Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Spiders Sound Off: Special Lacrosse Spotlight | Connor Knight Interview + Richmond Basketball Portal Updates

Transcript

Spiders Sound Off: Special Lacrosse Spotlight | Connor Knight Interview + Richmond Basketball Portal Updates · Spiders Sound Off

0:06
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Spider Sound
0:10
off. This is Tom being solo this go
0:15
around. Porter is still in the podcast
0:18
portal, hasn't made a final decision yet on his destination
0:23
next season. And we're going to give him a
0:27
chance. He's going to make a commitment
0:29
soon because we've got some things coming up.
0:32
I will be doing kind of an interview on this podcast and
0:37
thought it was time with the lacrosse A10 Championship coming
0:41
around the corner and soon the NCAA Tournament.
0:45
Thought it was time to get some love to our lacrosse team.
0:48
So I'm going to be interviewing Connor Knight, who is the
0:51
starting goalie for our Richmond Spiders lacrosse, ranked 4th in
0:57
the nation and just won the regular season 810 tournament.
1:01
So I'll be interviewing Connor in a bit.
1:04
I'll be following that up. Just talking a little bit about
1:06
kind of some portal update. I think many of you have seen
1:10
some of these names. I'll just talk a little bit
1:12
about them. I'll give us kind of more time
1:13
later as we get to learn about these kids.
1:17
Also, I mentioned Porter is in the is in the in the portal.
1:21
There is a welcome reception if you haven't seen next week, next
1:24
Wednesday the 29th at 7:00 PM to welcome our new women's coach
1:28
Alyssa Kresge. Porter will be attending that if
1:33
that'll be kind of his declaration that he's coming
1:35
back for another season of spider sound off.
1:38
He'll be I'll be out of town. So he'll be there next Wednesday
1:41
to meet the new coach and hopefully we'll get her on the
1:44
pod soon enough. We'll be back in a week from now
1:49
to talk with Porter, the returning of Porter Shomo and
1:55
hopefully we'll have some news on the women's roster and
1:57
coaching staff and and maybe we'll learn some of that next
2:04
Wednesday. Also hopefully an interview a
2:06
player on the men's side coming up next week.
2:10
But until then, we will be learning a little bit more about
2:15
the lacrosse team and some hopefully exciting wins coming
2:20
over the next few weeks. Well, hey Spider fans, very
2:23
excited today to give the lacrosse team some love and
2:29
introduce Connor Knight, who's the senior goalie for the
2:33
lacrosse team. And we'll get a lot into kind of
2:36
what it takes to be a goalie in that sport.
2:39
But, you know, you guys mostly listening here, kind of a come
2:42
here for, for basketball. And obviously, like, basketball
2:46
is filled with hope right now, hope for next year.
2:49
And we've got something on campus right now that isn't,
2:51
isn't about hoping for the future.
2:53
It's kind of right now. Ranked #4 Connor, welcome to
2:57
Spider. Sound off, Yeah.
2:59
Thanks so much for having me, I'm really happy to be here.
3:03
Well, it's got to be exciting for you.
3:04
We've got the A10 tournament around the corner, NCA as around
3:07
the corner, but maybe just going back a little bit like you're
3:11
from the Dallas area, is that right?
3:12
Yes, Sir. Yeah.
3:13
Dallas, TX born and raised. Yeah, what?
3:16
What ended up getting you to come to Richmond?
3:18
So grew up like he's you, like you mentioned in the Dallas
3:22
area. So that's super prominent with
3:24
football. And so my dad played football,
3:27
Texas A&M. And so football was always a
3:30
part of my life. And so I always knew I wanted to
3:33
go to the like the Division One level at some some some
3:36
capacity, whether it be football or lacrosse.
3:39
Eventually, eventually, I felt like fell in love with the
3:43
sport, fell in love with the the small nuances of just lacrosse.
3:47
And I was originally committed to a school up on Long Island
3:51
called Stony Brook University. And then Coach Shamadi reached
3:55
out to me after my junior year. We won the state championship in
3:58
Texas. He reached out and he said he
4:02
was looking for a goalie, thought I'd fit the pieces very
4:06
well. I came, was able to visit
4:08
campus. It was around the COVID time.
4:10
So like I wasn't able to visit most schools that I was able to
4:13
come here. And if you've ever been here,
4:15
obviously you have you, you fall in love with it right away.
4:18
So just was able to fall in love with the campus, fall in love
4:22
with coaching staff, fall in love with culture.
4:24
So that those those were the three main reasons for me.
4:27
Yeah, it's interesting for, you know, you've probably heard some
4:29
of this history, but like for so I'm a I'm an old, I'm an old
4:32
person. I'm a 93 grad.
4:33
Like we didn't have lacrosse back then.
4:35
And it's I actually grew up in New England.
4:38
So I was, you know, I was in a lacrosse town as a kid, but I
4:42
was a soccer player never. I tried lacrosse once and I was
4:44
terrible at it. But it is something where, I
4:47
mean, lacrosse has been this emerging sport at Richmond
4:51
really from the beginning. We were pretty good and had and
4:54
had its moments last year winning the tournament game into
4:57
NCA as and, and now this year we are #1 now #4 really curious
5:04
about goalie. So we when when you start like
5:05
what did you start playing lacrosse and was it like goalie
5:08
right away or how did you kind of turn into a goalie in
5:12
lacrosse? So around 2nd grade, I was
5:16
playing soccer. I mean, everyone plays soccer
5:18
out like whenever you're real little, right?
5:21
And I was, I was, I was the goalie in soccer.
5:25
And one of my buddy's dad, he, he eventually he plays lacrosse
5:29
at Princeton now. But my buddy's dad, he's like,
5:32
hey, Connor would really love this sport.
5:35
And so originally it just came in, played midfield like every
5:39
like for the first, first, first season I played midfield.
5:43
And then after that I switched to goalie probably in second
5:46
grade. So I've been playing goalie ever
5:48
since 2nd grade, fallen in love with it.
5:50
I love the fact that I'm able to control the game.
5:55
If I don't get scored on, we don't, we don't lose.
5:57
So I've always enjoyed that part.
6:00
I always enjoy guys coming to get me after the game.
6:03
Those, those little, those little things, those are those
6:06
always keep me going. So definitely falling in love
6:08
with playing goalie from then. Well, it's a, you know, it's a
6:13
position for for folks who don't know when looking at stats this
6:15
year, you'll get, you know, 30 to 40 shots on goalie game.
6:19
And if you save 6 out of 10, you're having a good day.
6:22
Right. Yeah.
6:23
Like, like, what is that like mentality that you need to have
6:27
where it's not that you're going in there expecting maybe if
6:29
you're a hockey goalie, it's like I'm going to have a
6:31
shutout. Like that doesn't happen a lot
6:33
in lacrosse. Like, how do you how do you get
6:35
over, you know, one goes in. You just got to, you know, pick
6:37
back up and and get ready for the next shot.
6:40
Yeah, I mean, you just can never really get too high or too low.
6:44
Obviously if you make like a really cool save, that's
6:46
awesome, but then there's going to be another shot that's going
6:49
to and that doesn't the last save.
6:51
It was cool and all, but if you get scored on them, it doesn't
6:53
really matter. So you have that same mentality,
6:55
Hey, I got scored on what can I do about nothing?
6:58
So I what can I do is focus on that next play.
7:01
And so just having that mindset really just keeps me level.
7:05
Specifically. I always just tell myself next
7:07
shot, next shot guys on my team like you got this, like if it's
7:10
next shot, next shot doesn't really matter.
7:12
So just always focusing on that next one like you, like you
7:16
mentioned, it's a lot different than playing hockey goalie.
7:19
I mean, you, you, you post in 90% save percentage, but the
7:23
elite goalies in the college level are above 50% like that.
7:27
Like realistically. So if you're saving one out of
7:29
two like you're doing a hell of a job, sorry, the heck of a job.
7:33
That's all right. You're doing a great job like
7:36
but and anyways, so just just having that mindset where you're
7:41
never too high, never too low. You got to stay in the middle
7:43
and just keep grinding it out day by day.
7:45
Just you're you're only as good as your last showing.
7:47
So you can you can be a lights out goalie.
7:50
Maybe you do make a shut out, but the next time next time you
7:53
play like you get shown. So it's always just trying to
7:56
make that next shot and make that next stage.
7:58
So. What is scouting like as a
8:00
goalie? Like are you like scouting the
8:02
other teams offensive players and like their tendency of like
8:05
how they like to shoot or how much is your success?
8:08
Just kind of, you know, your reaction at that, you know, to
8:11
that one shot at that one moment.
8:13
Yeah. So it's a little bit of mix of
8:15
both. I've kind of played around with
8:16
it as I'm a as a senior now, like I've been able to play in a
8:20
bunch of games. So where I'm able to watch film,
8:22
see what works for me, I don't really look at like what they're
8:28
doing. Sometimes they like shoot like
8:30
offside high, like every time. So that's like, OK, I'll notice
8:33
that and I'll kind of just sit up, like OK, save.
8:36
Like sometimes you'll you'll see that.
8:38
But it's not going to in the in the sport of lacrosse, anything
8:41
can happen. So like, he'll put it low and
8:44
it's like, OK, I didn't see that in film, but I got to still
8:46
react. So it's all just staying true to
8:48
yourself. So falling back on those
8:50
fundamentals. I mean, I've been playing since
8:52
I had mentioned since 2nd grade. Well, it's I've had all this,
8:56
all this training and it's just just got to fall back on what I
8:59
know, what I can rely on. And that's that's those
9:02
fundamentals that I've trained myself to compete at the highest
9:05
level with. What's your job as a goalie in
9:08
terms of kind of the defensive coach or like what like I'm
9:12
assuming you have to be vocal as a goalie.
9:15
I'm like, what, what are you doing during the game?
9:17
I mean, obviously when it's probably, you know, the easy
9:19
part is when it's on the other side of the field and your team
9:22
is scoring goals. But when you know the other
9:24
teams advancing, like what's your job there and kind of
9:26
communicating and getting the defense straight?
9:29
So as I've gone closer to college, in high school, I would
9:33
be the kind of guy where I'd call out like the slides, like
9:36
who's going? Like if they get beat, like I'm
9:38
telling like, hey, you're going and you're the two.
9:40
But as I've gone to college, Coach Richards, he's like, don't
9:43
do that. Save the ball, just that's your
9:46
job. And so it's it's more
9:48
communication in the Gray. So what I mean by that is
9:52
whenever it's transition, it's how many how many people we
9:54
have, like, hey, we have five guys in we're going to be going
10:01
Jason sliding instead of a crease slide like that, like
10:03
that early offense communication.
10:05
I talk a lot when where the ball is like if there's a Shorty on
10:09
the ball, I'll make like an A specific call just to like alert
10:12
the team that hey, there's a Shorty on the ball.
10:14
Doesn't mean we're going to slide fast or anything, but it
10:17
just means like, hey, this is this guy's, this is the matchup.
10:19
I mean train we we scout these teams the entire week.
10:23
So we have a little bit of practice where we're talking.
10:26
Maybe it's a look away call where we're not sliding to this
10:29
person as as quickly. So it's it's just this that
10:32
communication in the great. It's not so much calling the
10:35
defense as as it used to be. Yeah.
10:38
What for those who don't follow lacrosse?
10:41
Or maybe they do and they, you know, they don't know a goalie.
10:44
Like what? What do folks maybe not know as
10:46
part of, you know, the the goalie job Besides, you know,
10:49
saving shots? Besides saving shots like what
10:55
like I just mentioned the clearing, just that composure.
10:58
Maybe if you get scored on, just having that poise, like, hey,
11:01
we're going to get that next one.
11:02
Like I was saying, like because if you get scored on, you're met
11:05
like you're beat, like the defense is going to look at you
11:08
and they're going to be like, OK, like we're kind of screwed.
11:11
Like that was in a good play, like and if you're you stay
11:14
positive, they'll stay positive. The another big point I've
11:19
really gotten involved clearing this year.
11:22
So that's that's the transition from a as a save ball goes out
11:27
of bounds, that's the transition from defense to offense for
11:29
those who don't. But that clearing is, is
11:33
something that I become really, really prominent in these past
11:37
couple past couple of years. Is there like a kind of a kind
11:41
of unwritten rule for goalies where like you, you're trying to
11:43
get that assist at some point during the season?
11:47
Is that kind of one of those like, you know, that's not your
11:49
main objective, but you know, you, you do have the ball a lot,
11:52
right? I mean, you save it.
11:53
That means now you got to start is that's one of the, you know,
11:57
I don't know if you, you ever, did you ever as a kid have goals
12:00
as a as a goalie. Not really.
12:02
I always was never the kind of guy that would go over the
12:05
midfield. My job was to save the ball and
12:07
I would just get it to my buddies who whose job is to
12:10
score the ball. So I would just let them do
12:11
their job. I do mine, but if I have the
12:15
opportunity I'd probably shoot it.
12:17
If I it'd. Be pretty cool to score, but
12:20
that's like I said, it's not my job and I got an assist
12:23
yesterday and we broke their ten man ride, so that was my second
12:27
ever assist in my college so that was pretty cool.
12:30
I got 1 to 8 in O'Neill early in the year for his 100th career
12:33
goal, so that was pretty a special moment for him, but just
12:37
it's. Yeah, so if those don't know,
12:38
you guys just beat high point in and now have the kind of the
12:41
regular season title or undefeated in the a 10.
12:45
So that was a a good way to to end the year and hey, getting an
12:47
assist on the last regular season game.
12:49
That's awesome. Tell tell me about the team.
12:51
I mean, you know, I think you've outscored opponents 213 to 108.
12:57
So you know, they sometimes they say like the best defense is a
13:00
good offense. I mean, you guys have a great
13:02
offense. Tell me about you know some of
13:03
your team mates and like and how much they you know, help you get
13:06
better. For sure.
13:07
I mean, as I'm talking right now, I'm in the the stadium and
13:12
I'm looking out. I see Lucas Liljohn out there
13:14
shooting right now. So that's one guy that just
13:16
comes to mind. So Lucas Liljohn, he he's one of
13:19
our premier goal scorers. Aidan O'Neill has been a name
13:23
figure in the the Richmond community for the for the past
13:26
four years. He's been an absolute phenomenal
13:29
leader along with Joe Sheridan that that those three are super
13:34
prominent to our offense. And then you we just have so
13:36
much depth. There's Gavin Creo, Daniel
13:38
Picart, there's so many guys that just whenever you need them
13:42
to step up, they're able to make their their name like
13:45
remembered. I mean that.
13:46
And then there's less like lesser known guys like Jack
13:49
Roschardi, Leo Kane and Evan O'Neill like that all these guys
13:53
that they contribute, but they're they might not be as
13:56
well known. And then like as we get closer
13:58
to that defensive side, we have the three, three best defenseman
14:02
in the country, arguably maybe the four with Hunter Smith,
14:05
Mikey Farrell, Connor Kelly and Nate Murphy.
14:08
Those guys are just absolute lockdown defenders right there.
14:11
And then we got an all American LSM longstick midfielder Braden
14:15
Pennifether Stevenson, who's another really good stud, and
14:19
then two, two defensive Mideast, Jack Pilling, Ryan Thompson,
14:24
Chris Massiferian, Charlie Packard.
14:27
I'll shout them all out there. They're they're, they're all,
14:30
they're all studs. And they just, we all have that
14:33
common goal of getting the job done.
14:35
And we're we're just happy to be able to be at the University of
14:38
Richmond and just bring the school.
14:40
It's like a little bit of pride and just bring ourselves just
14:43
that that success that we've worked so hard for.
14:47
Well, you've got the A10 tournament starts, I guess on
14:50
Thursday and we host the A10 tournament.
14:53
So you got some kind of home game to start.
14:56
Talk about the home crowd, kind of how you seen that over your
14:58
four years kind of grow and how that supports increase kind of
15:01
what what is it like playing at home when you have, you know,
15:05
234000 fans there? Yeah, I remember my first ever
15:09
start was against Maryland my sophomore year.
15:12
I looked out, looked out in the crowd.
15:14
There's think there was a little under 3000 people there that
15:18
game. That was our first like game of
15:20
the year. And just remembering like that
15:23
support that like came out. And then looking a little bit
15:26
further into the year, the quarterfinals we're in, we're on
15:29
the island in New York and we're at Hofstra and that entire the
15:34
alumni network, everyone showed out.
15:37
They were loud and they went toe to toe with Cornell, who has
15:42
arguably the largest lacrosse fan base.
15:44
So just a bit filled with history that is they're just
15:49
just seeing throughout the years the support that's grown.
15:53
I mean, we played the University of Virginia this year and they
15:55
were filling out like they were going to both sides of the
15:58
stadium. One side was completely full, so
16:00
they had to go to the other side.
16:01
And so whenever we have all that support, it just it, it fuels
16:05
that team in that drive because we, we know we have all these
16:09
people backing us that we, that we're going to succeed and
16:13
hearing all that noise, it's going to prepare us further down
16:16
the line as we get closer to Memorial Day, Hopefully all
16:18
these fans still show out, but there's going to be a lot of
16:21
people there. So it, it definitely prepares us
16:24
for that. So just throughout the years,
16:26
the support has been phenomenal throughout just the entire
16:29
Richmond community. Well, you've been undefeated.
16:32
At home this year. So UMass on Thursday and these
16:35
are now you're playing these teams for the second time.
16:38
Now that you're you're in the tournament, you have a what's
16:40
your kind of UMass preview? What do you like remember from
16:43
the first game? Would you learn from that?
16:44
How do you guys kind of be successful again now that you're
16:48
in the the tournament on Thursday?
16:49
Yeah. They they, they play a good
16:52
brand of lacrosse. I remember they and we went up
16:56
to UMass last time. So they they have a hard
16:58
atmosphere to play up there. They have a phenomenal goalie.
17:01
They have a very good face off unit.
17:03
And so just those specialists, just making sure we dominate
17:07
those areas, putting the ball in the back of that, which we're
17:09
very good at offensively and just making sure we keep it
17:12
simple in the clear, not not making any rash decisions, kind
17:15
of just thrown away. It's kind of like whenever in
17:18
basketball they have a full court press, you got to just
17:20
make sure you're moving the ball up the the court, pass the
17:22
steal. So just making sure we're
17:25
focusing on those those simple things and good things will
17:29
come. So just got to make sure we're
17:31
playing our brand of lacrosse. Like if we play at our pace, I
17:35
don't believe any team in the country is able to play at our
17:37
pace offensively or defensively. So just got to make sure we're
17:40
doing that and especially we'll be at the University of
17:43
Richmond, so I know we'll have the support of the entire fan
17:47
base. And so just looking forward to
17:48
that Thursday game and then just got to dominate then and maybe
17:52
we'll get this Saturday. What is Game day?
17:54
Like do you have a, a superstitions, a meal, a go to
17:58
anything or it's just kind of a, you know, it's another day until
18:01
you kind of line up in in the crease.
18:04
So you're talking to a goalie. Most people would probably say
18:08
it's pretty normal. I'm a weird guy.
18:11
I do a lot of different stuff before the game, but once I step
18:16
on the field, it's just I, I mean, I I just go back to like
18:20
my basics, OK? I'm curious.
18:22
Now it would give me a couple of the weird things that that.
18:26
The night before, I have a set playlist of four songs that I
18:31
listen to, and I imagine every shot that I'll see day of can't
18:37
eat. So I don't eat before the game I
18:40
listen to. You probably won't even know who
18:43
this is. Her name's Billie Eilish.
18:46
I listen, Yeah. I know I listen to Ocean.
18:48
I've got a college. Kid.
18:49
So I yeah, I. Listen to ocean eyes by her
18:53
three times before I go out. That's that's kind of like how I
18:56
just kind of center myself. It locks me back in.
18:59
I know where I'm about to go out there and dominate and do what I
19:01
do. There's a couple other things,
19:04
but those are those are my main ones.
19:07
But that's great. Definitely some weird stuff.
19:10
So it's good to. Know your your pregame meal is
19:12
no meal. That's that's that's easy for
19:16
the cafeteria to serve for you. Exactly what I mean what's
19:20
what's fun this year obviously ranked for let's assume we have
19:23
a successful a 10 tournament like now versus prior years like
19:27
the NCAA tournament like we can have home games because that's
19:30
how the first couple rounds work.
19:32
So for your fan that trying to get out there and if you can't
19:35
go on Thursday, obviously if we win championship on Saturday and
19:38
then if if we get through with the championship, like we'll
19:42
have some at least one home game and hopefully multiple home
19:44
games. So there'll be more chances to
19:46
come out and support Richmond. Connor, I'd love to just learn a
19:50
little bit more about you at U of R and we'll kind of wrap this
19:52
up like what are you studying? Like what are you thinking about
19:54
kind of post graduation? Yeah, so.
19:57
I'm a business administration major with concentration and
20:01
marketing. And so the past summer I was
20:05
fortunate enough to have an internship with Swingle Collins
20:08
and Associates, which is a commercial insurance firm.
20:12
And so I, I really enjoyed that, that sales role, just kind of
20:16
focusing on that. So as I've gone a little bit
20:20
like into this year, I'm going to go back to the University of
20:23
Richmond ideally and complete my master's, have another fifth
20:27
year, bring bring a little bit more pride back to the
20:30
University of Richmond, have some more success.
20:32
Ideally, potentially might start my own lacrosse brand where I
20:36
would give goalie lessons, expand to virtual and then be
20:42
able to go through like the Texas, the California, that West
20:45
Coast area, maybe expand up to Virginia.
20:47
Whenever I come back, as I mentioned, I'm from that Texas
20:50
area. So yeah, be good to give back.
20:52
So that's always what I'd like to do.
20:54
So that that's kind of my. That's awesome.
20:57
Well, Connor, thank you so much for joining us today.
21:00
Again, game Thursday, hopefully another game Saturday.
21:03
And I know there's a tailgating going on.
21:06
I know you're not part of that, but if you, if folks have been
21:09
to football games before at U of R as a, there's a, there's,
21:12
there could be some rowdy environments in the parking lot
21:15
pregame and hopefully we have a bunch of games to see at home.
21:18
So Connor, Congrats on a great year so far.
21:23
Looking forward to continuing that over the next month.
21:26
And thanks again for joining Spider.
21:28
Sound off. Yeah, thanks.
21:29
So. Much for having me, I really had
21:30
a great time and then enjoyed talking with you.
21:35
Hey, that was great to hear from Connor again.
21:37
Please get out there support your spiders lacrosse team
21:41
fourth in the nation. You got a chance right now to to
21:45
really help push them over to the A10 champ and to be a 10
21:50
champs and then obviously for the NCAA tournament, have some
21:53
home games, hopefully a couple of them on their way to get into
21:57
the semi finals, do a little bit of basketball to wrap this up.
22:02
I'm not going to go too much in detail.
22:03
I mean, for the the fans out there who who haven't heard,
22:07
we've been signing a bunch of people off the portal.
22:10
We've we've talked about some in our last episode, but we've got
22:12
six players right now, at least as of earlier this morning.
22:16
The latest being Darren Saran from UC Irvine, who's a looks
22:21
like another solid get on our side.
22:25
I'll tell you what I like overall what we've done so far
22:27
as five of the six have multiple years of eligibility.
22:30
And, and in today's environment, I like that not because I think
22:33
we'll have them over multiple years because you just never
22:37
know. But we've got five guys who are
22:39
playing for next year's contract in a way.
22:42
So these are folks. I mean, you look at Jack
22:44
McCaffrey, for example, kind of a freshman, was injured at
22:49
Butler, was a top recruit. That kind of comes from some
22:52
basketball bloodlines for sure. Like, I hope he's a great player
22:58
for us and I hope you know, he's going to Duke next year because
23:01
he has such a giant impact and he's such a great player that he
23:04
has that opportunity to make more money somewhere else.
23:07
I mean, I'd love to have these guys for a successful returning
23:11
group for year after year after year, but in today's
23:14
environment, I just, you know, I, I like that, you know,
23:17
they're, they're all both getting, you know, they're going
23:19
to play to win and that's going to be their main priority.
23:21
But you know, on the business side, they've got at some point
23:25
be thinking about it, but we need to have a great year so
23:27
that they can make even more money for the rest of their
23:30
college career. They also are kind of emerging
23:33
players. So none of them are kind of a
23:35
close to I think a finished product yet.
23:38
Even kind of, you know, the the one with the most points coming
23:41
in kind of as a Amon Dory. He's like he was a freshman, so
23:45
he's got a lot of potential still.
23:47
So I think these are players that will see the best of them
23:51
throughout the year versus I think last year.
23:53
You look at our top 2 portal players, you know, AJ and
24:00
Johnson, I mean, they were both graduate students.
24:03
We have one out of this group of 6 but and but not our best
24:08
players coming in. So I think it's nice, you know,
24:10
enjoying Argo Bright, obviously he's kind of a young emerging
24:12
player. We've got Harper who's got a lot
24:15
of potential, who if he can stay healthy, I think we'll see a lot
24:18
of this year. We got some freshmen coming in
24:21
do Simmons kind of the the biggest name of those.
24:23
So I think we're going to have this kind of, you know, a team
24:26
of, you know, sophomores and juniors and a couple freshmen
24:30
who kind of we're going to be improving not just as they get
24:33
to know each other, but just kind of naturally is there, you
24:36
know, there. They they still got a lot to
24:37
learn. They also the other thing I like
24:40
is that, you know, a couple of those players in particular were
24:43
starters at and got lots of minutes at, you know, the the
24:47
bigger or the higher ranked conferences.
24:50
So you know, the two kids from Butler, although McCaffrey was
24:53
injured from part of the year and then Dominic Stewart from
24:57
Penn State. And neither of those teams had
24:59
incredible years, but they put up lots of minutes against top
25:04
talent players, you know, NBA players.
25:07
So coming to the A10, should they should be allowed to
25:12
flourish in the A10? And what I, you know, the last
25:15
guy I mentioned, Darren Saron, what's what's unique about him
25:19
is that like he's coming from a winner.
25:21
So you, yeah, UC Irving won the regular season title.
25:25
They went to the end up losing in their championship to Hawaii,
25:28
went to the NIT. So he he's he's the one guy
25:32
who's coming from a winner. And we need players like that
25:34
too. It looks like we got room for
25:36
kind of one more if my math is right.
25:39
Hopefully if you look at what we've gotten so far, we could
25:42
use another big man, whether it's kind of a power forward or
25:46
someone who's maybe a rebound first player.
25:52
I mean, we've got a lot of kind of the 6566 players, which is
25:57
going to going to be great when we have that kind of the guard
26:00
and the small forward spot with. We hope we can bring someone to
26:03
compete with McCaffrey at more of that kind of 6/9 height size.
26:10
But anyway, I'll kind of stop there.
26:12
Won't bore you. Just you know, when Porter's
26:13
back, we'll talk a whole lot more about it.
26:16
And as a reminder, there is a meet and greet or a kind of
26:19
welcome reception, they're calling it with the new women's
26:21
coach, Alyssa Kreski. That's on Wednesday the 29th at
26:25
7:00 PM. So get out to that.
26:28
Just reach out to the Robin Center.
26:29
If if you didn't see the e-mail, you just they're hoping that
26:33
kind of RSVP so they know how many people.
26:35
I think the doors open at 6:30 with some sort of, you know,
26:38
refreshments and then at 7:00 PM, the coach well, will be
26:41
introduced. I think Bob Black's kind of the
26:43
moderator of that. I don't know how much Q&A there
26:45
will be, but they'll be some and we'll be back in a week from now
26:50
to kind of talk about that. Hopefully some news on the
26:53
roster and coaching staff on the women's side, maybe a new player
26:56
on the men's side. And we've got an interview lined
26:59
up and won't spoil that one, but we should have one of our
27:04
players to talk to next week. So until then, this is Tom
27:08
without Porter and this is Spiders sounding.