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Big Wins, Big Stakes, and a Valentine’s Day Showdown · Spiders Sound Off

0:05
Hey everybody. Welcome back to Spider.
0:07
Sound off. This is Tom.
0:09
And this is Porter. As you can tell, if you're
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watching us, we are in different locations.
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We've done this once before and we are doing it again.
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So you've got me and our Henrico Studios and Porter is in our,
0:27
what would you call it the. I am in a county.
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I am in a county far, far away from Richmond.
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How's that? OK, well, you know, it's we had
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two wins this week and I was looking back like it's been a
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month since we had both teams win, OK.
0:45
And, and that's obviously on the men, not the women.
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And you know what, the last time we won, we weren't even posting
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videos on Spotify yet. So we are just doing YouTube.
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We are kind of experimenting with YouTube video and we hadn't
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put them on Spotify. So it's, it's, you know, a lot
1:01
has changed in those four weeks. And if you recall, one of my, my
1:08
resolution was for us to fix this mic so that I could, I
1:11
could record some remotely, didn't have to always be in the
1:14
Henrico studio. And you, you worked with me to
1:18
get this thing operational. So now I'm, I'm remote and
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luckily I took in both games in person this week.
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But yeah, I'm excited to be able to use this mic and to to not
1:28
always have to be in the Henrico studio.
1:30
Well, the men had the big win of the week.
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I'd say it was kind of the upset at home over George Mason as
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probably the best first half, best half of basketball we
1:42
played all year. You think?
1:44
The best game all year and it wasn't particularly close.
1:49
I was looking at the Bartorvic game scores and we had a 97 game
1:54
score out of a out of a possible 100.
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And the Belmont game was the next best game all year.
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And that was back in the 80s somewhere.
2:01
So that was by far the best game we've played.
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Best half, best game, really just an awesome, awesome effort
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and kind of out of nowhere. I'm be, if I'm being honest, I
2:09
mean, we were on a six game slide, cramming as many guests
2:14
as we could onto the pod so that we could talk to the guests
2:17
instead of talking about the results.
2:18
And all of a sudden the men just show up and show out.
2:22
Yeah, I was actually reflecting back to was it our Thanksgiving
2:26
episode where I gave thanks for Mikel time.
2:30
Yeah. And it might have taken until
2:32
February, but, you know, he was lights out to start that game.
2:35
Now, he might have scored most of those points before Porter
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even got to his seat. Porter's running a little late,
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but Michael Tyne was clearly kind of the hot hand to start.
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Had 16 points in the first half. I think he ended with 16.
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But he was confident and and lights out from three.
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I'm glad that I got there. I think it was 24, nine
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Richmond. I was listening to it on the
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radio as I drove from my destination.
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I'm glad that they didn't lose the game after I got there
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because you might not have not have let me come back because
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that kind of fit your narrative of since I moved to Richmond
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we've been we've been not good. And so I'm happy that the men
3:11
held off and got that convincing win against a good opponent.
3:15
One thing I mentioned Porter to you when you arrived, it's kind
3:18
of things you maybe don't see in the box score.
3:20
Like the first few times down the court when George Mason
3:24
missed the basket, it was Tanner aggressively getting that
3:28
rebound and I think 3 times down he had the defensive rebound.
3:32
We came down tying or you know, somebody else was able to score.
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So I was really happy to see Colin out there, kind of he's
3:40
always playing hard, but kind of seeing the results and getting
3:43
those early rebounds to help and help defend because you know,
3:48
Old Dominion, George Mason's kind of an inside out team.
3:52
So he gives us a little more height down there than kind of
3:56
our typical guards. Somebody sent us the shot chart
3:59
during the game and I remember looking at the the first half
4:02
and the first half was almost identical to the Saint Louis
4:06
shot chart against us where all of the shots were either taken,
4:10
you know, real in real close proximity to the basket, or they
4:13
were three pointers. We had one, two pointer in the
4:18
first half that was not in the paint and we went one for one on
4:22
that. Yeah, in the in the second-half,
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we had 42 pointers that were outside of the paint and we went
4:28
oh, for four. And there's a little bit of that
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sloppy last five to 10 minutes or so while we kept our lead.
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Like there are times where we were trying to shoot fade away
4:38
jumpers and it was like, you know, it's like back to the kind
4:41
of what's been plaguing us over the last month.
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But thankfully we had a, you know, we, we played that really
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well in the first half and took a lot of, you know, close shots
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or open threes. To what I'll say about the the
4:54
two pointers from distance in the second-half too.
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It wasn't like we were taking them right at the beginning of
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the shot clock. It seemed like we were looking
5:01
to get it closer or hit a three. And if we couldn't do either of
5:05
those things and we had the ball in our hands as the shot clock
5:07
was winding down, we would take the fade away jumper.
5:09
So I I don't mind them as much when your alternative is, you
5:13
know, a 30 second shot clock violation or a or a fadeaway
5:15
jumper. But I like the way they were
5:17
consciously looking to get into the basket or near the basket.
5:23
I mean, you saw Will, Will Johnson drew a foul kind of
5:26
wanted up and under. Mike Walls had a great up and
5:28
under in the first half. I think it was in the first half
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where he literally pump faked and the guy got in the air and
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he went right underneath him for a layup.
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I mean, it was just really, really good stuff.
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And we, we know we're a good three-point shooting.
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We're 3 point shooting team. We're actually a top 17,
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three-point shooting team in the nation.
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So out of 365 teams, we're #17 in the nation and three-point
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percentage and our three-point rate is not, well, not in the
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top 100 is, is not bad either. It's not like it's we're, we're
6:00
shooting too few threes. We're just, we could certainly
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be shooting more. But I was also doing a little
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research getting ready for this about does shoot it.
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When you shoot that well from three, again, 17th in the nation
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is unbelievable. It's the best 3 point shooting
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team we've had at Richmond on the men's side since the 2011
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Sweet 16 team. So.
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I really one thing I just want to add to that Porter, is that
6:21
if you look at our six game losing streak, we weren't very
6:23
good from three. So it's kind of that's the magic
6:26
to our team. Like we are really good 3 point
6:29
shooting team and we weren't awful, but that Rhode Island
6:33
game, which was a close one, the last Rhode Island game where we
6:36
played on the road and you know, had a chance.
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And then obviously yesterday's game or the George Mason game
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that we just played. Those are the we had two games
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in a row where we had more than 10 threes and it had been a
6:48
while since we had done that before.
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So I think we've got a really good 3 point shooting percentage
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for the season, but it's kind of made-up for earlier games and a
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kind of a poor 6 game streak that we are thankfully past now.
7:03
So Richmond is currently 150 in Bartorvic.
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We're a little higher in Kent Palm.
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I think we're in the one 30s. I'm not sure what our net is at
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this moment. So I did a little research.
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Of the 17 top three-point shooting teams in the nation, of
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which were one, seven of the 17 teams are top 54 in Bartorvic
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overall, which so that's not a direct correlation.
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Yeah, it's actually lower than I would have guessed.
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Yeah, if you if you shoot the three well, doesn't mean you're
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automatically an NC Blade tournament team is what it what
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it says. Four of the top 17 are actually
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behind us in the Bartortic rankings, meaning they're 150 or
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beyond. And there are a couple teams
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that also have elite 3 point shooting rates and really high 3
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point success. And those that those teams
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aren't necessarily correlated with being an NCAA tournament
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team, which all it means, all it says is there's something else
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other than being able to shoot the three.
7:57
Well, that's going to be important if you're going to
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make an NCAA tournament team. But it certainly doesn't hurt,
8:01
right? Yeah, I'll tell you this, if you
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look at and Bartova, you could do like last 10 as a stat in our
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last 10 games and that's including the George Mason game,
8:09
we are three 112th in two point percentage, field goal
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percentage. So like that's, you know, you
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can be great from three, but if you're one of the worst teams,
8:20
at least over the last 10 games in two point field goal
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percentage, like it's that's going to offset how good you are
8:29
at 3:00. Yeah, I think it's to me the the
8:33
difference with this last game was the hustle on defense.
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Like I haven't seen us that active on defense in a while and
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I don't know where the momentum came from.
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I mean, clearly, I mean, the Rhode Island second game was
8:47
showed a much better effort out of the team than what we saw at
8:51
Davidson at home, which is the last time we had to to do a pot
8:53
about the games. And so we were starting to show
8:56
like, hey, we still, we still care.
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We still have the energy, the effort.
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And then this game almost took it to a whole new level.
9:03
And I, I don't know what defensive adjustments were made,
9:07
but something worked and clicked.
9:09
It wasn't just an offensive barrage that took down George
9:11
Mason. It was both.
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We were playing good defense and we were we were having a really
9:16
good offensive game. Plan well, a part of what helps
9:20
is like, and we knew this going into like George Mason is not
9:23
very good from three. So you know, I think our team is
9:28
going to be better suited. I mean, at least so far, like we
9:30
haven't defended the three great like our our metrics aren't
9:34
great from that. So we were playing a team that
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doesn't really focus on the three.
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I think that helps our defense. You just don't have to get out
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as much as I think we've been forcing ourselves to get out
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more and more on threes because we've been getting beat by
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threes. And so I think, you know, part
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of the the scout of George Mason is going to tell you like you
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don't have the certain guys you just don't have to get out on
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because they can't shoot the three.
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And so that I think that helped our, like you said, we're very
10:00
aggressive and they hustled a lot.
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And I think, you know, this is a inside team, George Mason, and
10:07
we were able to keep them from getting easy baskets in the
10:09
first half. Yeah.
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I mean, the, the cool thing to kind of think about though is
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you know, we talked about up until the Davidson game, we had
10:18
some ingredients that that, that we said if we get the recipe
10:21
right. Could love the ingredients
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recipe. I know I love that analogy.
10:24
It's your favorite. I know I'm not saying that we're
10:27
going to make the Insulate Tournament.
10:28
We're still less than 1%, but what I'm saying is this is an
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example of how this team is very unique in terms of its
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capabilities. Like we can beat A-Team like
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Belmont on the road, who is a very good 3 point shooting team
10:43
and then we can beat a very physical team like George Mason
10:47
what, who don't shoot the three well.
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So we have abilities. It's just how do we keep the
10:53
consistency together and and start to put some things on the
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on paper that give confidence both to the the coaches, the
11:02
fans, everything that we can, we can do something really good
11:05
here to make a run in March. Yeah, a couple things I just
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want to add to the game. So kind of welcome back to Aiden
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Arter Bright, who had been hurt. It's 14 points.
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I think it was 3 for three from the field.
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And then shot a lot of free throws, which we know he's great
11:19
at. So it's great to see him back.
11:21
And you could tell you're not that it's the excuse.
11:24
And Mooney won't use this as the excuse.
11:26
But like, we've just been down with, you know, Beagle was hurt,
11:29
missed some games. Will Harper still not back
11:32
playing, You know, Aiden missed time.
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So you could tell obviously making shots helps.
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But when we are making shots early, kind of when he was
11:40
subbing folks in, like everybody he brought in kind of was adding
11:44
something and he just was able to go deeper because, you know,
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both Beagle and Aiden, while they may not be 100%, they're,
11:50
you know, they certainly looked active.
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And I also just, you know, to mention Beagle.
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Beagle was a bad man in that game.
11:57
He had eight rebounds. He was physical.
12:01
He had a late, foul kind of two hand shiver.
12:04
And look, hey, I'll say this. Sometimes we complain about the
12:07
referees. I mean, Beagle earned that
12:09
flagrant foul. Yes, he did.
12:11
There was nothing subtle about that, right?
12:14
Yeah, and I don't know what was going on.
12:15
Maybe there was a lot, you know, obviously he's going against
12:18
these big guys inside. And then whether they were trash
12:21
talking or there was some elbows thrown, you know, something
12:24
didn't make him happy at that point in time.
12:27
But like, I like the toughness. Like I'm, I'm OK if we're a
12:29
little mean at times. I can say this because.
12:33
Because, you know, nobody was hurt on the play and you know,
12:36
you hate to see somebody get hurt on a play where you know,
12:38
you clearly, you clearly flagrantly found somebody.
12:42
But it was in a way showed a little grit and toughness that I
12:47
think the team needed right at that moment.
12:49
Maybe the coaches would have preferred it not be a flagrant
12:51
foul, but like it was clear whatever was happening, Beagle
12:55
wasn't taking any more of it. And they said they benched him
12:58
for the rest of the game after the foul.
13:00
And I just was like, I mean, I think the fire the Beagle
13:04
showed, you know, in some ways it might be it might be a
13:09
tipping point in the positive direction.
13:11
But I don't want to read too much into it because every time
13:13
I think we are starting to turn a corner, I get disappointed.
13:16
So I'll just say that I I liked the fire rather not be a
13:19
flagrant foul next time. But like, it was nice to see a
13:21
little bit of that. You know, I did like, so Walls
13:24
had two blocks. So you look at kind of our
13:26
defence, like I don't think people come into our into the
13:30
paint and get really nervous. But Walls had two.
13:32
He's got four blocks in the past three games.
13:34
So like, that's going to be, yeah.
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He's playing edition if he can. I like.
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I like the way blocks playing. Count up another note too.
13:43
So we scored 82 in the game. I think was the final score.
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I I look back, we are 12:00 and 1:00 if we score over 80 points.
13:51
There you go. So we got VCU coming up.
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We'll talk about that a little bit later, but we know they can
13:56
score. That's not a game we're going to
13:58
win by scoring 72 points. It seemed like Tyne had a green
14:03
light to shoot it whenever. You know, he felt like he could,
14:06
he could, he could launch it in that first half.
14:10
And I think you got time. You got David Thomas, you got
14:13
Will Johnston, you got Walls, you got AJ and you got Daughtry
14:16
and probably Harper too. When he's healthy.
14:18
All of those guys shoot a really nice percentage from three-point
14:22
land. So I think, you know, as the
14:26
coaches preach more and more like we got to take the three
14:28
when it's open to us in the in the in the shot clock, I think
14:32
you I think you're going to see more aggressiveness.
14:34
I do think there's still another wrinkle somehow.
14:36
And I don't know how to how to coach it, But I'm, I'm pretty
14:39
sure we can figure it out whereby somebody after the three
14:42
is launched, instead of everybody retreating on defense,
14:45
one of the people, maybe it's the opposite side, you know, cut
14:48
through, cut through the middle of the floor to get those longer
14:51
rebounds. Because our offensive rebound
14:52
percentage is still 1 area that I think we can improve because
14:57
we can get a few more of those 3 point rebounds.
14:59
I think it'll give us some extra second chance opportunities,
15:02
which would really help us down the stretch.
15:04
But overall, if we play like we played against George Mason, I
15:10
think we can beat anybody not named Saint Louis in the
15:13
Atlantic 10. But you have to play like the
15:15
game you did against George Mason.
15:16
Yeah, it is interesting. I've, I can't remember which
15:19
Twitter account this is a shame for me to not give them credit,
15:22
but they one of the A10 Twitter accounts will put out like here
15:25
is a current bracket as it stands.
15:29
And it's like if we're if we end up we're, I think right now
15:33
we're 10th. So you're not on the bottom
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four. I think we play date like the
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way it is now. I think we play Davidson and
15:40
then the winner plays VCU. But Saint Louis is on the other
15:43
side of the bracket and it's what we need.
15:45
Oh, if we end up 8th or 9th, then that team, those teams play
15:49
Saint Louis the next day. It's like maybe 10th is where we
15:53
want to end up. Now.
15:53
Of course I want to win the rest of our games and end up six or
15:56
something like. That 7th would be better than
15:58
10th. Right.
15:59
But like, yeah, that's right. But I mean.
16:01
So one down note to that game I would just want to bring up.
16:04
I told you I was going to I had some some downside attendance
16:08
was 4282. Yes, it's a, we haven't been
16:13
playing well, so it's not going to track folks.
16:15
Maybe the weather hasn't been great.
16:17
You know, the roads are, I mean they're much better now, but
16:19
maybe there's excuses. But overall our attendance this
16:23
year has been poor. 4579 is the average and just to go back over
16:29
the last four years, so again we're averaging 4579.
16:32
Last year was 5489, the year before that 5834 and the year
16:38
before that 6285. So there's a four year trend of
16:43
losing 300 to 400 per game attendance.
16:48
Now some of that could be students.
16:50
We know the student attendance has been really poor, but I
16:53
don't think last year the student section was packed every
16:55
game. So right.
16:57
And and so we're down, you know, you could say roughly we're down
16:59
25%. I mean, we used to brag about
17:02
having over 6000 a year and kind of based on our enrollment was
17:06
one of the top attendance schools.
17:09
Like we're down 25% and that's the butts in seats means less
17:13
concessions. Eventually it means less
17:14
sponsors. And we're in this time where
17:18
it's like, how do we generate as much revenue as possible to pay
17:21
players? And you know, what's not helping
17:25
is kind of the revenues that, you know, we can or potentially
17:29
can make as a result of, you know, bringing people into the
17:33
Robin Center. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's
17:36
it's going to take money, obviously to compete in the
17:40
Atlantic 10, which is why you'll always hear us on the spot
17:43
saying the big donors, the the folks who who support the
17:46
athletic department are always friends of the pod because we
17:48
know it takes, it takes big donations to compete in this
17:51
world. It's going to take people to
17:53
show up for the games. I mean, especially the students,
17:56
because that makes such a difference in momentum.
17:58
The right, they sit right behind the basket.
18:00
The energy is there. I can't necessarily, though, say
18:05
that, you know, it's, it's the results that are keeping the
18:08
students away. Because here's the thing, man,
18:09
the women are 21 and four. And you and I were there last
18:13
night sitting together on a Wednesday night at 6:00.
18:16
Now, I get it. If you're coming from work and
18:18
you're, you're trying to get to a basketball game, it's hard to
18:20
sometimes get to a 6:00 game. But that student section was
18:23
empty for the ladies last night. And that was, I thought the
18:26
most, that was the most disappointing thing I've seen in
18:29
a long time because they're playing so hard right now and
18:32
they've earned the right to have the students show up and support
18:34
them. And so I was really disappointed
18:36
that we had almost no students in that section last night.
18:38
There are some students scattered, but nobody sitting in
18:42
sections 11 and 12 behind the basket.
18:44
We need to do a better job of getting getting our students
18:48
involved in the program. And I'm not saying that that's
18:50
there's anybody to blame for that.
18:51
I think kids this day and age are, are distracted by a lot of
18:55
different things. I mean, there's way more things,
18:57
you know, that they they care about than just sports.
18:59
But we're going to need the students, we're going to need
19:02
the the fans, we're going to need the donors, we're going to
19:04
need the players. It takes a village to to win and
19:08
win consistently. And, and I believe we can do it.
19:11
It's just that, you know, we got to get everything moving in the
19:13
right direction. We're still not there yet.
19:15
Yeah, OK. Well, you mentioned the women's
19:16
game. So we had a, a test really
19:18
against the Bonnies at home on Wednesday.
19:24
We I think mentioned in the last part that they had won two in a
19:26
row, including a win against Davidson.
19:29
So I mean, we, we, if you remember, we had that triple
19:32
overtime win at home against Davidson.
19:35
So clearly kind of a, a tough team.
19:38
And St. Bonnies in the first half, I
19:40
mean, you, you could argue they were the better team in the
19:45
first half, I mean. The score, it wouldn't be, it
19:48
wouldn't be a, it wouldn't be an improper argument.
19:50
I mean, I, I wrote in my notes, Saint Bonaventure reminded me of
19:53
us in the first half. The way they played, they were
19:56
physical, they were active, they had great passing, great vision
19:59
#24 was really hard to kind of contain.
20:02
And she's their best player. I, I wrote, I don't want to play
20:05
them in the tournament if they can play like this.
20:07
They're not the 220th ranked overall team.
20:09
Whatever they figured out in the last two games, they carried it
20:11
over into that first half against us.
20:13
We didn't play bad either. Like that's the thing.
20:15
It wasn't like, Oh my gosh, we just were terrible.
20:17
We just were like, I think we were kind of shocked at how good
20:19
they looked. Yeah, we were missing, we were
20:23
missing something in that first half.
20:25
Like there were some sloppy turnovers.
20:28
It's it seemed like that was the, you know, it's very cliche,
20:34
but like they wanted it more. Like it felt like in the first
20:37
half there was a little bit of that going on.
20:40
Now, whatever was said at halftime, or just our team kind
20:44
of settling down a little bit and saying, hey, like this is
20:47
our home, let's do something like we came out and crushed
20:50
them in that third period. It was.
20:52
There was some brilliant adjustments, nicely brilliant
20:55
adjustments made at halftime. For one, we came out into was in
20:57
a zone and that really confused Saint Bonaventure.
21:00
They struggled trying to get the getting open shots in the zone
21:03
and then after the zone we ran in a few sets against them.
21:06
We went to a full court press and that threw a couple wrinkles
21:09
at them, what they weren't expecting.
21:10
And then we came out of the zone back to our man to man for like
21:12
2 possessions and went right back to the zone.
21:14
So he did a really nice job. Russell did a really nice job of
21:18
mixing up our defensive looks in the second-half and that really
21:20
confused Saint Bonaventure. Yeah, no, that's right.
21:23
And we, you know, at some point too, it's like they just missed
21:26
a few shots in a row and we made a few shots in a row and all of
21:29
a sudden like our team had more, you know, that confidence kind
21:32
of you could, you could feel it like all all of a sudden was
21:35
like, wow, we're a lot better than this team.
21:37
Even though in the first half it was like I couldn't tell who the
21:39
better team was. Like that third quarter, like we
21:42
clearly look like, OK, this is the team that's one at the at
21:45
that .9 now 10 in a row that have been kind of a dominant
21:50
team. Yeah, the women are #40 in the
21:53
net right now. They're number 42 in Bartorvick
21:58
ESP NS ranking that came out on Tuesday of this week had us
22:02
still in the first four teams out.
22:04
There are others that now have us in as now.
22:06
Yeah, The Athletic has us in. Yeah, Rhode Island is still an
22:10
11 seed in ESPN is there as our automatic bid.
22:14
The thing about the ESPN bracket I don't love if I could just
22:17
rant for a second about that. So they've got the last four in
22:20
are all ACC teams. It's Virginia.
22:23
It's 18 and seven Virginia Tech who we who we smacked on their
22:27
home floor in a scrimmage this year.
22:29
Scrimmage doesn't. Matter.
22:30
It does matter because they we were both trying to show how
22:33
good we are in a secret scrimmage on their home floor.
22:36
Stanford is is in there in Clemson and they're all good
22:39
teams. Don't get me wrong, all four of
22:40
those teams are good teams. I would take us against any of
22:43
those four teams on a neutral court every day of the week
22:46
right now, 21 and four, I would take us against all four of
22:49
those teams. So I'm hoping we don't get
22:52
bounced as, as off the at large line for a, for a decent ACC
22:58
team. That's all I'll say.
22:59
I'm just like, I'm really kind of thinking about it like we
23:01
should be right now in the in the tournament #40 in the net
23:04
with the with the track record we've built.
23:06
But we still have some tough games ahead.
23:09
We got Davidson, we got to win on the road, we got George Mason
23:11
on the road, we got Rhode Island at home and we got Saint Joe's
23:14
on the road. Those are all four very tough
23:16
games. So.
23:17
Yeah, well, we have not lost in 2026.
23:21
Love it. So that so that's a nice little
23:23
stat. I mean, you go to the game last
23:26
night, it's like you I wouldn't say like you watch that game and
23:29
said like Maggie is clearly the best player on this court
23:32
because Rachel had a great game too.
23:36
But Maggie led the team with 23 points, had 11 rebounds, led the
23:40
team and seven assists, led the team.
23:42
So it was like, that's Maggie's like it's like almost well, it's
23:45
a point is about where she is all year.
23:47
That's kind of her average rebounds, assists, a little
23:49
above average for her. So you can always rely on Maggie
23:53
to kind of fill up the stat sheet, even if they're, you
23:57
know, the first quarter she might have zero points.
24:00
She she's a great player and and she can take over.
24:04
I think she'll hit 2000 at Davidson definitely, if if not a
24:08
Davidson at George Mason. So it's going to be on the road,
24:11
which is a shame because like, what is she the third person in
24:14
Richmond history to to hit 2000? So I kind of wish I was there to
24:18
see that. So unless you want to plan a a
24:20
road trip on Saturday, not. Going to Davidson, but if if she
24:23
ends up short at Davidson or maybe I could be convinced that
24:26
a. Monday, George Mason trip.
24:28
OK, All right. George Mason worked that out.
24:31
So we'll have to debate that. By the way, the freshman, they
24:34
don't look like freshman anymore man Bruschetti and Rain right
24:36
are looking super confident. They each bring a certain
24:39
element to the game. I mean, Porschetti seems like
24:41
her long distance offense, but Ray Wright's defense and her
24:44
taking the ball aggressively to the to the to the hoop are both
24:47
really impressive. And I'm really excited about
24:51
what they're what the future holds with those two.
24:53
And I mean, it just gives us, you know, more confidence when
24:56
we're when we're subbing kind of the starters to have to have
25:00
girls like that come in and and play like they're playing right
25:02
now. So hats off to them.
25:04
Also want to give a shout out to Anna Comanthi haven't seen a lot
25:07
of Annika play this year but she threw a block party at the end
25:09
of that game, getting her one and only block in the game and
25:12
then Cooley and calmly hit the free throw on the other end,
25:16
which I think was her first point of the year.
25:18
Yeah, probably her first free throw so.
25:20
Yeah, she cool. Like she missed a free throw
25:22
and. Then on her second, I'm not
25:24
going to focus on her miss, I'm going to focus on the fact that
25:26
she stood there for the first free throws.
25:28
Probably she, well, maybe she took some earlier this year, but
25:30
just first one that she made this year because she got in the
25:33
scoring column and she played a, she played a good solid minute
25:35
for us. So Congrats to Annika on that.
25:38
I hung around after. Just on the freshman, you know,
25:42
we're only seeing her when it's kind of, you know, garbage time,
25:45
But I really like Anisha Scott. Yeah.
25:48
She's a confident point guard for us.
25:50
Like she is good. Yeah.
25:52
I think, you know, it'll be interesting next year, kind of,
25:55
let's assume kind of all the underclass when her back, like
25:57
she needs time and not just time in garbage time.
26:01
But she got Newell, you got Will.
26:04
Be a senior, Ali will play the one.
26:06
I think Newell will probably play the defensive 2 for us most
26:09
of next year and then I think Anisha Scott will relief Ali is
26:12
a backup one. This is my guess if I'm looking
26:14
at it right now. Right.
26:15
It's hard because like what we don't have, we've talked about.
26:18
We don't need to go into detail here, but we're not like the
26:20
tallest team and obviously all of our tallest players that play
26:24
a lot are all graduating. But you also have some good
26:27
recruits that are coming in that are 6 feet or taller.
26:28
So that's. Good.
26:29
But they're freshmen, so let's not like true assume they're
26:32
going to be the answer. So we'll need to get some height
26:34
off the portal. But you look at you look at
26:38
rain, right and Ava, let's see what the stats say.
26:42
So Ava is 510. Rain is 6 foot, so rain's the
26:46
tallest. So and then you've got Alicia
26:48
and Ali and Anisha, like obviously all five of them
26:51
aren't going to be on the court at the same time.
26:54
But I'm hoping we there's there's room for Anisha to get
26:58
whatever 15 minutes a game next year and backing up whether it's
27:02
moves alley to the shooting guard at some point.
27:05
But she's an exciting player when she's in there.
27:08
Yeah, she's, she's offensively very gifted and I think that
27:11
that'll give us some nice relief next year.
27:13
And I, and I think, you know, between Porschetti and Rain
27:16
Wright, you've got I think probably 2 starters right there
27:19
next year along with the two guards, Newell and, and, and
27:24
Ali. Ali will clearly be I think 810
27:26
first team pre season next year. And I think Noel will probably
27:29
be all 810 second team if I'm reading the tea leaves right
27:32
now. So, and I mean, I think, I don't
27:36
look, I don't think we're going to, we're losing a lot.
27:38
I mean, we should probably wait till the end of the season to
27:39
talk about what, what next year looks like.
27:41
But we're losing a lot. But I mean, you know, Roussel's
27:45
teams are competitive year in and year out, whether or not he
27:47
loses or things or not. I don't think we're in NCAA team
27:50
next year, but I wouldn't count us out of of making some noise
27:53
and. And I do like the team.
27:54
I've heard him say this a couple times and recently in post games
27:57
where he's he's talked about the freshman and he's like, in a few
28:00
years from now, people are going to look back on this team and
28:03
say like, Oh my gosh, like Ray Wright was on that team too.
28:07
Because like, you know, we like and in a sense like they're
28:10
going to be future stars and you'll forget like, Oh my gosh,
28:14
like they were they were a freshman on this great team.
28:17
We had, you know, in 2026 when they're now, let's say, a great
28:20
junior in 2028, you know, leading our team to post season
28:25
maybe before we've mentioned this game going, we're going at
28:30
Davidson. So maybe we talk a little bit
28:31
about that. I mean.
28:32
Yeah, real quick. Just congratulations to Rachel.
28:34
She moved into top ten all time and scoring for Richmond too
28:37
with 1500 plus points. So she's now in the top ten.
28:40
The top 10 is scoring again. Two future Hall of farmers at
28:43
least on this team with Maggie and Rachel and Ali's chapters
28:46
are not yet finished. You know, Alicia Newell's
28:49
chapters are not yet finished in the freshman.
28:50
You never know could could turn into the next great spider, so
28:53
pretty impressive stuff to have have those two playing together.
28:56
Yeah, that's right. So the women are at Davidson.
29:00
Davidson, the 76 in the Bartovic, They've actually
29:04
slipped a little bit. I mean, we met.
29:05
You mentioned in the Saint Bonnie's game that St.
29:08
Bonnie's had beaten Davidson. Davidson had lost three in a
29:10
row. George Mason at home at Saint
29:14
Bonaventure at Saint Joe's. So not like, you know, Jay,
29:18
obviously George Mason's a great team.
29:20
Saint Joe's, it was a good team and we just played the bodies,
29:24
but lost three in a row. They just won home game against
29:27
GW. So they've they've kind of broke
29:29
that, that losing streak. But we all remember the Maggie's
29:35
was a 48 point game in triple overtime at home against
29:38
Davidson and I was looking the Davidson.
29:42
I I think of them as a three-point shooting team,
29:44
although their best player is an inside player.
29:47
The last time they had a kind of double digit threes in terms of
29:51
made was against us. Now again, that was triple
29:54
overtime. But that's part of where I think
29:57
they've been struggling. They haven't been able to be as
29:59
successful from from three. But this is a road game.
30:02
It's going to be a really tough one.
30:04
Hopefully Maggie gets that 2000 points and that'll tell us she's
30:08
had a, you know, 20 plus points in the game and and can lead us
30:12
to another win against them. But.
30:15
By the way, if you remember that Alabama A&M team that we played
30:18
at the tournament in Henrico right before we played Penn
30:20
State, and I remember the coach saying that team is better than
30:23
people are giving them credit for.
30:24
I don't know why people are thinking they're so bad.
30:26
They've won ten straight games now, by the way, Alabama A&M.
30:28
So he called it. He called it.
30:31
So oh, and the Davidson game. Interesting.
30:33
So at Davidson there's a Quad 2 game right now based on kind of
30:37
where they are and being on the road.
30:39
So that's an important win. Also when you know, if if we're
30:43
in the at large talks and not the automatic bid, kind of
30:46
having that kind of quad two win is going to be important.
30:50
So this is a this is a big game coming up this weekend.
30:53
A very important game. I mean, and you know, for any
30:56
Spiders who are in North Carolina, come out and support
30:58
the girls because we're going to need that.
30:59
We're going to need that win if we want to stay in this on the
31:02
right side of the at large bubble.
31:04
By the way, Tom. In turn, Charlie in the
31:07
background. Yes, Charlie in the background
31:09
is a little uncontained. I've got a little bit of
31:10
construction going on down here at my current location.
31:14
Also, I'll point out, we talked about after we beat Penn State,
31:17
like that's a good win because they're going to win some games
31:19
in the Big 10. They are like up until the
31:21
overtime game against Purdue, which was on February 4th, they
31:25
were oh, for the Big 10 this year they lost every single game
31:29
and, and most of them not close, I'll point out.
31:31
Well, that sounds like they're men's team, too.
31:33
They're really struggling and they have the former VCU coach
31:37
who might get run out of town if not this year or next year, if
31:39
they have another year like this, like that, that, that that
31:42
place is. It's never been a basketball
31:44
school. We all.
31:45
Never resell saying we were recruiting one of the kids.
31:47
I think it was Mick Miller back when she was looking to to
31:52
change schools. I wonder if like, he keeps in
31:55
touch in some way, shape or form with her, with her agent,
31:57
because, you know, it'd be a nice little ad to go with, to go
32:00
with Ali and Alicia next year. So I mean, there's a lot of a
32:03
lot of little things that are interesting that could happen in
32:05
the, you know, in the portal. So you just got to keep your eye
32:07
open. OK, so let's talk.
32:08
The men are have their big home game, kind of the biggest of the
32:11
year. We got VCU at home on Saturday.
32:15
Was it 6 PMI think a little. Earlier.
32:18
VCU has won eight in a row. So Valentine's Day.
32:22
This is a team Valentine's Day. This is a team that's playing
32:24
great right now. I did a little analysis and
32:28
maybe this is repeating ourselves a little bit, but I
32:32
was looking at kind of, you know, VCU in terms of, you know,
32:34
shooting the two ball and versus shooting threes.
32:38
And I saw Bartovic and maybe they've always had this, but
32:41
we're down in the player section of pages.
32:43
They have a they do close to and far to yes, So they're, you
32:48
know, trying to represent kind of when are you right next to
32:51
the basket with tippins or dunks or easy layups versus taking a
32:55
two point. I don't think it's just in the
32:57
paint. So I think if you're, you know,
32:59
6 feet out shooting, they're going to call that a far 2 is
33:02
what it sounds like. But anyway, VCU for the season,
33:07
16% of their shots are far twos. OK, so all of their shots, 16%
33:13
of far twos. I looked at Saint Louis, they're
33:15
7%, OK, that they're kind of the elite.
33:18
They're per that, you know, we watched, we've looked at their
33:20
shot chart like they are elite. They don't take many far twos.
33:24
Richmond. So again, VCU 16%, Saint Louis
33:27
7, Richmond 29%. Yeah, and not that last game.
33:32
Not in that last game. And if you well, but yeah,
33:35
that's right. So that you know, can we keep
33:37
keep that up. So if you look at in conference
33:39
games, we're so we're worse in the A10 in terms of our share of
33:44
close twos. So this is, you know, we've been
33:46
talking about this for a few weeks now.
33:49
And if you look at last year, we are worst in the league and in
33:52
2024, when we had a great year, we are third to worst, Yeah,
33:57
third to last in the league. In SO, we won the regular.
34:00
Season of close twos. But we we're still taking fade
34:02
away jumpers is what you said. And, and I looked at our players
34:05
in just a contrast for a bit. So Lopez has 43 long twos to 29
34:14
short twos. So he's more of that taking two
34:19
point jumpers than getting close to the basket.
34:21
Daughtry, on the other hand, has nine far twos, 44 close twos.
34:29
So I mean, we like you look at that extreme like Daughtry fits
34:32
that model of like if he's taking a two point shot, he's
34:36
getting a close shot versus Lopez.
34:39
And you kind of expect like Argar, Bright and Johnston kind
34:42
of they're more long twos and short twos.
34:46
So that's not just Lopez, to make it clear, but Daughtry is
34:49
the one guy on our team that sticks out on the other side of
34:53
taking a lot of of close twos. BCU is 12th in the nation, by
34:57
the way, an average 2 point distance at 4 1/2 feet.
35:00
So they don't shoot them unless they're close and we are 7 feet
35:05
still. But the key thing about that 7
35:07
foot number is it came down pretty dramatically after last
35:10
game. So we made an adjustment last
35:12
game and it worked. So I'm hoping that that's more
35:15
of a trend moving forward than an anomaly, so.
35:19
Now a couple things to this game.
35:21
And so if you guys are listening and trying to decide to go, like
35:23
tickets are still available, this is not a sell out yet.
35:27
And the longer tickets are available, the more VCU people
35:30
are there. I'm kind of expecting, we've had
35:32
years where you know, maybe it's 80% Richmond, 20% VCU.
35:37
I'm expecting 6040 maybe. Yeah, it won't be that bad.
35:41
Maybe. Well, because the problem is
35:43
that we just, you know, if our attendance is down and it's been
35:47
down for the year, there's a lot of available tickets for VCU
35:50
fans to grab. Well, here's like I've.
35:53
Been in the Robinson of when it's been like 6040 and I know
35:56
we're getting killed and their cheers are running the house.
35:59
I, I think what you'll see like, like so, so for me, for
36:02
instance, like, you know, I, I've told you about my conflict
36:05
not knowing that Richmond scheduled VCU on Valentine's Day
36:09
a month ago, I basically booked their dinner reservation for
36:12
Valentine's Day. Hey, Porter, let me hold you
36:15
here because I'm going to have to introduce an old segment of
36:18
what's wrong with you people. What's wrong with you people?
36:24
Turn that frown upside down. Don't be a moron.
36:29
What's wrong with you people? What's wrong with you?
36:35
Here we go. And the song, I'll, I'll splice
36:38
in the song. But yes, Porter is missing the
36:42
VCU game to have a lovely Valentine's dinner with his
36:48
wife. And where you going?
36:49
Is it Ponderosa? It's not the Golden Corral, it's
36:53
not Ponderosa can. I don't even want to say it.
36:56
Are there? Peanuts on the floor.
36:57
You might try to cancel my reservation like I'm not going
37:00
to tell you where it is. OK, so Porter is having a steak
37:03
dinner. It's not an Outback, it's not a
37:05
Ponderosa. It's kind of a nicer place.
37:07
It's a little more romantic than that.
37:10
And this is Porter, the the only fan, I think from our last game
37:14
who's plus minus was minus. I think it was a -, 3 at the
37:21
George Mason game based on when he showed up in the final score.
37:25
Well played, Sir. So anyway, what's wrong with
37:29
you, Porter? It's the VCU game and you're out
37:32
having a steak dinner. What I was going to say is I'm
37:34
not going to sell my 2 tickets to a VCU fan just because I
37:37
can't go to the game and I will watch the game when I get home
37:40
from my lovely Valentine's dinner.
37:42
And by the way, why isn't your wife upset that you're not
37:44
taking her out on Valentine's Day?
37:45
That that's. What I want to know so my wife
37:48
would say go watching the spiders against VCU.
37:51
It is like a Valentine's Day present.
37:55
Yes, so we're. Looking forward.
37:56
To that game, I have the same hell of a basketball that we
37:58
have. It helps that we beat George
38:00
Mason. So we've got a little momentum
38:03
to feel like we can be. And and you know, I'll use your
38:06
words like when we were at the Siegel Center and we left that
38:08
game after a loss, you were like, we can beat VCU at home.
38:11
Yes, we can. And I think we can.
38:13
We're going to have to. We're going to have to shoot
38:16
well, like we did against George Mason and defend well inside.
38:20
And here's here might be the best reason, I'll give you the
38:23
Spider fans who are on the bubble about going, the best
38:25
reason for going right here and right here.
38:27
Now, if we beat VCU on Saturday, Saturday evening, that will end.
38:33
I believe VC is at large hopes they'll have to win the A10
38:36
tournament. So if you beat them, you're
38:38
going to knock them off the bubble and they're going to have
38:40
to win the A10 tournament. So there's reason to go right
38:42
there. Well, Speaking of VCU, we are
38:45
planning in our next episode to have a special guest, kind of AU
38:50
of R legend, who has some experience beating VCU.
38:53
So either we will be celebrating together on when we record on
38:57
Sunday or he can pick up our spirits.
39:00
You are legend or is it a prior legend?
39:02
No, Yeah, it's a Yeah, it's a You are a legend.
39:06
So we're. Going to we're going to have fun
39:07
hopefully on that that episode. That'll be good.
39:09
And yeah, I mean, look, both teams got to win.
39:13
It's always good to record after a win.
39:15
Ladies are squarely on the bubble.
39:17
Let's get the students out, support the support the teams
39:19
both this weekend for the men and for the ladies, their last
39:22
two games. Let's let's turn them out
39:24
because I think we've got some good stuff happening.
39:26
We just got to keep the keep the momentum going on the lady side.
39:28
And and if the men, if the George Mason result turns into a
39:32
trend, we have some real Good Hope there too.
39:35
So let's just keep it going. Yeah, that's right.
39:37
So let's go 2 and O again. And until next time, this is
39:41
Tom. And this is Porter.
39:44
And this is spiders sounding up.