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Vocal Strain Poses Long-Term Risks for Coaches. Anyone Have a Lozenge?

Some college basketball coaches protect their voices with daily cups of tea. Others gargle with salt water in the morning and before games. Others stick with Life Savers and cough drops. Or at least they try.

“I don’t have the patience to suck on them,” Rhode Island Coach Dan Hurley said of his on-again, off-again relationship with throat lozenges. “I just crush them up in seconds.”

Buzz Williams received a warning in the form of a camera down his throat. Five years ago, when he was the coach at Marquette, Williams was in the midst of another grinding season when he received a letter from an alumna.