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Speaker 1: All right, twenty seven from four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 1: I'm Oweger, thank you so much for listening today. The

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Speaker 1: University of Cincinnati women's basketball team opens up it's season

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Speaker 1: next Tuesday against Lehigh Lehi, the Patriot League champions. The

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Speaker 1: Bearcats are going to play four teams during non conference

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Speaker 1: play that advanced to the postseason last year. The Bearcats

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Speaker 1: played an exhibition two nights ago, defeating Taylor one oh

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Speaker 1: four to sixty seven. This is a highly anticipated season

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Speaker 1: in the Big Twelve for the University of Cincinnati women's

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Speaker 1: basketball program and the head coach, Katrina Merriweather, who I

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Speaker 1: think fresh out of a meeting kind enough to join us.

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Speaker 1: As always, coach, it's going to have you. How are you.

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Speaker 2: It's great to talk to you. Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: What's more fun sitting in a meeting or talking to me?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely talking to you with these meetings. That's how our

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Speaker 2: key is all the time.

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Speaker 3: There's things that you have to do so that you

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Speaker 3: can do what you love to do, and that's what

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Speaker 3: meetings are for me.

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Speaker 1: All right, So I'm sure you have a lot to discuss.

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Speaker 1: We're less than a week away from the opener. What

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Speaker 1: are those days just before the first game that counts

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Speaker 1: like for you and your staff.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we're doing a few days of skill development, trying

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Speaker 3: to clean up some things from the exhibition.

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Speaker 2: Playing Taylor was really good for us. They're gonna have

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Speaker 2: a great season.

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Speaker 3: They have a really good player, and so we're gonna

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Speaker 3: have to do better maintaining and garden.

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Speaker 2: And I was happy with our offense.

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Speaker 3: Defense not so much, so that'll be an emphasis. And

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Speaker 3: then a couple of days before we'll start actually preparing

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Speaker 3: for Lehigh and getting this prepared as we can with

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Speaker 3: it being the first game with no previous games to watch.

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Speaker 1: What do you like most about your team right now?

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Speaker 2: I love how they play together. I think we have

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Speaker 2: great chemistry.

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Speaker 3: That's one of the reasons we were able to score

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Speaker 3: main points very rarely in the last couple of years

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Speaker 3: that we had more assistant turnovers. And so we've seen

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Speaker 3: a huge improvement just from our close scrimage to our

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Speaker 3: intrasquad scrimmage to our exhibition game.

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Speaker 2: So they are growing and getting better, and I love

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Speaker 2: how they play with each other.

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Speaker 1: I know what d Alexander has already meant to your program,

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Speaker 1: and I know what She's going to meet your program.

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Speaker 1: I just I put myself in her shoes and I go,

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Speaker 1: you know, you build to this point, you're about to

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Speaker 1: start your college basketball career, and it's it's delayed, right,

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Speaker 1: you have to wait, and you come to grips with that.

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Speaker 1: She's an athlete, she's a competitor, she understands all that.

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Speaker 1: That doesn't mean it's it's easy. And so I guess

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Speaker 1: my question is how is she doing dealing with an

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Speaker 1: injury that she suffers right before the season begins.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's heartbreaking, right.

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Speaker 3: You have a kid that comes in with all the hype,

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Speaker 3: and deservingly so, the All Star Games, the honors, the

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Speaker 3: all the things, and then she gets here and she

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Speaker 3: hits some obstacles and then this last one obviously is

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Speaker 3: going to take her out for a little bit. And

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Speaker 3: we're just supporting her as best we can. We have

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Speaker 3: a great medical team that's looking after her. Her family

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Speaker 3: and her friends have been phenomenal, and I think her teammates,

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Speaker 3: because of the type of person she is, they've embraced

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Speaker 3: her even more and they're doing everything they can look

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Speaker 3: out for her too. So in my opinion, she's going

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Speaker 3: to continue to do well. Because she knows that we're

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Speaker 3: behind her and we're supporting her.

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Speaker 1: There are newcomers on every team and every sport, more

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Speaker 1: so than ever before. You have eight this year. What

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Speaker 1: has stood out about the way that they have blended

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Speaker 1: with each other and the players you bring back from

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Speaker 1: last season.

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Speaker 3: I think our leadership from the five returners, where they

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Speaker 3: just want to continue taking steps forward for the program

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Speaker 3: and in the Big twelve, allows them to embrace the

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Speaker 3: eight new ones. Getting Mary Carden out of the portal,

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Speaker 3: giving us the more depth and size and the five

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Speaker 3: spot along with Maya Peri and Ohio native that.

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Speaker 2: Can shoot the pill off the ball.

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Speaker 3: We know how important it is to be able to

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Speaker 3: have an exterior threat, perimeter threat. And then those six freshmen,

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Speaker 3: they're all different, they all bring something very special to

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Speaker 3: the table. Outside of d Kalia de Vilisi is the

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Speaker 3: most decorated from high school and she's a phenomenal point guard.

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Speaker 3: Had seventeen points, seven assists, and two turnovers in our

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Speaker 3: exhibition game, proven that she can just score and bunches

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Speaker 3: as well as create for other people. Kylie Torrens is

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Speaker 3: probably our biggest and best surprise, as we picked her

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Speaker 3: up late in the spring after she decommitted, and she's

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Speaker 3: starting in the four spot, and she's energetic and the

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Speaker 3: impacts of game on both ends. And Julia Crawford is

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Speaker 3: a heck of an offensive player. And Cali Bard and

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Speaker 3: Page will be joining us soon, but they're sitting out

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Speaker 3: right now temporarily, so you know, there's a lot of

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Speaker 3: playing time available, so they better figure out how to

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Speaker 3: play well.

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Speaker 1: Thrown to the Wolves, what is I mean? There's the obviously,

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Speaker 1: there's the size, the athleticism, the speed. I mean, there

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Speaker 1: are so many different things that you have to get

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Speaker 1: used to when you make the leap from high school

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Speaker 1: to this this level of college basketball. Getting said for

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Speaker 1: a season in the Big twelve, Beyond the obvious, what's

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Speaker 1: the biggest adjustment, It's.

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Speaker 2: Always going to be time management. Right.

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Speaker 3: We bring them in in the summer and we have

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Speaker 3: limited time to work out. The rules allow you to

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Speaker 3: do four hours of basketball and four hours to strength

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Speaker 3: and conditioning. They take one or two classes and their

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Speaker 3: days seem free, and then fall hits and it's five

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Speaker 3: classes and it's twenty hours worth of practice, and I

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Speaker 3: think their heads starts to spend a little bit, and

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Speaker 3: so what really they discover is the more they take

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Speaker 3: care of themselves, the more that they fuel and hydrate

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Speaker 3: and rest and go to treatment, and they're proactive and

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Speaker 3: preventative and still find in time to get the gym.

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Speaker 3: The slower the transition is. If you try to take

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Speaker 3: a nap, every chance to get in your days a

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Speaker 3: little fool So that's to me, the biggest challenge that

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Speaker 3: they have is managing all the things that are going

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Speaker 3: to be in a Division one athlete.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't manage my time in college and I played

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Speaker 1: intermural basketball forty five minutes a week, so I can't

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Speaker 1: even imagine you took your players on an international trip.

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Speaker 1: You went to Rome, you played international competition. I think

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Speaker 1: two games give me an idea of how that's paid

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Speaker 1: off for your kids.

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Speaker 3: Well, I have to be honest, the chemistry is the

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Speaker 3: number one factor. Like to watch them bond together, for

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Speaker 3: them to eat gelato, for us to have a cooking class,

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Speaker 3: for them to learn the culture and see all the

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Speaker 3: different the sites.

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Speaker 2: I think that that was the best part for them.

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Speaker 3: The best part for me was being able to suit

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Speaker 3: up and play with some lineups because this freshman class

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Speaker 3: in particular is very versatile. So who is my backup

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Speaker 3: point guard? You know, who is going to be able

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Speaker 3: to play the three and four? Who's going to be

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Speaker 3: able to be on the floor and play well with who?

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Speaker 3: And that will always be the biggest benefit for me,

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Speaker 3: on top of watching them grow together as a team

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Speaker 3: and build and bond.

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Speaker 1: You had me a Gelatto. The rest of the other stuff.

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Speaker 1: I gotta be honest with you, it doesn't matter all

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Speaker 1: that much.

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Speaker 2: The Gelato had all of us in the hold. Yes, yes,

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Speaker 2: we went every night. We all went every night to

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Speaker 2: finish the night off. We were thre at the Gelatto shop.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds I'm going to daydream about that the

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Speaker 1: rest of the day. Uh, you checked the box last year,

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Speaker 1: first winning season in UCE women's basketball in five years,

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Speaker 1: and it's that's you have to improve upon that. You

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Speaker 1: know that. But do you feel like the foundation has

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Speaker 1: kind of been laid, you know, and it's like, all right,

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Speaker 1: we did this, We're a winning program, we're in the

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Speaker 1: Big twelve. We've put the growing pains of the first

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Speaker 1: season or two behind us, and now we can kind

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Speaker 1: of take off from here.

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Speaker 3: Well, I'm really optimistic about us being able to take

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Speaker 3: steps forward We'll have to see how that manifests. Because

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Speaker 3: you can't discount losing Jillian Hayes, right, and having someone

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Speaker 3: with so much experience and being an All Conference player

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Speaker 3: in the Big Twelve, including today Hilton, you know, who

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Speaker 3: had sec experience and came in and just impacted our

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Speaker 3: team and program and conference in.

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Speaker 2: Such a positive way. Do I feel like we've replaced them?

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Speaker 2: I think it's difficult to do that, especially with just

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Speaker 2: one player.

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Speaker 3: So what we just sold this team is one thing

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Speaker 3: is for certain. This whole team needs this whole team,

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Speaker 3: and the way that we're going to take a step

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Speaker 3: forward is not going to be by individual performances. It's

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Speaker 3: going to be about playing together as a team on

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Speaker 3: both ends of the floor.

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Speaker 1: Makes sense. I know you have a lot going on.

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Speaker 1: The opener is fast approaching. Cannot thank you enough. You're

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Speaker 1: always kind enough whenever we ask, even if you're in meetings.

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Speaker 1: Great best of luck this season and we'll chat as

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Speaker 1: the season unfolds. Thank you so much.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate you. Thank you have a good one.

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Speaker 1: You got it. Katrina Merriwether the women's basketball coach at

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Speaker 1: the University of Cincinnati. Her team opens up the season

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Speaker 1: against Lee High on Tuesday at Fifth Third Arena. Our

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Speaker 1: best wishes to d Alexander, who is going to be

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Speaker 1: at a while with an injury. And you know, as

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Speaker 1: decorated as she is, as as much as she has

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Speaker 1: emerged as the face of the program before playing in

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Speaker 1: a regular season game, you just you feel, you feel

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Speaker 1: for as much started a college basketball career playing for

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Speaker 1: her hometown school, and the rug kind of gets pulled

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Speaker 1: out from underneath our at least for a while. It's

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Speaker 1: eighteen away from five o'clock. No, it's not. It's eighteen

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Speaker 1: away from four o'clock. She's talking about time management. I

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Speaker 1: can't even tell time at Malager on Twitter. Thanks to

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Speaker 1: Delta Dental, Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities

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Speaker 1: for all. Good to Delta dentaloh dot com. So there's

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Speaker 1: a ton of college football coaches who don't have jobs anymore.

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Speaker 1: What can we learn from that, our friend Amy Wagner

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Speaker 1: tells us next