Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Episode 14: Hops & Hoops: The A-10 Media Day Pour

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Episode 14: Hops & Hoops: The A-10 Media Day Pour · Spiders Sound Off

0:07
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Spider Sound.
0:11
OP, this is Tom. And this is Porter, and welcome
0:14
to episode 14. First off, before we get
0:16
started, Tom, we just released the two episodes with Addie
0:20
Budnick and Katie Hill, and I just like to thank them for
0:23
their time. We recorded that a while back.
0:26
You have since been all over Europe since we recorded that,
0:29
but it was just a fantastic interview and I just came away
0:32
super impressed by these two legendary spiders, how polished
0:37
they are, how professional they both are.
0:39
I can't wait to follow their stories after University of
0:43
Richmond because they're destined for really, really good
0:46
things in life. And I just am super, super
0:49
excited that we got a chance to have that interview.
0:51
Yeah, and I'd say if if you listeners have not heard episode
0:55
1 and episode 2, I do encourage you to get out there.
0:59
It'll make you very proud as a spider.
1:01
I also will say if you look at some of the data behind the
1:04
scenes on our podcast, we tend to get the most listens when we
1:08
don't have the guests. So if you just want to hear
1:11
Porter and me, don't listen to those episodes.
1:13
But I suspect you'd really like to hear of maybe some of our
1:17
current players or some of our more recent players.
1:20
So if you if you would like us having guests, please listen to
1:24
those episodes. That data will tell us that we
1:27
ought to go get some more guests as the season kicks off soon.
1:30
And to you, I'll say welcome back, by the way, Tom, because
1:34
you were gone for quite a while. You travelled to the Czech
1:37
Republic, you went to Austria, you went to Germany.
1:41
And that's exciting. Yeah, that's right.
1:42
It's It's no coincidence that we now have one listen from Austria
1:47
on our. Oh, is that you?
1:49
Are we in 14 countries now 16? Countries.
1:53
Wow. So you got us our one Austria.
1:54
Listen. Yeah.
1:55
I think my wife might have, but but anyway, yeah, it was a great
1:59
trip. We did three countries, four
2:04
different cities where we stayed.
2:06
Two of those days were at Oktoberfest in Munich, meeting a
2:09
bunch of friends there. So that that was a great time.
2:12
It's actually the second time we've been to Oktoberfest.
2:15
We are a beer focus family, although coming back a second
2:19
time was more because we had friends who were going to be
2:21
there versus US wanting to do it again.
2:23
But it we had a lot of fun. What was your what was your
2:26
favorite place that you visited? Let's start with that.
2:28
Yeah, so we love Salzburg, Austria the best.
2:31
It's kind of a a good medium sized town.
2:34
There's a lot of historical things there.
2:36
There's a giant fortress, there's Mozart was born and
2:40
raised there. There's also mountains that you
2:43
could travel to. We did a gondola up mountain and
2:46
had a nice beer looking at the the mountains around us and the
2:52
clouds that were under us. It was, it was pretty fantastic.
2:54
I might ask you then, towards the end of this episode, who's
2:56
going to be the Mozart of the Spider back court?
2:59
That's a good point. We might get that.
3:01
I, you know, we're we're beer people.
3:04
I'll tell you part of why I love Salzburg is where I discovered
3:07
my favorite beer. What is that in during our trip?
3:11
And it's a steigl. Steigl.
3:14
I think it's the way you say it. It's Yeah, I'm a logger guy, so
3:18
part of why I like going to Germany or true with Czech and
3:23
Austria, it's kind of a logger country.
3:25
We did go to the Pilsner or Kel museum as well.
3:30
That's we went to Pilsen as part of our trip.
3:34
But yeah, Steigl has both a lager and they have a Weiss
3:37
beer. And so when you're.
3:40
Isn't that pronounced? When you're not with, When your
3:44
wife loves Ipas like the Vice beer is kind of at least
3:48
something different than just a lager.
3:51
So, But yeah, Steiger has both of those options, which was a a
3:58
popular choice for us. And like your wife, I prefer
4:00
Ipas, the Hoppier the better for me.
4:02
So I don't know if I would fully appreciate the German beer
4:05
experience, but I know you do. And it's great to it's great
4:08
that you got to do that. It's great that you're back and
4:12
here we are talking spider hoops again.
4:14
Yeah, that's right. So this is going to focus some
4:17
on media day in Pittsburgh. So A10 as the conference
4:23
tournament's going to be in Pittsburgh this year.
4:25
They have the media day in the same location.
4:28
Last year was in DC. So I, I, I understand kind of
4:31
this movement, 'cause if Pittsburgh's going to host the,
4:34
the, the tournament, let's have the media day there, get media
4:37
up there or not. Do you remember the last time we
4:40
were in Pittsburgh together? I do so one, and if you didn't
4:45
know, I'm a Chicago Cubs fan. So they just recently won game
4:51
three against San Diego to advance to the next round, so
4:54
I'm pretty excited about that. You're not a light Chicago Cubs
4:57
fan. You are a die hard Chicago.
4:58
That's right, was actually in Wrigley this summer.
5:01
And you're also a die hard Chargers fan too, I might add.
5:04
And we have a little game coming up this weekend.
5:06
We do. We do.
5:07
Anyway, back to Pittsburgh. So in 2015, Porter and I went to
5:13
Pittsburgh to watch the one game playoff.
5:16
This is, you know, a different playoff format.
5:18
You had the one game wild card playoff, which was the Cubs at
5:23
the Pirates first. It's just funny to think that
5:25
the Pirates are in the playoffs, but this was this was Jake
5:30
Arietta pitched a gem. Against Gerrit Cole that day for
5:35
the for the Pirates, That's right.
5:37
But that we travelled up for that, got to see the Cubs win.
5:40
Unfortunately, eventually the Cubs play the Mets.
5:44
And I went to Wrigley with my wife and a friend and we're
5:49
like, let's get tickets to Game 4 because we know that'll be
5:52
like in the middle of the series.
5:53
It'll be exciting. Well, when we fly out to that
5:56
game, the Cubs are down three games to none.
5:59
And we got to see the Cubs get swept by the Mets in the NLCS
6:03
that year. So that season didn't end the
6:05
way we wanted, but we all know how 2016.
6:08
Isn't our mutual friend and die hard Richmond Spider fan
6:11
barrister? The Barrister A big Pirates fan
6:13
too, by the way. He is.
6:15
OK, so well there we go. We got our.
6:17
That I don't know if that's the last time the Pirates made the
6:20
playoffs, but I don't think they'll be going to the playoffs
6:22
anytime soon. Well, hopefully they can get
6:24
there while they still have schemes, which won't be very.
6:26
Long OK, so Media Day, you know, it's called Media day because
6:30
it's all about the media. We did not go.
6:34
We're still looking for sponsors to to take us to trips like
6:36
that. But anyway, it is it is intended
6:39
as a, you know, as it should be. It's kind of a big PR day.
6:43
The teams bring a player and the coach.
6:46
They get all the teams in the A10 get interviewed.
6:50
They also had kind of a podcast. What was that one called?
6:54
Field of 60. 8 field of 68 was there.
6:56
They actually posted things live.
6:58
They did a live stream. It was interesting for the 8,
7:00
the 8:10, I think, you know, if you go back to the COVID years
7:03
for a couple years where they did these media days, it was all
7:08
online. You can kind of see everything.
7:09
They made a conscious choice. And it may have been the same as
7:11
last year, but all of these interviews were not streamed.
7:15
So there's right now that you can't go to YouTube and find
7:18
like the, the the 20 minutes that Mooney and Waltz were
7:22
interviewed or had Q&A by the media, you can find the field of
7:28
68. So that's helpful.
7:30
And not that there's a lot of, you know, breaking news for
7:33
media day. There's a lot of videos that are
7:35
out there of kind of everybody posing with the basketball and
7:39
it's cool special effects. So.
7:41
And from Richmond, we sent Coach Mooney and Mike Walls from the
7:43
men's team and Coach Roussell and Maggie Dugan from the
7:46
women's teams. And one other person, Webster,
7:50
don't forget they had all the mascots there.
7:52
So again, part of part of pumping up on getting everybody
7:56
excited for the season is you got to have kind of the mascots
7:58
there and Webster was there to partake.
8:01
But anyway, you want to start with the men's side or the
8:04
women's side, Where, where do you want to go, Porter?
8:06
Man, this is a tough one. Let's start with the men's side
8:09
because I feel like that's going to be probably the longer
8:13
conversation this time. OK, so if you're not aware what
8:17
what they release, I think it's the morning of of media day is
8:22
kind of pre season conference, first team, second team, third
8:25
team and all defensive team. And then a pre season poll.
8:30
And this is all based on coaches and select media members voting.
8:35
I don't I don't know if they tell you exactly who outside of
8:37
coaches. I I I was joking with Porter.
8:39
Maybe we've talked about different goals that we have
8:41
with this podcast and I've added a new goal that one day in the
8:44
future someone asked Porter or me to be a voting member for the
8:48
pre season awards. That's probably far fetched, but
8:52
I. Think we could probably help out
8:54
there given what I see in these awards.
8:56
OK, So probably no surprise it's a it's a unfortunately no
9:01
surprise. But the pre season poll has VCU
9:03
won and Saint Louis really won a so they both got 11 first place
9:08
votes and in total total votes kind of points based on kind of
9:13
where you place people on your vote.
9:14
What one has 342 and one has 341.
9:17
So it's really one and one AVCU in Saint Louis.
9:22
And any surprise there for you, Porter?
9:25
I mean, I think both of those teams are going to be really,
9:26
really good. I mean, Saint Louis has Robbie
9:29
Avila, who might be the best player in the conference.
9:32
He he can score, he can rebound. He's a big guy and he's going to
9:37
be really good. VCU has, it feels like
9:39
everybody. I mean, they've they they have a
9:41
new coach and Phil Martelli junior, they reloaded with the
9:45
portal. They've got Barry Evans, they've
9:48
who who went with who would play for Martelli at the Bryant.
9:52
I think he was at VCU previously too.
9:53
They've got Keyshawn Mitchell, they got Furman, they got
9:57
Djokovic. I mean, they got all kinds of
9:58
players on this team. Ahmed Noel, I mean, Tyrell Ward
10:03
was, you know, look like an elite shooter from LSU two years
10:07
back, Jaydrian Tracy. I mean, they just got lots and
10:10
lots of players. So I don't I think VCU has
10:14
probably the best overall talent in the Atlantic 10.
10:19
My questions around VCURA. You've got a new coach Martelli,
10:23
who is his success was at a small college Bryant and you
10:29
know he is now stepping up in class to the Atlantic 10.
10:33
He's got a lot of new players that he's got a mold and you
10:36
know, it's a it's a recipe thing.
10:37
He's got to put the ingredients together to make a great team
10:40
out of a bunch of individual ingredients that look really,
10:42
really tasty. Can he do it?
10:45
Sure, absolutely. Could it also take like 2 months
10:47
for them to find their legs and they end up having a a mediocre
10:50
non con and then they end up getting good in the Atlantic
10:54
Ten? Yeah, that's an outcome that
10:55
could happen as well. Yeah, it's hard to doubt VCU
10:58
only because this is a team that it seems every year they have
11:03
some great players and I don't remember that great player from
11:06
the year before and even before the portal.
11:08
I mean, you think back to the the Shaka years where it's like,
11:12
you know, he played eleven people, 12 people that kind of
11:14
at you. It's kind of back then kind of
11:19
kind of furious defense was their their havoc, which they
11:22
they don't really go by so much anymore.
11:24
But but still, it's like I don't know who any of these people are
11:27
that transferred in. I didn't follow Jade and Tracy,
11:30
but like, there's probably five other guys.
11:33
Yeah. There's probably five other guys
11:35
on their roster who could end up being better than the people
11:38
that made the what, the four players who made the top three
11:41
teams. Because they just throw players
11:44
at you and they all seem to be super athletic.
11:46
They can shoot. Martelli junior style too, by
11:49
the way, a Bryant was he had a very, very fast pace of play.
11:53
So it would not surprise me at all to see him do like pressure
11:57
line shifts and just run his depth at teams until he wears
12:01
them down. They've also got a just a
12:03
really, really tall big frontline at VCU this year.
12:08
They have lots of options that can play inside.
12:10
So it's going to be super imperative for teams like us to
12:16
to, to have all of your, your big weapons ready because you
12:19
know you need walls to have really good games against VCU.
12:22
You need that Daughtry back. You're going to need all of the
12:25
guys that can play inside for us because they are really, really
12:27
deep in the front court so. I'll tell you what surprises me
12:29
when I look at the list one like I don't see Saint Louis as 1B.
12:35
I mean, last year they are 5th place.
12:36
Like I, I don't I don't think Robbie Abila is going to go from
12:39
what he was last year with 17 points, 7 rebounds and all of a
12:42
sudden be 22 points per game and 10 rebounds.
12:45
So they have no one else on the top three teams, no one on the
12:51
all defensive team. So, you know, not that they
12:53
don't have other good players, but like why they're considered
12:58
one BI think they were tied for fifth last year in the league.
13:01
Yeah, probably more just due to to Avila being I think the best
13:05
player that stayed in the Atlantic 10.
13:07
Yeah, he's probably his play. I don't think they don't do a
13:09
preseason player of the year, at least they I don't think they
13:13
announced one like he'd he'd probably be the one to get that
13:17
award. So I get it.
13:19
I if you look at teams that you know, we, we are pick 10.
13:23
So before we get to the Richmond 10 ranking, I had mentioned the
13:27
Bartovic score before or the rankings before.
13:30
If you look at that, they have, they're really high on George
13:35
Washington. So they had George Washington
13:37
right now ranked 59 in the nation.
13:39
So VCU 49, George Washington 59. I think George Washington is
13:44
4th. Yeah, Rafael Castro is is one of
13:48
the elite big men in the Atlantic, 10-6 foot 11, you
13:51
know, 14 points, 9 rebounds a game coming out of last year.
13:54
He's going to be really tough for them.
13:56
You've also got Trey Jenkins. You know, he's a guard, he is a
14:00
scorer. I think, you know, George
14:02
Washington is going to be tough. And then on the third team,
14:04
they've got Trey Autry and they've got Christian Jones.
14:06
They've got four players in the top three Atlantic 10 all
14:09
all-purpose teams. That's a very deep team and the
14:12
George Washington is going to be a tough out.
14:13
I would probably have ranked if it were me, I would have put
14:17
George Washington number one, VCU 2.
14:20
I think Dayton is definitely going to be #3 They've got a
14:24
really, really deep team as well, led by Kiante Jones, Javon
14:28
Bennett, Amayel Lektang. I don't even know how to
14:32
pronounce it, but it's going to be good.
14:33
And then you know, it's just, it's going to be a really,
14:34
really good, good kind of a team.
14:37
But I would say it's going to be George Washington 1 for me, DCU
14:41
2, Dayton 3, Saint Louis 4, and I think that's pretty fair given
14:45
the talent on those rosters. What I don't agree with is where
14:50
we were ranked at 10. Yeah, it's it's interesting.
14:53
So if you look at where Richmond pre season has been ranked, if
15:00
you go back last year we were 7th and we ended up running last
15:03
in the conference or almost last time for last.
15:08
The year before we are 11th and we ended up tied for first.
15:12
Yes, in the league. Again, this is coaches and
15:15
media. Neil Quinn, Jordan King.
15:17
Really. Over.
15:18
Really. Yeah, Jordan King was.
15:19
A. Player of the year that year
15:22
tied and Co player of the year the year before.
15:26
We're preseason 7th and we ended up 13th.
15:31
Yeah, 2021, we're preseason second and we ended up 8th.
15:36
So there's a lot of variability here, I do think.
15:39
What that's saying is these rankings are not very accurate.
15:42
But you know, at the same time, 10th place to me feels a little
15:47
bit disrespectful. It does because we have a way
15:51
better team than we had last year.
15:52
I mean, it's not even close. And there's some guys on our
15:55
team that are, I think are being seriously.
15:56
Overlooked. Yeah, So in a way, what you hope
16:02
is happening here is that, and it's weird for me to say this
16:07
because obviously I'm a Spider fan, but what you hope what's
16:09
happening here is the A 10 is really elevated itself.
16:14
And so even though we think Johnston should be on the third
16:17
team, maybe we look at it in two months from now and say, like,
16:20
well, gosh, Johnson scoring 18 points a game and he looks
16:23
great. But guess what?
16:24
All these guys on the third team are looking incredible.
16:27
And the eight 10s having the best out of conference results
16:32
in a long time and are just, it's just pointing to this
16:35
conference being great. And that doesn't mean 10th is
16:38
the right number. But when you look at the first,
16:41
second and third team, Mike Walls is the only one who made
16:43
any of those teams. He's a third team.
16:46
Oh, and and for there's a question I was going to ask you
16:48
before. This is a really tough one.
16:50
How many players do you play on the court?
16:53
Usually 5 is allowed on the court at any one time.
16:57
And how many players are on each A10 first, second or third team?
17:02
I'm I'm looking at the list and it looks like.
17:04
Six. There are 6 now.
17:05
There's only 5 on the all defensive team but we do.
17:10
Somebody please explain that anomaly to us A 10.
17:12
Yeah, that's right. We'd love to know why there are
17:14
six players and it's not like there's a tie for fifth like
17:18
there are 6 and I think it's been that way for a while.
17:20
So it's our 50th anniversary, maybe they're giving us bonus
17:23
players. Yeah, no, it's not new.
17:25
It's not new. But anyway, I agree with you.
17:26
Richmond at 10th. It's it, it feels like there's
17:29
there's not a lot of belief, belief across the coaches or
17:33
media that that Mooney has got the right mix of portal players
17:40
and returning players to be a top team in this league.
17:44
Yeah, and I think, you know, I think I think they're wrong,
17:46
which is why I think you and I need to vote next year because
17:49
at the end of the day, we've we've we've watched this team
17:52
play right. We've seen this team, you know,
17:54
in, in action. And it is it is a team that is
17:58
ready to compete meaningfully in the Atlantic 10 this year.
18:02
And I mean, our non con schedule we've talked about is not great.
18:06
However, like the players that we have coming in this year,
18:09
whether it be Johnston who you just mentioned or Daughtry or AJ
18:14
Lopez, we have some really, really good talent.
18:17
And to go with the fact that we brought McHale, Tyne back, we
18:20
brought Walls back, Mooney's got some consistency.
18:24
He's got some really interesting new weapons to work with.
18:27
I would be surprised if we finished 10th.
18:29
I don't. I'm not ready to say we're 123
18:31
or 4 yet because there are four really good teams at the top of
18:33
the Atlantic 10, but I could see us finishing fifth relatively
18:37
easily. Yeah, just some stats of getting
18:40
this from thebardovic.com page. They have a, a, a very factual
18:45
stat of what percent of returning minutes do you have?
18:49
So VCU is returning and around these 24% of its minutes.
18:56
GW is bringing back 51% of its minutes and they got a lot from
19:00
the port. So I think it's a bit of George
19:02
Washington should have a little more at least from the
19:05
beginning, kind of they. Should be getting.
19:07
More gel team. Richmond has 54% returning
19:12
minutes. That is the most in the entire
19:14
league. Some of them wonder if these
19:16
stats are right. This says Rhode Island has 0% of
19:19
its returning minutes and LaSalle has 7.5%.
19:23
They're kind of a bottom team and Fordham 2.6%.
19:28
Those are both teams. If you look at the preseason,
19:30
that Fordham is 14th, LaSalle is 13th.
19:33
Just a side note, if you're really in A10 Aficionado, this
19:37
is the first year that we're back to 14 because UMass
19:41
finished their A10. They were kind of a long time
19:44
member. They've they've left the league,
19:45
they'll be begging to come back at some point, but now we're
19:48
down to 14 teams. Playing devil's advocate and
19:51
trying to see what was behind these votes, I would say, you
19:54
know, the the coaches who voted against us would have said, well
19:58
54% of a minutes of a bad team is still 54% bad minutes.
20:02
But I would argue the flip side that like with Mooney's system,
20:06
you know, we there's a lot of nuance to the way he he runs the
20:10
Richmond offense based on Princeton principles.
20:13
And it takes time for these guys to get good in it.
20:16
So like the first time transfers, it sometimes takes a
20:18
while for them to come up to speed.
20:20
Now, there have been exceptions, Neil Quinn and Jordan King are
20:22
exceptions. But I think having 54% of your
20:26
minutes back in a system that that that's that runs this way
20:29
is a really good thing for us. And just as you know, you've
20:33
heard us high on a lot of our players, a lot of our transfers.
20:36
I'll kind of just do my hot take here.
20:37
Johnston's first team, A10, That's the end of the year and
20:40
the season's over. OK, let's jump to the more
20:44
uplifting side, the women's team.
20:46
I think we need to shift to the women's side of the A10.
20:50
That's a good, that's a good news story.
20:52
The women Our women's team has four players in the top three
20:56
teams, including Maggie and Rachel on the first team, which?
21:01
We had predicted would be first team, all that.
21:03
That's the easiest prediction in the history of predictions.
21:05
But yes, they are both first. Team and Ally Sweeney.
21:09
I was pleasantly surprised she was on the second.
21:11
Yeah, she was a. Lot of respect.
21:12
I love seeing that. And if you watch Sweeney play
21:14
last year, you know why that is. She is really, really good.
21:17
We've mentioned it. She's she's a good passer, she's
21:19
a good ball handler. She's a tenacious defender.
21:22
She's kind of been in the shadow of Maggie and Rachel.
21:24
But you know, we talked about her.
21:25
She's going to, by the end of this year, she's going to really
21:27
take a step forward in the spotlight and, and, and be a
21:31
leader for our team. And then on the third team, we
21:33
have a tiara Simon, who's a transfer from Saint Louis.
21:37
Is that right? So I mean, you know, the the
21:39
again, the same, you know, it's it's a different coaches and
21:41
maybe different media, but they kind of she's a known quantity
21:44
having already played in this league.
21:47
I I got a question for you, Porter.
21:49
Out of the 18 players that are on the first three teams, we
21:54
mentioned that the Spiders have four.
21:57
I think you know the answer. How many players out of these 18
22:01
have won an NCAA Tournament game?
22:04
That would be 3 actually. That is correct, yeah.
22:08
'Cause only the only, only Maggie, Rachel and Ally have
22:13
wanted into the A tournament game.
22:16
Here's the thing. George Mason almost tied with us
22:19
in first place votes or or in votes.
22:21
They have 185 total points for first place votes.
22:23
Star 9 they return to first team.
22:27
All 18 players, Kennedy Harris. And I'm going to try to
22:31
pronounce this is Araya Walton. And they were second last year
22:33
in the league we. Beat them on a last second shot
22:35
and Maggie went for 38 in that game.
22:37
They are really, really good and they're going to be a tough out
22:40
for us. We didn't end up playing them in
22:41
the tournament because we got bounced by Saint Joe's, but
22:44
George Mason is a really good team.
22:46
If you look at the overall rankings, so they got Davidson
22:52
3. And.
22:54
Now, Davidson was three last year as well, so it's kind of
22:57
really a 123 repeat is what the media has predicted.
23:02
Charlie's done is a is an interesting player.
23:04
She came she came to Davidson by way of Australia.
23:06
She's 6 foot 2. I watched her play us in the
23:09
Robin Center last year. She is, she's, she reminds me so
23:13
much of our, of our kind of, of the Katie Hills and the Maggie
23:16
Dugan's and the Rachel Ahlstrom's.
23:19
I mean, she's, she's of that kind of caliber.
23:21
She's a really good player. She can shoot it outside.
23:23
She can take you off the dribble, so she's she's a good
23:26
player and Davidson's really lucky to have her.
23:28
So it's hard to look at the women's side and have a bunch of
23:31
debate on the Richmond players. I I don't think we would argue
23:35
Ali is a first team at this point.
23:37
Maybe she proves that she's first team this year.
23:40
Yeah, I agree. With them, she's she's a second
23:42
team's a great, a great spot for her and I, and I mean, she's
23:45
only getting better. So maybe next year she's a first
23:47
teamer. It's very possible depending on
23:48
the outcomes this year. No, I, I think that they, they
23:52
got, they got a lot of this really, really, really good.
23:55
I mean, it's, it's a, these are good rankings.
23:57
These are good players. A lot of them, you know, have
24:00
been in the conference for a long time.
24:01
They know what they're doing in this conference and it's going
24:04
to be competitive at the top. I mean, Richmond, George Mason,
24:07
Davidson are all going to be really competitive.
24:10
Hey, and to all of your all those VCU fans who secretly
24:14
listen to us and won't admit it, they VCU is 11th last year and
24:18
they have them at 7th. So Congrats to the VCU women's
24:21
team moving up to 7th Yeah, at least in these pre season
24:24
rankings and you have a. First team or on your team this
24:26
year? Yeah, that's right.
24:27
Marianna Zari. OK.
24:29
So I think the conversation for us on the women's team still is,
24:34
you know, outside of Rachel and Maggie and Allie, who are all
24:38
starters for us last year, you know, we just finished the
24:42
podcast a week or so ago with Katie and Addie, kind of our
24:46
other two starters. And it's still not really clear
24:49
to either of us who's going to replace them.
24:51
We got interesting, you know, Tiara Simon on the third team,
24:55
but I don't think you or I think she's a slam dunk 4th best
24:59
player on our team. I think I said in a previous
25:01
podcast, I think Alicia Newell is a top 4 player on our team,
25:05
but she plays the same position as Ally.
25:06
So I, I think you're going to see.
25:08
So the first thing you got to do is you got to replace Addie
25:11
Budnick's in interior defense. And I mean, I, I think Tierra
25:17
Simon and Sam Dewey will will alternate to try to, to try to,
25:23
you know, create some muscle. Also, you got Skyla who could go
25:25
in there and play, play the five.
25:27
I think those guys will play some 5 inside.
25:29
I think you're also going to see Tiara try to play that Katie
25:32
Hill role where she's she's outside on the perimeter.
25:36
The other person I can see stepping up is Peyton Richard.
25:38
She's she's long, she's athletic.
25:40
She's got a great 3 point shot. It's going to be a big jump, but
25:44
she could easily step up and be a starter out there.
25:46
But then the wild card to me is still Alicia Newell because like
25:49
she is, she's a really, really high caliber talent.
25:52
And as I said earlier, we got to get her minutes.
25:55
Yeah, I think what will be fun, assuming coach does something
25:58
similar, not, you know, not at the Texas game for sure.
26:01
But we know in the early part of last year, like, he had a really
26:04
deep bench and played a lot of players and was trying to figure
26:09
out kind of who his main bench players were because I think he
26:13
knew who the starting 5 was going to be last year.
26:15
It's just a matter of who were going to be the key players off
26:17
the bench. Similar this year.
26:19
It would be exciting to see our freshmen get some time in the
26:23
first month of the season again. We've got Texas, which will kind
26:26
of maybe interrupt some of that, but I'd love to see one of our
26:29
freshmen become a important player for us.
26:32
Yeah, I mean, you, you start with Mount Saint Mary's at home.
26:34
I, I could see Rochelle, cause Rochelle doing the line shift
26:38
again, 55, you know, seeing what he's got with the second team.
26:41
And then I think you, you're going to really shorten it up
26:44
against Texas on the road. And then you got to go to
26:47
William and Marion. That's not a, that's not an easy
26:48
game. Then you got Columbia at
26:50
Columbia. That's not an easy game.
26:52
Then you got Temple coming home to to Richmond.
26:54
That's not an easy game. So last year he started off with
26:57
a really, I mean, the team was just like we we were shot out of
27:01
a cannon. This year we got some really
27:03
tough games. Nobody will be predicting us to
27:06
beat Texas at Texas. So like, can you, can you get
27:09
through that stretch four and one and kind of figure your your
27:13
roster out? I mean, I don't know, man.
27:16
Columbia at Columbia, that's a tough, tough game.
27:18
Yeah, it's at some point, I mean it, you know, we've only seen
27:21
one practice of, of, of the women's team.
27:23
So it's we, we can't say it, you know, at practice today, who are
27:27
the best 5 or 6 players at practice And maybe let's put
27:30
Maggie and Rachel and Ali aside. So who, who are the best, you
27:33
know, five players outside of those three and a consistent
27:36
basis in practice. Obviously, the coaches know.
27:38
I'm hoping one of them is a freshman and then that person
27:43
will come in off the bench. And then, you know, these are
27:45
those, whether it's Texas or it's William and Mary, Like at
27:49
some point does a freshman play 8 minutes and score 6 points?
27:54
And the coach looks at that and says like, huh, Like maybe
27:57
that's our eighth player. Yeah, I think Perseer,
28:00
Persechetty and Rain, right are your best guesses there, like in
28:03
terms of who's going to get early meaningful contributions.
28:05
I mean, I think Persechetti is going to be a really good player
28:07
for us just watching her and practice that one time.
28:11
I mean, she's really confident. It's, it's a tough schedule and,
28:15
you know, being the number one seed kind of pre conference seed
28:19
is means that you're a marked team.
28:21
Everybody's going to give you their best shot in conference.
28:24
That didn't really bother us last year as we rolled through
28:27
conference pretty good other than one little blip against
28:29
Fordham. But yeah, it's going to be a
28:32
it's going to be a fun year and a great year for us to, to to
28:35
support the ladies and see what we can do.
28:37
And I'm really excited for for the coach and the team that they
28:40
got all these pre season accolades, but now you got to go
28:43
do it. And one thing I think is
28:45
underrated in college basketball success, and this might work
28:49
against VCU on the men's side a little bit and could work
28:52
against us on the women's side. Is the word chemistry, like
28:56
building chemistry is one of those ingredients that is not a
28:59
guarantee. And so you can have the best
29:02
players in the conference, but if the chemistry is off, you
29:05
know, you might not, you might not achieve the result that you
29:07
want. So I know coach knows a lot
29:09
about that. He's succeeded everywhere he's
29:12
gone. And so that's something I'm sure
29:14
he's working on is to figure out how do we get this team to to be
29:17
1 unit playing together like he had them playing together.
29:20
Last year, yeah. That's interesting because I
29:21
think last year's team, not only was the starting five likely
29:25
pretty clear when the season started, he also had transfers
29:30
that it wasn't probably wasn't exactly clear who was going to
29:34
get minutes because Anna Camden was coming up an injury we had.
29:39
The other player I can't remember her name, was the point
29:42
guard who was injured for the first month.
29:45
Oh yeah, yeah, from upstate. Yeah, from upstate.
29:48
But I think the question was kind of how are these transfers
29:52
going to fit in? We're not heavy transfers this
29:54
year. We've got, you know, 2 main ones
29:58
in particular, TR Simon, kind of the biggest name, but I think
30:02
there's that's where the freshman might have more of a
30:04
chance. Yeah, Faith Austin, that's the,
30:07
that's who you were looking for there from.
30:08
So that's where I'm, I'm hoping, I mean, last year we weren't
30:10
really thinking freshman. It was kind of a clear starting
30:13
five. And then I think which transfers
30:15
we're going to get in. I think this year we'll have,
30:18
you know, whether it's sophomores or freshman, you
30:20
know, Peyton Richard being an example or as a Persia Shetty as
30:23
a freshman, Like I think some of them are going to have to
30:25
contribute because we just don't have the depth of transfers that
30:29
we had last. Year and I think last year
30:31
probably and we kind of heard this on our last podcast with
30:34
Katie and with Addie, like the, the leadership the seniors
30:41
provided, I think was understated in terms of the
30:45
success that team had, right? This year that's going to fall
30:48
on Maggie and Jada and Rachel to kind of lead the team with that
30:56
leadership to build that community for the younger
30:59
players and it and it I think if we do that, I think the
31:03
ingredients are there to be to have another really special year
31:06
for Richmond women's basketball. And I know everybody's really
31:09
excited about it, but I, I just feel like we got to get that
31:12
chemistry right, got to figure out who that perimeter, you
31:15
know, defender is going to be. And Maggie needs to remember to
31:18
bring her shoes. Yeah, so Maggie should bring her
31:20
shoes to all games. Let's look.
31:21
Let's not forget the shoes, Maggie.
31:22
But it is a, it's going to be a special season.
31:26
I can't wait for it to start. And I know you're, you're,
31:30
you're pretty excited about it too.
31:31
So can't wait to see what we're going to do.
31:33
Yeah, we're a month away from the season starting, so we'll
31:36
have a few more episodes before we get to really talking about
31:39
the games in the future. Or I I look forward to our first
31:43
podcast. We're going to talk about games
31:45
that have happened. Yes, yes.
31:46
Well, next week I think we'll go over the the men's practice I
31:49
took in and just a little bit of some stuff we learned from that.
31:52
But for this week, I mean, I'm, I'm excited that the the ladies
31:56
program is getting the respect they're getting.
31:58
I'm a little disappointed that the man got the 10, the 10
32:00
ranked the 10, the 10 seed. But I mean, maybe that's locker
32:04
room wall, you know, chatter that that Mooney can use to
32:08
motivate. Yeah, and as just a reminder
32:11
too, if you go to your local beer or wine store, go look for
32:16
some Steagle. Steagle.
32:17
I don't even know what Steagle is, but I'm not drinking it.
32:20
Anyway, I'll wrap things up from here.
32:23
This is Tom. And this is Porter.
32:25
And this is Spider sounding off. See you.
32:27
Porter is home, Richmond fans stop Spider.
32:28
Sound off Spider. Sound off spider, sound off.
32:40
He will try to be funny. And entertain.