Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Episode 25: Half Feast, Half Famine

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Episode 25: Half Feast, Half Famine · Spiders Sound Off

0:07
Hey everybody. Welcome back to Spider.
0:09
Sound off. This is Tom.
0:11
And this is Porter. And we are here after
0:15
Thanksgiving to talk about the road trips that went so well.
0:20
One win, one loss each. Team had one win and one loss
0:24
during that trip. We also have games coming up
0:26
this week. We're going to talk about
0:28
Porter. How was your Thanksgiving?
0:30
Thanksgiving was fantastic. We escaped the RVA for a little
0:33
bit, got down to Chesapeake Bay area and just relax with family.
0:38
How about you? Nice.
0:39
It was good. Out of friends giving here in
0:41
the neighborhood. Nothing too crazy.
0:45
Took advantage of some basketball and football and food
0:49
and drink. I bought Flow Sports for these
0:52
two ladies games by the way. I don't know if you did this, I
0:55
did not. OK.
0:56
So my analysis of flow sports is I'm glad we're not still on flow
1:00
sports, but it was better than actually I remembered it being.
1:04
So that's, that's the one positive thing I'll say.
1:06
It's better than I remember, but still don't want to be on.
1:08
It, yeah, a little editorial thing for me too, though, and
1:10
this is not really a complaint. It's more where we need to get
1:13
to as a program is that I think when you think of like what are
1:16
the things that will happen where the women's program hits
1:19
like a new level is when we have radio broadcasts for away events
1:25
like this, like the men's do. Women did not.
1:27
So there was not a way to listen to it on the radio.
1:28
And that's just kind of, I think the way funding is today.
1:31
But let's hope there's a point in time in the future where we
1:34
can have maybe the A-Team will always be on men's, but you can
1:37
have the B team go and travel and do radio.
1:40
Or if not, they could just send podcasters there to do some
1:43
recording. Yeah, that's a good, that's a
1:45
good call out. And we're again open to anybody
1:47
who wants to sponsor us for an episode.
1:50
We can certainly promote your product, but if you don't
1:52
sponsor, just give us a like or a follow or subscribe on
1:55
whatever platform you're consuming this.
1:56
It just helps our numbers, helps our metrics.
1:58
OK, so let's recap some games. You guys thought we'd start with
2:01
the men first. Yeah, we had that Fuhrman game
2:05
in the morning on Thanksgiving. Yeah.
2:08
What did you see? Yeah.
2:09
I mean, I think what was obvious is that we weren't ready for the
2:12
131 and it was a 131 that had big guy at the top and at the
2:17
bottom. So we had a lot of trouble, you
2:20
know, getting the ball around, a lot of standing around the
2:24
three-point shot. But it wasn't just that, like
2:27
Furman shot 52% for the game. So that has nothing to do with
2:30
the 131 defense. They scored at us and they had
2:33
two big guards, 167, Alex Wilkins and ASA Thomas, and we
2:38
just couldn't defend them. I mean, they scored tons of
2:41
points for them and we are really lucky to be in that game
2:46
'cause they could not shoot foul shots.
2:47
They're 9 for 21 at the end of the game.
2:51
So I don't like we didn't play well.
2:52
I mean, I appreciate Mooney's trying to be the optimist.
2:54
Is it like if we only had a 30 more seconds, 'cause it did come
2:57
to that last second shot? But again, we got lucky.
3:00
They just couldn't hit free throws.
3:03
We had 15 assists and 17 turnovers.
3:05
That's not good basketball. You know, it's funny, my first
3:08
four points and I just took notes during the game.
3:10
I said the 131 was wreaking havoc and we couldn't figure it
3:13
out. So whoever did the scout didn't
3:15
adequately prepare us for how to break the 131 confusion early
3:19
on. Defense was my the second note,
3:21
Furman couldn't make the free throws was my third note.
3:23
And turnovers killed us. And it's not just turnovers,
3:26
it's it's non steal turnovers. It's just careless mistakes.
3:30
So that's something that was a theme.
3:32
You know, I also saw in the Charlotte game on the positive
3:35
side, I'll say this, Daughtry announced himself firmly in that
3:38
game. I mean, you saw that thunderous
3:40
dunk he had. He was taking the ball downhill
3:42
to the hoop. We just need more and more of
3:45
that. Like that is a special weapon
3:47
that we have. I did think the two non calls on
3:51
Will Johnston at the end of that game were a difference maker.
3:54
I mean, he actually was fouled twice and they didn't call it.
3:56
And he one of the times he actually had a violent move with
4:00
his head and. What was that move like Porter?
4:02
It was like like that with your head and he's just he did.
4:05
They didn't call it. And so I did think the non fouls
4:07
were a difference maker. We almost, you know, lucked out
4:09
a win there. And the last thing I'll say was
4:12
I don't know what you drew up there at the end, but I can't
4:15
imagine that a walls fade away shot was the was the look they
4:19
wanted, I think. Yeah, let's hold on before we
4:21
get to that because I think we can talk about that for a bit.
4:24
I will say you say good things. We out rebounded them and we out
4:27
rebounded Charlotte by a lot. So like I love this rebound.
4:30
This is a this is a good trend this year.
4:32
I'm getting better rebounding and we've heard Mooney talk
4:34
about it. So that's great.
4:35
It's not every shot where all five people are racing back on
4:38
defense, which we've seen a lot over the last 20 years and it
4:42
was a nice. Yeah, we stayed in there.
4:44
We're down 28 to 13 I think only like 9 minutes into the first
4:49
half. Like we are getting crushed and
4:50
texted. Me and I said a few things that
4:52
I probably, you know, don't want to repeat on on this podcast on
4:55
that text. And we cut it to five at at
4:57
half, but we can never really get over the hump.
4:59
So we had an entire half to try to take advantage of them
5:02
turning the ball over and trying to make our shots, But we never
5:06
could really get there and we had two chances to win it.
5:09
A Walls missed that shot. I'm sure he's not happy with a
5:11
fadeaway shot from like beyond the free throw line.
5:15
But what was interesting to me is like, I mean that Walls, you
5:18
know, I looked at the minutes Walls played 27, Beagle only 13.
5:23
And that's it was different in the next game.
5:24
Beagle had a great game against Charlotte, but it was it was
5:26
interesting that in my head it's like be if you're going to give
5:30
someone the ball in the post who's got the best moves, I'd
5:32
say Beagle, but he didn't really play much in that game.
5:35
So you can't, you know, you can't take a guy who hasn't
5:37
played much and. Do things for last two minutes.
5:40
I think Beagle got in early foul trouble if I recall, so that
5:42
might have been wise. Minutes were done.
5:44
OK, so this last play I looked at it again online, just like,
5:47
like who was out there? And I like who was out there.
5:49
David Thomas was out there. He can do a lot with the ball.
5:53
Johnston was out there who's got a good outside shooter.
5:56
You had Daughtry in there, so you had guys that you wanted.
6:00
You had Walls who, you know, can set picks, can pass.
6:05
And then we had Argarbright throwing the ball in.
6:07
So like, no criticism on the five out there in particular
6:10
because Beagle didn't play a lot.
6:11
So if Beagle and Walls were, let's say, 20 minutes each, I'd
6:14
say like, hey, maybe Beagle's out there.
6:16
But anyway, you look at that play and then it's like, what
6:20
happened? And we didn't have a time out,
6:22
but I'm sure they practice this a lot.
6:24
So I analyze this play. You got David Thomas in the far
6:27
corner. There's no way he's getting the
6:30
ball there now. He cut there, but he's in the
6:32
far corner. Ball hasn't been thrown in yet.
6:34
He's out of the play. Wall sets a pick for Johnston,
6:37
sets a good pick. Johnson is wide open in the
6:39
corner. Argo Bright does not throw it,
6:42
so he hesitates. And then the guy rolls off the
6:44
pick. Now Johnson's not open.
6:46
Walls rotates off the pick and is wide open so he throws the
6:49
ball to Walls. But 5 seconds is a lot of time
6:53
it. Was five or two or something.
6:54
It was like 5.2 seconds, yes. When Walls shot the ball, there
6:57
were still 2 seconds left on the clock, so a fadeaway shot with
7:02
two seconds left, Johnston was wide open in the corner.
7:05
And I'm not saying I mean, Johnson didn't have a great
7:07
shooting night, so it's not like he was, you know, going to make
7:09
that shot. He had heated up a little in the
7:11
4th. But I would like to see the ball
7:13
go to Johnston. Then obviously Walls does a spin
7:15
move but then backs away to shoot the fade instead of just
7:18
going to the hoop and trying to get.
7:19
Foul. Yeah, that's what I wrote.
7:21
I'm like, you want somebody going to the basket, drawing
7:24
contact, force that ref to swallow that whistle, you know,
7:27
in that situation. So I like to see Daughtry get
7:30
like Daughtry just seem to like be posting up the big guy inside
7:33
and the guy is taller than him so.
7:35
Daughtry is so strong, he can take, he could take guys to the
7:38
rim, you know, pretty much at will.
7:40
And I I want to see more and more of that as we go forward
7:43
with Daughtry taking the ball to the rim.
7:44
Yeah, what I've, I mean, this is like in hindsight, and obviously
7:47
I don't I don't know how to draw up all the plays, but I'd love
7:49
to have seen Walls picking Daughtry's guy to get Daughtry
7:55
open for a drive that that's, that's the play I'd love to see.
7:58
But anyway, it's a close game. And and Augerbright missed a
8:02
shot beforehand and neither shot was like rolling around and
8:05
almost in. We had two shots that weren't
8:07
close. To end that game, I did write in
8:10
my Charlotte notes, I like having Argarbright in at the
8:12
end, at the end of games. He's so fast with the ball, like
8:15
he can move faster than anybody on our team with the ball.
8:17
And he draws fouls really, really well, which that's been a
8:20
theme we've seen all year. And I have confidence in him,
8:22
even though he's a freshman, which is great to see.
8:24
We'll talk about the Charlotte game.
8:25
Yeah, let's talk about Charlotte.
8:26
I love the response. So we came out on fire.
8:29
We kicked their butts in the beginning.
8:31
Yep, I started off with these notes.
8:33
I saw Beagles early. Rebounding, especially on
8:35
offensive side really was a difference maker for us.
8:39
I wrote Daughtry going to the basket is a problem for the
8:41
other teams, but he also showcased a nice 3 point shot
8:44
during that game. He hit two and looked really
8:46
good doing it. I thought our defense in the
8:48
first half was outstanding. I still love the fact that
8:50
Argebright's drawing fouls. You know, Wallace had a really
8:53
nice game passing the basketball that game.
8:55
He, he, he sees stuff that other guys on the team can't see.
8:57
Or maybe he's just taller and he can make passes they can't make,
9:00
but he's passing is really good. I also love Lopez's offensive
9:05
versatility. I thought we left a lot of
9:06
points out there in that game, like we could have easily beaten
9:09
them by 20. We were up 18 with 10 minutes or
9:11
so to play. I think on the negative side, if
9:14
I can go there for a second, we're having a real problem.
9:17
This team with non steal turnovers.
9:19
Those are turnovers where we're either basically drawing an
9:23
offense or we're fouling them on offense, meaning we give the
9:26
ball back to them because we created, we have an offensive
9:28
foul or we throw the ball out of bounds when we're not under
9:31
pressure or we dribble it off our foot.
9:34
And that's a bad example. But you see what I'm saying?
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It's it's not caused by defensive pressure.
9:38
An example of that late in that game was Ruma Glue driving down
9:41
the lane and doing this like hook shot pass over his head
9:44
where he didn't even look to see if the guy was cutting with him
9:46
and it went straight out of bounds.
9:48
That's a that's a non steel turn.
9:51
Yeah, we're among the last 20 teams in America, according to
9:55
Ken Palm, in non steel turnover percentage.
9:57
We just do it too often. I mean, and just to that game,
10:00
so I mean we we crushed them really in that game.
10:02
They had a little run at the end, but we always were
10:05
comfortable. We had 11 assists and 11
10:07
turnovers. That is not good basketball.
10:10
And so even though we shot great, I think we shot, we shot
10:13
over 45% well, kept the game a little bit closer.
10:16
And this is the first time we struggled from the foul line in
10:19
that game. We were 20 for 34 from the foul
10:21
line. Now a lot of guys played more
10:23
minutes. So maybe folks not used to
10:26
shooting foul shots as much, but but we we, it was a great a
10:30
response for our team. A couple things to your point.
10:33
So like Daughtry and Lopez were our best players, but they
10:36
didn't play the most minutes. Lopez at 17 points in 19 minutes
10:39
and Daughtry only played 15 minutes.
10:42
The game. I definitely want to see more
10:43
Daughtry. I've said that it's a common
10:45
theme for me. Let's note that at some point
10:49
when Dochu is coming back, like Mooney said, like the the
10:52
trainers have a schedule for him, but we've seen him play
10:55
more minutes as well. So like he can get over 20
10:58
minutes. We've seen that.
10:59
So now we beat a big lead. So there's a bit of going
11:02
through more players. I get that.
11:04
But here's a question in my head as we've debated this, playing
11:09
10 deep, playing 11 deep is a good or bad.
11:13
Here's the question. Who on our team is in game shape
11:17
to play over 30 minutes right now?
11:19
Now, I know Tyne and Walls did it last year or Walls almost did
11:23
it. Tyne did it last year.
11:24
So I know people are capable. But if Daughtry, do you think
11:27
Daughtry could play 32 minutes? I do.
11:30
I think all of our guys actually could.
11:31
I mean, I think. Yeah, but game shape is
11:32
different than practice shape. I understand, but we're talking
11:35
about the jump between 21 and 22 minutes and 30 minutes.
11:38
Isn't that great for 21 year old kids?
11:41
They can do that easily. I'm not worried about.
11:43
That I'm worried about it. So I think, I think as we get
11:47
and we and we saw it in the William and Mary game that was
11:50
really tight, like the minutes went up for certain players.
11:52
And I think if we keep playing ten players all the time and 20
11:56
minutes is like the high end of minutes.
12:00
Is there a game where we're going to need Daughtry playing
12:03
35 minutes and he's going to be worn out?
12:06
I mean, there's a couple things. Number one, if we don't lose the
12:08
Furman game, we're not talking about the minutes right now
12:10
because like it we'd be 7 and O and everything would be working.
12:13
I mean, the Furman game was a one point loss on the neutral
12:16
court and they aren't a great team.
12:18
Furman's not a great team. I'll be a minute.
12:19
They're a decent team. They're not a great team.
12:21
And so yeah, that's that was a problem.
12:24
We cut. We could have easily gotten out
12:25
of there with a win. You got a little bit unlucky at
12:27
the end. We're six and one.
12:28
We're not a great team. We're not even a good team yet,
12:31
but we're an above average team. That's something I'll, I'll
12:34
leave you with the rotation that Mooney is running, actually.
12:38
I mean, it's not, it hasn't been ineffective.
12:42
It's just not. We're not seven and eight, we're
12:43
six and one. But you're also saying you want
12:45
to see more Daughtry, and I'm not sure you will.
12:48
Well, so there's a lot of difference between 15 and 22
12:52
minutes is what I'm saying. So like that's, that's 50% more
12:55
minutes than he's getting. And it just brings him up to
12:57
that the the time that the the guys who are playing the most
12:59
are getting. I think we need 22 minutes of
13:01
Daughtry every single game. And I think I think David Thomas
13:04
is playing really well. I'd like to see more David
13:05
Thomas on the floor. I think Argarbright's playing
13:07
great. I actually like what Mooney's
13:09
doing. I think if I think about it
13:11
like, you know, people who have wanted Mooney to adjust over the
13:14
years are seeing a major adjustment and you have to let
13:17
it play itself out to see where it goes.
13:19
I mean, if we beat Belmont this week, then I think we're ahead
13:23
of where we thought we were going to be this year because
13:25
you can now got a good win against a good team on the road.
13:27
So let's give it a little bit more time.
13:29
I mean, right now we didn't really move in the rankings at
13:31
all. I mean, we're still stuck in
13:32
that one at 100 to 115 range, still projected for 19 wins.
13:37
Again, not good enough to make the into the Blair tournament,
13:39
not good enough to even to make the NIT.
13:41
But we're close. We're close.
13:43
Yeah. And let's just a couple things
13:44
on the A10 before we get to the women's side.
13:46
So yeah, we are 115 in the Bartevik, So we haven't moved a
13:49
lot. I've seen other whether it's
13:52
Twitter or other podcasts where a 10 folks like us are hype and
13:56
how great the A10 is doing the a 10 is not doing great.
14:00
It's doing OK. Yeah, that was so I, I saw
14:03
someone post like, hey, you look at the A10 like we've got a
14:06
bunch of at large teams like DCU and the Bartovic is 47.
14:09
I know that's not the net, but there are #1 at 47.
14:12
If that ends up being a net ranking at the end of the year,
14:16
like that's on the bubble, that's not in the turn.
14:18
It is, I think what they're saying when they say that a 10
14:21
is doing well as you've got a lot of teams in the top 125.
14:25
And what happens is if two or three teams emerge and start
14:29
winning those games against the 125, their net ranking will get
14:33
into that top 50 range by the end of the year.
14:35
Like last year, we didn't put ourselves in a position to even
14:37
get there, but this year we're in position.
14:39
Now what would needs to happen is 2 teams need to go with VCU
14:44
or whoever that top team is and, and, and win against these 110
14:48
to 120 ranked 810 teams. And we could be one of them
14:51
still, like I think we're still in evolving work in progress.
14:55
I tell you, it's a lot better than last year.
14:57
And the feeling 6:00 and 1:00 to me, even though I know right now
15:01
all of our metrics say we're on the outside looking in, feels
15:03
like we have another step to take.
15:05
If you agree, I don't think we've seen the best of our.
15:07
Team, if you if you cut out the non steel turnovers, I think our
15:11
efficiency numbers will improve pretty dramatically.
15:13
Like that's one thing we foul a lot.
15:15
That's another thing that we're seeing is we're fouling too
15:17
much, we're turning the ball over carelessly too much.
15:20
But the athletes on this team, what they're bringing to the
15:23
table is different than what I saw last year.
15:26
And I think, you know, with Daughtry, with Thomas, with
15:30
Lopez, there's so many exciting pieces that we have.
15:33
And I think, you know, we still got to figure out exactly what
15:36
the right combination of ingredients are.
15:37
But like, I do think we're making progress.
15:39
Yeah, I think of the 810, just if you're wanting the part of
15:41
it. VC was 47, George Washington is
15:44
56. I think they're feeling
15:45
overrated. They lost two games over the
15:48
Thanksgiving break to Mcnees and Murray State.
15:51
Now they're still 56 because I think Bartovic likes their
15:54
roster and sees them winning a lot in the A10.
15:56
Saint Louis is 58. They beat Santa Clara, which was
15:59
a nice win, and then they lost a heartbreaker to Stanford.
16:02
George Mason, who's undefeated all quad three and four wins.
16:05
They're 73 and Dayton 74 and I love Dayton.
16:08
Like I think they're always going to be our first or second
16:10
best team. They're 5th right now.
16:12
They lost to BYU in a tight game.
16:14
That's a quad one team. They beat Georgetown.
16:16
They beat Georgetown was like in theory a Quad 2, and they have
16:19
UVA next weekend. So that's a big game.
16:21
UVA will be a big win. Benny, we're next at 1:15 where
16:24
we started the season. We're going to write meeting
16:27
expectations expected. Bartevik has his 500 in the
16:30
conference, so a lot to go but. You and I both were thinking,
16:34
let's get to 7 and O through this tournament.
16:36
We're probably going to lose at Belmont.
16:37
If we win at Belmont and we're seven and one, we're exactly
16:41
where we need to be. That's all.
16:42
That's all, Yeah. And we'll preview Belmont in a
16:44
bit after we talk about the women's tournament they were in.
16:49
Cancun played TCU 1st and got. Whooped TCU is good. 49 to 23 at
16:54
halftime, I was like. I would say the first half of
16:57
that game we got our butts kicked.
16:58
I mean, it's just simple as that.
16:59
We got our butts kicked. Suarez was Suarez was lighting
17:01
us up from three miles shows why she's among the best point
17:05
guards in the nation. By the way, I googled what is
17:07
miles making and IO money and like, there's no, it's all
17:10
confidential. They don't say that, but like
17:12
estimates are well over $1,000,000.
17:14
It is funny, like I, you know, we did some scouting on this
17:17
team and sometimes, like Miles, we had seen play a lot.
17:20
We heard from coach about their bigs.
17:22
But Suarez is what killed us. Yeah.
17:24
Suarez. So interesting.
17:26
I was looking at all the play by play after the fact.
17:28
So she had the first basket of the game, which was like, you
17:30
know, a little foreshadowing there.
17:32
She had 12 points after the first.
17:34
She was 2 for two from three and three from three from from 2
17:37
points. Then she went 4/4 from three in
17:40
the second before her first miss of the game with two minutes
17:42
left in the second. She had 24 points in half,
17:45
didn't score for the rest of the game.
17:46
Yeah, but I mean she was 9 for 10 from the field in the first
17:50
half and most of those from three.
17:52
So, so I watched. Here's here's what happened.
17:54
I mean, it happened in the Navy game too.
17:56
We just looked a step slow. We come out in the first half
17:59
sometimes and we just look a step slow.
18:01
And you can get by and be a step slow against Navy.
18:03
You can't get by and be a step slow against TCU.
18:06
They're just too good of a team. In the second-half, we switched
18:09
to a zone that gave TCU real problems.
18:11
They had a real hard time scoring in the second-half.
18:13
The zone was super effective. I thought we got our we got our
18:16
form back on offense. We outscored them in the
18:18
second-half. We didn't score a lot.
18:20
We didn't score a lot, but overall we played a much better
18:23
Richmond, you know, women's basketball game than we did, you
18:26
know, in that first half. And so the, the one thing that
18:29
that is unfortunate, obviously we we played Texas, who may be
18:31
the number one team in the country on Monday.
18:33
They. Just beat they just beat South
18:34
Carolina #2 in the nation and UCLA #3 in the nation.
18:37
So their odds are number one or two coming so so.
18:39
Losing the Texas at Texas is nothing to be ashamed about
18:42
losing TC on a neutral court, nothing to be ashamed of it.
18:44
That's the problem is that in both of those games, like Maggie
18:48
was really the only effective player on offense.
18:50
And, and I think there's like A to me and you, I remember you
18:54
mentioned this in the Texas game and it's similar in this game,
18:56
she had five turnovers. But I think there's a part of
18:59
like when her turnovers are high, it's because other folks
19:02
aren't getting open and she's trying to get assist because she
19:05
knows that's part of her game and she knows she can't score 50
19:07
points. But what we're not finding in
19:11
these when we're playing the top teams, like Maggie is, is able
19:14
to show that she belongs. We're not having anyone else on
19:18
the roster show that they really belong at that level.
19:20
And that's not a slam. I mean, that's a top 10 women's.
19:23
Those are top ten women's teams. So, you know, Maggie, start for
19:27
them. You could debate all day long.
19:28
I don't disagree with you, except I will say Sweeney did
19:31
actually have a pretty good game.
19:32
If you watch her that game, she actually looked pretty good and
19:34
and she I thought played, you know, a pretty solid role in
19:38
that game, especially in the second-half.
19:40
She was she was doing a really good job.
19:41
Yeah, it gets back to your point.
19:42
You're like, we'll to beat TCU. We need everyone to play.
19:44
Yeah, you need all five players to play their to play their top
19:47
game. And I, I, I, I don't worry about
19:49
it. I think it's going to come
19:50
around. But Rachel just doesn't have her
19:52
shot yet. So she was 2 for seven.
19:56
I was look at her stats like, so last year she averaged 15.3 per
20:00
game. She's at 12.6 right now.
20:02
And in my head I was like, oh, but we played TC, we played
20:05
Texas. Like throw those games out.
20:08
She's averaging 14 1/2. So still under last year's
20:12
average shooting 39%. Again, excluding Texas and VCU,
20:16
I'm sorry, TCU shooting 39% last year, she was almost 43% from 3.
20:21
So hopefully it's coming. In that first half of that game,
20:24
there was a play where Maggie did a beautiful hand off to
20:27
Rachel at the at the top of the three-point circle there and
20:31
started to come down the lane to make her cut.
20:34
And in the process of running down cut the defender off from
20:36
getting to Rachel. And they called him and then
20:38
Rachel Berry to three and they called a movie moving screen on
20:41
Maggie, which it wasn't a moving screen.
20:42
She was literally trying to get around the girl and the girl
20:44
like almost induced contact. I think that in that ways, like
20:48
it hurt our like that would have been like a a shot that would
20:51
have kind of equalized a little bit where we were in that point
20:53
in the game. And I just thought it was a
20:54
pivotal moment. There were actually I wrote the
20:56
other note is I didn't love just the number of illegal screens
21:01
and moving screens that were called on us in the two games
21:04
this weekend down there in Cancun.
21:06
I didn't love them and I think that did.
21:08
That did get in her head a little bit.
21:09
However, that being said, Rachel started to get right against
21:12
Green Bay and had a heck of a game.
21:13
Her best game of the season, 17 and 12, Maggie was Maggie.
21:17
I think Green Bay's game plan if I watch that game right off the
21:20
bat, was every time Maggie Dugan puts the ball on the floor and
21:23
goes to the rim, a second person peels off and double s her.
21:26
And the first two times she did it and saw it, Maggie stopped
21:29
cutting to the rim. She said I'll just beat you from
21:31
three and she hits six of seven, three pointers.
21:33
It was, it was surreal actually. She just couldn't miss she.
21:36
Was 8 for 11 for the game. I was watching my I watch it
21:38
with my dad and he was he's he hasn't watched a lot of Richmond
21:41
women's basketball this year. He's like, holy cow, that girl
21:43
does not miss. And you would you would
21:45
literally saw what everybody else knows about Maggie Dugan,
21:48
which is there's a lot of ways she can beat you.
21:50
And Green Bay found. Out.
21:51
Yeah, I did. Like you said, Rachel had 12
21:53
rebounds in that game and she has upped her rebounds year
21:55
every year. So she's contributing in that.
21:57
And again, what I like about Rachel's game, like I haven't
22:00
seen her force a shot. Yeah, like she's getting good
22:03
looks when she's shooting. He's not trying to do more than,
22:07
you know, she's not hit trying to fade away threes or backing
22:10
up two steps to shoot a three. So I think that shots going to
22:13
come and almost it's like if if she's, you know, shooting 39%
22:17
now or including the two top games is shooting like 36% and
22:23
last year was at 43 percent, like that means she's going to
22:26
be at like 50% for. Rachel's Rachel's literally
22:29
there there a lot of teams know exactly you cannot, you cannot
22:33
give her a foot of space. And so they've got a they're
22:35
bearing a defender on her every single game.
22:38
But like coach, our coach is a master at adapting, adapting.
22:42
And I would imagine you're going to see some new movements in the
22:44
offense to get her some screening just to get that, you
22:47
know, that space she needs to, to get that shot off.
22:50
And you're going to see some performances out of Rachel.
22:51
Well, she'll, she'll, she'll be in the 20s with lots of lots of
22:54
made threes. Similar to the men, this was a
22:56
great at right game team played great from the beginning.
22:59
I also. Green Bay's a good team, by the
23:00
way. They in the game before they
23:01
took #25 NC State to the wire, they were winning in the third
23:04
quarter. That's a Power 5 fraud, NC
23:06
State. That's the Power 5 fraud.
23:07
But then NC State came back and won 110 to something against a
23:10
pretty good team. No, that wasn't a very good
23:12
team. OK, well, against the team.
23:13
Well, one thing I like to talk about like, you know, from bad
23:16
game to good game. So Simon, in the first game, I
23:18
think it was O for 6:00 and then in the second game she had a lot
23:22
of assists. In the second game, she.
23:24
Played well in. That So she played really well.
23:26
She had six rebounds, led the team with four assists in the
23:29
second game. So we know a big part of our
23:31
offense when it's rolling is the assist where folks are cutting
23:35
and getting like easy layups because someone's getting
23:38
doubled and there's a cut and there's a nice pass.
23:41
So as Simon is getting more used to our offense, which is
23:43
different than where she played at Saint Louis, like it's great
23:46
to see her get those assists. And again, you have a really
23:49
rough game against one of the top teams in the in the, in the
23:53
world and you could be down on yourself.
23:55
Coach got that team ready to go. They they really kicked butt
23:57
from the beginning of that. They did. 21 to 7 after the
24:00
first quarter was our lead. I mean, Newell gave us a nice
24:02
spark in that game. Rachel had her best game.
24:04
Maggie was unstoppable from three.
24:05
We dominated. Eva.
24:07
Eva played well, she played well.
24:08
We dominated a very good Green Bay team and the result ended up
24:12
closer than it should have been only because we emptied the
24:14
bench in the last five minutes and I think they went on a nine
24:17
O run to end the game. But I also one other note, note,
24:20
I want to give her a call out. Skyla Travis.
24:23
I said this to my dad watching the game.
24:25
So I made a note of it saying here, if Skyla Travis wants the
24:28
rebound, Skyla Travis gets the rebound.
24:30
I'm not sure there'd be anybody if it was one second left of the
24:33
game and we're up 1 and there's a girl shooting a foul shot
24:36
against us. I don't know if there's anybody
24:38
I'd want on that lower block other than Travis.
24:40
She is our, I think our most physical rebounder on the team.
24:42
She is aggressive. Well, the women are now 38 in
24:46
the Bartovic ranking. Still should be hanging around
24:49
the top 30 in the AP, so very much in place for an AT.
24:52
Large and there's five 18810 teams in the top 100, so similar
24:55
to the men's we've got Davidson is the second team at 54.
24:59
Unfortunately, similar to the men's.
25:00
Loyola, who is our next opponent in the on the women's side,
25:04
they're 245, not great. So the women and the men, Loyola
25:07
are really having a rough year, a rough year so far.
25:10
And that is our next opponent in a weird December A10 game.
25:16
Talk about Loyola for a second. Yeah, so why don't we transition
25:19
to that game? So I'll talk just a second.
25:21
Allison Guth is the head coach. She's been there four years.
25:25
This is her fourth year. Hasn't ever had a winning season
25:28
at Loyola, so hasn't done great things.
25:30
This year, as Tom mentioned, they were 245 and Bartovic 2 and
25:34
5. They did win their last game
25:35
against DePaul, which is on the road, which is a tough win.
25:38
Never heard this before, but it was good to hear about these
25:40
little rivalries. So they're both in Chicago, in
25:42
Chicago. So it's the Red Line rivalry
25:44
game. The Red Line is one of the the
25:46
trains there, so I'm guessing that goes between DePaul and
25:50
Loyola Chicago. So it's a little rivalry.
25:52
It was a good win for them. So they're coming off a win
25:54
against the Big East opponent. Common opponent.
25:56
We both played Green Bay. We just talked about we
25:59
dominated Green Bay. They lost by 9 to Green Bay.
26:01
That game was at home. This is going to be a smash spot
26:04
for the Spider women. A Wednesday night at the
26:06
Robinson and make sure you get your tickets and get out there.
26:08
I'd say the Richmond wins by 20. Yeah, to to Loyola's credit to
26:12
where hopefully that program is heading and not being 2:45 for
26:16
long, they they're looking up to, seems like their best
26:18
players are a freshman and a sophomore, so and they're
26:22
sophomore Alexa Kinnis or Kinnis, she's a guard.
26:26
She had her season high 15 points last year against
26:29
Richmond, going 6 for eight from the field and with five
26:33
rebounds. So and they've got a freshman
26:35
who's averaging a little under 11 per game and a sophomore at
26:39
10. So.
26:40
But yeah, I think this is going to be a big whooping.
26:42
They don't have any size. They have a six twos or tallest
26:44
player that those teams are really in trouble against us.
26:46
They don't. The way to beat Richmond is to
26:48
have a 6-7 behemoth inside that we can't stop right?
26:51
And they don't have that. So they're, I think they're
26:54
going to be in trouble against us.
26:56
And that's Wednesday. Is that right?
26:57
Wednesday 6/6. PM Centre.
26:59
It's also an ESPN Plus. I kind of tell you I don't think
27:01
I can make that game. Don't don't hate me, but I don't
27:03
think I'll be at the Robin Centre for that one.
27:05
Unfortunately, I would. Love to.
27:07
Can I give you one other thing about the ladies before I start
27:08
by the men? So on Bart Bart Torvik, which is
27:11
a site we both use a lot for our advanced stats.
27:14
And especially when the Nets not out yet.
27:15
The net will be out probably in another week.
27:17
It's early December when the net comes.
27:19
Out so they have a they have a stat called well, it's just if
27:23
you go to NCAA women and look at their team and you do their
27:25
player stats, just do a drop down.
27:27
It's under stats. It says player stats.
27:30
They list, they have a, they have a, a, a category of stat
27:35
called PRPG exclamation point, and that is a player's rating
27:39
versus the replacement player that could play the game or a
27:42
replacement player that could play the game.
27:44
I don't want to butcher it exactly, but it's it's the
27:47
number one stat Bartorvick tracks for overall
27:50
effectiveness. Of an.
27:51
Individual and if you look at the top 20, it's it's body
27:55
crooks, Olivia Miles, Sarah Strong, Ozzie Fudd.
27:59
I mean, these are the names that people have in the top five to
28:01
10 picks in the NBA draft, WNBA draft.
28:04
You know who number one in the nation is.
28:05
Would it be Maggie Dugan? Maggie Dugan with a nine point
28:09
OPRPG exclamation rating Sarah Strong's 2.
28:12
Hannah Hidalgo's three Gracie Merkel from Penn State's 4.
28:16
Ozzie Fudd Connecticut 5 So that just shows you the quality of
28:21
season that Maggie is putting together.
28:23
Number one in the nation, according to Bart Torvik and
28:25
their PRPG exclamation point, which is their primary stat for
28:28
player effectiveness. Now she has been a Co winner of
28:31
the A10 Player the week award time.
28:34
I think every. Week.
28:34
Yeah, she's won it every week so far.
28:36
Now if she wins it every week this season, do they rename it
28:38
the Maggie Do Game, the Player of the Week award?
28:42
We'll worry about that when the season is over.
28:44
She's definitely, definitely on track to to be a the first
28:48
Spider Repeat Conference player of the Year award since way back
28:53
when we were in school. Right before we were in school.
28:56
When we were in school. I was in our freshman year.
28:58
The ladies player, yeah. Pam Bryant.
29:00
Pam Bryant, Yeah, yeah. OK, let's talk about Belmont.
29:02
Belmont is on the road. This is our first Rd. game
29:05
because we had two neutral games.
29:07
So we're at Belmont on Wednesday at 7:30 start also on ESPN Plus.
29:11
So if you're not at the Loyola game at the Robin Center, you
29:16
can check out both of those games on ESPN Plus.
29:19
Now Belmont, I mean, they're a top mid major program.
29:21
You mentioned that you talked to me beforehand about how
29:23
impressive their coach is. 9 consecutive 20 win seasons going
29:28
back to his he was at Lipscomb. So nine in a row.
29:31
There's only one of six active NCAA Division One head coaches
29:36
that have done that. It's Dana Altman, Mark Few, Greg
29:39
McDermott, Kelvin Sampson and Bill.
29:41
South that's a pretty good pull the.
29:42
Casey Alexander from. I did actually look at that.
29:45
I didn't look up to see how many had done it.
29:47
That's why I'm giving you credit for that.
29:48
That's a good pull on a stat. That's what you get a spider
29:50
sound on. That's right, pulling stats
29:51
like. That I believe he's a Belmont
29:53
alum. Is he really?
29:54
So I, you know, there's a bit of like, wow, he's a hot coach, but
29:57
he's been there for eight years, winning 20 every year.
30:00
And maybe he's not going anywhere because that's where he
30:02
went to school. He was up to 55 in the nation on
30:04
that 29 and 8 Lipscom team back in in 2019.
30:07
And since coming to Belmont, his teams have finished roughly
30:11
between 99 and 1:25 every year. So he's clustering around the
30:16
final results that Richmond is getting right now.
30:19
So it's they're 20 plus win seasons, but it's not like a top
30:23
20 team we're playing. It's just a good team on the
30:25
road and let's teams are hard to beat on the road.
30:27
And let's look at where they are.
30:28
So they're, well, they have a game this, we're recording this
30:30
on Sunday. They have a game today.
30:31
So we don't know what's happening in the Charleston game
30:34
that they play today. They are 7 and O before that
30:37
game, they're all I think quad four wins.
30:40
So to your point, they get they have a nice record.
30:42
We are the best team they will have played this year.
30:45
And I do think they're going to look similar.
30:47
So they have 10 players averaging more than 10 minutes
30:50
per game. Sound familiar?
30:51
It does. So I think we're going to see a
30:53
lot of rotations. They shoot a lot of three
30:56
pointers. We we have shot 157 three
30:59
pointers, they've shot 151 Well, so these are these are similar
31:04
teams. One stat that I found
31:05
interesting it's actually 2 stats on other each side of the
31:10
ball. So in terms of offensive
31:12
turnovers, you were talking about how we turn it over too
31:14
much. They are 300 and 40th that's not
31:18
good pausing turnovers. They are 29th.
31:20
OK, so they it tells you they're going to be running fast like we
31:24
do. They like pushing the ball.
31:26
That's why they're turning it over a lot.
31:27
They do score a lot, but they're also good on defense.
31:31
So they're causing turnovers, which you know, as you
31:33
mentioned, we're we're we're doing too many of those.
31:36
So that doesn't fall into our strength.
31:38
But maybe this is a game to be pressing them as well.
31:41
So it gets them to turnovers. I'm going to give you the best
31:43
rated guys according to that same Bart Torvik stat I just
31:45
gave you for Maggie. So Tyler Lundblade is is their
31:49
top rated offensive player by that PRPG category.
31:53
He's averaging 16.4 per. Game.
31:54
OK, he's 65. He's a senior.
31:56
Let me can I tell you his? Story.
31:58
Yeah, yeah, go for it. He's got a great story.
32:00
So he was a red shirt at SMU, then transferred to TCU.
32:05
Over those three years he played a total of 52 minutes.
32:09
Wow. OK, so he transferred to
32:12
Belmont. Last year was his first year.
32:14
He averaged 12.4 points. He led the nation in three-point
32:18
field goal percentage. So this is a kid who like never
32:21
got to play. Obviously a good recruit
32:23
because. Showing showing that he can play
32:25
and. Then he had a great year at
32:26
Belmont. This year he's averaging 16.4.
32:28
He's a 65 Guards. Another tall guard.
32:30
They make me nervous because we we like the small guards.
32:33
I want to see more David Thomas on him than anybody else.
32:35
And who's second on their stats? Sam Ormy 72 minutes per played
32:40
percentage 3 point O on the PRPG.
32:42
He's a 69 sophomore. He's averaging 15.3 points and
32:46
seven, so he's going to be a big guy inside, not the three
32:50
pointer. #3 is Brigham Rogers, 69, junior.
32:53
Who's last on the list? Aiden Noise.
32:56
Aiden Noise, yes. Last in a PRPG perspective.
32:59
Yeah, he doesn't play much, you know, I think he's only played
33:01
in two of their games, but they've played these quad four
33:04
teams. So they've had opportunities for
33:06
for him to play and we wish him great.
33:08
I don't think we'll see him be playing this week, but it's it's
33:12
going to be a tough one on the road.
33:14
It's our first real Rd. test again.
33:16
We had two neutral games. We had our first loss.
33:18
So we kind of licked those wounds, came out on Charlotte on
33:21
fire. And hopefully there's been some
33:24
lessons learned. And this team is, you know,
33:27
obviously used to traveling. So traveling to Belmont probably
33:30
a little easier than traveling to Orlando.
33:33
I'll say this, if we win against Belmont, which we're not
33:37
predicted to do by the way, I think they're favored by between
33:40
4:00 and 6:00, depending on where you're where you're going
33:42
to look, they're 67% likely to win the game.
33:44
So we're one and three. Remember Fuhrman was only 30%
33:47
likely to beat us. So it can be easily be done if
33:49
we win this game and we're seven and one.
33:51
Now you're inside the top 100. Now you've won a tough game on
33:55
the road. You've still got a pretty easy
33:57
non con schedule coming home to the Robins Center for a lot of
34:00
it. You could see this team take a
34:02
leap forward in confidence by the time A10 play starts and be
34:06
potentially a top four team heading into the A10 after the
34:09
non cop. OK, so there's there's really
34:11
one super important thing to look out for Mooney when we play
34:14
at Belmont. So I don't know if you noticed,
34:17
but in Orlando, Mooney went with sweats, no suits, OK, for both
34:22
games. There's been a lot of change in
34:24
basketball the last 20 years and some would argue Mooney's been
34:29
slow to change. I think the place where if he's
34:31
been slow to change, it's been with the dress code.
34:33
He's been a suit guy really since he started and we've seen
34:36
a lot of our opponents, almost most of our opponents are now
34:39
the coaches are all in sweats, nice looking sweats.
34:42
But I like it that he wears the suit.
34:45
So I want to see the suit come back against Belmont.
34:48
I like the suit because when you get mad you can take the coat
34:50
off and if you get mad later you can take the tie off.
34:54
Like with sweats, you got no clothes action.
34:57
And so I'm looking for. Slam the suit jacket on the
34:59
floor. We've seen that before.
35:01
So I want to see him back to the suit.
35:04
I know I'm sure Porter when like myself, when we are right out of
35:08
college, we had to wear a suit. But like be dressed for success
35:11
was a big thing. So I'm going to leave this
35:15
podcast with a little quote, OK? Got it.
35:18
Send this off. Send this off.
35:19
Don't be into trends, don't make fashion own you.
35:23
But you decide what you are, what you want to express by the
35:26
way you dress and the way you live.
35:29
It's a good buddy of mine, Versace.
35:31
Versace, here's what I'll say about that, Chris, where
35:34
whatever wins the game, all right?
35:36
OK, well, we will call it a day here.
35:39
We'll be back next week to talk about the games that happened
35:42
and some games coming up next weekend.
35:44
But until then, this is Tom. Hey, this is Porter.
35:46
And this is spider sounding off. See you.