Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Episode 20: Glue Guys and Glowing Shoes

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Episode 20: Glue Guys and Glowing Shoes · Spiders Sound Off

0:07
Hey everybody. Welcome back to Spider.
0:09
Sound off. This is Tom.
0:11
And this is Porter. And we are back in our Henrico
0:16
studios for our first midweek or late week podcast.
0:21
We're looking to put out during the season when we can, when
0:25
there are good games during the week, put out a second podcast
0:30
and our real, it's our second video podcast ever.
0:34
And I think we like what we saw with kind of the YouTube
0:37
response. So we're trying it again.
0:39
Porter just came back from Williamsburg.
0:42
I did took a little trip. Made the trip down to
0:45
Williamsburg to watch the ladies play William and Mary, and it
0:50
was a really good trip. A really good result for the
0:52
ladies. Yeah.
0:54
Where do you want me to start? Well, I'll.
0:55
Just start with your experience of this Kaplan Arena.
0:58
I've only been there for it was like a choir concert when my
1:02
daughter went to William and Mary.
1:03
I've never, I don't, I, I did see a game there when we were in
1:06
college. I actually saw us go to We went
1:08
there for whatever reason, I think when one of my old
1:11
friends, John Simkins, had a friend at William and Mary, or
1:14
maybe Adam Wenslick had a friend at William and Mary.
1:16
Maybe they both did. But I think we all went there
1:18
and saw a game, but that's all I remember.
1:20
What was your experience of Capital?
1:21
What was it like seeing a game there?
1:23
It was actually pretty cool. I mean, the arena was nice.
1:25
I I wouldn't put it quite to level the Robin Center from a a
1:29
layout perspective. The layout was a little wonky in
1:31
my opinion. You came in via one side and
1:34
then to get to the other side, I had to go back through security
1:36
kind of in a second step. But if you actually went into
1:40
where the basketball is played, you could walk across the
1:42
concourse until you get to the other side.
1:45
So that was a little bit unusual, but they have they had
1:47
plenty of seating. But here's the cool thing, they
1:50
actually had a full service food set up, have a lot of options to
1:55
choose from. They had craft beer at the
1:56
ladies game. They had the I think you said it
1:58
was the Williamsburg beer company.
2:00
When I Virginia, Virginia beer company gorgeous IPA was was
2:03
what they were serving, which I did not have, but I've had in
2:06
the past and it's a it's a lovely beer that was great.
2:09
Before I went to the game, I actually had dinner and a place
2:12
recommended by somebody from down there called Sal's by
2:15
Victor. I had the homemade lobster
2:17
ravioli, which by the way, is almost worth the trip to
2:19
Williamsburg for it was fantastic.
2:21
Because all that fresh lobster that comes right off the I.
2:24
Don't know where they got their lobby right?
2:25
Off the but the coastal town of Williamsburg.
2:28
But it was worth eating and let me tell you that it was that got
2:31
me in the right frame of mind to watch some great spider
2:34
basketball. I got there early that it was a
2:36
nice are they honored the military?
2:38
They had the colour guard out. They had an A cappella group at
2:40
William and Mary singing the national anthem.
2:43
It was a really nice set up and a nice experience.
2:46
And sat behind the women's bench.
2:48
So I was able to kind of watch the coaches in action.
2:51
Really impressed by Coach Brittany.
2:52
She's she's really observant during the games.
2:55
I thought she was really good at guiding, you know, where what
2:57
was being run against this word player should be.
3:00
That was that was fantastic. Yeah.
3:03
You want to talk about the game for sure.
3:05
Yeah, let's definitely do that. So I listen to the game, heard
3:09
the radio broadcast, kind of our men's communications contact.
3:14
Jason Vita was on the color commentary and I was, I was
3:18
impressed. So he he's certainly done that
3:20
before. Maybe the pre U of R maybe he
3:24
did that in college, I'm not sure.
3:26
William and Mary grad I think you mentioned.
3:28
But but he was, the team was really good.
3:31
I enjoyed it. I, I've listened to us on the
3:34
radio a lot, in particular the men's team over the years.
3:37
And I, my wife doesn't really like it when we're driving
3:40
somewhere and I'm listening to sports radio, listen to
3:43
broadcast, but I love kind of the imagination side of
3:46
picturing what's going on. And I think the team helped me
3:49
out there. So shout out to Jason on the on
3:51
the color commentary. Awesome.
3:52
Now, can we talk about how good Maggie Dugan is right now?
3:56
I mean, three games and mentioned it before the podcast.
3:59
So last year, I mean, she was player of the year.
4:01
I mean, she was awesome last year.
4:03
If you look at her numbers, A10 player of the year, she averaged
4:07
17 points, a little over 7 rebounds, a little under 4
4:10
assists the game. Obviously we went to NCAA
4:13
tournament, won a game. What an accomplished season.
4:16
Well, three games and she's averaging 25 points, 10.7
4:20
rebounds, averaging a double double and averaging over six
4:23
assists per game. And then we played Texas, so we
4:27
play one of the best teams in the country during those three
4:29
games. So it's not a bad three-game
4:31
stretch to think about. But wow, she's been fantastic.
4:35
Yeah, I mean, whenever the team hits a lull and they need a
4:40
little pick me up, Maggie's there to pick him up.
4:43
And it's just I know how nice it's got to be for Coach
4:46
Rochelle to have the the roster where like, you know, you've got
4:49
somebody who can create either for themselves or for others
4:53
whenever the need comes up. Maggie's special.
4:57
I keep telling folks, if you haven't gotten out to the Robin
4:59
Center to see her play, do it. You'll regret not seeing this.
5:02
This lady in action. She's she's fantastic.
5:05
Now new, now Newell was still out.
5:06
Correct? Newell still out.
5:07
Any information on the how the concussion and nose are coming?
5:12
Along I don't she was not wearing a mask during warmups
5:16
and you know, it's the concussion that they're they're
5:19
more worried about than the than the broken nose.
5:21
So, you know, they just got to go through the protocols and
5:23
make sure she's she's completely good to get back on the court.
5:26
I mean, Newell to me looks like this year our best on ball
5:29
defender. So getting her back will be
5:33
absolutely critical in my opinion.
5:35
Yeah, especially, I mean, we'll talk later about the Columbia
5:37
game coming up this weekend. It'd be great if we get her
5:40
there now. This was a unique game for us so
5:42
far and it was good to learn through this is that both both
5:47
of our fives are, you know, what we think are going to be the two
5:50
with the main, main rotation there, TR Simon and Sam Dewey
5:53
both got the foul trouble. So we had to play really small.
5:57
I don't think that was the intended plan to play small.
6:00
And our freshmen got even more minutes, but that's the first
6:03
time we've had kind of no bigs available at some point because
6:07
they both had two or three fouls early.
6:08
You know, I mean, we got to see a lot of, I think your shout out
6:13
from the one, the first podcast, Shaniqua Campbell last night she
6:16
played, she played 9 minutes. She had seven points in a
6:19
minute. She is, I'm starting to become
6:21
the believer that you were from the first moment.
6:24
Like she's going to be a good player for us.
6:25
She's she's big, she's tall, she's physical and she's
6:30
talented with the ball. So like, I think she's going to
6:32
be a good player. You saw a lot of Ava
6:35
Persichetti. She was in the starting lineup
6:37
last night, which was great to see.
6:39
I mean, she's she's just very confident and she doesn't look
6:43
like a freshman out there. We're still a work in progress.
6:46
I mean, this team is not perfect.
6:48
This team is not ready yet to be an NCAA tournament team.
6:51
But I think by the end of the season we'll have we'll have
6:54
that readiness. Rain Wright played a lot of men
6:58
rain over. 20 minutes yeah, she played good defense too.
7:01
I mean, I thought rain was was who we so they had a girl on
7:04
their team number one. I can't remember her name but
7:06
like we could not stop stop her from hitting the three and and
7:09
people were not. Kind of.
7:10
That was Gettys. Yeah, she's their best player.
7:13
Yeah, we couldn't close out on her fast enough and I think the
7:15
last second-half I saw a lot of rain right on her.
7:17
So that that shows you the coach's confidence.
7:19
In with the glowing shoes, right?
7:21
She still has the. Dude, I like those shoes, man.
7:23
I'm telling you. Like when she scores her 1st 20
7:25
point game, which I think will come maybe even this year, I'm
7:27
going to have her sign one of those shoes and we'll put it
7:29
here in the center of the podcast for everybody to see.
7:32
Because like, because she's doing what she's doing in those
7:35
shoes, she needs to keep doing. And, and Congrats to her.
7:37
I mean, she's played in all three games, but I think
7:39
yesterday, last night was her first points. 9 points 4/9.
7:42
Points so got her, got her first and she was.
7:44
Credited with one steal. I think she had more than one.
7:46
I thought I saw two steals out of her, but she's she's she's
7:51
next year's Newell for me. I think she's going to take a
7:54
huge step forward between a freshman, sophomore year.
7:56
She's already good, but I think she'll take a big step forward
7:58
because it's just about confidence with her.
8:01
You know, Peyton Richards got fourteen pitch and Richard got
8:03
14 minutes. That was good to see.
8:04
We got to play the bench a lot just to see some depth in
8:07
action. And of course, you know you
8:09
still have Maggie going for 36 minutes and Rachel go over 34.
8:13
Rachel hit some threes. That was good to see, He.
8:15
Did yeah. And she actually, it started by
8:18
and she worked inside out. She actually was able to get
8:20
into the lane and get some buckets closer to the ram.
8:23
And then, you know, as she started driving more, it freed
8:26
her up from three, three-point land more because there's
8:29
William and Mary defense which seemed to overcorrect for three
8:32
pointers in the first half. Had to start falling back as we
8:34
were just letting him up in the lane.
8:37
William Mary, they were spirited team.
8:38
I thought they played pretty well and I, I wouldn't put it
8:41
past them to, to, to win. You know, some games in the CAA
8:45
this year, they're going to be, they're going to be a tough out
8:46
for some people. So let's talk about the other
8:51
William and Mary team. So this was William and Mary
8:53
week for the Spiders. The men's had a home game
8:56
against William and Mary on Tuesday.
9:00
We were both there, got to enjoy that game was a close one, lot
9:03
closer than we predicted in 90 to 86 final score.
9:07
Kind of what, what are your initial thoughts about kind of
9:09
how that game went and kind of how we pulled that one out?
9:13
First and foremost, the lady who sang the national anthem really
9:16
just belted that out. I give her props because that
9:18
was a great rendition of it, I think.
9:22
Yeah. I mean, Woody bears a tough
9:23
team. They got a good coach.
9:25
They play a really challenging style.
9:27
I mean, they're very fast. They press the entire game.
9:31
The press is ferocious. We got a chance to interview the
9:36
coaches after the game and the press conference there, and we
9:39
asked the coach about the press and he talked about, you know,
9:42
that's what they do. And it and it for them, they
9:44
like to at least get one 10 second backcourt violation per
9:49
game. And he said Richmond didn't have
9:51
one. So he was actually complimentary
9:52
of us, even though that did create turnovers.
9:54
We came. Close a couple times we did a
9:55
time out. We used a couple time outs to
9:57
prevent it, but like he was he was complimentary.
9:59
He's a good he's at Princeton grad played there four years
10:03
behind Mooney and is a good friend of Chris and called him
10:07
his brother and talked about his talked about Mooney being his
10:10
mentor in a press conference. So they're very close.
10:14
I think that closeness probably does not bode well for that
10:18
match up to be played every year because I don't think they like
10:21
playing each other yet. It it was interesting is we
10:24
talked about it in an earlier podcast about Mooney having this
10:28
three former players who are now coaches.
10:31
And Mooney has said, and we've heard him a couple times when
10:34
asked like, hey, are you going to play those guys?
10:35
He's like, Nope, I'm not, I'm not scheduling that at all.
10:38
And we heard pretty much the same thing about William and
10:41
Mary because of coach Earl being a close friend of Chris and
10:46
hearing him talk about it, because that question was asked,
10:48
is he going to continue the series, made me appreciate
10:51
better his answer about not wanting to play his former
10:54
players. Like you could tell by his
10:57
speech, by the look in his face, like these are when he has a
11:00
close friend, someone that he really respects, someone that he
11:03
cares for on the other side, it's just not fun to play them.
11:07
And so while there's other teams in Virginia, he wants to play.
11:11
And he there was a bit of a complaint.
11:13
Like he wished there was like he's, you know, lived in Phil
11:16
and or seen kind of a growing up in Philadelphia that there was
11:19
more of a like, hey, all the state teams play each other and
11:21
rotate. He wished there was a more
11:22
formal process for that. But anyway, I can understand
11:27
just just hearing him kind of the guy he is is like, I don't
11:30
want to play my good friend. It's just not fun.
11:33
I don't like doing that. And so if there are other
11:34
options like why not get the schedule, other options?
11:38
I will say kind of a side note, I can understand why UConn has
11:42
done so well because nobody seems to like Dan Hurley.
11:47
And so when you got a coach like that, who's ruthless?
11:50
We like you, Dan, if you want to come on the podcast.
11:52
So credit to Dan Hurley because I don't think anyone really
11:56
likes him. And so he'll play anybody and
11:58
whoop by anybody and he's shown that he can do that.
12:01
Well, let's let's talk about the game song.
12:03
I mean, it was a close one. What was it interesting to me
12:05
when we looked at the stats after the game, Like I think
12:08
when we're watching it, our eye test is like we want more Jalen
12:12
Robinson, we want more Daughtry. But when then you look at the
12:15
stats, you kind of see like AP, he didn't shoot well, went over
12:19
4, but his plus minus is 11 and he did have 7 rebounds.
12:24
So it's like coach knows, like when he's a good example of a
12:27
guy who's maybe like the glue guy who knows where he's
12:30
supposed to be. Are you calling?
12:31
Ruma glue the glue guy. I may I may be Ruma glue.
12:36
It's better than a pasta O 4 but but he's a guy.
12:41
O44. Right.
12:43
He's a guy that plays really hard.
12:46
He can rebound. He knows where he's supposed to
12:48
be. He can help run the offense if
12:50
it's not being run the way Mooney wants it.
12:53
And Tanner's another guy. You know, he did score.
12:55
He had a pretty good game offensive wise, but you know, he
12:58
had a + 8 even though his, you know, box score doesn't ring out
13:03
in across the board. Yeah.
13:05
And in contrast, you look at Jalen who was played 7 minutes
13:09
and had a -9 So it's a bit of like he's young, he's
13:11
experienced, he had a great dunk.
13:14
Like he looks like he can have, he has so much potential and
13:16
he'll continue to get minutes. But I, I, when you look at like
13:19
the result of the game, I can understand why Tanner and AP are
13:22
getting a lot of time because coach trust them and they and
13:24
they live up to his trust because they know what they're
13:27
doing and they're not turning the ball over a lot.
13:31
And turnovers can be a problem with younger players.
13:35
Walz's best game on the offensive glass.
13:38
He was really active. I thought he he played
13:41
aggressive. 9 points, 9 rebounds in 21 minutes.
13:45
Just really, really excited to see him him have that game.
13:48
Yeah, and to Walz's credit, like Beagle was great too.
13:51
Their rotation is really well. And what I loved is there were
13:53
times where like Beagle got fouled and walls is standing up
13:59
and hooping and hollering. So like I think there you can
14:02
tell that there's that connection between the two of
14:04
them. They kind of obviously compete
14:06
in practice. We saw some of that pre season,
14:08
but I'd be root for each other. And so if they can, if they can
14:11
both play 20 minutes a game and kind of really be competitive at
14:14
that five spot, we got I'll. Tell you this if if our five the
14:18
five position, which which is we will call it Walls and Beagle
14:22
average, you know, 19 points, 19 rebounds and three assists a
14:26
game for the whole season, we're going to make the NCAA
14:29
tournament as they those guys were very, very effective and
14:31
very, very efficient in in the game against.
14:35
One thing, and this is obviously this, there's still a lot of
14:38
data and a lot of games to, to to happen, but it was a tight
14:42
game and you did see minutes get higher for core group, still No
14:47
1 / 30. But Will Johnson was at 29, so
14:50
almost 30 minutes a game. And at the end you saw he had
14:53
kind of the ball handles out there.
14:54
There was tying Johnson and then, you know, becoming one of
14:57
our favorites, Aiden Arterbright work all out there together when
15:01
the ball when the game got tight.
15:02
So I guess the hypothesis I've been pushing is that I think
15:05
we're going to have five guys who are, you know, 25 minutes
15:08
plus. And then he'll have kind of the
15:10
deep bench to help when either someone has an off night or kind
15:14
of matchups or just for, you know, big, let our team like
15:17
play ferocious, Let those guys do 25 minutes all out and have
15:22
guys come in off the bench. But it was, you know, it's it
15:24
was a fun game to watch. I think tighter than we'd like.
15:27
It seemed like we had the lead more than they did, but never
15:30
could grow it enough to. Feel they were just two they
15:33
were they're going to win some games this year.
15:36
I they're better than I expected and better than I realized yeah.
15:39
I mean, you know, the the team, it's funny because you know,
15:42
coach Russell and Rachel when she came on the show talked
15:45
about stacking practices. Stacking practices is how you
15:48
get better as a player and it's how you get better as a team.
15:51
In in the case of the men's team, I'm going to call it
15:54
stacking wins. We know we have an easy schedule
15:56
to start the year, but that doesn't mean you're going to win
15:59
every game. And so, you know, it's kind of
16:01
like we talked about momentum, like if we can continue to stack
16:05
wins against teams, we should be.
16:07
And we've got two more coming up, VMI and Gardner Webb, which
16:10
we should be, you know, then all of a sudden you start to
16:13
believe. And if you get that, if you
16:14
carry that power and belief into some tougher games, which are
16:17
coming for us as well, you know, maybe you can keep the run going
16:20
past, you know, the easy teams on the schedule.
16:22
So I think Mooney is doing a really good job of wiping clear
16:27
the bad memories of last year. And you know, he's doing it by
16:30
stacking wins early in the season.
16:32
And I mean, the rotation is working.
16:34
Personally, I'm I want to see more than Jaden Daughtry.
16:37
I think, you know, he's one of my best players. 11 minutes.
16:39
It was a little late for me on that front, but that's the only
16:42
real nitpick I had about the rotation.
16:44
I really want to see more of them.
16:45
But like, you know, coach is what coach is doing.
16:47
It's working so. Yeah, and I do think, you know,
16:50
if we think of the 20 years of Coach Mooney, like having less
16:54
than 10 turnovers per game has been kind of part of the the the
16:59
formula for success. And this team so far is not
17:02
doing that. And, and you can see that he
17:04
gets frustrated where there's kind of sloppy turnovers or or
17:08
just maybe good defense by the other team, but.
17:11
When have we ever been plus 20 on rebounding?
17:13
A-Team. Yeah.
17:14
Plus 17 or. Whatever.
17:15
So yeah, we had 53 rebounds, the most ever under Coach Mooney,
17:20
the most since 2003. It goes with the Wainwright
17:23
days. Also, it said that we had the
17:25
most free throws. Ever.
17:27
It was a lot of free Thrones. It was a long game, yes.
17:31
After the press conference, I heard a little bit of an earful
17:33
from the from the wife about making her wait for us to finish
17:36
the press conference, because that was a long game.
17:38
Yeah, yeah, it was, it was maybe over refereed, but maybe we've
17:41
also heard that's kind of early season.
17:44
So we'll hopefully that changes. Now a couple of things also I
17:47
want to bring up, you know, how do we try to add value as a
17:50
podcast? I, I decided, and it's really
17:53
not that exciting, but I decided I'm going to try to keep track
17:55
of the student. Yeah, the student attendance.
17:58
The student counter. OK.
18:00
And I and I haven't really brought it up the other.
18:03
But you have counted. I get a test that you've
18:05
actually been taking. And I'll admit it's easier when
18:07
there's not a lot of students. So it'll I got to figure out
18:09
what that place looks like and maybe I get some help from the
18:13
athletic department of what that fills when it's when we get to
18:16
VCU and we know it'll be packed. OK.
18:18
When we played Southern Virginia, there were 55
18:21
students. Well, first set up when you're
18:22
taking the count. OK.
18:23
I'm trying to do it about the 10 minute mark in the first half,
18:25
so let people come, we know. Because if you did it at the
18:29
zero man mark when the game just starts, it wouldn't be 50.
18:32
Five. No, they're.
18:33
Slow to arrive. Yes, that's right.
18:34
And sometimes U of R does things.
18:35
I don't think they've done it yet, but I know there are times
18:37
where they have like free pizza and they'll do some things where
18:40
you know they're encouraging you to come.
18:42
But that might It doesn't mean you're.
18:43
And by the way, for the for the listener, you're counting the
18:46
student section behind the basket, not the full students in
18:49
the remix. So there could be students.
18:51
Yeah, that's right. I'm not.
18:52
We're counting the ones behind the back.
18:53
Perfect example. So Southern Virginia, there are
18:54
55. We did see it later on that
18:57
there were some, well, some of the players from the women's
18:58
team were there sitting in a different, sitting in a
19:00
different section. I'm not including them.
19:02
I'm also not including cheerleaders.
19:04
I'm not including the dancers. I'm not including the players.
19:06
Are you counting the band? I'm not including the band, but
19:08
I don't know. I don't think they're all
19:09
students either. OK, so 55 at Southern Virginia,
19:12
there were 75 at ECU. I had to count twice, William
19:17
and Mary, there was 100. And then I saw more people come
19:19
in, so it was 120 was my final count.
19:21
So it's growing. Merry game.
19:23
I give credit to this first four rows.
19:25
I don't know if that was a fraternity or just a small group
19:27
of people, but they all came together and those first four
19:29
rows were lively. So that's what we need more of.
19:31
So whoever's in those first four rows, we're giving you a shout
19:33
out. Nice work.
19:34
Yeah. And I would say we got a comment
19:36
from someone on the chat room or two.
19:39
There might have been 120 and that might have been 118 men.
19:44
So again, I think some fraternities did come out, which
19:46
is great. I think poor.
19:46
And I remember the days when the fraternities would have to get
19:49
there, send their pledges early to kind of hold seats because it
19:53
would always sell out. But hope, you know, we got VCU
19:57
twice. We know those games will be
19:59
packed. And again, student has grown and
20:01
we're seeing games where we're winning.
20:03
So winning always helps on that. The other point I want to make,
20:08
we did talk at a prior podcast about how happy we were that
20:11
Falcons Smash was at the Robin Center.
20:13
I would like to, we're going to take credit for the fact that
20:17
during a little after halftime at the William and Mary game,
20:20
they ran out of Falcon Smash. So I'm sure that has to do with
20:24
that beer being great. But I think we'll take credit
20:27
now. Now we may take credit for low
20:29
sales on the BBQ sandwich. I don't have the stats on that,
20:33
but Falcon Smash did run out. I'm hoping they got a, you know,
20:36
the next game is next middle of next week.
20:38
So I'm guessing they'll have another shipment in from the
20:41
distributor. So expect lots of Falcons smash
20:43
available going to have. To be a BBQ sandwich again, to
20:46
see if they heard you and they made it a little bit.
20:48
Less soupy? That's right.
20:50
Too much chance to improve. Too much chance?
20:52
OK, you ready to talk about the upcoming game this Saturday?
20:55
Yeah. So you know, the first and
20:58
foremost, let's talk Columbia, but we're also going to, I'm
21:00
going to mention you folks, the we've got a really tough
21:02
schedule on the ladies side coming up and they've got a home
21:05
game coming up against Temple next Tuesday.
21:08
Make sure you guys come out to the round.
21:10
So Temple beat George Mason is a top 50 team in their in their
21:13
first game. They're going to be a really
21:15
tough out for us. So, you know, if you can come
21:16
out to support the ladies, I promise you, you won't be sorry.
21:20
You do. Temple is a very good team.
21:21
We need you. But even before Temple, we have
21:23
an even better team that we've got to play.
21:25
Yeah, that's right. We got Columbia at Columbia. #34
21:29
in the nation. Right now, that's Saturday, 7
21:31
PMI think it's an ESPN Plus game, so you can shut down your
21:36
Flow Sports account if you purchase it for the William and
21:38
Mary game. But it's Columbia, and Riley
21:42
Weiss is their superstar. Yeah, she's top 50 player in
21:46
America. She's on the preseason watch
21:48
lists. I and back in episode 3, which
21:51
one did we do the ladies practice They they all blending.
21:53
Maybe it was 6. No, it was 6.
21:55
Episode 6 I talked about persichetti as a freshman.
21:58
Reminded me of Riley Weiss. Riley Weiss.
22:01
The best way to describe it is she's just a baller.
22:03
I mean, she doesn't she looks like she's having fun when she
22:05
plays basketball. She's unflappable.
22:08
She sees the court differently than a lot of players.
22:11
She she's a great passer, she's a great shooter.
22:14
She's a very tough that match up.
22:16
She, I think she's 510, five. 11 yeah 5 ten 5/10 right.
22:19
Yeah, and they've got another good player too, who's been
22:22
really lighting it up. We'll talk about her in a second
22:24
as well. But Riley Wise is only a junior
22:27
and and she's legit. But before we get to Riley Wise,
22:30
let's talk about Megan Griffith. You know, we believe that we
22:33
have the mid major coach in America and Aaron Roussell and
22:37
we're very, very lucky to have him and a Spider community.
22:40
You guys need to know how lucky we are to have him so come out
22:43
and support the team. But Columbia has a fantastic
22:45
coach too. Megan Griffith.
22:47
She has really built a powerful program at Columbia.
22:50
She's been the Ivy Coach of the Year the last three years,
22:52
222323242425. She is always a National Coach
22:58
of the Year finalist award in a person.
23:00
She's made two back-to-back at large bids for Columbia out of
23:04
the Ivy. So 2 back-to-back at large bids.
23:07
And this team is no different than anything she's had
23:09
recently. That's a very good team.
23:11
Like I said #34 in America we're currently #28 so this is a team
23:16
that's going to be a serious challenge on the road.
23:19
We beat them at the Henrico Sports Center last year.
23:21
I was at that game. It's going to take everything we
23:24
have to to do that again, I would say.
23:27
Yeah, and just so kind of a little more backup.
23:29
So Columbia is 2 and O they beat Butler in overtime and they beat
23:34
Ohio. If I look at just their stats.
23:38
So they in two games they have they've only played two games so
23:40
far. They have 23 steals.
23:42
So that tells you something about their defense.
23:44
They also have 40 turnovers. So I think if we're we tend to
23:48
turn the ball over, I think so far in three games, but even
23:51
last year, I think more than coach would like part of that is
23:54
the way we, you know, playing fast-paced, but I think we've
23:57
been a little turnover prone. But this is a team that's even
23:59
more turnover prone. So Newell having Newell would be
24:03
great. But if not, we still like we
24:05
need to turn them over because I mean, there's turning it over 20
24:08
a game and they won twice. So they, they, they, they
24:13
certainly have that as a weakness.
24:17
And, and so that's something we could do.
24:18
Yeah. Perry Page.
24:19
Perry Page. 19 points, 10 rebounds.
24:21
And against Butler when they played Ohio, they were clearly
24:24
in control because they played fifteen players.
24:26
They only had to play Weiss 25 minutes and Perry Page 24
24:29
minutes. Weiss went for 18 and 25, Perry
24:32
Page went for 13 and 9 rebounds in 24 minutes.
24:35
And this is a revenge matchup since we beat them last year.
24:38
They give us a home. It's going to be a tough, tough.
24:40
Game Yeah, I will say kind of the where I would you know where
24:42
we have advantages so Perry Page is kind of their 9 1/2 rebounds
24:46
inside presence she's 511 so. Fun.
24:49
I think she's a guard. She's kind of like, she's kind
24:51
of like a Maggie or Rachel. Yeah, but.
24:53
Other say like, you know, Maggie's got Maggie's if Maggie
24:56
is guarding her, like that's, that's something I like.
24:58
Maggie's got a little height and a lot of it.
25:00
And you know, you know, Perry Page is a senior.
25:02
So she is, she's got a lot of experience.
25:04
She knows what she's doing. The one thing I noticed looking
25:07
at their sets too, they haven't yet.
25:09
And I think Riley's been OK, but the team is shooting 28% from 3.
25:14
They shoot a lot of threes. So they haven't really hit it
25:16
yet. So that's, I get a little
25:17
worried to like, you know, is that are they coming around?
25:19
Do they come around with us and shake 40% from 3:00?
25:23
So we, I mean, we, they, they like the three.
25:25
So we got to guard that. Hope we get a lot of turnovers
25:28
and can make them kind of chase US versus the other way around.
25:33
Yeah, For me, I don't know if we win this game at Columbia
25:37
without Newell and if Newell doesn't play.
25:40
I mean, I think that, you know, they have a slight advantage of
25:42
Newell plays. I'd pick us.
25:43
I don't know if I can pick us without Newell because I we need
25:45
that tenacious on ball defender, I guess A-Team like this.
25:50
But it'll be a really, really good game, that's for certain.
25:53
Yeah, it's interesting. You like you think of if you're
25:56
playing University of Richmond, you, you go in there and saying
25:59
like, we'll be Maggie Duke. It's a problem like with a scout
26:03
and your practice is about like, what do you do?
26:05
And not that you're going to shut down Maggie, but you think
26:07
that's your, that's what your approach is.
26:10
And Maggie through three games has shown that that doesn't
26:12
matter. And so you can look at it and
26:15
say, like, well, Riley Weiss is our superstar.
26:17
Like we know the scout and the practice is going to be like,
26:19
how do we slow her down? How do we get in her face?
26:21
But sometimes that doesn't matter.
26:24
Like she's a great. Player find a way.
26:26
And so I do like, you know, Maggie has is on another level
26:31
right now. And so now Riley is averaging
26:34
over 20 a game as well. So she's kind of upped her her
26:38
production. But I do I don't, I don't look
26:41
at it and say like we have to have Newell.
26:42
Like I think if Rachel's getting coming off her first kind of hot
26:46
game with, you know, Maggie just, you know, right now being
26:50
on fire and kind of unstoppable. I I assume we're so favored in
26:53
this game. I haven't seen the spread, but I
26:55
assume we were favored. To be favored.
26:57
Actually, there might be a one point spread in favor of
26:59
Columbia by the time this comes out.
27:00
We'll see. It'll be very, very interesting.
27:02
So, OK, Newell doesn't play. What's your prediction?
27:07
I think it's going to be 6766 Columbia.
27:10
OK, 6766. And I, and I don't want that to
27:14
be right, trust me. But like, Columbia is a that's
27:16
just, I'm just trying to tell the listener how to be the team
27:18
Columbia. Yeah, I think what you're
27:20
missing out then is like what that scoring is going to look
27:23
like. I think we're getting a lot more
27:24
points. I I don't think this is not like
27:26
I see 6766 and say that's a defensive battle.
27:29
We could still lose, but I don't think we're losing in a
27:31
defensive battle. I think it'd be a shootout, but
27:33
I, I think we're going to win. I think we're going to win, 82
27:37
to 70 is going to be. You're going to 12 point win at
27:42
Columbia. I can do that.
27:43
You're I love your afternoon. I think this.
27:45
But you do have us at 28 and three for the season.
27:47
So I do that's. Right.
27:48
You had to go with a win there. I remember I said we're going to
27:50
lose 5. I had Columbia's one of the
27:51
five. So, so we will see again, that's
27:54
Saturday night at 7:00 PM ESPN Plus.
27:57
I'm sure it's going to be on the well, I'm not so sure, but maybe
28:00
it's on the radio as well. Check that out.
28:03
But ESPN Plus will be a fun, fun watch.
28:06
It's going to be a heck of a game.
28:07
I can't wait. Anything else you want to chat
28:09
about today, Porter? Any any other final Williamsburg
28:13
thoughts from the the coastal town?
28:16
It's only an hour away. We have a good crowd down there.
28:18
There were at least 100 Spider fans supporting the ladies.
28:20
Most of us were wearing red, so really love to see that by the
28:24
way, That was fantastic. Well, that's great.
28:26
Well, we will be previewing next week's games, I think, when we
28:30
release our next podcast on Monday.
28:33
So you'll learn more about Temple and VMI at that point.
28:37
I'm no men's game this weekend. So this is all about Columbia.
28:40
So if you haven't been to the Robbins Center, as Porter said,
28:44
plan to be there for the Temple game, but also, you know, prep
28:48
by watching us on ESPN Plus Saturday at 7:00 PM.
28:52
Yeah. Absolutely.
28:53
OK, well, until next time, this is Tom.
28:56
And this is Porter. And this is spider sounding off.
28:58
See you man.