Agree with me or not, I just have to say it

#1

Chris89128

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#1
First and foremost I am a DIE-HARD Lady Vol basketball fan. With that said I have to get a few things off my chest.

Let me first start off by saying, I am not making excuses for the rollercoaster of a season this has been. We have won games we should not have on paper and lost ones we should not have as well.

Regarding yesterday's game:

We missed way too many layups, across the board. Russell missed at least 4 herself. I am trying my best to not call out individual players, but why does Jackson always seem to showboat when trying to make a layup?

She did that twice and missed both times. Nared has no sense of time and score either. Several times this season she has taken a shot which should have been the last shot of the quarter way too early and it has cost us.

The fact remains we have no TRUE PG on this team. That was obvious yesterday. Without someone willing to step up as a floor general and leader, this team will continue to have ups and downs.

The out of bounds missed call late in the game yesterday was huge. It amazes me that fans, and no one media included except Maria has even mentioned it. Instead of being up 3 with the ball, you are now tied. With that one call your in-game strategy completely changes, as does the pressure. Yes I know we gave up too many offensive rebounds and jacked up too many shots, but if you watch the game, A&M was pushing and shoving all game, and very few fouls were called.

Regarding Holly, yes she has her flaws. In my opinion, she does not use timeouts enough. The lack of depth this year is on her. She should have cut Elzy loose before last season. I truly believe the tension and disagreement between them cost us in recruiting for 2016. We are paying the price for it now and it's hard to watch at times I think Holly doesn't get enough credit for turning the recruiting around. Signing the number 1 class, especially with four top 15 kids, according to several recruiting services is hard to do. Especially in this day and age. I know her assistants play a huge role in recruiting, but ultimately they all wanted to play for Holly. If you read any story about each of them, they all say it. She has followed it up with two strong recruits for 2018. I truly believe come November we will have another exceptional class.

Losing Cooper turned out to be a bigger blow than I thought. I guess I expected JR as the lone senior to step up and take ownership of this team. In my opinion, she has not done that which I find disappointing.

I will say, I was surprised, listening to Holly while mic'd during the Missouri game, the woman knows how to coach. She gave the team clear instructions and made good adjustments as needed. With the way people criticize her, I expected to hear nonsense and gibberish during timeouts.

I for one think the media and fans have been exceedingly hard on this team all year. They have played one of the toughest schedules in the country, have some bad losses, and some great wins. I will never understand how teams like Arizona State, Syracuse, and Kansas State stay ranked and Tennessee doesn't. Compare wins and losses, RPI, SOS, to me it just doesn't add up. JMO.

Lastly, I don't know how this season will end, but I am one fan who even though frustrated at times will hold on tight and hope this team makes a deep run in March.
 
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#2
#2
First and foremost I am a DIE-HARD Lady Vol basketball fan. With that said I have to get a few things off my chest.

Let me first start off by saying, I am not making excuses for the rollercoaster of a season this has been. We have won games we should not have on paper and lost ones we should not have as well.

Regarding yesterday's game:

We missed way too many layups, across the board. Russell missed at least 4 herself. I am trying my best to not call out individual players, but why does Jackson always seem to showboat when trying to make a layup?

She did that twice and missed both times. Nared has no sense of time and score either. Several times this season she has take a shot which should have been the last shot of the quarter way too early and it has cost us.

The fact remains we have no TRUE PG on this team. That was obvious yesterday. Without someone willing to step up as a floor general and leader, this team will continue to have ups and downs.

The out of bounds missed call late in the game yesterday was huge. It amazes me that fans, and no one media included except Maria has even mentioned it. Instead of being up 3 with the ball, you are now tied. With that one call your in-game strategy completely changes, as does the pressure. Yes I know we gave up too many offensive rebounds and jacked up too many shots, but if you watch the game, A&M was pushing and shoving all game, and very few fouls were called.

Regarding Holly, yes she has her flaws. In my opinion, she does not use timeouts enough. The lack of depth this year is on her. She should have cut Elzy loose before last season. I truly believe the tension and disagreement between them cost us in recruiting for 2016. We are paying the price for it now and it's hard to watch at times I think Holly doesn't get enough credit for turning the recruiting around. Signing the number 1 class, especially with four top 15 kids, according to several recruiting services is hard to do. Especially in this day and age. I know her assistants play a huge role in recruiting, but ultimately they all wanted to play for Holly. If you read any story about each of them, they all say it. She has followed it up with two strong recruits for 2018. I truly believe come November we will have another exceptional class.

Losing Cooper turned out to be a bigger blow than I thought. I guess I expected JR as the lone senior to step up and take ownership of this team. In my opinion, she has not done that which I find disappointing.

I will say, I was surprised, listening to Holly while mic'd during the Missouri game, the woman knows how to coach. She gave the team clear instructions and made good adjustments as needed. With the way people criticize her, I expected to hear nonsense and gibberish during timeouts.

I for one think the media and fans have been exceedingly hard on this team all year. They have played one of the toughest schedules in the country, have some bad losses, and some great wins. I will never understand how teams like Arizona State, Syracuse, and Kansas State stay ranked and Tennessee doesn't. Compare wins and losses, RPI, SOS, to me it just doesn't add up. JMO.

Lastly, I don't know how this season will end, but I am one fan who even though frustrated at times will hold on tight and hope this team makes a deep run in March.

I agree with most of your assessment of HW's coaching. However, she lacks the ability to bring out the best in her players. I call this the "Pat-Geno" effect. Both of these great coaches had and have the ability to motivate their players to excellence, without hot-dogging or showboating. Please watch UCONN tonight against SC and you will see what I am talking about.
 
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#4
#4
Chris89128,

You are going get flamed. After a loss, doing anything other than demanding Holly's head on a platter is widely viewed as dooming the program and its fans to eternal hell. [If you feel some tightness around your throat, that of course is Darthvol].

This team, for a gamut of reasons, has a very thin of margin of error. If they were a better team, they could weather some of these storms better. A better team should have been able to overcome the miss call and put the miss shots behind them, defensively locking down A&M in the stretch run.

But as it turned, that was not the case and those missed chippies from MR, the bad management of the shot clock at the end of the quarters were tangible reasons they came up one basket short from a win.

I agree with you that the loss fo Te'a is a big one. She provided some defensive tenacity, energy, and an outside shooting threat. She could also play at Diamond's speed and make for a formidable fast bread duo, rather than Diamond out running her team and being left to make a creative shot.

But, you can't let Holly totally off the hook either. They have a season to figure this out.
And Jordan is a senior with a lot of experience and if Holly should know how to coach anyone, it would be a PG.

The equation for this team is simple; they win when they shoot a decent percentage. The fact that they get a lot of open shots--even down the stretch against texas A&M--indicates that the offensive sets are not ineffective; it is that the team doesn't make shots in crunch time.

But, the failing on Holly is that she has not implemented a plan B for when the team is not shooting well. You can hear her frustration when discussing how A&M won all the loose balls in the 4th quarter and kept getting 2nd and 3rd shots. We have seen that the LVs can win those loose balls, as they did against South Carolina.

I could have better understood this loss had it been on the road but at home with a fan base providing a boost, you should not loose an effort battle.

Whose to blame-- some has to go on the coaches and some on the players.

I had thought that Holly was pretty much guaranteed 2 years with her recruiting class before she would face any real pressure from the administration (that is, if she did not i an SEC title and/or make a Final four).

Despite some important upset wins, the LVs have enough bad losses that she might face pressure next year if the team does at least make the elite 8 and gets off to a poor start next season (and it will be a young team, particularly if DD and MR go pro).
 
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#5
#5
Cris89128,

You are going get flamed. After a loss, doing anything other than demanding Holly's head on a platter is widely viewed as dooming the program and its fans to eternal hell. [If you feel some tightness around your throat, that of course is Darthvol].

This team, for a gamut of reasons, has a very thin of margin of error. If they were a better team, they could weather some of these storms better. A better team should have been able to overcome the miss call and put the miss shots behind them, locking down A&M down the stretch.

But as it turned, that was not the case and those missed chippies from MR, the bad management of the shot clock at the end of the quarters were tangible reasons they came up one basket short from a win.

I agree with you that the loss fo Te'a is a big one. She provided some defensive tenacity, energy, and an outside shooting threat. She could also play at Diamond's speed and make for a formidable fast bread duo, rather than Diamond out running her team and being left to make a creative shot.

But, you can't let Holly totally off the hook either. They have a season to figure this out.
And Jordan is a senior with a lot of experience and if Holly should know how to coach anyone, it would be a PG.

The equation for this team is simple; they win when they shoot a decent percentage. The fact that they get a lot of open shots--even down the stretch against texas A&M--indicates that the offensive sets are not ineffective; it is that the team doesn't make shots in crunch time.

But, the failing on Holly is that she has not implemented a plan B for when the team is not shooting well. You can hear her frustration when discussing how A&M won all the loose balls in the 4th quarter and kept getting 2nd and 3rd shots. We have seen that the LVs can win those loose balls, as they did against South Carolina.

I could have better understood this loss had it been on the road but at home with a fan base providing a boost, you should not loose an effort battle.

Whose to blame-- some has to go on the coaches and some on the players.

I had thought that Holly was pretty much guaranteed 2 years with her recruiting class before she would face any real pressure from the administration (that is, if she did not i an SEC title and/or make a Final four).

Despite some important upset wins, the LVs have enough bad losses that she might face pressure next year if the team does at least make the elite 8 and gets off to a poor start next season (and it will be a young team, particularly if DD and MR go pro).

In no way does my post let Holly off the hook. It's on her that this team has no margin for error. Btw Jordan is not a PG.
 
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#9
#9
I do think the major thing with Holly is that she isn't getting the best out of her players. That's something she has to improve ASAP. I don't understand why we NEVER take the last shot when the shot clock is off. 4 coaches on the bench and neither one has addressed it. Jordan has definitely underachieved her last season as a Lady Vol. Not having a bench and a true PG has killed us. Our role players haven't stepped up either. Jackson doesn't give us much. We need at least 7/8 points from her every single game. Middleton defense is horrible. Opposing teams either take her off the dribble or post her up. If Diamond and Mercedes stay, there should be no way we lose more than 5 games next year.
 
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#12
#12
First and foremost I am a DIE-HARD Lady Vol basketball fan. With that said I have to get a few things off my chest.

Let me first start off by saying, I am not making excuses for the rollercoaster of a season this has been. We have won games we should not have on paper and lost ones we should not have as well.

Regarding yesterday's game:

We missed way too many layups, across the board. Russell missed at least 4 herself. I am trying my best to not call out individual players, but why does Jackson always seem to showboat when trying to make a layup?

She did that twice and missed both times. Nared has no sense of time and score either. Several times this season she has taken a shot which should have been the last shot of the quarter way too early and it has cost us.

The fact remains we have no TRUE PG on this team. That was obvious yesterday. Without someone willing to step up as a floor general and leader, this team will continue to have ups and downs.

The out of bounds missed call late in the game yesterday was huge. It amazes me that fans, and no one media included except Maria has even mentioned it. Instead of being up 3 with the ball, you are now tied. With that one call your in-game strategy completely changes, as does the pressure. Yes I know we gave up too many offensive rebounds and jacked up too many shots, but if you watch the game, A&M was pushing and shoving all game, and very few fouls were called.

Regarding Holly, yes she has her flaws. In my opinion, she does not use timeouts enough. The lack of depth this year is on her. She should have cut Elzy loose before last season. I truly believe the tension and disagreement between them cost us in recruiting for 2016. We are paying the price for it now and it's hard to watch at times I think Holly doesn't get enough credit for turning the recruiting around. Signing the number 1 class, especially with four top 15 kids, according to several recruiting services is hard to do. Especially in this day and age. I know her assistants play a huge role in recruiting, but ultimately they all wanted to play for Holly. If you read any story about each of them, they all say it. She has followed it up with two strong recruits for 2018. I truly believe come November we will have another exceptional class.

Losing Cooper turned out to be a bigger blow than I thought. I guess I expected JR as the lone senior to step up and take ownership of this team. In my opinion, she has not done that which I find disappointing.

I will say, I was surprised, listening to Holly while mic'd during the Missouri game, the woman knows how to coach. She gave the team clear instructions and made good adjustments as needed. With the way people criticize her, I expected to hear nonsense and gibberish during timeouts.

I for one think the media and fans have been exceedingly hard on this team all year. They have played one of the toughest schedules in the country, have some bad losses, and some great wins. I will never understand how teams like Arizona State, Syracuse, and Kansas State stay ranked and Tennessee doesn't. Compare wins and losses, RPI, SOS, to me it just doesn't add up. JMO.

Lastly, I don't know how this season will end, but I am one fan who even though frustrated at times will hold on tight and hope this team makes a deep run in March.

First of all, I appreciation your devotion to the program. I say that in all seriousness. However, there is more to coaching than knowing the X's and O's, even giving instruction. There are the intangibles, the ability to motivate, the ability to inspire, the ability to demand excellence, the ability to demand effort and the ability to get buy-in. Top coaches of top programs have those intangibles. They have the ability to instill pride in the history of a storied program. Accountability is evident in a top program and no player wants to be the one to let the program down. In top programs there are clear on the floor leaders. We have to ask ourselves, do we see those intangibles in the Lady Vol program? It seems to me that we have a lot of those missing pieces in the Lady Vol program.
 
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#13
#13
I will say, I was surprised, listening to Holly while mic'd during the Missouri game, the woman knows how to coach. She gave the team clear instructions and made good adjustments as needed. With the way people criticize her, I expected to hear nonsense and gibberish during timeouts.

exactly what good adjustments did Holly make? you know they scored a whopping 5 points in the 4th quarter right?
 
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#14
#14
We lost simply because we scored 5 points in 4th qtr. Lack of execution and lack of utilizing our inside players effectively.
 
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#15
#15
Yes out of necessity. Ask anyone neither JR or AM are PG. Unlike Cooper and Hayes. Westbrook can play both

Jordan was recruited as a PG. Per her recruitment article, she was told she would play both guard spots her freshman year and then PG full time afterwards.
 
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#16
#16
We lost simply because we scored 5 points in 4th qtr. Lack of execution and lack of utilizing our inside players effectively.

I'm also thinking that Holly would do well to remove the end-game strategy of "we have a decent lead, so let's slow the game down and hold onto the ball for 15 seconds before starting the play and then create a turnover and let the opponent come back."

That strategy doesn't seem to work for this team, no matter how many times they try it.
 
#17
#17
First and foremost I am a DIE-HARD Lady Vol basketball fan. With that said I have to get a few things off my chest.

Let me first start off by saying, I am not making excuses for the rollercoaster of a season this has been. We have won games we should not have on paper and lost ones we should not have as well.

Regarding yesterday's game:

We missed way too many layups, across the board. Russell missed at least 4 herself. I am trying my best to not call out individual players, but why does Jackson always seem to showboat when trying to make a layup?

She did that twice and missed both times. Nared has no sense of time and score either. Several times this season she has taken a shot which should have been the last shot of the quarter way too early and it has cost us.

The fact remains we have no TRUE PG on this team. That was obvious yesterday. Without someone willing to step up as a floor general and leader, this team will continue to have ups and downs.

The out of bounds missed call late in the game yesterday was huge. It amazes me that fans, and no one media included except Maria has even mentioned it. Instead of being up 3 with the ball, you are now tied. With that one call your in-game strategy completely changes, as does the pressure. Yes I know we gave up too many offensive rebounds and jacked up too many shots, but if you watch the game, A&M was pushing and shoving all game, and very few fouls were called.

Regarding Holly, yes she has her flaws. In my opinion, she does not use timeouts enough. The lack of depth this year is on her. She should have cut Elzy loose before last season. I truly believe the tension and disagreement between them cost us in recruiting for 2016. We are paying the price for it now and it's hard to watch at times I think Holly doesn't get enough credit for turning the recruiting around. Signing the number 1 class, especially with four top 15 kids, according to several recruiting services is hard to do. Especially in this day and age. I know her assistants play a huge role in recruiting, but ultimately they all wanted to play for Holly. If you read any story about each of them, they all say it. She has followed it up with two strong recruits for 2018. I truly believe come November we will have another exceptional class.

Losing Cooper turned out to be a bigger blow than I thought. I guess I expected JR as the lone senior to step up and take ownership of this team. In my opinion, she has not done that which I find disappointing.

I will say, I was surprised, listening to Holly while mic'd during the Missouri game, the woman knows how to coach. She gave the team clear instructions and made good adjustments as needed. With the way people criticize her, I expected to hear nonsense and gibberish during timeouts.

I for one think the media and fans have been exceedingly hard on this team all year. They have played one of the toughest schedules in the country, have some bad losses, and some great wins. I will never understand how teams like Arizona State, Syracuse, and Kansas State stay ranked and Tennessee doesn't. Compare wins and losses, RPI, SOS, to me it just doesn't add up. JMO.

Lastly, I don't know how this season will end, but I am one fan who even though frustrated at times will hold on tight and hope this team makes a deep run in March.

I just have to get this off my chest, You drunk?
 
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#18
#18
I like what the fan wrote at the top of this thread. Holly should get credit for helping turn things around recruiting wise. She made a change in her staff after the disaster of last year and that's important. I would also consider making another staff change this season if there is a total flame out.

We've seen this team play outstanding and seen them look like a high school squad. I don't know what to expect come tournament time. I do think there is better cohesion with the roster this year but the lack of depth is killing them.

Deshields, Nared and Russell have big time potential that we've seen more of this year than last, but I don't see how Middleton and Reyonlds were HSAA, Both are okay players but I expected more out of them as their careers have progressed. It doesn't help that UConn is still in the hunt for ANOTHER title and their least hyped roster in 12 years has looked unstoppable.
 
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#19
#19
I do think the major thing with Holly is that she isn't getting the best out of her players. That's something she has to improve ASAP. I don't understand why we NEVER take the last shot when the shot clock is off. 4 coaches on the bench and neither one has addressed it. Jordan has definitely underachieved her last season as a Lady Vol. Not having a bench and a true PG has killed us. Our role players haven't stepped up either. Jackson doesn't give us much. We need at least 7/8 points from her every single game. Middleton defense is horrible. Opposing teams either take her off the dribble or post her up. If Diamond and Mercedes stay, there should be no way we lose more than 5 games next year.

Stubbs9,you are spot on in your comments as most of Chris words are correct. The team is mentally fatigued and might could use a day off. Another poster mentioned showboating on layup so by Jackson,and she's not the only one. Diamond tries to start her finger roll layup from about one step too far out,so she misses a lot Two things stood out to me yesterday. One was seeing four Lady Vols start back down the floor when one shot. This happened several times. And,in the second quarter,Kortney was put in the game and lasted only until she committed a foul. She was very unhappy coming out of the game. Haven't seen this before and hope it doesn't portend a division on the team. Maybe there is an undercurrent that we are not aware of.
 
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#20
#20
I'm confused as to why people are spending more time worried about the ref giving the ball to TAMU on that play (something no one can control other than the ref) than the fact that even though the ref gave the ball back to TAMU... they missed the shot... If Tennessee doesn't allow TAMU their 12th offensive rebound of the night on that play TAMU doesn't tie the game right there. Then who it goes out of bounds on doesn't matter. In the last 3 minutes of the game alone Tennessee gave up 4 offensive boards. FIFTEEN on the night. Ironically, those 4 offensive boards in the last 3 minutes resulted in the same number of points for TAMU that Tennessee scored in the entire 4th quarter. If you aren't scoring and aren't rebounding I'm really not sure how you can expect to win in crunch time. You have to focus on what you can control and they just didn't do a very good job of that.
 
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#21
#21
Just a side note. When we are discussing this particular topic there seems to be a canned response regarding Holly and the future of the program. What no one ever really discusses is that while you're watching women's basketball it is just impossible to calculate from season to season... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... sorry. I was reading and writing about Lady Vols basketball and fell asleep again.
 
#22
#22
Chris:

You're a longtime Warlick apologist--well-intentioned, perhaps, reasonable, but an apologist nonetheless. She is not a good coach. We had a bad regular season last year; we're having a bad regular season this year. You mention the 4 top 15 recruits we've got coming in next year. You seem to forget that we have 4 top 15 recruits on THIS TEAM--maybe more than 4! So there's absolutely no reason to think we'll be better next year. We might be, but odds are we won't be.

Reynolds has been our starting point guard, by and large, for three years. She is plenty capable of playing the position well. She's got size and athleticism; she just doesn't have enough passion to win. She's an underachieving player on an underachieving team. She could be SO much better than she is.

Warlick simply isn't very smart and she's not a good leader. Her interviews are terrible. Good coaches are smart and pinpoint problems and areas of emphasis. Warlick mostly hems and haws and scratches her head. She has nothing to say anymore after losses--this has been true since last year. We are an underachieving team, as we were last year, and that's absolutely on the coach. If you or anybody thinks we are going to regain national prominence with Warlick as coach, well, you haven't been paying attention.
 
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#23
#23
Chris:

You're a longtime Warlick apologist--well-intentioned, perhaps, reasonable, but an apologist nonetheless. She is not a good coach. We had a bad regular season last year; we're having a bad regular season this year. You mention the 4 top 15 recruits we've got coming in next year. You seem to forget that we have 4 top 15 recruits on THIS TEAM--maybe more than 4! So there's absolutely no reason to think we'll be better next year. We might be, but odds are we won't be.

Reynolds has been our starting point guard, by and large, for three years. She is plenty capable of playing the position well. She's got size and athleticism; she just doesn't have enough passion to win. She's an underachieving player on an underachieving team. She could be SO much better than she is.

Warlick simply isn't very smart and she's not a good leader. Her interviews are terrible. Good coaches are smart and pinpoint problems and areas of emphasis. Warlick mostly hems and haws and scratches her head. She has nothing to say anymore after losses--this has been true since last year. We are an underachieving team, as we were last year, and that's absolutely on the coach. If you or anybody thinks we are going to regain national prominence with Warlick as coach, well, you haven't been paying attention.

Spot on!
Chris consider yourself flamed. :)
 
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#24
#24
I just have to get this off my chest, You drunk?

He has a right to his is opinion just like everyone else on here. In typical Holly-hater fashion, anyone who does not agree is attacked.

And before y'all start preaching to me about how "you have nothing against Holly personally," I DO believe that about some of you - but the last couple of days I have seen on this board where one poster said, and I quote: "I hate Holly Warlick - I mean I literally hate her," and another referred to her as a "man-woman." That kind of bulls*** has no business on here. A week or so ago, one poster suggested "locker room play" was the reason one player got playing time. It was quickly deleted. It is hard for me to fathom how someone could be so vile as to say such a disgusting thing.

When you include personal attacks in your comments, anything - any criticism you render or complaint you have about the program becomes completely irrelevant to me, because at that point it is apparent to me that you are nothing but a hater. If the state of a basketball program affects your personal life that greatly, you are really sad. If the state of a basketball program makes you literally hate a person, you may be psychotic.

Carry on.
 
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#25
#25
:popcorn:...sorry, my DSN server went down today and just trying to see if everything still works...:wavey:

GO HOLLY AND GO LADY VOLS!
 

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