Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Maggie Doogan Makes History, Men’s Pillow Fight & Can Richmond Fix Its Offense? | Spider’s Sound Off

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Maggie Doogan Makes History, Men’s Pillow Fight & Can Richmond Fix Its Offense? | Spider’s Sound Off · Spiders Sound Off

• 0:06
  Hey Spider fans, welcome back to another episode of Spider Sound
• 0:11
  Off. This is Tom.
• 0:11
  And this is Porter. We are here after the men's loss
• 0:17
  at home against Dayton. The women have not played since
• 0:20
  our last pod because they're on their kind of prep week for the
• 0:25
  A10 tournament. Which did for the tournament.
• 0:27
  Which did start tonight. And maybe we just start off with
• 0:30
  the women. Some good news.
• 0:32
  As you know, we're not to this point yet for the men.
• 0:35
  But as you get to the conference tournament, they announce
• 0:37
  awards. No surprise.
• 0:39
  Maggie Dugan, now 2. Time year.
• 0:41
  The first Richmond Spider to win A10 Player of the Year twice.
• 0:45
  Yeah. And the first Spider to do it
• 0:48
  since way back. Yeah, when we were in school,
• 0:50
  actually. And they haven't really hyped
• 0:52
  it, but I'm pretty sure she has broken the all time single
• 0:56
  scoring record for a a women's player.
• 1:01
  I think for season, for the season one season, I think she's
• 1:04
  the all time leading scorer for women's.
• 1:07
  I, I, I came up to that myself, but no one else has said that
• 1:11
  loud and clearly. It seems like something you'd
• 1:13
  brag about there Could. Have been some player that maybe
• 1:15
  I'm. Just a year.
• 1:16
  And had a monster season. You never know.
• 1:17
  Now we do also Rachel first team for so two years in a row she
• 1:22
  was also first team. Yeah, so on top of the of the
• 1:25
  player of the year, Maggie was also all first team A10, Rachel
• 1:27
  was all A10 first team and. And how many other players do
• 1:32
  you think were on the first team?
• 1:34
  Four more Yes, they're 6. Yes, because the A10, as you
• 1:38
  heard me complain a few months ago, they put 6 on all of their
• 1:41
  teams, six that did. Ali ended up on the second team.
• 1:46
  Yep, congratulations to her. We don't know if she's on the
• 1:48
  starting five of the second team or off the bench on the 2nd.
• 1:51
  Team that first, that first key reserve, right?
• 1:54
  She's on the starting side. Now there was a bit of a snub.
• 1:57
  We Yeah, all defensive team did not have any Richmond Spiders
• 2:02
  that. Rankled me.
• 2:03
  That rankled me. So Newell did not get all
• 2:06
  defensive team. We believe in you Alicia.
• 2:09
  We think that you're all defensive worthy and you know,
• 2:12
  if we if we were to give out a spider sound off defensive
• 2:16
  Player of the year, it would undoubtedly be to Alicia Newell.
• 2:21
  Can I make one more complaint? I got to look for this quote
• 2:23
  because it's one of the best lines I've heard in a while.
• 2:26
  So the the A10, yeah, the A10 bragged.
• 2:31
  They put out a tweet that at the men's tournament in Pittsburgh
• 2:35
  as part of the 50th anniversary, they're having some like
• 2:38
  whiskey, which is available at the tournament, some brand, I
• 2:41
  can't remember who, but it was kind of this big, like, hey,
• 2:44
  look at this whiskey that's going to be available in the
• 2:46
  tournament. So I put on Twitter, I'm like,
• 2:49
  well, it's not available at the women's tournament.
• 2:52
  Oh, provocative, actually. And this is exactly what I said.
• 2:54
  And what is available in Richmond for the women's
• 2:56
  tournament. And eventually someone at Hoops
• 2:58
  Radio responded. Leftover Virginia slim soft
• 3:02
  packs from the abandoned Philip Morris plant.
• 3:06
  So that was well. Played.
• 3:07
  Yeah, at Hoops Radio. I like that.
• 3:09
  So there's no whiskey. There is a bar at the women's
• 3:13
  tournament so maybe I'll ask them for some whiskey and see if
• 3:16
  they have any. Just so I can say I had whiskey
• 3:18
  pre gaming for the tournament although at the men.
• 3:21
  Whiskey for our men, beer for our horses.
• 3:23
  Yeah, that's right, country song.
• 3:25
  I got one random thing I wanted to mention too, before we get
• 3:29
  into the men, and this is kind of totally random.
• 3:32
  So I was listening to the radio today and they had Franklin, the
• 3:37
  new guy coach from Virginia Tech.
• 3:39
  OK was on talking about. From which?
• 3:42
  Which program at Tech? Football OK ex Penn State coach.
• 3:45
  So he, you know, he's he's over now coaching.
• 3:49
  And he brought up something which I thought was fascinating
• 3:53
  and see if I even have these notes on this yet.
• 3:55
  But you know, Tyler Warren, Yeah.
• 3:58
  Who's an NFL player. He's actually from the Richmond
• 4:01
  area. And another player I got to get
• 4:05
  my notes straight. Mcsorley.
• 4:07
  Yeah. He went Trace Mcsorley.
• 4:09
  He went to Richmond. No, no.
• 4:10
  Trace Mcsorley was a Penn State quarterback.
• 4:12
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 4:13
  Hold on. Don't.
• 4:14
  Don't spoil it. So he was a quarterback of Penn
• 4:16
  State. He ended up playing pro, kind
• 4:18
  of. He was a backup for a while.
• 4:19
  He's now a coach. Both of their dads, Terry Warren
• 4:24
  and Rick Mcsorley, played in the late 80s at U of R football.
• 4:30
  Rick lived up in near me in Ashburn when I was living up
• 4:33
  there. So they both had sons that ended
• 4:35
  up playing at Penn State, both being kind of some of the best
• 4:38
  Penn State's ever had. And this was the 87 to 90 air.
• 4:43
  This was Brian Jordan was there on the team.
• 4:46
  A good friend of mine, John Deegan played then.
• 4:50
  But anyway, this thought was interesting that U of R had kind
• 4:52
  of these, you know, 22 great players at U of R1 was a Terry
• 4:56
  Warren was running back, Rick Mcsorley, A defensive back, but
• 4:59
  they ended up both having kids that played at Penn State and
• 5:04
  became superstars at Penn State. And, and certainly Warren right
• 5:10
  now is becoming a superstar in the NFL.
• 5:12
  So I thought it was kind of interesting little U of R thing,
• 5:15
  he mentioned today on the radio. That's fantastic.
• 5:17
  By the way, can I just give a shout out to our men's lacrosse
• 5:20
  team now #2 in the country #2 in the country, folks, in men's
• 5:25
  lacrosse behind Notre Dame. That's just outstanding.
• 5:29
  Now back to our, you know, this podcast being basketball
• 5:32
  focused, focused, assuming our women win on Friday, they've got
• 5:36
  a game. I think it.
• 5:37
  Saturday 1:30. Saturday at 1:30, so you're
• 5:41
  going to have Spider fans have some choices because the men's
• 5:45
  lacrosse team plays at home against Georgetown.
• 5:48
  What time is that? I think it's at 1:00 on
• 5:51
  Saturday. So if the women get upset on
• 5:53
  Friday, definitely go out and watch because Georgetown's
• 5:56
  ranked, they're like 13th or something, so.
• 5:58
  Our women aren't getting upset on.
• 5:59
  Friday, No, I don't think they're either.
• 6:00
  But anyway, there's unfortunately you know, that's
• 6:03
  not a scheduling thing. Richmond can control too much.
• 6:06
  We'll be at the Ladies Games this weekend because, Oh yeah,
• 6:10
  we have press pass and that's what we do.
• 6:12
  Yeah, and I think we're talking about we might go tomorrow and
• 6:14
  just kind of scout out the LaSalle.
• 6:16
  It's Wednesday night here in the Henrico Studios.
• 6:19
  We're recording it as a day early just because there's no
• 6:21
  real action to report on since the men's games already been
• 6:23
  played between now and and when this releases Friday morning.
• 6:26
  So And we want to go to the games tomorrow, yeah.
• 6:28
  And we? Want to go to the Games tomorrow
• 6:29
  night? That's right.
• 6:32
  One last thing, we did have some scores today in the women's
• 6:35
  tournament. So Duquesne beat VCU.
• 6:38
  So sad. Don't like to see VCU suffer,
• 6:41
  Yes I do. Actually and Saint Louis beat
• 6:42
  Fordham, so they advanced. Saint Louis plays LaSalle.
• 6:45
  Then yes, Saint Louis plays Sal. We have the winner of 12 and 20
• 6:50
  Saint Louis and 17 and 12 LaSalle.
• 6:52
  They play tomorrow night. Really good team.
• 6:53
  They play tomorrow night at 7:30.
• 6:55
  Saint Louis has a really good center, LaSalle has a really
• 6:58
  good team. So I now.
• 6:59
  Suspect we kind of and we blew out LaSalle the last time we
• 7:03
  played them, but now? But they were leading after the
• 7:05
  first quarter. If I remember, they played a
• 7:06
  really good quarter and then and then Anisha got in the game and
• 7:09
  got hot and that was that was a difference maker.
• 7:11
  OK, let's talk about the men's team.
• 7:13
  Now, I do have to give the men's team some credit because I, I
• 7:17
  think this whole season has been kind of a long con in that, or
• 7:21
  maybe it's just a long play because it came out.
• 7:23
  I don't know if you saw this note in the last week, but the
• 7:25
  NCAA sent out a memo to all of its schools that to to plan on
• 7:31
  some charter plane conflicts during the NCAA tournament as
• 7:36
  there's a shortage of charters and teams Better start, you
• 7:40
  know, the basically getting those now and may have to go
• 7:43
  days early or come back days late because not enough planes.
• 7:47
  And, and it's come out that that's part of the reason why
• 7:49
  they haven't expanded it yet because they're just worried
• 7:51
  about that. So potentially the men's team
• 7:54
  decided to have a bad year because they knew it would be
• 7:57
  too tough to fly for the NCAA. Tournament plane, right?
• 8:00
  Yeah. So and we need, we need to make
• 8:01
  sure. Donate it to our ladies.
• 8:03
  Yeah. We need to make sure though, if
• 8:04
  there's a plane available from Richmond that it's available for
• 8:07
  our ladies. So if that was ever a kind of an
• 8:08
  intent on the men's team, I kind of thank you for that because
• 8:11
  the ladies are going to need that charter.
• 8:13
  They're they're givers. They're givers.
• 8:15
  Yeah, that's right. That's what you're saying.
• 8:16
  OK, so let's talk about the men. So they played Dayton at home.
• 8:19
  It was a little bit of been there, done that where they
• 8:21
  started off really poorly, got behind.
• 8:26
  Brought some arrows. Early, Yeah.
• 8:28
  I mean, the shooting was just ugly.
• 8:29
  They finally made a big run at the end.
• 8:33
  We got it tied. And then I think, if I remember
• 8:36
  correctly, that we missed four chances to take the lead for we
• 8:40
  went over 4. I think Argarbright missed 2,
• 8:44
  Johnston missed one. And then Daughtry had the ball
• 8:47
  at the end and slipped and fell. And I just, I still couldn't
• 8:52
  hear the barrister, his laugh behind us when that happened.
• 8:57
  It was just like a sad almost. Resignation.
• 9:01
  Yes, of how bad that last play unfortunately ended up looking.
• 9:06
  By the way, AJ Lopez just continues to shine offensively.
• 9:08
  Where would we be without his his scoring?
• 9:11
  Probably in the bottom 4. Oh yeah, actually.
• 9:15
  So here's the question. Well played, Sir.
• 9:17
  Yes, so, so here's the question for this Richmond team and, and
• 9:20
  we don't need to answer it, but I mean, we are in 11th place.
• 9:26
  We cannot get better than 11th. We got one game left against
• 9:28
  Duquesne. We could end up in 12th because
• 9:31
  Rhode Island still has a chance to drop down.
• 9:33
  They must lose the tiebreaker to whoever is next to us.
• 9:36
  Like, I don't really care. Are we the worst team in a 10?
• 9:41
  So we just lost to Chicago. Obviously by record we're not
• 9:44
  going to be the worst team, but we lost to Chicago.
• 9:46
  We I think we beat Saint Bonaventure twice.
• 9:48
  So maybe that's maybe Saint Bonaventure is the worst team in
• 9:51
  the league because they're in the bottom 4.
• 9:54
  No, we're not the worst, I'd say.
• 9:55
  I'd say. I mean, yeah, Loyola beat us on
• 9:56
  their home floor, but they're 7 and 22.
• 9:59
  But head to head. We're better than.
• 10:00
  So if there was a tournament, if everyone made a tournament, I
• 10:05
  think like if I'm in the committee, I take Loyola over us
• 10:08
  because they just beat us like a week ago.
• 10:10
  Yeah. It doesn't work that way.
• 10:12
  We only played them once and I was on our home floor.
• 10:13
  If they were on our home floor, we would beat them there.
• 10:15
  But at the end, I know what you're saying, we're not good.
• 10:17
  No, no, we're not good. And and I and I think the main
• 10:20
  complaint I have and, and I probably have a bunch, but the
• 10:23
  main complaint is that we have found us slowly out of the gate
• 10:30
  almost all the time. Yeah, we start slow.
• 10:32
  We start really slow and the the starting line up just hasn't
• 10:37
  been tinkered with. Much enough.
• 10:40
  There was a little bit of Argebrite, a little bit of
• 10:42
  Daughtry and and there might have been some injuries that
• 10:46
  took them out of that spot or maybe a bad game.
• 10:48
  I don't remember. But we've primarily had the
• 10:51
  Johnston, Tyne walls, walls to start all the time as he should,
• 10:58
  AJ Lopez, who should start all the time as he should, and then
• 11:01
  Tanner at that other spot. Yeah, and you know the line that
• 11:05
  we've all kind of heard before and no one really knows who said
• 11:09
  this the first time, but Insanity is doing the same thing
• 11:11
  over and over again and expecting different results and
• 11:15
  like, it's I mean, it's too. Well, maybe it's not too late.
• 11:18
  We've got we're really desperate as we get into that not too late
• 11:22
  pillow fight game. We.
• 11:23
  Can still make the A10 turn, we can still make the internal
• 11:25
  tournament. It's unlikely.
• 11:26
  But but why? Why do we keep starting the same
• 11:29
  lineup and think that we're going to come out strong?
• 11:32
  And, and, and, and buried in that complaint is that, you
• 11:36
  know, Johnson doesn't seem to want to shoot for the 1st 10
• 11:38
  minutes of the game. And I, I mean, I, I really like
• 11:43
  the guy. He's super entertaining and he's
• 11:45
  had games earlier in this year that he kind of took over.
• 11:48
  So he's had the no scoring first half, the 20 point second-half.
• 11:52
  So he's certainly not a guy you don't want to play.
• 11:54
  But our team is struggling to start and maybe one of our best
• 12:00
  players doesn't even shoot for the first 10 minutes and and I
• 12:03
  just don't I, I don't get it. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know,
• 12:07
  it's a tricky situation because you guys heard us reference to
• 12:11
  John O'Connor article, presumably.
• 12:15
  You know, I think that article when it came out was to say to
• 12:20
  Spider fandom that we're being outspent by our competition.
• 12:25
  And like if you if and so on the Facebook, I'm part of the
• 12:30
  Richmond Spider fans message group, which you are too.
• 12:34
  There was a, there was a Paul Queley post right around the
• 12:38
  time of the O'Connor article that said we're being materially
• 12:40
  outspent. Then you had the O'Connor
• 12:41
  article referencing sources saying we're being outspent.
• 12:44
  So I suspect that that was kind of a message to say, hey, we
• 12:50
  need to spend more to compete with the top levels of the A10
• 12:53
  and and I know you would say, well, we're not beating the
• 12:55
  bottom levels. Yeah, that's right.
• 12:56
  I mean, if John O'Connor's article implied that, we're in
• 12:59
  the middle. Yeah, we're in the middle pack
• 13:00
  and then so we're. Not and so, but we're not 8:00
• 13:02
  and 8:00 or 9:00 and 7:00 or I mean we're, we've got, I mean we
• 13:05
  lose it to Kane and we have the same record as last year.
• 13:08
  So I mean, I think overall there's a couple things to think
• 13:11
  about, right, with the men's team.
• 13:12
  The 1st is, you know, we're going to, I'm going to guess
• 13:17
  we're going to spend more money next year on on basketball.
• 13:20
  It's our flagship sport at U of R and I'm going to guess that
• 13:24
  more money will be spent whether.
• 13:25
  So let so here's what I worry about.
• 13:28
  I mean, I would hope what you're saying is true, but the money
• 13:33
  that we're spending next year on the players is going to be
• 13:36
  committed to before this year is out right.
• 13:39
  And so if we're hearing a bunch of, you know, behind the scenes
• 13:43
  or queerly post, like we're being outspent like they're
• 13:47
  asking now, they're make putting pressure now that we need more
• 13:50
  money and that has to be committed to between now and
• 13:54
  April. I mean, obviously we've already
• 13:56
  committed to freshman. So who knows what we're spending
• 13:58
  on the freshman class that's coming in.
• 14:00
  You know, we've got three guys who have committed to Richmond
• 14:03
  for the fall. But when it comes to the
• 14:06
  returning players and the portal players, like we need to have
• 14:09
  that money committed to pretty much now.
• 14:13
  And if, if it's more of like, well, next year we'll decide to
• 14:19
  give more, it's going to because we lose all of our good players
• 14:22
  and we can't find players off the portal.
• 14:24
  And yes, that'll be a tough lesson.
• 14:26
  But those are the folks who are going to play next year.
• 14:29
  So either we're committing to that money now or we're going to
• 14:33
  have another terrible group, not a terrible year.
• 14:36
  You never know what these guys are going to do, but we're not
• 14:38
  going to be set up for success and then we're going to wait
• 14:40
  another year to start spending money on the next level crew.
• 14:45
  I, I, I think, I mean, I think, and, and again, I have, I'm not
• 14:49
  an insider. I don't have any information
• 14:51
  about the, where the, where these decisions are made.
• 14:54
  I'm not in the room where these decisions are made.
• 14:56
  But I think you're going to see us spend more money this year in
• 15:01
  the portal to bring in overall higher level players.
• 15:06
  And and I think, you know, the goal would be to put up a better
• 15:10
  result. Now, I actually think that's
• 15:11
  really important. By the way, I do think we need
• 15:13
  more money. I think we need to be at the top
• 15:15
  of the A10 because Richmond is, you know what a seriously well,
• 15:19
  well off financial school and basketball is our flagship
• 15:21
  sport. So let's start with that.
• 15:23
  I thought lacrosse was. Well, lacrosse is starting to
• 15:25
  become it's, it's edging, it's edging up for the lead.
• 15:28
  But you know, at the end of the day, I think there's there's two
• 15:32
  things that need to happen. One, we need more money.
• 15:34
  And I think that'll be really, really positive to have more
• 15:36
  money, whether it comes from private whales, private big
• 15:39
  donors, a whale, or whether it comes from the university
• 15:42
  itself, wherever the money comes from, having more money is only
• 15:44
  a good thing. Mooney has proven he can win
• 15:48
  with talent. Like, I mean, if you look back,
• 15:49
  I looked at his last 16 years on Ken Palm, Eleven of those 16
• 15:52
  years he's been in the top 100. Now, I'm not saying the top 100
• 15:55
  is successful in this day and age, but there are 300 and 53165
• 16:00
  teams in college basketball. Top 100 should be the measuring
• 16:03
  pole every year. We should be in the top 111.
• 16:05
  Of those 16 years you've been in the top 100, you really want to
• 16:09
  be. I think we're like Saint Louis
• 16:11
  is this year where VCU is every year it feels like.
• 16:14
  And that's really in the top 50, right?
• 16:16
  And so the question I have is when we spend 5 million instead
• 16:20
  of 2 million or spend 6,000,000 instead of 2 million, whatever
• 16:23
  those numbers are, you know, are we going to move in the top 50
• 16:26
  or we just going to cluster around the top 100?
• 16:28
  And I think for me it's the, and like you guys hear me say over
• 16:33
  and over again, I believe in analytics.
• 16:34
  Analytics are just what I believe could guide us to a
• 16:37
  successful path, right? And so I think with with
• 16:40
  analytics applied to Mooney's coaching, we could actually, you
• 16:45
  know, and the additional monies that I presume will come in like
• 16:48
  they might not, but I'm presuming they'll come in, you
• 16:50
  know, you'll be in that top 50 every year, which is I think the
• 16:53
  measuring stick that all of us want.
• 16:55
  Right. So let me throw an alternative
• 16:59
  idea and most fans are going to hate this.
• 17:02
  So I sit here and if you look at probably 9 out of 10, if not ten
• 17:08
  out of 10 of the folks who are looking at the Bracketology,
• 17:11
  we're A1 bid league. You going to move us to the Big
• 17:16
  East? No.
• 17:16
  No, no, if we're in A1 bid league, we should go to a one
• 17:21
  bid league that doesn't need as much money to compete.
• 17:25
  I don't like that at all. I know you don't, but I don't
• 17:28
  like that. And I'll go back to the yeah,
• 17:29
  yeah. I'm going to feed the rumors
• 17:31
  that started when our football team moved to the Patriot
• 17:33
  League. If we went into the Patriot
• 17:36
  League and had $2,000,000, we may be at the top of the Patriot
• 17:40
  League in spending. We can win the Patriot League.
• 17:42
  Yes, you got to win the tournament.
• 17:44
  It's the only way you're getting into the.
• 17:45
  Tournament. I don't like that, and here's
• 17:46
  why. Let me just tell you why I don't
• 17:48
  like that. Because if that's the case and
• 17:50
  you are in the Patriot League and you make the tournament,
• 17:53
  your whole successful outcome would be like as a 14 beating a
• 17:58
  three, you declare victory. If that happens.
• 18:00
  And that was the greatest year ever.
• 18:02
  I don't, I don't think any of us imagine.
• 18:03
  That we've never won. We've won as a 12A13 and A-14
• 18:06
  and A-15. We've never won at a seat higher
• 18:09
  than 12. I'm just saying at the end of
• 18:10
  the day, we all went to, we all got into the A10 hoping we would
• 18:15
  actually be able to go beyond the first round and we did.
• 18:17
  We got to the Sweet 16 one time. And I, I mean, I think we've had
• 18:21
  teams that, you know, one team that the one tournament was
• 18:24
  cancelled by COVID, another one where we won in the first round
• 18:26
  lot. You know, we've had teams that
• 18:27
  are close. So I actually think we're in the
• 18:29
  right place. Yeah, I, I mean, I think we are,
• 18:32
  Yeah, but the A 10 is not what it used to be.
• 18:35
  Here's what so the A10 used to be like.
• 18:37
  We could all again, they used to be butlers and temples and U
• 18:41
  mass back in the 80s. But anyway, the A10 was like 3
• 18:45
  bids was kind of it. I mean there's a pod called the
• 18:47
  three bid league. I'm not that was created because
• 18:50
  that's what the A10 was. If the A10 is turning and again,
• 18:53
  there's a bunch of reasons that I hate as to why teams in the
• 18:57
  A10 similar to the Patriot League, but definitely A10.
• 19:01
  They can't get the games they need against the the bigger
• 19:04
  conferences. Like the net is totally leaning
• 19:07
  towards like you can go one in 15 in the SEC and have a better
• 19:12
  net than we then you know, a good team in the a 10.
• 19:15
  So there's a bunch of things I hate about how the system is set
• 19:18
  up, but I feel like the system is set up where the A10 is A1
• 19:22
  bid league. And if you got to spend
• 19:24
  $5,000,000 to get that one bid, which is going to either you're
• 19:28
  the Saint Louis and you're kind of the top 30 team or you're you
• 19:33
  win the Atlantic 10 tournament. Like I'm not sure there's an
• 19:38
  advantage to the A10 if you're a one bid lead if you.
• 19:41
  Look at what Saint Louis is doing this year.
• 19:44
  They are rewriting the definition of what success looks
• 19:47
  like in this current environment.
• 19:49
  They are a dominant team that has, I believe, you know, Sweet
• 19:53
  16. Sweet 16 is the level that I
• 19:55
  think they'll get to. They could be in the Elite 8.
• 19:57
  VCU went to the Final four in the Atlantic 10.
• 19:59
  Richmond had a Sweet 16. We've had runs where teams have
• 20:02
  actually made a charge. The 8th you can win from the
• 20:05
  A10. Yes, we're going through a a
• 20:07
  difficult time as a league and a difficult time as a program.
• 20:09
  Let's be fair and honest, right? We're 10 and 25 in our last
• 20:13
  35A10 games as a men's team and that's not where any of us
• 20:16
  wanted to be. But at the end of the day, like
• 20:19
  Coach Mooney can win games, he can win conference titles in the
• 20:24
  Atlantic 10. The money is one piece.
• 20:27
  The other piece that I was going to actually talk about is kind
• 20:30
  of what the analytics are telling me.
• 20:31
  So if you look at like the best team Richmond had, Ken Palm says
• 20:36
  it was a 2011 Sweet 16 team. Bartorvic says it was the 2020
• 20:40
  team. But in that on that 2011 team,
• 20:44
  we're playing kind of the same way we play now, right?
• 20:46
  Moody's Moody has played this way for a long, long time, which
• 20:49
  is, you know, we take, we took 32% of our shots close into the
• 20:53
  basket that season. We took 32% were far away twos
• 20:57
  as it's called on Bartorvic which which are not close to the
• 21:00
  basket, but they're two pointers, not 3 pointers.
• 21:02
  We took 37% which were three pointers.
• 21:04
  Rounding up those numbers, right, that same year VCU went
• 21:07
  to the final four, they took 34% on the close to 31 to 34.
• 21:12
  They took 24 far twos to our 32, right.
• 21:16
  And then they took 41 to 36 on the three pointer.
• 21:20
  So a lot more 3 pointers, a lot less far twos.
• 21:23
  Last year we did not have a good team.
• 21:25
  We, we finished really badly 2:50 somewhere in the rankings,
• 21:28
  right? VCU had a very good team, right?
• 21:31
  VCU took 26% of their shots from close.
• 21:35
  I'm sorry, 35% of their shots from close.
• 21:37
  We took 26, they took 17. Two point percent of shots were
• 21:42
  far away, 2 pointers, we took 28.
• 21:44
  So we're almost flipping the close versus the far.
• 21:47
  We both took a lot of threes, 47 to 45.
• 21:50
  Now let me give you one other day to point this year, 20262
• 21:54
  teams, Saint Louis best team in the A10.
• 21:57
  You are bottom 4, right? We've taken almost the same
• 22:01
  number of shots to Saint Louis on the season, 16170 to 1687.
• 22:06
  Follow me. Yeah, Saint Louis has taken 45%
• 22:10
  of their shots were three. We've got 42, so very close
• 22:12
  there. 47% of their shots were close in two pointers meeting
• 22:17
  right under the basket, right. We've taken 29.6, which is, you
• 22:20
  know, improvement over prior years.
• 22:22
  Far away, 2 pointers. St.
• 22:23
  Louis's number seven, 7% of their shots are not under the
• 22:28
  basket or three pointers. 28% of our shots are far away, 32
• 22:32
  pointers. Now the question is, why is
• 22:34
  that? It could be that we don't have
• 22:37
  the same caliber of players. Saint Louis right there.
• 22:40
  It could be the coaching style. But like, I think, you know, if
• 22:43
  we can adjust the system so that like, we're taking more shots
• 22:47
  under the basket, you need probably better players that can
• 22:50
  get under the basket and get open looks, right, or aggressive
• 22:53
  athletic looks, whatever, Whatever does it.
• 22:56
  Then I think, you know, Mooney has shown he's a top 100.
• 22:59
  He's going to be in the top 100 almost every year with the
• 23:00
  talent. So the question is, can we get
• 23:02
  in the top 50 like Saint Louis has done?
• 23:03
  I think you need the money and I think you need a slight
• 23:05
  adjustment to, you know, how you're coaching the offense.
• 23:09
  To me, those two things go hand in hand and you've got yourself
• 23:12
  a top program. I believe in Chris Mooney.
• 23:14
  I think he's a good ambassador for the University of Richmond.
• 23:17
  I think he's, when he's got the talent that's equal to the
• 23:21
  talent of these other teams, he's always, you know,
• 23:23
  competitive in the top 75, top 100 range.
• 23:26
  I think we need to adjust it slightly and that's why I keep
• 23:29
  saying analytics, analytics, analytics, because that is the
• 23:31
  mechanism to say, OK, I might need to adjust things.
• 23:34
  I think we could be a top 50 team every year.
• 23:35
  I really do. And so I think to me it's two
• 23:38
  things, the money number one and the adjustment #2.
• 23:41
  Yeah, I mean, I guess I, I hear what you're saying.
• 23:44
  I, I think it, I from the outside, I would say if you want
• 23:49
  to play like a Saint Louis team and there are other teams that
• 23:52
  have made kind of that sort of dramatic shift over the last few
• 23:56
  years to how they're shooting twos.
• 23:58
  I think you need to get an assistant coach who's, you know,
• 24:02
  the 22 year old and I'm making this up, you know, video
• 24:06
  coordinator for one of those teams who's an analytics kid
• 24:09
  who's going to be the next superstar who can come in and be
• 24:12
  like, this is how we, this is the offense we need to install.
• 24:15
  I don't think it's Mooney making like a tweak on his own.
• 24:19
  I like, I think you would have an, I think you need an outsider
• 24:22
  to come in and help Coach Mooney take the offense to that.
• 24:26
  The the level that it seems to be is the standard today, which
• 24:30
  is you don't shoot long twos and you don't recruit players who
• 24:34
  like. Like like the pull up jumper.
• 24:37
  I mean, I go back to that 2011 team again.
• 24:39
  It's 14 years ago, 15. Years ago, 32% of the shots you
• 24:42
  know were for long. Twos and that worked.
• 24:44
  That doesn't work anymore. I get it.
• 24:46
  I get it. I do think you could be right.
• 24:48
  I'm not going to say you're wrong.
• 24:49
  I'm saying you could be right. Maybe you find that Division
• 24:52
  Three head coach that is super offensively efficient, you bring
• 24:56
  him in as your offensive coordinator on the staff and you
• 24:58
  install whatever that that person runs.
• 25:01
  I think you could modify the Princeton offense as we call it,
• 25:04
  or the Richmond offense. I do think you could modify it
• 25:06
  with with bigger better players to be, you know more more
• 25:11
  representative of the systems that are are crushing into.
• 25:14
  That and a little bit of my like, what's the future of the
• 25:16
  A10? Like if we if you wanted to bet,
• 25:20
  I would bet that the Saint Louis coach is gone after this year
• 25:23
  and he gets a bit a bigger job and a big conference and who
• 25:26
  knows who they bring in to replace him.
• 25:29
  But St. you know, Saint Louis is are are they a better program
• 25:32
  than Richmond? I don't think so.
• 25:33
  I think we looked before this year.
• 25:35
  It's like their favor to win. Better program historically.
• 25:37
  They've had a few good years. Like, you know, we had a run,
• 25:40
  they had a little run with their former coach, But like, I think
• 25:44
  that's the the challenge in the A 10 is well in the long term.
• 25:48
  I mean, VC is a perfect example. The good, the the good, good
• 25:51
  coaches come in and they leave quickly because they can they
• 25:53
  can find another job at VCU. At least that's kind of their
• 25:57
  model. And then the fact that the big
• 25:59
  schools, the power conferences don't want to play the A10
• 26:02
  anymore. I'm just unless they change the
• 26:06
  rules and I've seen you see like the mid the the A10 pods or
• 26:12
  other pods bring up like these are the rules they should
• 26:14
  change. Like you have to be 500 or
• 26:16
  better in your conference to make the NCAA tournament.
• 26:18
  Like sure, if they made rule changes like that, then all of a
• 26:21
  sudden the big the big tenants not going to get 11 teams.
• 26:26
  But but if anything, the rules are going to keep going the
• 26:29
  opposite direction. They're going to if they can
• 26:31
  find enough planes to expand the NCAA to get more big conference
• 26:35
  schools and it's not going to help us.
• 26:38
  And I think conferences like the Atlantic 10, they're going to
• 26:41
  find their like the three bid league pod is going to have to
• 26:43
  change their name to we hope we can get to pod.
• 26:48
  And I think and I'm not you know, this whole like let's
• 26:51
  change leagues is not this thing I've been thinking about for a
• 26:54
  really long time. You're.
• 26:55
  Just being provocative. I'm just not convinced we should
• 26:59
  take 5 million. I can't I.
• 27:00
  Can't wait to see the hate mail we're going to get for your.
• 27:02
  I'm not. Convinced that we should take $5
• 27:04
  million from our donors or $5 million from the rest of the
• 27:09
  school budget to bring in players so we can be third place
• 27:13
  in a league that only gets one team in the NCAA tournament
• 27:18
  just. And yes, now we're we're
• 27:19
  consistently ranked 52. It's like it's.
• 27:23
  Provocative for sure. However, I do think there are
• 27:29
  ebbs and flows to everything. I think, you know, VCU does not
• 27:33
  seem unhappy that they're always on the bubble.
• 27:35
  Like, you know what talk about you want to talk about energy.
• 27:37
  Look at the women, right? The women have the energy
• 27:39
  because we're on the bubble. We're we're, you know, one good
• 27:43
  win, 1 bad win away from the NCAA tournament, 1 bad loss.
• 27:46
  And I mean, that's where we want to be come March, as we want to.
• 27:49
  Every game matters and that's all we really care about.
• 27:51
  I mean, that's what we will care about.
• 27:52
  South to me. Let me recap this entire 30
• 27:55
  minutes, I think. You're saying that we should
• 27:56
  raise $5,000,000 and give it to the women's team?
• 27:58
  Well, I, I think the women should get a lot more money.
• 28:00
  I do. I'm a big, you guys know, I'm a
• 28:02
  big fan of the ladies program and a big fan of what we're
• 28:04
  doing over there. So I do think they should get
• 28:05
  more money. Let me sub this.
• 28:07
  Let me just let me just kind of boil it down to this Moody.
• 28:11
  Moody is a good college basketball coach.
• 28:13
  He'll be a top 100 coach every single year.
• 28:16
  He has the talent, no question in my mind, to be a great, great
• 28:20
  coach in the Top 40 every year, I think we need a slight
• 28:23
  adjustment to the offense. That's my personal opinion.
• 28:26
  That's that's borne out by the analytics that I look at over
• 28:28
  time. And so the question is, can we
• 28:32
  do both? Can we get a lot more money in
• 28:33
  the Coach Moody's hands so we can be a top 75 program and can
• 28:36
  he slightly adjust the system so we're getting a lot more inside
• 28:40
  looks? And I mean, you know, that comes
• 28:41
  with the whole thing from the top down.
• 28:43
  Looking at it like, what kind of player do we need to recruit?
• 28:45
  What kind of, you know, athleticism do they need to
• 28:47
  have? What's their game look like?
• 28:49
  And I think, you know, that's where I want to be.
• 28:51
  I want to be challenging. I want to be like VCU is right
• 28:54
  now, which is going to the tournament every year, worst
• 28:56
  case every other year. And when I get there, making
• 28:59
  some noise because I'm a good team and people don't want to
• 29:01
  play. Me, I, I'm, I would love that
• 29:03
  too. I don't think we're set up to
• 29:05
  success to for that in terms of VC us, you know, alumni is huge,
• 29:11
  ours is not. But we have some very successful
• 29:15
  and who love basketball. And they're in this mode of
• 29:18
  bringing in a new coach every three or four years who brings
• 29:20
  their best players from the school.
• 29:22
  They just came but. It's working.
• 29:23
  It's worked for 20 years for these guys.
• 29:25
  At the end of the day it is working.
• 29:26
  So like. For VCU, yes.
• 29:28
  For their system it is working right now.
• 29:30
  I think our system can work too, I really do.
• 29:33
  But I, I, I heard on a local sports show, I don't listen to a
• 29:37
  ton of sports radio, but I listen to a local sports show a
• 29:38
  couple weeks, maybe a month ago. And they're talking about
• 29:41
  Richmond's fanbase is upset that they're not VCU and they're and
• 29:44
  the sports, the sports analyst, because they have no right to
• 29:47
  think they should be VCU. And I'm like, what are you
• 29:49
  talking about? We have one of the best
• 29:51
  universities in the country. We have one of the biggest
• 29:53
  endowments in the country. We have an incredible basketball
• 29:55
  tradition. We should absolutely have the
• 29:57
  same successful track record that VCU has in basketball every
• 30:00
  single year. And I think we're both saying we
• 30:02
  want that, right? I think we can get there.
• 30:05
  It's going to come up like I heard you hear me say it takes a
• 30:08
  village, right? It takes a village from the big
• 30:09
  donors. We have interest level there,
• 30:12
  apparently, right. You've got very important people
• 30:14
  who who give money to the basketball.
• 30:16
  Again, we thank you on spider sound off for being big donors
• 30:18
  and for giving to the basketball teams.
• 30:20
  We have a coach who's a good coach.
• 30:22
  He knows what he's doing, right? I mean, he's a good cause 21
• 30:24
  years. He knows what he's doing.
• 30:25
  He's had multiple NCAA appearances.
• 30:27
  You know, I think his track record.
• 30:29
  Would he be even better if, like the the path was was paved
• 30:34
  cleanly for him the whole time? There's been, you know, times
• 30:37
  where rumors have been that it hasn't always been as paved as
• 30:40
  cleanly as as it should have been.
• 30:42
  And so, like, at the end of the day, we got the coach, we got
• 30:45
  the money, we got the system, we got the university's interest.
• 30:47
  Like, we can do it. And it's about the the.
• 30:49
  I don't use a Ted Lasso reference, but it's about the.
• 30:51
  Beliefs stop pounding the table, you're shaking the whole camera.
• 30:54
  Shaking the camera, I'm fired. Up right, By the way, LaSalle is
• 30:58
  beating Fordham right now, which would put LaSalle at 5:00 and
• 31:01
  12:00, which we, so we could end up 12th in the conference if we.
• 31:07
  Do like like it doesn't matter if you're in the 11th or 12th at
• 31:09
  that point in time you're you're playing whatever many games
• 31:11
  it's. The pillow fight.
• 31:12
  So we're in the pillow fight, by the way.
• 31:13
  They call it the Pillow. Whatever you want, call it.
• 31:15
  It's it's we got a long way to go.
• 31:17
  Look, I mean, I don't think I don't think you're going to see
• 31:20
  a two year track record like this again out of Richmond
• 31:22
  basketball. I think.
• 31:23
  I think. Well, it's because we're going
• 31:24
  to be in the Patriot League. I think, I think we're going to
• 31:28
  get it. Fixed.
• 31:28
  Although Navy, I'm just looking. They're 25 and 6.
• 31:31
  They're 17 and one in the Patriot League.
• 31:33
  Maybe I don't want to go against although Richmond Navy.
• 31:35
  We got old traditions there, David.
• 31:37
  Robinson, Johnny Newman, Right. So before I mean.
• 31:42
  You know, the 2020 team was the most interesting team to look at
• 31:44
  by the way. They that was the that was the
• 31:46
  fewest far twos we've taken that I could tell in the last 16
• 31:49
  years. And that team was the was the
• 31:50
  highest ranked in Bartorvik over the last 20 years.
• 31:54
  So like, you know, I mean, we can do it.
• 31:56
  I really do believe we do it better players, you know,
• 31:59
  playing the right system, you know, tweaking the system.
• 32:01
  I'm not saying rewrite the system, tweaking the system and,
• 32:04
  you know, making sure that we have everybody aligned that this
• 32:08
  is what we need to do. That's what we need to do.
• 32:10
  Hey, before we wrap up, I just want to maybe get into some
• 32:13
  serious news topic or a recommendation for your fans out
• 32:16
  there. If you're on Instagram, I
• 32:19
  recommend that you follow TJ Klein, as you I'm sure know so
• 32:23
  he's in Israel right now can. He come back to play for us.
• 32:26
  So he's, I don't think he has eligibility left, although we
• 32:28
  should check. But he's playing professionally
• 32:30
  in Israel and he's been posting multiple times during the day of
• 32:33
  kind of what that is like right now with kind of bomb warming,
• 32:38
  having to go to the shelter and then being able to be in his
• 32:40
  room again, go out to grab something to eat and then having
• 32:43
  to be in the shelter again. So it's, it's, it's scary.
• 32:47
  Thoughts and prayers are with TJ.
• 32:48
  Yeah, he seems to have a like a good attitude about it.
• 32:51
  I think he's played there a while.
• 32:53
  So I think he's, you know, some of the a lot of the players
• 32:55
  left, but he decided to stay. But again, look for TJ on
• 32:59
  Instagram. We're wishing the best for you,
• 33:02
  TJ, man, it's just a, a way to look at, you know, a spider
• 33:06
  basketball player under the lens of what's going on in the world.
• 33:09
  It's a, it's a. It's a different view, that's
• 33:11
  for sure. Stay safe.
• 33:12
  It puts all of this in perspective.
• 33:13
  You know, winning the basketball games is a lot less important
• 33:16
  than than staying safe. So yeah.
• 33:17
  That's right. And and all of a sudden I'm
• 33:19
  thinking of the name the Patriot League a little bit differently.
• 33:23
  But anyway, until I guess next time it'll be so hopefully a
• 33:30
  women's A10 celebration. Are we?
• 33:32
  We can't possibly record Sunday night if if the women win it at
• 33:37
  4:00 on Sunday, we're going to be partying from 6:00 PM to who
• 33:41
  knows when. Well, I mean, it's time to drunk
• 33:43
  Pod. We might That might be the first
• 33:45
  intoxicated pod you ever see. From anyway, hopefully we're
• 33:48
  record next time we record it's a celebration of of a 10
• 33:52
  championship for the women's. But until then, this is Tom and
• 33:55
  this is Porter and this is spider sounding.
• 33:58
  Oh. See you.