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Geno Auriemma - St. John's Postgame · Coaches Corner

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  You know, we talked yesterday about this is the time of the year to
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  pick up the pace, to get going, and to have your two seniors
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  do it today. Would you expect that they would be the one that would
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  rise to the occasion, wasn't it? M hm? Wow? You know,
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  there's a there's a reason Saint Johns's record is what it is. You
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  know, they're not an easy team to play against. You know, they
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  they do a pretty good job of controlling the tempo of the game. And
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  and I think when we when we got it up twent you know, when
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  we got up twenty, there was probably a little bit of a law,
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  you know, and then we missed a couple of layups and then they I
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  think we must lead the country. And how many people banking threes against us?
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  They were like two or three two of those a game every game,
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  So you know that's gonna you know, you kind of expect that. And
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  I think once we got leam Page working together again, and it's nice to
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  get everybody involved until it's not. And then you got to go to you
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  know, hopefully players that can you handle that moment, and certainly you know,
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  Paige and a Lea did that. You know, I thought Leah it
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  was great at both ends of the floor today, and you know, say
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  we're going to get thirty three and thirteen from her every game? Yeah,
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  sure, I love that certainly changes our team. Yeah, the two of
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  them were really good. Would you like to see the two of them,
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  I mean, take that many shots going forward and let the other guys just
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  feel in where you can or do you like a more balanced Yeah? No,
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  I don't. I don't. I don't particularly. You know, there's
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  in a slow game like that, there's not enough shots to go around for
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  a lot of people. But if you have two people taking thirty six of
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  your fifty six shots, that's a lot. Some days, that's that's the
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  way it's got to be. Most days, I'd rather it be a little
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  more balanced rather be spread out a little bit. But our offense, I
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  thought, was like very eh. I don't think we had the kind of
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  flow that and they make it hard for you to get that kind of flow
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  going. So you know, some games you can win just you know,
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  getting twenty five thirty three's up there, and some games you gotta win,
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  like today. The job Nika did defensively against Drake most of the game I
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  mean, she squorreed eight points in the fourth quarter, but before that she
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  wasn't really much of a factor. Yeah, I thought they got great contributions
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  from from their other from their other guys. You know, I think that's
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  that's obviously a good sign for them because when we played them the first time,
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  they were so dependent on on Unique Drake. Uh. Seems like tonight
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  they are today they functioned a little bit better, you know, but Nika's
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  you know, she takes tremendous pride in that, you know, that's that's
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  something that she you know, she values, you know, getting stops and
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  she thinks that that's no unlike some players. She thinks that's a huge part
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  of the game of basketball. Mm hmm. Aliah had for deals today just
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  defensively. You know, what did you like from her on their bags?
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  I thought I thought the ones she got laid in the game were really impactful,
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  you know, out in the open floor, her leading our transition game.
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  Though maybe we wouldn't want to change that up a little bit, but
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  I think that the fact that she was so active and she doesn't get it,
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  you know, she didn't get a breather, so she didn't come out
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  of the game. And that's a lot to ask. And yet she was
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  terrific at both As I said, she was terrific at both ends. And
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  you would say, well, she got through free throw line a lot,
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  she rebounded a lot, she made some mid raidings jump shots, and that's
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  to me a complete game. G know, on you've talked about this a
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  little before, but on Wednesday, you have a pretty good chance of joining
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  coach K and Tara's the only coaches in college basketball history with twelve hundred wins,
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  and you would have done it, you know, three years faster than
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  Coach K, six years faster than Tara. You say, it just kind
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  of means you've been around a long time. But can you talk about the
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  consistency of this program and the pride you're taken that as I started to you
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  know, we were talking. I don't know why the subject came up because
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  it doesn't usually come up unless Anna brings it up. You know, it's
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  up to her. We would have a sign for Tuesday's Wednesday's game going number
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  three, you know, anything to celebrate something, right. I think the
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  if you look at all the coaches that have had, you know, the
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  the kind of success that we're talking about. It involved being at one place
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  a lot long time, or being at a bunch of places, and I'm
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  I'm fortunate enough to have been here the entire time and the ability to keep
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  recruiting the kind of players that keep you at the level that we've been able
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  to stay at for for thirty five of those thirty nine years. You know,
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  you look at the way the world is today, I don't think you'll
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  see this happening much going forward. So it's something to certainly something to be
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  proud of for our staff, for CD and I especially, and for you
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  know, our fans and everybody associated with you kind of it's a it's a
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  big deal to have won that many games and to being such, you know,
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  such company. But it's been really really unusual. It's not it's not
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  something that we take for granted for sure, And probably last week and was
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  a great reminder of however we lost, well we lost in the final four
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  and a couple of those buzzer beaters or something somebody said, I forget where
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  somebody sent me something. You know, people just think that like I enjoy
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  reading like dumb shit that people say about me, cause I don't. I'm
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  not on social media, so I don't know near that stuff. So people
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  feel compelled that they have to send it to me so I can look at
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  it, and you know, they go, you know, he only wins
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  championships when he has the best players. And I thought that, Naw,
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  there's a really smart guy that got you run for president. I said,
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  tell me a coach who's ever won a lot of games, a lot of
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  championships, whatever the case may be, that hasn't coached great players. I
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  mean, that's the whole point that you try to get to, is having
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  the ability to coach the absolute best players. And I don't know that I'd
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  be here for year number thirty nine right now if I didn't have that opportunity
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  to coach those kinds of players. So you know, I've been very lucky
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  in that respect. I'm gonna have to audible because Pat stole my question.
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  But you know, does the number of wins that you actually accumulate really register
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  with you or matter to you more than obviously the number of banners or the
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  number of trophies, because if you think about it, in most sports,
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  you probably couldn't name who has the most victories. Yeah right, I mean
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  Connie Mack has the most victories but also has the most losses. He owned
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  the team, So I mean that's the I mean you understand what I'm saying.
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  Is that being number one in that category matter to you or or are
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  you coaching to you know, put more banners up there. Yeah, think
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  about think about it this way. Dom, I've said this, You get
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  to a stage in a career that what actually does impact your life? At
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  this stage, So if we show up in April and there's another National Championship
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  banner, how does that change anything? And if we get to my career
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  ends, you know, one thousand and one and ninety nine, no Amy
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  Durant, poor thing left here scoring nine hundred and ninety nine points. So
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  look back what somebody has it were nine ninety nine. I'm telling you all
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  right, but then you better tell them. You better tell them because it's
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  wrong in the record book. The point, the point being the point.
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  I want to set up a basket, that's right, I'm want to have
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  Kesha passitur Yeah. I think at this point, you know, in a
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  career, there's really there's really nothing that I could accomplish that would make me
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  step back and say wow, that that is really, really, really I
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  like to think that our basketball program is going to be remembered more for the
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  eleven national championships that we have rather than the number of wins that that I
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  have may get down the road, but I do think in sports that number,
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  the number of championships is what the great separator is. You know,
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  you could say somebody's you know, somebody's won the next number of games,
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  and that's great. To win that many games, I think it's great,
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  But I I think the the eleven championships for us is what separates Connecticut from
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  every other basketball program. Fat oh no, say yeah it's no, no,
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  yeah, yeah, yeah, no no. If you know, if
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  they keep off of me a new contract and you know at some point you're
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  gonna say, no, I can't do this anymore. I just don't know
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  when when that day is. You know when that day would be when we
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  can't get players or it's the w the what you have to go through to
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  get good players. It comes like, do I really wanna do that?
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  But our recruiting hasn't fallen off. You know, we're still getting the kind
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  of players that I like, the coach that I enjoy being around, I
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  mean as much as you can with twelve, sometimes thirteen, fourteen, you
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  know, exactly enjoy all of them, but you enjoyed being around them.
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  And if you didn't, you wouldn't you wouldn't do this anymore because there'd be
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  no point in doing it anymore. Yeah, but my friends back home,
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  hey, stay, stay until you get until you become number one? For
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  what purpose? Just I'm number one? I'm number one. You know you
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  talked about Aliyah having a complete game with the pull ups and the rebounds and
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  everything. She's been doing that pretty much every single game, like not to
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  the extent of today, but just so consistent and so like she's become.
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  I mean, she's like a great having a great this season that like a
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  great player has. Yeah. Yeah, she is having an All American type
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  season. And you know, in the world that we live in now,
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  you have to score a shit ton of points for people to think you are
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  a great player. And now you wow, you know, you you must
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  be really really good. You just scored you know, you look at some
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  of the NBA games. That guy got seventy. Wow. I remember when
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  a guy got fifty that was a lot. Now a guy gets seventy and
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  tomorrow night, a guy's gonna get eighty two. So like how much how
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  much the scoring points really matter anymore? It's lost its value. But how
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  you score them? When you score them, what you mean to your team?
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  Like to see how many other big kids around the country have the responsibility
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  that Aliyah has on our team given who were missing. So for her,
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  what she's doing is even more impressive, you know, because if she had
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  three other folks players that we rotated in and out and she got to have,
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  you know, a breather here and there, But she doesn't. She
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  doesn't get to do that, And I think that's that's why she's I think
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  deserving of being an All American. The game at the end of the game,
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  like she missed a couple of free throws, she was looking like a
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  little tired, like maybe you were going to take her out soon, and
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  then that's when she got the steels in the open court. Yeah, you
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  can tell when a player obviously has been you know, has left everything out
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  there, you know, when they just can't go any further. But you
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  know, I think our kids are terrifically conditioned by Hoodie and and and you
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  know, we were up twenty it got away from us. They started making
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  some shots. They cut it to seven, and then we responded the way
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  a really good team is supposed to respond, and our two seniors responded the
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  way to all Americans should respond. Thanks Gase,