Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Code Red at the Robins Center | Spiders Women Dominate VCU, Men Reset After St. Louis

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Code Red at the Robins Center | Spiders Women Dominate VCU, Men Reset After St. Louis · Spiders Sound Off

• 0:06
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to Spider.
• 0:08
  Sound off. This is Tom.
• 0:10
  And this is Porter. We are here on a Sunday, just
• 0:15
  gotten home from the big Code Red win at the Robin Center.
• 0:20
  It's. Snowing outside if I look out
• 0:22
  your if I look out the studio window.
• 0:23
  Snow. Yes.
• 0:25
  It's super nice. Thankfully we have an indoor
• 0:27
  studio. It would be a little troublesome
• 0:29
  if we were outside it. Was there was a lot of
• 0:31
  precipitation raining down in the Robin Center moments ago
• 0:34
  too? Yeah, so great game by the women
• 0:37
  kind of blowing out VCU, which I thought, you know, we thought
• 0:39
  we'd do. But it's always great to see it
• 0:41
  blowing out and beating VCU and anything is fun.
• 0:44
  There's There's no better feeling in the world for a
• 0:46
  Spider fan. There was a great crowd as
• 0:48
  expected. Ended up with 5224 I think was
• 0:52
  the official count. So that and they said it was the
• 0:56
  most since year 2000, yeah. 20. 5.
• 0:59
  Yeah, I know. I worked.
• 1:00
  That out well. That'll be.
• 1:01
  I was not at that game, I can tell you.
• 1:03
  But anyway, before the game started, they had a little
• 1:06
  ceremony. What do you think about that,
• 1:08
  Porter? I did not see the ceremony.
• 1:11
  And and why is that so? That's a long story.
• 1:15
  Let me get into it if. You want yeah so just so you
• 1:18
  guys know so Porter arrived I got on my watch it was 12/12 was
• 1:24
  when Porter arrived in the Robin Center for you know not a normal
• 1:27
  women's game because it was this big code red over 5000 people a
• 1:32
  little harder to park takes a little longer to get in and I.
• 1:35
  Did not know we were going to go here, but let me give you guys.
• 1:37
  Yeah, so I, I got volunteered to talk at my church, both 9 and 11
• 1:43
  AM service for Upward basketball.
• 1:45
  I'm supporting Upward basketball this year.
• 1:47
  I'm the MC for the kindergarteners, 8 to 12 on
• 1:49
  every. Second, they got a celebrity
• 1:50
  MCA. Celebrity MCI don't have to
• 1:52
  notify myself as a spider sound off guy though, so it I do the
• 1:55
  MC ING for that. So I was telling the
• 1:57
  congregation a little bit about how you volunteer and help out
• 1:59
  with with upward. And so that second speech that I
• 2:03
  gave to the Congress congregation pushed me back
• 2:05
  until like 1115 time frame which I don't normally stay for the 11
• 2:09
  O clock service. I usually go to the 9 O clock
• 2:11
  service so. 11:15 That's plenty of time to get to the Robin
• 2:15
  Center, yeah. It is plenty and I'm literally
• 2:17
  one mile from the Robin Center from where my church is.
• 2:19
  So I I was bringing my wife and my wife is a very healthy eater.
• 2:26
  She's not one that is going to eat the.
• 2:29
  The hot dogs, the. The fair at the Robin Center.
• 2:31
  So I asked, you know, do you want to try to get something
• 2:34
  before we go? It's time is kind of limited.
• 2:37
  She did. So we decided on Shore Dog, the
• 2:40
  little Coffee Cafe over there at I think it's Taco Shopping
• 2:44
  Center, where local is actually. And where you're getting it to
• 2:46
  go. We were getting it to go, and I
• 2:48
  do love Shore Dog. I mean, Full disclosure, the
• 2:50
  food's good, the coffee's great. So we, we got to the door of
• 2:55
  Shore Dog by like 1117 and we didn't get our food in hand or
• 3:00
  in packages we could carry out until 11:45.
• 3:03
  So now I'm 15 minutes before game time for a game.
• 3:06
  Did you order? Ahead or you just got there in
• 3:08
  order? Just got there in order so.
• 3:09
  Mistake #2. I'm used.
• 3:11
  I'm used to coming into the campus from the other side of
• 3:14
  the campus since he got lost. So now, no, I'm now on the side
• 3:17
  of campus. I don't know the traffic
• 3:18
  patterns as well. So I'm coming down past the
• 3:20
  alumni center along the road. They're coming in to take a
• 3:23
  right to X lot, right? Nice cop sitting in his car,
• 3:26
  lights are on, there's no traffic guidance.
• 3:27
  He's on his phone. So I get in line.
• 3:30
  I go up in X lot, and X lot is absolute chaos.
• 3:34
  There's cars everywhere, there's no spots.
• 3:36
  I literally quickly realized I got to get out of X lot.
• 3:39
  This is not good. So I navigate a circle, go back
• 3:43
  down the ramp where the guy's playing on his phone and take a
• 3:46
  right. Now I'm heading up past the
• 3:47
  Robin center, just immediately to my right.
• 3:49
  The lots on the left at least have cones up to say, hey, it's
• 3:52
  full, you're not getting in here.
• 3:54
  I go past the football stadium on my right.
• 3:56
  I take a right before you go up Snake Road and there's a couple
• 3:59
  commuter lots there on that corner that had a few spots.
• 4:03
  So I park in the commuter lot. Now I'm having to walk back
• 4:06
  along the football stadium into the Robin Center, which actually
• 4:11
  here's the thing that I was like.
• 4:13
  So I'm I'm a little bit agitated because I didn't want to be late
• 4:15
  to this game. It's an important game.
• 4:17
  It's the red out game. I had a friend that I'd given a
• 4:19
  ticket to last night who's coming to join us, also named
• 4:23
  Tom, I'll point out. And so I'm, I know we're going
• 4:26
  to get there late and we get into the arena, give them our
• 4:29
  tickets, get, you know, I go through to cook down where
• 4:32
  you're set, see if you had seats for us.
• 4:34
  I hadn't checked the text. Yeah.
• 4:35
  He doesn't read text by the way. He sees a notification and and
• 4:38
  makes up what he thinks. That said.
• 4:39
  So I didn't, I did not know you had got a seat, but I saw that
• 4:42
  you had two seats next to you. So I said OK, I think we can go
• 4:44
  sit next to Tom and Laura. So or Tom and Laura.
• 4:46
  So we went down, sat next to you guys and we're there at 12/12.
• 4:49
  It was 10 to 2 spiders. And yeah, that's why I was late.
• 4:52
  And here's the thing guys, it was a 5000 plus person crowd.
• 4:57
  And so while I was personally frustrated that I was late for a
• 5:00
  very good game, I was so happy for the ladies because that's
• 5:05
  the kind of crowd they deserve. Well, well, let me tell you
• 5:07
  about the ceremony you missed. Yeah, Tell.
• 5:08
  Me about that ceremony. So I thought it was pretty
• 5:11
  special. So before the game they had
• 5:13
  Karen Elsner. OK.
• 5:15
  Early 1980s if I remember. And she had the previous Spider
• 5:19
  women's record of 39 points. So they had her and then they
• 5:22
  had Mag. She was holding a basketball.
• 5:24
  They had Maggie come out and Oz that Maggie had beaten her
• 5:26
  record. Big standing ovation from the
• 5:29
  still kind of filling in crowd. But it was pretty neat getting
• 5:32
  Karen there to recognize her great achievement.
• 5:34
  But anyway, so but that was a neat little ceremony that that
• 5:37
  Porter missed. By the way, I was looking at my
• 5:40
  text stream here and if he had read his text, there was a text
• 5:42
  I sent at 11:45 that said probably won't have any normal
• 5:45
  place to park either due to the crowd.
• 5:48
  He probably read that when he was sitting in his seat
• 5:50
  wondering why he was so late. I don't.
• 5:52
  Think I actually saw that one, yes.
• 5:53
  I don't think I. Saw and you want to be my latex
• 5:56
  sales. Anyway, it was a great moment.
• 5:59
  I'll tell you my my highlights were one the the the the adult
• 6:05
  the guy who had the Cleveland Cavaliers jersey yes, which I
• 6:08
  think was kind of red. So I'm guessing it was like the
• 6:11
  most red thing he could find at home.
• 6:12
  So I don't think he was a student already would have had
• 6:14
  like a Richmond spider shirt on from.
• 6:15
  Section 19. And he was able to get the crowd
• 6:18
  to go with the wave. Yeah, give that my guy.
• 6:21
  Props, man. He worked hard at it and finally
• 6:24
  he got it going right in the third.
• 6:25
  I think it was the third quarter, yeah.
• 6:26
  It was right during a time out so that the team was like in a
• 6:29
  huddle and the huddle had broke and you could sequel smirks on
• 6:31
  their faces. They were looking around and
• 6:33
  seeing the wave going around 5000 people in the Robinson and
• 6:36
  literally the. Crowd just like, I mean, it was
• 6:38
  erupting in the noise and I think they even the huddle
• 6:39
  stopped for a second. Everybody looked around.
• 6:41
  It was so unusual. I can't.
• 6:42
  Remember doing the wave in the Robinson arm?
• 6:44
  It's been a while. Sure it's happened but but it
• 6:46
  was great. But that was, look, I mean,
• 6:48
  here's the thing, you've heard Tom and I, we've, we're on
• 6:50
  episode 38 of this little podcast of ours now.
• 6:54
  And one of our key goals is just to let all you guys know how
• 6:57
  special the ladies program is, how well the team plays.
• 7:02
  So from one perspective, I'm sitting in the Robin Center
• 7:05
  after, you know, I'm be honest with you.
• 7:06
  I have, I'm, I have a, a patience issue at times.
• 7:10
  And I sometimes, you know, can, can be hard to be around when
• 7:14
  I've lost my patience. And so, you know, I'm, you know,
• 7:18
  I, I told my wife that we studied forgiveness today in
• 7:21
  church and you know, I, I forgave her for my bad behavior.
• 7:26
  And so, you know, I think I'm learning a little bit, right?
• 7:29
  So yeah, that's progress. So.
• 7:30
  Yeah. So I mean, like I was, yeah.
• 7:32
  But here's the thing, like you can't help but like if you do
• 7:35
  this, what we're doing and you see that, that crowd for those
• 7:37
  girls, you just can't help but get a little bit sentimental, a
• 7:40
  little bit emotional about how how special that was just to see
• 7:44
  that support for the ladies and it fed the ladies.
• 7:47
  We were UP329 after the first quarter.
• 7:49
  You could see how just incredibly touched they were by
• 7:53
  the crowd and just how important it was for them to give them
• 7:56
  the, you know, start that they want and need.
• 7:59
  And you know what man, it was a dominant performance, a well
• 8:02
  coached game, a well played game.
• 8:04
  We played a lot of players, got got to see every player I think
• 8:07
  who was who was healthy play and it was really just fun.
• 8:11
  It was a fun day in the Robin Center for sure.
• 8:13
  Yeah. Rachel really LED us early kind
• 8:15
  of that some of the points you missed was her hitting kind of
• 8:17
  three and a two. She got actually missed a foul
• 8:21
  shot. She had a two and one and missed
• 8:23
  the one. But anyway, so she was kind of
• 8:24
  our early leader getting points. Maggie was really almost the
• 8:28
  floor general in terms of like being the assistant coach out
• 8:30
  there and making sure everyone was getting involved.
• 8:33
  So and you've, I've heard coach say like she, he thinks Maggie's
• 8:37
  best performances are when she doesn't score 20 points because
• 8:40
  that's when she's getting and everyone involved and everyone
• 8:43
  is scoring as a result of that involvement and shooting well.
• 8:46
  So Sweeney shot pretty well today.
• 8:49
  Old Strim shot well. So the big three were where
• 8:52
  whereas as expected, first time I think we've seen Newell
• 8:55
  without the mask I. Saw her on TV the other night
• 8:57
  and she didn't have it on after the men's game.
• 8:59
  So yeah, so I saw that game, yeah.
• 9:00
  But it was, she played great. Like, I mean, she she again, she
• 9:03
  just changes momentum for a for a team with with her steals.
• 9:07
  I think we have 15 steals today. Did I see that right?
• 9:09
  15 for the whole team. I'd have to look, that's insane.
• 9:12
  15 steals is insane. Yeah, that might have been that
• 9:14
  might have been the crowd's help, right, Because it was so
• 9:16
  loud. I mean, if you're VCU, you just
• 9:18
  like I I mean, you're not used to playing in the crowd that
• 9:20
  size ever. So like.
• 9:21
  Yeah. And.
• 9:21
  You'll get the starting line up. So on steals.
• 9:23
  So Maggie hit 4, Alicia had two, Sweeney had two, Rachel had
• 9:27
  three. Yeah.
• 9:28
  It was a lot. Of that lot of steals tonight.
• 9:30
  Which was fantastic, right? And like you said earlier,
• 9:33
  nothing, I mean nothing feels better than beating VCU.
• 9:36
  Yeah, we beat them by a 30 point margin.
• 9:39
  So we're we're 16 and four. We've won five straight.
• 9:42
  Tomorrow the net will refresh. Right now we were I think 47 in
• 9:45
  the net, 46 in Bartorovic probably will stay pretty close
• 9:47
  to those numbers. BCU is not a it's I think it's a
• 9:50
  quad 4 game on our homecourt, but still very very convincing
• 9:54
  statement win for the ladies. Yeah.
• 9:56
  And before I forget, like, you know, congratulations, the
• 9:59
  University of Richmond for pulling that off.
• 10:01
  So I learned some today, like it was a joint effort.
• 10:04
  So actually, I'll take you back to I think a meeting you were in
• 10:07
  that I didn't go when Coach Russell had the C-Suite sort of
• 10:11
  talks where he was I think in the B school and gave a
• 10:14
  presentation. I know you went to that part of
• 10:16
  what he said in that meeting and what the communications side of
• 10:20
  Richmond heard was like, I really would love to get the
• 10:23
  Robin Center packed for this group of seniors.
• 10:25
  They really deserve it. Some something along those
• 10:27
  lines, the, the communications department, not, not so on the
• 10:30
  sporting sports side, but on the university side, picked up on
• 10:34
  that and said, hey, look, maybe there's something we can do.
• 10:36
  And I started that process. Obviously they got the, the
• 10:40
  athletic administration involved and got the communications from
• 10:43
  the school. And then I think the, the, the
• 10:46
  sports communications came up with the branding and really
• 10:48
  started driving that process. But it was, it was a joint
• 10:51
  effort across the university to get to let's get 5000 in.
• 10:55
  And, and they did. There were some schools there
• 10:58
  they brought in. So a lot of it took a lot of
• 11:00
  time that I saw them, they were on the morning local shows on
• 11:03
  TV, Rachel was on other players were on to promote this.
• 11:07
  So there was a lot that went in to make this happen.
• 11:09
  It's, it was not easy. And, and, and hopefully, I'm
• 11:12
  sure we, we all hope and the Richmond hopes that if there
• 11:15
  was, let's say, 3000 people that, who had never seen a
• 11:18
  women's game before, like, can you get, you know, 10% of them
• 11:21
  to be like, now we're regular women's fans.
• 11:23
  And so all of a sudden you're averaging 2000 per game and just
• 11:27
  starting to build that momentum. I.
• 11:29
  Mean it was, we had 2200 I think the other night for the Big 48
• 11:32
  point Maggie performance against Davidson.
• 11:35
  This was a huge crowd. If you're a Spider basketball
• 11:39
  fan and you're not coming to the women's games, you're doing
• 11:42
  yourself a disservice. This team is so much fun to
• 11:44
  watch and it's such a good team and it's a really good
• 11:46
  basketball. Congrats to Coach Russell, by
• 11:47
  the way. I think this was win #450 in his
• 11:49
  career. So that's awesome, right?
• 11:53
  That's a lot of wins for a coach.
• 11:55
  So another awesome thing. I mean, it's just a very
• 11:58
  efficient special team. And I think, you know, you just
• 12:02
  go out and see him and you can't help but really want to come
• 12:05
  back. And I think if we get, you know,
• 12:07
  some attendance boost out of this, especially with the games
• 12:10
  that are left on the schedule, we have a lot of really good
• 12:12
  teams. George Mason is left on the
• 12:14
  schedule. We got Rhode Island coming into
• 12:16
  the Robinson or later. I mean, these are good teams.
• 12:18
  So it's, it's important that we we continue to support the
• 12:21
  ladies and give them the lift. I mean, you see what the crowd
• 12:23
  energy does both to the to the team that we're playing against
• 12:27
  15, you know, which allowed 15 steals and also to our ladies
• 12:31
  32, nine after the first quarter.
• 12:32
  I, I will say, and, and this will be maybe not my complaint,
• 12:36
  but the complaint of someone else I was watching the game
• 12:38
  with is that so we blew them out in the first quarter.
• 12:41
  The rest of the game was kind of Even so I totally understand why
• 12:45
  the coach is still playing kind of his main players because like
• 12:48
  there are moments where the coach wasn't happy.
• 12:50
  Like the first quarter was probably the best quarter of
• 12:52
  basketball. I've seen a really long time
• 12:54
  from both teams. But then the complaint, and I
• 12:59
  totally get it too from. Both teams?
• 13:00
  Which teams? Well, I mean, the men's, I'm
• 13:02
  saying the men's team, they don't have quarters, but I think
• 13:04
  we haven't seen 10 minutes of basketball like that.
• 13:06
  Yeah. Oh, I see.
• 13:07
  So better than any any 10 minute segment, OK.
• 13:10
  And so, but the question and it's a fair 1 and I want to ask
• 13:13
  coach this at some point, what games do you have by playing
• 13:18
  your best players anymore? And so this was like early in
• 13:22
  the third, like I think everyone knew that game was over and and
• 13:26
  Maggie was still out there, Rachel was still out there.
• 13:28
  And so again, I'm this is not, I don't want to debate that here
• 13:31
  because I'm on the side of like, wait, I want this team to be
• 13:34
  ready to compete and defend. Well, I think it's about.
• 13:36
  Efficiency because like honestly the Nets based on efficiency,
• 13:38
  you got to win by the amount you're supposed to win by
• 13:41
  unfortunately, or you have to show the right offensive and
• 13:43
  defensive efficiency. And if you and if you don't,
• 13:45
  they don't really aggregate that you know you were playing your
• 13:47
  third string, it just they just say you didn't perform
• 13:50
  efficiently. So it's important for the net
• 13:52
  that we that we perform better than we're supposed to or
• 13:55
  efficiently. And so that that I think is why
• 13:57
  he plays, you know. Yeah, And, and, and I get it.
• 14:00
  I can, I can see the other side of like it's and it's like any
• 14:04
  sports, like when you when the game is over and you've got in
• 14:06
  particular we a team that has one player who's like the player
• 14:10
  of the year, one of the top players in the country and
• 14:14
  you're playing them in the fourth quarter in a blowout.
• 14:16
  Like all it takes is, and I've seen it on my sport teams where
• 14:20
  it's like you have that freak injury in the game that didn't
• 14:22
  matter and then your season is over.
• 14:25
  And so I think that's what hit the my friend's point, don't
• 14:28
  you? Put that on me, Ricky Bobby,
• 14:29
  don't you put that on me, I think.
• 14:30
  My friend's point of view is kind of that's the risk you're
• 14:34
  taking by doing that. And I recognize we're not like
• 14:37
  maybe if we were 20th in the net, coach would be in that
• 14:42
  like, hey, looking at the analysis, like I'd rather now
• 14:44
  rest my stars because it gives them rest and is less risk.
• 14:47
  But you're right, we're not. You don't look at our net and
• 14:50
  say we're in. Yeah.
• 14:51
  I mean, we're right on the bubble right now for an at
• 14:52
  large. We've got to continue to to play
• 14:55
  really good basketball games and beat teams convincingly.
• 14:57
  I mean, so I think I understand why he's doing it.
• 15:00
  I mean, I, you know, I definitely understand the desire
• 15:03
  to see some of the third string play more, but at the same time,
• 15:06
  you know, you got to you got to take advantage of this window
• 15:09
  you have with Maggie and Rachel and Ally so and.
• 15:11
  I think I've also heard the coach say like there is a he's
• 15:13
  trying to develop his bench, but the best way to develop them is
• 15:18
  to have one of his, you know, one of the big three out there
• 15:21
  because they kind of can help coach them and kind of be that
• 15:24
  floor leader versus you put five players out there who don't play
• 15:27
  a lot at all. Like you're just asking for
• 15:29
  coming. Here you saw 5 personal line
• 15:30
  shifts today, which was, I haven't seen that very often
• 15:32
  this year, if if at all. So that was really impressive
• 15:34
  too. He was really trying different
• 15:36
  sets to see if if it would work, so it's all good.
• 15:38
  So the women are actually off the rest of the week, so we
• 15:41
  don't need to do a scout on the women's team.
• 15:43
  But before we worry about scouting the men's team, we do
• 15:47
  need to talk some about that Saint Louis game we saw on
• 15:52
  Saturday where we are kind of on the other side of a blow out.
• 15:58
  It was a beat down, yeah. It was pretty much of A beat
• 15:59
  down before. We start Meta 13 and six, 114
• 16:03
  and Ken Palm 129, Bartorvic 125, team rankings 122, Evan Maya.
• 16:07
  So pretty convincingly in that 110 to 130 range, which is about
• 16:12
  top 33%. Tournament probability on
• 16:16
  Bartorvic is about 2% right now. So that just kind of sets the
• 16:19
  landscape for where we're at. It's not a loss like that.
• 16:22
  While it feels really, really painful, it's not fatal, right?
• 16:24
  It's just, it's just a bad loss. Yeah.
• 16:26
  I. Mean we knew I can to a good
• 16:27
  team. Did we say we had like Saint
• 16:29
  Louis had a 90% chance to win and and you were like, that
• 16:32
  seems too high, but it's. But it's but I don't.
• 16:34
  Think he would have said it was 5050 and one.
• 16:36
  Of our listeners called me out on that church this morning and
• 16:38
  I, you know, I said yes. I was kind of thinking we had a
• 16:40
  better chance than we did. Yeah.
• 16:41
  I mean, the first thing when you watch that game is trying to be
• 16:45
  like objective is like how good Saint Louis is.
• 16:47
  Yeah, they're. A tournament team.
• 16:48
  Like they they're. They're a good tournament team.
• 16:51
  While I think we could all look at parts where our defense could
• 16:53
  have been better, they also made a lot of shots where it looked
• 16:56
  like we were guarding them good and they were just super deep
• 16:59
  and then would hit a three. So it wasn't that they were just
• 17:02
  wide open all day long making all those baskets like they they
• 17:05
  could score while guarded and they didn't miss shots when they
• 17:09
  weren't. And I think if you look at us,
• 17:11
  it's in particular early, we weren't able to make shots when
• 17:14
  we were guarded and we missed shots when we weren't guarded.
• 17:17
  And so and you heard coach, if you saw the post game, he's like
• 17:20
  you've got to score at some reasonable rate to have a chance
• 17:23
  against a team like Saint Louis. And we weren't really hot from.
• 17:26
  Three and. Johnston ended up one for 10 we
• 17:28
  got. To hit, we got to hit the
• 17:29
  threes. Let me give you a stat.
• 17:30
  So Saint Louis was 20 for 31 from 2 pointers.
• 17:33
  And remember we talked about their average distance is 3.7
• 17:36
  feet, one of the best in the nation.
• 17:38
  They take baskets right underneath the basket.
• 17:41
  That's how they think. That's how they shoot the two
• 17:43
  ball, the three balls outside and the long rebounds they're
• 17:45
  good at getting and then immediately cutting to the
• 17:47
  basket scoring. So they they score inside and
• 17:49
  they scored inside against us. We were 14 of 39 from 2.
• 17:53
  If you look at our average distance in that game, it got
• 17:57
  worse. We were already one of the worst
• 17:58
  in the country. We're taking our two pointers
• 17:59
  from an average of I think 6.8 feet now, we're now 7 feet.
• 18:02
  So we we were significantly further than 7 feet out on our
• 18:05
  two points on 2 pointers on average.
• 18:08
  And those just aren't going to be the highest percentage of
• 18:09
  shot. Or I should say they're not
• 18:11
  going to be the the point per possession calculation.
• 18:16
  That's going to be the team like Saint Louis.
• 18:17
  You've got to be either making threes or scoring close twos, I
• 18:20
  think to be the team like Saint Louis.
• 18:23
  The good news is, you know, I think we still have the pieces.
• 18:27
  I mean, you saw the emergence of Will Harper.
• 18:30
  Let's talk about that for a second.
• 18:31
  Like, I mean, Will Harper had himself a day, 17 points, 4
• 18:34
  rebounds and assists to steal. I mean, again, we talked about
• 18:38
  him emerging as another weapon. I think he's now another weapon
• 18:40
  like he is. He's a player.
• 18:42
  You know, it's hard to score 17 points in a college basketball
• 18:45
  game. I don't care who you are as a
• 18:47
  freshman. That's super impressive, right?
• 18:48
  Yeah. So like he's a player and, you
• 18:51
  know, you've got you've got him, you've got Arga Bright, you've
• 18:54
  got Daughtry, you've got time. You've got a lot of
• 18:56
  underclassmen that are going to make significant contribution.
• 18:59
  So that's the good. That's, that's good, yeah.
• 19:01
  You too mentioned time, so I just want to make a point where
• 19:04
  I'm I'm just a little worried right now about time.
• 19:06
  I was really hoping he would step it up this season.
• 19:09
  I'm going to go back to let's go back to Charleston Southern game
• 19:15
  kind of when our, our streak, our kind of losing streak, you
• 19:18
  know, we had two in a row starting them.
• 19:20
  These, these are his point totals, 06010900.
• 19:27
  So he's had a, you know, double digits once.
• 19:30
  He's had four games where he did not score.
• 19:34
  And I'm, you know, he hates it as much as anybody, I'm sure.
• 19:37
  But we can't have a starting point guard go over like 2 out
• 19:41
  of three games. And that that's, that's like,
• 19:44
  and I he'll get out of that slump because his shot just
• 19:47
  hasn't fallen earlier in the year.
• 19:49
  It was shot hasn't. Fallen.
• 19:50
  I mean, I think I mean. When you're over, your shots not
• 19:53
  fallen well. Yeah, or, or you're not taking
• 19:55
  them. I mean, I think like for me, if
• 19:57
  time's going to be the starting point guard, I'd rather make,
• 19:59
  I'd rather see his assist line. I'd like 5 assists, 4 assists, 4
• 20:02
  assists, 5 assists. He.
• 20:03
  Hasn't had five all year so. That that to me would be the
• 20:06
  thing I would say would be a better thing to measure him by
• 20:08
  than the points. But I mean, at the end of the
• 20:10
  day, we have pieces that are that are that are that are
• 20:13
  relevant now relevant in the future.
• 20:15
  I I don't think we're that far away from being a good team.
• 20:18
  I think we, if we make some adjustments, I mean, you got to
• 20:21
  play better defense than we played against Saint Louis.
• 20:22
  It's the the switching thing where we were trying to switch
• 20:25
  everything and then that left walls out on three-point line,
• 20:28
  which is fine. But like it also left, you know,
• 20:30
  tying and Arguebright being backed down the lane by Avila.
• 20:33
  And it's like, you know, you kept hearing the announcer on
• 20:35
  TVC to say this is just bully ball.
• 20:36
  Well, when you got like a six foot 11 center who's probably
• 20:40
  270 lbs backing your 160 LB point guard down the lane, it's
• 20:43
  going to look like bully ball, right?
• 20:45
  And so I think you know that that we have to fix well.
• 20:48
  I'll tell you, I mean what it sounded like from listening to
• 20:51
  Mooney in the post game that like one that was intentional 2
• 20:56
  I think he would say. And I, you know, it's hard to
• 20:58
  look at the data this way, but when, when that happened, those
• 21:02
  were Saint Louis's longest possessions.
• 21:05
  So it was slowing. Them down so.
• 21:07
  It was somehow that was, you know, he and again, that didn't,
• 21:10
  that doesn't mean they didn't score on that possession because
• 21:12
  they were pretty, pretty lethal. But I think the strategy was
• 21:15
  this is how we slowed them down and it might have slowed them
• 21:18
  down a little, but they scored. Like I hear that, I like hearing
• 21:21
  that. I didn't see the post game or
• 21:23
  probably maybe maybe I wouldn't have mentioned the bully ball on
• 21:25
  the backing down the lane. But that being said, like, I
• 21:28
  mean, it sounds like there was a strategy to it and that's good.
• 21:30
  And there's, you know, and, and that sounds like we're using,
• 21:33
  you know, data to make smart decisions about how to how to
• 21:36
  break down team. And that's one of the main
• 21:37
  things I'm asking for is like, ultimately, I think, you know,
• 21:40
  you apply a little bit of advanced analytics to what our
• 21:44
  great coaches do and we'll be even better.
• 21:46
  Like we're good, we'll be even better, right?
• 21:48
  And that's all I'm saying. And so is that that exactly what
• 21:50
  you just said is exactly what I'm looking for.
• 21:52
  It's like, hey, we're slowing their tempo down to try to cut
• 21:55
  their point total. It might not have worked, but
• 21:57
  maybe it was, you know, an execution issue.
• 21:59
  So you just don't know, right? But at the end of the day, it
• 22:01
  was a it was a tough, it was a tough beat because it wasn't
• 22:04
  close. And I think we all know we have
• 22:06
  to go through a Saint Louis in the tournament or go through a
• 22:10
  George Washington and VCU. Let's say we're on the opposite
• 22:12
  side of the bracket. Saint Louis loses, which by the
• 22:14
  way, Saint Louis is going to make the NCAA Tournament,
• 22:16
  people. They're going to make the NCAA
• 22:18
  tournament. If they lose, then A10's getting
• 22:20
  at least two teams. And so like, if we're on the
• 22:22
  opposite of the bracket, they lose to somebody, then we're
• 22:23
  going to have to be the VCU, a George Mason, a George
• 22:26
  Washington, all good teams, right?
• 22:29
  So I think we can still do it. I mean, am I optimistic looking
• 22:32
  at the 2% probability? Probably not optimistic.
• 22:35
  But I'm also coming off a 20 some point loss.
• 22:37
  And so it's hard to be optimistic.
• 22:38
  Well, I mean, so let's look ahead of it.
• 22:40
  So we'll talk some about Rhode Island, who we have this week
• 22:45
  Wednesday at home. After that we are at GW and then
• 22:50
  at VCU. Those are too tough.
• 22:51
  So you look at this Rhode Island game, who's won in four in
• 22:55
  conference, right? They did win on the road at
• 22:58
  Davidson. So they've won a road by 20.
• 23:00
  Five points, by the way. But this is like this almost
• 23:03
  feels like a must win now. Yeah, we could go on the road
• 23:05
  and beat GW or we could beat VCU and all of a sudden, you know,
• 23:08
  feel more optimistic. But we've got a home game.
• 23:11
  We've got to protect homecourt. I know we haven't been great at
• 23:14
  it overall this year. A little on Rhode Island like
• 23:18
  they're 10 and eight one and four in conference they're at
• 23:21
  least as of yesterday they're Bartovic was like 135.
• 23:24
  So they're around where we are. They're. 115 and Ken Palm, we're
• 23:27
  114. Yeah, so.
• 23:28
  They're very close. In Bartorovic, they would.
• 23:31
  Their offense was ranked 221st. Yeah, their defense 74th.
• 23:36
  They're so defensive team, so it's kind of defense for
• 23:38
  offense. They turn.
• 23:39
  You over big time 21% turnover percentage so they turn you over
• 23:42
  that's 11th in the nation they. Were 2.
• 23:45
  They're ranked 298 from 3 so so. They they are, but they take a
• 23:50
  lot of them. So they, they, they're not a
• 23:52
  super effective, they're, they play a little bit like Saint
• 23:53
  Louis. If you look at their average
• 23:55
  distance of two pointers, it's actually really good.
• 23:58
  I think. Let me see if I can get that for
• 24:00
  you real quick. Yeah, they're, they're 60th in
• 24:02
  the nation. That's top 16%.
• 24:04
  So there are top 20%. So 5.1 feet is their average 2
• 24:08
  point distance. So we're much higher than that.
• 24:10
  We're 7 feet. So they're going to be shooting
• 24:12
  close to the basket. They turn you over.
• 24:14
  They have a guard. They.
• 24:15
  Turn it over a lot too though they.
• 24:17
  Do they do they take a lot of threes?
• 24:19
  They miss a lot of threes. So 3 point percentage isn't
• 24:21
  great. They score most of their points
• 24:23
  from 257% of their points come, 58% come from twos.
• 24:26
  That's 39th in the country. Pretty decent 3 point or free
• 24:30
  throw shooting team. 72% not terrible really.
• 24:33
  Defensively is where they shine. Yeah, they're, they're a program
• 24:37
  that's in a little bit of turmoil, I think so.
• 24:39
  They're coached by Archie Miller, who was a player at NC
• 24:42
  State. He coached for Dayton for six
• 24:44
  years, had a great run, then was in the tournament multiple times
• 24:48
  Got a they were in the Elite 8 once got a, you know, sense of
• 24:50
  promotion, went to coach Indiana, was there for four
• 24:54
  years and was not successful at Indiana.
• 24:56
  So he he got was told to leave at some point.
• 25:00
  This is, you know, criticize Indiana that like that's a
• 25:03
  school that everyone says has got a great basketball program,
• 25:06
  but they seem to change coaches every four years or five years
• 25:09
  because they can't figure out how to be a, you know, an NCAA
• 25:12
  champion got a guy who. Who coached football, though?
• 25:15
  Yes, they do. So if you look so he was been
• 25:18
  coach of Rhode Island since 2022.
• 25:21
  So they were 14th his first year, 10th his second year, 10th
• 25:25
  his third year. They're one in four right now.
• 25:28
  He they had to add 8 players to the portal this past year.
• 25:32
  So he hasn't been able to keep players and he's almost had to
• 25:36
  rebuild this team every year he's been there and just going
• 25:39
  through their version of the chat room, there's a lot of
• 25:42
  people are saying like he's done.
• 25:44
  Like if he doesn't turn this thing around, like he's gone
• 25:48
  now. I don't know how true that is
• 25:49
  Internet Internet chat, but that is a team don't make.
• 25:51
  Decisions for. Right, but that is a that is
• 25:53
  also a team. I think he has one year left on
• 25:55
  his deal. So it's all like, hey, can you
• 25:56
  buy out that last year this? This guy, Tyler, what can I tell
• 25:59
  you about Tyler Cochran for a second?
• 26:01
  You can on Ken Palm. I don't know if he's has a 6.3%
• 26:05
  steel percentage just #2 in the nation.
• 26:08
  So he turns people over, like, better than just about anybody
• 26:11
  in the nation, yeah. So this is like, these are the
• 26:13
  players that in some ways I'm glad, not this person in
• 26:16
  particular. But if you look at his track
• 26:18
  record, like this is not what Mooney has been going after
• 26:21
  where he's been on a different team I think every year in his
• 26:25
  college career. So he's kind of a portal hopper.
• 26:29
  He is there, I think second leading scorer, average 12
• 26:31
  points per game. But he came from Minnesota.
• 26:33
  He was at Toledo before that, Ball State before that.
• 26:35
  So he's one of these kind of constant transfers.
• 26:37
  They have a guy I like a lot. At least he's going to be fun to
• 26:40
  watch. His name is, I'm going to try to
• 26:43
  say this, right? His name is Kian IT Sheree and
• 26:48
  he's a transfer from Northern Kentucky by was recruited by
• 26:51
  Marquette. So it was kind of a really high
• 26:53
  recruit. Went to Northern Kentucky, kind
• 26:56
  of learned a lot there last year he was a top 50 shot blocker.
• 26:59
  So this is like a guy inside. He averages 1 1/2 blocks per
• 27:03
  game. And just to give you an example,
• 27:05
  he's got 27 blocks total. Mike Walls leads our team with
• 27:08
  13. OK, so he, they've got a
• 27:11
  defensive guy and he shoots 73% from the field.
• 27:14
  Now he doesn't shoot a lot. So like he when they're on a
• 27:17
  fast break, you will see him dunk the ball.
• 27:20
  And that's why his field goal percentage is so high.
• 27:22
  Like he is a, he is an athlete dunker who could block shots.
• 27:26
  So that's one of those guys that, you know, Walls and
• 27:30
  Beagle, we'll have him. He's 6 foot 9.
• 27:34
  It'll be interesting to see kind of how that matchup is.
• 27:36
  And their best player is Jonah Hinton.
• 27:39
  He was Saint Bonaventure last year, a starter for most of the
• 27:44
  season last year and then transferred to Uri and he's the
• 27:47
  top scorer. And, and one thing that's
• 27:51
  interesting, and we've heard this on U of R when it comes to
• 27:55
  David Thomas, when I was researching Rhode Island, like
• 27:58
  a, a couple of their big transfers of these eight were
• 28:01
  ones that they had recruited out of high school, didn't get out
• 28:04
  of high school. But then when they got on the
• 28:06
  portal, kind of had that connection.
• 28:08
  And we learned that with David Thomas that at some point, like
• 28:10
  he was recruited as a freshman, he didn't come here, but when he
• 28:14
  did eventually get on the portal, kind of, you know, he
• 28:17
  was interested because he had already built some relationship
• 28:20
  with our coaches. So I, I want to learn more.
• 28:22
  Like, is that a very common part of the portal process of, you
• 28:26
  know, you're, you, you spread a wide net when you're recruiting.
• 28:29
  And if you build these relationships, like now those
• 28:31
  relationships can pay off down the road versus, and, you know,
• 28:34
  10 years ago, that relationship was kind of severed if that
• 28:37
  player didn't come to your school.
• 28:39
  Now you always have this opportunity or potentially have
• 28:41
  that opportunity to kind of rekindle that relationship down
• 28:45
  the road. But that's the kind of the Jonah
• 28:46
  Hinton story for sure, where he was you or I recruited
• 28:52
  originally. And then when I guess whatever,
• 28:55
  for whatever reasons, say, Bonaventure wasn't working out
• 28:56
  for him, he kind of reconnected with that staff.
• 29:01
  Can we talk about the 810? Yeah, a little bit.
• 29:05
  So I'm not going to focus on everything, but you and I traded
• 29:08
  some texts on this the other day, like what is going on with
• 29:11
  Saint Bonaventure? So that team, they're O and
• 29:14
  five, you've heard us. Like if you've been following
• 29:17
  this pod, there was a point in time before the season where I
• 29:19
  was like, oh, they got Adrian Rojowski, they got AGM, who's
• 29:22
  like doing all these innovative things to help with their
• 29:24
  roster. And they've got a coach who's
• 29:26
  been around for almost as long as Mooney, 19 years, Mark
• 29:31
  Schmidt, who's kind of well regarded.
• 29:33
  And they like they it just to go back.
• 29:35
  Like I learned through another podcast that like they've almost
• 29:39
  separated church and state where like Wojokowski is the one who
• 29:42
  finds out and negotiates with a player that they're bringing in.
• 29:46
  And Mark Schmidt, the coach doesn't even know what this
• 29:48
  person's making. Like his job is to coach.
• 29:50
  And I remember hearing them like, oh, that's so I love that
• 29:52
  idea. Hey, when do we get AGM?
• 29:54
  Well, it's not working. Well, this is their last few
• 29:57
  years. They're 8:00 and 8:00 and 10:00
• 29:59
  and 8:10, nine and nine. Then they were 9:00 and 9:00.
• 30:01
  So basically a 500 over the last three years.
• 30:04
  They're O and five right now. Now, Wojokowski's only been
• 30:07
  there since September of 2024. This is kind of his first team
• 30:11
  that he helped build. But if you go look at Bartorvic,
• 30:14
  they're saying they're going to go 6 and 12 in conference, which
• 30:17
  implies they're going six and seven the rest of the way.
• 30:20
  So that seems optimistic to me that an O and five team which
• 30:24
  they. Might play loyal twice, you
• 30:25
  know, Yes. They do.
• 30:26
  But look, I mean, they're O and five.
• 30:28
  They played VCU, who's a top team.
• 30:31
  They've played us, Fordham, Saint Joe's and LaSalle.
• 30:34
  So it's not like they've had like this incredibly tough start
• 30:38
  schedule. Saint Joe's is.
• 30:40
  Yeah, Saint Joe's is fine, but the, I mean, but again, they
• 30:43
  haven't played the outside of VCU, who's actually only three
• 30:45
  and two, right? Like they haven't played the
• 30:47
  three undefeated teams in this league yet.
• 30:49
  So they're going to have to play them at least once.
• 30:52
  So anyway, you know, that team's having some trouble.
• 30:56
  They also brought in like a giant class off the portal, just
• 31:01
  like Rhode Island did. And so and it, it made me think
• 31:04
  about the portal some more. And the NCA just put out new
• 31:07
  rules for the portal, which is pretty interesting.
• 31:10
  So tell me. About those let.
• 31:11
  Me guess the kind of little bit of evolution of the portal, all
• 31:14
  of this is really smart to me. So the portal for college
• 31:17
  basketball opens the day after the NCAA championship, prior to
• 31:22
  this upcoming year, and it's effective immediately.
• 31:24
  In prior years, it opened like after the first weekend.
• 31:28
  So what that meant is like if you were a team that advanced,
• 31:31
  like you were both prepping your team for the next game and also
• 31:33
  having to do recruiting of people off the portal.
• 31:37
  And so they've stopped that. So now the port.
• 31:39
  And this is like, when do players put their name in the
• 31:42
  official portal? Like a player could declare
• 31:44
  today that they're leaving. It's not like, you know, you can
• 31:47
  publicly say whatever you want, but the system is now the day
• 31:50
  after the NCAA tournament is the beginning of when that think of
• 31:54
  it as, you know, this, this this big portal website opens up and
• 31:57
  you know, Porter Shomo as a player at University of Richmond
• 32:00
  could put his name in the portal.
• 32:03
  You have 15 days to put your name in the portal.
• 32:06
  So it used to be it started earlier and you had 30 days.
• 32:08
  So now there's basically, you know, 2 day, 2 week roughly
• 32:11
  period of when you put your name in that portal.
• 32:15
  Now, obviously recruiting starts right from the beginning and it
• 32:18
  doesn't end after those 14 days. I was looking at last year and
• 32:21
  we've had, we had a variety of players at some kind of
• 32:25
  committed during April, but AJ wasn't until May.
• 32:28
  But anyway, so April 7th is when the portal opens.
• 32:30
  So that's a later date than before.
• 32:33
  You got two weeks after that. So what that means like it gives
• 32:37
  you more time to talk to your existing roster and figure that
• 32:41
  out. Now if you're in the tournament,
• 32:43
  like obviously you're still balancing that.
• 32:45
  But if I'm going to go out on a limb and say that our men's team
• 32:49
  is not in the NCAA tournament. OK, odds are in your favor on
• 32:53
  that. And so if that's the case, like
• 32:55
  that entire length of the tournament, our season's over.
• 32:58
  And that's like, I would assume is the time the coach is now
• 33:02
  focusing on working with his current players and going
• 33:06
  through the process of getting them to where he wants to resign
• 33:12
  or he'll know that, hey, I'm losing this player.
• 33:14
  So when we get to the portal, I have to replace that sort of
• 33:17
  position or talent. And so go we'll we'll learn more
• 33:23
  and talk about the portal. Obviously, we've got a little
• 33:25
  bit of time for that. But it does like beg like the
• 33:29
  question like I don't, I don't want to turn into at least right
• 33:32
  now, what's Rhode Island and St. Bonavcture had to do was like
• 33:35
  bring in eight new players every year.
• 33:38
  And we do have Moody. 'S actually been pretty
• 33:39
  masterful at keeping his cord, yeah.
• 33:41
  That's right. I give him credit for that.
• 33:42
  We we've got 11 players who are, you know, have more eligibility
• 33:47
  left. Yeah.
• 33:50
  And we know we're graduating our kind of two headed monster
• 33:54
  center. And and like, I hope Dylan
• 33:57
  Hominek turns into a great Center for us, but he'll be a
• 33:59
  freshman red shirt freshman this year.
• 34:01
  So we know we need to bring in some some.
• 34:03
  And we've got 3 freshmen, 3 future freshmen play high school
• 34:08
  or class of 2026. And there's two forwards.
• 34:10
  There's not a center in that class We're going.
• 34:13
  To need a, we're going to need a big man for sure, because like,
• 34:15
  you know, hominick's going to be good.
• 34:16
  I really, I've watched him practice.
• 34:18
  I think he's, like I said, he looks confident.
• 34:20
  He's big. I mean, he's got the body of a
• 34:21
  big man that's ready to play right now.
• 34:23
  He's strong. He's tall, but, you know, any
• 34:25
  freshman coming into college basketball is going to have a
• 34:27
  rough, a rough go of it. And so it's like, you know, you
• 34:29
  definitely want somebody else there to help help mentor him
• 34:32
  along and help him, you know, make that adjustment right.
• 34:34
  And, you know, it's not going to happen, but how great would it
• 34:37
  be to be fly on the wall from April 7th through whatever, or
• 34:42
  actually even before that from let's say, 2 weeks before that
• 34:45
  through the end of April, where, you know, Coach Mooney will be
• 34:50
  with his players, nailing down who's coming back, then working
• 34:54
  through the portal. And we know money's involved in
• 34:56
  all of this, but that understandably so.
• 34:59
  Like there's a competitive piece to, until there are rules that
• 35:02
  like require everybody to disclose everything, no one's
• 35:05
  disclosing anything. Yeah.
• 35:06
  And even Moody I, so I didn't see the press conference after
• 35:08
  the Saint Louis game, but I did see that I was there.
• 35:10
  I was there on Friday when he and Resell did their press
• 35:12
  conference. And he even talked about there's
• 35:14
  not very much transparency in the process.
• 35:17
  And so like we're in this time where there's great change to
• 35:21
  happening in college basketball and, you know, we have to figure
• 35:25
  out a way to capitalize on that change as we.
• 35:27
  Mentioned we got a men's game the middle of the week at home.
• 35:29
  Hope to see you at the Robbins Center against Rhode Island.
• 35:31
  The women are off. If we're lucky, we'll get a
• 35:34
  guest for our midweek episode to talk about the weekend games.
• 35:39
  If not, you'll just have to listen to the two of us again.
• 35:42
  But until next time, this is Tom and this.
• 35:44
  Is Porter, and this is. Spider sounding off.