Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Season 2 Premiere: New Era, Same Standards — Coach Alisa Kresge Joins Spiders Sound Off

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Season 2 Premiere: New Era, Same Standards — Coach Alisa Kresge Joins Spiders Sound Off · Spiders Sound Off

0:08
let's. Go Hello Spider fans and welcome
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to the first episode of Season 2.
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We are delighted to make as our guest for this first episode
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Coach Kreski. Coach Elisa Kreski, the new
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coach of Spider women's basketball.
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Welcome to Richmond. Thank you so much.
0:28
Thanks for having me, this is awesome.
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So I'm sure it's been a whirlwind.
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I was just looking at this earlier today.
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So on March 13th, your Vermont team won the finals of the
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conference tournament. What, A little more than a week
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later, you're in Louisville and you lost that first round game
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to Louisville. It's always fun when you get to
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play on someone's homecourt in the tournament by April 11th.
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Your name EU of R coach. So that's less than a month from
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winning the conference tournament.
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And then somehow since then, in the last six weeks, you've got
1:03
to name your staff. You signed four players, had to
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get the returning players to recommit, had three incoming
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freshmen who were previously recruited by, you know, Aaron
1:12
Russell. You had to recommit and you
1:15
actually had to move. And is it calming down at all or
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do you feel like you've got your through that first whirlwind and
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now you can, you know, focus a little bit more on on
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basketball? Yeah, I do think we're getting a
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little more settled. So that feels good, except we're
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at a hotel, so we got to figure that out eventually a house down
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there. But yeah, it's definitely the
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roster set, which is really, that was the first three weeks
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was just chaos with the roster. Obviously they were Turners and
1:45
those that were committed like that was really, really
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important as you all are probably well aware of.
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And then recruiting new faces to the program.
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And so that was three weeks of just straight awesome, exciting,
1:56
but no sleep. And so that was good.
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And then we finally were like, OK, let's pack up the house, get
2:01
that out of Vermont. And now we're in a hotel and
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we'll figure out the next layers.
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But team arrives in less than two weeks, so really excited to
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get everybody here. And that's not a short drive for
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folks. I had AI, had a daughter who
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went to school in Burlington, Vt.
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That's I can't remember how many hours driving up and back, but
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it's a long way. So.
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Yeah, 10 or 11. I haven't done it straight yet,
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so I. Remember getting caught up in
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Connecticut traffic, which you should know.
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About from Connecticut, right? Yeah, so we want to start back
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with you as a player. So to introduce you to Spider
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fans, you were a phenomenal basketball player.
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Let's start with how you, the player, worked on your game.
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What were the things important to you as a player to focus on?
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Honestly, the only thing that I always thought about and what
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drove me is winning. Like just I hated to lose
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mentality. I my game was definitely a
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little bit more do The Dirty work, set up teammates.
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However I can facilitate and make people better was really my
3:00
advantage in the game. My IQ and and of course the
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defensive side is, you know, I, I hated getting scored on, which
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is, you know, that's going to happen in every game, but that
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was like a big thing for me. And so, you know, playing, that
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was what we always did. We played all the time, summer
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leagues, practices 5 days a night, tournaments on weekends.
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We just played basketball a ton. And then really credit to my
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father, he has a great basketball mind and he coached
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me. So I was being coached in
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practice on the way to practice, on the way home from practice,
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all day every day being coached. But yeah, I wouldn't change it
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for the world. And so my dad really broke down
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the game in ways that I think really helped me develop as a
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player in those little angles, the little details that, you
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know, sometimes get lost. He he drilled that into the cows
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came home. So when I think about my game,
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it was just constantly competing, trying to find
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different ways to be successful and get better and help my team
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win. That's awesome.
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Now, some of what you said, some people would think like, oh,
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it's kind of the the glue player of the team, but you did you're
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the all time leading assist player for Marist.
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So let's give yourself some credit.
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So obviously kind of that was a big part of your game.
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And you mentioned kind of helping others.
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Like have you kind of over your career been kind of the main
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point guard coach since that's kind of your your thing?
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Yeah, absolutely, definitely was a true point guard back in the
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day, you know that true point guard, not so much the scoring
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guard. And and really again, you're as
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good as your teammates, you're as good as the people around
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you. And especially when you're a
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point guard, that's past first mentality.
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And so I had great teammates that I played with that it was
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fun getting them the ball and get really excited about them
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hitting the three or I had great post players.
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But yeah, that was my job. Set up teammates, play defense,
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run the team, run the pace of play and and again, I had great
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coaches that trusted me in those areas and challenged me.
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That was that was something I was always coached.
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I wasn't a player that wanted to be patted on the black.
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I just want to be told what I can do better and and how to do
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it. Coach, give a favorite memory
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from your playing career, something that you think about.
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And just like, wow, I can't believe I accomplished that or
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the team accomplished that. Yeah, I actually have two that
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stand out. Growing up, AUAU Nationals was a
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big deal. And as I mentioned, my dad was
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my coach and our AU team back then, we grew up together, so
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there wasn't many players coming and going.
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And so you're growing up with these players and we won
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nationals after a bunch of us. We're just dealing with
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different adversity, sick, injuries and stuff like that.
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So winning AU nationals with my dad and my family, that was a
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big one. And then College, of course,
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like playing in the Sweet 16 and this is a dream.
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Well, playing in the NCA tournament was my dream, right?
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But then getting to the NCA tournament and ending my career
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against Candace Parker and Pat Summit, I mean, you have to go
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out. That's the way to go out.
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That's a great way to go out, right?
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To get to the Sweet 16, you have to win a game in the NCAA
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tournament. You actually have to win 2.
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So tell us about like, what that felt like.
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Yeah, so I was really, really fortunate.
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It was my third time going to the NCAA Tournament.
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My career was my senior year and we've been there twice.
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And so it was a little bit less of, oh, we're happy to be here
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mentality like we were all business, so we had to play Ohio
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State out at Stanford. So neutral site, big key.
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So we played them in the first round and they had a point guard
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actually similar to myself. And so she didn't shoot much.
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She didn't shoot from the perimeter especially.
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So I got to double team their best player a lot.
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And so again, our coaches did an incredible jobs putting together
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a scout. So we upset them and then we get
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to go face Middle Tennessee, who was actually leading the country
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in steals. We were leading the country and
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assists per game, less turnovers.
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And, and so it was a neat match up and we found a way to win
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again on a neutral site at Stanford.
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Came home quick, trip home from the West Coast and then we
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headed to Ohio to play Tennessee on a neutral site, but that
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didn't pan out. The Great Bat Summit.
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Yeah, they won the championship that year, so I'll take that
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too. Wow.
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That's amazing you're. The second best team, right?
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Yeah, exactly. Snap.
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So, so, so when maybe it was during your playing days or
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maybe right after, like when did you kind of start thinking about
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coaching? Senior year was starting to
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apply for GA positions, things like that.
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And unfortunately didn't, didn't get any love.
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But because of the year we had, we got a ton of different award
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events post season and for for Marist and for the state, for
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the region, all this stuff. And I was running into our
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commissioner of our league, Rich Enzer a lot.
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And at one of them he's like, what's your plans?
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And I was like, well, I'm looking at GA, maybe play
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overseas and he's like, well, I'm going to have a director of
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operations open for women's basketball.
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You should apply. So I was like, OK, not
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necessarily what I thought I wanted to do, but it was
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actually my home state. It was only 20 minutes from
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where I grew up, too. So of course, my parents and my,
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you know, in my back of my mind, I'm like, OK, I have to apply.
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And so incredible opportunity. I didn't even realize what value
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that would have brought me. It was amazing.
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And so I did that for two years. But the whole time I was doing
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it, I loved it. But I knew I missed being on the
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court, hands on basketball, you know, on a campus have a team.
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I had to root for everybody, not a single team.
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And and being in my league, that was a little challenging because
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I couldn't root for all my alma mater like I wanted to.
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And so that was an incredible opportunity.
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And then Coach Georges, when he had a position opened, he
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brought me back. And so I got to start my career
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on the court back at my alma mater.
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Awesome. And aside from your father, who
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was obviously a great influence, was there somebody else who kind
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of, you said, that person makes me want to be a coach, a mentor,
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if you will? Yeah, believe it or not, I've
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had incredible coaches my entire life, parents and my dad, That
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helped, right? But my high school coach, he's
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still coaching. He's incredible.
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He's producing outstanding human beings.
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But players out of Red Bank, Catholics still doing it.
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I think it's up to like 600 or 700 wins now.
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He was amazing. You know, he, he instilled so
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many details that I thought I, not that I knew at all, but I
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thought I knew a lot. And it was just a different way
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of thinking. And he was incredible.
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We've had a lot. We had a lot of excess.
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He's had a lot of excess since then.
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And then even Brian Georges, I mean, again, you come to college
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and you don't even realize how much better you can get.
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Maybe one of the best basketball minds I've ever been around.
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So I've had three outstanding coaches.
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The unique thing about it is I never had a a real female
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women's basketball coach in my life, which was unique because I
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wanted to be a coach so, but I had never had that opportunity.
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So I had three great men that really helped me on and off the
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court. It wasn't just basketball, ever.
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That's fantastic. So how would you describe your
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coaching philosophy? Like thinking like in the game,
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we'll talk about the players in a bit, but like for me, for us,
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for other Spider fans, like how do you, how would you kind of
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define kind of what you care the most about?
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Yeah, I think everyone thinks I'm going to say defense, which
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I do. I really do care about defense.
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We're always talking about the, you know, the little things that
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we see coming to help our players.
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Communicating actions, keywords. Sure.
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But really is team basketball the details?
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What we're talking about is getting the best opportunities.
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You know, the things that the defensive side is trying to
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throw at us. Those are kind of things in game
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mentality is just constantly giving little Nuggets to our
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players and really reinforcing the good stuff.
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Of course we want to talk about things that we're getting hurt
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on and how to fix it, but also reinforcing the things we are
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doing well. And then OK, so we're doing this
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well. There's smart staff.
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They're going to be talking about what's our counters,
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right? And so those are all the things
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within the game. But my overall coaching
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philosophy is teaching. We're going to teach, teach,
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teach details. Sometimes I, I, I tell every
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recruit, I tell every player like you're going to get sick of
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hearing your name at times, but I'm never going to look back and
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say I didn't give them everything I got right.
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So we constantly are coaching our players, talking to them,
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breaking down the game. I'm passionate on the court.
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I'm very different on the court than off the court.
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Passionate, intense, but I think it's in a supportive way that we
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believe in our players and we're trying to just continue to
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motivate them, creed, force, all the great things we know they're
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capable of. I'm trying to think if we ever
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saw Coach Russell get a tee, but I'm looking, I'm looking forward
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to some of that passion and maybe at some point to the refs.
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It's always fun as a fan to it leads me it.
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Leads me to a good question though.
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So, and this is just kind of maybe a hypothetical, what is
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more important, recruiting a great talent OR developing a
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player? Once they commit to your team,
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what's what's what's better for success in your in your history?
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I think ultimately the players that have the biggest drive is
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the players that we've seen, they've all been talented.
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Like you're not coming to college on any level.
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You're not playing at this level if you're not talented.
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I think what moves the needle is those players that have that
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drive. If I have to challenge you to be
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in the gym, I don't think you'll ever live up to the potential.
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And we have all the resources in the world at Richmond and like,
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our staff is incredible and I can't wait for everybody to meet
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them and see them at work. And so we have everything, but
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if a player doesn't want it, don't want to utilize it,
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they're never going to be able to live up to that potential.
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So for me, what we've sang, the most successful players maybe
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aren't even the ones that had all these other offers, but they
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have the biggest drive and they're hungry to get better
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every day. And so that's the thing that we
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look for in recruiting. Like do they love basketball?
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Do they want to be in the gym? Is it somebody that I have to
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kick out of the gym? And that's that's why I had
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success. I've had to kick players out of
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the gym for good reasons. Go rest.
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Yeah, there was. There are kind of some legendary
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stories, I think on the men's side, Kenny Atkinson, who's, you
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know, coaches in the NBA now, stories when we were there that
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you would hear rumors that he was like, you know, 2 in the
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morning and he'd be in the Robin Center with chairs and, you
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know, practicing on his shot. There is something about that.
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Now, of course, you see people post it on Instagram when they
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do that. So there's always a little bit
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more of a with that awareness of that her.
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Answer leads me to a great kind of like, so in the doing this
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for our first year, last year, we interviewed Coach Mooney and
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and coach Rousseau and there were a couple times where coach
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Mooney said, you know, I can't get his kids out of the gym.
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So like, you know, he commented on how much because you're going
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to share facilities with our men's team.
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So it's like, yeah, his kids were always in the gym.
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So that's a great answer. Like, I hadn't thought that the
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drive was the most important thing, but that's actually
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fantastic. So let's maybe go back to I
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guess it was April 11th. I said like, So what what
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attracted you to Richmond when this all, when you know that
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came to you that you know, this world was open and Richard
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wanted to talk to you kind of what made you say like, hey, let
14:13
me look into that. Yeah, I I look at it as a
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holistic approach. Every place I've been believes
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in the whole picture. So not just basketball, of
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course, that's that's been the vessel my life, going to
14:28
college, my jobs, but it hasn't been just about that.
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And so the academics at Richmond, and I knew that from
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growing up in New Jersey like that.
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That was impressive academic institution.
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And obviously, as you learn more about it, it's outstanding.
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And so the players that we bring in and we talk about setting
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them up for life, like I'm not selling you a bill of goods.
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You can, you can do your homework and see, right.
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So having the academic component was really big for us.
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Having good people. You're never going to be able to
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achieve what you want to achieve, or at least enjoy it if
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you're not doing it with the right people that care about
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you. And I always think when you,
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when you trust those around you, that when they're bought in, you
15:10
can achieve things you didn't even realize.
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And through the good and the bad, if you're dealing with
15:14
people you love, you never regret it.
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And so the people, and that was that was the piece of it.
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That was really the homework for us.
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And that that short time is just figuring out like, what are the
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people made of there? Like, what do they care about?
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Are they going to have our backs?
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Like are they going to love our players?
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And everything said yes and, and, and more since we've gotten
15:31
there. And then of course, what their,
15:33
their basketball program like it's, it's incredible what
15:37
they've been able to do and the resources that have to be
15:39
provided. That doesn't happen by accident.
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There's there's all the right pieces there.
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And so it was an institution that we felt like did it the
15:47
right way. Of course, you know, we want to
15:50
win basketball games, but you know, we'll, our riches come
15:53
from making sure that our players are are set for life and
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they're happy and they have a great experience.
15:58
And so there's all these amazing things we got there.
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The campus was even beautiful than I could have ever imagined.
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Like, there's amazing things that I'd even realized, but that
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was really the big pillars. If if you're a recruit listening
16:10
to this and you've never been to the University of Richmond, I
16:12
promise if you visit the University of Richmond, you're
16:14
going to have a hard time not committing it.
16:15
Is that pretty of a of a place? Question for you.
16:18
How does the go ahead? Sorry.
16:20
I was just saying I was like, I had a teammate, Christina
16:22
Campion was who was outstanding. I'm at Richmond, but I was
16:26
recruited there. We played on the same AU team.
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I was like, man. That's a miss on our part.
16:31
That's a miss. So tell us how the process
16:35
works. I mean, we were curious about
16:37
this when we when we lost Roussell does like, do you get
16:40
cold called by John Hart and he says, hey, come, come talk to
16:42
me. Or does it?
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Did agents get involved? I mean, how does that process
16:45
work? Yeah, but agents, you know,
16:48
trying to get feel for both sides, the interest level and
16:51
things like that. So agents play a big piece,
16:53
search firms play a big piece. OK, yeah, you know, I can
16:57
imagine too. I mean, the timing is always
16:59
different for for everybody, but it's like there are times where
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people are like have to work on their day job and don't want to
17:05
be distracted unless the offer is really right.
17:08
And so I mean, that's I can see a value of agents of like, let's
17:11
not let's not, you know, let's not be involved in everything.
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And it's only when it's the agent is like, wow, let me go
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talk to my talk to my person. I think that's a good value for
17:23
them. I'm assuming, you know, you
17:24
mentioned like you want to win ball games, like as much as we
17:28
will talk about the current roster in a bit like I would, I
17:31
would assume you almost have to. That can't be a big part of the
17:34
equation, right, Because you're moving like your plan to be at
17:37
Richmond for a long time. Like the current roster is
17:39
interesting, but you can't make a decision off of like how much
17:44
do I think I'll win my first year?
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Like, I assume, I mean, we want to win as much as we can as you
17:49
do, but I'm assuming that's not a big part of the equation when
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you're making a decision like that.
17:54
Yeah, I don't think it's, it's part of picking an institution
18:00
that you want to believe in it and be successful at.
18:02
I don't think in this time frame, I mean, even if I say to
18:05
Vermont, our roster could have flipped completely, right.
18:08
Like it's the time frame. And so it's not like you're
18:10
picking an institution. I think that you're like, oh, we
18:12
can go in and we're going to win immediately now.
18:15
We're going to give everything we got.
18:16
And you know, we want to see Ali go out on a high.
18:18
She deserves that, right? Like we're pouring everything
18:21
into a year to be successful, but I don't think anything is
18:24
guaranteed one year to the next, whether you're staying or going
18:27
to a new institution. And so I think there's a lot,
18:30
and I know we're going to talk about that.
18:32
We have a lot of great pieces coming back and some young
18:35
pieces. I think we're going to surprise
18:36
people and that's exciting. Nobody knows, so that's even
18:39
better. That's true, right?
18:40
You mentioned Ali. What kind of what were your
18:42
first impressions of meeting Ali and kind of when you kind of we
18:45
saw some of those early pictures when you were in the gym and a
18:48
few of the players were there, kind of what's your initial
18:50
impressions of this, you know, potential player of the year
18:52
candidate Allie Sweeney? Well, the interesting thing is
18:56
we did try to recruit her way back when.
18:59
So I knew of her game at the high school level.
19:01
And of course, I've followed Richmond.
19:02
And so just watching her, my initial impression is she gets
19:06
it. She gets it on all fronts.
19:08
I mean, again, I haven't been there long enough, but I know
19:12
she's a worker. I've seen it first hand.
19:14
She obviously cares about the program, the institution,
19:19
clearly a leader like running workouts and things like that,
19:21
being around her, showing up to community service events, being
19:25
on time, like you name it. And then professors are talking
19:29
about her when we're bringing recruits around and you know,
19:32
like you're like, she just gets it.
19:34
She's a winner. She does it the right way.
19:36
I've been more impressed with her and I was already impressed
19:39
with her. So I'm really excited about
19:41
Ali's staying and and finishing out her career as a spider.
19:44
Yeah, One thing that you said earlier that reminds me of Ali
19:47
is like, I think when we've met Ali, it's always about the
19:49
teammates, about my teammates, about my teammates.
19:51
I mean, some of maybe that's her position, but also I think she,
19:55
you know, and she had some great teammates for sure, but it's
19:59
always we kind of you can see that humility in her, but but
20:02
that doesn't change how much she fights out there.
20:04
I do. Remember when we had her on that
20:06
first time, it was way back in December, we were in the Robin
20:08
Center after a game and we said to her something to the effect
20:11
of, you know, next year, it's your team.
20:13
And she she kind of got wide eyed just like I'm not really
20:16
thinking about next year right now, guys.
20:19
So. Yeah, But yeah, we're so glad
20:21
she stayed. Hey, one question before we get
20:24
maybe get into the roster a little bit.
20:26
I'm curious, you know, you're when you were at at Vermont,
20:29
like I'm sure you had hopes of maybe getting an at large bid,
20:33
but I think you go into that league being like you've got to
20:35
win the tournament to get in. So everything you're doing
20:38
scheduling wise and planning wise is like, how do you win the
20:41
tournament? Now you're coming to a program
20:43
where we've been had at large in the conference, has had other
20:46
teams at large in the past. Like does that change?
20:49
Maybe you're sorry. That.
20:53
Does that change like your scheduling philosophy at all of
20:57
like, hey now, like how do we, you know, the net matters?
21:00
Like I'm not sure how much at Vermont you were like, how do we
21:03
optimize our net? And now, yeah, at Richmond, like
21:06
we talked about it too much of like, well, hey, how do you make
21:09
sure your offensive efficiency is really high so you can have a
21:12
a great net? So like how does that change
21:15
maybe some of what what you've done in the past of what you
21:19
need to do differently at Richmond?
21:21
Yeah, and you know what, it it was a big thing on our mind,
21:25
scheduling we'll get in games because I know same issue.
21:29
People don't wanna play. Especially coming to Vermont,
21:31
that was hard. And so we, we definitely wanted
21:35
to travel to places we felt neutral site games, places we
21:39
felt like we could go steal wins right on the road, things like
21:42
that to help us. And we were looking at a net
21:44
probably not to get in at large, but more to help us with our
21:48
seating, right. So, you know, we had to go win
21:51
probably, but could it help us with our seating, what line we
21:54
were put on? And so we were looking at it
21:56
from that lens. It was a big part of our
21:59
conversation of scheduling. We got to be successful in the
22:02
non conference. You got to play people.
22:04
What does that look like? You know, how do you get power
22:07
fours on neutral site, right, like some of those?
22:10
So it is a big piece of the puzzle and and honestly, league
22:14
wide, everyone's talking about it.
22:15
Our coaches meeting right is we want our league to be multi bid
22:19
league always and now with more teams right, like we've always,
22:23
you know, it's been 2 now, should we be really shooting for
22:25
three at least right, Maybe this past year that could have
22:28
happened right, like it was pretty close and but more teams.
22:32
So that is a big piece of of scheduling, but you have to win
22:36
games too. And to your point, other
22:37
factors, but if you can win games, it helps with your net
22:41
and so. By the way, I, I officially on
22:43
this pod gave Coach Russell a buy for the first year, but I'm
22:46
expecting UVA in year 2 or year 3 because you know, he he's
22:51
always in your seat kind of complain about the big teams
22:54
ever wanting to play them. So that's where you know you can
22:57
use that against them next year when?
22:59
We'll start, we'll start, we'll start text harassing him if he
23:02
doesn't schedule you. So, so and and just for our
23:07
listeners, you might not be familiar.
23:09
You had a great net at Vermont. I mean, in the American E you,
23:11
you achieved greatness, you know, with records that were
23:14
consistently 20 wins plus, I think you had you had a hundred
23:18
wins your last four years there. So like you were, you were very,
23:21
very successful. So hats off of that.
23:23
So let's let's break into the current roster.
23:26
Yeah. So is like you had mentioned,
23:27
the roster is complete. So are you done?
23:29
Or is there still like, hey, maybe someone on the portal, you
23:31
know, decides they're interested?
23:34
We we're not going to fill all 15 scholarships.
23:37
So if something late did pop up, great.
23:40
But we're not out there really searching.
23:42
We're paying attention if something makes sense, but right
23:44
now we're at 14. Not all of them have been
23:46
officially signed so that's probably why.
23:48
Some you don't know of yet, but they'll be coming out sooner
23:51
then later. So yeah, our roster at 14 feels
23:55
really, really good and I'm really excited about it.
23:57
If something did pop up, we could go to 15.
24:00
So we know our team's going to be young.
24:01
We've got a lot of freshmen, a lot of sophomores.
24:04
I did see you're with 2223 Vermont team had I think 3
24:08
upperclassmen. You went 25 and seven and you
24:13
lost in the NCAA tournament. So you've bet you've you've
24:15
coached a really young team to big success.
24:18
Like what? What does it take to take a
24:21
young team and, and and mold it into kind of a 25 game winner
24:26
like that? Yeah.
24:28
I think what was nice is we had players that came from winning.
24:33
So first years that were so used to winning on all circuits AU
24:37
high school, they were winners. So when you put a bunch of
24:40
winners together, they're going to keep, granted, there'll be
24:43
some bumps in the road and learning curve opportunities,
24:46
sure, But when you put winners together that know how to work
24:50
and care about a team, that's what helped us there.
24:54
And I think the other piece of it was we had a couple of key
24:56
pieces in leadership roles, like an alley, right?
24:59
And so you balance that and then you have these players that are
25:02
hungry to win and they're looking at their leader who does
25:05
it the right way and sets the tone.
25:07
It's a it's incredible way to to gel A-Team.
25:10
And so Ali is something we've immediately talked about.
25:13
Yes, she she gets it. She knows how it works.
25:16
She knows what needs to be done and she's going to be leading a
25:19
lot of young ones. But I think these are young ones
25:21
that are really excited and really talented and they want to
25:24
be successful. They don't want something to
25:27
change just because we are a young team.
25:29
They're coming in to try to be as successful as they can be for
25:32
four years. Now you said it's less than two
25:35
weeks. Is that mostly kind of the new
25:36
players that aren't on campus yet when in terms of kind of
25:41
everyone showing up and get into your first practice?
25:44
Yeah, so our players, most of them went home for summer, their
25:47
summer break, if you will. We report June 6th.
25:51
So the whole team, unless they have international
25:55
responsibilities with their international teams, they'll all
25:58
be arriving June 6th. So be the first time our team
26:01
for this year will be together minus a couple due to national
26:04
team responsibility. And you said international
26:06
stuff, but did I see like Ava is in Argentina or something?
26:09
I think she's on like a summer abroad sort of trip.
26:13
Yeah, she's back. But yeah, it's that was she was
26:16
playing basketball and they didn't want she went on leave
26:18
the gym. I was like, see winners, They
26:20
know how it doesn't matter how true they're in.
26:23
We're in the gym. Well, yeah, she did a nice trip
26:26
and it sounded like it was amazing.
26:29
That's awesome. That's awesome.
26:31
So what were your first impressions of when we had a lot
26:33
of youth last year, a lot of freshmen and and a lot of
26:36
freshmen got minutes last year. When you got a chance to sit
26:39
down and and kind of review the tape, what what stood out to you
26:42
about our freshman class and our rising sophomores?
26:45
Yeah, I think what's interesting about them is I felt like they
26:49
were really efficient when they were in the game, but obviously
26:52
they were behind outstanding talent, right?
26:54
And so if they were on a different roster, they probably
26:57
would have played more minutes. So that's what was really
27:00
exciting is like you watch them play and there's they're great
27:03
pieces. There's just not enough minutes
27:04
in a game when you had the leaders ahead of them that were
27:07
producing at the outstanding place that stood out to me.
27:12
The other thing is I know they were in the gym competing
27:14
against all league players every day.
27:18
And so I just like I they felt like a group that they just need
27:21
their time and their time is clear, right?
27:23
And so obviously guard heavy, but we have some size, which is
27:29
great athleticism. You know, some things that was
27:32
enjoyable with just the one week we're allowed to work out due to
27:35
NCAA rules before finals is they they compete like we got after
27:41
in our couple individuals. And so they're they're hungry to
27:45
play basketball and compete and show what they're capable of.
27:48
And I granted it just the way the roster worked out is there
27:52
were just wasn't enough minutes to go around in my opinion.
27:55
That's my opinion from watching. You mentioned guard heavy.
27:58
It reminds me of kind of I guess was early last year.
28:02
We talked to Coach Rudise from Richmond and that was our first
28:06
kind of view of like the philosophy there and it was like
28:10
point guard, center and then three wings that were
28:13
interchangeable. Are you, is your philosophy
28:15
similar or or or different in terms of when you look at kind
28:20
of the position side of the game?
28:23
Yeah. I think that Wing, as we always
28:25
kind of label them tweeners, size, versatility, can play from
28:30
the perimeter, play inside. We really look for for high,
28:35
high, high IQ and versatility in all our positions.
28:39
Like essentially one through 4 being able to be interchangeable
28:42
is ideal, you know, but it depends on matchups.
28:46
That's a big thing is right like who we're playing, do we need
28:49
somebody and we really labeled their position by the defensive
28:53
minded side. So like a 5 is somebody that's
28:56
probably going to have to defend A5 SA bigger, stronger post
29:00
presence. Offensively, we want everybody
29:03
to be able to play from the perimeter.
29:05
Even our guards play inside, right.
29:06
And so that being, as we like to say, unscoutable is a big thing.
29:10
And I think what Richmond had going for them is what we were
29:13
doing, doing some of that. They had so much size.
29:16
So their wings were like the size was there.
29:19
We've never had that luxury. So that mindset of skilled can
29:23
all shoot the three ball like we love that stuff.
29:26
Yeah, it's easy to forget. I mean, it's great of a player.
29:29
Maggie Dugan was like she was tall too.
29:31
So you have like this player that could go inside outside but
29:34
wasn't your five but could guard fives if she had to and
29:39
sometimes did. So that's that was a very unique
29:42
talent that we had for. And the most sorry.
29:45
Interrupted again. I just want to ask a little bit
29:48
about your, your recruiting grounds, if you will.
29:53
So you played in New Jersey, you coached in New York, you coached
29:55
in Vermont. Tell us a little bit about like,
29:58
you know, how you approach recruiting.
30:00
Are you kind of, do you focus on your hotbeds of the East Coast
30:03
or are you kind of thinking about it nationally?
30:05
How does that work? Yeah, I was going to say those
30:07
states, I haven't had many players for mom from those three
30:11
states. Honestly.
30:14
We we like to say we're going to recruit anybody that's the right
30:17
fit, somebody that gets it on all fronts.
30:20
As we mentioned, wonderful human beings, academic driven,
30:24
basketball wise driven like that's if they're from local,
30:28
great. And obviously we're in a little
30:30
different hotbed of basketball than we were at Vermont.
30:33
And that's exciting and we want to keep talent home if we can.
30:36
And I think that also helps with the fan base, which the fan base
30:39
is already incredible, but why not bring more?
30:43
But we're going to recruit anywhere, anywhere in the world.
30:45
If it's the right fit and we feel like they can continue to
30:49
push us to be better and help us get there, we're going to
30:52
recruit them. That's awesome.
30:55
OK. Let's maybe cut as before we
30:57
wrap this thing up, kind of talk a little bit about schedule.
30:59
Like I know that that kind of you're in that process of trying
31:02
to build that schedule. I'm assuming we're in the
31:04
Henrico tournament again, the holiday tournament.
31:07
So that's one thing you don't have didn't have to worry about.
31:11
Do we know who we're playing in that yet?
31:12
I know there's some big names there, but we're still waiting.
31:15
Yeah, yeah. The schedule is very much up in
31:18
the air. That piece.
31:19
We do know. I just don't know our matchups
31:21
yet. I actually am not even sure how
31:23
many games we're getting in it because I think there's been
31:25
options of two or three and so we're waiting on some pieces
31:28
with that. Yeah, that was 1 Coach Russell
31:31
mentioned when when he was grumbling about big teams.
31:34
He's like Georgia was coming to Richmond to play in the
31:38
tournament and they wouldn't play Richmond.
31:42
So they were there, but they didn't play they.
31:44
Didn't want a neutral game right in our backyard.
31:47
I can't imagine why. So like I, you know, one thing
31:51
that seems, you know, this is like a college basketball way,
31:53
like with as a schedule gets, you know, one game gets nailed
31:56
down that people want to brag about, it kind of gets leaked
31:59
and get ends up in the press. Like so is that, you know,
32:02
between now and mid-september, I guess is when all this stuff
32:05
gets nailed down. So like, how hard is that?
32:10
You know, I'm obviously you, you know, you've done this before
32:13
with, you know, a different team.
32:15
Like are you finding it to be just as challenging as ever
32:18
trying to fill out that out of conference schedule?
32:21
Yeah. You know what that the timing is
32:23
a little piece of it. I think scheduling is actually
32:26
happening later and later now due to everyone's like, well,
32:29
what are teams going to look like roster wise since that
32:32
consistency is not as common. So they're definitely a lot of
32:37
moving parts right now. But I'm hopeful in the next
32:40
month we can get things all signed, sealed and delivered
32:42
here. So hopefully we can announce
32:44
sooner rather than later. Before you wrap it up, Tom, I
32:47
have one more quick question. So coach, tell us about each of
32:50
your assistant coaches. What are we getting with each?
32:52
You know, what are they good at? Give us a kind of a, you know, a
32:55
32nd to a minute blurb on each of them.
32:57
OK, so Coach Sasha, I need more time than 30 seconds for her,
33:04
but she's incredible. She's highly intelligent, really
33:09
cares about people, has been everywhere.
33:11
I mean, she's outstanding, great personality.
33:15
She's worked heavily with our guards.
33:18
So then Coach will. So I know what people know this,
33:24
so I'll just say it because everyone gives me a hard time.
33:25
He is my husband, so we work together.
33:28
He he's been in the game as well.
33:31
Sorry, I didn't mention that about Coach Sasha. 20 plus years
33:33
he's been in the game 20 plus years on the coaching side high
33:37
basketball IQ somebody I could trust as you can imagine, but
33:42
somebody that challenges me is not afraid to which is something
33:45
that's really exciting about our whole staff is play is that
33:48
they're not afraid to challenge me and they I don't want to hear
33:50
yes, you know I want them to challenge me and so he and.
33:53
He has a he has an impressive track record.
33:55
We were, we've definitely looked at, looked at it over and over
33:58
again. It's like, yeah, he's a very
33:59
impressive coach. So we're we're excited he's with
34:01
you so. Yeah, he's only made us better,
34:03
which is amazing. I had to recruit him twice
34:05
though. He said no to me and then so
34:08
here we are. And then so coach Sam Brunner,
34:14
she has been in the business for 10 years coming from across
34:17
town, but somebody actually recruited when she was in high
34:20
school. So amazing, amazing human being.
34:23
Like she will give your shirt off her back to anybody.
34:25
She is so in the weeds with details and analytics and then
34:30
she'll do anything on top of that.
34:31
So she is awesome. And then the other two aren't
34:34
announced yet. Yeah, I was going to say, I know
34:36
your staff is small as announced.
34:38
So you're, you've got a couple more contracts to sign do.
34:41
You want to Do you want to break news here on spider sound
34:43
though? I don't know if I'm allowed to,
34:46
but I I'm telling you, you're going to be very impressed with
34:48
these two and everybody on staff.
34:50
I'll give you a little insider information.
34:52
Everyone's staff, but Coach Sam I've personally worked with and
34:57
I trust through and through and they are amazing at what they
35:00
do. But on top of it, they're
35:01
incredible people. That's fantastic.
35:04
Yeah, so it's interesting. So there's more news to come.
35:07
I would guess in the next couple of weeks that 14th player and
35:11
two additional coaches will be announced.
35:12
We'll have to get on Keelan to see if we can give us give us
35:16
the scoop before they give it to John O'Connor.
35:19
We love John, we love John but he always beats us to the news
35:23
so. But anyway, Elisa, thank you so
35:25
much for joining us. It's been a pleasure getting to
35:28
know you more. Obviously you got a lot of work
35:30
to do and it's, you know, it's hard to imagine it's like like
35:33
like November will be here before you know it.
35:36
But there, there is some time. So we're looking forward to
35:39
hearing more about the schedule, about the players.
35:43
And we and we are fans. So we, you'll see us in the
35:45
Robin Center. We're at every game.
35:47
We're huge fans of of the program of the team, both men
35:50
and women's. And we're very excited you're
35:52
here. We, if you go back and you
35:54
listen to our emergency pod, we ran down all the rumors and we
35:58
talked about you specifically like that's the kind of person
36:00
that we need so. Well, I appreciate that and
36:03
thank you so much for having me. We're so excited to be here and
36:06
we're ready to get to work. Summer's going to be awesome.
36:08
But yeah, games, they're going to be here soon.
36:11
Thanks, Coach. No thank.
36:14
You We just wrapped up a great interview with Coach Kresge as
36:17
our first guest in Season 2 of Spider Sound Off.
36:20
I'm just super impressed by her. Yeah, no, it's November.
36:24
Seems so far away now. I wanted to see them play
36:26
tomorrow. Like, come on, put me in Section
36:28
18 down low on the floor. I want to watch this because
36:30
this is going to be good stuff. Yeah, well, we do.
36:32
We will get to practices when they arrive.
36:34
So hopefully by the end of June we'll have seen a practice.
36:38
Yeah, you guys our first thoughts on the roster.
36:40
Our sophisticated scouting report off of 1 practice.
36:43
By the way, hats off to you for the new background.
36:46
That's fantastic. It's our Season 2 backdrop.
36:48
Yeah, that's right. So we upgraded the Henrico
36:50
Studios, maybe some more upgrades to come, but it was as
36:54
a start just to shake things up a little bit.
36:56
We as I was prepping Porter for this like we might be wearing
37:00
red more cuz the blue what might fade into the the grey
37:03
background but it is web. Grey is the name of the color
37:07
Gray if anyone's interested. For spider, sound off.
37:09
I just had to pick it when I saw it.
37:11
That's. Fantastic.
37:12
So again, all the listeners give us a like or subscribe.
37:15
Tell your friends about us. We really appreciate you
37:17
listening for the first episode of season 2.
37:20
This is Porter. And this is Tom and.
37:23
That's backwards, but this is spider sounding off.
37:26
See ya spider sound off