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#UConn coach Danny Hurley and forward Alex Karaban after the No. 2 Huskies lost to Memphis
Nov 25, 2024
#Memphis #Maui Invitational
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aome game it must been an awesome game
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to watch U just uh I got a lot of
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respect for this team I played against
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Penny's teams I think this is you know
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the best team that I've seen that the
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Penny's had uh you know from the uh you
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know from the AAC days so you know just
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much respect to to those guys you know
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Tyrese Hunter was uh it was awesome out
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there um you know Hagerty I they got a
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lot of answers there Rogers with the
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shooting uh a couple of really good
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centers they're an underrated team clear
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you know top 20 team easily
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um and
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uh yeah any questions for
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Alex Alex it's been a while since you
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guys lost the game I mean what's the
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feeling kind of in the locker room
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afterwards uh especially a game like
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that where rallied back from 12 down
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send it to overtime what's the kind a
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general feel after that game in the
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locker room everyone's disappointed and
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if you're not disappointed in that
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locker room you shouldn't be here I mean
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we lost and losing anything doesn't sit
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well with anybody and yeah we showed
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fight we showed fight at the end but it
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doesn't matter because we didn't win so
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um I really hope everyone's disappointed
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that's how the lock room
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felt any other questions for Alex yeah
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Alex what did you see on Sol's uh G
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buzzer beer at the end of regulation
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what was your Vantage Point on that
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shter yeah he's a big time shooter I
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mean he steps up he makes shots when he
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needs to and he did it for us to send
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into overtime and no one's really
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surprised when he makes a shot so um you
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just had big time shot he's big time
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player and we need to
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Def obviously the overtime period got a
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little chippy there how difficult was
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that to navigate and just keep keep your
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head in the game as you know guys were
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flying all over the place whist stop I
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mean we knew it was going to be a
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physical game with was the game plans we
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knew that they wanted to make a physical
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it wasn't surprising to us that it was
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physical we just had to match their
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toughness and for most of the game we
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didn't and that's just on
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us Alex as leader right here Alex as a
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leader of this team um how do you you
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know communicate your message coming
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from Dan as well about the guys that are
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experiencing this and now you play your
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first real opponent uh how much do you
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take on your shoulders and turn around
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and try and get a w obviously in the
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next 24 hours it's on my shoulders
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completely 100% on my shoulders but how
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the team responds how the team acts how
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we watch film how we do everything in
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general it's all on me and I got to do
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that I got to continue to do a better
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job at that something I'm going to
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address the team after too as in players
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meeting just to make sure that you know
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we we got to wake
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up all right thanks
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Alex questions for coach
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really coach no early on Memphis was
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very you know disruptive in terms of
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making it difficult for you to get in
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your stuff on offense what were they
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doing to make it difficult to get where
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you want to go I mean just get really
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they um I mean their style of defense is
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is probably the toughest for us to play
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against switching and and and really
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physical I mean they make your catches
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hard um
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you know they they get into the dribbler
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with their hands um they're just super
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super you know disruptive and I thought
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we you it disrupted our offense but if
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you would have said to me I'd play an
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overtime game uh with these guys today
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and have 10 turnovers for the game um I
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would have taken that especially with
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the extra four minutes we most of our
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problems were in just one-on-one defense
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and then um you know the amount of times
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we we put them or that they were put on
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the foul line
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right here what did you see on the foul
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call against Liam it was 9292 all when
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you got the technical in the yeah that
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was a joke I me I just watched it um and
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listen the game started for us um you
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know for me with how physical Memphis is
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um and how much so they're physical the
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defensive end and then at the offensive
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end they initiate a lot of contact uh
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and then were getting whistles early in
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the game um you know just it got off to
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a bad start when you know my medical
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train
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who must have said something under his
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breath in the Huddle gets teed up in the
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Huddle in the first couple minutes or
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whatever that was in the game a trainer
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who is just the nicest guy very quiet
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guy might have muttered something under
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his breath in a normal situation an
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official comes over to you and says hey
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coach you know tell that guy to shut up
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um because I know they don't want to
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hear it from me um but that that's
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that's commonly how that should have
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been handled um but I had a lot of
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issues with what went on out there in
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the game that over the back call at that
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point of the game there was no attempt
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to block out there was a player on
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Memphis um that that made a a half-ass
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effort to rebound that basketball and
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Liam mcney High pointed that rebound for
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that call to made at that point of the
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game was a complete joke all right and
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then for me I don't know what happened
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um I might have lost my balance by the
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absurdity of the call or maybe I
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Tri but if I made that call at that
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point I would have ignored the fact that
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I was on my
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back if I made that call I would have
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ignored that I would have ignored that
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that was a that was a major obviously a
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major how you could call that well that
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game was going on the way that game was
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going on is just beyond me but I know um
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I've never seen the one ref before I've
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never I didn't even know he was a
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college ref and then you know I I I'm
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familiar with the other two so I'm not
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surprised with Samson's uh fou this
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fifth fou the technical there was that
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one that just he has to be smarter in
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that situation yeah I mean he's got to
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be smarter but at that point like we
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were kind of dead in the water I mean we
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were down 12 or 13 and we look lifeless
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so um you know I started with uh you
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know I started with uh you know riling
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the team up and creating some some some
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energy and some intensity and some fire
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and and and the team followed suit and
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uh you know Samson was getting shoved I
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mean his jersey was ripped he didn't get
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a foul called for him the entire game he
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ended the game you know with his jersey
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ripped down the center but they get him
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on every call so you know he's
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frustrated uh
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yeah that was
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crazy crazy and you guys have two games
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in the next two days how do you put this
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past you and then move forward yeah I I
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think coming into it I think when we
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when we realized we had such a a low
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seed uh and and and obviously we we we
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we uh that's a heck of
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a first round opponent um you know I I
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you know I think we're we're going to
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obviously have to bounce back and uh you
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know mentally regroup we're not used to
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losing um you know but I think we are
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programmed with a lot of character and
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um we'll respond you know this hurts
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this sucks we came here to win the
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championship you know but Memphis is an
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excellent team and uh um you know we've
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got to respond the way Yukon responds
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and no matter what time the game is I
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mean I I mean I played at 9:30 today I
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don't know what time we play tomorrow 7
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I I don't know what time we're getting
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uh once you go into the losers bracket
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in the first
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game one more
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question just um obviously tce and
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Jaylen really kind of carried you guys
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in the first half there had to be good
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to see and all Jayla didn't play a whole
8:17
lot in the second half was that defense
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oriented or yeah he just he he he he
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looked you know he just he looked a
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little skittish I mean he was great in
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that in that first half I think his like
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his first run um you know he he kind of
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looked like he was a little bit a little
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bit out of rhythm a little bit on his
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heels we were you know we were down he
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made a couple defensive mistakes it was
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just um you know a couple of guys like
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uh you know a couple you know with the
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way they approached offensively there
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just going out those
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matchups um you know some of it was you
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know he looked like he had lost his bit
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of his and skittish and then some other
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guys who just play a little better on
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the wing based on where we were in the
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game but it was encouraging to see those
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two guys there um you know so thank you
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thanks coach