Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Episode 9: Rock Chalk, Spider Shock — Part Two

Transcript

Episode 9: Rock Chalk, Spider Shock — Part Two · Spiders Sound Off

0:06
Welcome back Spider fans and thanks for listening to another
0:08
episode of Spider Sound Off. Let's get back to the
0:12
second-half of the Kansas game and the second-half of our
0:14
conversation with Richmond Hall of Famer Mike Skrocky.
0:18
We were looking at some highlights from the game and
0:20
some of the write UPS. Sounds like early in the
0:21
second-half you had six points in a row.
0:24
There was a technical on Bill Self.
0:27
Like what was going on then? Did you just feel like, like you
0:29
said, you know, you felt confident and that was a hot
0:32
moment for you? Yeah, I mean, first half we
0:35
didn't really play well offensively.
0:37
I mean, myself included, I think Reggie Brown really held us in
0:40
the game. I think he had a few shots early
0:42
on. And you know, another guy that
0:45
people forget about, you know, he was probably operating at
0:48
about 50% of what he was capable of.
0:50
Because when I when I got to Richmond, Reggie was like an all
0:54
conference player. I mean, athletically was
0:58
unbelievable at times would just do things and you were like, did
1:01
did he just do that? Like did he really just jump
1:04
over somebody? Like, you know, and
1:06
unfortunately he had a bad back injury, I think after his
1:10
sophomore year and just, but he could still shoot.
1:13
So that's what we needed and he kept us in the game early.
1:16
I think he hit some threes. Jermaine Buckner, another guy
1:19
people forget about. He hit some threes.
1:22
So we felt like in the second-half, like, hey, Mike
1:24
hasn't really hit any shots, Pat O'Malley hasn't really hit.
1:28
We haven't really clicked offensively yet.
1:31
So we knew, hey, if we could start doing that and keep our
1:34
defense there, we felt good. And yeah, I was able to get one
1:37
or two to drop. I don't really, I remember the
1:40
technical because I think I missed one.
1:43
I was never, I was a good free throw shooter, but I hated
1:45
technicals 'cause it just, it was an awkward situation.
1:48
You know, nobody's on the line, you're all there by yourself at
1:51
Kansas. They're screaming.
1:53
So that makes it even like more. I just was never a good
1:57
technical free throw shooter. But I always got picked 'cause I
1:59
was like a 90% free throw shooter otherwise.
2:02
So but yeah, once, once I got a few to drop, I I felt good.
2:08
And you know, that's where coach just started drawing up my
2:11
number the the entire second-half.
2:14
They they come back though and they push ahead, they go up 9
2:18
and there's 8 minutes left in the game.
2:19
The crowd was was just was crazy.
2:24
They were loud and you kind of got the sense listening to the
2:27
game because that's what I was doing.
2:28
The announcers, we're starting to talk about just how great
2:32
Kansas was and how tough it was for anybody to play them in
2:35
their homecourt. Almost like they were writing us
2:37
off, but you guys didn't give up, didn't give up down 8 or
2:41
down 9-8 minutes to go. All of a sudden you had one more
2:45
punch to give. And I, I think it kind of got
2:48
ignited by a couple things. I remember O'Malley, who to your
2:50
point was cold early in the game from three-point land, but was a
2:54
great, a great 3 point shooter, hits 23 pointers late after
3:00
going over 7 to start the game. Maleva has a just a enforcing
3:05
dunk in the lane against Kansas's bigs.
3:08
It does not look at all like a freshman look like, you know,
3:10
somebody who could, who could play with anybody in the, in the
3:13
country. Tell us about like, I mean, how
3:17
you know, you guys get down, down 9, but you're, you know,
3:19
just 8 minutes to play, you just just have a haymaker left to
3:22
throw. Tell us about that.
3:24
Like, you know, what was the what was the, was there
3:27
confidence in the time out, anything like that?
3:29
Or was it just you know, that you always believed in yourself?
3:31
No, I think it was, it was two things.
3:33
I mean, one was the, you know, the Molieva play, you know, they
3:37
were up about 8 or 9. Their crowd was standing, They
3:40
were cheering. It was kind of like they felt
3:43
like this was their run. They're going to stop us.
3:46
They're going to come down, they're going to score.
3:48
It's going to be up 11. Next thing you know, it's going
3:51
to be up 13, and then this game's over.
3:54
But that Molieva play, you know, I'm not, I was never really big
3:59
into like, hey, a dunk can change it, you know, Because to
4:02
me it was like, hey, you dunked it.
4:03
It's two points. What, you know, it's no
4:05
different than me laying it in. But it really probably was
4:10
exactly what we needed because not only was it 2 points and he
4:14
got fouled, but just the way he did it.
4:16
I mean, he dunked over two guys. I think one of them was my guy
4:20
just because I was in the wrong spot.
4:22
I shouldn't even have been there.
4:23
But thankfully I was in the wrong spot because he might have
4:25
fouled them. And it really just quieted
4:31
everyone in the crowd. You know, I think if you're a
4:33
Kansas fan, you're sitting there going, all right, here we go,
4:34
we're going to pull away. And then he dunks in.
4:36
You're like, oh, God, like I got to pay attention the rest of
4:40
this game like it's going to be close.
4:41
And then, you know, coach, just really that entire second-half.
4:46
I mean, another kind of inside story of it was we ran one play
4:51
the entire second-half. I mean, we, we did not we.
4:56
And it wasn't a complicated play.
4:58
It was Mike, you were going to the basket.
5:02
On one side there will be two guys, on another side there will
5:04
be one guy. You run off them and try to get
5:07
open and that's the play. And when you get the ball, try
5:11
to score. If you can't score, throw it
5:14
back to Tony. Tony, you try to score.
5:17
You know, there was no of this like and you know, a lot of
5:22
times I was able to come off the screen able to shoot.
5:25
I was able to drive either kick it to O'Malley or somebody, or
5:29
we were able to just run it once or twice and then something
5:32
would open, else would open up. So we were not doing anything
5:36
complex. We were just kind of sticking to
5:39
our script. But once the shots started the
5:41
fall, you know, we felt like, all right, here we are, you
5:45
know, can we just keep it that way for the rest, for that final
5:48
8 minutes? Now, I think when most Richmond
5:51
fans think of that game, we think of that final play.
5:55
Was there anything different there, or was that final play
5:58
really the same play? Well, no, yeah, I think, I think
6:00
it was that. Yeah, I think it was that play
6:02
because the play before we had gotten a shot clock violation,
6:07
Tony Block, the guy's shot. We, we were typically playing
6:11
man and then every, you know, Coach Wainwright was a big man
6:15
to man. He did not like zone, but we
6:17
would play zone from time to time either A, to give ourselves
6:21
a rest, you know, he knew like sometimes we needed a rest or he
6:26
would do it sometimes just to switch it.
6:28
And it was that perfect time. They had the ball shot clock
6:32
winding down. I, I think they might have
6:33
called time out because they, they couldn't run a play.
6:36
So then when we came out, we said we're going to go zone
6:40
because they're likely going to draw a man play.
6:41
And when we did, they were totally confused.
6:44
They didn't know what to do. Their play was busted.
6:47
And so it was kind of one-on-one with Tony and with his long
6:50
arms, he blocked the guy's shot and it was a shot clock
6:53
violation. And it, and I think it was that
6:55
play. We called time out, went to the
6:58
bench to and coach was drawing up a play.
7:02
And it was this play that we really had.
7:04
I mean, it was a play we ran regularly, but it was one that
7:08
we really hadn't run much that game.
7:10
And he drew up the whole thing and everyone looked at him and
7:13
shook their head. And we were like, no, we're not
7:14
doing it. Like we were like, Nope, we're
7:16
not running that play. Like no chance.
7:19
Yeah. He just looked at us and was
7:20
like, fine, go run whatever you want.
7:23
And we were like, we're going to run the play.
7:24
We've been running all second-half.
7:26
Like what's like, you know, they haven't stopped it yet.
7:30
Why are we changing? And we didn't really have a lot
7:32
of time anyway. So I, I kind of knew on that
7:35
final play, I was like, look, they have to figure out this
7:40
play at some point and they're going to have to stick to me
7:45
because I was the focal point of that play.
7:47
But the counter to that play, and this was this was a
7:50
Wainwright teaching. This is one of his foundations
7:52
that any play we ran, if everything is covered, then that
7:57
means the guy with the ball, you're going one-on-one because
8:01
everyone else is so busy covering their man, covering
8:04
this play, go one-on-one. I mean, it's you versus your
8:08
guy. That's everyone else is not
8:11
paying attention to you. And so that's exactly what
8:13
happened on that last play. You know, I came off the screen
8:16
and Tony realized, all right, he's not open.
8:19
But they were so focused on me, so focused on the guys down low
8:24
that he just had, hey, it's one-on-one.
8:26
So let's go. And, you know, Tony was able to
8:29
shake his guy and just made an unbelievable shot, you know,
8:33
turn around in the lane that, you know, one.
8:36
Once it went up, we we felt good.
8:37
And we're like, OK, here we go. Now obviously you didn't hear it
8:41
then, but have you heard the Bob Black call of the end of that
8:44
game? I've yeah, yeah, I've heard the
8:46
call mainly because one of my former teammates, Jeff Myers,
8:51
was on the call. He was filling in for Greg
8:54
Beckwith that night. And I didn't learn this until
8:59
after, you know, Jeff was a very, you know, proud Spider
9:02
player, point guard force, I would say kind of a, a feisty
9:06
guy would get into it with some guys.
9:09
So, you know, he was he was really amped up.
9:12
I mean, and from what I from what Bob told us and even told
9:15
Jeff afterwards, he turned off his mic on that final play
9:19
because he he didn't want him interfering You knowing if hey,
9:21
if Tony makes this, Jeff might run on on the court, you know,
9:25
or he might scream into the mic and.
9:27
You know. Might get kicked off the air.
9:29
So he turned off his mic and it was just Bob Black for the for
9:34
the final. And yeah, I mean, you know, Bob,
9:37
Bob's been around forever. I mean, he knows how to call
9:40
those games and, and, and what a great moment for him.
9:43
You know, like you're an announcer.
9:44
I can't imagine, you know, how many moments do you get to call
9:49
a final, a big upset, a final shot at Allen Fieldhouse?
9:54
I mean, just everything lining up was was great for him.
9:58
Get the ball to Tony Dobbins. Dobbins drives it across
10:01
midcourt with eight on the left sideline with five.
10:04
Head of the circle drives, spins, Fade away.
10:07
Jump for go Dobbins hits it. The Richmond Spiders have
10:11
defeated the Kansas Jayhawks and Fog Allen Fieldhouse 69 to 68.
10:17
How does that make you feel? It feels good, although people
10:21
people forget too. We also had to continue playing
10:23
after that. Yeah, it would have been.
10:26
It would have been great if that was the end of the game, but we
10:30
had to like that. I think there was like a second
10:32
left and they had like a, they had a, a full court heave that I
10:36
think. I think the the ref called a
10:38
foul. I think other big guys shoved,
10:40
and I mean, he did. He shoved Buckner.
10:42
But he he tackled, I think it was Dobbins.
10:44
Yeah, it was I, I think, I think, I think if I remember
10:47
that play, I was sitting with my friend D Hall and, and the
10:52
literally Dobbins had his shirt tugged and he went to the floor
10:56
almost like it was a designed, you know, Alan Fieldhouse play.
10:59
Like let's, let's make the ref call a foul to end the game.
11:03
And I give the the officials credit in that game 'cause they
11:06
actually called it ball went out of bounds and, and turned it
11:10
over to you guys or whatever. And it was, it was the end of
11:12
the game. But yeah, it was we had a heart
11:14
palpitation for just a second as that play, as that play went off
11:17
when time was put back on. I was, I was sweating it when I
11:20
saw him like dive on the floor 'cause you know, I was a guy
11:25
that would try to sell things to the refs just because I'm not a
11:28
very strong guy. So I had to use every trick in
11:31
my bag. But at that time, I would say
11:35
probably not the best time if it was a flop, which it was not to
11:38
take one 'cause like you said, if the ref doesn't call it, we
11:43
got problems. But, you know, luckily they
11:46
called it and then I think we had to inbound the ball 'cause
11:49
I, I was the guy who inbounded it and we, we almost did the
11:52
same exact thing as them. Although, you know, coach told
11:55
him like, don't push anybody, but there was only like a second
11:58
left or a little bit less. So basically the play was
12:02
literally just throw it to the corner, the deepest corner and
12:06
just have somebody touch it. We just needed someone to touch
12:08
the ball. And I think Buckner got the ball
12:11
at the end and just was able to run it out for us.
12:14
But but yeah, then we just ran on the court, you know, place
12:18
was silent, which is, you know, which is usually was, was the
12:23
goal of every away game. If we can make it silent at the
12:26
end, we did our job and. It silent and shocked.
12:28
And it was. It wasn't it wasn't silent back
12:30
in Virginia for Spider fans. I was talking to a friend today
12:34
just asking them their memory and it was a, she said she was
12:37
watching the game and she and, and, and the person she was
12:40
watching it with jumped so high that they felt like the neighbor
12:43
woke up because there was an earthquake in Rico County that
12:46
at 11:00 PM. Cause that's just how exciting
12:49
it was for us as fans to see that.
12:51
But you guys go back to the locker room after that amazing
12:54
win, ending an amazing streak for one of the, for one of
12:57
basketball's blue bloods. Describe the scene in the locker
12:59
room after the game. How does that?
13:01
How does that feel? Yeah.
13:02
I mean, yeah, the locker room was a little wild.
13:06
I mean, if they had champagne, we probably would have popped
13:09
it. But, you know, it would have
13:11
felt like a, you know, World Series or, you know, NBA Finals
13:14
win for us. Yeah.
13:17
I just remember going in there 'cause I, I was late getting in,
13:20
'cause I had to do, like, some interviews, 'cause they grabbed,
13:23
they grabbed it right after. And I remember get in and it was
13:27
still crazy. Like, usually it's calmed down
13:29
by the time I get in there, but it was still crazy.
13:32
And I remember I'd come in and this is, you know, just another,
13:36
you know, Wainwright story. I come in.
13:39
And when I come in, he just kind of shoved me, you know, And
13:41
everyone's just so amped up. And he just pushes me to, like,
13:45
kind of say, good job. And I just turn around.
13:48
And I think I punched him as hard as I could in the chest
13:50
because I just needed to, like, I needed to let out energy.
13:54
I was just like you. Had to let that energy out.
13:56
And he, and you know, he, he's a strong dude.
13:59
So he was like, go ahead. And he he didn't flinch.
14:04
I mean, you know, he just kind of was like took it and was
14:06
like, all right, let's go. And I was like.
14:09
Speaking of Speaking of him celebrating, I mean, you scored
14:12
23 points in 36 minutes. You were the only player we had
14:15
in double figures that night, Kansas, Kansas coach Bill Self
14:19
said about you. The three-point shots, the great
14:22
neutralizer in the game. We actually did a decent job
14:24
guarding them at times. But we let Scrocky get free in
14:27
the second-half. We put four guys on him, four
14:30
different guys on him, and none of them guarded him very well.
14:33
I mean, for one night, you're playing in one of the greatest,
14:36
you know, venues in college sports history and you're the
14:39
best player on the floor for that game.
14:41
Tell us about how that feels just as a college kid.
14:44
Yeah, I mean it, It feels good. I mean, but for me it was more
14:48
just like a team thing. I was happy for the rest of our
14:51
team because this was a once in a lifetime experience.
14:54
So just the fact that we could pull it out all enjoy it, but
14:59
then also know from the back of our minds we were like, all
15:02
right, we got this win, but in a day or two we got to go play
15:06
another team. So there wasn't really much room
15:09
to celebrate for us. But we had that night where we
15:12
could say, all right, this is cool.
15:14
We did it something that nobody thought we would do.
15:17
And and it was one of those nights too.
15:19
You know, looking back at, you know, there wasn't much in
15:22
sports going on that night. So that's like, we were the top
15:25
Sports Center. Dobbins play was like top ten.
15:29
You know, I think we were, you know, everyone was telling it
15:30
like you're on ESPN, like you guys are the lead story.
15:33
It's like, OK, yeah, like, yeah, we're at the hotel trying to
15:37
figure out, all right, when are we leaving tomorrow?
15:40
And you know, everyone's telling us these things and you know,
15:43
you, you, you can't, you can't ignore it.
15:46
I mean, we're not, you know that naive.
15:49
But at the same time, we also understand like, all right, we
15:53
just beat Temple, we beat Kansas.
15:56
We got another game ahead of us that we got to get to and get
16:00
focused on as well. Well, you did a good job at that
16:03
because you went to Xavier and, and, and they were a great team
16:09
and somehow put the Kansas game behind you because you guys had
16:12
a nice night. That's Xavier, right?
16:14
Yeah, I mean, I think the the Kansas game was so late.
16:17
I mean you talked earlier about travel.
16:19
It was like a 9:00 game for us East Coast that we normally
16:25
would leave right after a game. Remember this is back in the
16:28
days when we flew commercial, we did not have the charter flights
16:30
like they do today, which is we would charter maybe one or two
16:34
games a year when we got the private planes.
16:36
But I think now they travel all the time on the private.
16:40
We were commercial. So did they put steam?
16:46
Burge in a six foot 10 frame in in coach?
16:49
Or do we at least give him first class?
16:50
No, no, we all get coached. We all get coached.
16:53
But a lot of times you would end up on these tiny planes because
16:56
we would take these puddle jumper planes to these small
16:59
cities and we would take up the entire plane.
17:02
But you're trying to fit a 610 steam Burge in a plane that fits
17:05
like a six foot per. You know, all of us are hunched
17:07
over. So some of that were not not
17:10
great experiences. But but yeah, we left.
17:13
We stayed that night, you know, in the hotel.
17:16
You know, everyone from campus is calling us.
17:18
Hey, that that's awesome. That's great.
17:20
You know, when are you getting back to campus?
17:22
And we're like, we're not. We got to go to Cincinnati.
17:25
We're playing Xavier. We're we're off the next day to
17:30
travel. But yeah, I mean, there's just
17:32
that whole mentality that coach had put into us.
17:35
It's an away game. You're a pro.
17:38
Let's go get it. And also I think too, the fact
17:40
that we just won those two games, you know, we kind of had
17:44
the ball rolling of, hey, there's no reason to let this go
17:47
now. You know, wouldn't it be great
17:49
if we could round this out with a with a third win and get back
17:53
home? So you guys play Xavier on their
17:56
homecourt, you hold them to 44 points.
18:00
Just showing how good of a team you guys were defensively.
18:04
Xavier I believe was did they make it to the Elite 8 that year
18:08
in the in the tournament? I think so, yeah.
18:10
I think it was, you know that I mean the A10 that year was
18:13
strong in that it was I think us, Xavier, Dayton and Saint
18:19
Joe's made the tourney. I think he had four teams from
18:22
the A10 and I want to say Xavier and Dayton might have both made
18:27
at least the Sweet 16 or Elite 8.
18:29
I mean, it would we it was, but they were tough.
18:31
I mean, they had been good the year before with West and then
18:35
this that year he had graduated, but they still had Chalmers,
18:39
Sato, some big guys inside. So they were a difficult.
18:44
But what was interesting with Xavier is we we tend to, you
18:47
know, on years that we would beat them at there would be
18:50
years where we would beat them at their place and then they'd
18:52
just come right back and beat us at the Robin Center.
18:55
You know, it was like for some reason we could never match up
18:58
where, hey, you guys went at your place, we went at ours.
19:01
So but so we knew we could go in there and win.
19:03
And we had done it before. We had felt good about it.
19:06
Dobbins had a great a good game locking their guys up and.
19:11
You know he scored 19 that night.
19:12
Yeah. And just a huge game.
19:14
Yeah, just keeping them down defensively was our key.
19:17
We we again, keep that score low, keep it close.
19:21
And we just had a lot of contributions from a lot of guys
19:23
and to squeak out of there with a win was was exactly what we
19:27
wanted to do. And then so you get that when
19:30
you fly right home and party with the with the rest of
19:32
campus. Is that how the story ends?
19:34
Or that was the plan. That was the plan.
19:36
But Cincinnati weather had other plans in that it was a huge
19:42
snowstorm and we could knock it out for the life of us to get
19:48
back to Richmond because, yeah, after we won the Xavier game,
19:51
you know, everyone from campus is calling us, Hey, you got to
19:54
get back here. We're everyone's going nuts.
19:56
You beat Kansas, you beat Xavier.
19:58
Like the camp, the, you know, people were talking about how
20:01
after the Kansas win, they're throwing toilet paper all over
20:04
the trees and, you know, everyone's up all night and all
20:08
this. And then we, we go and beat
20:10
Xavier and it's like, yeah, let's do it again.
20:12
You know, like, boom. So they're, you know, and and
20:15
we, we were slated to come home that night, but we couldn't get
20:19
out. We couldn't fly.
20:21
I think we got delayed like a whole day or two.
20:25
I mean, we were in Cincinnati for like 2 days I think.
20:28
So we were stuck in a hotel, couldn't go anywhere.
20:32
There was one restaurant across the street from the hotel.
20:35
That's where we ate every meal. Hopefully, hopefully it wasn't
20:38
run by Xavier fans. We're playing cards at night, I
20:43
think with, you know, M&M's as chips.
20:45
I mean, it was just like, what else can we do?
20:47
You know, like, and but you know, so we're like dying to get
20:51
back. And then, you know, finally we
20:53
get back to campus and, you know, three or four days later
20:58
and, you know, this is 3 or 4 days after the Kansas win, about
21:02
two days after Xavier. And for the first time, there's
21:05
like 1520 people at the Robin Center waiting for the bus to
21:09
come in, which is, which is strange and never typically
21:12
happened. You know, they're all happy, you
21:14
know, But it was more alumni, more fans that were there to
21:18
greet us, you know, But by the time we got back to campus,
21:21
everyone was like, hey, where you been?
21:23
I was like, where have we been? Like have you?
21:26
Have you watched TV at all? Like, yeah, we were in.
21:29
Like those wins? That was old.
21:30
That's old. Everyone had forgot about it.
21:32
But but we luckily. Yeah, I mean, I'll, I'll give
21:35
you an interesting story because the I think the statute of
21:39
limitations is, is run out on me during the shoot around before
21:45
the Kansas game. You know, we we use all their
21:49
equipment. So they had these basketballs.
21:51
And again, this is early days Richmond.
21:54
So remember we didn't have all the nicest stuff that they do
21:57
today. And Kansas had basketballs with
22:00
their logo on it, you know, the Jayhawk imprinted on the ball.
22:04
So I went to one of our managers at the time, Dan Woolley.
22:08
I said, hey, Dan, grab me one of these balls.
22:09
This would be awesome, like a good souvenir.
22:12
And he said, yeah, yeah, whatever, Mike, Like, get out.
22:14
He's like, go focus on the game. What are you talking to me about
22:16
this basketball you want me to take?
22:19
And so I didn't think anything of it, you know, play the Kansas
22:22
game, play the Xavier game. We get back to campus.
22:26
Coach finally tells us you got a day off, You know, tells us to
22:30
be safe because he knows when he tells us we have a day off that
22:34
we're going to go have a good time.
22:36
But by this time the rest of the campus is back to normal.
22:38
So it's not going to be too crazy.
22:40
So drive back from the Robin Center, go to our apartment, you
22:44
know, University Forest apartments, drop our stuff off.
22:48
And I think it was like Pat O'Malley, Jamal, Scott, their
22:52
apartment was right next to mine.
22:55
So me and Kevin room together. We drop our stuff off and you
23:00
know, I'm like, all right, I'll be over there in a minute.
23:02
So I come over, walk into the apartment and they're all in
23:07
there. Everyone's, you know, just
23:08
excited. You know, there's a few of our
23:10
friends there who are, who are celebrating with us.
23:14
And then out of the backroom comes Dan Wooly, and he goes,
23:18
hey, Mike. And he throws me a ball.
23:21
And it's the ball from Kansas and I still have it today.
23:25
Like, he didn't tell me. He didn't tell me he took it.
23:27
He didn't say anything to me like.
23:29
Yeah, he bought. It he bought it.
23:30
As soon as I walked in, he was just like, here you go and boom,
23:33
I got this ball. And so I was just like, oh man.
23:37
Self probably gave it to him so that Skrocky wouldn't come back,
23:40
yeah. Yeah.
23:42
Although, yeah, he might arrest me now, I don't know.
23:46
That so that that is a great story.
23:49
Tom and I were have been talking about as a lead up to kind of do
23:52
in this episode or these episodes that those three games,
23:57
Temple Kansas, Xavier were kind of the three games that ended an
24:02
18 year drought for Richmond's at large hopes.
24:07
You guys got on a lot of national radars with those three
24:10
wins. But still, I'm sure come 18
24:13
tournament you're hoping to to win it get in naturally that
24:16
way, but you don't you end up with a with a tough loss in the
24:19
tournament. Where do you guys where are you
24:21
guys at mentally after that leading up to the selection on
24:25
Sunday? Do you guys do?
24:27
Are you feeling confident? Are you not feeling confident
24:30
going to selection show and was there a party for that?
24:33
Were you guys together when they when they did the selection
24:35
show? Tell us a little bit about that.
24:37
Yeah, We watched the selection show at Coach's house.
24:41
I don't think a lot of, I think a lot of the older guys, we were
24:45
not, I would say, optimistic just because, you know, I had
24:49
been at Richmond, you know, I was a senior.
24:52
So the last previous three years I'd played in the NIT.
24:56
About two of those years, my sophomore and junior year, we
25:01
needed to win the tournament, a 10 tournament at that time to
25:06
make the tourney. We knew based on our schedule or
25:09
our wins and all that, we didn't have enough.
25:11
My freshman year when we were in the CAA, we had guys like Craig
25:15
Stevenson, Kente Smith, those guys we were banned from playing
25:22
in the CAA tournament. But we had a really good record
25:25
and we were like on the bubble and we we probably would have
25:29
made the tournament if we just played in the CA tournament and
25:32
we're able to win like one or two more games, which likely we
25:36
would have done. We were the number one seed, won
25:38
the regular season title, but they banned us because we were
25:41
leaving for the A10. So that I remember, you know, it
25:44
had me memories of that because we had a party then I think it
25:48
was in the Alumni Center. They had the cameras on us and
25:52
we didn't make it, you know, so we were the team like
25:56
disappointed and and unfortunately for us, we kind of
25:59
knew right away we didn't make it because I think one of their
26:02
early teams to make it was like it might have been Georgia or
26:04
something. They made it with like a 17 and
26:07
15 record. And as soon as we saw them, we
26:10
were like, that's our spot. So we had to watch the rest of
26:14
the show knowing, all right, we're not getting in.
26:16
So I I kind of went into it. I was like, yeah, I'm not
26:20
getting my hopes up, You know, I don't, I know we had a good
26:23
season. I know our strength of schedule
26:25
was great. You know, I looked, you know,
26:29
looked back on it, you know, preparing for this.
26:33
You know, I think maybe something people don't know.
26:35
I think we played ten NCAA teams.
26:38
I think it was 10 or 11 teams on our schedule that year made the
26:42
NCAA tournament, which is unbelievable.
26:45
You know, if you're you know, that only happens to teams in
26:49
like the Big 10, the ACC who get all the conference phones.
26:52
I mean, we played teams like VCU.
26:55
They ended up making it. UAB ended up making it.
26:58
I think Manhattan made it Wake. All these teams that we played
27:03
in are out of conference. Some we won, some we lost, all
27:07
ended up making the NCAA tournament.
27:09
And that kind of goes a long way.
27:10
I think in those times when they did the selection, because they
27:14
didn't have all these computer rankings that they do today, it
27:17
was a lot more, hey, committee makes a decision.
27:21
So, yeah, we, we were watching at Coach's house, wasn't
27:24
expecting much. And then out of nowhere, our
27:27
name pops up. Everyone jumps up.
27:29
We're screaming, we're going nuts.
27:31
You know, I think Coach is like, don't ruin my house.
27:36
You know, we, we were just like, all right, now what?
27:39
You know, because it's it's a whirlwind once you get in, you
27:42
know, it's like, all right, in two days, you got to go.
27:45
Like it's not like, oh, you're in next week, you're playing.
27:49
It's like now, like we got to move.
27:51
Like get to the gym now and start practicing.
27:54
Yeah, I was just, and we were talking earlier about the draw
27:57
you had. I mean, first the A10, you go to
27:59
the semis and you're at Dayton playing.
28:01
Dayton, right, Right. And and they're pretty
28:04
impossible to play at that. And now you're in the NCA as and
28:08
you're playing Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
28:10
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, scheduling wasn't good.
28:13
Yeah, scheduling wasn't good. And, you know, you talked about
28:15
earlier, you know, was Kansas one of the loudest places?
28:19
You know, Dayton was loud. And then that Wisconsin game was
28:23
loud just because generally in NCAA Tournament, it's not really
28:27
a home game, although, you know, you'll be geographically close.
28:32
But that was at the Milwaukee Bucks Stadium.
28:35
And I think it's seats maybe like 19,000, maybe 20 and
28:40
probably a good 18,000 of them were Wisconsin fans.
28:44
You know, the rest of them were just filling in for the other
28:47
games. You know, maybe there was like
28:49
50 Richmond people. I think University of Pittsburgh
28:53
played before us. There was maybe 50 of them, but
28:56
it was about 18,000 Wisconsin fans there to watch Wisconsin.
29:00
And yeah, it was, it was a tough game and we, we jumped out early
29:04
on and we had a lead. But Wisconsin's one of those
29:08
teams that very methodical. They just wear you down.
29:13
They just kind of go in reverse. You know, big guys are outside,
29:16
little guys are inside. And we just, we, we ran a
29:19
scoring, we ran into a scoring drought in the second-half and
29:22
we just could not stop them on our defense, just could not.
29:26
Hold up. Well, going back to the
29:27
beginning, we asked you kind of what kind of the goals were.
29:31
And as a senior you're like, it's making the tournament.
29:33
And so I mean, what a senior year you had.
29:35
I mean, obviously the Kansas game is probably the biggest win
29:39
during the year, but kind of an incredible year you had.
29:42
You must look back on that and and feel pretty proud about what
29:45
you're able to accomplish. Yeah, no, it was, it was
29:48
special. I mean, one thing coach used to
29:50
say to us, you know, me and Kevin Steinberg used to joke
29:53
about it. He would almost tell us every
29:56
day and it and it got annoying. You know, our, our goal is to
30:00
hang a banner and he would say it every day.
30:03
And it, it got to the point where me and Kevin Steenburg
30:05
were like, I think we need to go buy coach a banner because he
30:08
keeps talking about it. He wants to really hang one.
30:11
Let's just go buy one at a store, give it to him and just
30:13
be done with this because it's all the guy talks about.
30:16
And, you know, it really didn't hit me until after I graduated,
30:22
you know, because I, I stayed in Richmond, I'd come back, watch
30:25
games, you know, especially the guys that I played with, you
30:28
know, that were still on the team.
30:30
And now as I get older, it is pretty neat because you walk
30:36
into the Robbins Center, there's a banner says NCAA 2004.
30:42
I mean, that's our banner. Like we put that there.
30:45
It'll be there forever. You know, as long as Richmond
30:49
exists, which it'll probably go on for a very, very long time,
30:52
if not forever, that banner is ours.
30:55
It's there and it's something we did.
30:57
And it's not something a lot of people get to, you know, say
31:00
they did. An average kid goes to Richmond,
31:03
has a good time, maybe gets good grades, gets a degree.
31:07
But do you have something there that is like, that's mine and
31:10
it'll be here forever, you know, And that I think that's what
31:14
Coach was trying to instill on us.
31:16
We didn't get it at the time. Like I said, you know, we were
31:19
just like, man, this guy's infatuated with banners.
31:23
But he had a point, you know, he, he said a lot of wild and
31:26
crazy things and probably didn't make sense until after, you
31:30
know, we realized, all right, that does make sense.
31:33
So it is pretty neat to go back and see it.
31:37
Well, on behalf of all Spider fans, I think I can say I we
31:41
really appreciate that you did not take that Saint Joe's
31:44
scholarship and play with Jameer Nelson.
31:46
There you go. Because our program is way
31:48
better for it. And your Hall of Fame career is
31:53
something that, you know, all of us who got a chance to watch you
31:57
play definitely appreciated watching.
31:59
It was just you were a special player.
32:01
And we're thankful that you came to Richmond.
32:03
And I know Tom and I are very thankful that you spent some
32:07
time telling us the story because this is this is the
32:09
story that we didn't know behind the scenes.
32:11
And so I think there's been a lot of really good information
32:14
that that people will appreciate, you know, just like
32:17
everything that goes into something as big as as what you
32:20
guys accomplished that year. Yeah, Thank you very much, Mike.
32:23
This has been awesome. We'd love to have you on some
32:26
other time too, because obviously a lot of things
32:28
happened your freshman, sophomore and junior year too.
32:30
So maybe sometime down the road we'll learn more because you've
32:34
you've got some good, I'm sure, beeline stories and Wainwright
32:38
stories going back to your early days.
32:41
Yeah. So as as a team, we stick
32:44
together a lot. So it was one of those things,
32:46
especially that season. And like I said with the Pete
32:49
Thomas story, everyone contributed to that season.
32:53
I mean, even down, you know, you had guys like like I said, Eric
32:56
Swire, Reggie Brown, who were again, felt like they were there
33:00
6-8 years but fought through injuries just to help out.
33:04
They could have easily said I'm done with this, I'm going to
33:08
move on. But they wanted to continue.
33:10
Then you sprinkle in guys like Gaston, Maleva Day on Merritt,
33:15
you know, freshmen who play a huge role in the season.
33:18
And then you've got guys like myself, Tony Dobbins, you know,
33:22
Buckner, Steenburg, all those guys contributing.
33:26
O'Malley, another guy people forget it was on the team Stacey
33:30
Tunt, football legend at at University of Richmond, joined
33:34
our team that year. And there's a guy who
33:37
contributed by just mainly for me, just beating me up in
33:40
practice. And I wonder if coach did it on
33:42
purpose to say, hey, touch as far as Sprocky and beat him up
33:46
and if he can survive you, games will be pretty easy.
33:49
But I mean, everyone, you know, even down to the managers, you
33:53
know, like Dan Wooley getting me that ball, everyone was a part
33:57
of it. And that's, you know, kind of
33:58
the feel we had. So yeah, just to say we're a
34:01
part of him and hang that banner was a special season for
34:04
everyone. Awesome.
34:05
Thank you, Mike. Yeah, no thanks for having me.
34:08
Well what a magical season and what great stories by Mike.
34:13
That was awesome. Hope you guys enjoyed it.
34:15
If there are other players you'd love to hear from, please
34:18
comment and let us know. Until next time, this is Spiders
34:24
sounding off.