Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Richmond Spiders Sweep New York | Wins at St. Bonaventure & Fordham | A-10 Breakdown – Ep. 35

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Richmond Spiders Sweep New York | Wins at St. Bonaventure & Fordham | A-10 Breakdown – Ep. 35 · Spiders Sound Off

• 0:06
  Everybody, welcome back to Spider.
• 0:09
  Sound off. This is Tom.
• 0:11
  And this is Porter. We are here at episode 35 you.
• 0:14
  Believe we've done 35 of these. It's pretty incredible,
• 0:17
  actually. And I can't believe I wonder if
• 0:19
  there's anyone besides us who has listened to all 35, I think.
• 0:23
  We might have a few. If anyone has the data doesn't
• 0:25
  really give us individual data. If you have, thank you very
• 0:28
  much. You might need another hobby.
• 0:30
  Thanks, no. No, no.
• 0:33
  But I appreciate. It man, we love them.
• 0:35
  And here's the thing, thank you guys for those folks who came up
• 0:37
  to us at the ladies game yesterday and said hi, We really
• 0:39
  appreciate talking to all of the listeners.
• 0:41
  It's a, it's a, it's a benefit that I really wasn't expecting
• 0:44
  to be so important to me, but it is.
• 0:45
  So I really, I really enjoy having the listeners.
• 0:48
  Well, if you if you haven't learned this already over our 34
• 0:51
  episodes, you know Porter spent his life in sales, so he needs
• 0:54
  that affirmation. I do honey positive positive.
• 0:57
  Reinforce kind of part of what made him successful and also
• 1:01
  drives me crazy sometimes. But I'm I'm the finance
• 1:03
  accountant guy. So I'm more the grumpy, you
• 1:06
  know, Show me the numbers. I had to give my numbers to my
• 1:09
  CFOI got cash that every spider sound off episode.
• 1:14
  That's right. OK, So we're going to start off
• 1:15
  and talk about, and it's great to have another episode we can
• 1:18
  talk about wins, both teams. New York not been good to us,
• 1:22
  Yeah. That's four straight wins
• 1:23
  against New York opponents. We are undefeated in 2026 still.
• 1:28
  Yes, and. That's huge of Richmond owns New
• 1:30
  York. Yes, we do.
• 1:31
  We'll start talking about the men's big victory at Saint
• 1:35
  Bonaventure, 89 to 80. It's the first time we won there
• 1:38
  since 2015. That was a impressive,
• 1:42
  impressive win. That's our second best win of
• 1:44
  the year behind Belmont. Yeah.
• 1:46
  And we don't play there every year.
• 1:48
  So I think we went had a six game losing streak at Saint
• 1:51
  Bonaventure and we pretty much led the entire game.
• 1:54
  I think in the first like 2 minutes there were a couple lead
• 1:57
  changes and then we led the entire game.
• 1:59
  Not that it was a blowout. I mean, there was always, we
• 2:02
  always had to keep playing hard because they were, they were
• 2:04
  ready to come back on us if we didn't.
• 2:07
  But we played great and and you could tell from some of the post
• 2:10
  game videos like that team was pretty happy after coming,
• 2:14
  getting on the road and and winning their second game in a
• 2:17
  row. First thing I'll say is to the
• 2:19
  coaching staff, that was, I think, one of your best coaching
• 2:22
  performances of the year. You guys had this team prepared
• 2:26
  to play. I thought we were the better
• 2:28
  team. You had the better scout.
• 2:30
  Whoever did the scout, mad props to you.
• 2:32
  That was awesome. Great game plan.
• 2:35
  It feels like the team might have even bonded a little bit on
• 2:38
  the road trip in New York. The team just seemed to be more
• 2:41
  and more playing for each other. So the first first thing is to
• 2:45
  tip our hats to the coaches. Here's a question Should we rest
• 2:47
  Johnson the entire first half and then just have him be 100%
• 2:52
  fresh for the second two games in a row?
• 2:54
  He. 24 points in the second-half of this game.
• 2:56
  And he had 20 the game before. And obviously we need Johnson in
• 3:00
  the first half too because he can really run the offense well,
• 3:03
  but it is funny to watch him just explode two games in a row
• 3:06
  in the second-half. Second-half, and I give him
• 3:08
  credit, he played a great game in the first half.
• 3:10
  I thought there were a lot of individual plays that led to an
• 3:14
  overall great team effort. Like I was just kind of going
• 3:17
  through my notes. Ruma Glue had a had a fiery
• 3:20
  block. I thought, you know, early on
• 3:23
  Tanner looked really good. He had a sweet three followed up
• 3:26
  with a quick two. Maybe his best overall half this
• 3:29
  year, the first half of that game, Lopez.
• 3:32
  Let's talk about Lopez for a second.
• 3:33
  Lopez is just a massive, massive offensive weapon for this team
• 3:38
  and he scores at all three levels.
• 3:39
  He takes you to the hoop. He has a mid range game.
• 3:41
  He can hit the three. He's now #8 overall in the
• 3:46
  Atlantic, 10 in offensive performance rating according to
• 3:50
  Bartorvic, Only Spider in the top 10.
• 3:53
  By the way, Saint Louis has four of the top ten players in
• 3:55
  offensive rating on Bartorvic. The one thing I'll say too, with
• 3:59
  AJ, it's like it seems him and Johnston work so well together
• 4:03
  and they obviously just started playing in what, June?
• 4:07
  You know, they were, you know, one was West Coast, one was
• 4:09
  Upper East Coast. But those two together on the
• 4:12
  court, they're, they're really good together.
• 4:15
  Yeah, it might be just a it might be a good time to to to
• 4:18
  just delve into a couple changes in the advanced stats that I was
• 4:21
  going to tell you about today. Just a few seconds on it.
• 4:24
  So you. Know what?
• 4:25
  Did anyone get taller? We we are still.
• 4:30
  Keep going. I'm sorry.
• 4:30
  Go ahead. So anyway, we are, we are
• 4:32
  looking at a couple different sites.
• 4:34
  We look at Evan Maya, we look at Bartorvic, we look at Ken Palm,
• 4:37
  just to kind of get a sense for what the advanced stats.
• 4:39
  Are we being Porter? We being me, right?
• 4:42
  So according to Bartorvic, the best player in overall
• 4:48
  efficiency on the on the entire team is AJ Lopez with a
• 4:52
  three-point OPRPG exclamation point.
• 4:55
  That's the replacement player metric we give for the ladies a
• 4:57
  lot #2 is Will Johnston. So to back up what you just
• 5:00
  said, one and two, according to Bartorvic, are those guys number
• 5:03
  three, Aiden Argebrite, if you go to Evan Maya, which looks at
• 5:07
  overall offensive deficiency and efficiency is defined by what's
• 5:11
  the game scenario? Who are they playing against in
• 5:13
  that that moment? The quality of the player
• 5:15
  they're playing against and what happens in those minutes that
• 5:17
  they're in? Daughtry is number 1.
• 5:19
  So they go back to the coaches saying we have even the
• 5:21
  distribution of talent. Daughtry's number one, Mike
• 5:23
  Walls has moved to #2 we'll talk about Walls here in a minute,
• 5:27
  overall efficiency and argue brights #3 on that list.
• 5:29
  So I mean, just interesting, interesting roster like it.
• 5:33
  A lot of ingredients. And if we can make it all come
• 5:35
  together at tournament time, we could be like I've been saying,
• 5:40
  we're an interesting team to watch.
• 5:41
  We can make some noise. And I think if you go back and
• 5:44
  listen to our practice, first practice episode, maybe it was
• 5:48
  the second one, I think you'll hear me making some comment
• 5:51
  about like, I can just see Johnston taking the ball and
• 5:54
  then finding AJ on a fast break and him finishing because those
• 5:59
  guys I like, those two are great.
• 6:00
  I mean, they, they've become, and again, the season still has
• 6:03
  a lot of games to be played. This, this team will continue to
• 6:05
  evolve. But those two are clearly of our
• 6:08
  top 2 consistent scorers. You know, Daughtry had a rough
• 6:14
  night at Saint Bonaventure. And that's part part of the
• 6:16
  beauty of this team right now is you can have someone have a
• 6:20
  rough night and it doesn't kind of shake the foundation kind of
• 6:23
  you've got enough players, you can come in, You know, he he's
• 6:27
  had a great, he had a great day at Fordham.
• 6:28
  So yeah. He only played 12 minutes.
• 6:30
  I mean, he's kind of, he was kind of like restricted.
• 6:32
  I think the matchups were just, it wasn't the right matchup for
• 6:35
  him. So I think the coaches wisely
• 6:36
  and that's go that goes back to the game plan.
• 6:38
  I mean, they adjusted the game plan on the fly and they were
• 6:41
  going with what was working. And I mean, I give it credit
• 6:43
  because like when anytime you have a win that that's that
• 6:45
  convincing, it's just a really impressive win.
• 6:48
  There's no, there's no two ways around.
• 6:49
  It and you mentioned Walls and he had 10 rebounds, so that was
• 6:53
  that was super great to see. Interesting thing about walls.
• 6:55
  Let me let me give him some props for a second.
• 6:57
  So second game in a row he's played a great game and he's
• 7:01
  done it in different ways. The first game when he showed
• 7:03
  Elite 3 point shooting, which really gave us a a spark against
• 7:06
  Fordham. This game really played a strong
• 7:10
  defensive game, you know, especially keeping Frank
• 7:12
  Mitchell away from the block. Really good effort to keep
• 7:15
  Mitchell, you know, subdued. Great rebounding game for him.
• 7:19
  And there were two moves that Walls had.
• 7:21
  One was a pump fake where he could have taken the three.
• 7:23
  Instead he went around this guy who bought who bought the pump
• 7:25
  fake and went right to the rim and another play in the first
• 7:28
  half where he went right to the rim.
• 7:30
  It was a fantastic game for Mike Walls.
• 7:32
  Fantastic game, aggressive, strong rebounding effort.
• 7:37
  Loved it through and through. I give Mike props for that game.
• 7:40
  That was that was I was. I was delighted to see him play
• 7:44
  a different way in a different way with high effectiveness for
• 7:47
  sure. Yeah, we we've joked a lot
• 7:49
  about, you know, his three-point shooting versus his rebounding.
• 7:52
  What's more important? Like it's great that he's can do
• 7:55
  both and he doesn't have to do both all at once.
• 7:57
  They'll be some games where we need his outside shot more and
• 8:00
  then they'll be games where we need him to get the double digit
• 8:02
  rebounds and he's shown he could do both.
• 8:04
  And I think the efficiency ratings are reflecting that.
• 8:07
  He's now, like I said #2 on the on the team and overall
• 8:09
  efficiency. So he's moving up as the senior
• 8:12
  captain. We expect that to happen.
• 8:14
  And it's great to see him playing at a high level.
• 8:17
  By the way, overall in Atlantic 10 play right now, conference
• 8:20
  only statistics, we are the number one ranked offense
• 8:23
  according to Ken Palm in the Atlantic 10.
• 8:24
  So that's exciting too. So you're seeing some really
• 8:26
  cool stuff. Defense, not so much.
• 8:28
  We got that George Washington thing still lingering in the
• 8:30
  stats. But offense, we we're showing a
• 8:33
  very, very accomplished and good offense in the United Temple.
• 8:36
  So if I looked it up correct, I think we're one O 9 now in the
• 8:39
  net. By the way, Bartorvic has us
• 8:42
  with a 4% chance of winning the A10 tournament.
• 8:44
  That's actually not great, but it's still much higher than it
• 8:46
  was. Yeah, it was 1% the last time
• 8:48
  we're moving. We're moving in the right
• 8:49
  direction with each of these impressive performances.
• 8:52
  Beating Saint Bonaventure on the road is a very good result and
• 8:56
  it's the result that we'll build confidence and it's the result
• 9:00
  that's I think it's going to lead to this team, you know,
• 9:02
  building and doing even better things.
• 9:04
  Yeah, and we'll preview the Saint Joe's game a bit later,
• 9:06
  but we do too. We have two home games in a row,
• 9:08
  Saint Joe's and then LaSalle and those are the bottom team,
• 9:11
  certainly bottom half teams in the A10 right now.
• 9:13
  So those are home games we got to win.
• 9:16
  And then can I? Get road trip I take I take
• 9:18
  random notes on my phone when I'm watching these games and I
• 9:20
  like to just kind of like remind myself when I want to say
• 9:23
  something. A couple things I want to call
• 9:24
  out. First of all, Tyne had a big
• 9:26
  three at the 143 mark in the first half that stopped 2
• 9:29
  consecutive 3 pointers really cut the momentum.
• 9:32
  Saint Bonaventure was was threatening to carry into the
• 9:34
  halftime. So I give time props for that.
• 9:37
  The block call against Jalen Robinson, who who stepped in
• 9:41
  front of the freight train. That is Mitchell, right?
• 9:45
  I mean, literally one of the worst calls I've seen all year
• 9:49
  and shame on the ref for making it and shame on the announcer on
• 9:52
  whatever broadcast I was watching for trying to defend
• 9:55
  it. You know, it was it was a
• 9:56
  terrible call. Robinson had his feet set.
• 9:59
  Robinson carry carried the brunt of the 280 LB collision coming
• 10:02
  into him and just a bad, bad call.
• 10:04
  So I'm going to throw that out there.
• 10:07
  I would say one other thing. Our bench 28 to 9 outscored
• 10:11
  them. We have 85 minutes played by our
• 10:13
  bench to 38 for theirs. All 5 starters had a steal.
• 10:16
  Just again, overall really good effort.
• 10:19
  Great Great job by the players, great job by the coaches.
• 10:21
  Super excited for the team. Yeah, I mean, two Rd. wins in a
• 10:24
  row, we've got six more Rd. games to go, but.
• 10:27
  Get your attention. Starting off on the right foot.
• 10:30
  Positive. Definitely a positive January.
• 10:32
  Before we talk about our other big win against New York, the
• 10:35
  women's home win against Fordham, like just a little bit
• 10:38
  of men's A10 update, we talked about that big game that was
• 10:41
  happening downtown here in Richmond with Saint Louis
• 10:44
  visiting VCU, a place where they haven't won before.
• 10:48
  Saint Louis did win. They're now 14 and 1 and it was
• 10:52
  a close game but not super close St.
• 10:56
  Louis is. Good.
• 10:56
  Saint Louis is good. So they're 33 Bartovic right
• 11:01
  now. I was looking at our schedule.
• 11:03
  So VCU is on the Bartovic is 64 and GW is 69.
• 11:08
  We play them all on the road later this month.
• 11:10
  So I mentioned we have those two home games coming up.
• 11:13
  Then three out of four games will be on the road, including
• 11:16
  Saint Louis, VCU and GW and GW obviously we already played at
• 11:20
  home. So we've we've got a couple
• 11:23
  games coming up that hopefully, you know, continue our, you
• 11:26
  know, building our confidence and getting our, our our
• 11:30
  rotations kind of in in the right spot and everyone, you
• 11:34
  know, being able to do a little bit more.
• 11:36
  Like we said, you know, walls, probably one of those games is
• 11:38
  10 rebounds and another hit some threes, but get this thing
• 11:41
  continue to roll. So we go on the road.
• 11:44
  We have a chance of winning some of those super tough Rd. games.
• 11:47
  I mean like you, you, you know, whether or not you are super
• 11:51
  excited about one O 9 or one O 7 or whatever the number is in the
• 11:54
  in the rankings. You got to admit this men's team
• 11:56
  is fun to watch. They are exciting to watch.
• 11:58
  A different player seems to emerge every game.
• 12:02
  And yeah, CTV. Yeah.
• 12:04
  And we'll see how when we, you know, we'll preview all those
• 12:07
  Rd. games probably in a week from now because it'll be much
• 12:09
  closer. But those are potentially 3 Quad
• 12:12
  one games. Quad 1.
• 12:15
  You don't, you know, having three of those out of four games
• 12:17
  and all A10 games. I don't know if that's ever
• 12:20
  happened to us before. But anyway, before we talk about
• 12:23
  the women's, I do want to preview.
• 12:25
  We're going to do a little experimenting here with you
• 12:27
  guys. My wife found the Terry's
• 12:31
  chocolate, Terry's chocolate, Terry's chocolate orange.
• 12:34
  That was that Orlando tournament, yes.
• 12:35
  Terry's chocolate we. Didn't know what it.
• 12:38
  Was the men team played in Orlando?
• 12:40
  So as Porter starts talking about the Fordham game, I'm
• 12:45
  going to crack this thing open and try one of these orange
• 12:48
  slices and then I'm going to Force One on Porter later that
• 12:50
  looks I'll chew off microphone. But if you're watching this on
• 12:54
  YouTube, I'll try to show some of this.
• 12:56
  I don't know if I want. Your fingers on my chocolate.
• 12:59
  So let me make sure I touch my. See, it's just a little slice.
• 13:02
  See. Get a little slice of this
• 13:03
  orange, but go ahead, I'll hit that later.
• 13:05
  Tell us about Fordham. So you and I were both there
• 13:08
  last night in the Robin Center. Great effort.
• 13:10
  So a couple things. Fordham was without Alexis
• 13:12
  Black. I didn't get the story as to why
• 13:14
  she didn't play. Was it a coach's decision?
• 13:15
  Was it an injury? I have no idea.
• 13:17
  But that's their best player. Fordham came out with an
• 13:20
  unusually high, high amount of energy, not unusually, like I
• 13:24
  haven't seen them play a ton this year, but like they were as
• 13:26
  active as anything we've seen play this year.
• 13:28
  They were, they were aggressive. It's a very, very physical game.
• 13:31
  You know, I didn't think the rest did a bad job in the game.
• 13:35
  But with physical games, what you find is if they if they let
• 13:38
  them play, which I thought there was a lot of letting them play
• 13:40
  yesterday, what happens is I think it benefits the team that
• 13:44
  has less, less talent. And I think, you know, letting
• 13:46
  them play benefited for them yesterday.
• 13:48
  That's the way I would describe. I would say, and this is not a
• 13:50
  criticism by the way, that you're going to see me if you're
• 13:53
  watching on video, have another one of these chocolate slices.
• 13:55
  They're pretty darn good. But I will say that overall my
• 14:00
  life of watching U of R basketball and watching a lot
• 14:03
  more men's games than women. So I can't speak to pre Aaron
• 14:06
  Rousselle coaching side. I would say in most cases if the
• 14:10
  refs let the players play, it's to Richmond's disadvantage.
• 14:14
  I don't think we are typically the physical, rough and tough
• 14:17
  team. So actually as a fan, I love it
• 14:20
  when they let them play and the game's not getting stopped by
• 14:23
  whistles all over them. But I think usually that's
• 14:25
  doesn't help us. Right.
• 14:27
  I think I think that that's kind of the way it felt watching that
• 14:29
  game. Fordham was up 16 to 14 after
• 14:32
  the first quarter. That caught us off guard.
• 14:33
  It was a chaotic last couple of minutes in Q1 which led to that
• 14:36
  deficit. A lot of early turnovers.
• 14:38
  Yeah, 2 turnovers right to start the game in in the second
• 14:41
  quarter. Can I just so it was coach, I
• 14:43
  saw some of the post game, the coach talking about it and he,
• 14:48
  you know, pretty much said like we've got a problem right now
• 14:51
  with early game turnovers that we need to fix.
• 14:53
  OK. So I think he's seen it enough.
• 14:55
  He goes, that's an issue. You know, it's not that they're
• 14:59
  not working on it, it's just whatever they're working on, it
• 15:01
  hasn't happened in the game yet. So he knows that that's an area
• 15:05
  that they have to improve. Obviously, we got aspirations of
• 15:08
  of more than just having a good record.
• 15:11
  So hopefully we see some of that improvement over the next month.
• 15:14
  Here are the notes I took for the second quarter with a good
• 15:16
  run in the second quarter, Dewey got hot from three again.
• 15:19
  She's starting to really emerge as a weapon for us.
• 15:21
  But from behind the line. I was I wrote that I was
• 15:24
  impressed with Rayne Wright's defense.
• 15:25
  You and I were pretty close to watching her.
• 15:27
  She was on our side of the court.
• 15:28
  And I mean, she's long, she's athletic, she's she's fast when
• 15:32
  she needs to be. And she is that Katie Hill like
• 15:35
  defender. I think that's going to cause
• 15:37
  problems in the future for teams.
• 15:38
  So I give her props. I'm going to give you a hot take
• 15:41
  and maybe it's not that have a much of A hot take, but I'm
• 15:43
  going to say Rayne Wright starts for this team next year.
• 15:45
  I think she's a starter just from her from her length on the
• 15:48
  perimeter. I think she'll be a defensive
• 15:50
  starter for us. I think overall the second
• 15:54
  quarter was a good quarter. We had three players score.
• 15:58
  They took, as you told me during the game, 22 of our 27 shots.
• 16:01
  Only three players scored in the first half, all in double
• 16:04
  figures. Yes.
• 16:05
  So they all all scored great, but it was an odd, it wasn't an
• 16:08
  odd outcome, Yeah. And it was, you know, 1 1/2 time
• 16:11
  with the lead, but, you know, closer than I think we were
• 16:13
  expecting it to be, especially given that their best player
• 16:15
  wasn't wasn't in the game. Yeah, but again, hats off the
• 16:18
  Fordo, man. They played a really good
• 16:20
  physical, aggressive game. The whole game felt a little bit
• 16:22
  like that Alabama A&M game, like they just were trying to muscle
• 16:25
  us up, you know, the whole game, starting the third, we had a
• 16:29
  brilliant 10 zero run and that really changed the dynamic of
• 16:33
  the game. The third quarter I thought was
• 16:35
  highlighted by the Alicia Newell Steel where she stole the
• 16:38
  inbound pass and as she's jumping out of bounds with the
• 16:41
  ball, she she finally heaved the ball over her head back towards
• 16:46
  the middle of the court, realizing there were two girls
• 16:48
  around her on the other team. Which means the odds were four
• 16:51
  to three in our favor that one of our girls was going to catch
• 16:53
  the ball, which is just again, great heads up awareness.
• 16:56
  Rachel did catch it quickly passed to Maggie for a quick two
• 16:58
  points. I think the reason I obsess
• 17:01
  about Newell so much on this show is just how dramatically
• 17:05
  she can swift the moment. She can change the momentum of
• 17:08
  the game with a Swift turnover, Swift steal, right?
• 17:12
  She gets it. Boom, you're almost looking
• 17:13
  ready, Not even ready for the play, for the defense to get in
• 17:16
  their set. Neil has the ball and she's gone
• 17:17
  the other way for a quick layup. Yeah.
• 17:19
  The the one thing I will say, and this is, this is the
• 17:22
  compliment. It's going to I guess a
• 17:23
  backhanded compliment like she is so important to us because of
• 17:27
  everything you just said. I would assess that she is
• 17:30
  average to below average in the read and react offensive scheme
• 17:34
  that we have. And so I say that because she's
• 17:37
  only been getting a lot of minutes for whatever 18 games,
• 17:42
  17 games a little bit last year. So like she's got lots of room
• 17:46
  to improve. So we're seeing like I.
• 17:48
  Don't. I don't think in two years from
• 17:49
  now her defense is going to be twice as good as it is, but I
• 17:53
  think her offense could be twice as good.
• 17:55
  There's lots of opportunity there.
• 17:57
  There was a part in that game that get to give her credit
• 17:59
  where and this is where like the more we see this, the more we
• 18:02
  can be an elite team where she is just a half court offense.
• 18:05
  She drove and then stopped and kicked it out to Rachel in the
• 18:09
  corner for a three. Like the more we get that, the
• 18:11
  better. A lot of times I think you're
• 18:13
  I'm used to when she drives like she's going to the basket, but
• 18:16
  she's getting better at now the other teams are recognizing that
• 18:20
  and she's got to start kicking it out to open shooters a
• 18:23
  couple. Things Newell's now number two
• 18:25
  in the 810 and steel percentage, according to Bartorvik.
• 18:28
  She did get injured in that third quarter.
• 18:30
  Let's hope that injury is mine or we definitely are going to
• 18:32
  need her against Davidson. Coach wasn't worried about it
• 18:34
  after the game, but he didn't have, you know all, you know,
• 18:37
  100% of medical information yet. Maggie, we were on triple double
• 18:40
  watch you and I were talking about it during the game. 1810
• 18:43
  and six with along with two blocks.
• 18:45
  SO4 assists short this time. Rachel unbelievable game, 27.6
• 18:49
  rebounds, 2 steals. I'll tell you what I what I love
• 18:52
  the most about Rachel's game in, in that particular moment was
• 18:56
  that she was 5 for 8 from 2 points.
• 18:59
  So I'm we've had games where she's like 7 for eight from
• 19:02
  three or she's 5 or 6 from three and through foul shots gets 20
• 19:06
  points. But this is a game where she was
• 19:08
  doing a lot inside ABS she hit, she hit threes as well.
• 19:12
  She had 27 points, you know, only had 10 from 2 in the total.
• 19:16
  But anyway, it was great to see that her game wasn't just a
• 19:19
  three-point game. Tiara Simon starting to show, I
• 19:22
  think, elite vision. She had three assists, some of
• 19:24
  her passes like our next level passes where she sees the
• 19:27
  cutter, she passes across the top of the defense, hits the
• 19:30
  cutter. I'm really impressed by her
• 19:31
  passing and and now she's 3 for her last four from three-point
• 19:34
  land so. And I do think too, I mean,
• 19:35
  that's it doesn't surprise me. Like you look in hindsight, like
• 19:39
  we didn't know what skills she brought to the table.
• 19:41
  We didn't watch her a lot last year.
• 19:42
  But you know, you got to get used to this offense and get
• 19:45
  used to how we're doing things. And she after she is, after all,
• 19:48
  at a conference schedule, she's she's.
• 19:50
  Certainly evolving the offense, absolutely, and she's getting
• 19:52
  more confident in it and that's leading to good things for the
• 19:54
  team. Everyone got in in this game.
• 19:56
  I I want to give a shout out to Anisha Scott.
• 19:58
  She had a really nice assistant, Campbell in the second-half and
• 20:02
  in general, I wrote Anisha Scott shows off an impressive handle,
• 20:04
  meaning she's just a good ball handler and I think that has a
• 20:07
  lot of value on this team. Yeah, Coach mentioned in the
• 20:09
  post game. Obviously this game got to a
• 20:12
  point where we could play all those players, but intent of
• 20:15
  we've got to get more from our bench as the season goes on.
• 20:18
  So it's like, how does he do that by, you know, giving these
• 20:21
  younger players more Porter's, Porter's.
• 20:24
  Going through shock so I'm done with my recap of Fordham.
• 20:26
  I want to just, you know, Porter mentioned it, but a couple of
• 20:29
  interesting things. So Sam, where the three pointer
• 20:32
  is becoming two games in a row kind of that's a a new weapon
• 20:34
  for us. So I think that could be really
• 20:38
  exciting. We get at 4th player who can hit
• 20:40
  threes or just opens up things more for Maggie and maybe more
• 20:43
  for Rachel inside, as we saw yesterday.
• 20:46
  It's interesting too, a little bit of like walls two games ago,
• 20:48
  like she's been early on that 3 point threat.
• 20:53
  And so I don't I in some ways we'll see what it'll be
• 20:56
  interesting to see how that scattering report changes for
• 20:59
  the other teams over. The next chocolate's good, you
• 21:01
  know. So there's going to be, it'll be
• 21:04
  again. So we'll see what changes on
• 21:05
  that. Post game they had Rachel on to
• 21:09
  talk 'cause obviously she had that great game with 27 points.
• 21:11
  They asked her about Sam and being more of a weapon and just
• 21:15
  these are all interesting things.
• 21:16
  If if you've heard it directly, it's more interesting to hear it
• 21:19
  from me. But Rachel was like, oh, I
• 21:20
  played with Sam and AAU. So like she she so obviously Sam
• 21:25
  didn't come to Richmond initially.
• 21:27
  She transferred here from, or I think from Illinois.
• 21:30
  But anyways, it's just interesting how these players
• 21:32
  knew each other back in their high school days.
• 21:35
  The one thing that did hurt us, and a coach talked about it like
• 21:38
  the and it's a little bit to Fordham's aggressiveness.
• 21:41
  At some point they started pressing us.
• 21:42
  Yeah, the press was and we had some trouble.
• 21:45
  So I think that's something also that I think, you know, Coach
• 21:48
  talked about that they're going to keep working on.
• 21:50
  It hasn't typically given us trouble.
• 21:52
  That was also a point where Newell was hurt.
• 21:54
  So we had one last person who could, you know, help beat the
• 21:58
  press. But anyway, so something that if
• 22:00
  if you looked at that game and said like where do we need to
• 22:02
  work, it's because early turnovers and getting better
• 22:05
  when someone's really doing that full court pressure.
• 22:07
  On us real quick, just to give you guys an update on some of
• 22:10
  the ladies advanced stats going back to Bartorovic for the PRPG
• 22:14
  stat which is the replacement player value.
• 22:16
  It's one metric that says how valuable they are to the team.
• 22:19
  Maggie Dugan still number one in the a 10, number three in the
• 22:22
  nation, I think could all go and Sarah stronger ahead of her.
• 22:27
  Rachel moved up to #4 in the A10, all A10 first team.
• 22:30
  So there you go. She's she's playing like an all
• 22:32
  A10 first teamer for the course of the season.
• 22:35
  Ali moved jumped from 13 to 10 after that game and Alicia
• 22:38
  Newell is now ranked 24 in the A10 in PRPG.
• 22:42
  Sam Dewey sitting at 26 with a very positive value.
• 22:45
  So that's like pretty fun to see.
• 22:48
  You got five players in the top 26 in the A10 now, which is
• 22:51
  right where you want to be as you as you evolve the season.
• 22:53
  Yep. OK.
• 22:54
  So in terms of where these teams are going, the women certainly
• 22:59
  have a, on paper, a bigger test than the men do.
• 23:02
  Coming up, we both are home. So the women are home against
• 23:07
  Davidson on Saturday at 6:00 PM. The men are home on Sunday and
• 23:11
  interest a noon game, which is going to be in the USA Network.
• 23:15
  So I think that's why it's a early day and a Sunday game.
• 23:18
  Get nationally televised. But anyway, Porter, you want to
• 23:21
  give us a little preview of the Davidson team?
• 23:23
  Yeah, so the the Davidson game, let's talk about it for a
• 23:26
  second. Very, very, very important game.
• 23:31
  I don't usually say that when you're 17 games into the season,
• 23:33
  but this team, our team needs to start getting some notable wins.
• 23:39
  We need a we need a quad 1, quad two win.
• 23:41
  This is this is one of five, Quad 1, quad 2.
• 23:43
  Actually all five games left are quad two games, so a chance for
• 23:47
  some significant wins. Davidson at home is quad 2.
• 23:51
  Davidson on the road is quad 2. Davidson on the road could move
• 23:55
  to quad one if they move up aggressively, but right now it's
• 23:57
  not. We also play Rhode Island at
• 24:01
  home, which is quad 2, Saint Joe's on the road which is quad
• 24:05
  2 and George Mason twice, which are both quad 2.
• 24:09
  So or at least one of them to quad 2.
• 24:11
  So those are our those are our chances for big wins.
• 24:13
  OK Davidson right now is ranked #52 in the net worth 48.
• 24:17
  So a very even game coming in. And so if you want an at large
• 24:22
  bid and and you could this team can easily make the eights in
• 24:24
  tournament by or can easily make the instability turn about
• 24:27
  winning the A10. We have the talent to do that.
• 24:29
  We probably are going to be one of the favorites to do that.
• 24:32
  But it's so much nicer to have two different ways to get in the
• 24:35
  tournaments. And that's I can't stress enough
• 24:36
  the importance of this game. This this this Saturday.
• 24:40
  Davidson is coached by GAIL Fulks.
• 24:43
  She is a good coach. She played her ball at fairly
• 24:47
  Dickinson. She's from the Virginia Beach
• 24:48
  area. Originally Davidson had a very
• 24:52
  impressive win, 48 to 36 against Saint Joe's in the last game.
• 24:55
  Another top 75 team they've played.
• 24:58
  It say that say that score again. 48 to 36.
• 25:02
  Yeah, so. Yeah, they held Saint Joseph.
• 25:04
  Let's hope for our fans sake that we have a better better
• 25:08
  scoring total than that game that that was.
• 25:10
  That sounds like an ugly one. This is the best team GAIL Folks
• 25:14
  has had at Davidson. So in her in her career, she's
• 25:16
  this is her 6th year. This is the best team.
• 25:20
  Davidson is led by all A10 or A10 all first teamer Charlize
• 25:24
  Dunn. She's a six foot two player out
• 25:25
  of Australia. She looks and feels like Maggie
• 25:29
  and Rachel feel like she's tall. She's she can take you to the
• 25:32
  hoop. She's deadly from she's very
• 25:34
  good 3 point shooter. So she is a really good player.
• 25:36
  And so that we're going to have to we're going to have to to
• 25:40
  neutralize Charlie's done. I don't think it'll be Newell on
• 25:42
  her because there's too much of a height differential.
• 25:44
  So it's probably going to either it's probably going to be Rachel
• 25:45
  that picks her up or Maggie or Maggie.
• 25:47
  But Maggie's playing a lot inside.
• 25:48
  So I'm not sure. And and Charlie's will play
• 25:50
  outside a lot. It's hard to say, but there's
• 25:52
  going to be team assignment to control her.
• 25:54
  They also have Katie Donovan, who's been playing really,
• 25:56
  really well this year. Katie Donovan is shooting 49%
• 25:59
  from 3 point. So I mean, they've got some
• 26:01
  really good 3 pointers, 3 kids on that team shooting 46 percent
• 26:04
  or higher. So it's going to be a good game,
• 26:08
  a very tough test. They're their top four players
• 26:12
  in efficiency goes 625115 eleven 511 and then they're their fifth
• 26:16
  player, 6 foot 3. So this is a tall team.
• 26:20
  This is going to have this is going to be like playing us last
• 26:22
  year. Everybody is has the length in
• 26:24
  their in their well, not everybody.
• 26:26
  That's just that's an efficiency number.
• 26:28
  That's not a a minutes played number.
• 26:29
  There are some players that are a little bit smaller than handle
• 26:31
  the ball, but not as efficient as those folks.
• 26:34
  So yeah, it's going to be a tough test.
• 26:36
  I can't wait for it. If you don't wear your red to
• 26:39
  the spider to the Robinson or Saturday night the the the girls
• 26:41
  are going to need you. This is going to be one of the
• 26:43
  best games we have left. It is always, I think of just
• 26:46
  you say wear your red. It's always tricky Davidson,
• 26:48
  because they're I think they're red and black.
• 26:50
  Is that their color? So that is true.
• 26:51
  Yeah, you could. You could go just just show up
• 26:53
  and make noise. I guess you.
• 26:54
  Have to wear red or just you know.
• 26:55
  Wear red to the VCU. Game paint U of R on your chest.
• 26:58
  Porter likes doing that. Yeah, not, not really.
• 27:01
  OK. OK, so the men play at noon on
• 27:06
  Sunday. They've got Saint Joe's.
• 27:07
  They host Saint Joe. If you if you haven't seen or
• 27:11
  heard the story of Saint Joe's over the last four months, like
• 27:13
  it's been a messy year for Saint Joe's.
• 27:15
  Now they may be turning it around, but just you know, some
• 27:18
  of these stories. So they had a coach, Billy Lang,
• 27:22
  who left right before the season started.
• 27:26
  He was, he was not really loved by their fan base to begin with
• 27:28
  from what I can read, but he abruptly left to join an NBA
• 27:32
  team as an assistant coach. Right before the season started.
• 27:36
  They promoted a a newer assistant, although not a new
• 27:39
  coach, Phil Donahue, who who would coach Penn and I think was
• 27:43
  fired by Penn and then did you? Have a talk show back in the
• 27:46
  day. Yeah, a different one.
• 27:48
  I think that's his name. But anyway, so he, they promoted
• 27:51
  him to head coach because he had that experience.
• 27:53
  I I think they're very different styles.
• 27:56
  Man had the team had a lot to figure out, but they did have a
• 27:59
  great transfer. Steve, Steve Donahue.
• 28:02
  OK. Apologies to Phil and apologies
• 28:04
  to Steve. Don't be self.
• 28:05
  Don't be. Sure, Phil Donahue's alive
• 28:07
  anymore, but Steve Donahue is, he's now the coach of Saint
• 28:10
  Joe's anyway. So they have this great
• 28:13
  transfer, Deuce Jones, the third who that he was the rookie of
• 28:16
  the year in the 810 last year on LaSalle, transferred to Saint
• 28:19
  Joe's. He left the program after 10
• 28:22
  games. He was averaging almost 16
• 28:26
  points per game was with their best player.
• 28:27
  They were really high on him. Obviously he was a 10 work of
• 28:30
  the year last year. We know that's not easy to do.
• 28:33
  They announced right before Christmas that he left the
• 28:35
  program after missing a couple games for what they call
• 28:37
  personal reasons. It's really hard to figure out
• 28:40
  what happened. He actually Deuce Jones, the 3rd
• 28:44
  put out on like Instagram a little like, like, I don't know,
• 28:48
  sort of emoji. He hasn't gone anywhere else
• 28:52
  yet. There hasn't been a lot of talk.
• 28:53
  Supposedly it was some financial frustration.
• 28:57
  Anyway, I I was looking into it and I saw this great quote.
• 29:00
  I loved it. It's by the IT was my Internet,
• 29:03
  a website called the black cager.
• 29:05
  The author is Del Greco Wilson. Let me read you this quote.
• 29:08
  I love this one. Man, we are going some deep dark
• 29:11
  places for this I love. In the end, the most advanced
• 29:13
  analytics, the most generous NIL packages and the most impressive
• 29:18
  highlight reels are powerless without the ancient,
• 29:21
  indispensable ingredient of sport, a meaningful, trusting
• 29:24
  bond between player and coach. Interesting.
• 29:29
  Anyway, so where have they been since that they've gone one and
• 29:32
  two in conference. They lost at Saint Louis, they
• 29:36
  lost home against Davidson, and they just won a big overtime
• 29:39
  victory against Duquesne that was at home.
• 29:42
  Got to give Steve credit, man, he inherited like a tough
• 29:44
  situation, but they've actually played some some really good
• 29:48
  teams close and they've won some games this year so.
• 29:51
  But you have to remember, like if you look at the beginning of
• 29:53
  their schedule, their best player was still there.
• 29:55
  That's true. And he left.
• 29:58
  So Bardovic has them going 6 and 12 in conference.
• 30:00
  Right now. Their net is 238, looking at
• 30:04
  some of the key statistical indicators for them. 6 and Ken
• 30:07
  Palm. They're two.
• 30:09
  This is our Bardovic stats, 228 offensive efficiency.
• 30:12
  That's their ranking, 184. In defense, they're shooting 27%
• 30:18
  from three, OK, And that's three, 160th in Bartevik.
• 30:23
  That's not great, 360. Five they Bartevik has this
• 30:26
  winning 81 to 69 with an 84% chance of winning.
• 30:30
  They they do have some good players, so let's not
• 30:32
  underestimate them. They just did win a big exciting
• 30:35
  overtime game where they had a last second shot to tie it and
• 30:38
  then won it overtime. They have a sophomore named
• 30:41
  Jaden Glover Toscano who transferred in from St.
• 30:44
  John's. He's a 66 guard.
• 30:47
  We we tend to have trouble with those taller guards.
• 30:49
  He averages 16 a game. He shoots 39% from 3.
• 30:52
  So while their team is really bad from three, like he's their
• 30:55
  their highlight. He had 28 against Duquesne.
• 30:58
  Now that did go into overtime. So a little benefit there, but
• 31:02
  he can score and he is tall 66 guard.
• 31:06
  You know who's going to defend him is always a question when we
• 31:09
  have a tall guard like that, he'll he'll be a challenge.
• 31:13
  Like if you wanted to say like, how can Saint Joe's win?
• 31:18
  Like if you want to be the optimist, if you're the Saint
• 31:20
  Joe's fan, it's like, hey, it's been a couple weeks since their
• 31:23
  best player left. The coach has rallied them
• 31:26
  together. He also has it had a new system.
• 31:28
  They had to learn. They did come up with a win at
• 31:31
  home against Duquesne. So they're going to have more
• 31:32
  confidence than they had earlier.
• 31:34
  Now, I don't think Saint Joe's that is therefore going to be a
• 31:36
  great team in a 10. But I don't want you.
• 31:38
  You certainly can't overlook that program.
• 31:41
  Historically a great program in a 10 and they're they're going
• 31:44
  through a lot of transition that's been a bit of a mess,
• 31:46
  but. Any concerns because it's a
• 31:48
  Sunday noon game? I mean, it's kind of weird time
• 31:51
  for us to play a game. I don't think so.
• 31:53
  I mean, obviously we've been on the road now for two games.
• 31:56
  Nationally televised. I should get the the students
• 31:58
  out, right? I hope so, yeah.
• 31:59
  I mean students. Back.
• 32:02
  I don't, yes. I don't know actually.
• 32:04
  That's a good question. We'll find out soon enough
• 32:07
  whether they're back starting. The other thing that's just we
• 32:09
  forgot all about, you know, you know, we record this a few day
• 32:13
  or so before it's released. Today is Elvis's birthday.
• 32:16
  Really. Yes.
• 32:17
  The King 91 years ago, I think. I don't know if there's always
• 32:20
  been that rumor that he was still alive, hiding somewhere.
• 32:23
  He's he's not part of this podcast.
• 32:25
  I can promise you that. Thank.
• 32:26
  You very much. But yes, Elvis hasn't left the
• 32:29
  building yet. Technically, he's left the.
• 32:32
  Building. Yeah, he's left the building.
• 32:33
  But anyway, so it sounds like we got a good rating on the
• 32:36
  chocolate, Terry's chocolate. I love the recommended.
• 32:38
  Actually really good. Surprisingly good.
• 32:40
  I was like. Wow, and I think the serving
• 32:42
  size is 4 pieces, so we haven't even had a serving yet.
• 32:44
  So full serving. Maybe if we wrap this up we'll
• 32:47
  have a serving. Anything else you want to chat
• 32:49
  about today? No, just a good great day for
• 32:51
  the ladies yesterday. Great day for the men yesterday.
• 32:54
  New York has been good to us for no against New York teams the
• 32:57
  last week. 22026 is good. Both teams are on the upswing
• 33:02
  right now. Now we're into the part of the
• 33:04
  schedule that is going to make the difference between seating
• 33:07
  in the a 10 tournament between at large chances for the ladies.
• 33:10
  So we need to we need to keep it rolling.
• 33:12
  We need to keep moving in the right direction, so.
• 33:14
  Maybe as the as we wrap this thing up, maybe we should just
• 33:18
  have a little less conversation A.
• 33:20
  Little less conversation. And they a little more
• 33:22
  basketball. So we got two home games this
• 33:24
  weekend. Hope to see you out there.
• 33:25
  Let's pack the Robin Center. Let's get it done, Spider.
• 33:28
  Fans, we'll get our Falcon Smash going.
• 33:30
  Make some noise. So until next time, this is Tom
• 33:33
  and this is Porter and this is Spider sounding.
• 33:37
  Off funny and entertain. Maybe you'll learn something or
• 33:45
  just complain.