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Mike Cavanaugh - Weekly Presser - BU Week · Coaches Corner

• 0:02
  All right, coach had the weekend and off, had a bye week,
• 0:05
  able to regroup, get some rest and everything. Just want to get your
• 0:10
  thoughts now heading into big matchup seasons, winding down against number two Boston University.
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  Yeah, it was certainly. I think we took full advantage of the
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  bye week, you know, gave the kids a couple of days off,
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  allowed some guys to get healthy, and we get to work on some things
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  that we feel we can be better at for sure, and spend a lot
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  of time focusing on the terriers. I think they are, you know,
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  from top to bottom, pretty well built team with Koran and Net. I
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  think their defenseman, you know, Hudson's as dynamic and defenseman as we're going
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  to find in the league. But they're very very deep back there with Weber
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  and the McCarthy brothers and Gallagher, uh, and then up front, I
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  think they have a great mix. Obviously they led by maclin Celebrini and he's
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  having a terrific freshman year. But they have a lot of depth with with
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  Tuck and Peterson and Zabinet and Wilmer and Green has really had a great sophomore
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  season. So uh, they're pretty deep all the way around. There'll be
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  an extreme, you know, very formidable opponent for us. Awesome. Right,
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  we'll open it up for questions. Joe, you can start us off.
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  Thanks, cav good morning. How are you. I'm great, Shoe
• 1:34
  you, I'm good. Thanks. We missed your last Wednesday. Just didn't
• 1:38
  seem the same without talking. Yeah, same, Yeah. Sure. During
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  the week off, was there one thing that you worked on that you saw
• 1:48
  market improvement in? You know, there was I think there was a lot
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  of things. I don't know if I would pinpoint one thing. Uh,
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  you know, we certainly worked on our power play. Uh. You know,
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  I think we worked on some defensive concepts. I thought that we're starting
• 2:09
  to slip in our game, and we worked on having a net presence,
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  you know, in the offensive zone. What is it about Lane Hudson that
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  makes him so dynamic? What skill set does he possess that maybe other kids
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  don't. While he's pretty like smooth, effortless skater, you know, he's
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  not Cale mccarr type skater, but he's very deceptive and I think he can
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  freeze defenders with just a little head fake or you know, he just rolls
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  his shoulders and makes it look like he's passing and he's not and he gets
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  defenders to stop and when that happens and he just it opens up lane's for
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  him. And he's very, very smart where he knows when to pass.
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  And what's an underrated part of his game is he gets pucks to the net,
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  you know, from the blue line. He can get it by that
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  first layer of defense, and not only that, but it finds its way
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  to the net. Thank you. Randy will go over to you. Thanks
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  Colin. Good morning, cav How are you. Good morning, Randy,
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  I'm great, yourself pretty good, thank you. Uh. You know,
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  the beginning of the year in one of these zooms, I think you talked
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  about the importance of getting shots about eighteen inches off the ice, tippable and
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  rebounds. All year, it seems like the chances have been there and maybe,
• 3:42
  you know, it's been a little bit unfortunate not able to finish.
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  Is that something to do with where the shots are? Because you're in the
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  house, you're getting opportunities. Do you need to you know, get those
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  shots, you know, back to that area of the ice, you know,
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  I think our focus is to make sure we're hitting the net, you
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  know, I think that's that's always concerning when you're getting greade a opportunities and
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  you don't put them on net. It's missing fowel shots, right, it's
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  missing three foot putts. You're not going to be you're not going to perform
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  at your best if you're doing like those things are happening. So it's I
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  think we really just have to focus on making sure that we're getting the puck
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  to the net and that we're getting traffic and we're getting bodies to the net.
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  Uh, you know, very rarely are you all alone with the goaltender.
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  A lot of goals when you watch them in this league, they're scored
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  off of rebounds, they're scored off in deflections. You know, odd man
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  rush goals they do happen, But the majority of the goals are happening off
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  of scrum play and rebounds and point shots with kind of some of the you
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  know, I guess results not going your way. I wonder who is like
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  a leader in you know, obviously we know who the leaders of the team
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  are. Is there one or two guys that you know, really keep the
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  you know, the positivity up and the morale up when when times are tough
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  and kind of lift guys up in the face of adversity. Yeah, I've
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  said all along like I've been you know, during it. When you're having
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  a team that's maybe facing a little adversity, sometimes your seniors can get frustrated,
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  and if that happens, you're in trouble. You know, when your
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  upper classmen get frustrated and you have to just rely on your underclassmen to carry
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  a team. That has not been the case here. We've been really fortunate,
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  I think with you know, our two grad leaders and Harrison Reese and
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  Jake Flynn Hudson Chandor's maybe one of the most positive kids I've ever coached in
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  my career. And Andrew lucas Is also brings the energy and John spets Uh,
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  they bring that energy every game. So, you know, my upper
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  classmen are the guys who are who have been really good through this whole adversity.
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  And my final one is bu number two. I guess this week when
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  you have faced some of those top top teams Maine BC on the road,
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  Quinnipiac and the Connecticut Ice Tournament, you want to throw Providence in there,
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  and you Mass too, Yeah, yeah, I guess. So every week
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  it's another one yeah, yeah, I'm thinking like the top five though,
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  you know, like like you've really elevated your game and and and and had
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  you know, some really some really close battles with some of those top five
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  teams. Is there? You know, what do you why do you attest
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  to that? Well? I just don't think it's unique to the top teams.
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  I think we've played pretty consistent all year long. We have to find
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  a way, Like I said, the only stat that matters to me is
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  scoring more goals in the opponent. And uh, you know, we've been
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  played very good defense all year long. We're a top twenty team in the
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  country defensively, and we have to find a way to score more goals in
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  the opponent And that's something that we're really going to focus on going down the
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  stretch. But I don't think we have to change a whole lot of how
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  we've played. It's just staying with it because when you do and all of
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  a sudden, that little momentum it switches, it can be you know,
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  transformational for a team. Thank you, Sure, Natalie will go over to
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  you. Sure. Thanks on good morning, coach. How you doing,
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  Good morning, Natalie, I'm great, you I'm good thank you, thanks
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  for your time this morning. I guess one of the first questions I want
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  to ask about is is at this point in the season to have, you
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  know, three regular season weekends left to just come off of a bye week.
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  I mean, how valuable was this bye week for you at this point,
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  whether health wise, morale wise, that kind of thing. Yeah,
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  that's a good question, because sometimes it's not always going like this time of
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  year. You want to keep playing, you know. That's why I always
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  when we had that, like the top four teams used to get a bye
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  week after the regular season, that always wasn't great because you know, you're
• 8:35
  playing really well, you want to just keep playing. This, to answer
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  your question, came at the right time for us. We were a little
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  banged up physically. We had a couple tough emotional losses, and I think
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  it gave us time just to regroup, reset and get healthy for this stretch
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  run. So I thought it was beneficial for us, see but overall for
• 9:01
  us, certainly for our team health. I thought it was beneficial for us
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  In terms of that. I guess internally, is the team operating at one
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  hundred percent health wise? Yeah? Today? Yeah we are today? Yeah,
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  wonderful. Someone in particular I wanted to ask about is Jake Percival.
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  You know, he's he's on track to having a better season than last year.
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  Something that also stands is his defensive ability. You know, he's great
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  on the power or penalty kill fourth of us watch shots. You know,
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  how well rounded is he truly as a player? Yeah, what's you know,
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  he's a kid that came in and that was kind of his calling card
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  when he came here, was he was going to be a you know,
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  he skates, he competes and did a really good job kind of towards the
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  end of last year killing penalties. Was snake bitten a little bit last year
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  too because he I thinking it was four or five games in a row where
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  he hit posts and and pucks didn't go in for him, But he scored
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  some goals. This year, he's one of the top guys over the boards,
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  killing penalties. He's getting a little power playtime right now. And he's
• 10:09
  certainly a guy that we count on. You know, he plays important,
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  crucial minutes for us throughout games. Is he a local kid Avon? He's
• 10:22
  from Avon, Connecticut? Yes, okay, I mean, what does it
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  mean? To have someone you know local on on your roster like that.
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  No, it's great. Like we've always said, we want to keep the
• 10:31
  best Connecticut players here. It's the state university and I certainly don't want him
• 10:37
  driving by Yukon to go play somewhere else in our league. So the more
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  really good Connecticut players we can keep here, the better for us, and
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  the last one for me coach. Now, Tyler Helton was a grad assistant
• 10:50
  of yours back in the day. You know, he has kind of found
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  a way to relay your message through years in different positions, different responsibilities.
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  How valuable is it to have him on your staff and how does he kind
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  of drive the point home as your right hand man. It's extremely valuable because
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  he's been here since day one. He was actually an undergraduate when he started
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  with us, and he's a certainly I trust him so much. He's been
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  very loyal. It's been fun to watch him grow as a coach, you
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  know, from where he was as an undergrad to now as an associate head
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  coach, and it's well deserved. He's really has a great grasp of,
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  you know, game planning. He's got a really good way with our players.
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  I think he does a good job with skill development, and I think
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  he has the makings of being a great head coach someday. Great, Thank
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  you so much. Sure you got it, Natalie, Joe will go over
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  to you cap. When we talk a lot about other college sports, we
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  talk about freshmen hitting the wall. Have you seen that from Jake and Joey?
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  And is it not as big a deal in college hockey because these kids
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  play so many games before they get here, you know, I think there's
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  probably some truth to that. You know, they play fifty sixty games in
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  the USHL and they're only playing thirty here now. You know, when they're
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  playing in the USHL, a lot of times they're not going to school.
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  So that's the factor that we have to throw in because that certainly takes up
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  a lot of their time throughout the day. But I have not seen them
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  hit the wall, you know, this year. I haven't seen that happen.
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  Often occasionally a kid maybe hot out of the gate and then going to
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  a slump, you know, as a freshman, but scoring wise, But
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  as far as their play and their energy throughout games, I would say it's
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  you know that that has not been an issue. And from a grand viewpoint
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  type of things. You've been in this league for a couple of years.
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  Can you remember a year when there were this many great freshmen in the league,
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  I mean, all the BC kids, NATO's your two guys, uh
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  Celebrini obviously. Can you remember this good of a freshman class in one year?
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  Probably not, I mean not to the extent of if you look at
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  you know, Matt Wood's still eighteen years old, right, So I mean
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  between matt Wood, Nato, we Lander, the three BC guys, that's
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  six first round draft picks, and then throwing Macklin Celebrini, who's probably gonna
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  be the first overall pick this year, as seven guys who like first round
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  draft picks. It's it's pretty remarkable to me how strong you know the league
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  is. And not only how strong the league is and how the teams are,
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  it's the high end talent. You know, there's always been an Icle
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  or macar or Johnny Goodreaux or but to the level of where you're having you
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  know, I don't I mean, if you throw in trying to think who
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  else go with the Ah, he's a first rounder. I'm probably missing a
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  couple others. I don't know, But it's it's just pretty remarkable if you're
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  having eight to ten first round draft picks, you know, in one league,
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  like it's especially sprinkled over two years. So it's but that's what makes
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  the league great, but what makes it fun to play in. I think
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  that's why we can attract so many recruits, because guys want to play with
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  the best. Thanks Kav, Sure, awesome. Do we have anything else
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  for coach? Guys? Awesome? Well, thank you, coach. Good
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  luck this week? All right, thank you, guys, thank you,
• 15:03
  thank you coach. If you're way