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Is the Left Preparing for War If Trump Wins?

The propaganda campaign labeling Donald Trump as an aspiring dictator determined to use the military and national security apparatus against his political opponents is designed not to affect the upcoming election but rather to shape the post-election environment. It is the central piece of a narrative that, by characterizing Trump as a tyrant (indeed likening him to Hitler), establishes the conditions for violence — not just another attempt on Trump’s life, but political violence on a massive scale intended to destabilize the country.

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My notes on SC’s 75-69 win over Idaho State

Idaho State University was founded in 1901 as the Academy of Idaho, then Idaho Technical Institute (1915-27), Univ of Idaho Southern Branch (1937-47), Idaho State College until 1963 when it became Idaho State University (ISU)

ISU occupies 1000 small city acres (main campus is in Pocatello, ID), has an enrollment of 12,301 (10,017 undergrad), a $75M endowment, USN&WR No. 392 public school, WSJ No. 601

Famous alumni include Office Depot CEO Bruce Nelson, Actors William Peterson (CSI Las Vegas) and Sue Ane Langdon, Varsity Contractors/Lean Museum founder Don Aslett, 5x NFL Pro Bowler DE Jaren Allen, ESPN commentator/Steelers RB Merril Hoge, NFL/college head coach/OC Dirk Koetter, NFL head coach/DC Marvin Lewis, Texas A&M AD Bill Byrne, Utah Jazz announcer Ron Boone, Pole Vaulter Stacy Dragila, Heavyweight boxer Ed Sanders

ISU Athletics: NCAA D I FCS, Big Sky conference, (Cal Poly, E. Wash, Idaho, Montana, Montana St, NAU, N. Colo, Portland St, Sac State, UC Davis, Weger State), 3 NCAA Team titles (2 Boxing (1952, ‘57, 1981 NCAA Football D I FCS), 19 NCAA individual titles. Olympics: Inaugural women’s pole vault Gold Medalist Stacy Dragila, Decathlete Dan O’Brien (1996 gold medalist), Valarie Allman 2-time discus gold medalist

Colors – Orange & Black, Nickname – Bengals, fight song – ‘Growl, Bengals, Growl’, Mascot – Benny the Bengal

Basketball started in 1952 (921-1078, .461), 1977 Elite Eight, 5 Sweet Sixteen (last 1977), 11 NCAA appearances (last 1987), 9 RMAC conf titles, 3 Big Sky titles, 2 Big Sky tourney titles (last 1987). 5 NBA players (Ron Boone - only player in major pro sports to play in every available game in his career. In 13 seasons, played in all 1,041 potential games), Jeff Cook, Steve Hayes (fun fact played for BILL Musselman with Rapid City Thrillers), Greg Griffin, Dale Wilkinson)

Winningest coaches: Jim Killingsworth (109-54, .669), Herb Willliams (97-124, .439), Steve Belko (76-28, .731)

Current – Ron Looney (5th season) 53-97, .353. Career 383-229, .626 (D II Point Loma, Seattle Pacific; NAIA E. Oregon)

Currently: 0-1, 55-48 loss to ASU

All-time: SC leads 5-0, last 59-53 in 2010

ISU NET (n/a), KenPom 251, SC NET (n/a), KenPom 43

ISU Scoring (last season): 70.5 ppg (+0.4), 46% FG, 32.9% 3FG, 6.4 3’s/g, 68.6% FT. Rebs 32.1 pg (+1.9), Assists 12 pg, TOs 10.5 pg (+1.1), Stls 7.0 pg, Blks 3.6 pg

ISU Leaders:

Scoring: Isaiah Griffin 12 ppg (4-12 FG, 2-6 3FG, 2-2 FT), Jake O’Neil 10 ppg (5-13 FG), Connor Hollenbeck 10 ppg (4-9 FG, 0-3 3FG, 2-2 FT)

Rebounding: O’Neil 11 rpg, Griffin 7, Evan Otten 6, Assists Darling 3 pg, Steals O’Neil 2 pg, Blks Otten 2 pg

SC Leaders

SC Scoring
77 ppg (+26), 50% FG, 32% 3FG, 71.4% FT. Rebounds 36 pg (+2.0), Assists 21 pg, TOs 9 pg (+7.0), Steals 9 pg, Blks 3.0 pg

SC Leaders

Scoring: Chibuzo Agbo 14 ppg (45.5% FG, 44.4% 3FG, FT n/a), Matt Knowling 13 ppg (100% FG, n/a 3FG, 100% FT), Desmond Claude 9 ppg (33.3% FG, 0% 3FG, 75% FT), Saint Thomas 9 ppg (40% FG, 25% 3FG, FT n/a), Wesley Yates III 9 ppg (50% FG, 25% 3FG, FT n/a)

Rebounding: Thomas 5.0 pg, Agbo 4.0, Rashaun Agee 4.0, Josh Cohen 4.0; Assists: Thomas 4.0 pg, Knowling 4.0; Steals: Agbo 2.0 pg, Wesley Yates 2.0

(Last season stats)

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Pregame

Founder’s is half full. Guest speaker Asst Coach Will Conroy was hired by Muss after 9 yrs at UW, the last 2 as Assoc. Hd Coach to Mike Hopkins. Conroy played at Garfield HS in Seattle (4 state titles), prior to walking on at UW, played from 2001-05. UW’s all-time assists leader (515), 2-yr captain & Honorable Mention All-Pac-12. Undrafted but spent 7 yrs with NBA, D-League (2009 NBA D-League Sportsmanship Award) and foreign teams before joining Minnesota T-Wolves front office.

Began coaching career at UW in 2015 as asst to Lorenzo Romar, retained by Mike Hopkins in 2017 and promoted to Assoc. Hd Coach in 2022.

Conroy says he and his family feel welcomed by the Trojan family despite his yrs at UW and battles with SC. One of his best friends is former Trojan G Roy Smiley (Garfield alum, coach of Garfield Women’s bball and father to Top 2025 SG Legend Smiley (Link Academy, Branson). Growing up in Seattle cocoon, he thought it was the greatest place to be. Roy told him wait until you see SC and he has changed his mind. He is a fan of SC and its tradition and prestige. You don’t really know it until you spend time here, he says.

His scout on ISU: Want to slow the game and not let us run. Want to shoot a lot of 3s. We need to stop the 3’s, rebound and get out and run to speed up the pace of play. He says if you see Muss slapping the scorer’s table it’s because we gave up a 3 or allowed an offensive rebound -haha. He takes a few questions on Hornery (teaching team “The Trojan Way’), starting lineup (says T-Will is back), Wesley Yates (gym rat overcoming injury and just showing what he can do). He concludes by saying he needs us to invite our family and friends to the games!!

SC fans just don’t turn out for bball during football season for lesser opponents and that is the case tonight. The arena looks like a pre-Juju WBB game early on, hardly any students. It’s Thursday night so maybe partying on The Row. Expect Muss to market the frats.

The fans straggle in, 3731 announced, disappointing, but that’s SC bball. As always, Jacque Hill is here, as is 76ers Caleb Martin (Mountain West POY under Coach Muss at Nevada), Malski points out former NCAA player/ Youtuber & Instagram personality Austin McBroom (The Ace Family). Mrs. Muss (Danyelle Sargent) is here for her 3 men (Eric, Asst Michael and Grad Asst Matthew) – SC bball is a Muss family enterprise!

The Game

SC is favored by 23.5 pts vs ISU (picked 8th in Big Sky, Montana picked 1st by coaches, Montana St. 1st by media)

SC starts Josh Cohen, Saint Thomas, Chibuzo Agbo, Desmond Claude and Fr Isaiah Elohim (Sierra Canyon) – T-Will still sidelined with back spasms. Bryce Pope (UCSD), Kevin Patton (USD) also out. Patton is scheduled to return Nov 17 vs Cal.

ISU strikes first after the tip on a 3 from Griffin, Cohen hits SC's first bucket. It’s close until Claude’s layup 5 mins in makes it 10-5. SC pushes the lead to 12 on Shelley’s FT at 10:41 to make it 19-7 (SC’s largest lead).

ISU closes to 21-20 on Otten’s FT at 6:05. Two Cohen FTs at 1:32 put SC up 36-31. ISU makes it a 1 pt game with 31 secs left, before Cohen’s layup at :05 for last pts of the half. The layup was assisted by Saint Thomas who had an amazing 9 assists in the first half! I guess he can play a little PG at 6-ft-7, 235 lbs, in relief of Claude. Muss was not happy with Claude’s defense as he struggled to contain ISUs PG. Not only was Muss unhappy with his team, he was upset with the refs (loudly expressing his displeasure but avoiding a technical). The half ended 38-35

It turns out ISU was much better than anticipated. After holding ASU to 55 pts in their first game (7-pt loss), they showed a tough brand of D in this one. They looked like they were coached by Muss! They were very aggressive and not intimidated by SC.

Their PG Dylan Darling (WSU signee/medical RS) was the top scorer in the game (22 pts, 6-12 FG, 1-1 3FG, 9-10 FT) and continually drove to the rim and played thru contact. He also led the Bengals with 7 assists and added 2 rebs, 1 blk. If ISU had upset SC, he is the Player of the Game.

For the half:

ISU shot 45% FG (9-20), 42.3% 3FG (3-7), 87.5% FT (14-16)

SC shot 50% FG (15-30), 25% 3FG (2-8), 42.9% FTs (6-14)- an anomaly as they made 80% of their FTs (16-20) in the 2nd half.

In the second half, the play continued to be back and forth and the score tight. Thomas hit a 3 which gave SC a 6 pt lead 41-35 at 19:23 and at 16:33 a Cohen basket and 1 gave SC a 48-40, the largest of the second half. Darling’s FTs at 8:45 gave ISU the lead 58-57 and it was nervous time. A Cohen layup gave SC the lead back 59-58 at 7:55 before Griffin put the Bengals back on top 60-59 at 6:15.

Claude made it 63-60 SC at 5:13, but ISU went up 65-64 on an O’Neil layup at 3:24. Clark Slajchert (Penn) hit a pair of FTs to put SC up 66-65, Cohen made it 68-65 at 2:25. The Bengals were not done, they closed to1 pt 68-67 at 1:40 before Saint Thomas sans facemask hit a dagger 3 with 18 secs left to give SC a 71-67 lead. ISU would score once more with 4 secs left (71-69), before a pair of FT by Slajchert and another by Wesley Yates at :01 sealed the win for the Trojans. Final 75-69, in a nail biter.

For the game:

ISU scored 69 pts, shooting 46.7% FG (21-45), 33% 3FG (4-12), 76.7% FT (23-30)

SC scored 75 pts, shooting 42.9% FG (24-56), 25% 3FG (5-20), 64.7% FT (22-34)

There were 7 lead changes and 5 ties in the game. Two ISU players scores in double digits (Darling 22, Griffin 10). Otten led with 12 rebs, O’Neil 9. Darling had 7 assists, O’Neil 3. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this; the Bengals didn’t have a single steal (SC had 6). The biggest positive for ISU was a +15 rebs edge over SC (40 to 25) leading to 17 2nd chance pts

SC had 3 double digit scorers: Josh Cohen 19, Yates 13, Thomas 10. Thomas led with 7 rebs, Cohen & Agee 4, but only 1 defensive board. This was a sore point for Muss who will continue to drill this area in practice. On the plus side 20 of SC’s 24 FGs (83%) came on assists and SC had a high assists/TO ratio (20/6 = 3.3)

ISU controlled the tempo and held SC to only one fast break!

Bottom line is that SC came thru and got the win to go 2-0 on the season. ISU falls to 0-2 but looks like they could surprise in the Big Sky conference.


Next Up: UT Arlington on Wednesday Nov 13 at 8 pm. The game will air on Big Ten Network

Fight On! Beat the Mavericks!
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Ryan/Taj

We’ve said all along that even though we questioned LR’s defenses and his ability to fix that side of the ball, that we’d always trust his offenses, and especially, his decisions when it comes to which QB’s to recruit/play.

What is your trust level in him now to make the right decisions when it comes to recruiting QB’s (and even developing QB’s)? Wouldn’t any blind faith that you have in him as a QB Whisperer be fairly outdated at this point?

If we just take the three years sample size at USC, I’d grade him as follows:

HS Recruiting: D (being generous)
- Malachi Nelson was a complete misevaluation on every dimension, and cost us Nico Iamaleava (or Aidan Chiles).
- Failed to recruit a HS QB last year after striking out on Raiola and Lagway, which is also hard to wrap my mind around (sure it’s hard to stack 5-stars, but how do you not get a depth 4-star type?)
- Put all of his eggs in the basket of Julian Lewis this year, despite clear signals that the guy wants to be anywhere but USC and has shown major culture risk.

QB Development: B
- It’s only a B because Caleb went from a spot starter in year 1 at OU to a Heisman winner in year 2 at USC. But he got worse (or at the very least, didn’t improve) between Soph and Junior seasons. But OK, he was so good already that how much better could he have really gotten? Based on the fact that he won the Heisman, this has to be an A by default, though I’m pretty sure Caleb would have been a superstar in about 50 other programs if not more.
- Moss - this is his third year in the program and Lincoln based the entire season on his evaluation of Miller in practices. It’s clear that Moss hasn’t shown any sort of development over the course of this season. So for the misevaluation in thinking Miller was good enough, or for the lack of development in Miller, this deserves a D, if not an F, given this position is supposed to be LR’s speciality and the lack of production here or the lack of fit with how LR wants to run his offense has landed us with a 4-5 record.

So all in all - can you really honestly say at this point that you trust LR when it comes to making decisions about his QB? And please don’t cite Oklahoma stats from seven years ago…I don’t know who that coach was, but it’s not the one who is currently running this program.

C'mon Ryan and all the other Lincoln apologists. GITT and tell us why the state of the football program is acceptable

Tell us that we are only 4 plays away from being 7-0. Tell us that Lincoln inherited a mess and needs more time. Tell us the recruiting has not been up to par because of Pre-riley issues, tell us whatever you want to justify this pile of shit.

Sorry to say, but we were better under Helton. $100M and three years later and we are still a hot mess of garbage.
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My notes on SC's 77-51 win over UT Chattanooga

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) was founded in 1886 as private and racially exclusive Chattanooga University, which merged in 1889 with Grant Memorial University (now Tennessee Wesleyan) becoming the Chattanooga campus of U.S. Grant Memorial University. In 1907, name change to the University of Chattanooga, which in 1969 joined the UT system becoming the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

UTC occupies 321 urban acres, enrolls 11,638 (10,239 undergrad), $147M endowment, USN&WR No. 315 public school

Famous alumni include Actors Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver), Dennis Haskins (Mr. Belding -Saved by the Bell), Leslie Jordan (Emmy winner, comedian, singer), Chemist Irvine Grote inventor of active ingredient in Rolaids & Bufferin, NFL HOFer Terrell Owens, AFL All-Star Boston Patriot Charlie Long, NY Knick Gerald Wilkins (brother of Dominique)

UTC Athletics: NCAA Div I, Southern Conference (The Citadel, ETSU, Furman, Mercer, UNC Greenville, Samford, VMI, Wofford, WCU). 7 NCAA Titles: 6 Women’s Tennis, 1977 Men’s Basketball D2 National Championship. 26 NCAA individual titles: 19 Women’s Tennis, 6 Wrestling, Men’s Tennis

Colors – Navy & old gold, Nickname – Mocs (since 1996, was Moccasins), fight song - Fight Chattanooga, Mascot – a water moccasin in 1920’s, a moccasin shoe in 1960’s-70’s, Chief Moccanooga until 1996, now Scrappy the Moc, dressed as a RR engineer, a reference to Chattanooga’s history as a RR hub and the song Chattanooga Choo Choo

Basketball started 1915 (1443-1161, .554), 1977 (Div 2) National Champions, 1976 runner-up, 2 Final Fours, 2 Elite Eights, 4 Sweet Sixteen’s, 17 NCAA appearances (last 2022), 14 Conf. championships, 12 conf. tournament championships. 4 NBA draft picks (Russ Schoene (1982 Rd 2), Willie White (1984 Rd 2), Gerald Wilkins (1985 Rd 2), Johnny Taylor (1997 Rd 1)). UDFA Matt Ryan 2020, currently playing in NBA.

Winningest coaches: Mack McCarthy 243-122, .666, John Shulman 145-146, .498, Ron Shumate 139-61, .695

Current - Dan Earl (3rd season) 39-29, .574

Currently: 0-0, first game of season for both teams

All-time: SC leads 1-0, 2008 Puerto Rico Tip-off 73-46 W (Taj Gibson 17 pts, 15 rebs, 5 blks, Dwight Lewis 16 pts, DeMar DeRozan 13 pts, Daniel Hackett 10 pts, 9 assts, Leonard Washington 9 pts, 12 rebs)

UTC NET n/a, KenPom 151, SC NET n/a, KenPom 44

UTC Scores: 78.2 ppg (+6.6), 46.6% FG, 35.9% 3FG, 10.6 3’s/g, 74.5% FT. Rebounds 36.5 pg (+2.2), Assists 13.5 pg, TOs 11.9 pg (-1.5), Steals 6.3 pg, Blks 3.7 pg

UTC Leaders (last season):

UTC Scoring
: Honor Huff 17.4 ppg (43.4% FG, 38% 3FG, 82.8% FT), Trey Bonham 16.0 ppg (48.4% FG, 41.3% 3FG. 84% FT).

UTC Rebounding: Bonham 5.0, Assists –Bonham 3.6, Huff 2.6; Steals – Bonham 2.4 stpg, Huff 1.7, Blks – n/a

SC scoring (last season N/A – all new team)

SC Leaders (from last season’s schools)

user generatedPregame

I am the only one with a Muss Bus T-shirt in the Founder’s Room. Assistant Coach Todd Lee is guest speaker. Lee’s relationship with Muss spans 30+ yrs. He was on his Rapid City Thrillers staff from 1992-94 after 3 yrs as asst to legendary USD coach Hank Egan, who was Muss’ coach with the Toreros. He next was an asst coach at CSUB, UCI, head coach at Kentucky Wesleyan, asst at GCU and then head coach of the South Dakota Coyotes (2-time Summit League COY and finalist for National COY) for 4 yrs. In 2023 joined Muss’ Arkansas staff and followed him to SC.

Lee provided a scout on UTC- Mocs won 21 games last season, beat Louisville in opener, shoot a ton of 3’s and run a Princeton offense with a lot of backdoor action. PG Bonham is the pre-season conference POY pick and shooting guard Hoff led the conference in scoring last season and attempted 9 threes/game. UTC is picked 2nd in the Southern Conference.

Muss has set a goal of 5 made 3s against the Mocs who over the last 5 yrs have been top 3 in the nation in 3-pt attempts. In a lighter moment, Lee tells the crowd that if they want to have some fun to watch Muss’ expression any time the Mocs sink a 3, he lives or dies with every possession haha. The way to lose to a mid-major school is to give up 3’s, so they are going to try to take away the 3-pt game. They will also attempt to ‘pressure the QB’ in the Princeton offense and stop their ability to play make with their backdoor cuts.

Lee says that Muss’ teams have consistently been Top 5 in FTA’s (free throw attempts) and will drive to the rim to pick up fouls and get to the line. This is a hallmark of his teams. They had 33 FTAs in the Gonzaga exhibition.

They recognize that their disadvantage is lack of a true center. Their advantage is the size and length of the guards. They think they can post up against the small Moc guards and defend the 3 effectively.

SC will use the same starters as the Gonzaga game, with the possible exception of Terrence Williams II. T-Will is having back spasms and is a game-time decision.

The Game

On the way to the arena a guy asks where I got the shirt, I replied ‘USCBasketball.com’ (free endorsement -hah) and he says ‘I know, I write the practice reports for the site.’ I say ‘are you Sky Lam” and he says he is (Looking happy or surprised to be recognized for his work). Entering the arena, the crowd is a very small, 3294 announced, unfortunately a typical SC crowd for a bball game during football season vs a non-marquee team. This needs to change when the B1G schools come visit us. We can’t let it be their home game!

Very few media are present and no NBA scouts (although 22 scouts have reportedly shown up at SC practices in Muss’ time). Former PG Jaque Hill is here. I spy Mama Agbo (who will be happy that Chibuzo was SC’s top scorer) and T.O. behind the Mocs bench.

After a well done hype video, featuring a real Muss Bus, the man himself enters.

SC sends out a starting line-up of:

G Desmond Claude (Xavier)
G Chibuzo Agbo (Boise St)
F Jalen Shelley for T-Will (FR out of Little Elm, TX)
F Saint Thomas (Northern Colo)
C Josh Cohen (UMass)

After the first game nerves, the teams settled down to play and I am finding myself buying into this team and its frenetic head coach. These guys go hard all of the time, they don’t take plays off and they play a stifling brand of team defense (forced 4 shot clock violations). They play D for every second of every possession! They communicate, keep their hands up, switch on screens, they get in the face of shooters. I absolutely love it. This team dubbed by Muss as ‘sewer rats’ is ready to scrape and claw their way to relevance in the B1G and nationally. I am already thinking Big Dance – too soon?

Offensively, this team of players who were “the guy” at their previous schools plays with a single purpose and without ego. They share the ball freely, getting 21 assists in this game. They all just want to win, get to post-season and advance.

Scoring was balanced with 7 players scoring at least 8 pts, and Agbo 14 (4-9 3FGs) and Matt Knowling 13 (off the bench with 6-6 FGs), in double figures. Fun fact: Knowling (Yale) and Clark Slajchert (Penn) are the first Ivy leaguers Muss has ever recruited, and he was inspired by the success Lindsay Gottlieb had with her Ivy League “nerds” McKenzie Forbes (Harvard), Kayla Padilla (Penn), Kaitlyn Davis (Columbia).

SC holds a 32-22 half-time lead. UTC shot 8-27 FG (29.6%), 2-15 3FG (13.3%) – on track to meet Muss’ goal! 4-4 FT (100%). SC shot 13-30 FG (43.3%), 3-12 3FG (25%), 3-3 FT (100%).

In the 2nd half SC stretched its lead and shut down UTC’s shooters. Trey Bonham was held to 6 pts (1-10 FG, 0-5 3FG, 4-4 FT). Honor Huff hit 5 threes for a game high 17 pts but it took 15 shots. Still, great perimeter defense (6-34 on 3s,17.6%). UTC shot 25.9% FG in the 2nd half to finish at 27.8% for the game.

SC turned up their offense and shot 55.9% FG to finish the game 32-64 FG (50%). The strange thing is that SC only shot 7 FTs for the game (5-7, 71.4%) surely the lowest mark of any game Muss has coached. So that is one thing to work on, the other would be rebounding, as the Mocs were able to grab 13 offensive rebs, which led to 11 second chance points.

After playing an up-tempo game against the Zags and scoring 96 pts, SC had 0 fastbreak pts and scored 77 pts in the 77-51 victory. They did force 16 TOs while committing only 9. They dominated in the paint with 34 pts to 16 for UTC and the roster depth showed with a whopping 41 bench pts, 30 more than the Mocs.

Replying to a “we want Hornery chant” from Harry’s closest friends haha, Muss summoned the new crowd favorite for a 4 min run. He knocked down a 3-ptr and grabbed a reb.

Three players saw their first collegiate action. Wesley Yates, UW xfer, showed out. Plays with confidence and scores from all three levels, despite a bit of a quirky looking shot. He played 21 min. scoring 9 pts (4-8 FG, 1-4 3FG), with 3 rebs, 3 asst, 2 stls. Jalen Shelley got the start, but after shooting 0-3 played only 9 minutes. Isaiah Elohim was impressive scoring 8 pts (4-6 FG) and grabbing 3 rebs in 13 min. These 3 players along with the injured Kevin Patton are the only sure returners next season. Desmond Claude has another year of eligibility but has a choice on whether to opt into the draft.

This game showed how Muss wants his team to play and they will only get better, especially after T-Will returns to the line-up.

Next up: Idaho State Bengals from the Big Sky Conference on Thursday at 7pm at Galen Center. The Bengals (0-1) are coming off a 55-48 loss to ASU in Tempe.

Fight On! Beat the Bengals!

Time Out Explanation

Was there an explanation of the referees calling a long timeout on our drive that ended on the 2 yard line? 2nd and goal from the 2 yard line, ran the ball downfield on consecutive runs, UW D beat and then a TV timeout? After timeout, Riley calls a stupid pass play that is incomplete, a pitch running play on 3rd and Woody gets stuffed on 4th. We had all the momentum and that TO stopped us from taking the lead.
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