Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Episode 33: Rhode Island & GW Reality Check

Transcript

Episode 33: Rhode Island & GW Reality Check · Spiders Sound Off

0:05
Hey Spider fans, welcome back to Spider.
0:08
Sound off. This is Tom.
0:10
And this is Porter. We are doing our New Year's Day
0:15
recorded pod. Happy New Year, Porter.
0:17
Happy New Year, welcome to 2026 Spider fans.
0:20
Yes, we are. We are talking as we are
0:22
prepping for this pod. We are undefeated in 2026.
0:26
Undefeated. All Spider Sport teams are
0:29
undefeated, no matter whether it's basketball, football,
0:35
quidditch. Yes.
0:37
All of our teams are undefeated. Can I tell you something, Tom?
0:41
My Mama said There were going to be days like these, and right
0:45
now I think all Spider fans are feeling a little bit sore just
0:49
from the beating we kind of took over the last couple days.
0:52
Both teams got the L, both teams played against impressive
0:58
opponents. Both were conference opponents.
1:01
And it started off with in a way I think we, we hoped it
1:03
wouldn't, but it did. So we got to figure out how we
1:06
can come together as a, as a collective, you know, university
1:10
and, and get the results that we want to get going forward.
1:13
You know, it's funny before we dig in and we'll we'll get into
1:16
both of those games in detail. It is funny to for me to reflect
1:19
on last year where the women opened up with a loss at Fordham
1:25
and then didn't lose again until the conference tournament.
1:28
Yes. And the men opened up with a
1:31
home win against GW and then what, won three more games in
1:36
the conference or something, The rest of it.
1:38
So. What was it?
1:39
Like what does this? What does this mean?
1:41
We don't know yet are the men. Going to rattle off 17 straight
1:44
wins, That's the question. Right, Yeah, I doubt that, but
1:47
OK, let's talk about the women. So they lost on the 30th to at
1:51
Uri 73 to 61, a game we weren't really in much until the 3rd,
1:59
and then the 4th was just a disaster.
2:01
But what are your initial reactions to that game, Porter?
2:05
I mean, I think Rhode Island is an elite team.
2:08
I think they're a top 50 team. We've struggled against top 50
2:11
opponents this year. We lost to TCU, Texas and
2:13
Fairfield, all three top 50 opponents.
2:16
You're not going to beat a top 50 team, which is in a in effect
2:19
an NCAA tournament team on the road and have 15 turnovers and 9
2:24
assists. You're just not going to do it.
2:26
Like you've got to play. You know your one of your best
2:29
games to win a game like that and we just haven't.
2:31
We didn't put that together against Rhode Island this week.
2:35
Yeah, it's interesting too. Like, I mean, we the first half
2:37
we weren't very good. The third quarter we kind of got
2:40
it tight. We played some really good
2:42
defense or maybe they just shot bad.
2:44
But in the fourth quarter, we allowed 27 points in the 4th. 1.
2:50
I mean, that isn't that's terrible defense.
2:53
I mean, I think, you know, overall I'm not super concerned
2:58
about the Rhode Island loss because I think we get them
3:00
again at home on the 25th of February.
3:02
If I remember looking at the schedule correctly, You're going
3:05
to, you know, the A10 has improved this year.
3:07
You've got Rhode Island is good, Davidson's good, Saint Joe's is
3:10
good, George Mason's good. And you're you're going to end
3:13
up, I think with two teams making the NCAA Tournament, one
3:17
will be in at large and one's going to win the tournament.
3:19
If the same two teams are both, you might be one team, but
3:22
you're I think you're definitely getting two teams in.
3:25
And so you get a chance to kind of even the score at home
3:27
against Rhode Island later was not our best game.
3:30
And there's some things I think that we have to fix in order to
3:35
to not get beaten like by a team like that when it really
3:38
matters. But I think we'll get them
3:40
fixed. I do.
3:42
Yeah, so let's get into that. I like I I I think it's it's
3:45
time now to be a little critical on on both teams after losses
3:50
like that. I'm not going to try to lighten
3:52
it up here. Like I obviously it was like the
3:55
Maggie show and no one else really had a a game that they
3:58
would consider a good game. I mean, even Maggie turned it
4:01
over a bunch. But I mean, it was kind of
4:04
Maggie was, I think 8 for 15. But Ali, one assist, 4
4:11
turnovers, had like 9 points early and then kind of didn't do
4:16
anything after that. To me, it was one of her worst
4:19
games of the year. Again, it was just tough
4:23
competition and they played really tight D on her but.
4:26
So I think I have AI have a take on that.
4:28
So like I've noticed the games where we struggle, the the
4:32
opponent has an elite defender on Ali.
4:36
If you can pressure the the getting into our offense set,
4:40
like if you can put so much pressure on our one that we're
4:44
slow to getting into our offense, you know, it wears out
4:46
alley over 40 minutes. It it really the team just does
4:49
not play the same without her playing, you know, her typical
4:53
awesome point guard, you know, a game.
4:55
And so I wonder if if a team like Rhode Island, which may
4:59
have one elite defender but not 2 at the guarding the guard, I
5:03
wonder if it would be easier for the team if we if we switched up
5:06
who brought the ball up court and almost switch Alicia and Ali
5:09
from the one and the two and make Ali the shooting guard.
5:12
Because Ali's let's face it, she's our third best or maybe in
5:16
her second best depending on the game 3 point shooter on the
5:19
team. And you need her legs to be good
5:21
late in the game. I mean, she started off 3 for
5:23
four in the first half from three and she was over 5 in the
5:25
second-half. And I wonder if that's just the
5:27
fatigue of having that elite pressure on her all game of
5:30
bringing the ball up the court. So I wonder if switching who
5:33
brings the ball up the court, would A get the get us into the
5:36
offense faster and B save Ally's legs for late in the game
5:38
because we absolutely need Ally to to play, you know, at the
5:42
level she plays at 90% of the time in order for this team to
5:46
to make some noise in March. So I think that.
5:49
But then again, as I was starting to think about that,
5:51
like, if you have an elite defender, why wouldn't you just
5:53
put that person on Alicia when she brought the ball up the
5:55
court and you have the same issues slow to get in your set
5:57
because Ali is the best ball handler on the team, Let's face
6:00
it. So.
6:01
I'll tell you what surprised me when I looked at the box score
6:03
afterwards, like I like I watching the game, I was like,
6:06
boy, Ali and Rachel did not have their best stuff.
6:09
And then watching the looking at the box score, Ali played 40
6:13
minutes. She was the only one to play 40
6:16
minutes. And I have to think that coach
6:19
when he looked at the stats after the game was like, why did
6:22
I not rest Ali at some point? Like we you could put rain right
6:26
out there and have Newell at the point guard and you can do that
6:31
for or have Ava out there as the other guard.
6:34
You can do that for two or three minutes to give Ali a break.
6:38
Yeah. Rising that he was subbing
6:40
Rachel early and subbing Maggie early and felt like he could
6:44
never sub Ali. And I wonder if he lost track of
6:47
that at some point because 40 minutes for her, that mean I
6:50
don't know how many games she's done all 40 minutes.
6:53
And that didn't seem to be the game where she was that great
6:56
that you just had to keep her in there for the whole, you know,
6:59
20 minutes of the second-half. I think, you know, the, the
7:02
pressure was, was intense as she brought the ball up the court
7:05
and I and I and there's got to be another way which we can keep
7:09
her a little fresher and and let her do her thing.
7:13
I don't, I don't, I don't have the answer.
7:14
Luckily, I'm not, I'm not the coach that's going to figure
7:17
this out. We've got the coaching staff
7:18
that'll figure it out. But it's, it's, it's apparent
7:21
like if you go back and watch the, the Texas game, especially
7:24
like elite ball defense on our on our one slows the entire flow
7:29
of our read and react system. And so you almost have to have a
7:31
second, a second way of doing things.
7:33
The other saying that I wonder, and this is just I was been
7:36
thinking about it. I don't know if you said it or I
7:38
was talking to a couple other Spider fans who were watching
7:40
the game, said it. Somebody said this to me.
7:42
But like, you know, Maggie is unbelievable at everything she
7:48
does, including she's really trying to get the rest of the
7:51
team involved and be the leader of the team.
7:53
But I wonder if the more effective way of using Maggie
7:57
might just to be to unleash her. And what I mean by that is say
8:00
Maggie go score 50 points this game and make them make them
8:04
double team her because you cannot stop Maggie one-on-one in
8:07
this league. I don't believe right.
8:08
I don't think anybody can guard Maggie one-on-one in this
8:10
league. So maybe the answer is just
8:12
turning Maggie loose and saying be selfish.
8:14
Take every shot you can, score 50.
8:17
And in doing that, I think you're going to force opposing
8:20
coaches to double her a lot more.
8:22
And that will open up Rachel and Ally and Alicia for other
8:26
things. So.
8:27
Yeah, you read. You read my mind.
8:28
I had in my notes like games like that.
8:30
I want to see Maggie try to score 40.
8:32
Yeah, you. Know she had 15 shots, Ally and
8:36
Rachel each had ten and I was looking at some of these stats
8:41
so it's interesting we're like on the we obviously if you're
8:43
watching us on YouTube, we're in different locations today.
8:46
Usually Porter and I are together so where we haven't
8:49
been able to share all of our notes like we might normally do
8:52
so I was looking at shots per 40 minutes.
8:55
Maggie takes a lot of shots. She's 18.3 shots per 40 minutes,
8:58
but I was like, let me look at some comparisons.
9:02
Mick Miller from Penn State, you just alive.
9:05
She takes 23.7 shots per 40 minutes.
9:09
Hidalgo from Notre Dame is one of the best players in the
9:13
country. She takes 23.6 shots per 40
9:16
minutes. So those are teams where they
9:18
have like 1 elite scorer. These are good teams.
9:23
They're not a top ten team. I think if you go to like South
9:25
Carolina and UConn, you find like they're even Texas, like
9:28
their best players aren't taking 24 shots per 40 minutes because
9:32
they have, you know, 4 superstars or three superstars.
9:37
But it, it does point to like there are teams that are really
9:41
pushing shots through kind of in their elite player more than we
9:46
are. And so now to be clear, like,
9:50
you know, I looked at Maggie, if you look at shots per game,
9:53
she's like 18 in the country and scoring, she's 6.
9:56
So it's not like she's 50th in the country in shots per game.
10:02
But I do think there are games like this when you know, Rachel
10:05
is 2 for, you know, Rachel ended 2 for 10, didn't make any 2
10:09
pointers. You know, obviously Ali didn't
10:13
have great shooting in the second-half.
10:15
Like the point in time when the third quarter got tight, it's
10:18
like Maggie like don't be driving and kicking it out to a
10:23
covered alley. Like there were some turnovers
10:25
in that game, which was her trying to force the ball to
10:29
somebody else. But when the other players
10:32
aren't hitting it, I, I want the selfish Maggie.
10:35
And like, I got to score 40 tonight.
10:37
Yeah. And I.
10:38
Mean, and this is by the way, not to take any credit from
10:40
Rhode Island. They are a phenomenal team.
10:42
Like they like they looked like us last year.
10:44
They had elite ball movement, passing it around the perimeter.
10:47
They had inspired play. They came to play that game and
10:51
they're a good team. And, and all I can say is I'm
10:53
glad we get them again because I, I want to have a chance at
10:56
them before we get into the tournament, just to kind of
10:59
remind everybody what we can do. Let me give you some good Rhode
11:03
Island memories. So during the game, you probably
11:06
didn't pay attention to this as much as I did.
11:09
But at some point during the game, there was a, you know,
11:11
there's like these commercials. There's like, you know, a
11:14
Richmond, you know, University of Richmond commercial.
11:17
There's usually an opponent Rhode Island commercial.
11:19
Well, there was actually a commercial for a restaurant in
11:22
Narragansett, RI called the Coast Guard House.
11:25
They had a big commercial showing it and I was at one of
11:29
my high school friends wedding receptions at that restaurant in
11:34
1998. Now this is my friend, we'll
11:37
call him Kickball and it's called the Coast Guard House
11:42
Restaurant, but we call it and my wife and I still call it the
11:44
Coast Guard House restaurant because that was the that was
11:48
the accent you had to use. It was the Coast Guard I.
11:51
Got you. And a little bit of like how,
11:54
how long ago was 1998? A a friend of mine who was at
11:57
the wedding Mr. Smith had and tell me if you've ever seen one
12:01
of these the Motorola sports tracks.
12:05
It it was a it was a pager that gave you sports scores.
12:10
Wow. So this is this is way before
12:12
the the the iPhone. Yes.
12:15
And the Mets, he's a big Mets fan.
12:16
The Mets were having a great year that year.
12:19
And to get this in the, I think late in the summer.
12:22
And so he was at the reception, like on this little pager thing,
12:25
like updating people with the Mets score.
12:27
Now I got you. I got.
12:29
You, you ready to talk about the men's game against?
12:30
Yeah, what we. Do don't, don't lose sight of
12:32
the fact that you know you play the top 50 team on the road.
12:35
It it was a loss. It wasn't a bad loss.
12:38
We get them again. I'm the ladies are going to be
12:40
OK. We just got some things to
12:41
figure out. Yeah.
12:43
OK, so let's talk about that GW game.
12:45
So I was at the game. We, you know, as, as you all
12:47
probably know by now, we got crushed.
12:49
We lost 99 to 85. Let let me start with some good
12:52
things. This was New Year's Eve at 4:00.
12:55
We had almost 5000 there. So there's a good crowd.
12:58
Obviously there's no students, they're gone, but it's good
13:00
sized crowd. Crowd was, you know, as loud as
13:02
you'd expect with 5000. Good crowd.
13:05
If you've looked at the stats, you saw the game.
13:07
If you just watched our offense, like our offensive stats were
13:10
pretty good. We shot 49%, including 43% from
13:14
three and we had a change in the starting lineup, which I like
13:18
to, you know, for those who listen to our last podcast, I
13:20
kind of call like, hey, get into a 10, are we going to change?
13:23
We had Daughtry now as a starter.
13:25
So that was exciting. He scored 23 points in 22
13:29
minutes. Like that was that is awesome
13:32
that I think there's a we'll talk a little bit more about,
13:35
you know, maybe he should get more minutes.
13:36
But anyway, he had a great night.
13:38
Johnston, who had taken one shot in two games, like went off at
13:42
20 points, went 6 for 13, no turnovers in 27 minutes.
13:46
So that was great. Great game for him, yeah.
13:50
Couple other things. These are kind of side notes.
13:52
Like I, I've never mentioned it before, but the people who work
13:55
in the beer line in particular, we go to the beer station in the
13:57
corner, which is closest to campus.
13:59
Like those folks are great when we got there before the game,
14:03
like they had a line up of like 5 or 6 Falcons like already open
14:07
ready to sell their like these things go like crazy.
14:09
So they they were ready to go. So good for them my wife.
14:13
Thank you to the folks. Thank you to the folks keeping
14:17
the fans well well-intentioned with the Falcons match.
14:21
A couple other good things and then we'll just get into the
14:23
nightmare. 1A credit. I always forget about this.
14:26
This is, again, I'm kind of stretching here for some good
14:29
news. We we get, we have a parking
14:31
pass and the cops who when you're walking to the game,
14:35
we're always there to stop traffic like, and those cops who
14:39
are helping us get across the road safely are always awesome,
14:43
always very nice and polite. So credit to them.
14:45
Thank you to the police. Yeah, well, I, I, I'm going to
14:48
have some police criticism later.
14:49
So that's my way to, like, pay. It's not all bad.
14:52
And the last part, I'd say, like, it could be worse.
14:55
We could be Davidson with a home game, with a pregame ceremony
15:01
where we're naming an exit after Stephen Curry, who's there at
15:06
the game. And we've announced this exit.
15:10
We showed the sign. We have this big, you know,
15:12
thing, and then we lay an egg and lose at home.
15:15
So it it it I think it could be worse.
15:18
When I looked at how much Davidson kind of hyped up this
15:20
event and then just didn't play very well and.
15:23
At home, if I can give you props for a second too, you called the
15:25
Loyola thing you said they're going to get right for just in
15:28
time for the A10. Then they go beat Santa Clara
15:30
and then they win their first game against Rhode Island in the
15:32
A10. So thank you Loyola for
15:34
completely being a Wrecking Ball to everything power wise in the
15:37
A10. OK so now I'm ready to talk
15:41
about the bad. Do you have any good any any
15:43
other good you want to talk about or should we just get into
15:45
the like how we allowed 99 points?
15:47
OK, so just some some stats out there.
15:50
Yes, we allowed 99 points. GW is a good team could be end
15:55
up a great team. So similar to losing at Rhode
15:57
Island like this is not us laying an A against a terrible
16:01
A10 team like GW could win the A10 like they are super
16:04
talented. Yep.
16:05
However, they shot almost 60%, they shot over 50% from three.
16:12
And this is the second game in a row where we were just not
16:15
competitive and they're both at home.
16:18
So you, you look at that Charleston Southern game and you
16:21
think like, OK, boy, we weren't competitive.
16:24
We didn't play great 3 point defense.
16:26
We kind of got behind from the beginning like, hey, how do we
16:29
fix that? And then we play whatever.
16:32
Three days later we play another game and from the get go they're
16:36
shooting bombs and they're shooting deep threes.
16:39
But we're not out there. We're not aggressive enough.
16:43
You know, I once, I once know playing intramural basketball
16:48
against the football team at Richmond.
16:49
This is back in the early 90s. And because I'm 6 foot 6, I get
16:54
to play inside against the football team, right?
16:57
And so you're playing against all guys who were like, you
16:59
know, 63 to 65 and, you know, weigh 280 lbs and I'm probably
17:04
180 at that point in time in my life.
17:06
And I've never been so beaten physically in my life.
17:10
I mean, they absolutely just manhandled me.
17:12
I mean, I, I was, I felt like I was permanently implanted into
17:16
the into the pad and wall around the basketball court.
17:18
I took so much, so much contact into the wall.
17:20
So, yeah, I mean, I use Castro as a man.
17:22
And you, you just to play it play against him, you're going
17:25
to have to bring your A game inside.
17:27
You're going to have to be physical and dominant and
17:30
imposing. And I just didn't see that.
17:31
Like I didn't feel it from watching it on TV so.
17:34
Right. And and the problem is like it,
17:36
it wasn't just Castro. Yes, he had a season high
17:38
against us with 27 points, but guess what Autry?
17:42
Because one of their guards also had a season high 24 points.
17:46
Can I give you a nugget on Autry?
17:47
Yeah, sure. OK, so this comes from RC Cola
17:50
in New York. We started this podcast early
17:53
summer this year and we talked about the the most impressive
17:57
win in our time at Richmond where we beat Syracuse.
18:01
It's a 15 versus the two seed on that Syracuse tournament team.
18:05
The 1st 2:00 to ever lose to a 15 was a freshman guard went by
18:09
the name of Adrian Autry. Adrian Autry has moved his way
18:13
through the college basketball ranks.
18:14
He's now the head coach at Syracuse.
18:16
Trey Autry is Adrian Autry's son, and last night in the Robin
18:20
Center, he exacted his revenge for what that 91 team did to
18:25
Syracuse. So hats off to the Trey Autry.
18:28
We, we recognize the lineage and we respect what you were able to
18:32
do. Congrats on that that that that
18:34
that that game. And yeah, and so he was awesome.
18:38
He was 8 for 1124 points and then Dink. 224 point plays
18:43
within 90 seconds. 24 point plays within 90 seconds.
18:46
Yeah, and that and and Dinkins their their other guard who was
18:49
killed us from when he was at Duquesne, he had 22 points,
18:53
which is only one point behind his season high.
18:55
So they basically had their three players who had their game
18:58
of the year or in Dinkins case almost his game of the year.
19:02
I looked up, so in Bardovic you can click a button and say just
19:07
give me these stats for conference games only.
19:09
Now obviously conference play hasn't even started for a lot of
19:12
teams. So I was looking at defence
19:17
efficiency and, and pick just conference.
19:20
So it's basically only looking at our one game.
19:22
And there's about 250 teams who have played one conference game.
19:26
Yeah, another hundred who haven't.
19:29
And the ones who hadn't played a game have like the best, you
19:32
know, their, their efficiency is perfect.
19:33
So they don't really count. Where do you think that game was
19:36
ranked out of the 365 teams? From a from a efficiency
19:41
perspective. Yes.
19:43
We're probably in the bottom, in the bottom 10%.
19:46
How's that? It was 365.
19:49
Oh, the worst in all of college basketball.
19:50
The worst in all of college basketball.
19:52
So now again, that's not looking at all games year today, that's
19:55
just kind of picking the in conference games that didn't
19:57
allow you to do it the way I really wanted to.
20:00
But it was just entertaining to me that like for every team in
20:03
all of college basketball that's played a college game, no one's
20:05
played worst defense or a conference game, no one has
20:07
played worst defense. Somebody's.
20:09
Got to be first. Somebody's got to be last, huh?
20:11
Yeah, that's right. And The thing is GW, they they
20:15
are the 60th ranked three-point offense.
20:17
So it's not like, oh, these guys are terrible at 3 pointers and
20:21
finally had a good game. I mean, yeah, 17 from 33 is kind
20:25
of crazy. And they did when they lost to
20:27
Delaware, they they went eight for 28 so they can get cold.
20:32
But they were 15 for 28 against American earlier this year when
20:35
they blew them out. So like they've been even better
20:38
from 3:00. So we knew going in they're
20:41
going to shoot 3. Now you probably noticed it on
20:43
TV. It was obvious in person, like
20:46
they were shooting like NBA 3 pointers.
20:49
But at some point you got to get out on them and like and coach
20:53
in his post game kind of was saying like there's an extra he
20:56
called it like, you know, it's not that we we're not it's not
20:59
effort. But when you in the A10 and like
21:01
tough basketball game, there's just an extra level needed and
21:05
he's not seeing that right now. And even Johnston.
21:08
I love the Johnston's post game. There's they're all
21:10
accountability too. He's like we just got to be
21:12
better. We just in this A10 to tough
21:14
league, we just got to play better and the guy's got to come
21:15
out with more intensity. I loved Johnston's post game by
21:18
the way. So hats off to him for not
21:20
making any excuses. He just owned it and said we're
21:21
going to get better. So I love that, by the way.
21:24
A couple other kind of bad notes and I'm going to to get into
21:26
some non game stuff in a second. But Waltz, I mean, yes, like
21:30
he's playing a tough center defense ought to be first on his
21:34
mind. And Castro killed him.
21:36
But Waltz was O for three, including O for two for three.
21:40
So he took one shot from inside. I remember one play where he
21:44
like he, he literally got around his guy and it looked like he
21:47
was heading right for the basket.
21:48
I thought we're going to get the double top the the full tomahawk
21:51
slam. And then he kicked it out for a
21:53
three-point shot and I was like, why did he kick that out?
21:56
That was one thing I noticed. Yeah, and something you didn't
21:58
see they had they had some good videos during time outs.
22:01
That was the player, the the players on the team giving like
22:04
their 2026 resolution. You know, some were like, I want
22:09
to, you know, win the A10 or win the conference tournament.
22:12
And some was about like academics who was kind of
22:14
well-rounded. So walls you, you and you know
22:17
how much I love this. His resolution was to hit 40%
22:21
from 3. That that that's what I want my
22:25
611 center and remember beginning of the year, he's
22:28
like, I want my goals to shoot 50 threes well in.
22:31
Fairness, though, he is a great 3 point shooter.
22:33
He is, he's a great 3 point shooter.
22:35
So like I, I can get that being a resolution, but we also need
22:39
him to what you're saying. I think it's tomahawk the heck
22:41
out of that ball when he's when he's got the lane to the hoop
22:43
because nobody's going to stand in front of a six 11260 LB
22:47
center that wants to get to the rim.
22:48
Like he's just too big. And he had eight rebounds early
22:51
on. He he had some nice rebounding
22:53
in the first half and he was really aggressive there.
22:55
But I mean, that's where it's like I want my 611 center to say
22:59
like, you know, my resolution is to average 1010 rebounds per
23:03
game in A10 play versus I want to.
23:06
And he's already shooting 39% from 3.
23:08
Like I said, he's an Elite 3 point shooter, so I mean like, I
23:10
don't want him not taking threes.
23:12
And by the way, I don't mind that you missed too much.
23:14
For elite, you can't use elite. 40% for a 611 guy is pretty darn
23:18
good, Tom. That's, let's be honest, that's
23:20
pretty good. He was 40% last year.
23:22
He was like, he led the team in three-point percentage last
23:24
year. So at the end of the day, I
23:26
don't mind him taking those 2-3 pointers, but I also want the
23:29
I'm going to take this to you and destroy the rim in the
23:33
process. I want that too.
23:34
OK, a couple other things, Daughtry.
23:36
Like I'm, I'm, I'm super happy he's in the starting line up.
23:40
I'm glad his minutes increased a little.
23:42
But when you got a guy who's 9 for 11 shooting and you look at
23:47
the box score and say he played 22 minutes like in a month from
23:51
now and he'll have his bad days. But like that's a game where he
23:55
ought to be playing 32 minutes. Like they could not stop him and
23:59
he got the ball and he was just taking it to the hoop, going one
24:02
versus 2 at times and still scoring.
24:05
Like I see 9 for 11 shooting and that tells me he's not shooting
24:08
enough and that's minutes. As one of our as one of our
24:12
listeners texted me multiple times about Daughtry.
24:15
He's a grown ass man. It's as simple as that.
24:17
He's a grown ass man. I mean, he literally is just
24:20
freaking force of nature for us. And I love, I love that like
24:24
he's coming into the lore of spider Dome here because he is
24:28
a, he is a physical beast inside and and we just, we just need
24:32
more of that. I agree with you 100%.
24:34
OK, and then the last thing this is, you know, we love Aiden
24:37
Arger Bright. He he could be a a superstar for
24:40
us at Richmond and he's had some games where he already has shown
24:43
that. But I if you look over the last
24:45
four games, this these are his points, 2 points, five points,
24:50
12 points, 4 points. So he had 12.
24:56
Again, Georgia Southern, I'm sorry, Charleston Southern, but
24:59
that's like, we need more than two.
25:02
You know, he had two at Elon. He had four against GW.
25:07
He he still looks fresh out there.
25:09
He's really, he's still being aggressive.
25:11
So I don't think it's like anything that's holding him
25:13
back. He just hasn't been able to find
25:15
the opportunities. According to Evan Maya,
25:17
Argabrite's our most efficient player, so he needs he needs to
25:20
be out there. He's our most efficient player,
25:22
both combination offensive and defensive efficiency, about what
25:26
the game situation is, who he's played against, all of that's
25:28
factored in. He's the most efficient Spider
25:30
this year. So I I hear you.
25:32
We need more Argabrite, but like I'm happy with the Argebrite
25:36
that goes out there and just wreaks havoc, you know, because
25:38
he's so fast too. Like if he's if he's drawing
25:41
charges, getting steals, those are all ways he's helping the
25:43
team Argebrite Daughtry. I personally am a big David
25:49
Thomas believer. I want to see more David Thomas.
25:52
I think he's defensively a a really nice option for US
25:56
against certain guard matchups. He's also got a nice 3 point
26:00
shot. I think the walls Eagle go
26:04
ahead. Yeah.
26:05
So I'm good with that. Yeah, I think.
26:07
I think the Wall Eagle platoon is good.
26:09
I think Will Johnston is our best offensive player.
26:11
He needs to shoot when he's out there.
26:14
Not our best defensive player, by the way, like Ruma Glue.
26:16
Great defensively, not so great offensively.
26:18
I'm just reading efficiency numbers from Evan Maya.
26:21
AJ Lopez is the opposite. Great offensively, not so good
26:23
defensively. It's like if we could combine
26:25
Ruma Glue's defense with AJ Lopez's offense, we'd have the
26:28
perfect player. Yeah, yeah.
26:30
I mean, it is a problem. Like we even, you know, ignore
26:33
this GW game. Like we've been OK defensively.
26:37
Like I think if you look at the efficiency numbers, we're like
26:39
120 or something along those lines in most cases.
26:44
There are some exceptions, but in most cases when Richmond has
26:47
had a great year, like our defensive efficiency is like top
26:50
50. That's part of what leads our
26:53
team and why we've been successful.
26:55
It doesn't always have to be that way, but I do think like if
26:58
you look at our team, you know, you mentioned David Thomas, name
27:03
someone else that you think is a good to great defender.
27:08
I think Ruma Glue's a good defender, I think he's a good
27:11
defender, and I think the metrics backed that up.
27:14
So yeah, but like, that's the problem with our team.
27:17
Like you've got two guys who are in the rotation tend to be less
27:21
than 20 minutes a game. And I'm not suggesting they need
27:24
25 minutes just because they're good at defense, but you look at
27:27
like the major contributors on our team and none of them would
27:30
you put in the like great defender category.
27:34
So I think that's going to be a challenge for us all year.
27:36
Here's what I'll say. Here's what.
27:37
I'll say and. And again, the the wounds aren't
27:40
as fresh because I was watching it from across the room.
27:42
And so I just and I I was doing a lot while I was watching it.
27:45
So I was like not as emotionally invested as when I'm in the
27:48
Robin Center. Our Nets 125.
27:51
Evan Meyer has this 124. Team ranking says 130.
27:54
Ken Pom says 120. The pre season spider ranking
27:58
was 119. It's scary how accurate those
28:01
advanced projection systems are right now.
28:04
We have a lot of season ahead of us.
28:06
We're 10 and four. We can bounce back.
28:10
It's going to take a lot of effort from the guys and the
28:12
coaches to figure out, you know, what needs to happen in order
28:16
for us to bounce back. But we can bounce back with this
28:19
team, still can be disruptive in the A10 and could potentially
28:23
win the A10 tournament. So I'm not pulling the emergency
28:26
cord yet. This isn't Fordham we lost to,
28:29
this is GWGW is a. Like you said, they are a very
28:33
good team with a couple bad losses.
28:36
Otherwise they would be being talked about as a surefire at
28:39
large team. Yeah, it is.
28:40
The three out of four is the is the tough part.
28:43
Like if that becomes 5. Charleston Southern was way more
28:46
painful because that's a team that you have to beat at home,
28:48
right? So, but I got what you're
28:51
saying. I totally get what you're saying
28:52
and then let. Me give you some other bad some
28:54
other bad stuff OK and I might get kind of hot here and you
28:58
know I'll I'll try not to get too hot OK so.
29:00
Keep in mind we're 31 minutes in and we have two scouts still to
29:03
give our. Listeners, I know this, this
29:04
will be cool. So we stay till the end of the
29:08
game. We try to always stay to the
29:09
end, like, and even when that game is over, like I just want
29:12
to see as much as I can. This is even before we've had
29:14
this pod stay to the end, get to the car.
29:17
I like listening, even when I'm mad.
29:20
I want to listen to the radio broadcast.
29:22
And you know, on the drive home, we're about 15 minutes away.
29:25
So we we drive up Snake Road to get the three chop and the cops
29:30
are like scrambling to get out of their car to start blocking
29:33
traffic. Like, and this is not the first
29:36
time that's happened. I'd say like one out of four
29:38
games, I'm leaving at the end of the game.
29:40
I'm not leaving early, not leaving super late.
29:43
And it's like I've had cops just like sitting in their car when
29:46
you get to 3 CHOP like that drives me nuts.
29:49
OK, so I'm now I'm kind of like, I'm already mad because I
29:52
watched this debacle of the game.
29:54
I'm like, these cops are like running out of their car with
29:56
their flashlights to, to get traffic going.
30:00
Then I I'm listening on the radio and Oh my gosh, what a
30:03
mess. Like the volume on the radio is
30:07
all over the place. I can't hear one guy talking.
30:09
I can hear the other guy like way too loud.
30:11
Like I'm playing with the volume up and down, up and down.
30:15
And as as our spider sound off sound guy that drives you crazy,
30:18
I can attest. Yeah, we don't do.
30:20
I don't know. You know, there's a lot of
30:21
challenges in Live, but like, they need some better equipment
30:24
because that was driving me crazy.
30:26
For the second game in a row, it took almost 15 minutes before
30:32
Mooney got onto the broadcast. So I know we've had two bad
30:36
losses. I'm.
30:36
Thinking I'm thinking he's got a little bit to say after those
30:39
games. Too.
30:39
Yeah, that's right. But when he gets on, I can't
30:42
hear him. It's like.
30:45
I mean, I'm sorry, like maybe they're, maybe they're
30:48
intentionally turning down the volume for that part.
30:49
I don't know. You never know, right?
30:51
It's like the team took the night off the the the cops at 3
30:55
CHOP took the night off. The radio producer took the
30:58
night off like it was terrible. And and guess what?
31:01
We didn't even get free chicken. No free.
31:03
Chicken. They went 14 for 15 from free
31:06
throw. It was the worst, worst New
31:08
Year's Eve. Ever.
31:10
That is terrible. Yeah, I actually had a little
31:13
mini party down here with some folks, by the way, who are from
31:16
upstate New York, and they were giving me a couple Nuggets about
31:19
Saint Bonaventure experience. So look, can I jump into the
31:22
Saint Bonaventure scout with you?
31:23
Yeah, we got them at 3:00 PM on Saturday.
31:27
Yeah, ESPN plus games in Olean, if I looked at it correctly.
31:31
Is that what you saw? Yeah, Yeah, that's right.
31:33
Yeah. Coached by coached by Jim
31:35
Crowley. Crowley spent three years at
31:37
Providence and this is his third year with the Bonnies.
31:39
He did not have much success playing in the Big East.
31:42
He had three losing seasons at Providence.
31:44
He started off with two really bad St.
31:46
Bonnie teams. And this is his third year and
31:48
he's actually turned them around a little bit.
31:50
They're 10 and four this year. They're not super highly rated.
31:53
Bartorvic has him as 2/18. We're #45 As I previously
31:56
mentioned, in Bartorvic, Bartorvic sees a spider win, a
32:00
pretty easy Spider win 15 points.
32:02
I'm a little worried because Olean is a really tough place to
32:05
play. You got to fly into random
32:06
places and then take long bus rides up there and it's cold.
32:09
And it's like the the whole city comes together and it's like
32:12
they it's the religion is Saint Bonaventure basketball.
32:16
They feature 2 seniors who are very efficient players.
32:18
Laci Drake, she's 5 foot 6 and Eliah Parker who's 5 foot nine.
32:24
They also are are two of the leaders in in production.
32:28
I think Drake is 16.6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and then
32:33
Parker is 1213.6 rebounds. So those are the 2, the two
32:39
folks you got to worry about. I, I think we get well here.
32:43
I don't know. I mean, the coaches will be,
32:46
they'll have the, the girls ready to play.
32:48
I don't know if we win by 15 because Olean's a tricky place
32:51
to go up and play with no matter when, when you're playing or who
32:54
you're playing. But I think we win.
32:56
I think it'll be a double digit win.
32:57
I'm going to go Spiders by 13. OK, Yeah, I like that.
33:01
I you said their coaches is Crowley.
33:03
Yes. Is there any truth to the rumor
33:07
that Ozzy Osbourne song Mr. Crowley is about the coach at
33:11
Saint Bonaventure? Is that true or false?
33:13
I don't know the song you're referring to.
33:15
I wasn't, I wasn't much of an Aussie listener, I'll be honest
33:18
with you. So.
33:19
Yeah, OK. So that's I think it's an ESPN
33:22
plus so that we can all watch that from home on Saturday.
33:25
I'm gonna get right game hopefully at Saint Bonaventure.
33:29
The team obviously is go I'm I'm assuming they're coming back
33:31
from Rhode Island and then going out to Saint Bonaventure, but
33:34
there is no class. So I'm curious if there's any
33:37
unique travel plans during this week that's.
33:40
Great, for sure. Yeah, you.
33:42
Know, maybe they're staying up there or doing something, who
33:45
knows? The men are at Fordham.
33:50
So you know, we've lost two games in a row at home and the
33:53
men on Sunday are at Fordham. This is not I did some research
34:00
research on this is not the same old Fordham.
34:02
So they have a new coach and and they have 13 new players.
34:11
I was reading about their coach Mike Magpeo or Magpieo really
34:18
interesting. First, he calls kind of their
34:23
philosophy nerd ball. I think he'd like that.
34:26
I think he stole that from a prior coach, but kind of a
34:29
heavily dated influence to their systems that he's bringing in.
34:34
Looks at 3 pointers as hey, we need to be making 12A game and
34:38
we will win that way. They just had a tight loss at
34:41
Dayton. They only at Dayton, which we
34:43
all know is a tough place to play.
34:44
They lost 63 to 56. They were 9 from 34 from 3, so
34:49
had a rough 3 pointing 3 point day.
34:52
But again, Dayton is a, is a good team.
34:55
They're always a good team. And that was a they were up at
34:58
some point in that game. It looked like there's going to
35:00
be a bunch of upsets on the 31st ended up not being really any.
35:05
But that's a, a nice loss in a way.
35:09
You go out, go on the road and compete with Dayton.
35:12
They have a lot of Richmond connections in a weird.
35:16
Way so that Kevin Smith is up there.
35:18
So Kevin, that's right. So Kevin Smith is an assistant
35:21
coach. He's new.
35:22
He came under kind of Mike Payo hired him.
35:26
They actually worked together at Campbell, a tie back.
35:31
So the kind of that's connection.
35:32
Yeah. And so in Campbell, if you don't
35:36
know, like 1 of Mooney's kind of big assistants for kind of the
35:40
first half half of his career here, Kevin Mcgeehan was over at
35:45
Campbell for a while. He he I think just had his last
35:48
year, last season, but he was there for a while.
35:53
Hovde ended up at Columbia with Mag Payo.
35:58
So like they've got that connection and they went out
36:02
West together, you know, kind of cross pass a bunch.
36:06
So there's a lot of connections there.
36:09
So he, you know, he goes back to Kevin Smith a while.
36:12
This is not his first head coaching gig.
36:14
He was at UC Riverside, I believe, and kind of turned that
36:17
program around, had them winning 20 games.
36:21
And then so got this job at Fordham where, you know, he was
36:25
at Columbia before. So he has a kind of New York
36:26
connection. And so I was happy to come back
36:29
to New York. So I think he's really trying to
36:31
change that program. They can.
36:33
Like I said, they got 13 new players.
36:36
Dejour Reeves was a star at Iona that they brought in from the
36:40
portal. Interesting.
36:43
Like again, he was first team in the Mac, but this is his fourth
36:47
school in four years. Average is about 16 per game.
36:52
They got AX date Davidson player Ricca Schult, who's a German
36:57
player that was a Davidson, didn't really do much his
37:00
freshman year. This is his third team in three
37:03
years. He's a 69 junior.
37:06
They're they got another great player, Christian Henry.
37:08
He's a six three guard. This is his third team in three
37:12
years. He was JUCO and then a starter
37:14
at Eastern Michigan and now at Fordham.
37:17
But anyway, they got a lot of new players.
37:19
So they're going to have some inconsistencies, I'm sure this
37:21
season. But they've Got Talent.
37:23
I think they're Bartovic is like 180.
37:26
So they're they're not you know, they're not a 300 ranked team.
37:30
Yeah, it's not a. What you're saying is this is
37:31
not going to be a walk in the park.
37:34
That's right. And it's on the road.
37:36
They got a good coach who's really changing.
37:38
I think is going to change the culture there is going to be
37:40
tough. It's I think we're used to
37:44
Fordham being kind of like the easy game of the year.
37:47
I don't I I think this coach is going to be really pushing hard
37:50
to change that. You know, it's hard.
37:52
You know, we should win the game.
37:54
I think we're still favored. You look at this like there's a
37:58
question, you know, after losing 3 out of four, like are we a top
38:03
half team or a bottom half team in the A10?
38:05
I think that's uncertain for me right now.
38:08
And this, this is a game you've got to win to show that you're a
38:11
top half, half team. You can't.
38:12
Yeah, you got to be, you got to be Fordham and you've, you
38:15
really got 2 tough games in a row on the road, a Fordham and
38:18
Saint Bonaventure. But those are two teams that
38:20
you're going to like if you beat them.
38:21
You show your top half team versus a bottom half team.
38:23
So I know exactly what you're saying.
38:26
Yeah. So it's I think it's a tough
38:27
game. We have to really respect that
38:29
team and hopefully going on the road maybe gets our team
38:33
thinking a bit differently than the last two home losses.
38:36
Kind of. No, it's still a 10 play.
38:38
It's a tough game. If Will Johnston's intensity
38:40
post game can translate into intensity during the next game,
38:44
I think we're going to be OK. Because he looked like he was
38:46
ready to just fix things. I love that about him.
38:49
Yeah, that's right. OK.
38:51
So maybe kind of wrap this up. We talked about his New Year's
38:55
were, you know, undefeated in 2026 and kind of some
38:59
resolutions that we may have. I think we're going to have some
39:01
basketball ones and then maybe some about our pod.
39:05
Porta, you got one for the men's team.
39:08
I do. My resolution for the men's team
39:11
going forward is I want to see the University of Richmond and
39:18
the coaching staff go all in on analytics.
39:20
This is not a going to be a surprise to you.
39:22
I've been saying it since the start of the pod.
39:24
It's one of my goals for the pod is to really, you know, just
39:27
kind of get people thinking analytically.
39:29
I believe in analytics in every business since right.
39:33
Let me give you some a data point.
39:34
There was a great article that came out by something called
39:37
Maize and Brew and it talks about Michigan number one team
39:41
in the nation and Dusty May specifically their coach being
39:45
the first coach to sign up for Evan Maya's front office suite,
39:48
which provides an NIL value for every single D1 player.
39:53
Responsive to current market trends along with several other
39:55
powerful features including advanced analytics.
39:58
It goes on to say that analytics played a key role in building
40:01
the roster. It helps with check gut based
40:05
decision making. It helps to.
40:08
Give them a different perspective when they think they
40:10
have, you know, an answer. And so I'm just a big fan of
40:13
analytics. I think that as we get further
40:17
and further along, these games are going to be decided by one
40:21
or two possessions in a lot of cases.
40:23
And analytics can be the difference in, you know, helping
40:26
with those one or two possessions.
40:27
And so you you don't beat San Diego State, Auburn and Gonzaga
40:31
and blow out wins if you're not good.
40:33
And, and they seem to be good. They have a analytics executive
40:36
on staff. They have to give that person a
40:38
voice at the table. So I want us at Richmond to
40:41
adopt that. And you got a women's one as
40:44
well. I do.
40:45
My women's one is actually kind of like more of a player belief
40:49
thing. So like Tiara Simon had a great
40:51
third quarter. I really thought she gave us a
40:53
spark in the third quarter against against Rhode Island.
40:58
Tiara Simon is a good three-point shooter.
41:00
She was 35% her first year at Saint Louis up to to 40% her
41:06
second year at Saint Louis. This year she's shooting just 9%
41:09
from 3 point land. To me it feels like she is
41:13
having a bit of a crisis of confidence and so I just want to
41:16
remind her she is an excellent 3 point shooter.
41:18
Sometimes it's just about read and release and not thinking
41:21
about it because I think she could be the difference for us
41:24
down the stretch. If she gets that 3 point shot
41:27
back. I really think it just gives us
41:29
an extra weapon you have to guard against.
41:31
And I believe that she will because I think she's a really 3
41:33
point shooter. I've watched her shoot them.
41:35
She's got great form. It's just a matter of it's it's,
41:38
it's the belief. And I think if we can give her
41:39
just a reminder how good she is, I think that will really help
41:42
the women's team a lot. I like that.
41:44
I like that I have one resolution combined for the
41:47
men's and women's team and this is really looking at kind of the
41:49
game, you know, the rest of the A10.
41:52
I don't want more than one more loss at home from both teams the
41:57
rest of the year. And whether that's the men go 7
42:02
and O the rest of the way out or they get, you know, they go six
42:06
and one and the women win all their home games the rest of the
42:09
way out. I think they'll have seven more
42:11
as well. That's pretty bold, though.
42:12
That's a tough, that's a tough take because there's some really
42:14
good teams coming into the 8:10. I agree, but if the men are
42:19
going to be a top half team, like they have to win at home
42:21
because the road games are tough.
42:23
Yeah. And so.
42:25
Got to defend homecourt. And, and the women is what I
42:28
mean, obviously last year the women had one loss in in the
42:32
league. We've got one already.
42:34
Like if they're going to be the first or second place team in
42:36
the league, we got to protect home court.
42:38
So that's kind of my I'll, I'll be looking at if we have more
42:41
than one more loss combined, then I think, you know, we're
42:43
going to have some more yes, conversations like today.
42:48
I do have a resolution for the pod.
42:50
Yeah, it was interesting. I was looking at we only have 10
42:52
more weeks left in the season. That's going to go fast.
42:58
I want during those 10 weeks, you know, so that's, let's say
43:00
we got 20 more episodes in like during the season.
43:06
I, I want us to get at least five interviews over those 10
43:10
weeks. And I don't know if that's, you
43:12
know, 5 interviews of players or coaches or staff or who knows
43:18
what it is I. Person serving the person
43:20
serving the Falcon smashes the cops waving you through.
43:22
We'll figure it out, right? But that's that's kind of my
43:25
resolution. Like I think we need to get to
43:26
work, get some more interviews lined up.
43:29
So as as thrilling as Porter and I can be in our conversations
43:34
and as entertaining as we try to be, I think it's always great
43:37
when we get another perspective. Do you got a resolution for the
43:40
pod? Porter, I do you and I only know
43:42
this, but like we are having a real hard time when I'm remote
43:46
recording on my computer and I bought this real really nice,
43:50
super, super sophisticated microphone.
43:53
We got to get that fixed because I want to be able to do this
43:56
remote. And so we don't both have to
43:57
always be in the Henrico studio. It just gives me a little bit
44:00
more flexibility to to put it together.
44:02
Right now we're doing this one on my phone, so hopefully the
44:04
sound quality checks out. OK guys.
44:06
But yeah, that's my resolution. Let's fix this so we can do more
44:09
with me remote. Yeah, I like that.
44:11
That's low hanging crew. We can solve that.
44:13
OK, so we've got a couple games coming up the this weekend and
44:17
we'll be back. I'll have to figure out when
44:19
we're going to record, but we'll be back to talk about those
44:21
weekend games and the schedule continues.
44:24
So we'll have weekend and and weekday games for the next 10
44:28
weeks as we get to tournament time.
44:31
But until then, this is Tom. And this is Porter.
44:35
And this is spider sounds off. See you.