I'll Be a Son of a Shark
Feb 15:High Point(13-11,5-8)@Gardner-Webb(16-8,8-5)
by CoachC » Fri May 24, 2013 1:41 pm
It is kind of pointless to call this a must win game, because as of now, ALL our games are must win. We lost that heart-breaking 3 OT game to the Panthers at their place. We've got to find some way to avoid that 2nd half meltdown we seem to experience every game in this one against the high scoring Panthers (leading the nation in scoring at 76.8/g) and we know they are going to score points. Ruben Hudson is still 7th in the nation in scoring at 23.2. The Panthers have been one dimensional, however, and our offense needs to be efficient for the entire 40 minutes rather than our usual 20.
After warm-ups we find that Garvin Sanders is under the weather and is not likely to be able to give us many minutes tonight if any. Our extremely short bench just got even shorter. We'll have to pray that Geisen or SOMEONE steps up to give us some quality minutes tonight.
At 15:28 of the first half Chris Battle picks up his 2nd foul. This is not helping. We may take a chance and let Ike play a few minutes at point.
We shoot over 53% in the first half but allow them to shoot 48%. 12 of 13 freethrows for us and none for them in the first half is the sole difference. Given our propensity to tank it in the 2nd half I plead with them to give me 2 solid halves tonight because the Panthers are capable of putting up points in a hurry if we let them back in the game.
At the half we have a precarious 45-32 lead.
We didn't really show any let down until the last 4 minutes of the game which is an improvement. By then the game was pretty well in hand.
As expected the referees called a lot of make-up calls that were quite mysterious in the 2nd half, and I picked up a T. All told I wasn't totally unhappy with our defense in the game. Hudson got 27 points which isn't surprising since we were forced to play zone throughout, but as a team we were able to keep them 10 points under their average.
We turned them over 19 times on 11 steals, played even with them on the boards but did a good job rebounding on the offensive end...(32-32, 12-9). We were able to get quite a few fast break opportunities early in the 2nd half which helped us establish 28-16 advantage on break points.
Battle got into foul trouble early and often and was only able to give us 11 minutes, but was effective while in the game with 3 pts, 3 asts, 2 rebs and no turnovers.
Felts had another good game with 17 pts, 3 asts, 3 rebs and a stl.
Jeffers for once didn't go cold in the 2nd half and pretty much matched Hudson with 26 points, along with 4 asts, 6 rebs and a block. And fortunately we only had to play him at the point for about 30 seconds on the defensive end and he didn't have to handle the ball on offense.
Moore was great with 4 pts, 4 asts, 10 rebounds, and 3 stls.
'Zilla had 8 points, 6 rebs and a block, but actually played a little better than those stats indicated as his post defense was spot on.
Brown hasn't been as effective lately, but did give us 2 pts, 4 rebs in 21 minutes and did play his usual solid defense off the bench.
Geisen came through with some quality minutes we badly needed and served up 12 points, 1 ast, 3 rebs, and 1 stl in 28 minutes, a career high. We need him to go to the boards harder, but in all fairness he's usually out of position at the 4 and isn't really strong enough to hold ground at that position. He tends to rebound much better when he's at home at the 3.
Crenshaw also gave us some badly needed quality minutes off the bench with Battle and at one point Felts both in foul trouble. 6 pts, 1 ast, and no turnovers in 12 minutes are stats I can live with.
Madison, who is a great passer had 2 asts, and a rebound in 4 minutes, but negated it by turning the ball over twice. He's a pure point guard, but needs to learn to value possessions better.
Sanders was only able to give us 2 minutes tonight, but still grabbed 2 rebounds.
We SHOULD win at home of course, our only home loss all season was to a good Virginia Tech in a tough loss that we gave away at the end. But, all in all, I wasn't dissatisfied with our effort tonight. I'm still looking for that big effort on the road though.
Final:
G-W 78 HP 67
After warm-ups we find that Garvin Sanders is under the weather and is not likely to be able to give us many minutes tonight if any. Our extremely short bench just got even shorter. We'll have to pray that Geisen or SOMEONE steps up to give us some quality minutes tonight.
At 15:28 of the first half Chris Battle picks up his 2nd foul. This is not helping. We may take a chance and let Ike play a few minutes at point.
We shoot over 53% in the first half but allow them to shoot 48%. 12 of 13 freethrows for us and none for them in the first half is the sole difference. Given our propensity to tank it in the 2nd half I plead with them to give me 2 solid halves tonight because the Panthers are capable of putting up points in a hurry if we let them back in the game.
At the half we have a precarious 45-32 lead.
We didn't really show any let down until the last 4 minutes of the game which is an improvement. By then the game was pretty well in hand.
As expected the referees called a lot of make-up calls that were quite mysterious in the 2nd half, and I picked up a T. All told I wasn't totally unhappy with our defense in the game. Hudson got 27 points which isn't surprising since we were forced to play zone throughout, but as a team we were able to keep them 10 points under their average.
We turned them over 19 times on 11 steals, played even with them on the boards but did a good job rebounding on the offensive end...(32-32, 12-9). We were able to get quite a few fast break opportunities early in the 2nd half which helped us establish 28-16 advantage on break points.
Battle got into foul trouble early and often and was only able to give us 11 minutes, but was effective while in the game with 3 pts, 3 asts, 2 rebs and no turnovers.
Felts had another good game with 17 pts, 3 asts, 3 rebs and a stl.
Jeffers for once didn't go cold in the 2nd half and pretty much matched Hudson with 26 points, along with 4 asts, 6 rebs and a block. And fortunately we only had to play him at the point for about 30 seconds on the defensive end and he didn't have to handle the ball on offense.
Moore was great with 4 pts, 4 asts, 10 rebounds, and 3 stls.
'Zilla had 8 points, 6 rebs and a block, but actually played a little better than those stats indicated as his post defense was spot on.
Brown hasn't been as effective lately, but did give us 2 pts, 4 rebs in 21 minutes and did play his usual solid defense off the bench.
Geisen came through with some quality minutes we badly needed and served up 12 points, 1 ast, 3 rebs, and 1 stl in 28 minutes, a career high. We need him to go to the boards harder, but in all fairness he's usually out of position at the 4 and isn't really strong enough to hold ground at that position. He tends to rebound much better when he's at home at the 3.
Crenshaw also gave us some badly needed quality minutes off the bench with Battle and at one point Felts both in foul trouble. 6 pts, 1 ast, and no turnovers in 12 minutes are stats I can live with.
Madison, who is a great passer had 2 asts, and a rebound in 4 minutes, but negated it by turning the ball over twice. He's a pure point guard, but needs to learn to value possessions better.
Sanders was only able to give us 2 minutes tonight, but still grabbed 2 rebounds.
We SHOULD win at home of course, our only home loss all season was to a good Virginia Tech in a tough loss that we gave away at the end. But, all in all, I wasn't dissatisfied with our effort tonight. I'm still looking for that big effort on the road though.
Final:
G-W 78 HP 67
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CoachC - DDS:CB Support Squad
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by CoachC » Fri May 24, 2013 1:48 pm
Feb 16: Sanders had a slight hip pointer, but it's feeling fine today and he was able to practice fully and will be ready for our next game, and we are going to need him. Farrel played just 2 minutes last night to give 'Zilla a breather and managed to sprain his wrist by banging it on the bottom of the backboard. He probably won't be available for another week to 10 days.
Presbyterian lost on the road last night to the Soup Nazis and have fallen into a 3 way tie for first with Coastal Carolina and Liberty who both won again. We are now in a 2 way tie for 4th with our next opponent, VMI, 1 game behind the leaders. If we have any hopes of getting a top 4 seed, finding a way to beat the Keydets on the road is a must. A loss Saturday night will probably mean a 5 or 6 seed which would be very disappointing. Our final home game on senior night will be with bottom dwelling Charleston Southern so finishing higher than 3rd would probably be out of the question.
Presbyterian lost on the road last night to the Soup Nazis and have fallen into a 3 way tie for first with Coastal Carolina and Liberty who both won again. We are now in a 2 way tie for 4th with our next opponent, VMI, 1 game behind the leaders. If we have any hopes of getting a top 4 seed, finding a way to beat the Keydets on the road is a must. A loss Saturday night will probably mean a 5 or 6 seed which would be very disappointing. Our final home game on senior night will be with bottom dwelling Charleston Southern so finishing higher than 3rd would probably be out of the question.
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CoachC - DDS:CB Support Squad
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Feb 18: Gardner-Webb(17-8,9-5)@VMI(17-8,9-5)
by CoachC » Fri May 24, 2013 3:35 pm
We need badly to do something we haven't been able to do all conference season...play well on the road. Our only road wins in the league have been against 11th place Radford, and 12 place Charleston Southern. A win tonight would not only give us some badly needed momentum headed into the post-season, but would probably lock up a top 4 seed. Their top 50 RPI would be nice in our resume as well. Liberty and Coastal Carolina play each other tonight so the opportunity to gain on one of them is there. It would be nice if Radford could pull off a huge upset at Presbyterian as well, but that's probably even a bigger dream than for us to play well on the road one time. A loss could mean the 6 seed, as Winthrop just one game behind us is at home tonight, but I believe the tie breakers there are probably in our favor. We beat the Keydets by 22 at our place, but we've been outscored after the first half in all but one of our conference road games this season, and even that one was an overtime loss. The -6.4 ppg after intermission on the road has been killing us. 2 solid halves of basketball seems to be something this team has not been able to do at all, even at home. It's time for that to change.
How to underachieve and lose on the road: Shoot 42% for the half, turn the ball over an uncharacteristic 10 times, and have your leading scorer and pre-season all-american go 0 for 5 from the field. Still we somehow manage to lead 31-28 at the half. We badly need Battle to avoid picking up his 3rd foul early in the 2nd half, because both Felts and Crenshaw struggled mightily at the point in the first half. That we need to play our first decent 2nd half since December is a given. Our first half lead is only because of a 17-12, 6-2 rebounding edge and shooting 8 more freethrows. We KNOW that will turn the other way in the 2nd half... it always does.
Can you give me a Hallelujah?! I won't say we played great in the 2nd half, because we still didn't shoot well (just 40% for the game), and allowed them to outrebound us by 10 after intermission. But we turned the ball over just 5 times in the second half (about what we average) while turning them over 11 times, 20 for the game on 11 steals. Surprisingly, too, the referees didn't decide to homer us in the 2nd half, either, and we shot 15 more freethrows in the game making 12 more. So, although we never were able to get our leaded expanded beyond 7 points, we never once relinquished it either, and doggishly held on to our 3 point halftime margin. The really big factor in this game was the play of our big men which helped enormously in overcoming the poor shooting night by Ike.
Battle had 10 pts, 3 asts, 3 rebs and turned the ball over just 2 times in 26 minutes. The assist numbers were down of course because he looks so much for Ike who just couldn't get his shots to drop tonight.
Felts had 16 pts, 4 rebs and was our most consistent offense. He did have 5 turnovers, but 4 of them came at the point in the first half. In the 2nd half we kept him strictly at the 2.
Ike, as mentioned, had a poor shooting night, but was 3 of 7 in the 2nd half and got to the line a few times when we needed to score. There was nothing wrong with his defense though, and I'm proud of him that he didn't carry his offensive woes with him to the other end of the court. He finished with 11 pts, 2 asts, and, for the 2nd game in a row, a whopping 6 steals.
Moore had 7 rebs, 3 stls
O'Conner 6 pts, 8 rebs, and a steal and again played better than his stats might indicate. Our post defense tonight was superb.
Brown gave us a big 12 points off the bench in 20 minutes, while Sanders and Geisen, while not putting up a ton of stats, gave us reasonably solid play. Madison had just 1 pt, and 1 asts in 6 minutes, but his zero turnovers as Battle's lone back-up at the point in the 2nd half definitely made his stabalizing influence something more than empty minutes.
While no one's stats jump out at you, I'd have to say that everyone played better than their numbers indicated, and I'll take that.
This was the happiest locker room we've had after a game in quite a while, and I told the guys I was rewarding them by giving them a much needed day off from practice tomorrow when we get back home.
Final:
G-W 62 VMI 59
How to underachieve and lose on the road: Shoot 42% for the half, turn the ball over an uncharacteristic 10 times, and have your leading scorer and pre-season all-american go 0 for 5 from the field. Still we somehow manage to lead 31-28 at the half. We badly need Battle to avoid picking up his 3rd foul early in the 2nd half, because both Felts and Crenshaw struggled mightily at the point in the first half. That we need to play our first decent 2nd half since December is a given. Our first half lead is only because of a 17-12, 6-2 rebounding edge and shooting 8 more freethrows. We KNOW that will turn the other way in the 2nd half... it always does.
Can you give me a Hallelujah?! I won't say we played great in the 2nd half, because we still didn't shoot well (just 40% for the game), and allowed them to outrebound us by 10 after intermission. But we turned the ball over just 5 times in the second half (about what we average) while turning them over 11 times, 20 for the game on 11 steals. Surprisingly, too, the referees didn't decide to homer us in the 2nd half, either, and we shot 15 more freethrows in the game making 12 more. So, although we never were able to get our leaded expanded beyond 7 points, we never once relinquished it either, and doggishly held on to our 3 point halftime margin. The really big factor in this game was the play of our big men which helped enormously in overcoming the poor shooting night by Ike.
Battle had 10 pts, 3 asts, 3 rebs and turned the ball over just 2 times in 26 minutes. The assist numbers were down of course because he looks so much for Ike who just couldn't get his shots to drop tonight.
Felts had 16 pts, 4 rebs and was our most consistent offense. He did have 5 turnovers, but 4 of them came at the point in the first half. In the 2nd half we kept him strictly at the 2.
Ike, as mentioned, had a poor shooting night, but was 3 of 7 in the 2nd half and got to the line a few times when we needed to score. There was nothing wrong with his defense though, and I'm proud of him that he didn't carry his offensive woes with him to the other end of the court. He finished with 11 pts, 2 asts, and, for the 2nd game in a row, a whopping 6 steals.
Moore had 7 rebs, 3 stls
O'Conner 6 pts, 8 rebs, and a steal and again played better than his stats might indicate. Our post defense tonight was superb.
Brown gave us a big 12 points off the bench in 20 minutes, while Sanders and Geisen, while not putting up a ton of stats, gave us reasonably solid play. Madison had just 1 pt, and 1 asts in 6 minutes, but his zero turnovers as Battle's lone back-up at the point in the 2nd half definitely made his stabalizing influence something more than empty minutes.
While no one's stats jump out at you, I'd have to say that everyone played better than their numbers indicated, and I'll take that.
This was the happiest locker room we've had after a game in quite a while, and I told the guys I was rewarding them by giving them a much needed day off from practice tomorrow when we get back home.
Final:
G-W 62 VMI 59
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CoachC - DDS:CB Support Squad
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by CoachC » Fri May 24, 2013 3:53 pm
Feb 19: Liberty picked up a big win on the road against the Chanticleers keeping them in a first place tie with Presbyterian. The road win would appear to give them the hammer over the Blue Hose in tie-breakers going into the final game. Liberty will be at home vs. Longwood while Presbyterian will be on the road vs High Point. I was having a brain malfunction thinking our final home game was against Charleston Southern. It's been a long season. Instead, it proves to be a HUGE game against the Chanticleers with whom we are now in a 3rd place tie. A win on senior night guarantees the 3rd seed, and possibly a 2 seed depending on how the tie-breakers go down if High Point takes care of Presbyterian at home.
The road win over the potent Keydets elevates our RPI now back up to a respectable 34. Not high enough to get consideration for an at large berth from THIS conference given the football money influenced selection committee, but hopefully it will guarantee us a post-season appearance SOMEWHERE if we don't defend our conference championship. I'm certainly not telling my players that, of course. Liberty with an RPI of 29 is in much the same boat, but their probably regular season championship might give them a little more sway with the selection committee. College Insider.com pretty much sees it that way as well. At the moment they are of the opinion that Liberty will be in, and we are right on the bubble if we don't win the title. First things first though. Get that final home win, and then tear it up in the tournament.
The road win over the potent Keydets elevates our RPI now back up to a respectable 34. Not high enough to get consideration for an at large berth from THIS conference given the football money influenced selection committee, but hopefully it will guarantee us a post-season appearance SOMEWHERE if we don't defend our conference championship. I'm certainly not telling my players that, of course. Liberty with an RPI of 29 is in much the same boat, but their probably regular season championship might give them a little more sway with the selection committee. College Insider.com pretty much sees it that way as well. At the moment they are of the opinion that Liberty will be in, and we are right on the bubble if we don't win the title. First things first though. Get that final home win, and then tear it up in the tournament.
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CoachC - DDS:CB Support Squad
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Feb 22: Coastal Carolina(15-11,10-5)@Gardner-Webb(18-8,10-5)
by CoachC » Fri May 24, 2013 5:39 pm
A Sellout! That's what I'm talking about! It "only" took 4 years to get one. The start of the game has been pushed back a half hour because of the looooong pregame recognition of our 8 seniors: Chris Battle, Jermaine Felts, Ike Jeffers, Donald Moore, Josh Brown, Brandon Geisen, and walk-ons Ronnie Arenas and Benjamin Landrum.
About every 5 minutes over the past two days I've warned this team about not taking the talented Chanticleers for granted. We lost by 7 at their place, and a loss tonight could be disastrous for us in more ways than one. A win though could be huge in more ways than one. Finishing the regular season with a 5 game winning streak would be nice as well, and would help us with the selection committee if they actually believed anything they tend to say about why teams DON'T get in (as if there was any reason other than football money). I honestly believe this league deserves 2 teams in the tournament this season, but it will be a tough sell.
Out of respect for Josh Brown, he will get the start tonight on senior night...in fact, 'Zilla insisted on it.
We are trying out a new substitution patter with our rotation tonight in an effort to try to keep our legs fresher in the 2nd half. It had better work because we did NOT have our usual stellar first half at home. We shot just 39% from the field and turned the ball over a ridiculous 10 times. At the half we lead just 33-30 and the huge crowd is getting a little antsy.
Was the experiment with the rotation a success? I'm still thinking on that one. Instead of 20 great minutes on offense, followed by 20 horrible minutes on offense we had instead 40 mediocre minutes on offense. The defense, however, WAS better in the second half, as was our ball-handling as we turned the ball over just once in the first 16 minutes, before tossing it away a few times during garbage time. The end result was that we slowly and methodically began pulling away in the 2nd half rather than watching our lead evaporate. The offensive problems can't really be blamed on the bench. Our top 6 guys played about the same number of minutes as they usually did, but instead of playing 1 other guy heavy minutes off the bench as we've done for most of the conference season, we played 4 other guys light minutes, and they all acquitted themselves well. The problem seemed to be more that the more frequent rests of our starters kinda threw them out of rhythm (other than Ike, who was fabulous. Then again he needs rest a lot less often than everyone else, so for him, the change in the rotation probably wasn't much different than usual).
Battle had 8 points, 5 rebs, but just 2 assists (hard to get assists when the balls not going in the basket.. we shot just 40.3% for the game). He turned the ball over just once in 26 minutes though, so it was a good game for him overall.
Felts seemed a bit out of kilter, but had 10 pts, 3 rebs and played only sparingly at the point.
Ike, as I said was fabulous with 29 pts on 11/20 shooting, along with an assist, 4 rebs, 2 stls, and a block.
Moore, O'Conner, and Brown all had subpar games offensively and on the boards, but played strong post defense. They combined for just 11 points, 9 rebs, however.. we were getting that much out of O'Conner alone for the first half of the season.
The other 4 guys who we gave between 10 and 12 minutes apiece too all performed adequately or better. Bobby White was the real standout off the bench though with 7 points, 1 asts, 4 rebs, and 3 stls in just 10 minutes. Like Garvin Sanders, on nights when Bobby is ready to play he can really draw some oohs and aahs from the crowd. The problem for both of them has been the number of nights where they stood around like a couple of statues.
We were able to get curtain calls for the 6 scholarship seniors, including Geisen, and get Arenas and Landrum in the game on senior night, which they seemed to appreciate. About that same time another big roar came from the capacity crowd when it was announced Presbyterian had lost by 2 on the road.
strange game, but I am happy to get the win against a good team to finish the regular season on a positive note.
Final:
G-W 72 CC 59
About every 5 minutes over the past two days I've warned this team about not taking the talented Chanticleers for granted. We lost by 7 at their place, and a loss tonight could be disastrous for us in more ways than one. A win though could be huge in more ways than one. Finishing the regular season with a 5 game winning streak would be nice as well, and would help us with the selection committee if they actually believed anything they tend to say about why teams DON'T get in (as if there was any reason other than football money). I honestly believe this league deserves 2 teams in the tournament this season, but it will be a tough sell.
Out of respect for Josh Brown, he will get the start tonight on senior night...in fact, 'Zilla insisted on it.
We are trying out a new substitution patter with our rotation tonight in an effort to try to keep our legs fresher in the 2nd half. It had better work because we did NOT have our usual stellar first half at home. We shot just 39% from the field and turned the ball over a ridiculous 10 times. At the half we lead just 33-30 and the huge crowd is getting a little antsy.
Was the experiment with the rotation a success? I'm still thinking on that one. Instead of 20 great minutes on offense, followed by 20 horrible minutes on offense we had instead 40 mediocre minutes on offense. The defense, however, WAS better in the second half, as was our ball-handling as we turned the ball over just once in the first 16 minutes, before tossing it away a few times during garbage time. The end result was that we slowly and methodically began pulling away in the 2nd half rather than watching our lead evaporate. The offensive problems can't really be blamed on the bench. Our top 6 guys played about the same number of minutes as they usually did, but instead of playing 1 other guy heavy minutes off the bench as we've done for most of the conference season, we played 4 other guys light minutes, and they all acquitted themselves well. The problem seemed to be more that the more frequent rests of our starters kinda threw them out of rhythm (other than Ike, who was fabulous. Then again he needs rest a lot less often than everyone else, so for him, the change in the rotation probably wasn't much different than usual).
Battle had 8 points, 5 rebs, but just 2 assists (hard to get assists when the balls not going in the basket.. we shot just 40.3% for the game). He turned the ball over just once in 26 minutes though, so it was a good game for him overall.
Felts seemed a bit out of kilter, but had 10 pts, 3 rebs and played only sparingly at the point.
Ike, as I said was fabulous with 29 pts on 11/20 shooting, along with an assist, 4 rebs, 2 stls, and a block.
Moore, O'Conner, and Brown all had subpar games offensively and on the boards, but played strong post defense. They combined for just 11 points, 9 rebs, however.. we were getting that much out of O'Conner alone for the first half of the season.
The other 4 guys who we gave between 10 and 12 minutes apiece too all performed adequately or better. Bobby White was the real standout off the bench though with 7 points, 1 asts, 4 rebs, and 3 stls in just 10 minutes. Like Garvin Sanders, on nights when Bobby is ready to play he can really draw some oohs and aahs from the crowd. The problem for both of them has been the number of nights where they stood around like a couple of statues.
We were able to get curtain calls for the 6 scholarship seniors, including Geisen, and get Arenas and Landrum in the game on senior night, which they seemed to appreciate. About that same time another big roar came from the capacity crowd when it was announced Presbyterian had lost by 2 on the road.
strange game, but I am happy to get the win against a good team to finish the regular season on a positive note.
Final:
G-W 72 CC 59
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CoachC - DDS:CB Support Squad
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by CoachC » Fri May 24, 2013 5:48 pm
Feb 23: Moments after getting to the locker room last night, we heard another huge roar from the crowd that was still trying to exit the building. I sent Jeremy Patterson out to find out what the fuss was about. Turned out Liberty was upset at home by Longwood leaving us in a 3 way tie for first with the Flames and the Blue Hose. During the press conference we were informed that....believe it or not...after tie-breakers....we capture the top seed for the tournament! Even 3 days ago I thought that was impossible. Looks like someone is watching out for us. I'm still stunned by the news. Turns out that game at VMI was even bigger than I kept saying it was!
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CoachC - DDS:CB Support Squad
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