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Inside Richmond Basketball with Aiden Argabright | Spiders Sound Off · Spiders Sound Off

0:06
Hey, welcome everybody to another episode of Spider Sound
0:10
off. This is Tom.
0:11
Hey, this is. Porter.
0:12
So it's midweek episode. We have a special guest coming
0:17
up. I won't spoil that.
0:18
You'll kind of see that in a couple minutes.
0:21
I do have a few other notes to bring up.
0:24
So I went to the local for the coach's show on Monday.
0:31
Sounds fun. AP was there.
0:34
He's certainly entertaining, talking about his Yukon days.
0:38
Also obviously about kind of his big game.
0:41
Just this past week he doesn't have his rings.
0:43
I asked him that they're they're back in Greece, so he's keeping
0:46
them safe back in Greece. But he's I.
0:49
I asked Jason if we ever had anyone from Richmond who has 2
0:54
championship rings and he was wondering is any of the football
0:57
players who won the championship, did they ever get
1:00
a championship in something else that's.
1:01
A great question. But he may be the only Richmond
1:06
player to ever have two championship rings.
1:08
National championship, That's right.
1:09
National championship rings. I met someone, a fan, a Richmond
1:14
fan and maybe a fan of ours, Larry, who said we're doing a
1:19
great job. So I really appreciate that.
1:20
Larry. He did have a complaint because
1:23
when we went oh and three and we started talking about other
1:27
sports because we are too sad about the Richmond basketball
1:29
teams, we forgot about the golf team.
1:32
Big, big golf win. Golf had a big tournament win.
1:35
What is this thing called the Loyola Intercollegiate?
1:39
That was, I don't know, the 17th or 16th at Independence.
1:44
And we had a sophomore Carson Baez captured the first, his
1:48
first collegiate title, 17 under 199.
1:51
That's obviously, you know, multiple rounds.
1:54
That's the lowest tournament score for a program record by 4
1:58
strokes. Not bad.
1:59
So we got a stud sophomore, he was a six under 66 on Tuesday to
2:04
to secure that force. I shot a 66 on the front. 91
2:08
I've done that many, many times. So congratulations to the golf
2:12
team technically. Might have been the first seven
2:13
holes, but yeah, yeah. That's right.
2:15
But anyway, so that fun little one of the.
2:18
Fun note is men's lacrosse team is number 3 in the nation #3
2:21
holy cow that's insane. We have a special guest today.
2:25
Let me give a a little introduction.
2:28
Like the state champ from John Marshall is that 2 time, 2 time
2:31
state champ from John Marshall. Yeah, current and four time A10
2:36
Rookie of the week winner. You scored double digits 18
2:41
times so far as a freshman and anyone who's seen us play knows
2:46
how much energy you inject into our men's team.
2:51
Would love to introduce Aiden Argarbright to Spiders.
2:53
Sound off. Thank you for having me.
2:56
Welcome, Aiden. It's great to have you on.
2:59
Before we get started, like, tell us a little bit about your
3:01
journey through high school. Tell us about playing basketball
3:04
in high school. Where did you start?
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Where did you end up? You know, how are you thinking
3:07
about, you know, possibly a college career.
3:10
Well, I started off at Saint Stephen's Saint Agnes School in
3:13
Northern Virginia, Alexandria. I was there my freshman and
3:16
sophomore year. Great, great team, great program
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I was a part of. And I know I had to take my
3:22
career to a different, a different, a different.
3:24
I was trying to get to a different level.
3:26
So I made the decision to go to John Marshall down in Richmond,
3:30
VA, But me and my family thought it was the best decision for me.
3:33
So went to the John Marshall coach White.
3:36
I was there my junior and senior year.
3:38
I was able to win two state championships and Richmond was
3:42
recruiting me since my sophomore year.
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So I had a good connection with Coach Guy and the coaches since
3:48
my sophomore year and they recruiting me and I just feel
3:50
like this is the best place for me.
3:52
Awesome, awesome. You were also playing AAU along
3:57
with high school basketball. Tell us about how the two
4:01
programs, AAU and high school, work together for for somebody
4:04
who's coming up through the ranks.
4:05
Yeah, so I played with New World and my Saint Stephen St.
4:08
Agnes head coach, he was the assistant coach for my New World
4:11
Team. So I had a with them.
4:12
And I've been playing with New World since I was in the 6th
4:14
grade. So it's been, you know, it's
4:17
like family to me. So I've been going back and
4:20
forth. I've been, I go back, way back
4:21
with those guys. So it just, it just meant a lot.
4:25
So what what made you choose Richmond?
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So you said, I guess we were talking to you for a long time.
4:30
I'm sure you, I'm sure you had some options.
4:32
What made you come to U of RI? Just had a good bond with the
4:35
coaches, I felt like, and I felt like I fit the program really
4:38
well and the system when everything they were trying to
4:41
build, you know, the small guard you, that's what they call it.
4:43
So, yeah, yeah. So a lot of guys I got to watch,
4:46
Gilliard and Gilliard King, Kevin Henderson to compare me to
4:51
all those guys. So I feel like it was the best
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place for me. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's worked
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out really well so far. I'm sure you, you've been, you
5:00
know, in a weird way like you're happy with your performance, but
5:04
the team has struggled some. Like how do you balance that of
5:09
like feeling good that you're having a, a good freshman year,
5:12
but knowing kind of the team is not reaching the heights that
5:15
I'm sure you'd you'd love to see it reach?
5:17
I mean, yeah, it's tough, but at the same time you just got to
5:19
think about the positives, you know, just got to move on to the
5:21
next game. You know, we're still in the
5:22
season. We still got some hope left, but
5:24
you know, I'm blessed to be in this position that I am in right
5:27
now. So I'm grateful for it and, you
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know, just going to keep building on this.
5:32
Yeah, I mean it's easy. Just don't lose any games for
5:34
the next 3 or 4 weeks, right? Yeah, super easy, right?
5:38
Yeah. Aiden, who did you, who did you
5:40
model your game after growing up?
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Growing up. Yeah, who was who was like the
5:45
person you looked up and said I want to play like that.
5:47
Growing up, I used to watch a lot of Kyrie because you know,
5:50
Kyrie on the Cavs with LeBron. Used to love watching him.
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I didn't try to model my game after him because Kyrie's one of
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one, of course, But, you know, just watching that type of guy
6:00
and then, you know, try to go on the court and do the moves,
6:02
whatever, you know, I couldn't do it at the time, but, but
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yeah. That's awesome.
6:08
I got to watch it twice this summer, once early in the summer
6:11
and then once in September in practice.
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And I think I went on the record a long time ago saying that
6:18
Aiden took the biggest step forward of anybody I saw in
6:20
practice over the summer. That tells me you work really,
6:24
really hard to get better every single day you show up.
6:28
Tell us about how you approach practice and how you think about
6:31
improving every single day. Well, when I first got here, you
6:34
know, it was just getting my feet wet a little bit.
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So it was definitely different for me.
6:38
You know, college course is different.
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But I just try to attack every day with the same mindset, go
6:42
kill, you know, get better day by day.
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And that's, that's what I'm trying to get.
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That's what I'm here for. I'm trying to get better.
6:47
So yeah. Awesome.
6:49
Now one skill I think you brought to the table was the
6:52
ability to get fouled a lot. Yeah.
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So I don't think you learned that here.
6:56
How, how did you develop that skill of, of, of, you know,
7:00
driving and, and really get in that foul?
7:04
Well, some people say it's the hair, but I don't know.
7:09
I feel like I've always had this skill, just getting fouls.
7:11
You know, growing up, I felt like playing against, you know,
7:15
playing in the DMVI feel like a lot of guys like to foul a lot.
7:17
So I felt like I was good at like drawing fouls, trying to
7:20
Bob my head back a little bit. But you know, I've always just
7:23
had that, yeah. You've got the head whiplash,
7:24
kind of. We love it.
7:28
I think the hair does exaggerate the head whiplash too.
7:30
It makes it obvious for people to see that you drew contact,
7:33
which is great. Yeah, the rest during the
7:35
Davidson game actually told me that the hair, it makes it hard
7:38
for me to call, calls for me. He was on.
7:40
Yeah. That's funny.
7:43
Tell us about your college experience so far.
7:45
Who are you rooming with freshman year?
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Which dorm are you living in? I'm in Marsh home with Will
7:49
Harper. OK, great guy.
7:52
You know, he hasn't seen this floor that much this year.
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He's battling injuries right now, but he's a great guy.
7:56
I know he's going to be great. Here.
7:58
Did you play against Will when you lived up in the DMV?
8:02
Yeah, I actually played him a couple of times.
8:03
He played with Premier, I played with New World.
8:05
I got him a couple of times in New World and then he was
8:07
Gonzaga. I played against him.
8:09
I Gonzaga. He beat me there, you know.
8:11
He was really starting to come alive right before this,
8:13
whatever this recent spate of injuries was, because he was
8:16
starting to really, you know, have a impact on the floor.
8:18
So yeah, love, good. Love seeing him play for
8:20
Richmond for a long time. Yeah.
8:22
What's your favorite part of the campus?
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Outside of outside of the gym, outside of playing basketball?
8:26
It's a beautiful campus. You know, the lake.
8:28
I love walking on the lake, going to Tyler's, you know?
8:31
This is beautiful. Yeah.
8:33
I really like it. It's nice.
8:35
Hey, I'm curious, we've seen a bunch of different uniforms this
8:38
year for the Spiders. You have a favorite.
8:42
Favorite Probably the red ones we played at home like the
8:45
throwback jerseys, but it was probably our worst loss this
8:48
year so. Yeah.
8:51
Was that the Davidson game where we wore those?
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Oh yeah, They were beautiful jerseys.
8:55
That was a great jerseys. You lose like that, you don't
8:56
want to wear those for a long time.
8:58
Yeah, we'll bring them back in the fall.
9:01
Tell so So what's the like? Tell us about the favorite thing
9:04
in the D Hall. It's great.
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It's a great dining hall for people who might be thinking
9:07
about Richmond. Tell us what what Aiden eats
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when he he goes over to the dining hall for lunch or dinner.
9:12
I'm more of like a breakfast guy actually.
9:14
So when I go to breakfast, I try to get some strawberries or
9:17
pineapples and I get a omelet. Usually get a omelet.
9:21
Bacon, ham, cheese. Yeah, it's really good.
9:24
Do you stay away from the? I know there's a frozen ice
9:27
cream thing that you can just reach in there and get ice cream
9:29
whenever you want. You stay away from that or.
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Not stay away from that. Stay away from it.
9:34
That's awesome. OK, so now let's get into the
9:37
the fun business side of basketball.
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You know, I think if you go five years ago, like freshman worried
9:44
about developing their game and playing and adjust into a school
9:48
and they never had to worry about like, where am I going to
9:51
play next year? You know, it was unless you were
9:54
really unhappy or the coach was really unhappy, Like that was
9:57
kind of a rare occasion. I mean, Richmond had transfers
10:00
in the past, but it was usually like, you know, once every few
10:03
years we'd have a transfer. Like, how do you as a freshman
10:07
balance like learning what it's like to go to college, playing
10:12
in a league like the A10 and focusing on, you know, Loyola
10:16
Chicago, but knowing there's still this like, like, what am I
10:20
going to do next year? Which is a question for like
10:23
everyone on your roster. Yeah.
10:25
I mean, it's definitely tough going into it, you know, not
10:28
really knowing some of the guys coming out.
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I think this this year we had a lot of transfers.
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So you know, it's tough learning a new system coming into this.
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So I think it's tough, but you know, you just take it day by
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day and it's something you just learn as you go.
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What are you thinking about graduating in while at Richmond?
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What's your what's your major that you're kind of thinking
10:48
about? Major, I'm trying to do
10:50
business, but at the moment I'm doing communications, so.
10:54
Both are good. Both are good choices, yeah.
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For sure. And you're learning a lot about
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business from a young age too, so you know you've got that
11:00
added added peace. Speaking of business, do you
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have an agent that you work with or how does that process work
11:05
for you? No, I don't have an agent at the
11:07
moment. This is mainly my me and my
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family. OK, great.
11:10
That's fantastic. Speaking of family and obviously
11:13
being in town with John John Marshall for two years, like
11:16
when when you have home games, is there like the and the aid
11:19
and Arga bright section or like how are like, well, are you able
11:23
to get some of your family and friends to come watch it?
11:27
Yeah, I have some coming from John Marshall sometimes.
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So, you know, it's different every time.
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I have a lot of family, though. My parents make it to almost
11:33
every home game. My sister in college, one of my
11:36
sisters in college and other ones, she lives in New Mexico,
11:38
so they don't really make it as much, but definitely my parents.
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Do your sisters play any sports? They don't, but my sister
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actually graduated from VCU, so that's pretty funny.
11:47
Oh. OK, OK.
11:48
Yeah, OK. Well, we'll forgive her, OK?
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Did she give you the business after the games?
11:54
No, she she didn't. She didn't.
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She was on my side. Quiet.
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She's rooting for you, though. That's when you play in VCU,
11:58
right? Yeah, of course, Family, but
12:00
head of college for of course. Now this is kind of a random
12:02
topic, but you played in the Siegel Centre as A at John
12:06
Marshall, right? Was that some of the state
12:07
tournaments? Yeah, the state championship
12:09
were there. We played.
12:10
We played there twice. And then I actually graduated
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from VCU too in the Seagull Center.
12:15
Yeah, OK, yeah. So you've you've won you've
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you've won some big games in the Seagull Center.
12:20
We we know they're we know they're coming.
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Yeah, that's a that's a tough place to win, but we we look
12:26
forward to that Yeah, future win in in upcoming season.
12:30
So. OK, so you go to Chicago, I
12:31
guess Friday. Are you going out there?
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Is that the? Yeah, Friday.
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Plan going out Friday. How has Ben on the road, you
12:38
know, as an A10 guard and player for Richmond, have you enjoyed
12:42
kind of the road trips is how hard are certain places to play
12:46
versus others? It's not really that hard.
12:48
I mean, it's hard, of course it's trying to, it's hard
12:50
winning on the road. But I feel like for me, I don't
12:52
really get rattled by those type of those type of games like be
12:55
on the road. I love that type of stuff.
12:57
So for me, I just feel like, I mean, it's it's fun for me.
12:59
I love it. How about is there team bonding
13:02
that kind of is different on the road than at home?
13:06
Yeah, definitely a lot of team bonding, the bus rides, you
13:09
know, it's fun. Question for you.
13:13
So in the offseason, what's the thing that you think you're
13:18
going to work on the most about your game now that you've played
13:20
almost your full freshman year? What do you think that Aiden
13:23
Aiden needs to get better at? I would say my splits, I
13:26
definitely need to get better at shooting.
13:28
Of course, I feel like coming into, coming into college, I was
13:31
shooting almost 50 from three. Now I'm shooting about like 35.
13:35
So it's, it's hard for me, but you know, I got to get better at
13:37
that something I got to get better with getting more reps.
13:41
Does that, does that look like just show up at the gym and
13:43
shoot 500 shots a day? I mean, how does that how does
13:45
that work? I would say yeah, but also like
13:49
learning where my shots are going to be in the office.
13:51
I think now I have a better feel of where my shots are, where I'm
13:53
getting my shots at. But obviously it's going to look
13:55
a little different next year. But just getting a little more
13:58
off the bounds, catch and shoot threes, all that type of stuff.
14:03
Awesome. Yeah, I don't think you don't
14:04
have to work on getting fouled more.
14:07
You got that skill. You got that skill down.
14:08
So some stats you mentioned like small guard you, I was doing
14:12
some digging in, you know, in the media guide that lists like
14:15
the top 50 scorers of all time that you have are and you've
14:19
scored 295 points so far and you've got three games left and
14:24
postseason. So obviously more more games to
14:27
go and averaging over, you know, 10 points per game.
14:30
I looked at the that guide right?
14:32
At least if you look at the top 50 scores of all time at U of RI
14:35
have you as? Top 50 freshman scores.
14:37
No. Well, I'm saying the IT lists
14:39
the top 50 of all time. So I started with the top 50 of
14:42
all time. And then if I look at the guards
14:44
in that group, you're 5th as a freshman and you're 22 points
14:50
away from #4 Reggie Brown. Downtown Reggie Brown, he was a
14:53
great player. 37 away from Kevin Anderson.
14:56
What? And you see him in the rafters.
14:59
Yeah. So 37 points and and you've got,
15:02
you know, four games at the minimum to top Kevin Anderson.
15:06
Now the next one's a little trickier. 71 away from Gilliard
15:09
for #2 so you could do that in, you know, 5-6 games.
15:14
So you just got to keep winning and give you more chances.
15:17
Number one, we actually interviewed a few weeks ago,
15:19
Kendall Anthony, who's 10 years out of college and playing in
15:23
Brazil. So he's still playing
15:26
professionally, but he had 416 his freshman year, which is
15:32
crazy. That is crazy.
15:33
But anyway, so you're already 5th and you got four games left.
15:36
So looking forward to see where you end up on on that list.
15:40
Like it's I'm sure it's not easy to be and you probably don't
15:45
want to do too much time of sitting back and patting
15:47
yourself on the back and saying what a great year I've had.
15:50
But we as fans, we're excited every time you're out there.
15:56
It's funny, Porter, he's changed his opinion only because if you
16:01
go back three months, he's like, Aiden's going to be the a future
16:04
great guard for us. And then it turned into like
16:07
Aiden is a great guard for us and like the potential I think
16:12
we saw on the practice and maybe less in the first game or two or
16:16
it was hard because the competition was different.
16:19
We're we're certainly excited to have you at U of R and we've got
16:24
a, a winning streak. Let's make it 2 at Chicago and
16:29
then next week on the, I guess dating at home and then at
16:34
Duquesne. So those are games and well, and
16:37
if we didn't just was it last night Dayton beat up Saint Louis
16:42
Louis I like so. So this league is hard to
16:47
predict. Yeah.
16:49
I mean, the cool thing for me is you guys have shown that you can
16:51
beat some of the best teams out there with George Mason and
16:54
Belmont. So it's how do we maintain that
16:56
consistency, right. So how do we maintain that going
16:59
forward? And I don't know what are your
17:01
thoughts? What's the number one thing you
17:02
think that that could lead to the team maintaining that
17:04
consistency? I just feel like coming in every
17:07
day with the same approach, really.
17:09
I feel like those games, we came out to great starts.
17:13
I feel like that's been a struggle for us coming off with
17:15
great starts. But I feel like just coming to
17:18
the game, great starts, having energy, You know, I try to, as
17:21
soon as I come to the game, I'm trying to bring energy.
17:23
I'm trying to school, I'm trying to do anything I can.
17:26
But yeah, I just feel like it starts is important and
17:28
finishing of course. So question for you to like, I
17:32
mean, talk about energy like you nobody would would say you don't
17:35
go 110% every minute you're on the court.
17:37
I see it, Tom sees it. And and given that you're kind
17:41
of a small guy, right compared to you haven't been in the gym
17:44
for four years yet, you're a little bit, you know, lighter
17:46
than a lot of the players out there and you take an incredible
17:48
amount of contact. How do you stay healthy from a
17:50
physical perspective with the kind of contact you've taken all
17:53
year long? Honestly, I don't know how I do
17:55
it. He's young.
17:58
That's how he I mean, when you go flying, you go flying.
18:00
Sometimes I'm like, holy cow, he just got knocked 13 feet.
18:03
Right. I'd be pretty banged up after
18:04
the games, but I do. I do a good job coming in the
18:07
next day, getting treatment with Andy, trying to get the cold
18:10
stuff. Anything I can to help get my
18:11
body back? That's awesome.
18:13
Hey question because you we see your speed every day.
18:16
I don't know if this has ever happened or you would ever work
18:19
on this but anyone beating you in like 100 meter dash on the
18:23
team are you the fastest? 100, nobody on the team, No, but
18:27
I feel like, I feel like Kel come in.
18:30
I don't know. We haven't really raced yet,
18:32
yeah. No, OK, it's cool.
18:35
Yeah, we have the baby race at halftime during one of the
18:38
games. I think that's the only race
18:39
that we ever see all year involving basketball.
18:42
But. But anyway, Aiden, thank you so
18:44
much for coming on today. It's a it's a pleasure having
18:47
you kind of learning about what it's like being a freshman at U
18:51
of R and we're super excited for just the game on Saturday.
18:55
We love watching you and I'll say this like I think, you know,
18:58
I mean, we, we always have to cross our fingers, but for we
19:00
hope that you were a spider for your entire career and thank
19:04
you. We think if we, if we see that
19:05
we're what we're watching and talking to a future Hall of
19:07
Famer because you're just, you're just special.
19:09
And it's fun to it's fun to see you put out the Max effort every
19:12
single game you go. So keep doing what you're doing,
19:14
man. We appreciate it.
19:14
Thank you. I appreciate you guys.
19:16
Thank you for having me. Awesome.
19:17
Well, hey Spider fans, we are kind of wrapping up our episode
19:20
after that great interview of Aiden Argabry.
19:23
What a great kid Aiden is. And a great representative of
19:28
Spider basketball. Super excited to watch him in
19:30
the Robin Center for. Yeah, that's right.
19:32
It's like I've joked a couple Times Now, some on camera and
19:35
some off like, but I think as long as our men's and women's
19:38
team don't lose any games between now and like March 20th,
19:42
like we'll have lots to talk about on this.
19:44
Life will be good, right? Life will be good for Spider.
19:46
Fans, that's right. We don't have to talk about the
19:47
other sports. But anyway, we did get to enjoy
19:51
awesome women's game. The last home game of the year,
19:55
last game in the Robbins Center against Rhode Island.
19:58
What a what a game that was. You know, Bartorvic gave it a
20:02
perfect game score, which is 100.
20:05
That's as high as you can go. And it was only the second time
20:08
this year we've achieved that. I think we had one against Saint
20:10
Louis. So just a complete and total
20:12
beat down against a very, very good Rhode Island team, a team
20:16
that in the post game comp comments coach yourself said
20:19
deserve to be in the tournament. So, you know, I mean it, it's
20:23
great because it builds confidence going into the
20:26
tournament. It's great because it moves our
20:28
net up to #37 overall, obviously we have one more very important
20:33
game coming up against Saint Joseph's, which is also their 84
20:37
in the net. They could end up moving in the
20:39
top 80 since it's a road game. That would be quad two.
20:43
Yeah, we have to keep winning and we have to.
20:45
We have to put ourselves in a position.
20:47
To every time you talk about Saint Joseph's, I'm going to do
20:49
this to just you're. Doing the hawk over there on
20:51
the. Street on your shot can actually
20:53
do it. That's.
20:54
OK, I got you. Yeah, keep going with that.
20:56
OK, well, let's let's talk about Rhode Island a little bit,
20:58
Boris. It's kind of interesting first
21:00
half, like we had a incredible first quarter.
21:04
We didn't miss much at all. I think we were shooting like
21:06
67% or something. After the first quarter, it was
21:09
crazy up 27 to 9. And like I sometimes I think of
21:14
like, well, all we got to do is just hold, you know, just be
21:17
even with them the rest of the way and, you know, we'll be
21:20
fine. And then the second quarter came
21:21
and they had a good second quarter.
21:23
We scored five points. Maggie got 2 quick fouls like
21:26
they pulled her out and Rhode Island turned the table on us
21:30
and. We thought it was bad and we
21:31
were scoring 9A quarter in some of those more those recent
21:35
losses, but five 1/4 that was ugly, but you still had the lead
21:39
because of the big. Yeah, I think I, I think I said
21:42
if I told you we were having we're going to have an 8 point
21:44
lead and Maggie had three points in two fouls at halftime, you'd
21:47
take it every day of the week and.
21:49
Yeah, that's right. And then you know, and we
21:50
outscored them by sixth in the third and by 12 in the 4th.
21:53
So ended up a blowout. Got to see pretty much all the
21:57
freshmen at the end of the game on the floor.
22:00
So and obviously some during the game, but during more important
22:05
parts of the game I guess. But it was fun to and really
22:08
surprising how what a blowout that game was.
22:11
Yeah, I mean, we shot 53% from three.
22:14
I mean, there's going to be a lot of games we can win when we
22:16
shoot 53% from 3 point land. Maggie, I think I heard coach
22:20
say was plus 38 and 29 minutes. That's an unreal way to finish
22:24
your last game in the Robin Center, hopefully your last game
22:26
in the Robin Center, because if we're back in the Robin Center
22:29
means we're hosting in an IT game, which I don't think we
22:30
want. So that was just an unreal,
22:33
unreal thing. And then, you know, you saw
22:35
Alicia Newell something something was was was was right
22:41
with her three-point shot because she went 5 for six from
22:43
three and just looked super confident. 20 points.
22:46
I think that's a career high for Alicia. 7 rebounds on top of the
22:50
20 points. I mean, just a all around great
22:53
game. She had two steals, kicked in
22:54
two steals. Ali with 7 assists Rachel, you
22:58
know, played a very consistent game, especially like Rachel is
23:01
a seriously underrated rebounder on this team and she's just so
23:04
confident. She's so good when she gets
23:06
position of boxing her her girl out and getting the rebound.
23:09
Just a just a, a great, great performance by her team and.
23:13
A couple things that seemed new or one thing that seemed new and
23:17
one thing which is not new, which I love.
23:19
I think we both love seeing what like I don't remember him doing
23:23
kind of for an extended period, a smaller line up this year.
23:26
There's a point in time yesterday where he had kind of
23:30
Sam and Tiara were all on the bench and Maggie was kind of the
23:33
tallest player out there and it was effective.
23:37
So it was interesting to see him like start looking at, hey, is
23:40
there a small line up when especially they had that what
23:43
6766 girl when she was on the bench, it was like, we can go
23:46
small. So I was interested.
23:48
I like I do, I think we've got some depth at that like 6 foot
23:53
position with rain right in Ava. And so I think you can lean on
23:59
Maggie with certain lineups to let her kind of be the big
24:03
player out there and go a little bit smaller.
24:06
And then the thing I love seeing what that the team and this
24:09
seems like a newer wrinkle, but maybe I just wasn't paying
24:12
attention two months ago is the zone.
24:15
Yeah, I think, I think was at the start of the third or after
24:18
a time out where we look like we didn't have the momentum where
24:20
we lost a little and he went to zone and it.
24:23
Wasn't just the zone he put Rachel at the top of the key,
24:25
which was really interesting because her length makes it
24:28
harder for that little guard to get the shot and the three-point
24:30
shot off of shot off. And so it's almost like he just
24:33
added a little subtle wrinkle to his zone and it threw Rhode
24:37
Island off again. Master class and defensive
24:39
switching that Russell put on. It'll be it'll be good if we can
24:42
get get a few minutes with with coach to ask him about like the
24:45
third time you play a team. Is there anything different that
24:48
you try to do or is there any other wrinkles Because you know,
24:50
he's just he's just really putting on a clinic of great of
24:52
great coach adjustments. Yeah.
24:53
And we talked about all the scoring that we did, but that
24:56
kind of doesn't talk enough about the defense we played
24:58
because, you know, we shot 53% from three, but they shot 17%
25:03
and, and they missed some open shots, but we, our defense was
25:06
great. And overall they only shot 27%
25:10
for the game. So like our, our defense made
25:13
them uncomfortable. They drive and get doubled or
25:17
they just weren't seeing enough open looks from outside.
25:20
So our, the, the defense was super aggressive and that
25:23
allowed it. Not just, you know, the shooting
25:26
always helps, but we've seen games really on both sides,
25:31
men's and women's, where it's like one team is lighting it up,
25:33
but so is the other. And you end up with a battle
25:36
when you've got that sort of defense it it makes it much
25:40
easier to win. Yeah, we guarantee ourselves an
25:43
NCAA turn a bit if we win the next four games.
25:46
However, that being said, you know we are 37 in the NET.
25:49
That is usually an at large team.
25:52
I would say you're three and three against quad 2.
25:55
Saint Joe's is 84 right now. If they move into the top 80
25:58
than a road win against Saint Joe's would be quad 2, Davidson
26:01
is like 62. So a neutral win against
26:04
Davidson right now would be a quad 2.
26:06
George Mason would be a quad 2, and Rhode Island would be a quad
26:09
2. So if you can go, if you can win
26:11
this game against Saint Joe's when your first two and you and
26:14
you draw a Davidson or or George Mason, what you're most likely
26:16
going to do in the second round of that tournament.
26:19
You know, you're now suddenly maybe five and three and quad
26:22
two games probably and still in the top 37 of the net.
26:25
You know, I think you could afford a like a one point loss
26:28
to Rhode Island in the final. But like, I don't want to I
26:30
don't want to chance it because I don't want to be a sitting on
26:32
pins and needles with a 5050 coin toss come, you know, early
26:36
March. So yeah, that's why we're not.
26:38
Have to worry. Yeah.
26:39
And we talked about it last time like that.
26:40
At some point you're you think your net says you're going to
26:44
get in and then you realize on Sunday night, you know, some
26:47
team that's not very good in the regular season wins the ACC
26:51
tournament. And it's like, OK, well, they
26:53
just, they just took a slot. So yeah, I do think, well, I'm
26:58
very hopeful and I'm confident that when that team gets into
27:03
the Henrico building, like Maggie Will and not just Maggie,
27:06
kind of remind everybody that was there.
27:09
And for those that weren't there, like what it felt like to
27:11
lose that game in the conference tournament and like we're not
27:16
letting that happen again. And Maggie talked about it some
27:19
in the post game or other interviews of like what it was
27:23
like 2 years ago when they won it and how incredible that was.
27:27
And then that the feeling that left a bad taste in her mouth
27:30
last year. And so I'm, I'm looking forward
27:32
to Mag, to Maggie and the other upperclassmen kind of really
27:38
putting on an aggressive show. Henrico.
27:42
You can't look past Saint Joe's. It's kind of, this is a classic
27:44
trap game because you just have a hugely emotional win over
27:47
Rhode Island, your last home game, and you got the tournament
27:49
right around the corner. So you're thinking about the
27:51
tournament and here wedged in between is a road game against a
27:54
really good team. I think they've got nineteen
27:56
wins on the season coached by Cindy Griffin.
28:01
They have. They're always tough.
28:02
They were the ones I think you'd knocked us out in the tournament
28:04
last year. Saint Joe's always tough.
28:07
They've won four of their last five games.
28:10
They just got beaten by Rhode Island by George Mason pretty
28:13
handily on the road, so they're going to be looking for revenge.
28:15
They got two really good players, Gabby Casey, Elias
28:18
Sneed, who are 59 juniors and a 511 junior.
28:23
It's going to be a tough game and by no means is it a
28:25
guaranteed win on the road. It's going to be a very good
28:28
game. So a good, efficient performance
28:30
at at at Saint Joe's is an important first step and then we
28:32
can start thinking about the tournament.
28:35
Yeah, Yeah. Well, you and I can think about
28:36
the tournament now. We.
28:38
Can we can Probably. Not just we're not playing, but
28:40
yeah, we've got Saint Joseph St. Joe's.
28:42
I think that's I'll move my start with my arms again, Saint
28:45
Joe's at 2:00 PM on Saturday. And then we've got the men are
28:50
at Chicago. I think that's in the afternoon
28:54
as well. Might be 4:00.
28:56
I think it's sometime in the afternoon on Saturday.
29:01
As we talked to Aiden, he's they're flying out Friday,
29:05
flying back Saturday. They've got a they've got Dayton
29:08
next week. So they got another home game.
29:09
So while the home game before their tournament starts, but
29:13
yeah, they will also, I guess I think next Friday will be, you
29:17
know, top four in the women's tournament.
29:19
Their first game is Friday. Looks like we're going to play,
29:22
I think 7:30 at night. Don't don't quote me on that,
29:25
Spider fans. Because we're the three seed if
29:27
we stay at 3:00. We'll be at 7:00. 30 Mason
29:29
doesn't get upset and somehow we win a tiebreaker.
29:33
I mean, actually it is a case, you know, Rhode Island gets
29:35
upset and George Mason could get the number one still.
29:37
Yeah, I don't think we want that just from Rhode Island.
29:40
I don't. Think George Mason or Rhode
29:42
Island will lose their last game.
29:44
So I'm guessing we're going to be the three, which, you know,
29:47
Friday night's games, you know, gives us a chance for people to
29:49
come after work, come out and support the lady.
29:51
So it's, it's, it'd be great. It'll be great.
29:54
Yeah, that's right. So we'll be there for sure.
29:57
I hope to see you guys there and also I guess before they're at
30:00
the the Robbins Center for the men's game at Dayton.
30:04
We'll talk before then for sure. Anything else you want to?
30:08
Nothing else, just a great, great last game to to watch in
30:11
the Robbins Center. Big crowd last night for the
30:13
ladies. Super excited for the tournament
30:15
and let's keep this thing going because this is this has been a
30:19
a special season on top of a really special season last year.
30:21
I just want to see these these ladies go out and stuff.
30:24
That's right. OK, So until next time, this is
30:26
Tom. And this is Porter.
30:28
And this is spider sounding off.