didn't
• 17:58
  want to leave. But it was a ton of
• 18:02
  conversations, both with coaches, my teammates, obviously
• 18:06
  the class that I was with and grew up with at Richmond, Like
• 18:09
  they all decided that they wanted to leave.
• 18:11
  So that was really tough given that those were some of my best
• 18:15
  friends. But I made a conscious effort
• 18:18
  that I wasn't going to base a decision based off people.
• 18:23
  No matter what. It was going to be something new
• 18:26
  if I went somewhere else. Obviously there's a ton of risk
• 18:28
  with that. You don't know the system, you
• 18:30
  don't know what's actually going on in there.
• 18:32
  You don't know your team mates. There was some familiarity here.
• 18:36
  Obviously I love my team mates here and knew the coaches.
• 18:41
  Brucelle had resigned actually, so he knew he was coming back.
• 18:45
  So it was just I knew what I was going to get.
• 18:48
  I knew that there was so much more potential and so much more
• 18:51
  to accomplish. And it was like, why would I
• 18:52
  leave something that I know brings me so much love and value
• 18:58
  and just walk away from that? Like that made no sense.
• 19:00
  And why leave when we haven't even finished what I came here
• 19:04
  to do, and that's get to the NCAA tournament, but also be
• 19:08
  able to win a game there and make some noise.
• 19:10
  And I was able to interview and get into the MBA program as
• 19:15
  well. So having academics and
• 19:18
  athletics, I just knew it was something I couldn't, couldn't
• 19:21
  leave. And here I am, still here, still
• 19:23
  in Richmond. And Addie Richmond's better as a
• 19:26
  university because you made that decision.
• 19:28
  Thank you for that. Katie, how about you?
• 19:30
  What was it? What was it like to kind of have
• 19:32
  to watch a lot of your teammates go other places and you decide
• 19:36
  to stay? I think Addie put that so
• 19:39
  perfectly. I don't even know how to follow
• 19:41
  that up, but I just think that same thing, the sense that we
• 19:46
  didn't accomplish everything that we came here to do and we
• 19:51
  came into this program knowing that we were rebuilding it and
• 19:55
  seeing the strides that we took each year and that previous
• 19:59
  year. We got to March Madness, but we
• 20:00
  lost in that first round game. Just knowing that next step that
• 20:05
  we could take in the in the next season and being able to be a
• 20:10
  part and contribute to that was something that I didn't want to
• 20:13
  pass up on either. And then like Addie said, the
• 20:16
  balance of academics and athletics at Richmond was great.
• 20:21
  So I got to get my one year masters.
• 20:24
  In data analytics, and I was able to actually do an
• 20:27
  internship during the season too, so I think those
• 20:31
  experiences paired with the basketball were, like Addie
• 20:35
  said, something that I just couldn't pass up on.
• 20:37
  Wow, Data analytics masters, we just talked about the need to
• 20:41
  have analytics at A at a high level institutionalized in the
• 20:45
  basketball program. So if Spider coaches, if you're
• 20:47
  listening to that, just keep that in mind.
• 20:50
  A question for you, just thinking about that year, wonder
• 20:54
  if you felt different with this was kind of the Caitlin Clark
• 20:57
  year, right, where all of a sudden all these eyeballs were
• 21:00
  on women's college basketball more than ever before.
• 21:04
  Did you did you feel that year like people paying more
• 21:08
  attention, getting more interviews?
• 21:10
  Was there more and after the team was playing well?
• 21:12
  Like, if you go back to when you were a freshman, like, did you
• 21:15
  feel like women's athletics was changing in terms of the
• 21:19
  spotlight? Addie?
• 21:21
  Yeah, I mean, my freshman year, I don't know if that's a good
• 21:25
  comparison. Nobody could be in the stands.
• 21:27
  But even looking at my sophomore year, obviously we weren't at
• 21:30
  the level that we were this past year.
• 21:33
  But obviously we had our loyal fans and we had the community,
• 21:36
  which was awesome. But the Robin Center was a
• 21:39
  little quiet. We weren't drawing the kind of
• 21:43
  people that we were getting, especially if it was a weeknight
• 21:46
  and people had work and kids were going to school.
• 21:49
  Like it was pretty empty in there.
• 21:50
  And being able to walk into the gym in a game like Texas where
• 21:55
  there's they were top five in the country and they were coming
• 21:58
  to the Robbins Center and it was like, OK, like there will
• 22:00
  probably be a decent amount of people there.
• 22:01
  Like I had no idea that it was going to be as full as it was.
• 22:06
  That's something that you dream about.
• 22:08
  I know you mentioned Caitlin Clark.
• 22:09
  Obviously not those numbers, but for us it felt like that it was
• 22:12
  loud in there. The momentum in people there
• 22:15
  like that was an incredible moment.
• 22:18
  And even looking at the UCLA game, it was loud in there.
• 22:22
  It was a packed Poly Pavilion was packed.
• 22:26
  I had never played in an environment like that.
• 22:28
  We couldn't even hear what coach was saying.
• 22:30
  I had no idea if Katie was talking to me.
• 22:34
  But yeah, that spotlight that I know you mentioned Caitlin
• 22:38
  Clark, but all the amazing players that played in college
• 22:41
  and in the WNBA, that kind of set the stage for that.
• 22:45
  Like it's a great time to be a women's basketball player.
• 22:48
  It's definitely on the rise. And I'm so excited to see the
• 22:51
  kind of people that they bring into the Robin Center this year.
• 22:53
  We. Talked about this in the last
• 22:55
  podcast, but the first game I went to was Education Day where
• 22:59
  they have all of the schools and Porter had told me like hey, you
• 23:02
  can come to the game and you can hear the players talk.
• 23:05
  You can really hear the coach. And then he didn't realize my
• 23:08
  first game was going to be Education day.
• 23:10
  I'm guessing you guys have experienced those high pitched
• 23:13
  screams from the elementary and middle school kids.
• 23:17
  Yes, definitely. I'll tell you this, you guys
• 23:19
  played a heck of a game that day.
• 23:20
  So I think that fed your energy level, having all those kids
• 23:23
  there 'cause like you, you, I forgot who we played, but you
• 23:25
  guys whipped them. So that was that was fun.
• 23:28
  So you're let's let's start with the senior season out of you
• 23:31
  mentioned Texas. I I think I went to every game
• 23:35
  in the Richmond area that year. I saw you guys when you were on
• 23:40
  the road, I would watch online. I mean you guys played some
• 23:42
  incredible games. You played Tennessee, Texas,
• 23:45
  Alabama, you know, mid major, really good many major programs,
• 23:48
  Fairfield, Columbia, you guys, I think started 8-9 or ten and O
• 23:53
  some with some incredible run right off the chute.
• 23:55
  Like when did when did it like click that this team was sort of
• 24:00
  next level that you were just holy cow.
• 24:02
  This team is really built to win.
• 24:03
  I. Think we we knew going into the
• 24:06
  season the potential that we had and all these great players and
• 24:09
  pieces, whether that was transfers returners, freshmen
• 24:13
  that we're all coming together. But we knew that we still had so
• 24:17
  much to grow on, whether that be rebounding, staying in front of
• 24:21
  the girl, regarding there was just there's always something
• 24:25
  you can improve on. So I think what allowed us to
• 24:28
  get that tournament win was the fact that we were confident in
• 24:32
  ourselves, but we always knew that we could be better than we
• 24:36
  were. So we were always pushing to
• 24:38
  take that next step and I think we challenged ourselves with the
• 24:43
  schedule that we had. But I think just having that
• 24:47
  confidence in yourself, but knowing that we still have so
• 24:50
  many areas that we need to improve on.
• 24:52
  So you mentioned the Duquesne game from the year before.
• 24:55
  Tell us about that Fordham game that started the N 10.
• 24:59
  I'm guessing there was a speech at halftime during that Fordham
• 25:02
  game. Yeah, there were quite a few
• 25:04
  speeches. There is definitely a halftime,
• 25:06
  definitely a post game and definitely a morning.
• 25:09
  It was one of those swing trips that we were in Fordham, so we
• 25:13
  are in New York and then we went to UMass after.
• 25:16
  So we stayed at the hotel, woke up, had breakfast and that
• 25:20
  projector with the computer was already set up ready for us to
• 25:23
  watch film. Everyone knew that was not like
• 25:28
  not one of our best moments. Defensively.
• 25:30
  There were just so many lapses. We were like a step behind and
• 25:33
  everything weren't playing well together.
• 25:37
  Obviously it went down to the end, but we knew that we were so
• 25:40
  much better than that and watching film.
• 25:42
  It was probably an hour ish of just play after play where we
• 25:48
  just weren't communicating on a screen.
• 25:51
  I think we're supposed to be switching in the beginning and
• 25:53
  that was not happening. Two people would be on the ball
• 25:56
  and then the girl would just get a wide open layup.
• 25:58
  It was just so uncharacteristic for us.
• 25:59
  But again, it was a wake up call and I think we came out at UMass
• 26:04
  and absolutely killed it. I think we shot and shot the
• 26:08
  lights out. We played really well together.
• 26:10
  We defensively, we're on top of it.
• 26:15
  Shouldn't have to lose to learn a lesson, but in that case it
• 26:19
  definitely taught us something. And what did they rattle off?
• 26:22
  17 straight. Wins.
• 26:23
  So Katie, what was it like when you're in this now 17
• 26:26
  game-winning streak in the A10? I'm super impressive.
• 26:31
  Like every game. I assume you went in saying,
• 26:34
  well, we've got a win here. Like we can do it.
• 26:37
  Like, what did it feel like when you guys were that hot?
• 26:39
  I think it's just you got to keep the momentum rolling.
• 26:43
  So just use the fuel and the energy that you have from the
• 26:47
  previous game and you carry it into the next.
• 26:52
  You just want to have that positive energy and that support
• 26:56
  for one another, and when things are going good, everybody's
• 26:58
  happy, everybody's supporting each other.
• 27:00
  And like we said, the Fordham game was a bad one, but it
• 27:05
  really brought us together and what made us so much better in
• 27:07
  those next games was the fact that we were picking each other
• 27:12
  up and playing together, communicating.
• 27:14
  Curious and this goes, you know, it can be anytime during your
• 27:17
  your time at Richmond, were there certain places away games
• 27:20
  where you really like to play any of our 810 opponents where
• 27:23
  you really like going to that town or that gym?
• 27:27
  I know you guys beat VCU a lot, so we're always happy to to hear
• 27:30
  about that, but any experience on the road that you have like
• 27:34
  fond memories of? They had the best locker room or
• 27:37
  they had the the, the the best spread.
• 27:40
  Anything that comes to mind on some of our A10 opponents?
• 27:44
  I mean Fordham because of our loss wasn't good but I always
• 27:48
  loved going to that area just because I could see so much my
• 27:52
  family and friends since it was so close to home for me but not
• 27:56
  the best memories in the gym there but the area I liked.
• 28:00
  Rhode Island was always a nice one on being able to walk 'cause
• 28:04
  there's always a group of us that likes to walk and get
• 28:07
  coffee in the morning. We've gotten lucky with weather
• 28:10
  there. So being able to walk like along
• 28:13
  the water and just get ready for the day, get some coffee, but
• 28:18
  then also have a view. And I think the hotel where we
• 28:21
  ate breakfast kind of overlooks the water as well.
• 28:23
  So that's always nice. And then with Loyola joining the
• 28:26
  A10, for me, same reason as Katie being home, because that
• 28:30
  doesn't happen much. A lot of our opponents are East
• 28:34
  Coast so the few times I got to play at home were really special
• 28:37
  too. Nice.
• 28:39
  That's awesome. So before.
• 28:40
  We get to the big win in the postseason.
• 28:43
  I don't think we can go there without talking about the A10
• 28:45
  tournament, and we will do that next week right here on Spiders.
• 28:51
  Sound off.