Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Season 1 Finale: Making the NCAA's in 2027

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Season 1 Finale: Making the NCAA's in 2027 · Spiders Sound Off

• 0:06
  Hey, welcome back Spider fans. We are going to wrap up season
• 0:11
  one with a big episode today. This is Tom.
• 0:15
  And this is Porter. And welcome back, everybody.
• 0:18
  So it's been a couple weeks since we had our interview with
• 0:21
  John O'Connor. And I think as Porter and I, as
• 0:24
  you can tell, in different locations kind of thought maybe
• 0:27
  would be good as the rosters are fairly set for next season to
• 0:32
  just talk about what do we think is going to have to happen for
• 0:36
  our teams to be in or back in the NCA?
• 0:40
  As and a little a lot of speculation, a lot of dreaming.
• 0:43
  But before we get into the going to practice and talking to the
• 0:46
  coaches in the next season, we thought we would just, you know,
• 0:50
  let you guys just enjoy the two of us and our a variety of
• 0:56
  opinions on kind of what it's going to take.
• 0:59
  Absolutely, man. I'm I'm, I'm fully locked and
• 1:01
  loaded. I'm not in the RVA today, but I
• 1:04
  am an adjacent, a county or two away and I'm ready to rock.
• 1:08
  So let's do this thing. Yeah.
• 1:10
  And as we wrap the season up too, maybe I just start off with
• 1:13
  a little congratulations to all the graduates.
• 1:15
  Obviously we had, I think Mike Walls graduated, Roma Glue
• 1:20
  graduated, you know, some of our old players and all of our high
• 1:25
  school recruits a lot, a lot of posts right now about
• 1:28
  graduation. So it's kind of a big time for
• 1:31
  kind of our old players that are leaving and the new players
• 1:35
  coming in. So and as when we talked to Du
• 1:38
  Simmons, I guess he's on campus already.
• 1:39
  So some players are already there.
• 1:42
  I think some will be coming in the next week or so on both
• 1:45
  teams. But the.
• 1:46
  Team has been posting photos of practice, so we've gotten a
• 1:48
  little bit of a couple little video snippets out there which
• 1:51
  are exciting. And, and it just a little
• 1:55
  comment Porty hasn't even noticed yet when we were on the
• 1:58
  phone here prepping, is that I'm not wearing a spider shirt
• 2:01
  today. What?
• 2:04
  I am wearing a Tottenham Hotspur short shirt.
• 2:07
  Oh. OK.
• 2:09
  Tottenham just avoided relegation by winning their game
• 2:13
  this morning or this afternoon Sunday against Everton.
• 2:18
  They if they lost, they would have been relegated based on the
• 2:21
  outcomes. And if people are wondering what
• 2:23
  does that mean, just imagine if the, you know, the bottom 3 in
• 2:26
  the Atlantic 10 had were forced to go to the Patriot League the
• 2:30
  next year. And let's say the top three in
• 2:32
  the Atlantic 10 got to go to the Big East.
• 2:35
  And you know, the Atlantic 10 got the worst three teams from
• 2:38
  the Big East, and the best three from the Patriot League came in
• 2:41
  to replace. Like that's how we're from
• 2:43
  Premier League soccer. So you're feeding the narrative
• 2:45
  that Atlantic 10 is just a step below the majors.
• 2:48
  And like we got to start with this podcast of reversing that.
• 2:51
  The A10 is the premier basketball conference in in
• 2:54
  sports today. And let's start with that and
• 2:56
  maybe it'll catch on and you know, the players will come play
• 2:59
  for us and all that good stuff. Right.
• 3:01
  Yeah, that's right. OK, so let's talk about the
• 3:03
  men's team. So, you know, we, we didn't have
• 3:08
  a great year. We've had two bad years in a
• 3:09
  row. Porter.
• 3:12
  We, we both kind of independently put together a
• 3:14
  list of what, what are kind of the, what's a three to five
• 3:16
  things that we think need to happen for the, for our teams to
• 3:20
  make the NCA as Port. I'll let you start.
• 3:23
  What's your kind of top one on the men's side that you think
• 3:26
  has to happen for us to? I'm going to go.
• 3:29
  I'm going to go in reverse order.
• 3:30
  So it's my #4 all the way working on my #1.
• 3:33
  So I'm going. To do the same, go ahead. #4 for
• 3:35
  me is either Stewart or Harper makes an all A10 team.
• 3:42
  I know O'Connor wrote an article about who he thinks the starting
• 3:44
  five are and Saran or Saran made the list.
• 3:48
  Stewart was a backup, but I think that Stewart looking at
• 3:52
  the advanced stats, might be the better player, at least
• 3:55
  initially. And I think so Stewart, you
• 3:57
  know, becoming a guy that unlocks some some value.
• 4:00
  He's 6 foot five. He can knock down the three.
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  He had a couple games last year, 17 points against Maryland, 16
• 4:06
  against UCLA. If we can get, you know, Stewart
• 4:09
  to be a formidable weapon, a weapon.
• 4:11
  I know we've got kind of we'll say the big three here, which
• 4:14
  are Arga Bright, the big guy from Bucknell, Doris and Kaiser.
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  Those are kind of like the the three players.
• 4:23
  I think everybody agrees on on are going to have a meaningful
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  role. But you know, four and five, I
• 4:27
  think there's a little bit more wiggle room.
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  And I I think Stewart or Harper, I'm giving Harper the chance
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  because he really showed us something towards the end of
• 4:33
  last season emerge making all A10 team.
• 4:35
  I think that will be step one to making the Insular tournament.
• 4:39
  Yeah, I mean that it's an interesting thought.
• 4:41
  I hadn't, you know, like certainly not on my list.
• 4:44
  But like that, if that happens, like you'd really hope, we're
• 4:49
  having a great year. So I'm going to go with kind of
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  the lowest on my list, which isn't a player perspective, but
• 4:55
  it's at like our defense needs to be top 100.
• 4:59
  We were over 200 the last two seasons.
• 5:02
  If you go back to 2024, we are the 33rd ranked and this is
• 5:06
  Bartovic defensive rankings. So we've been there before.
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  If you look at the preseason Bartovic rankings, we're at
• 5:14
  1:32. So they're not thinking we're
• 5:18
  going to go from a, you know, 200 plus ranked defense to top
• 5:21
  hundred 100. But I think if we're going to
• 5:23
  make the NCA as like it's not going to be because we're just
• 5:26
  out scoring teams all year long. And just, you know, maybe that
• 5:30
  was a little bit too much of last year's only option.
• 5:33
  Like we need to be at a top 100 defensive team to make the NCA
• 5:37
  as. And that jives exactly with my
• 5:39
  #3 which was the next on my list, which is our size at every
• 5:43
  position negates our defensive and rebounding woes.
• 5:47
  So like just like you said, our rebounding has been atrocious.
• 5:51
  Our defense has been ungood the last couple years.
• 5:54
  Now we have size at every single position.
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  And there's no excuse for any of that.
• 5:59
  So the fact that we went out and got a much taller, bigger team
• 6:03
  at every position negates the the places where we've been
• 6:06
  extremely weak. And that's going to be important
• 6:08
  for us to make the the NCAA Tournament.
• 6:10
  So I agree with you. I think it's exaggerated a bit.
• 6:13
  We are not taller at every position.
• 6:16
  So Walls is actually taller than Dory's by an inch.
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  Again, this is according to what they list.
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  Obviously we're going to have Argar Wright at point guard so
• 6:24
  that he I don't think he's gotten taller.
• 6:27
  And yeah, the big difference is at the four, meaning if we can
• 6:31
  have, you know, with McCaffrey and Ball and even with and
• 6:36
  Tanner is like the small of that rotation.
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  Like that's where we're going to get bigger because that's a lot
• 6:41
  where, you know, AJ played last year.
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  And so I think this one spot work.
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  We're considerably taller. But even like Will Johnson was
• 6:52
  63, he wasn't like a really small guard.
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  So we'll be, you know, whatever 6465 at that position.
• 6:59
  But I, I did. It's that four spot where we
• 7:01
  need somebody, you know, and McCaffrey is the obvious one,
• 7:04
  but someone who's in that 6869, I mean.
• 7:07
  If you figure, if you figure, if you figure Kaiser, I mean, I, I
• 7:10
  have him kind of as the two. So let's say he's 6, he's a 652.
• 7:14
  You've got a 65 to 693 depending on who gets to start there.
• 7:18
  And then you've got a 694. So you're going to have, you
• 7:21
  know, you've got Argar Bright, but Argar.
• 7:23
  Bright. I don't think Kaiser is the
• 7:25
  second. I mean, again, we'll have a lot
• 7:27
  of different shapes of guard, but with Saran and Argar bright
• 7:33
  and I think they're the 2 who are going to be playing guard
• 7:35
  the most. I, I, I look at Kaiser as kind
• 7:38
  of the small forward. But anyway, that's, you know,
• 7:40
  we'll see. It's positionless, I guess,
• 7:42
  between the the two and the four, right?
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  In a way, if everybody can knock down a three, everybody can grab
• 7:46
  a rebound. But it just, it feels like to
• 7:50
  me, you know, I mean, Will Johnston was 6-3 at the two.
• 7:53
  I think you're going to be able to roll out even Saran is 6/5.
• 7:56
  So you're getting, you're going to get bigger at the two no
• 7:57
  matter what. The three I think probably was
• 8:00
  Tanner last year and he's probably 65.
• 8:02
  So you're looking at maybe the same there.
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  But you could easily go 696-9611 on the starting line if you want
• 8:07
  this year. There's a lot of a lot of
• 8:09
  optionality that we have because we've recruited this, you know,
• 8:12
  this bigger, more defensively proficient group of people.
• 8:16
  So I think we're saying the same thing.
• 8:17
  Yeah. So, so let me add to the kind of
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  the, the hopefully the height advantage and a little bit of
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  just maybe some, you know, better players.
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  Is that what I have next on? A key thing that has to happen
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  is and we've talked about this before kind of less long twos
• 8:33
  when you look at our just offensive strategy.
• 8:36
  So we are 49% of our two pointers last year, we're long
• 8:43
  twos and I that needs to get down to like the 30 to 35%.
• 8:47
  And just to give you kind of comparison, Saint Louis was 14%.
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  So I'm not suggesting that we're going to be Saint Louis.
• 8:54
  VCU is about 30%. So I think that's where we need
• 8:58
  to be scoring a lot more. And I'll tell you what we joked
• 9:01
  about it on text, like when you saw that little snippet, the,
• 9:05
  the preview of the, of the first practice, like there might have
• 9:09
  been, I don't know, six shots and that's preview and three of
• 9:12
  them were fade away 2 pointers. And I know that's just like a
• 9:15
  little snippet doesn't mean a whole lot.
• 9:16
  But I think for us to be an A, an NCAA team, which means you're
• 9:21
  a top A10 team, like we need to, we need to be scoring a lot
• 9:25
  closer to the basket or just shooting threes.
• 9:27
  Yeah, hitting threes are not going to down close.
• 9:29
  So I mean, I I think that's a good one for sure.
• 9:31
  And I think you got the size and the athleticism to get to the
• 9:34
  hit the the rim a lot more. So my number 2 is Jack
• 9:40
  McCaffrey. Like I think McCaffrey is the
• 9:44
  key to the season. I think he's that important to
• 9:46
  this team. 6 foot 9 really, really well pedigreed player out
• 9:50
  of high school didn't play a whole lot due to, I think an
• 9:54
  infection from having his wisdom teeth removed.
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  He's he's long. He could shoot the three.
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  I he to me is the key. If he because like, you know,
• 10:03
  you look at the analytic breakdown of all the players
• 10:05
  that we got and it it's interesting.
• 10:07
  There's some goodness there. But to get a level up from where
• 10:10
  we're currently forecasted about the 108th best team in America
• 10:13
  to go to top 60, where you're like in the at large
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  conversation, we need somebody to be a four or five PRPG player
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  in the in the Bartorvic. And I think the guy who has the
• 10:23
  biggest chance of taking that step forward is McCaffrey,
• 10:25
  because we just don't know what he can do, right.
• 10:27
  So I think Mccaffrey's going to be very, very important to the
• 10:30
  season. He emerges as a star.
• 10:31
  We're going to do really, really well this year.
• 10:33
  Yeah, no, I like that. He's I, I think his Instagram
• 10:36
  handle is like is like sniper and then his his jersey number.
• 10:39
  So I I think he might have the best IG handle of our players I
• 10:43
  love. It.
• 10:44
  OK, so I will go with a kind of a league stat, and this is maybe
• 10:48
  the obvious thing, but it has, you know, it doesn't happen
• 10:50
  every year. Like the 810 is going to need to
• 10:52
  have three teams in the NCAA tournament if we're going to be
• 10:55
  one of them. Like I look at Saint Louis and
• 10:57
  VCU, like I think they're clearly the top two teams in
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  terms of players returning where they were last year, kind of
• 11:05
  having coaches that were great last year.
• 11:08
  So I think, you know, we would be the third team that gets in.
• 11:12
  And I don't mean like, you know, and neither Porter and I when
• 11:14
  we're when we're talking about this is like, oh, well, we're
• 11:16
  going to have a mediocre year and we're just talking about
• 11:18
  running the tournament. Like this is where like we're
• 11:21
  saying these things happen because we're in that at large
• 11:24
  conversation come tournament time.
• 11:27
  And the A10's going to need to have a good year at VCU and
• 11:31
  Saint Louis, likely the leading two teams, but I think they can
• 11:35
  lead the way to a third team getting into the tournament.
• 11:39
  I like that one. My #1 Tom is Aiden Argarbright.
• 11:43
  I don't need him to be a 20 point game guy, but I need him
• 11:46
  to average 4 assists a game. If Argarbright is the
• 11:50
  distributor on this team and let's everybody else around him
• 11:53
  cook, meaning his his ability to penetrate past the defender
• 11:56
  allows for the kick out to the wide open 3 point shooter who
• 11:59
  also happens to be taller and better, I think we're going to
• 12:02
  really do well. It's Argarbright averages 4
• 12:04
  assists a game. That means everybody else is
• 12:06
  cooking and this team's going to be playing well. 4 is kind of a
• 12:09
  low number if you want him to be the distributor, but I get it I.
• 12:12
  Know they only did two last year.
• 12:13
  So I didn't want to go 5 or 6 because like, you know, that's
• 12:16
  a, that's a, that's a step too far, I think.
• 12:18
  I know this is on your list, but just using Argabry, like where
• 12:20
  do you think is there a place where he needs to be on the
• 12:23
  three, you know, at the end of the year the a 10 teams like you
• 12:26
  mentioned, you know, Stewart being third team, are are you
• 12:29
  thinking he's got to be in the number one first team or that's
• 12:32
  not required? I don't think it's required.
• 12:35
  I mean, I think you know, the, the, the team will be better if
• 12:38
  all five guys are carrying equal weight or better.
• 12:42
  And I think Argebrite already showed what he can do.
• 12:44
  So like, we know he can score. We know he can get fouled and go
• 12:46
  to the line. He's a good defensively.
• 12:49
  To me, it's like can he make the other four guys also better?
• 12:52
  And if he can do that, that means everybody else is upped
• 12:54
  their game and we're going to be we're going to be a tough team.
• 12:57
  Yeah, yeah, my number one player we've talked about, but I think,
• 13:01
  you know, we look at Dory's who's coming from Bucknell kind
• 13:04
  of a a lower league, played a a lot of minutes as a freshman.
• 13:08
  I think the last few games of the year, he played all 40
• 13:10
  minutes. Like I think he needs to, from a
• 13:13
  scoring standpoint, maintain or be close to that 16 points per
• 13:17
  game he had last year in a better league, but with better
• 13:20
  players around him. Like he's not.
• 13:22
  He was on a bad team. And there are times where, you
• 13:26
  know, people can put up big stats on a bad team and that
• 13:29
  doesn't mean they're going to be able to do that on a better team
• 13:32
  because at some point, you know, someone's got to score points
• 13:35
  even when you're getting blown out.
• 13:36
  I don't think that's him, but I get when I look at like what
• 13:41
  it's going to take for this team to be an NCAA team, like we need
• 13:44
  a center that's going to be scoring 15 points per game.
• 13:47
  And he and hopefully like, I don't think defense is his
• 13:50
  strength statistically, but I think he can improve as a
• 13:53
  defensive player. But I think he's going to have
• 13:54
  good players around him and he can be the inside guy.
• 13:57
  And really to my other point of a lot less long twos, like I
• 14:01
  think he's a guy who can be scoring lots of points close to
• 14:04
  the basket, getting the ball. You're getting some of these are
• 14:07
  good bright assists, but I think he's the guy that and, and part
• 14:11
  of it is we don't have yeah, I, I think we're both optimistic
• 14:14
  that Hominec can be a great backup for him this year, but
• 14:17
  not a starter. It's it's if Dory's ends up not
• 14:20
  having a good year, it's like we just, we just don't have a lot
• 14:24
  of options at center. It was kind of, you know, while
• 14:27
  we, you know, neither walls or anything, you know, Beagle got
• 14:30
  hurt last year, but I think at least we had like 2.
• 14:32
  We had a 1A and A1B at center last year.
• 14:36
  This is I think Dory's has to be, has to be the man at the
• 14:40
  five spot all year round for us. Yeah, we've got a bevy of like
• 14:43
  6869 guys this year. Some are unproven, but I mean,
• 14:47
  you know, you've got some, you've got some bodies.
• 14:49
  I think that could be good. I do you think Kamanek takes a
• 14:51
  big step forward? I mean, we saw him practice last
• 14:53
  year. He he actually had a physical
• 14:55
  body that was comparable to the two bigs on our team last year.
• 14:58
  He just was a bit like a probably a step slow at
• 15:01
  processing game speed, but I mean, he's had the whole year to
• 15:04
  work with the team. So if he, if he ends up kind of,
• 15:07
  you know, being at game speed, he's going to be actually a
• 15:10
  pretty good big man for us. So I, I'm, I'm optimistic on his
• 15:12
  future for sure. But I, I think I agree with you.
• 15:15
  Dory's needs to have a good year, but I think we're less
• 15:18
  reliant on a dominant big man this year because we have a lot
• 15:21
  of 6-9 guys that could step in and, and play.
• 15:24
  And we got size at the guards. I mean, especially the two and
• 15:27
  the three. I think, you know, we're going
• 15:28
  to get a lot of rebounds in that in that from that crew.
• 15:31
  So not saying that let let. Me ask you about this, you talk
• 15:33
  about all all these tall guys like are you putting Caldwell
• 15:36
  and hominic in this like lots of tall guys or is it just because
• 15:39
  we have Andrew Ball and McCaffrey?
• 15:42
  It's Ball, McCaffrey, Caldwell, I mean, Mooney said in the press
• 15:45
  conference. Caldwell's ready to play in the
• 15:46
  Atlantic 10 right now. So he's he's an exciting player
• 15:49
  for us. You know, Ball was is a senior,
• 15:52
  was a senior last year. So he's got, you know, a lot of
• 15:55
  a lot of experience and size. And then I think I, I still
• 15:59
  believe McCaffrey is the key to the season.
• 16:00
  He's 6 foot 9 so. But if you're going the
• 16:03
  impression I have on McCaffrey and like we obviously he didn't
• 16:06
  play a lot. So it's hard to tell, but my, my
• 16:08
  impression of McCaffrey is what's going to make him unique
• 16:10
  because he's a 69 outside guy, right?
• 16:13
  Not a six nine, you know, power forward.
• 16:16
  So that's where it's like. Yeah, but if you think it.
• 16:18
  May we've got a bunch of tall guys, but who's going to be the
• 16:20
  one inside making those making those layups with a little jump
• 16:25
  hooks or those those closer to the the hoot basketball?
• 16:28
  I don't think it's going to be McCaffrey.
• 16:30
  But with but with the 65, the six, five guys in also you've
• 16:33
  got Kaiser, who we both think will be a a a star in this
• 16:36
  league. You've got, you know, you've got
• 16:39
  Saran who can score. You got Stewart, who is a
• 16:41
  well-rounded player, all 65. You've just got so much
• 16:44
  optionality. Like you could go with a line up
• 16:46
  that's three, six, five guys and 269 guys.
• 16:49
  And I think they would hold their own just fine.
• 16:50
  That's why I'm saying I think it's a little less depending on
• 16:53
  Dory's, but I do think Dory's will be a good player for us and
• 16:56
  I think he'll take a step forward from what he did for
• 16:57
  Bucknell last year. I mean, at least at least from
• 17:00
  an advanced stats perspective. OK, So moving on to the women,
• 17:04
  The one thing that's interesting when I was just kind of playing
• 17:07
  around looking at their roster, like I think right now, if I
• 17:09
  count it, if I'm counting it right, their rosters at 13
• 17:13
  probably. So there is I I wonder, is there
• 17:16
  still kind of AI mean the portal?
• 17:18
  There are still names on the portal.
• 17:20
  So is there are we, is there another?
• 17:22
  I'm sure coach is trying to find another big body because we
• 17:25
  don't have many of those that aren't freshmen, but we got 13
• 17:29
  players right now. Six are freshmen and four are
• 17:33
  sophomores. Young team A very young.
• 17:36
  Team it tells you what we've got but but anyway, I mean we've
• 17:39
  we're coming from have been in the tournament three years in a
• 17:42
  row. We got a coach who's been in the
• 17:44
  tournament tournament a couple years in a row.
• 17:47
  So I think that's got to be the going in expectations.
• 17:50
  So, Porter, why don't you start? What's kind of the.
• 17:53
  Well, I won't say it. For us, making the tournament is
• 17:55
  not the expectation. Let me just start with that.
• 17:57
  Like it? Would be I'm not talking about
• 17:58
  you and me. I'm like the coach, the coach
• 18:01
  and the like. Ally, I guarantee Ally and
• 18:04
  Alyssa coach and player are talking about how do we get to
• 18:07
  the tournament and not a. 100% that's going to be their goal,
• 18:10
  but let's be let's be honest and not put pressure on on the new
• 18:13
  coaching staff because at the end of the day, if they make the
• 18:16
  tournament and it is doable, it will be in a hell of
• 18:19
  accomplishment. A hell of accomplishment with 10
• 18:21
  players who are either freshman or sophomore.
• 18:22
  Let's just, let's just throw that down.
• 18:24
  But here are my top five. And I'm going to start with #5 I
• 18:28
  don't know enough about the incoming freshman to really have
• 18:30
  a strong opinion, but I have to plant a flag in the ground.
• 18:33
  So here's my flag. Kate Schindler lights it up.
• 18:37
  As a true freshman, she averages double digit points.
• 18:40
  As a freshman, any girl that can score 58 points in a high school
• 18:43
  game can literally score. So there's key #5 for me in
• 18:47
  terms of, you know, something that if it happens, we make the
• 18:50
  tournament. Yeah, it's interesting.
• 18:52
  I thought about like, I don't have any kind of freshman on my
• 18:54
  list. I did debate kind of just having
• 18:56
  that, but my number 5 and maybe this should be higher is that.
• 19:01
  And and maybe this is obvious because we only have so many
• 19:03
  players, but I'm looking for Shanika Campbell to be a starter
• 19:07
  most of the year to be kind of our arguably our best big.
• 19:14
  And really looking for her to take that giant leap from
• 19:16
  freshman where she just got, you know, she got some minutes here
• 19:19
  or there in games that mattered, but really never had you never
• 19:23
  played 10 minutes in a row, never anything close to that.
• 19:27
  So I'm looking for her to take if I think if she takes a big
• 19:29
  step and becomes kind of a one of our critical kind of bigs on
• 19:33
  on our team and you know, with a different coaching philosophy,
• 19:37
  maybe she can shine more where threes aren't going to be as
• 19:41
  required. So I'm looking that was my #5
• 19:44
  Shanika being kind of a starter most of the year and kind of a a
• 19:47
  big reason for why we're post season bound.
• 19:50
  It very well lines with my #4, which are Shanika Campbell and
• 19:55
  Peyton Richard, find that the new coaching staff suits them
• 19:58
  better. And what I mean by that is.
• 20:01
  Sometimes you get typecast by the existing coaching staff that
• 20:04
  like, Hey, you are X and maybe you you believe you're Y right,
• 20:07
  and you just can't get out of that.
• 20:08
  I'm an X and become AY. Well, both of these gals have a
• 20:13
  chance to show everybody what they can do with a brand new
• 20:16
  coaching staff. And I think both of them find
• 20:20
  ways to unlock their game with this new coaching staff that
• 20:23
  they didn't fully find with the last coaching staff.
• 20:26
  So I think those two players could be very important to the
• 20:30
  team. I agree with you.
• 20:30
  Shanika is going to be, you know, very important inside for
• 20:34
  us. I also think Peyton Richard has
• 20:36
  something left to show and what she can do.
• 20:39
  So one or both of those guys find the new coaching staff
• 20:42
  suits them and take a huge step forward.
• 20:45
  Yeah, I like that. So my number 4 was and, and, and
• 20:49
  this is a baby. I'm hedging too much in this,
• 20:51
  but that if you, you look at our kind of what they are returning
• 20:55
  sophomores who played a lot. So I'll put that Ava Rain and
• 21:03
  Anisha that two of those three are averaging 10 plus points per
• 21:08
  game. I think we know Ali's going to
• 21:10
  score. It's like we're going to need
• 21:11
  other people to contribute. And I think two of those
• 21:13
  sophomores and maybe more than two, but at least two of those
• 21:16
  are in the 10 plus per game. If I had to bet, it's going to
• 21:20
  be Ava and Anisha and let Rain be the play a lot play great
• 21:26
  defense, get, you know, 7 points per game and six rebounds per
• 21:29
  game. But I'm But anyway, two of those
• 21:31
  three are scoring 10 plus per game for us to make the
• 21:35
  postseason. I'm going to give you one for my
• 21:37
  #3 which it kind of ties with that.
• 21:42
  And that is Ali Sweeney does not lead the team in scoring.
• 21:46
  What I mean by that is, you know, if you look at Kresge's
• 21:51
  track record, she was a unbelievable distributor of the
• 21:54
  basketball and an unbelievable defensive player.
• 21:57
  She loves the point to create for everybody else.
• 22:00
  So somebody other than Ali leads the team in scoring.
• 22:02
  And to me, my best bet is Ava Porschetti.
• 22:04
  She's a shooter and she had she had a lot of minutes last year.
• 22:08
  If if she or even Rain leads the team in scoring, I think we've
• 22:12
  we've unlocked a lot of value that that will carry as far.
• 22:15
  Well, yeah, like, I almost would put that on the list of why we
• 22:19
  don't make the tournament. And I guess it's all in numbers,
• 22:21
  right? So if Ava ends up scoring 16
• 22:23
  points per game and Ali's scoring 13 points per game, like
• 22:27
  I'm with you. That's right, Ali's going to get
• 22:29
  hers and she's also going to have 5 assists a game.
• 22:31
  So you're it's literally finding somebody else to go with her is
• 22:34
  what is what another way of saying that was.
• 22:35
  So, like, this is not on my list.
• 22:37
  This is not why we'd make the tournament.
• 22:39
  But I think the flaw in the argument you just had is I don't
• 22:42
  think Ali's our point guard. I think she's going to play too.
• 22:45
  I think Anisha is going to start and handle the ball mostly and
• 22:49
  Ally will be. The two guard.
• 22:51
  A2 guard again can handle the ball great as well.
• 22:54
  So it's not going to be 9010. It's probably more like 6040,
• 22:57
  but it's. Going to be a small defense if
• 22:59
  that happens, but I, you know, I could see it.
• 23:01
  I could see it. OK, so my number 3 here is that
• 23:05
  we and I'll, you know, using our Bartovic, but you could use
• 23:09
  other stats that we are the number one ranked defense in the
• 23:13
  A10. I think that's going to be
• 23:15
  needed for us to make the postseason.
• 23:17
  We know it's kind of our coach's calling card.
• 23:19
  So Vermont last year was 80. They were 74 the season before
• 23:24
  that. Richmond was actually 77 last
• 23:25
  year. So I mean, you know, credit to
• 23:27
  coach Russell, like he he knew how to coach defense.
• 23:30
  But we were fourth in the A10 last year.
• 23:32
  So George Mason, Davidson and you or I were ahead of us in
• 23:36
  terms of defensive rankings. So I think we need to be the
• 23:40
  number one team in the A10 defensively to have a shot at
• 23:45
  being a representative in the NCAA Tournament.
• 23:49
  That's my #3. OK, all right #2 For me, Ali
• 23:53
  Sweeney wins Player of the year in the Atlantic 10.
• 23:55
  I mean, I think, you know, there's not a lot of courses
• 23:58
  that get us to the post season without her being one of the top
• 24:03
  couple players in the A10 and I think she wins the A10 player of
• 24:07
  the year. We got a real shot of dancing
• 24:08
  so. Yeah, I'll tell you my number
• 24:09
  one, just to use the same thing I said that she's either first
• 24:13
  or second for most votes for player of the year, but I don't
• 24:17
  think she has to win it. But like you said, she's got to
• 24:19
  be one of the top players. I do think that there's a little
• 24:22
  bit of, you know, on your side, intentional contradiction that
• 24:25
  she's not leading the team in points.
• 24:26
  Like, I think the way she's the player of the year is because
• 24:28
  she's scoring 18 points per game and had, you know, and it's also
• 24:32
  doing a lot of other things. 13.7 assists would do it.
• 24:37
  Yeah, OK, So what? What's your #1?
• 24:41
  Number one is simple. The rest of the A10 is down and
• 24:43
  we win three games in a row come March.
• 24:46
  So you just think we have to win the tournament?
• 24:47
  I. Think we're going to have to win
• 24:49
  the tournament? Absolutely.
• 24:50
  I don't think this team is going to be in that large bid, but I
• 24:52
  think it could win the tournament.
• 24:53
  Yeah, I think the A10 is down. So part of the challenge could
• 24:56
  be that the A10 is the one bid league.
• 24:59
  I mean, we'll see kind of, you know, this other new players on
• 25:02
  a lot of these teams. So we'll see how they all come
• 25:04
  together. Saint Joe's is probably going to
• 25:05
  be the favorite is my guess. Just in terms of what they
• 25:08
  returned and not having coaches change like.
• 25:11
  It's definitely Saint Joe's and Davidson are the two top in my
• 25:13
  in my opinion. Yeah, so the one I had left,
• 25:17
  this is my #2 we haven't really talked about one player on our
• 25:20
  team and maybe it's Shaniqua behind the scenes on this, but I
• 25:24
  think we're going to need someone, one of our bigs who's,
• 25:28
  you know, getting 20 plus minutes a game and getting 6
• 25:32
  plus rebounds per game. I think Harriet Ford from
• 25:35
  Duquesne is probably the leading candidate, but we can't just be
• 25:39
  a bunch of shooters who just hope the defense is going to
• 25:42
  offset that. Like we're going to have need
• 25:44
  some sort of inside presence on the glass.
• 25:47
  I think that's why Harriet Ford was brought here to kind of be
• 25:50
  that. Now again, Shaniqua can end up
• 25:52
  being that, but like, you know, it's a place where we weren't
• 25:57
  great last year. So I'm hoping we can be, you
• 25:59
  know, at least equal to last year in terms of who's at our
• 26:02
  five and kind of getting rebounds and maybe mucking it up
• 26:06
  in there a bit. But I think we we're going to
• 26:08
  need someone again, most likely Harriet Ford, who's our transfer
• 26:11
  from Duquesne, but someone maybe it's a freshman who becomes that
• 26:15
  kind of inside presence for us to get an at large bid.
• 26:19
  I'm not banking on these winning the tournament, but.
• 26:22
  Yeah, I'm, I'm going with three wins in a row in March.
• 26:24
  And I think by the time this team is playing in March,
• 26:27
  they're going to be very familiar with each other.
• 26:30
  The freshmen and the sophomores will that's 10 of the 13 people
• 26:33
  currently on the roster will be, you know, significantly more
• 26:36
  experienced. I think we could do it.
• 26:38
  And that I think, you know, the rest of the A10 being down means
• 26:41
  it's in the tournament. Being in Henrico should play to
• 26:44
  our advantage. Yeah, No, I think that's where
• 26:46
  it's like you hope our defense can be that good that our if our
• 26:51
  offense is still trying to figure itself out the 1st two or
• 26:55
  three months that the defense can lead the way.
• 26:57
  So one other thing Porter and I talked about right doing a
• 27:00
  little bit of ranking on in this episode is that we both assuming
• 27:03
  the weather holds up tomorrow, we'll be seeing a sting here in
• 27:09
  Richmond. He's playing at the.
• 27:10
  Well, technically when they're listen to this, it'll be today,
• 27:12
  so. We're yeah, it'll be yeah,
• 27:13
  that's right. So it's on Monday, Monday night
• 27:15
  is staying. Maybe that you may be listening
• 27:18
  to this after the concert, but we're both Police fans, Sting
• 27:21
  fans. So we thought maybe it's a
• 27:24
  little bit of like what's going to need to be in the set list
• 27:27
  for us to believe It's a great show.
• 27:30
  But some ways kind of one of our top, you know, three to five
• 27:34
  Police songs. Porter, you you want to start?
• 27:37
  Sure, 1986 Russians synonymous for me with the end of the Cold
• 27:42
  War. You know we share the same
• 27:44
  biology regardless of ideology. Believe me when I say to you, I
• 27:47
  hope the Russians love their children too.
• 27:49
  Shout out to our Russian fans. By the way, we actually have
• 27:51
  quite a following in Moscow. Quite a following in Moscow.
• 27:55
  I mean, Russia is. A top 10 country right now we're
• 27:58
  streaming in so we'll get to that in a second too I'll.
• 28:00
  Give you. Yeah.
• 28:00
  It's OK. Yeah.
• 28:02
  So my number 5 is a again, it's a little like Russians, not as a
• 28:06
  popular song, but Secret Journey is 1.
• 28:10
  I think it's from Ghost in the Machine.
• 28:11
  It's kind of one of my favorite songs, so that's why I started
• 28:14
  with something a little more subtle.
• 28:16
  I've always loved that one. OK #4 For me, Synchronicity 2,
• 28:22
  it's like a master class in psychology.
• 28:24
  So you got two different storylines being woven together.
• 28:26
  This guy whose life is breaking down at work and at home and
• 28:30
  who's contemplating, you know, bad things.
• 28:34
  And then on the other side, you've got this story about this
• 28:36
  Loch Ness Monster growing in the, you know, and becoming more
• 28:40
  and more powerful. And, you know, having read a
• 28:43
  little bit about the back, the back story to the song, Sting
• 28:45
  was really into Carl Jung's teachings or books back then,
• 28:50
  which has, you know, this kind of thought that, you know, he
• 28:53
  was a psychoanalyst who wrote a couple books.
• 28:55
  He basically said synchronicity is simply a meaningful
• 28:57
  coincidence. The idea that 2 completely
• 28:59
  unrelated events can happen at the exact same time because
• 29:02
  they're connected by this shared emotional meaning or deeper
• 29:04
  collective unconscious. So the story really is about the
• 29:07
  guy breaking down and the Loch Ness Monster or the monster in
• 29:10
  the Scottish Loch is actually his subconscious getting ready
• 29:14
  to erupt, almost like the movie Falling Down in the 1980s.
• 29:17
  If you think back to that, he's about to snap.
• 29:19
  That's the most I've heard everyone ever, ever anyone ever
• 29:22
  think about or talk about Synchronicity 2 as in terms of
• 29:25
  behind the scenes. That's actually my number one
• 29:27
  song. I think it's just a great song.
• 29:29
  There you go. But anyway, so my #4 to me is a
• 29:35
  great one and we certainly won't hear it tomorrow.
• 29:36
  I'd I'd I'd flip out if they did with Canary and a Cold Mime.
• 29:40
  Yeah, that's a good. One love that song, it's one of
• 29:42
  my favorites. It's got that kind of classic
• 29:45
  police, reggae sky sort of beat to the whole thing, but man,
• 29:51
  that's that's just a great one. For me #3 it's, he went solo a
• 29:55
  great, an underrated album, The 10 Summoner's Tales.
• 29:59
  I had to choose one of the great songs on that album.
• 30:01
  So I I picked If I Ever lose my Faith in you.
• 30:03
  He was coming out of a dark period in his life.
• 30:05
  He'd lost both parents. And the thing about if I ever
• 30:08
  lose my faith in you is it it basically just centers on love
• 30:13
  is the ultimate anchor. So I love that song.
• 30:16
  You did a lot of contemplation on like the meeting.
• 30:19
  I don't take my sting or my police not seriously dude.
• 30:23
  OK, so I'm I'm also picking one of his solo songs.
• 30:26
  It's the only solo song I put on this list, and that's Fortress
• 30:28
  Around My Heart. Yeah, that's an incredible song
• 30:32
  off Dream of the Blue Turtles. Hopefully we hear it tomorrow.
• 30:36
  I know that that album is a tough one to do live right now,
• 30:39
  but he's got like his rock band versus his jazz band.
• 30:42
  But that's an incredibly well written pop song.
• 30:45
  I just love that one. OK #2 what?
• 30:49
  Was going on with his heart or his fortress or any sort of
• 30:51
  metaphor outside of kind of the obvious, but.
• 30:54
  I just like the song I got. It Yeah, go ahead.
• 30:56
  What's your #2? #2 is the greatest police song
• 30:58
  as a from a popularity perspective ever written.
• 31:01
  You can't have a police top five list without having it on there.
• 31:03
  And it's every breath you take. 8 weeks at #1 It's just, you
• 31:08
  know, a special song. So I've already given my number
• 31:13
  one, so I'll just give my number 2 is so lonely.
• 31:15
  So that's one of my, you know, it's kind of classic old police
• 31:19
  song back when they were still trying to make it.
• 31:23
  But that song is is is awesome. I'm not going to try to hit any
• 31:26
  of those notes that Sting could hit back then.
• 31:29
  But that's outside of synchronicity, too.
• 31:31
  That's my favorite Police song. Number one was, I think the song
• 31:36
  that really launched, made The Police The Police.
• 31:39
  It's a punk reggae hybrid mix that put him on the map and that
• 31:43
  is Roxanne. So you got to think about what
• 31:46
  was happening when he wrote Roxanne back in 1977.
• 31:49
  He's living in the basement of a flat in London.
• 31:53
  He actually is in Paris, in ACD rundown hotel in Paris, in the
• 31:57
  red light district, where he kind of starts to form the
• 31:59
  inspiration behind Roxanne. And then one night he's staying
• 32:05
  with Andy and Kate, Andy's wife, Kate, Andy Summers.
• 32:09
  And, you know, he plays Roxanne as a slow ballad, sitting while
• 32:13
  sitting, you know, on their couch for them.
• 32:16
  And Kate turns to Andy and says, this guy's going to be a rock
• 32:18
  star. And it's actually, I think
• 32:20
  Stewart that actually Stewart Copeland speed the the the
• 32:23
  temple up so that it became the song it is today that we've all
• 32:27
  heard. But yeah, Roxanne, you know,
• 32:30
  just really just first, the first, the first song that I
• 32:33
  think really made the police the police.
• 32:35
  Well, a song I'd, you know, actually it's not it wouldn't be
• 32:37
  anywhere on my top ten list, but it just I was thinking about
• 32:41
  this list and one I just had to say is like I think every time
• 32:45
  my my phone buzzes here at home or I'm on the phone, I somewhere
• 32:51
  here in the background, the telephone is ringing.
• 32:54
  Is that Porter on the phone? So that's mother from
• 32:59
  synchronicity, which is 1 weird song, but I does make me think
• 33:03
  of I do get some grief from the wife of like you're always on
• 33:06
  the phone with Porter. So that's that's the last little
• 33:10
  tidbit. But anyway, so we are wrapping
• 33:13
  up. You want to have.
• 33:14
  Before we wrap up Season 1, Porter wants to give a few stats
• 33:18
  about our podcast 5. Quick facts for you that are.
• 33:21
  Just fun. OK, so first of all, thanks to
• 33:23
  all the fans, Thanks to all the listeners who paid attention to
• 33:26
  us this year. When Tom and I started this
• 33:28
  little endeavour, we didn't know five people would listen, or
• 33:30
  seven, or just our friends and family.
• 33:32
  Turns out my family doesn't listen.
• 33:34
  So we're great. Grateful for the rest of you
• 33:36
  guys who do we hit 12,000 stream slash views this year across the
• 33:40
  different platforms. We're in 55 countries that we
• 33:44
  know of. We can't really track that as
• 33:45
  well on YouTube as we can on the other platforms. 34 states
• 33:48
  listen to us. Plus the District of Columbia
• 33:51
  Top 2 episodes were the Scott Unger episode, which if you
• 33:54
  haven't listened to heavily suggest you go listen to it.
• 33:57
  And the women's coaching search episode was was up there as a
• 34:00
  top. Emergency pod.
• 34:02
  That was that might have been the emergency pod.
• 34:04
  It's where we were. Yeah, I think I think you're
• 34:06
  right where we were talking about the rumors about who the
• 34:09
  future coach would be, and luckily we were fully on board
• 34:12
  with the Kresge rumor and that came to fruition.
• 34:15
  So super exciting for that. So just just some fun stuff.
• 34:17
  We had a good first year. I think we're definitely going
• 34:21
  to keep doing this as long as people are listening.
• 34:23
  We're having fun and we're both having fun.
• 34:25
  So thanks to you, Tom, for being the awesome sound guy you are.
• 34:29
  I know that adds a lot of work after we record one of these
• 34:31
  things and I think probably people don't understand making
• 34:35
  it sound good for all platforms isn't just a snap of the finger.
• 34:38
  So you do a great job and looking forward to Season 2.
• 34:42
  Yeah, it was a fun first year. So last year we started in July,
• 34:46
  but we are going to officially start season 2 in June.
• 34:50
  We will probably roughly every other week for a month or two,
• 34:55
  but it's going to depend on the news, depend on when we get
• 34:57
  interviews. I I think when we get something
• 34:59
  good, we'll put it out there. We're not just going to hold it
• 35:01
  for a week just because we already put one out the week
• 35:03
  before. So maybe we won't be as
• 35:04
  predictable as you'd like, but we're going to get stuff out for
• 35:08
  sure over the next couple of months.
• 35:09
  We'll get to some practices, we'll talk to the coaches and
• 35:15
  we'll we'll go back to some players in the past as well,
• 35:19
  some someones we haven't talked to yet.
• 35:20
  There's a there's a lot of them. So looking forward to Season 2
• 35:24
  and you know what we're able to do there.
• 35:27
  I think we can, we can certainly go up from here.
• 35:31
  I think we're proud of our Season 1, but I think heck, we
• 35:34
  didn't even do video for the first two months and season 1.
• 35:38
  So I think Season 2 will be even better.
• 35:42
  If you have an idea for an episode you want to hear from
• 35:44
  somebody, shoot us a message on our socials.
• 35:48
  We do appreciate you guys coming up and saying hi to us from the
• 35:50
  Robin Center. I feed off that energy anyway.
• 35:52
  I mean, it's not Tom has yet to to find me super lucrative
• 35:56
  compensation for this gig. So right now we're doing it just
• 36:00
  for the fact that that folks are having fun with it.
• 36:02
  So appreciate you guys, appreciate all you do, and we'll
• 36:05
  see you in the Robin Center. Yeah.
• 36:07
  So until season 2, this is Tom. And this is Porter.
• 36:13
  And this is spiders sounding off.
• 36:18
  Welcome to season 2. It's season 2.