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Walter Clayton Jr. & Florida Talk Winning the National Championship & Stop on the Final Play · Bleacher Report

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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean.
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  Speaker 2: Right there.
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  Speaker 3: We're joined now by the twenty twenty five national champions,
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  Speaker 3: the Florida Gators, with head coach Todd Golden, Walter Clayton,
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  Speaker 3: Junior Elijah Martin, Alex Condon, and Will Richard coach. We'll
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  Speaker 3: ask you to begin with a statement, then we'll take
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  Speaker 3: questions for the Florida players.
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  Speaker 4: Coach a heck of accomplishment. I'm super proud of everybody
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  Speaker 4: in my program, top to bottom. My staff, who's been
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  Speaker 4: together for three years, has worked incredibly hard to help
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  Speaker 4: get our players at this point in our players, They've
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  Speaker 4: been the difference all the way along, been incredibly consistent
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  Speaker 4: all year, have worked with a great work ethic, and
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  Speaker 4: obviously we have an incredibly talented group, one of the
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  Speaker 4: most talented groups individually in America. But I do think
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  Speaker 4: what separates us, and what has separated us all season long,
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  Speaker 4: is our team talent and the way our guys have
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  Speaker 4: played together and for each other all year. And because
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  Speaker 4: of that we can call each other national champions for
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  Speaker 4: the rest of.
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  Speaker 1: Our last and congratulations coach.
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  Speaker 3: We're taking questions first though, for Walter, Elijah, Alex, and Will.
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  Speaker 1: If you have a question, please raise your hand. Let's
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  Speaker 1: go up front with Brett.
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  Speaker 5: Brett Friedlander Saturday down South, Will, did you feel that
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  Speaker 5: you needed to pick the team up the way the
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  Speaker 5: other guys were shooting the first half, and Walter, if
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  Speaker 5: you could kind of comment on Will's performance while you
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  Speaker 5: guys were having a hard time getting open with their defense.
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  Speaker 1: Will first, then Walter.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, just trying to make plays to help us say
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  Speaker 6: in the game, help us give ourselves a best chance
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  Speaker 6: to win. I mean, they were obviously Walton and other
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  Speaker 6: guys pretty hard, but I feel like we did a
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  Speaker 6: great job of making simple reason. I mean, wald had
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  Speaker 6: seven assists, so even when they were guarding him so hard,
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  Speaker 6: I feel like he still made players have the team win.
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  Speaker 6: So just a good job by the team on staying
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  Speaker 6: aggressive throughout that Walter.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah, for sure, Houston, it was Gardner's great You know,
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  Speaker 7: they do a great defense out there. Obviously everyone knows
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  Speaker 7: him for that. But man, we got multiple guys on
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  Speaker 7: this team that can, and tonight was one of those
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  Speaker 7: nights we will. Man, he doesn't showed them multiple times
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  Speaker 7: this year. You know, never know who Knights is gonna be, man,
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  Speaker 7: and we showed that as a team.
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  Speaker 1: On the left side up front Edgar from Orlando.
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  Speaker 8: Yeah, for for just all you guys, just what's it say.
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  Speaker 8: I've already asked one of you maybe on the court,
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  Speaker 8: but about you guys' ability to come back in four
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  Speaker 8: games out of the sex and stay the course, as
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  Speaker 8: Todd likes to say, And I mean tonight, you guys
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  Speaker 8: looked in tough shape there for a while.
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  Speaker 3: We're gonna go all the way across Will then Alex,
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  Speaker 3: then Elijah, than Walter.
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  Speaker 6: I feel like it just goes back to how Canada
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  Speaker 6: we are as a team. I feel like we all
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  Speaker 6: we don't have any quit in. I feel like, as
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  Speaker 6: long as there's time on o'clock, we won't go ourselves
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  Speaker 6: a good chance to win as long as we just
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  Speaker 6: stay the course, keep taking it possession, my possession. So
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  Speaker 6: I just like our resiliency and how we find the
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  Speaker 6: reversity throughout the game.
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  Speaker 9: Alex, Yeah, I just think a great down the stretch,
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  Speaker 9: and you know how hard we played defensively. I think
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  Speaker 9: we got nine stuffs towards the end of the game.
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  Speaker 9: So yeah, it's just a team effort to get this one.
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  Speaker 1: It's crazy, Elijah.
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  Speaker 10: It just goes it goes back to what we did
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  Speaker 10: all season, you know, every every stretch down the moment
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  Speaker 10: that we we've been through this year just prepared us
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  Speaker 10: for this moment and we showed up.
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  Speaker 1: Man.
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  Speaker 10: We never we never blinked, and we Na's on the champs.
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  Speaker 1: I agree with what they said. That is a good answer. Welker.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go on the right side with Kevin from Gainesville.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Kevin Brockway, gagel Son, Walter. What did you see
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  Speaker 2: on the closeout with Sharp at the end, you know,
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  Speaker 2: forcing him to you know, pick up his dribble and
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  Speaker 2: what does it mean to win the national championship on
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  Speaker 2: the defensive play like that?
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  Speaker 7: Yeah, an officer, I've seen a lot going on. We
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  Speaker 7: coach had said they was going. We felt like it
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  Speaker 7: was gonna try to get something for you to cry
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  Speaker 7: or Roberts in a Sharp kind of creeped down to
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  Speaker 7: the baseline. I've seen a back sperience. I'm yelling back
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  Speaker 7: screen at Dough and then Sharp ended up slipping it.
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  Speaker 7: They chopped set like a little elevated sperience. So just
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  Speaker 7: out there, you know, we work on it in practice,
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  Speaker 7: kind of closing out, jumping to the side. You don't
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  Speaker 7: file a shooter, so he kind of pumped fake threw
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  Speaker 7: the ball down, ended up beeting a good play. Doughe
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  Speaker 7: out on it. We won a game, man, And the
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  Speaker 7: feeling just it's real. It's a crazy feeling. Man, I
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  Speaker 7: honestly can't even explain it, but it feels good.
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  Speaker 1: Though. Wonder up back, Myron, Uh.
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  Speaker 9: Walk when you go twenty five minutes, I think in
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  Speaker 9: three seconds without scoring, how did you just stay motivated
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  Speaker 9: and stay in the game when the shots weren't falling.
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  Speaker 7: Man, these guys around me, man, like I said, our model,
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  Speaker 7: we all can go. So I understand that if it
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  Speaker 7: ain't my night, somebody gonna pick me up. And we
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  Speaker 7: understand that we all just picking each other up throughout
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  Speaker 7: the year. Man, We've been doing that all year, and
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  Speaker 7: tonight was nothing different. I think the way we want
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  Speaker 7: tonight is just, uh, this is an exclamation mark on
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  Speaker 7: the year, and it's just great to win like that,
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  Speaker 7: knowing the fact that we just a brotherhood together. We've
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  Speaker 7: just been picking each other up all year.
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  Speaker 11: Wonder up back, Barry, Yeah, Walter Berry backalong with the
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  Speaker 11: associated press on that final involving sharp there, what was
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  Speaker 11: going through your mind when you saw that unfolding with
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  Speaker 11: him unable to grab the ball.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah, oh, just go one hundred percent. Honestly, my mom
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  Speaker 7: was just a little blank. We was just trying to
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  Speaker 7: get a stop and we ended up getting it, you know,
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  Speaker 7: getting away.
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  Speaker 1: So happy we got that done. We're going to the
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  Speaker 1: back left lane.
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  Speaker 12: Hey there, Lane Higgins from the Wall Street Journal. This
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  Speaker 12: is for all of you guys. But you know, up
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  Speaker 12: until probably late in the season, you hadn't had that
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  Speaker 12: many chances to have these kind of big comeback type
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  Speaker 12: games where you were down and had to really fight
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  Speaker 12: back in the last few minutes. And you know, you've
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  Speaker 12: had I think four of them in the six that
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  Speaker 12: you've played in the NCAA tournament. So they're sort of
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  Speaker 12: a compounding effect of confidence. When you know you get
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  Speaker 12: one of those comebacks, when you are in the next
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  Speaker 12: situation where you're backs against the wall and you're down,
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  Speaker 12: you kind of need to step up and make some
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  Speaker 12: big plays.
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  Speaker 3: We're going to sweep across again, will Alex Elijah Walter.
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  Speaker 6: I mean, for sure, definitely pulling out one of those
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  Speaker 6: games definitely gives you confidence and knowing that you can
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  Speaker 6: win those type of games going forward. But I feel
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  Speaker 6: like Like I said, it's just a testament to who
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  Speaker 6: are as a team. I feel like we're gonna fight
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  Speaker 6: to the end and we're gonna do whatever it takes
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  Speaker 6: to give ourselves a good chance to win a.
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  Speaker 9: Yeah, I just think we have, you know, elite confidence
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  Speaker 9: in those situations. We we seem to be in those
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  Speaker 9: tight situations a lot in this tournament. So yeah, I
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  Speaker 9: think we got together in a huddle at one point
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  Speaker 9: when we were down and just saying, you know, we're
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  Speaker 9: good and no one's really stressing out too bad. So yeah,
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  Speaker 9: we just have a lot of confidence in each other
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  Speaker 9: and knowing that our shot was gonna fall down the stretch.
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  Speaker 1: Ilega, I agree with it, they both said. I agree
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  Speaker 1: with what they said. Also, very good answers.
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  Speaker 3: Let's go across the aisle for the last one for
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  Speaker 3: the Florida student athletes right there, trim dat.
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  Speaker 5: Way thirty one, Alex, what's going through your mind on
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  Speaker 5: the last play when you see the ball rolling around
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  Speaker 5: and when did it kind of set in that that
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  Speaker 5: was the game right there?
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  Speaker 9: Yeah, I think it was a great defensive play by
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  Speaker 9: wald I was I was questioning whether I should go
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  Speaker 9: out and close out and leave my man. But yeah,
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  Speaker 9: he did a good job of just making him. You know,
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  Speaker 9: it's gonna be a travel if he picked it up,
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  Speaker 9: so just diving on it and hearing the buzzy go,
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  Speaker 9: it was a crazy feeling and didn't feel real for sure.
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  Speaker 3: I want to congratulate and thank Will, Alex, Elijah, and Walter.
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  Speaker 3: The National champions will return to the locker room right now,
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  Speaker 3: which