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Episode 10: Buckets, rebounds & rock anthems · Spiders Sound Off

0:06
Good morning, Good afternoon. Good evening, Spider fans.
0:09
Welcome to episode 10A. Spider.
0:10
Sound off. I'm Porter.
0:12
And this is Tom. Well, welcome everybody.
0:14
Today we're going to talk about the women's team.
0:17
We got to see a practice. We also we're going to talk
0:21
about just some other things going around the program.
0:23
There's been some press releases in the last week or so from
0:26
Richmond. So we'll talk about that before,
0:29
though, you know, we just finished the Scrocky episode and
0:34
we had Labor Day, so it's been a minute since we've been here.
0:37
Porter has. Tell us about some of the
0:39
feedback you've you've heard lately, I think.
0:41
People are genuinely appreciate the the Scrocky episode.
0:46
I've heard comments like he was a hard guest to top.
0:49
It's great hearing his voice. We'd like to just thank Mike
0:52
again for coming on, being our first ever guest on Spider Sound
0:55
Off. It was special having him and it
0:57
was special hearing that story that we all kind of knew the
1:00
result, but we didn't know the behind the scenes story.
1:02
So I really appreciate him doing that.
1:04
And Porter, I know you like to think that every X player that's
1:07
ever played for the Spiders listens to this podcast.
1:10
I'm guessing there's one or two. But anyway, we'd love to get
1:14
more former players on this podcast.
1:16
So anybody listening who's got some stories to tell, just reach
1:20
out to us would be great. Before we get into the latest
1:22
episode, we're going to talk about some news mentioned.
1:25
We had a little break for Labor Day.
1:27
Porter and I, along with our friend D Hall and our wives,
1:31
went to Virginia Beach to see a concert of one of the greatest
1:35
bands of the 80s, Def Leppard. And I thought, just a surprise,
1:40
Porter, I'm going to do my top five songs from the Def Leppard
1:43
concert. And and which player from our
1:47
men's team resembles that song? Are you ready?
1:51
Yes, I am OK. #5 let it go. And no, this is not about a
1:57
snowman. This is from Def Leppard High
2:00
and Dry album from the early 80s.
2:02
And the player I think of Let it Go was Will Johnson.
2:05
OK, so he's got to be shooting. So I'm looking for 8 to 10 shots
2:08
a game. It's ready for the taken as the
2:10
song says. So Will Johnson, let it go #4
2:14
rock, rock till you drop. That was the opener from the
2:18
concert. And I think of Mikel Tyne like
2:21
he is going to get lots of minutes, so he's got to keep
2:24
rocking and rolling hopefully, and those shots will be
2:27
dropping. He's going to dish the rock. #3
2:31
I think this is one of Porter's favorite songs, Rocket.
2:35
And I think of AJ Lopez and the lyric we are going to fly.
2:40
So he's going to bring a lot of speed to our team.
2:43
I think we'll see him leading and finishing a lot of fast
2:45
breaks. So AJ Lopez, Rocket, good one
2:48
number two, one of my favorite Def Leppard dogs, Animal.
2:53
Now I'm going a little a little turn here and saying Colin
2:58
Tanner, because he needs to be an animal this season.
3:02
We're going to need him. He needs to be that guy who's
3:04
diving on the floor. He's got to feel it in his
3:07
blood, as the song says, and and be an animal to really
3:11
contribute in a high level for. Jalen Robinson on that one,
3:15
because I think Jalen is an animal and he's going to
3:17
surprise a lot of people this. Year.
3:18
No, I can see that. I can see that.
3:20
And my number one song from the concert is Rock of Ages, and
3:25
I'll go with our senior, Mike Walls.
3:29
So I think we all know he's kind of a rock physically, a big
3:32
strong guy and. He's got the age.
3:34
He's got the power, he's got the glory.
3:36
That's the song senior year and he's old.
3:39
So anyway, that's my top five. I do hope, I think we both hope,
3:42
that this season is brings a lot of hysteria and a little less
3:47
pyromania. Yes.
3:49
But anyway, we got we got to see Def Leppard over the weekend.
3:53
Nowhere in our episode notes was this boat, folks.
3:56
So this is this is Tom's love for Def Leppard coming out.
3:59
OK, so back to the men's team. One of the names I didn't
4:02
mention was the Daughtry. Our transfer, yes, and we know
4:08
some news came out about his medical status a couple weeks
4:11
ago. Order.
4:12
Do you regret your hot take on Daughtry being in the starting
4:15
five on game one given the medical news we learned?
4:18
I do not. When we watched practice, he was
4:21
He was limited that day. We didn't want to break
4:25
unreleased medical news, so we didn't do that.
4:28
I used the film of his playing days from last year to make my
4:32
assessment. I still stand by the assessment
4:35
that a healthy Jaden Daughtry would be our starter at the
4:39
Four. We're just hoping that, you
4:41
know, we get to see him on a court sooner rather than later
4:43
because we know, you know, he's an important part of what we're
4:45
doing here. Now to what you said we knew
4:48
about the medical status. We didn't, you know, we're kind
4:51
of told not to talk about it back when we did that episode.
4:53
So we didn't know about it. And you still said he would
4:55
start Game 1. So you're taking a little bet
4:58
there that it would, I guess the medical news would come and go
5:01
and then he'd be, you know, right now ready to go on the
5:04
team. Yeah, so I may lose that bet,
5:06
but I still think that you're wrong about AP being the starter
5:09
at the four. If not Daughtry, I'm going to go
5:11
with Jalen Robinson as my starter at the four.
5:14
We did hear that Daughtry has been up to the Mayo Clinic.
5:18
He's meeting with the best folks in the world that that could
5:20
help him inform him about, you know, the medical outlook.
5:23
And when he's ready to release those results, he will.
5:26
We as Spider fans can only say we're really hoping to see him
5:29
in a uniform in the Robinson or sooner rather than later.
5:32
But obviously his health comes first.
5:33
OK, other news really just came out.
5:36
I'll be short on this one, but the Robinson is getting a bit of
5:38
an upgrade. Nice.
5:40
So they're going to be redoing the sound and the screen.
5:43
So it's really the the first big investment since they opened
5:47
that I think over 10 years ago. We'll try to get our eyes on
5:49
that too before the season starts so we can give you guys a
5:52
quick report of. What we see, and I think I can
5:53
tell you being this isn't season ticket holder for a while now,
5:56
there are certain parts in the arena where it was deafening
6:01
loud and other parts where you couldn't hear.
6:03
So I think that upgrade is going to be fantastic.
6:06
And while the boards in each corner looked great, there are
6:09
times where they weren't working.
6:10
And so I think upgrading them to the latest technology is going
6:13
to be great for all your fans. And then finally, big news,
6:18
we'll talk a little bit about this in in more detail, is that
6:21
the Spiders had a big hire in their athletic department.
6:24
Yeah, Jim Merritt. Yeah.
6:26
So he's been hired as associate athletic director, starts I
6:31
think in the next week, and it's going to be a big resource.
6:36
For us, September 12th, I think this is his first day.
6:38
And we're going to do our best to kind of get him on the show.
6:41
I think we've heard some feedback.
6:42
Would be great to kind of hear about his role.
6:45
I mean, the press release only says so much.
6:46
I mean, it is just a press release.
6:48
We don't know Jim here, but we know people who know Jim and
6:52
we've heard just great things about Jim joining back to be a
6:57
Spider full time. Yeah.
6:59
And I mean, I think it's any resources we can get to the
7:02
program are going to be good for the program.
7:05
Jim is is going to be a great resource for us.
7:07
Everybody has genuinely said great things about what he
7:09
brings to the table. I think anytime you add
7:12
resources to the program, it's a good thing.
7:14
It comes to building community, it comes to building excitement,
7:16
building the resources necessary to compete at the highest level.
7:20
And I see that as an expression of of that.
7:23
I think we're both hoping that we're going to see additional
7:25
investments in and around the programs over into the future.
7:30
Yeah, I mean, I, it is the new normal that we need to raise
7:32
money to pay players. So it's, it's awesome that we're
7:35
dedicating resources to do that. I would say raising more money
7:40
is just table stakes now. So we we've got Jim to come in
7:43
here and it sounds like that's going to be his number one
7:44
directive is to help raise money so we can pay players both for
7:48
the men's and women's basketball team.
7:51
So we're at the table. We're going to be competitive in
7:55
that pay element. I do hope in the future we can
7:59
go from table stakes to be innovators.
8:01
My own personal thoughts, watching the evolution of the
8:04
NCAA, I think this got to be even more changes with the
8:07
organization structure. We should be moving to where the
8:10
coach is the CEO of the team, his assistant coaches coach and
8:15
he has AGM that has a scouting department.
8:19
And I think as an example, and and this is not all the way
8:22
there. I love what I've seen the
8:23
Bonnies do. They hired Wojahowski, who was a
8:26
alumni, who was ESPN personality.
8:29
I saw a podcast with him and Mark Schmidt, their coach,
8:32
talking about the changes. And Coach Schmidt said he
8:36
doesn't even know what his players are getting paid.
8:39
He knows some kind of directional who's who are the
8:41
big paid players versus the non big paid players.
8:44
But Wojcoski, he manages all of that.
8:48
He also manages international scouting where they've made some
8:50
big inroads. And so having that kind of GM
8:55
resources in many ways working for the coach, but can dedicate
8:59
his time and his staff's time to the development of the program.
9:02
And I think it's, you know, we're a basketball school.
9:06
So I think there is a a challenge of a it's all it's
9:11
somewhat gets back to resources. You need the money to pay AGM to
9:15
we got to raise capital first. But I do think having AGM that's
9:20
really focused on the pay for players side and get that out of
9:24
coaching hands and let the coaches coach and that doesn't
9:27
mean the coach doesn't have input.
9:29
Again, I think the coach is Aceo.
9:30
So they're kind of driving what they're looking for.
9:33
But they don't need to be day-to-day out there looking for
9:36
the next recruit. They can have AGM whose whose
9:40
primary responsibility is that and also the negotiation of with
9:44
players agents to help manage that whole new process we have.
9:49
And I think the so it's it's interesting because general
9:52
manager is we actually thought about doing a full episode on it
9:55
at some point in time. What does it mean to the
9:58
program? What role does that general
10:00
manager have? And certainly I think it's an
10:04
investment Richmond should look at, probably is looking at.
10:07
One thing I would like to see us do at Wake Forest two weeks ago
10:11
announced that they've hired Steve Weinman, who's a seasoned
10:14
NBA front office executive, to lead data strategy, scouting and
10:18
performance analysis. So he's a senior senior
10:22
associate athletics director for analytics, and so he's going to
10:26
be the general manager for both programs, but he's also going to
10:29
help heavily institute or institutionalized analytics as a
10:34
strategy that Wake Forest employees.
10:37
So it's this merger of, you know, kind of making a sports
10:40
analytics program as a major and instituting or adopting
10:46
practices that help the men's and women's basketball teams.
10:50
And I say that having spent 30 years working in data analytics
10:54
technologies. So I worked for Tableau, I
10:56
worked for Alteryx, I've worked for some of the largest data
10:58
analytics firms out there. And almost every functional area
11:04
of every industry is instituting analytics at an enterprise
11:07
scale. And I personally would love to
11:08
see the basketball programs do that.
11:11
Anyway, cast part of the news before we dive into the women's
11:15
practice we saw. I think you've all seen or most
11:18
of you have seen that the out of conference schedules are out and
11:22
there's a lot of debate and question on it.
11:25
I think we will kind of focus on that in a future episode.
11:27
We're waiting for the A10 schedule to come out.
11:31
I mean, we know who we're playing, but we'd like to see
11:32
the full schedule of dates before we can really talk about
11:35
how do we think the team's going to do as you go throughout the
11:38
season? You know, new in the NCA this
11:41
year, these are some new rules that were passed in the last
11:44
year is to allow open scrimmages.
11:47
I think the general intent or how this happened is schools
11:50
lobbying the NCA saying, hey, there's another money maker.
11:54
If you have scrimmages, whether you're putting them on TV or
11:57
you're having fans pay for tickets and you know, everyone's
12:00
looking to generate revenue. So when the schedule came out,
12:03
it listed JMU on October 25th as a home scrimmage.
12:08
So I have more details to come out, but that's, you know,
12:10
exciting to get to play JMU again, even if it's just a
12:13
scrimmage. Yeah, my Northern Virginia
12:14
connections also say there may be a, there may be a closed
12:19
scrimmage for the men against Mount Saint Mary's sometime in
12:21
October that won't be open to the public.
12:23
But that would be another chance for the for the kids to to get
12:25
ready for the season. Well, Porter, we got to see the
12:28
women's team practice for the first time.
12:31
That was pretty exciting. Thanks to Keelan for setting
12:34
that up. What were your initial
12:36
impressions? Yeah, So for me, it was the
12:38
first time meeting Coach Resell and that was kind of special.
12:40
If I could just take a minute, like we are so fortunate to have
12:45
this guy as our head coach. He will go down as one of the
12:49
great hires under the heart administration of the athletic
12:53
department. So I was doing a little research
12:55
on him to get ready for the this this thing.
12:58
We're going to have a whole separate episode later in the
13:00
season about Resell and how important it is that we as a as
13:03
a university community support him and his coaching staff.
13:08
But if you look at what he's done over his career, the first
13:12
year, so he starts at University of Chicago, dominates there,
13:15
Then he goes to Bucknell had a losing record his first season
13:18
at Bucknell did not have a losing record.
13:20
Again at Bucknell comes to Richmond, has a by one game,
13:24
he's under 500 and then has never had a losing record.
13:27
So he's coached 21 seasons, 19 of those seasons he's had a
13:30
winning record with the only two seasons being the first year
13:33
he's he's stepped onto the campus at Bucknell and the first
13:37
year he stepped on the campus here.
13:38
It he's got a kind of a Beeline track record, like when we had
13:43
Beeline come in as the men's coach.
13:44
He's got a Beeline track record. He's he's, he's definitely,
13:49
really, really well regarded throughout the coaching
13:52
community. Probably should have been the
13:55
Virginia State coach of the year.
13:56
I didn't want to put that in a sound bite for the for the
13:58
George Mason team. We play them usually twice a
14:00
year and their coach is fantastic as well.
14:03
So this guy is a winner. He knows what he's doing.
14:06
He hires great coaches. We got to meet the coaching
14:08
staff. They're all really, really
14:10
squared away. We're just very, very fortunate
14:14
to have Aaron Russell as the head of our program, and I think
14:18
we as fans, what we can do 'cause there's a lot of people
14:21
obviously that have to nurture and support something.
14:23
When you've got it, you know, we can just go out and support the
14:25
team. That's the number one thing we
14:26
can do. What was impressive is that, you
14:29
know, we didn't have any time scheduled with Coach Rusale like
14:31
we did, but when we met Coach Mooney that that meeting was
14:34
kind of predetermined. So we were, we were at the
14:37
Weinstein Center. That's where they're practicing.
14:39
Same place where some of us used to play on the carpet gym 30
14:45
years ago that's been renovated. It's also where the spider brews
14:48
are for basketball. If you haven't been to that, I
14:50
encourage you to go. But we're kind of in that gym.
14:52
Coach Roussell is meeting with the team when we get there, they
14:56
got a screen where they're going over something that we couldn't
14:58
really see was far enough away, but we're sitting on the
15:00
bleachers at the other end and when the team is going through
15:04
initial warmups, Coach comes over and introduces himself.
15:09
So it was just great to have a couple minutes with Coach Porter
15:13
mentioned the magical prior year and it was very interesting to
15:16
just get his get. You could see his facial
15:18
reaction of how much last year meant to him.
15:21
But also like every year is different.
15:22
I don't think he's going into this year saying, well, we're
15:25
definitely better than last year.
15:26
Like last year was a magical year.
15:28
Kind of take it for what it is and this year kind of you got to
15:30
start over. Even though he's got, you know,
15:33
super talented players coming back, it's not a given we're
15:36
going to do that again. Right.
15:37
Yeah. I mean, and, and I'd say you
15:39
pointed out right away some of the drills in the format were
15:42
were kind of interesting. Yeah, I mean, they were, you
15:45
know, all on the same court, a lot of full court running in
15:50
these drills, somewhat different drills.
15:52
But we, you know, we saw with Mooney's practice, kind of these
15:54
teams were constantly moving up and down the court, similar
15:59
speed, you know, running with the ball was, was, was very
16:02
important for this team. They did have a, a, a pure
16:07
rebounding drill. We saw where it was.
16:09
It was kind of a drill where one of the coaches would
16:12
intentionally kind of shoot a brick and it might have been two
16:15
on two or three on three or four on four.
16:17
And it was kind of box out. And all of these drills kept
16:22
evolving. So it started with kind of get
16:24
the rebound and then it turned into kind of get the rebound.
16:28
And now if if you're on offense, try to shoot, if you're on
16:30
defense, take it out. Then it turned into a full court
16:34
simulation. It was very, very good to see
16:37
kind of seeing the ladies kind of fight with each other for the
16:40
rebound and the coaches giving immediate feedback where, you
16:43
know, when the there was a one round where the offense got two
16:46
or three in a row rebounds and hearing the coaches get on that
16:50
defensive team of I mean, they're the ones that start with
16:52
position and we're losing it. And, and a lot of that was just
16:56
kind of which team was more aggressive.
16:57
Than the other yeah, yeah, I know they they definitely they
17:00
was a it was an intense practice.
17:01
They worked hard. The girls came ready to to
17:04
practice and it was, it was really, really fun to watch just
17:08
the way that kind of they set things up on the on the lady's
17:11
side and and I definitely enjoyed it.
17:14
There was a lot of a lot of new things that we saw and
17:18
thankfully some things that repeated themselves from last
17:22
year. First off is Rachel and what we
17:25
saw from her at practice. I don't know if she listened to
17:28
the podcast, episode 6 where we talked about the ladies team
17:31
where I called her the best 3 point shooter.
17:32
I think I've ever seen it. Richmond men or women's, but it
17:35
almost was like she had because she put on a show for us.
17:38
I mean, I I saw her take at least 83 pointers and I can't
17:41
remember 1. Not making, not going in.
17:43
Yeah, I don't, I don't think I ever saw her miss.
17:46
Her shot was as good as ever. Rachel knows her role.
17:49
Her role is to shoot threes. And there was one, just one
17:53
moment I mentioned the Porter while we were there, that
17:57
someone was guarding her. I don't remember who.
17:58
It might have been Simon. It was kind of more of a one of
18:01
our wings. But someone was guarding her,
18:03
someone else shot, missed the shot, and whoever was guarding
18:07
Rachel crashed the boards. And there was, you know, a big,
18:10
you know, bouncing rebound that Rachel's team got.
18:14
Rachel's waiting at the three-point line wide open, gets
18:18
the pass out and makes the three.
18:20
Like Rachel knows that's what she's supposed to do.
18:22
She doesn't need to be crashing the boards trying to get a
18:25
rebound. She is confident in the rest of
18:27
her team to have a chance at that offensive rebound.
18:30
And she's ready to drain that 3 when that offensive rebound.
18:34
Yeah, I mean, you'll see a lot of a really good give and go
18:37
game when she and Maggie get going and she will crash the
18:40
boards if necessary. But the thing about Rachel is if
18:44
you give her a foot and she's she's not only super confident,
18:48
but she doesn't need a lot of space.
18:50
And she's just got such a quick release that she is going to
18:54
light up the Robin Center this year.
18:56
It was just so, so much fun to watch.
18:58
I can't explain like how incredibly talented she is to
19:02
just be able to just boom, boom, boom, every single shot just
19:06
going down. It's just quick confidence is
19:08
the way I would describe it. Like she's she knows she's going
19:10
to make it. I don't know if I came from
19:12
shooting 500 a day like Coach Rudy said she did in a prior
19:15
interview when she was a student athlete, but like, she has got
19:20
the shot so. And also was great to see kind
19:23
of our our returning player of the year, Maggie Dugan was doing
19:27
Maggie Dugan stuff during that practice.
19:29
Yeah, at the end I stayed and got to talk to coach yourself
19:32
for a bit and I and Maggie and Rachel's team that day.
19:35
Then when they got five on five right, Rachel and Maggie were
19:38
teamed up and that team did dominate, as you might expect it
19:43
to. It's almost unfair because you
19:44
have two elite, elite college players, potentially WNBA
19:50
players. So it doesn't matter who you
19:51
match up against them. It's going to be a tough, it's a
19:53
tough assignment, but they both were special and and and very
19:57
confident in what they're doing. So I think we got as advertised
20:01
for our two stars, but Porter, there's a certain player that
20:04
really caught your eye as a potential big impact player.
20:09
Yeah, so I mean, I like, I just, I kept coming back to she was
20:13
everywhere on the court. She flashed over and over again.
20:17
She looks different this year than she did last year and
20:22
that's Alicia Newell. She she to me felt like a top 4
20:26
player on this team. Obviously Ali Sweeney being the
20:28
4th, she plays the same position as Ali.
20:32
I thought she her on ball defense was as good as anybody I
20:35
saw on the team. She she showed really good court
20:39
vision when I watched her. She was now she was teamed up
20:42
with Rachel and Maggie. And so that's kind of easy when
20:45
you have two players of that caliber to know you got a kick
20:47
to them. But she did she she hit him in
20:49
stride. She was able to create.
20:52
Of course, you know, Alicia has a great a great way to take it
20:54
to the hoop herself. I don't think she's quite the
20:58
three-point shooter that Ali Sweeney is, but there's going to
21:02
have to be some sets where I think you get, you get Alicia
21:06
and Ali matched up out there together 'cause they're just two
21:09
such good players. Coach does like length and
21:12
coaches coach and I'm not. So he, you know, he'll, he'll
21:14
decide obviously what's the best for the best match up.
21:18
Coach didn't ask you. Coach did not ask my opinion to
21:20
like, Hey, weigh in on the lineups.
21:21
No, but I, I, I, I think that you know, you, you, and it will
21:25
come to some of the things that we still have to think about as,
21:27
as potential concerns later. But like, I mean, you just have
21:30
to get Alicia on the court this year because she's just really
21:33
good, as is Ali Sweeney, so. Yeah, I mean, just to to add to
21:36
that. So I think what we saw from
21:37
Alicia number one was defense. So her hands were on, on the
21:42
ball constantly and sometimes stealing from somebody
21:45
one-on-one, but also kind of and help defense kind of getting in
21:48
there her hands. One thing that I didn't notice,
21:52
I was looking at it and these are, you know, what do you
21:54
believe? If you look at our roster and
21:55
the height measurements like she is five nine, Ali is 5/6.
22:01
She actually does have some length that Ali doesn't have.
22:04
Now, again, that's not a that's not a six footer sort of length.
22:09
And, and looking at your our schedule, we played TCU this
22:13
year in the Cancun tournament I believe, and they're a top team.
22:18
I think they finished 8th in RPI or or NET last.
22:20
Year and they went to the elite 8 I believe last year.
22:23
So I was looking at their roster and give an example so they have
22:26
a their top transfer Veronica Sheffy came from San Diego State
22:30
was their best player she's a 59 guard.
22:35
So let's pretend she ends up being TC US best player this
22:37
year. Like we need defense at that
22:41
spot to stop her or try to stop her.
22:45
Like I can see games like that where based on what we saw in
22:48
one practice, of course that does Newell need to be out there
22:52
as much as Ali does, mainly for defence.
22:55
Both of them have to play. I mean, of course Ali is Ali's
22:59
superpower. She's such a good passer, such
23:01
good vision. Her three-point shot is
23:03
literally could be outside of Rachel, the best on the teams
23:07
and like you. So you're going to have to play
23:08
Ali because she's she's special. You also have to play Alicia.
23:11
She's going to be really, really good.
23:13
Now what I'll what I'll say the good news about this segment is
23:17
like the coaching staff knows what they're doing to develop
23:21
these players from freshman to sophomore year.
23:22
Alec took a huge leap forward as a sophomore.
23:25
Alicia looks set to take a huge leap forward as a sophomore.
23:29
So I mean, we're we're going to become known as as point guard
23:32
you before long because you know, Grace Townsend before
23:35
these guys. I mean, these these, these girls
23:37
are really becoming better and better by coming to to Richmond
23:41
and, and, and, and really honing in on the craft to, to take it
23:44
to the next level. So I'm just really excited by
23:46
what I saw out of Alicia and I think she's going to be a
23:49
special player for us this year. What about the freshman Porter?
23:52
What did you? What did you notice?
23:53
So there are two I think that are ready to go right now.
23:57
And that's not to say the two that I don't mention are not
24:00
ready to go. It's just that these two looked
24:01
really, really comfortable to me.
24:03
The first one is Persichetti. She gosh, she looks so confident
24:09
for a freshman. Are we sure that's the right
24:10
pronunciation? I am not sure.
24:12
And you know, eventually if we don't know your name, you'll
24:14
you'll make us to learn your name before too long by just
24:16
lighting up the Robinson or so Apologies if I'm not getting
24:18
that right. The person Shetty to me really
24:22
looks super comfortable. But like there there are people
24:25
who you who you get have the ability and then there are
24:27
people you get have the confidence.
24:28
She's got like such incredible confidence for a freshman the
24:32
way I would describe her. She reminds me of Riley Weiss
24:34
from Columbia. If you watch Riley play last
24:36
year, you know, they players like this just see the court in
24:41
a different way. They see things before they
24:42
happen. And it's almost like an easy
24:45
confidence. And Riley took a huge jump
24:47
between freshman and sophomore year in the system she plays in.
24:50
And I think, you know, Persichetti is going to be
24:52
somebody that we all get really excited about.
24:54
Yeah, she's done. Yeah, Persichetti is a scorer,
24:57
so she broke kind of all her high school records.
24:59
I mean, that's where I think she's going to be on the wing.
25:02
A big shooter for us. And we have another freshman
25:05
who? Looks ready to go.
25:07
Yeah, looks ready to go. She's got it's it.
25:10
You know she's got a basketball name, at least for U of our
25:12
sake, because her name is, is Rain, right?
25:15
Yes. So when, if she does end up
25:18
getting into coaching at some point, she'll be Coach Rain,
25:21
right? Yes, that's.
25:23
Just odd but she look good out there.
25:25
Yeah, the rain feels right because it she's very
25:28
comfortable as a forward in this offense.
25:31
She's she, she holds her own against older, probably stronger
25:37
players and that's a that's a pretty interesting thing to see
25:40
for a freshman. And she moves really, really
25:42
well as well. So I think she's she's going to
25:44
get some meaningful minutes right away for the Spiders.
25:46
One thing I pointed out to Porter that was interesting is
25:48
they have some managers there who had kind of water bottles
25:51
for the players for the hour I was there.
25:54
The only players that needed water were all four freshmen.
25:57
Yeah. So you never saw Maggie needing
26:00
water? You ever saw Rachel, never saw
26:02
Samantha? You never saw the veteran
26:04
players needing water? I think they, they know and
26:07
they've been in this system. They they're used to that kind
26:10
of running up and down the court.
26:11
I think our freshmen, while they were here all summer and you
26:14
could tell they're still. Speed of the game in college is
26:18
very, very fast and it's going to take a lot of conditioning to
26:20
get to get to the point where it's not a problem.
26:23
There is a concern and I think coach is on this and again,
26:25
coach is coach. He's he's got his, he'll figure
26:27
this stuff out. I have yet to see who's going to
26:31
step up and play that Katie Hill defensive role.
26:35
That 6 foot, you know, can, can match up against any, any player
26:39
on the on the perimeter fast, can read and react really well,
26:42
can slip the screens really well.
26:44
Alyssa Jimenez could do it. Katie Hill could do it.
26:46
I don't know who that person's going to be yet.
26:48
I did not see that person. They didn't stand out in the
26:50
practice for me. You know, I think we're hoping
26:53
that, you know, Simon or Peyton, we're going to, we're going to
26:57
flash. They didn't look bad.
26:59
It just they didn't they didn't jump out as like ready to be
27:02
that that person yet. So there's work to do still.
27:04
And I know coaching staff is, is is hard at work figuring out,
27:08
you know, where they're going to get that defensive player.
27:10
So a lady who can step up and become that lockdown perimeter
27:15
defender and knows where to be and how to and how to stay
27:18
focused on the defensive side of the ball might be the person who
27:20
who rises to 25 minutes a game. And we just don't know who
27:23
that'll be yet. Yeah, and there was definitely a
27:25
lot of defence coaching going on at practice and the coaches and
27:28
some of the sounds very basic. But when it was 5 on five and
27:33
the defenders did not have their hands up, the coach would stop
27:36
and say I need everyone's hands up.
27:38
I need them moving around like he he's he's pushing defense.
27:42
And I know like I'm not going to be able to speak of the elite
27:46
defensive strategy that really goes on at that team.
27:48
But some of the basics too, they were just on these guys.
27:51
Everyone needs to be able to play defense.
27:52
Coach likes length on the perimeter.
27:54
He likes to make it difficult to pass over.
27:56
You know, players to to get the hands in the lanes, have the
28:00
size if there's a switch happening to match up against
28:02
anybody. So you know, you're going to
28:04
need to, you're going to need somebody to step up.
28:06
It's going to be an exciting product.
28:08
These women deserve our attention in the Robin Center.
28:11
And yes, it'll sound better and the screens will be better, but
28:15
the basketball, what's most important, is going to be
28:18
outstanding. If you go back to Episode 1, I
28:20
mean my my aspirational crazy goal of winning a national
28:23
championship still is my personal goal as a fan.
28:27
I want to see these Richmond Spiders win a national
28:29
championship. I think that we have the
28:32
coaching staff on the women's side, and not to say that we
28:36
don't on the men's side, but we have it on the women's side
28:38
right now that could win US the national championship within the
28:41
next five years. These guys are excellent
28:43
recruiters. These guys know how to how to
28:46
teach players, coach development.
28:49
I know that's they, they would say I'm crazy probably.
28:51
But like, I honestly believe we were only like 1/4 away from
28:55
beating UCLA, who was number one team in the nation at UCLA last
28:58
year. And you know, they're doing
29:00
something right. We've got to, we got to just
29:01
support these guys to make sure that we help them along the way.
29:04
And that includes getting into the Robin Center and supporting
29:06
them during the games. Hey, and and just to tie this
29:09
whole episode together, Porter and I are not fooling.
29:16
So Def Leppard. That is Def Leppard.
29:17
I got you. OK Well, anyway, we're going to
29:19
wrap things up here. Thank you guys for listening.
29:22
This is Tom. And this is Porter.
29:25
And this is spider sounding. See you next week, He.
29:29
Will try to be funny and entertain.
29:32
Maybe you'll learn something or just complain.