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#UNC guard RJ Davis press conference ahead of Friday's game at No. 1 Kansas
Nov 6, 2024
#UNC guard RJ Davis press conference ahead of Friday's game at No. 1 Kansas
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the history not just the recent history
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which you had but it goes way way way
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back for Coach Smith playing at Kansas
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and so many important meetings in
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between Roy was there even Larry Brown
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who was a star here LED them to a title
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what do you know about the history
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between these two well only brief I know
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that Roy um coached there um and just
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from you tell me de Smith played there
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so um think there's some Carolina ties
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there and I think this would just be a
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uh a great G good game for both of our
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teams you know just from you know
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Carolina and in the Kansas history um
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just to have you know a lot of Hall of
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Fame coaches from both universities um
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just be a part of this game I mean last
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time I played Kansas was my sophomore
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year and um that's the uh most recent
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times I goes back to I know it goes
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beyond um when I was playing so uh I'm
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excited for it they have a couple guys
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still from that team R Harris how much
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did you have to deal with him in that
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title game yeah I mean so it's crazy cuz
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I played the one when I was in high
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school um I going say on the ebl circuit
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he was playing for moan and then match
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up with him again um my sophomore year
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in the championship game he's really
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good guard um defensively he's play play
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makes for the others um he's able to get
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downhill so um definitely looking
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forward to that match up again um so
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yeah RJ we've seen so many games that
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get scheduled now are always neutral
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Court you know it doesn't feel like
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there's as many home and homes and this
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one's going to be one this next year you
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you know we've seen Duke and Arizona are
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doing it right now like as a player like
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how exciting is that that you know it's
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kind of we don't see these kind of games
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between Mar teams anymore on each
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other's home courts it seems like
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nonconference wise yeah I mean that's
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big time I think it's it's great for you
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know college basketball uh just to have
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these neutral well these home and away
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games and kind of alternate each year I
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think it's great col basketball and
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different environment you know for us
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it's like you know we're going down
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there uh to their stadium and then it
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could be vers next year so um just to
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get a feel for the environment the
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energy what different crowds bring I
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think that's just huge for college
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basketball in general and it's something
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that each player um should Aspire and
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look look forward to because you only
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get these type of games and type of
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moments once in a while so um it's
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definitely something that you want to
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look back on and definitely something
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that you want to take full advantage of
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because um it's fun at the end of the
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day I I know it's been two two seasons
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have passed since you played them last
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but what stands out just in your mind in
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particular about that national
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championship game in New Orleans yeah I
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mean that we were just one rebound away
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from winning it uh definitely something
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that you know the following year I was
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rewatching that game over and over again
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because you know you get so close to
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your dream um that you set just as a
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freshman or just as a as a high school
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athlete like you always want to win a
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National Championship just from watching
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um different teams different players
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play in March Madness and you going to
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be the last team standing so just to be
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that close it was definitely
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Heartbreaker for me a lot of emotions I
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can remember from that game I remember
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just you know looking up at the clock
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and then watching his zero and the
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buzzer go off and um it took a while for
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the tear to come but they ended up
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um right going right down my face in
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terms of like just a lot of the hard
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work that we put in um as a team
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throughout that year the year we had and
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how we how we changed that whole year
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around it was um a tremendous feeling
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but just the
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um end up short like that um it was
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heartbreaking so it definitely motivated
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me you know the next two years um but
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then also again this year you sitting
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over there what do they call it the
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thumper you had the thing on the bench
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right during that game trying to work
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but the cramps out of your legs yeah I
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mean I think for that year we've played
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five to six guys so um all the way to
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the end and um obviously like you know
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your body the temple and sometimes like
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your body gives out and I think we just
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you know ended up short with in terms of
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our energy and uh injuries played a role
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into it and I started cramping a little
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bit so it's a lot when you're playing
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you know 40 minutes every game every
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night um but I enjoy doing it I'm not
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going to sit here and complain about it
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um so but I mean definitely just
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remembering that just just shows of how
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much like as a team like we really put a
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lot of hard work and basically put our
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lives on the line for that game and for
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that whole year just to uh end up in the
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goal that we really wanted RJ at this
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point you're the only player on this UNC
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team that played in that game uh how
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often do you get to I guess share those
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stories with some of the newer guys on
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the team and do they ever ask you about
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it at all yeah I me I really haven't got
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the chance to really um tell them about
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my experience more so like Seth and Jay
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was because they came the year after so
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um they I mean they've watched I think
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Seth was down there in New Orleans was
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pretty funny funny story um uh his I
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going to say his senior but um more so
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those two guys because they were like
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the next year up and um just to kind of
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tell them about about the experience and
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how hard it is to get to that National
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Championship like it's not an easy Road
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um but I think that's what I've
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instilled in the guys this year like
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this year is going to be hard there's
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going to be times there going to be
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times where it's good and bad times but
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we have to embrace all of those and stay
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together as a team because um it's going
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to be a roller coaster they going to
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have games where things go your way and
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when they don't that's the way
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basketball works and um but at the same
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time understanding who we are as a team
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who we are as a culture in the
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university and um it's an experience
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that you should embrace like obviously
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this comes with expectations and um a
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lot of outside noise but I think one
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thing about it is you should always run
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towards it never away from it because
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expectations and pressures are privilege
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and um here in North Carolina that comes
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with that but I mean I think we're all
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here for a reason to go off that a
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little bit last week we were talking to
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Hubert actually and he was saying that
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he's kind of talked to you about being
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the and he described you as like the
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connector or whatever like between
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obviously the new guys and the transfers
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and things like that with you hav been
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here for a long time how have you kind
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of embraced that role of maybe
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leadership and yeah like some of the
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stuff you were just saying of you know
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kind of imparting you know some of your
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experience to the guys that are you know
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just getting here for the first time
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yeah it's been new um but uh I've
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adapted to it really well I believe so
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um
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just in terms of putting myself in
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situations where I feel uncomfortable
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that way I can feel comfortable um and
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kind of just like it allows you to learn
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more about yourself like um I've always
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been a lead by an example type of leader
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but now it's more about being more vocal
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having a good spirit um because that
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uplifts others like I have to make sure
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that um I'm doing my job in terms of
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making sure everyone is good making sure
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there's good spirits not just in a
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locker room on the court even in
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practice because there could be days
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when everyone's in their head and that's
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normal that's life and um I've learned
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that through my five years of of doing
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this being around here and um that's
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what I I learned so like obviously me
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and coav had a lot of conversations
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about me being the connector and now I'm
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the older guy and it's going to be
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difficult because you know it's a lot of
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younger guys and new faces and usually
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we have you know a couple of older guys
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maybe like four to six and now it's just
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basically me and J whip but I've been
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here the longest so I've been seen the
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ins and outs I I know how things roll so
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I'm just taking that challenge and
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understanding that I'm capable of doing
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it I'm embracing it RJ couple more guys
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La last year Elliott was a high school
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senior playing college ball how have you
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seen him grow and and in what ways who
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going into this year yeah I mean I think
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Elliot has always been a phenomenal uh
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player point guard playmaker I mean
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whatever you want to call it um just his
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strides as last year just classifying up
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as a uh as a as a senior going to be a
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freshman like last year he could have
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been high school and you could see Spurs
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of his games where it's like um he seems
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mature he seems like the game slow down
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and whereas this year he's confident
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he's um he's vocal um and he's doing
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what Elliot does and I think that's a
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testament to his true work ethic he
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works really hard um he's hard on
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himself when things don't go his way but
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I think that just shows that he just
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wants to be great and just to see um
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success and the strides he's made this
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off season and leading up to uh game
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time now I'm super proud of him and I
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know he's got a lot more left in the
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tank for him to just to kind of show you
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guys that we've been seeing all along um
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but uh he's going to be really great for
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us so I'm proud what do you remember
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about Griffin from the Alabama game last
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March yeah um I know he was guarding me
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the whole game um that obviously had a
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longer Defender just so make it um
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difficult for me to make you know tough
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shots tougher shots uh um kind of push
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out on the perimeter for um to catch the
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basketball so uh just little stuff like
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that um I think most of I rewatched that
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game most of the shots were all good
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looks they weren't anything that were um
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difficult for me to make I just missed
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him so um but he's a great defender I
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remember seeing him in uh CP3 Camp as
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well so um definitely looking forward to
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the game but you didn't guard him no I
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think I started uh as last one Adam
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thank you uh how much have you guys
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Hubert was in here earlier and said that
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I think they counted 15 Miss layups of
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dunks I think it started with me I
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missed a lot of the layup I mean there
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were there were several so so how much I
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was going to say how much have you guys
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heard about that from the coaches since
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the other night and how much has
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finishing or finishing better been sort
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of one of the talking points these last
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couple days yeah I mean it's it's been
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huge I mean we seen it over and over
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again in film so uh he hared on that in
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film sessions but um I'm pretty sure we
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have a finishing drill today in practice
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cuz we did yesterday so um he knows
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we're athletic he knows we're capable of
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making those layups but now we got more
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so just concentrate and focus on doing
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it because we can do it I think
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sometimes we just uh get out of
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character in the way just kind of just
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he always says make the easy play and I
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think sometimes we really don't do that
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we just try to go for home run so uh
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just finishing around the rim and being
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strong with the ball be confident when
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we go into the lane and uh focus on
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finishing because um we're athletic for
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reason so we have to use those of our
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abilities thanks