Season 2, Episode 11 feat. Joe Fisher, Andi Spies, and Adrian Broaddus

[00:00:40] Welcome back into the Blue Raider Podcast. I'm your host, Jake Bolden. In today's episode, we've got a lot of topics to cover. Today, we've got the Lady Raiders. Their first exhibition was Friday night, and joining us to talk about that, as well as the Lady Raiders basketball team, is new voice of the Lady Raiders, Joe Fisher.

[00:00:56] Then, after that, we've got our Player Interview of the Week with Andi Spies, who just actually earned Conference USA Setter of the Week honors, along with a plethora of Freshmen of the Week honors this season.

[00:01:06] So, we'll talk a little bit about her first year here in Murfreesboro, and then, as always, throughout football season, we will go behind enemy lines and preview our matchup this Saturday when the Blue Raiders travel to El Paso to face the Miners.

[00:01:18] We have Adrian Broaddus, our guest from 600 ESPN El Paso and Miner Talk Podcast, to preview that matchup with the Miners.

[00:01:26] So, stick around for all of that, and, of course, we have the Raider wrap-up at the end of the episode.

[00:01:30] But before we get into that first interview with voice of the Lady Raiders, Joe Fisher, I would like to take a second to thank our sponsors for today's episode, beginning with Mighty Dog Roofing.

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[00:02:54] Now, it's time to get into the discussion today.

[00:02:58] And of course, as I have already prefaced, joining us is going to be the new voice of the Lady Raiders taking over a long-time tenure, Dick Palmer.

[00:03:04] It is Joe Fisher.

[00:03:06] Joe, thanks for joining us today.

[00:03:07] It's great to be with you, Jake.

[00:03:08] Thank you.

[00:03:10] Joe, I've got, again, there's so much to talk about.

[00:03:12] I want to know a little bit about you, and I want to know a little bit about the Lady Raiders.

[00:03:15] But I think the topic at hand, really, I want to get to know you first.

[00:03:18] You've been around a long time in the Nashville-Middle Tennessee market.

[00:03:22] Obviously, you spent years at Vanderbilt.

[00:03:24] You recently come from Tennessee Tech.

[00:03:25] Now you're at MTSU.

[00:03:26] Just to talk a little bit of shop with you, if I can.

[00:03:29] How did you get here?

[00:03:30] What was the discussions like to get you to take over the voice of the Lady Raiders this season?

[00:03:35] Well, you know, it started, I have a full-time job, Jake.

[00:03:38] I work at a golf course.

[00:03:39] I work at Old Natchez Country Club, which I enjoy very much.

[00:03:42] And when this first was floated to me, the first thing I had to do was go to them, you

[00:03:48] know, and say, you know, this has come up.

[00:03:52] This would require me to travel.

[00:03:53] This would require, you know, me to be gone some.

[00:03:56] And if we can't make this work, then I would totally understand that because, you know,

[00:04:01] my first commitment is to that full-time position.

[00:04:04] And they were not only supportive, they were very encouraging and said, no, we'll make this

[00:04:09] work.

[00:04:09] You need to do this.

[00:04:10] And that was a great feeling for me.

[00:04:13] So that kind of got it started.

[00:04:15] And then the next thing I wanted to do was I wanted to talk to Dick Palmer.

[00:04:19] And I've known Dick a long time.

[00:04:21] He's a good friend and a mentor, a colleague.

[00:04:25] I've worked for him and with him through state tournament games and state championship games

[00:04:31] over the recent years in high school.

[00:04:33] And I wanted to talk to him.

[00:04:35] And I just wanted to make sure that he was comfortable with all of this, that this was

[00:04:39] what he wanted.

[00:04:39] And he was very open and welcoming and said, you know, no, I want you to do this.

[00:04:45] I want you to be the guy.

[00:04:46] And so that helped a lot.

[00:04:49] And then after that, it was just kind of sitting down and putting the nuts and bolts of

[00:04:52] it together, you know, and trying to make sure we can make this work because you've

[00:04:57] seen this schedule.

[00:04:58] Jake, there's some travel.

[00:05:00] I mean, we're going all over the place.

[00:05:02] They're playing great teams all over the country.

[00:05:04] So I just had to be comfortable and everybody had to be comfortable with me doing that.

[00:05:07] But to have the opportunity to be back and be a voice of a university and of a program

[00:05:13] and certainly one that's this close to my heart and has been for a long time, certainly

[00:05:17] means a lot to me.

[00:05:19] Yeah.

[00:05:20] Yeah.

[00:05:20] What's interesting, too, is the prestige of the Lady Raiders basketball program.

[00:05:25] Obviously, like you talked about, like it's kind of a one of the one of the premier programs

[00:05:29] that we have here.

[00:05:29] So there's a lot that comes with that.

[00:05:31] As you studied up for this job and those kind of things, as far as what you've learned about

[00:05:35] the program, and I'm sure you being around it in the Middle Tennessee area for so long,

[00:05:38] you may have already be pretty familiar with the program itself.

[00:05:41] But when you talk about this program, what are some things that you know about this team

[00:05:44] that excites you?

[00:05:45] What are things about this program that have you geared up for this season?

[00:05:48] Well, I could tell you right off the bat, Jake, one of the first things is I wouldn't

[00:05:52] have taken the job if this was not a championship level team.

[00:05:55] You know, I wasn't going to sign up and do games, you know, for a program that was not

[00:06:01] competitive.

[00:06:02] And that certainly is not the case here.

[00:06:04] I've known Rick Ensel, and I go back to covering him in his days when he was at Shelbyville,

[00:06:09] you know, when I was in TV.

[00:06:10] So we go way back.

[00:06:12] So I have a great connection with them and a great feeling for how they like to do things.

[00:06:16] And so that was very important to me to be a part of a program that is on the cutting edge,

[00:06:22] that is on the way up, that has a chance to do some really great things.

[00:06:25] And so that makes it a whole lot easier to sign up to go through the January, February,

[00:06:31] March run, you know, that you're going to go through when you've got a team that's really

[00:06:34] talented and has a chance to make a statement.

[00:06:37] So that was big.

[00:06:39] But I know a little bit about the program.

[00:06:41] I know a little bit about the history.

[00:06:44] It was fun for me to sit in on the first exhibition game and just watch because I knew some of those

[00:06:51] players, but to get to see them firsthand for the first time, except for the one open practice

[00:06:56] that I was able to attend, that was very good.

[00:07:00] I'm really looking forward to it.

[00:07:01] This team has a chance to do a lot of really good things.

[00:07:05] It's a great segue into the first topic in two Fridays exhibition matchup.

[00:07:10] And I know that playing UT Southern, there's only so much you can gather from an exhibition

[00:07:14] where you're clearly the superior opponent.

[00:07:17] But, you know, from what I saw on Friday, I thought the team had a lot of great chemistry.

[00:07:22] The thing that a lot of insult gets a lot of scrutiny for, whether fair or not, is a level

[00:07:26] of depth that he plays on the bench.

[00:07:28] And we saw a lot of that in exhibition on Friday.

[00:07:30] I thought there was a lot of pieces that really impressed me.

[00:07:33] But Joe, I want to turn it over to you a little bit, you know, from what you saw on Friday night.

[00:07:36] Anything really stand out to you about this team?

[00:07:39] Well, it was interesting to watch early on because I thought I saw actually a little bit of jitters

[00:07:44] early on.

[00:07:45] There were a couple of players that maybe were not as solid as you'd like them to be, but

[00:07:50] they settled in.

[00:07:51] And that's what these games are for.

[00:07:53] You know, and I don't care how long you played, how much you played.

[00:07:57] When you get into a new season and you start all over again, you're probably going to have

[00:08:02] a little bit of that.

[00:08:03] And so they played through that and they managed it and moved on.

[00:08:07] I thought Blakely was outstanding.

[00:08:09] When you think in an exhibition game to play, what, 29 minutes, which is a lot in that kind

[00:08:17] of game.

[00:08:17] But I think Coach Ensel wanted her out there to run the floor with different combinations.

[00:08:22] And he wanted her to sort of run the show and have them all benefit from that.

[00:08:28] Eight assists, 20 points, one turnover.

[00:08:31] That's pretty impressive.

[00:08:33] And to see that the bigs run the floor the way they did, I think that was another thing

[00:08:39] that came through to me.

[00:08:40] I think they have learned if you put in the effort and you run the floor in this offense,

[00:08:45] you will be rewarded.

[00:08:47] You know, you're going to get the assist.

[00:08:49] You're going to get the look.

[00:08:50] It may be the trailing three, whatever.

[00:08:52] But if you'll run the floor, you'll get the chance.

[00:08:55] And that came across to me pretty quick that this team gets that.

[00:09:02] So in the grand scheme of things, to see the way the game played out, and as you said,

[00:09:07] there were moments, but clearly a superior opponent.

[00:09:11] It didn't get overly sloppy.

[00:09:12] You know, those games can get out of hand and you start making terrible decisions.

[00:09:17] That didn't happen.

[00:09:19] I was very impressed by that.

[00:09:21] This is a team that I think has a pretty good idea of what Rick and Matt, this group, want to do.

[00:09:27] And I was impressed with the way they did in game one.

[00:09:31] To draw back on Blakely, I know I've been holding Rick's feet to this fire this whole time ever since he's made the comment that Courtney Blakely is one of the fastest guards.

[00:09:39] You've been around college basketball for a time.

[00:09:42] Would you agree that Sheik is potentially, if not, the fastest guard in all of college basketball?

[00:09:47] She's very quick.

[00:09:48] I don't know if she's the fastest.

[00:09:49] But that gets into, I mean, you can be the fastest running down the floor and have no control of the basketball.

[00:09:55] She has great control of the basketball.

[00:09:58] She has great control of the timing of the offense.

[00:10:03] She's as fast as she needs to be.

[00:10:05] I think that's the more appropriate.

[00:10:08] You don't have to be, you know, lights out, you know, hair on fire all the time.

[00:10:13] You just have to be in control and lead your offense.

[00:10:16] She did a wonderful job of that.

[00:10:18] I think you're going to, Davis comes in and does some things as well.

[00:10:21] Is going to get some quality time, you know, at those positions.

[00:10:25] But, but yeah, I think Blakely is, is a special player.

[00:10:30] And, and I think it's said a lot again in an exhibition game where you win by 40 that she played 29 minutes.

[00:10:36] You know, I think Coach Insel wanted her to play with a variety of the players and get them used to being led by her.

[00:10:44] Absolutely.

[00:10:45] I couldn't agree more.

[00:10:47] Courtney, one thing about her, like you said, is that controlled level of speed that she carried.

[00:10:50] She had seven assists in the first half, finished with eight.

[00:10:53] And again, to even add to that is just the one turnover for over 29 minutes.

[00:10:57] And another thing, again, is what is this team without Savannah Wheeler and her scoring production?

[00:11:01] Well, if, if I know Friday, again, if there's any indication, but scoring 20 points from your point guard,

[00:11:06] I don't think that that's the expectation for Courtney on a, on a nightly basis, but 20 points is pretty promising.

[00:11:11] And then to, to even add to boot Alina Arike, the new addition from Texas tech and UTEP years ago,

[00:11:16] she puts in 19 and only 19 minutes as well.

[00:11:20] So you might think to yourself, they lose the scoring production of Savannah Wheeler.

[00:11:23] They lose the, the rebounding physicality of Courtney Whitson.

[00:11:26] But clearly if, if, if Friday was any indication of the, the balanced approach that Courtney Blakely brings to the table,

[00:11:33] her ability to facilitate the ball, that maybe that scoring is offset because

[00:11:36] because of a more balanced approach this season, because of her ability to, to have the vision and find those open players.

[00:11:43] So, and then again, I want to add to, to Tamiya Scott, who always seems to get thrown to the back of the line here,

[00:11:48] but 24 points, three of six from three.

[00:11:51] She's just such a deadly player.

[00:11:53] She's so lethal all over the floor, not only down low, but up top, she gets around the, the, the high ball screen.

[00:11:58] So quickly it's, it's incredible what she's able to do, not only with the basketball,

[00:12:02] but off the basketball to get herself open.

[00:12:04] So overall I think what we saw on, on Friday is what we were expecting to see.

[00:12:09] Maybe the defense wasn't there, but I don't think the ladies fell off of any of their scouting reports.

[00:12:14] I mean, who would have thought that the, that the, the bigs were going to shoot 20, 23 pointers and they were going to make so many of them.

[00:12:19] At some point you thought they were, they would regress to the mean, but that just, that just never came.

[00:12:24] So I don't, I don't want any, any fans to be alarmed.

[00:12:26] I mean, when you win it, win a game by nearly 50 points that, that, that should be admired.

[00:12:30] But Joe, as we, as we wrap the talk up here on the lady Raiders, what are kind of, they came off a year where they win 18 conference USA game straight.

[00:12:38] I think the streak is up to 27 total.

[00:12:40] I mean, the standard has been set for what you expect out of this team.

[00:12:43] Now Liberty, we know is good.

[00:12:45] They're going to be a threat, but I feel, again, I feel pretty strongly about these pieces that have returned that this team could very possibly do that again.

[00:12:52] I want to know from you, do you think that's, that's reasonable expectation for this program this year?

[00:12:57] Well, I'm sure reasonable expectation is to win the conference.

[00:13:02] I don't doubt that.

[00:13:03] I do like the fact that they put together a schedule that is formidable.

[00:13:09] I mean, in non-conference, this is, and this is what great teams do, in my opinion.

[00:13:15] When you feel confident in your ability that you're going to make postseason and that you're going to make a run,

[00:13:20] then you're very comfortable playing top teams.

[00:13:23] You're very comfortable early on matching up.

[00:13:26] And that's what this, that's what this is doing.

[00:13:29] I mean, to see them play a Tennessee and Iowa State, you know, to put that one in the mix, you know, a top 10 team right off the bat.

[00:13:38] I think that says a lot.

[00:13:40] And I think Rick should be commended for that.

[00:13:43] Instead of playing a cupcake schedule where you run through and you win 16 games and then you get to conference.

[00:13:50] I really like the fact they're willing to challenge themselves early on and find out what they're all about.

[00:13:56] I think that says a lot, but I don't think there's any doubt the expectation level is very high.

[00:14:02] That's where they want it.

[00:14:03] That's where it should be.

[00:14:04] And given this team, it's earned.

[00:14:06] Any non-conference games?

[00:14:08] I know you said you get to travel to a lot of them.

[00:14:10] Any non-conference games that stand out to you that you look forward to seeing?

[00:14:13] Well, I'm sort of looking forward to going to Thompson Bowling, you know, and seeing Tennessee there.

[00:14:18] That'll be a lot of fun to go back up there.

[00:14:20] And again, when you go down that list, that trip, that Thanksgiving trip to play three games in a week,

[00:14:26] to go to Tallahassee and play first and then jump down to Fort Myers and play Purdue and then Iowa State.

[00:14:34] Those are really telling trips.

[00:14:36] You learn a lot about a team because that's very much like tournament time.

[00:14:39] You know, that's very much like going to an NCAA tournament.

[00:14:42] A lot of them treat it that way because you got the game, then you got a break for one day,

[00:14:46] and then you got the next game.

[00:14:47] And so that's the way a lot of coaches do this on purpose to say, okay, we're getting ready for March,

[00:14:53] so we're going to do it now, and this is how it works.

[00:14:56] And you're going to play a quality team, and I think it's great for them to see that.

[00:15:02] But to go, I mean, to go coast to coast, I mean, to Princeton, Kansas State, another great opponent,

[00:15:09] you know, up in St. Joseph's, Missouri, in the Snyder Classic,

[00:15:12] this team is going to learn a lot about themselves before they get to January 1,

[00:15:18] and I think that's exactly what Coach Insel wants.

[00:15:21] Absolutely.

[00:15:22] And a lot of games they've got to win to get that top 16 placing that I know is coveted.

[00:15:27] I know that's maybe not something that he presents out loud publicly, but I know he wants to host,

[00:15:31] and I know that getting wins in those pivotal matchups early on in the year is going to be key in doing so this coming March.

[00:15:38] So that is Joe Fisher.

[00:15:40] He is the voice of the Lady Raiders.

[00:15:42] Joe, I appreciate you taking time out of your day talking a little Lady Raiders basketball,

[00:15:45] and we look forward to listening to you on the airwaves this year.

[00:15:47] I appreciate it.

[00:15:48] Looking forward to it.

[00:15:49] Thank you.