WOW: Fox Basketball Analyst WRONG About Michigan over Arizona Wildcats?! March Madness Predictions

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Arizona basketball has its best team ever

and can add to the trophy case.

Will they find out next?

This is Lockdown Wildcats.

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Hello and welcome into Lockdown Wildcats.

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Now the number one sports podcast network.

I'm your host, Lief Tuleen,

your resident college basketball guru,

Stats Nerd, point guard by game and ball and lower by trade.

And I'm excited to talk to Arizona.

Who's with you today?

Oh, and I am so excited because I brought in.

If I'm a fast for his point guard,

I brought in the sharpshooter at two guard, Casey Jacobson.

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And like I said, today on the show,

the great Casey Jacobson and I discussed Arizona's recent

stretch of form with COA coming back.

Where do they rank among contenders for Casey?

And if Arizona wins at all, what happens?

And if Arizona is knocked out before the final four,

what happens with all that said?

Let's dive right in.

Casey's been on my show kind enough to do it.

This is the third time.

And I'm going to switch to my listeners.

That COA's injury could be a silver lining.

And there's peaks and valleys in the season.

And that could be a value losing those two games,

but the peak could be a higher peak

than the 23 and 0 prior to the injury.

What do you make of that take?

I like it.

I like hot takes.

Hot of the better.

You know, I do think a couple of things.

You know, what I talked about last time

in your show is losses to good teams

in January and February can be a good thing.

Injuries, as long as they're not long-term

can be a good thing for other guys' development.

And also for the injured player,

maybe he gets a different perspective

watching, you know, on the bench.

I, for my career personally,

I was lucky to be healthy for most of it.

I did get injured during my professional career

in Germany towards the end of my career.

I was out for about five weeks or so.

And I can't tell you how grateful I am looking back

at that time to sit on the bench,

watch the game from a different perspective,

become a better teammate.

And when I got back on the floor shortly

before the postseason began,

I think I returned maybe two weeks

before our playoff run began.

I was so grateful and like mentally

I was in a better place.

Yeah, I was a little bit worried

and like, is my body okay?

But that lasted only a couple of games

and I was like, yeah, I'm ready to go.

And then we ended up winning the championship

and it was one of my more enjoyable runs

because I felt like I could be more present

and I had more gratitude.

So that's just a small little story

of what it can be like as frustrating as it is

and not be able to play.

Koa Pete only missed three games.

But I'm sure, I'm sure Koa was so anxious

to get back on the floor.

But they won all three games.

They beat BYU, they beat Houston,

they beat Baylor all without Koa.

And I think Koa understands,

and so is the rest of the team,

that no one player on this group

is more important than the rest.

I mean, we can go,

we can start ranking importance of Wildcats

if you want to.

I mean, I think Jade Bradley

would be like super important for this team.

But I don't think there's any one player

that like, you know, if you take them off the board,

Arizona can't win.

That's not true.

And I would say that that is one of their superpowers.

That there aren't a lot of teams in the country

that you can say that about.

Now, specifically by your question of Koa,

he's been back for three games now.

And I did think he looked a teeny bit rusty

in the first couple of games,

not like anything, you know, red flag type of stuff,

but just looked like he'd been out for a bit of time.

And, you know,

but his performance in the first half

against Colorado was awesome to watch.

I know probably his best game was Game 1 against Florida,

but I liked this game against Colorado

just because he showcased so much of his footwork,

his mid-range, his post touch.

He was a monster and he scored in a variety of ways.

And in a game where Colorado couldn't miss,

man, Colorado came ready to play at home.

They had nothing to lose.

They had an outfit to flow in rhythm.

It seemed like Arizona was going to drown without Koa.

So sure, sure, a big competence booster for him,

you know, they possibly,

possibly lose to Colorado has been terrible season

without Koa's 25 points.

And, you know, yeah, he didn't rebound

as much as he normally does,

but he was needed to score in that game.

And that's what he did.

So welcome back to the full Koa.

I mean, he's a total stud.

And one of the better, true like power forward

in the entire sport even as a freshman.

Yeah, and he was great.

And entering that game,

I do a preview before every game.

And by big keys,

I usually give like, okay,

you want to establish the dominance of the pain.

And then we talk about pop the paint oriental points.

And I said, let's get 60 because Colorado

is not very good at that.

They got 73,

but my last key I ended with was

get Koa Pete's confidence back

because yeah, he guarded Joshua Jefferson,

the two of 17,

but he's a great athlete.

We've always known that.

We want him to be assertive offensively

because that takes teams to new levels.

They have to guard in different ways

when Koa Pete plays versus

when Toby O'Locka plays.

And what I think really helped Arizona as a team

was when Koa was out,

they realized it's hard to score

and manufacture some of the looks.

And so they tried to find new ways to score.

They shot a few more threes,

Anthony Delorso,

who had been in a putrid swim,

found his way into being very good.

And now he's peeking at the right time of the season

because he needed to score

to compliment what was lacking.

Like Koa Pete's an interior score

and Anthony Delorso was not,

but they needed to find new ways to score.

Tommy Lloyd drew up plays for him.

He had 22 against BYU and 22 against Houston

without those wins.

Houston and Arizona seasons

could look very different.

And then the interesting thing that I kind of think

did occur is that with Koa back,

it makes life easier for Braden Burries.

And I think Braden Burries has a dynamic level.

And I've been saying on my show,

I think he's the best player on the team.

And I know Bradley's most likely to be an All-American

and all-conference,

I think both should be all-conference.

But my take is essentially that the pick and roll

and Koa's ability to kind of catch these short rolls

and spray the ball out.

It really helps Burries as a facilitator.

And Burries can then simplify

and just catch a ball and shoot it with Koa Pete

because there's someone else

who can assume some of that secondary passing ability

and creation ability.

So I think Arizona's unlocked a new level.

And I also have this newfound belief

because Aristotle also looks better

and they got eight again instead of six.

But they played tight eight rotation

and they got back their best eight.

And I think realistically,

they're the best eight in the country.

Yeah, I'd agree there.

I'm trying to think, you know, Michigan,

Michigan lost L.J. Kason,

one of their bench guys sophomore

to an ACL injury two weeks ago.

And I thought that they were probably one player

deeper than Arizona,

but they'll not lost him.

So I would say that Michigan and Arizona

are the two deepest teams in the country.

And when I say deep,

what I think we see at I on this,

what we really mean is not just a guy

that plays 15 to 20 minutes,

but a guy that can actually take over doing what he does,

whether he's a really good passer,

a good defender, a good rebounder,

or a good score,

do you have a guy that can take over a game

for a five, 10-minute stretch,

or maybe even a half?

Like you mentioned Delor,

so it's had a really up and down season,

mostly not shooting as well as he can.

But we've seen, though,

that Delor so can drive 20,

and he's a fairly shooter.

I like his passing last few games

has been kind of nice to see.

He hasn't been forcing up anything.

So it's quality depth.

I don't think that there are any teams outside

of Arizona and Michigan

that can match the quality depth,

bringing in a guy off the bench

that can actually change the game.

Totally a walker can change the game.

Delor so it can do that, right?

So that's what we're talking about,

not just how many guys you play,

you know, the eight-man rotation,

nine-man rotation, who cares?

I don't care.

But it's watching Braden Burries.

I would agree, the last thing on this

is I would agree with you.

If I did have to rank who the best players on Arizona are,

I would put Braden Burries

as the best player on the team.

His 31 points last game against Colorado

was just another example.

He is so good at trying to figure out

what the team needs.

And then it's so very rarely as a freshman.

If they need him to score, he can do that

as I think it's one of the best things he does.

He's a fantastic rebounder

as a 6-4 shooting guard.

The guy will mix it up against anybody.

He's had monster rebounding games

all throughout the year.

He can be an assist guy

with five assists against Kansas.

Yeah, that is so rare.

He even had five steals last game.

So I wasn't a player like that.

I couldn't just like, all right,

if you guys need rebounding, here I am.

If you guys need assists, here I am.

I was a score.

That's what I did.

And I'm just so impressed

with Braden's versatility at the wing.

And he has the best versatility of any guard

on the team, including Jade Bradley.

Yeah, I'm just super impressed.

Well, I'll hit you with a rundown of just like brief synopsis

of what their accolades will be.

And you might even like, you'll know it

because you know basketball very well.

But when I run it down, it's going to be like,

wow, that guy, that guy, you get six deep

and they all have accolades that will happen.

And that's why I think this team's the best team

in the country because they have the most talented depth.

So we'll break that down next as well as talk about Arizona

makes the final four if Arizona wins a championship if

and they do not make a final four if all next

with Casey Jacobson on the wild cats.

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Alrighty, Casey Jacobs in here with me kind enough to join.

And every time I've had a month and this started early.

And I asked, can Arizona win a championship?

And how can they do so?

What are the drawbacks?

I think we agree that Arizona is one of the teams

that can win a championship.

But I'll ask a simple question of how.

What happens if Arizona makes the final four?

So if they make the final four, they do consistently exactly

what they've done for what how many games they play 30 games.

30 31 games.

I feel I was my answer is like don't deviate.

Just don't deviate your 29 and two for a very clear reason.

Right.

This this team has an identity that is unique to them.

And only them honestly.

And so it is it is so easy for me to close my eyes and envision

this Arizona team not like blowing out every team to get to

the final four, but like kind of stepping on everybody's

next.

I can see it right now in my mind.

So like not getting nervous.

Just continuing to lean into their identity and what is

that unselfish offense?

Find who who has the hot hand or hands?

Sometimes there are two or three wild cats that have it going

lean into that right find those guys whether it be burry on

one night or P or or Jane Bradley or Del or so comes up the

bench lean into it.

Don't fight it.

Don't be selfish right so that's number one.

To they are so good in the pain.

Now when when they get to the tournament just like every team

in the big 12 that they face this year coaches are like,

all right, man, we're facing Arizona.

They're one of the best teams in the country.

They're huge.

And they just want to you know take a basketball version

of a sledgehammer and just smash you over the top of the

head with it points in the pain.

Rebounding often to rebound and get into the foul line and

teams are like, all right, we we we got to take that away.

You can't you can't because the guards are so good at picking

their spots and driving the guards are so good at finding the

bigs and then the bigs are so good at working with themselves

high low passes running the break.

They run to get laps and dunks consistent more than any team

I've seen all year so even if you know you're like, all right,

we're going to pack the paint and we're going to make the

airs on the ship from the outside.

It doesn't work because their defense is also top 10 in the

country and they'll get out on the break on you and it just

doesn't work.

And so they're going to make a final for if they just continue

to lean into what they do that they they don't get selfish or

they don't get their head down in a certain game.

And yeah, there's only a couple teams in the country that

don't really have to do anything special.

There are a lot of teams.

Hey, this team can make a final for like a Yukon, for

example, it's a really good team.

Yukon is going to have to shoot the three well.

It just it just is what it is.

Yukon cannot make a final for if they just kind of played a

regular style and then they don't have a good shooting night.

That they're going to get beat.

I've seen them.

They're really good, but they're going to get beat Arizona.

I can't say I can't say like, hey, they're they're going to

make two threes which seem to maintain.

They're going to make two threes.

They'll still be two.

They'll still be two by ten and there aren't very many teams

that can do that.

So that's that's that's super.

And it's it's nice.

The last thing I'll say is it's nice to know.

I'm sure the fans are nervous because of the recent past of

NCAA performances for Arizona.

But I would if I was an Arizona fan, I would breathe a lot easier.

Knowing that my team doesn't have to like really turn the dial

up for the NCAA tournament in order to be successful.

They don't have to do that.

Well, one stat that I think you were you were alluded to you

probably heard it is teams in the last five years that have

made three or fewer threes against top five opponents are are

two and so actually I think top five it's like the win less

and it top 25.

It's like two and 72.

Well, Arizona's three and I was this year in games where they beat

the best the best with hitting three or fewer threes.

And now Delores was hitting threes and Burys started the season

28% and in terms of like you want really geeky numbers is

percentile of catch and shoot was like 4th percentile for the

first 10 games this season.

Well, now he's a 39% 3 point shooter on high volume like

everything's going well in that regard.

So I'll ask a simple question.

Arizona, you know, we feel like they're baselines as good as

anyone else's in the country.

What takes them over the top and breaks this streak of you

know, not winning a championship.

But now they add number two to the trophy case 1997 in 2026.

What what allows them to do that?

I was kind of always just talked about.

I maybe there's a one other angle.

You know, to win a national championship,

you're going to have to face the lead of the lead, right?

Which Arizona has done Arizona's play Florida first game of

the year, although Florida is a totally different beast now

than when Arizona played them on November 3rd.

That's funny to me.

You know Arizona Alabama Arizona's at Houston, Kansas at

Allen Field House where they lost, which was a good thing to

me remember we talked about that.

They got here. They got to number two for you.

They absolutely got two losses, which, you know, if if

if your listeners were wondering why we're talking about that

the last 48 national champions have all had at least two

losses entering the NCAA tournament.

So so when Arizona lost to Kansas and Texas tech back to

back, I was actually smiling.

I was like, all right, two losses.

They may never, you know, they real off six and a row to

finish the year and kind of flex on everybody.

So it just goes to show you that that getting knocked down

and getting getting getting serve some humble pie is good

for all of us, including the Arizona Wildcats.

But we're about to, you know, those two losses, Kansas

and Texas tech, you know, we're we're talking about how

to they have faced the elite of the elite and they know

that they can beat him.

But you know, there are teams that that have like a JT

top and who's injured now, but played in that game and scored

I think over 30 points and over 10 rebounds.

There are in why I bring that up because to win an

national championship, you will.

It's not an if you will face another team that is as athletic

as Arizona.

There's not very many of them out there, but they exist and

they exist in the fourth game, the fifth game and certainly

the national championship game teams will have size teams will

have athletic systems team will have a first team or a lottery

first round pick or a lottery pick as their shot creator.

And so those are to get over the hump, you have to then face

a team that's as good as you and and playing as good as you

at the moment, right?

So I think Arizona fans would recognize while their team

is awesome, there are a small handful of teams that are as

good or as talented as Arizona.

When you get to the final four in the national championship

game, not only are you facing that quality opponent, but

that opponent has one four or five games in a row.

They're feeling good.

They are super duper confident.

So it's, it's just a different beast.

And that's why to me, there's only like six teams that I

think can cut down nets because those late game, those

late round games, you have to have pros, you have to have

mental fortitude, you have to have good coaching, all that stuff

matters.

Well, that's a perfect, that's a perfect segue because I've

got lined up for us a fun little game that I'm sure you've

played every year and will play again this year of contender

or pretender, and then why?

And I think we'll probably agree on most of you said 16s.

I've got five teams.

We'll see which team Casey has that I do not that can cut

down the nets.

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All right, it's my favorite game in the entire college

basketball world.

I we're going contender or pretender and I'm going to add

something to it that's basically tell me where you'd rank

them because I think we all have the number one seeds in our

mind.

I think it's going to be in some order.

It's going to be depending how they finish their

conference tournaments.

It's going to be Arizona Duke Michigan is the top three seed.

Florida will be the fourth one, even though it had been

occupied by Yukon, but everyone knew Florida has been playing

better basketball.

So those four to me are contenders.

And the fifth contender to me is Houston.

I don't see Connecticut as a contender.

What do you make of that?

And who is your sixth contender?

Yeah, so I have a formula, my own personal formula.

It's got like five components.

And it seems to be growing each and every week or each

and every year, excuse me.

And interestingly, Florida does not make my board even

though they clearly are playing right now like one of

the best teams in the country.

They don't make my formula to win.

It's a national championship formula.

It's not a final four.

There's plenty of teams that can make a final four, but to

win a national title, Florida is not on there because

the formula really does take over the entire season early

and late.

In fact, one of the big components of it is you have to be

ranked in the top 12 on the week six AP poll.

And Florida got off to a five and four start this season

and dropped way down.

And that's why it took them out of my formula.

So even though we can all agree that Florida is a total

monster right now, I can't for the last 20, I believe

it's the last 24 years.

Leave the last 24 national champions have been ranked

in the top 12 of the week six AP poll.

Florida was not.

So those are the numbers and I'm going to stick with it.

It's been working.

That formula has been working for me for a while.

So surprisingly, Florida is not in mind.

So I have Arizona, Michigan, Duke.

I will state Houston and then you come.

So those are the those are the ones that that made it

this year.

And those are the to me based on my formula.

Those are your national title contenders.

I like the formula.

I was privy to that stat and I don't necessarily disagree.

And if I were to rank mine out, I would go Arizona one,

Duke to Michigan three.

But I think I would have Michigan above Duke,

even though Duke beat them.

If Michigan were healthy going into into it,

I do think LJ case and brings a lot.

And I think it's hard to figure out like,

hey, this guy's gone, like, where do we reproduce

this offensive output?

I do think Duke's somewhat vulnerable as well.

In the state case of let's say,

can boozer gets in foul trouble?

How are they going to win?

And that's what I really draw to when I think about Arizona.

I think, okay, and this is where I'm going to give you

just like random little blurbs of what they are.

And you you'll know who they are.

But like the best player and is probably a top 10 pick

Raiden Burris.

The all-American on the team is a different guard.

That's Jaden Bradley.

The best prospect that everyone thought was going

to be the best prospect, COAP.

And it's not like that he didn't pan out either.

It's just guys on the team were great.

Best defensive player in the country,

in my opinion, Mo Kreevas.

The best rebounder in the country by numbers,

Tobay Awaka.

The best perimeter defender in the big 12th.

Ivan Karchenko, that's six players.

And I don't think any of those things I said

is like the blurbs around them were all that audacious.

They could be slightly bold,

but I don't think they're crazy.

So I think Arizona's got the best chance to win at all.

I think Duke's next Michigan two.

I'm with the Florida.

I think has warts and they're definitely the fourth

for me in terms of those big four.

And then I don't think Yukon can win it

because I just think they struggle.

They have to shoot so well.

It's hard to shoot so well for six games.

And I'm not going to count out Houston.

But Houston has nothing in the interior score department.

And defensively they're turning the ball over

the other team over infrequently compared to previous year.

So I really do think it's going to be one of those one seeds

and it makes for it what's probably a chalky tournament.

But I think that's the reality with NIL.

Yeah, I think it'll be a chalky tournament as well.

I think there are separation.

Like it's really hard for me to imagine Michigan

getting upset in the first three rounds.

Really hard for me to imagine Arizona getting upset

in the first three rounds.

Arizona and Michigan getting upset in the elite eight.

That's on the table.

I mean, that's, you know,

you're going to play against a team

but like in the first few rounds, I just, I can't see it.

I think that Michigan is still the favorite to me.

If I had to rank them, I'd go my own Michigan

then Arizona, then Duke.

So I think we have a little bit of discrepancy there.

And that's that's perfectly normal.

You're not crazy.

And I don't think I'm crazy Michigan.

They are not as consistent.

I guess I could say is Arizona has been just

remarkably consistent, but I do think that that Michigan

has a little bit more of like an extra gear.

I was is how I've described it on studio shows with Fox

like their extra gear is like just an outrageous

like they just hit a button and then also a boom.

They're gone.

Arizona's done that too.

Arizona did that in the second half against Alabama

and the second half against San Diego State.

I've seen them hit that button and all of a sudden

they blew out teams by 20.

But Michigan's is somehow different to me.

I don't know if that makes sense.

How I describe it.

It's just somehow different.

I get what you're saying.

I think the people's thoughts scares me more.

And I'll take like Arizona's got two losses

so they've been remarkably consistent.

Michigan's in the same boat.

But Arizona left for 32 minutes against Kansas

and 39 minutes against Texas Tech.

And in my opinion, they haven't lost a game when healthy.

Kaua Pete was injured from the Oklahoma State game.

And obviously you can't say wait a minute.

Like you erase those games because he wasn't healthy.

But I do think that matters and contextualizing like

when this team's healthy, they're very, very difficult to be.

And even when they hadn't been, they've led from like

wire to wire against just about every team.

And I had a comment the other day and this is funny.

So my listeners that listen every day will be like,

wait, he said yesterday.

It was basically like we can't get behind so often.

It's like they've been behind in three games all year.

They were behind in Baylor.

They're behind against Colorado.

And they're behind against Florida and the opener.

But they were up at halftime.

They're up at halftime.

It's UCLA despite trailer by 10.

There's only four games all season.

And so I think this team is like one of the best front runners

in the country because even as a team gets closer,

that it's just they wear you down.

Like Kansas, the recent one cut it to two

after Arizona by 20.

Arizona wins by 20.

Yeah, I can see that.

You know, we're splitting hairs with with these.

Michigan and Arizona are like they're on their own level.

You know, it is interesting though.

Arizona is 2092.

When I look over their schedule, like that Florida game

was so much fun, they won that game by six.

That's a two possession game.

Just a couple of games later, Arizona beat UCLA

and it kind of a very slow, low scoring game.

That was a four point game.

That's that's a two possession game.

And you know, Arizona to me is significantly better

than UCLA.

But UCLA was able to get that that that game kind of ugly

a little bit and and so.

I think that's what I'm talking about is like I've seen Arizona

get in these really close games and to their credit.

They like not really flinch.

They've been able to figure out a way to win them.

I guess I would just say that when I watch Michigan,

they often don't get in those two possession games.

They win by double digits.

They win by 20.

They win by 30 and they win by 40 more than any team

I've seen this year.

That's what that.

So I'm trying to define or maybe.

Maybe I'm overdoing it, but I'm trying to define

what I mean by justifying Michigan as the team

that has that extra gear.

It's just special when it when you see it.

It's really special.

They they have that extra gear even more than Arizona does

who also has it.

But I've seen it more often with Michigan.

And so like Arizona, I think it's more likely to be in a

close game in the tournament or multiple close games.

We're talking, you know, a two point game with four

minutes to go where it really can go either way.

Arizona's always fine.

Always finds a way to win those Michigan's not even in a two

possession game very often this season with two or three

minutes to go.

Well, we shall see.

I got I got one question for you.

Why why is Duke lower for you?

I kind of felt that they're they're not on the same tier.

They obviously beat Michigan.

So they'll have the resume boost there.

But I'm kind of with you and I'm curious if you can

articulate why obviously my shows in Arizona show.

So I haven't talked about it.

But I'd love for you guys to enlighten you to enlighten my

fans because obviously they care about who they play

and differentiating this stuff.

Yeah.

So Duke is the best defensive team that I've seen.

Like what they did against Michigan.

That was what I was most impressed.

I've never seen anybody kind of strangle Michigan like Duke

did their length at every position is really really impressive.

That is their superpower.

And then you combine that with the best player in the game.

I will just say I don't trust Duke as much as Arizona and

Michigan because they are so Cameron Booster dependent.

It like really makes me nervous.

And you said you went you went player by player with Arizona.

This guy's the best rebounder or one of the best rebounders

in the country.

This guy's one of the best defender.

This guy's one of the better, whatever.

Duke has one guy and I'm not saying they're a one man team.

But I am saying that if Cameron Booster has a bad game

which he hasn't had gets in foul trouble or whatever.

Man, whatever this team goes from awesome to very, very

beatable and that's just undeniable.

Cameron Booster there's two things can be true at the

same time.

Leaf Cameron Booster is the best player in the sport.

And I think by a significant margin.

He is going to win national player of the year like by a

landslide.

But they are also vulnerable because he does so much.

Those two things can be true at the same time.

That's just it's just a one thing with Duke.

They're awesome.

They're they're they're they're great.

But yeah, it's it's I am going to be nervous.

If I see Cameron Cameron Booster go two for ten from the

field in the first half.

I'm like, oh boy.

I don't know.

I don't know if Duke's going to be able to pull this one out.

You know, so well, I'm I'm with you on that.

And so hopefully great minds think alike.

Well, we will see that the beauty of March.

Thank you so much, Casey for hopping on not not only this

time, but throughout the season with me.

It's really been a pleasure.

And hopefully our predictions come to fruition.

I'd love to see an Arizona Michigan championship.

We we shall see.

Thank you guys for tuning in as well.

If you guys want to hear more of Casey, he'll be on Fox.

And of course, covering big time games.

And if you guys want to hear more of me, I'll have more

shows this week.

Thanks for tuning in to Lockdown Wildcats.

The show tomorrow will be a big one talking about the preview

of who Arizona plays between Cincinnati as well as the

possibility of playing UCF.

And you know, all the great episodes are available on Lockdown

Wildcats.

So find me on social media.

It's just leave two links.

My name and the element here capitalize.

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Thank you guys for tuning in.

Thank you to Casey.

This has been locked on wildcats.

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