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#UNC coach Hubert Davis press conference after win at Notre Dame
Jan 4, 2025
#UNC coach Hubert Davis press conference after win at Notre Dame
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who free throw
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ellot the N1 situation and so I told him
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after Elliott made his free throw we
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would call timeout to set up our defense
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and we were able to get a stop at the
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end you guys have been in these
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situations a lot you needed someone to
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step up and make a play he stepped up
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and make that play he also had many
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stretch where he was Finding guys
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earlier in the half he was you know it's
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it's um I I told him after the game I
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can point to everybody that made impact
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plays out there to help us win whether
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it's on the offensive end and
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defensively and that's what ultimately
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what has to happen is you have to have
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guys step up and Elliott stepped up late
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Jay wit hit a three Drake was struggling
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from three then he knocked down a three
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um I just really proud of this group um
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you know going through um tough times
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and you know you you have a
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disappointing game on Wednesday and then
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you get back on the road and you're
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playing at noon and you just
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want something good to happen and I'm
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just really happy for these kids and
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it's awesome to see that smile on their
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face how often y'all kind of rep those
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type situations where all the time I
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guess kind of after yeah that Miss free
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throw and you kind of let him go without
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the timeout just kind of how often I
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guess in practice y'all kind of reing
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those type of we do um you know
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um after at the end of each practice we
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have late game situation so um it could
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be different 3 minutes on the clock up
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six down
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8 uh one minute on the clock uh free
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throw line we're down one just different
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situations to put them um so that when
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it it's a real game we can talk about
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and we did we said guys we've been in
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this situation before this is something
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that we've practiced and practiced so we
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just have to do what we've talked about
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earlier rjb more of a distributor today
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was that by Design or just organically
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happen no I don't uh
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not I didn't say Elliot I mean RJ today
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I want you to be a distributor
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that's how great a player RJ is
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everywhere he goes they're putting a
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bigger defender on him they're bodying
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him off coming off screens and if he's
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coming off ball screens they're putting
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two on the ball and he did a great job
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of getting the ball out of his hands and
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spraying it to people and so now what
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are you going to do are you going to put
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two on the ball and now RJ's finding
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players and we're able to score that's
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why we were able to get those layups and
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dunks and wide open threes is because of
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RJ draws so much attention he put puts
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two on the ball soon as he gets off of
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it we're in like transition offense cuz
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we've you know we've got more offensive
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players out there so I mean uh RJ was
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fantastic today his Distributing and uh
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the way that uh he was a playmaker today
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I was really proud of him he what what
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was your sense of just watching the ball
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in the air after Elliott shot it I'm
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sure you had pretty good angle at
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watching it yeah and and maybe your
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sense of how much this team maybe needed
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that result to be able to come through
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down the stretch
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uh today yeah I mean I really wasn't
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thinking too much on the three I mean I
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was hoping that it went in sure the play
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that we ran that's one of the options
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and um I I told before I didn't know he
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got fouled okay yeah um when it went in
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it was crazy and I I was prepared to
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call a timeout to set up our defense
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with a little bit more than 4 seconds to
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go and they're like don't call timeout
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he was he's at the free throw line I
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said who's at the free throw line he was
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like Elliot is and I was like he got an
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and one and I was like okay great so let
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me after makes it let me call timeout
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but um at the end of the day it's about
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players stepping up and making plays and
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Elliot made a lot
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RJ Ian everybody that played made huge
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plays for us to be able to win on the
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road it's just hard to win in conference
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and maybe your sense of how much this
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team maybe needed a result like this to
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be able to come through in the clutch
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some these other have gotten away did I
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believe they did you know I think one of
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the ways that you build confidence
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is it working
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out you know you can build confidence
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through like watching tape and saying
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this is the way we did it we can't do it
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this way but there goes a lot into it a
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building confidence when it works out
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for you and I really believe this group
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of kids they needed it they really did
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and I'm just really happy for him
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speaking of confidence what have you
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seen from Ian over the last four games
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and again sort of today that's enabled
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him to to score with such sort of
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frequency and and ease ease yeah ease is
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the word
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yeah um you know he's 66 athletic he can
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get to his spots any time he wants ball
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handler score at three
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levels he can score with contact it's
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just easy for him and I'm not the a lot
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of the times it's coming off of just
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playing basketball it's not necessarily
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me
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calling secondary Ian you know it's he's
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he's always been a gifted
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score um he's getting better defensively
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Distributing the basketball learning how
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to take care of it as well and um we
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needed every bit of his game today and
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doesn't surprise me that he's had four
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games in in with 20 points or more it's
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the first time in school history of
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player a freshman's had 23 or more in
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four straight
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first time
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ever with with he his game the way his
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game is wired are you kind of at a point
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right now where just he does what he
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does and sometimes it may look like a
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for shot or something like that but
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you're okay with it because it's part of
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his game it's part of his wiring yeah
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you got to let him go a little bit like
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he like he likes to get get into it and
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so like that's who he is and so I want
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every player to be themselves out there
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on the floor and so you know there was a
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couple times where I think he settled
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for a step back three and I was like
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don't settle for that I said don't bail
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him out I said you have the ability to
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get to the basket and so um those little
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things but you know the Ian the type of
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player you got you gota you got to let
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him go a little bit and um that's where
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he is at his best when he's playing fast
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and free and that's what I want him to
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do out there take one or two more what
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do you think the the difference was in
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that first half you guys went up as many
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as 12 I want to say just what was the
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the difference just in the starting F no
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it was uh the difference was
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defensively um I think for the whole
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game we were able to guard their actions
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the problem that we had in the second
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half was we couldn't guard them straight
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oneon-one in the first half we were
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doing that in the second half Burton
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Davis they were taking us one-on-one if
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they weren't scoring they were getting
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fouled getting to the free throw line so
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just our initial being able to guard
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one-on-one actions in the second half
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just broke down I mean at one point they
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were shooting almost 60% from the field
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we just weren't getting stops I think it
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all started right after Ian missed those
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free throws we were up like seven or
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eight he he missed both free throws and
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then they started going and we just
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can't do that you know we just got to
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get better at getting individual
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one-on-one stops Al along those lines
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though youber because you were able to
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build the first half lead and settle
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into the game did you think that that
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maybe created a greater sense of comfort
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or something that you have you know when
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You' had these uphill climbs yeah like I
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do think so just fact you're able to
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settle in and play you know what I'm
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saying no I agree with you I I kers I
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don't know the last time we went in a
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halftime and we were
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up so it was unfamiliar we're usually
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down whether it's a couple or a lot and
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so um it's one of the few games in a
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that I can remember that was like a game
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you know it wasn't a comeback it
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was you you were there you were in
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control um and I think
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I think that was a huge part of us
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pulling it through is is us not having
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to come back we were we were always in
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the game and uh once we got to the three
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minute Mark you know we were in the
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Huddle just talking about we've been in
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this situation pretty much every game
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all season and so we know what we have
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to do and when I've talked about the
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discipline and details getting stops
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execution on the offensive end we're
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able to do it and uh it was just a
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really good win for them thanks
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everybody
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