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Geno Auriemma - Pre Seton Hall · Coaches Corner

• 0:04
  All right, we can start up with questions. If you're able to raise
• 0:07
  your hand, do that, but someone can start off Chelsea, go ahead,
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  Uh, coach. Yeah. When we talked before, you said that
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  you didn't think that anyone in the Big East would kind of get out unscathed,
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  that you didn't think anyone would go undefeated. But you'd be in all
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  these teams so far in the conference by you know, twenty points or more.
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  So, what's that say about? You know, how you've seen this
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  team develop so far and what they can do. I would I think I'd
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  be better by answering that question the end of February, you know, going
• 0:50
  into the Big East tournament, if we're still undefeated out have a really insightful
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  would the answer for you? Right now? All I can say is,
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  you know, we're playing really, really, really well. We've we've played
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  exceptionally well on the road at you know, two of the teams that I've
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  gotten off to a really good start, you know, Marquette, I mean,
• 1:25
  Creaton and at Georgetown and at Saint John's. I think the the trick
• 1:42
  is to try to stay stay at the level that we're at, which you
• 1:53
  know, we've been down this road a lot during all my years here,
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  and when you it's like we watched soon mhm, Hey on one second,
• 2:27
  we're just going to switch out technical difficulties. Uh now, let's just think
• 2:34
  this a long time. We'll just put that on top of this. Yeah,
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  that working? Am I spotlight for everyone? I'm sorry? Okay,
• 2:46
  cool, all right, sorry about that? Oh good. So yeah,
• 2:54
  when when you have a lot of players, you just keep rotating people in
• 2:58
  and out all the time, it's the fresh players stay fresh. You're able
• 3:04
  to put a lot of pressure on the other team. So because we obviously
• 3:08
  don't have that, there's always a sense of you know, let's wait and
• 3:14
  see, let's see how it plays out. But right now through you know,
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  a small sample. I like where we are, I like the way
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  we're playing. I like what we're what we're doing on the court. And
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  that's just you know, one more road game tomorrow and then we'll see him.
• 3:53
  Maggie, Okay, what's the question how it went? What impressed you
• 3:59
  the most about and Hall and how they're playing without Laura in park Lane.
• 4:03
  Yeah, they've lost a lot, you know, a lot of pieces from
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  from previous teams. Uh, you know, big, big, contributors.
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  I we talked about this this same Jazz game. I think it's very very
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  difficult when you're in a situation where you've got to start, you know,
• 4:31
  start from scratch almost and all the new faces that Tony has on his roster,
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  and yet you know, there's still finding ways to have, you know,
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  some success. I think it's always it's always somewhat similar when you play,
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  when you're placing Hall, you know kind of what their style of play
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  is. It's just you're getting ready for a whole new team. And that's
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  never you know, that's never the easiest thing in the world. You can
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  say, you can watch on film and see say whatever you want to say,
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  but until you're actually there and you're actually playing them. So yeah,
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  I think he's done a terrific job, you know, given all the new
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  faces and and we were just talking about this this morning with the coaches.
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  We're going to play the way we play. You know, it's not like,
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  hey, we have a box and we pulled out, you know,
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  a different way to play every game, you know, to suit the opponent.
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  We have. This is what we do, this is what this is
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  who we are, and it's how we're going to play and if there's teams
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  out there that can play that style better than us, nothing we can do
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  about it. Who's next? Who's up? How do you know who's up?
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  All? Right? There you go, Come on, Roger, you
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  know, what have you seen out of Ice? Are there particular things that
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  she's doing better? Now? I know we've talked about it and it's just
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  confidence is getting a little bit better. But can you pick out things that
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  she's doing on the court better? Yeah, yeah, I think so.
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  I think so. Uh. You know, when whenever people, you know,
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  whenever people are you know, or are looking for what what stands out?
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  Like? What's different? If you say to yourself, well, what
• 6:53
  sticks out about the way KK and Ash play? Well, those suckers play
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  really really hard. Huh. They compete like centea guns. So you know,
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  does Ice compete at that level? No? But the other day there
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  was much more of a competitive spirit in the way she played. There seemed
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  to be more purpose to how you play. So having a certain skill levels
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  great, but if you don't compete at a certain level, it's going to
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  be hard for you to have success. And working on your confidence level.
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  That has a lot to do with how hard you compete, and the harder
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  you compete, more confidence you obtained. So hopefully that game the other day
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  gave her a sense of Okay, if I do certain things a certain way,
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  I'm going to have success. And you know she she had a really
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  really good practice yesterday, so hopefully, you know this will be a carrier
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  over. Is there a key to sustaining the success that you've had, especially
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  when you have a more limited roster? Do you have to rest guys in
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  practice or do you not want to do that very much because you just want
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  to keep them where they are? What's the key to sustaining all this now
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  that you are? I think it's a it's a balance. You know,
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  it's a balance if you if you try to stay the way you are,
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  you're probably going to slip, right, natural game slippage, you know,
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  time slippage. So you can't stay the way you are. If you try
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  to do too much, you risk you know, do we overdo it?
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  So every year is about finding that balance of how do we stay well conditioned
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  where we can play a lot of minutes if we have to, without playing
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  a lot of minutes in practice. Yeah, which any normal person who just
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  heard that go you're an idiot. You know, how do you prepare somebody
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  play a lot of minutes by only playing a little bit of minutes in practice?
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  So you know, it's we're always juggling. It's always a juggling act.
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  And that's why, you know when you asked me, when you guys
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  asked me the first question about how long can you can you keep doing this
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  throughout the whole big season? I would say, uh, let's see if
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  we can keep those balls juggling in the air and make sure we don't drop
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  any of them. Thanks, Yeah, anyone else coach? So yeah,
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  given given the injuries that you've suffered, that obviously put the freshmen in a
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  position to, you know, start these games and play a bigger role for
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  you. And you're playing at a really fast pace. Do you think that
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  if you did have players like a see Aubrey Caroline, that you would be
• 10:03
  playing at this fast of a pace or like, how would that be different?
• 10:09
  It would well be different in that we play even faster because we could
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  go at that pace for longer. We would extend our defense even more than
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  we have right now. You know, there's only so much that you can
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  push the leader to do. So if we had Jenna and Yanna and Aubrey,
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  we'd push even more. You know, we would put a lot more
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  pressure on the other team. Right now, our fast pace is primarily what
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  happens when we get the ball, either on a rebound, a steal,
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  or even on the Maine basket. But if we had a lot more bodies
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  available, we would try to create even more turnovers and play even faster.
• 11:03
  I think the skill set of this team and that's you know, if anything
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  we took away from June's practices is just how incredibly fast we could play and
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  how fast we will get into our scoring mode and how quickly we would get
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  from one thing to another. And unfortunately that's been you know, taken away
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  to a certain degree. But we're still doing still trying to do it as
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  much as we can. I'm going back to ice and the confidence kind of
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  going over to Q, like what do you more do you want to see
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  out of her? And how do you want her stuff up, especially in
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  that kind of seventh player role. Well, Q, you know we're trying
• 12:01
  to emphasize with Q is your your game can't be about when I make shots,
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  I help our team. When I don't I don't and if I don't
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  make shots, I can't take bad shots to make up for the fact that
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  those good shots that not go in. So it's all a learning curve for
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  for Q, which every freshman goes through. So you try to instill upon
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  them. Okay, well, what other ways can you help? What other
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  ways can you be productive? How can we insert you in there and you
• 12:37
  can give us some productive minutes if the ball's not going in for you that
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  day. So that's the that's the everyday what we're trying to do with with
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  Q and the shooting part. I don't worry about you know, I don't
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  worry about it. There are times when we have to. I have to
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  remind her about, you know, with shots. I I I love with
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  shots, Okay with and with shots are totally unacceptable to me. And that's
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  a little bit every day. It's not all at once where I scare the
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  kid and make her before she shoots, I think is this a good shot
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  or bad shot? We're not at that point. I don't want to ever
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  get to that point. But if you're gonna get three offensive rebounds, if
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  you're gonna get a couple of steals, you know, if you're gonna if
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  you're gonna find the other ways. You know, you're gonna guard the other
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  people really hard. Then you know, whatever points you score are gonna be
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  a huge bonus. Yeah, is it? Is it a juggling act to
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  play Ice and Aliyah at the same time and not wear Aliyah out? I
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  mean, how much do you have to be worried about her getting worn down?
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  Or she's so big and strong and athletic, you're just gonna go with
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  it and bring Ice along how you can. Well, we tend to slow
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  down a little bit when we play those two together, so the past,
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  the pace isn't as NonStop as when there's only one big guy on the floor.
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  So just by nature of having those two in the game, the game
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  slows down attack, So, you know, how do you not wear out?
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  You know, we changed the pace of the game a little bit.
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  We maybe settle into a half court flow a little more instead of consistently looking
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  for our push opportunities. And then other than that, it's you know,
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  me trying to manage minutes to the best of our ability. And so far,
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  so good, and we'll see if we can keep doing it. Thanks,
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  Yeah, dan is Ques rebounding that she's been her rebound numbers the last
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  few games a byproduct of her starting to learn how to make more of an
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  impact beyond the shots. M M. Yeah. You know, for a
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  while there, we're a horrible offensive rebounding team. I said, how come
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  every other team is really good at offensive rebounding? We're horrible at it.
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  And some of that is, well, we're leading the country in field goal
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  percentage shooting, so there's this fallacy that, well, every shot we shoot
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  is going in, so why do I have to go in there an offensive
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  rebound? So we shoot and run back on defense. So we're leaning country
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  and field goal percentage defense, which means we're so good we only miss half
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  of our shots. Think about that, So that means half of those shots
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  are not going in. So who's getting all those? Are they getting all
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  those? Or can we get some of them? So some of these guys
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  are starting to you know, understand, you know. I try to make
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  light of it all the time. I say, look, some of you
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  guys are not our first option on offense, you know, like we don't
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  come down and run seven plays for you. But think about it this way.
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  Every time we shoot, you should be thinking, Oh, they're passing
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  me the ball, so go get it. There you go. That's sound
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  that complicated. People say, do you do offensive rebounding drills? Sure?
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  Do they work? No, you either want a rebound or you don't.
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  You know you do box out drills on the other end, Sure we do.
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  But you either want to be a great rebound or you don't. So
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  we're trying to every day. I bet you if I bet you, if
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  we were shooting forty percent from the floor, we'd be a better offensive rebound
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  team. You got a question, Eric, how do you fix your Eagles?
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  Coach? There are some things that are cracked and you can, you
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  know, glue it together again. There are some things that are just missing
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  a piece and you can go find it we're broke and then put that piece
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  back in there. There's some where you just bring out the broom and go
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  buy another one. So I think the big question if you ask the radio
• 18:03
  stations in Philadelphia, blow up link and financial, build a new stadium and
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  start over. I don't know that it's that drastic, but people in Philly
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  right now. I would put a lot of policemen around the Delaware River in
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  the scuogl River because things are pretty things are pretty bad down there. For
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  what my friends tell me, you're the CEO. You calling Bill Belichick,
• 18:33
  I'm calling Tom Brady first, calling Bill Belichick. Actually I'm you know.
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  The crazy thing about it is that they've scored a lot of points this year,
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  I mean until recently. I mean I think they've struggled a bit.
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  They scored a lot of points this year, but they've lost games when they
• 18:51
  score thirty points. So I think that the other side of the ball has
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  been a major, major, major issue. Even when they were winning,
• 19:00
  it was a big issue. You're you're a fan, but it's got to
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  fascinate you as a coach to see when there's something wrong. Just what goes
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  through your brain when you're well well, sometimes when you're playing great, you
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  have no idea why. I mean, you just know, like, hey,
• 19:12
  everything's clicking, and you just ride that and it just you go to
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  practice. Everything works boom boom boom boom boom, and because you're on a
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  high, even the stuff that you screw up turns out okay. But when
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  that thing changes and now you're not on a high. Now, all of
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  a sudden, those little things that used to break your way or now everything
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  goes the other way and it just gets worse and worse and worse and worse.
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  So yeah, I I the fact that I didn't hear from any of
• 19:47
  those guys last night, it means they've already they gave up before the game
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  started. Thanks. I don't know if they were watching reruning Sopranos or what,
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  but they weren't watching the game after the first half, including me.
• 20:02
  I wasn't either. I felt bad for my grandson. He lives and dies
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  for that team. But we'll see, we'll see, never say never.
• 20:17
  All right, who's going down to see? Who's gone down to South Orange,
• 20:19
  New Jersey? Who's going? Emily, Maggie, Chelsea will be there?
• 20:27
  All right, Well, enjoy the ride down. Hopefully it'll be cleared
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  up by the time you guys head down. We'll see you tomorrow. Yeah,
• 20:40
  fingers crossed it and the games at eight thirty, so you know our
• 20:45
  goal is to be home by three. Damn see you guys, Thank you,
• 20:52
  thanks, thank you,