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Still having Gilman and real woods in the room would definitely be nice. The brands dropped the ball there. However they did coach him to an Olympic silver. Spencer has good enough training partners and everything he needs to win at HWC, he just needs to put it all together.

Many of our top guys have other commitments -- either they're still in school, or they need to work (since they don't have funding) so they don't have time, or they need funds. Lee has none of those limitations. Also, some have excellent training situations where they are, so getting international competition is less important. Not the case with Lee. Otoguro? Keisuke? The 74kg'er? Somehow I doubt he's much of a practice partner for Spencer. I think the younger brother Takuto visited briefly too, which is nice, but he was a 65kg'er back when he was competing, so I'm guessing it was mostly light sparring. Both are true. No doubt he's had his share of injuries to battle through. But if he's going to bring home gold, they need stop throwing cupcakes at him, and let him battle guys that can beat him. I sense he's treated as mentally fragile, too. But is he so fragile? This is a guy who's battled through injuries and hasn't ducked anyone. He's a warrior. So why this need to build up his confidence? I honestly think his low-ish confidence is part of the reason he's had such success, as he's constantly trying to prove himself. So it drives me nuts when Brands won't shut up in interviews about how he's the greatest wrestler ever. Listen to the beginning of the Harutyunyan match, and you hear Brands yapping about how Spencer's better than him in every position. Then he goes out and proceeds to get outwrestled by Harutyunyan in every position. Honestly, is it really necessary, or even helpful, to prop up Lee with all that BS? It's like you could hear all the air going out of the balloon when he got sored on, as reality set in. Maybe if he were thrown in the lion's den in practice every day with live goes with guys that can beat him, and he consistently came out on top, he'd *know* he's the best without having to be told. Maybe if he's told that some guys are better than him, so he needs to get better too, he'd be motivated to improved. Oh I dunno, I'm just thinking of who OSU would swap for Spencer for 6 months, since I'm trying to offer up options besides leaving Iowa City. Not sure who Wyatt really has to roll around with in Stillwater except Taylor, who isn't exactly a HWT, so maybe Wyatt would benefit from rolling around with Keuter a while. Dreshaun's a tough cat too. Wyatt can only tech-pin Doucet so many times before he needs a new look. Glad to hear. Including live goes? Last I knew, Drake's mom was salty that the Powers That Be wouldn't let Spencer practice with Drake, but that's a couple years ago. So I guess Drake's better than Joey Cruz, though I sort of doubt Drake's going to be giving Spencer a Harutyunyan-like look anytime soon. I'll take that.

If a package deal, I'm thinking it's Melvin the schools are really interested in.

Because it is a bubble…

Hope you are well sir

The only thing I'm very confident of is these people require a lot of stroking. I think some of the other programs realized they're not ready to be a coach/cheerleader/psychiatrist/court jester/travel agent for the whole family.

I was just thinking earlier how weird its going to be if they hit at the open next year when they have a few months of high school left. Assuming Jax goes up not sure that he will I know he said 141/149 for college. He mentioned in the Flo interview he walks around anywhere from low to high 140's

any guesses how this goes for Jax? Sounds like there is not really a precedent.

LOL How upset is dad that Forrest has eclipsed him and then some. Allegedly that was part of the issue with the Iowa situation...

Fluke?

Good question. Waiting for the police or DA to take the initiative? Anticipating a civil action?

Then why hasn't there been a simple univ admin statement acknowledging such?

I don't disagree with everything, but there are some problematic things. 1. How many international tournaments do the top guys in the world do? Our top guys? Not much more than 1. 2. He's had Japanese partners in Iowa for most of the last year. Otoguro? Maybe someone else? 3. Wait... you're saying he is treated fragile? Maybe, but the rest of the world thinks he's too beaten up. Why would Wyatt go to U of Iowa for six months to roll with Dreshaun? Not to mention, his workout partner last summer was Drake. Joey Cruz is gone. So other than being uninformed and petty, your take is halfway decent.

The story broke over the summer, so it flew under the radar of mainstream media, and there's been no reporting since then. I don't think you can assume it's been thoroughly investigated. And since Starocci's graduated, there's no reason to investigate now.

My takeaway from watching him today is he needs better and more diverse practice partners. And he needs to compete more in general. In the Harutyunyan match, Spencer looked unprepared and flat-footed, almost like he miscalculated what his strength would enable him to get away with given (e.g. the first and last takedowns). He looked unprepared for the level of resistance he'd get on his shots, and seemed to either underestimate his opponent's pressure or he just wasn't accustomed to it. He seemed totally unaware that Harutyunyan laces the opposite direction. It didn't expose Spencer as inferior, just unready. When I first saw it, I thought he looked like a guy who was just getting the rust off after a long injury. After rewatching it, it occurred to me that he actually looked more like a guy who'd been roughing up low-level competition in the practice room, and hadn't been getting either the quality or variety of high-end looks you need going into worlds, where every match is high-caliber competition. Sadly, this jibes with what we know of his training situation. It seems like they have him all locked down in Iowa City, rolling around with mediocre college kids, focused on drilling and keeping Spencer's confidence up. It's like he thought that if he just does the stuff he uses to pin Dru Ayala and Joey Cruz all day, he'll be fine. (Drake's off-limits, last I knew.) It's embarrassing. What's more, from the Olympics till now, how many international tournaments has he been in? One? Come on man. Maybe instead of constantly telling him how great he is, Brands should get him some practice partners that can give him some of the looks he saw from today, and rough him up. Sharpen him with iron, not clay. Use those donor bucks to throw him into every international tournament you can find so he knows the field. Stop treating Spencer like he's this fragile vase, about to break at any moment. If Brands can't find someone to bring in who can push him, maybe do some sort of 6-month club swap, e.g. send him to Stillwater to roll around with Fix, RBY, Sakamoto, Figueroa, Spratley and Jax. Maybe OSU can send over Wyatt for 6 months to roll around with Dreshaun and Keuter. If Brands can't bring himself to extract his claws from his prized pupil, even for a few months, then I hope Spencer realizes that he needs a change of scenery if he's going to succeed. Let's hope he sits next to Zahid on the plane ride home, and Zahid can tell him all about it.

He graduated. I don't think you're allowed to write for the school paper after graduating.

Since the Sandusky crimes, PSU admin has been hyper-reactive to allegations of athletic department related crimes. They would throw anyone under the bus guilty or not to protect themselves. For the Sandusky crimes, the three PSU administrators were legally culpable not because they believed or knew Sandusky to be a pedophile, but instead because they had a responsibility to refer a reported incident to police regardless of what they believed or didn't believe. Negligence was proven not malice or conspiracy. Would any PSU administrator risk negligence accusations again? I'm guessing Carter allegations were thoroughly reported and investigated and evidence to convict did not exist. So the answer for many PSU fans is once again, we don't know who's guilty, innocent or victim with certainty and never will. Internet warriors will convict as they see fit. Deja vu all over again.

I'm still confused about what was a "fluke?"

have you ever had to take the safesport test?

No, the bubble is too strong!

Brother, I beg of you. For the good of your family, do not skip your medication

Day 2 thoughts. Lee: Tough to watch. It wasn't just that he lost, it's that the Armenian outwrestled him in about 6 straight positions. In most of them, Lee seemed to be caught flat-footed. I hate to sound like a hater but he needs to get out of Iowa City. He just has no practice partners there, and he's not getting the kinds of high-end looks that he needs to get if he's going to run the gamut at Worlds. It seems like the Brands are so worried about eroding his confidence that they have him practicing with cupcakes, and it showed today. Carr: I thought he looked excellent. He gave Valiev all he could handle, and obviously Valiev is one of the best in the world. Many criticized him for attacking Valiev late in the 2nd when all of Valiev's scoring was off counters, but I disagree. Carr scored on him before and can score again. He just needs to make sure he isn't predictable. The match against Sidakov tomorrow should be great. Between Carr and Mesenbrink, this weight is in good hands for the next quad. Haines: I thought I was going to have to go on my bi-weekly rant about Dake not coming down to 79kg where he belongs. But then what happens? Haines takes out the world champ and is in the finals. Welp. I confess I had a DNP penciled in here and I'm so happy to be wrong. Haines keeps great position and his defense is as good as ever, and is turning it on when he needs to. Finals vs the Greek should be great. Hidlay: I've been high on Hidlay a long time and super excited to see him get his shot here, and to see him truly make the most of it. He looks like a man possessed... like a like a guy suffering from roid rage, except without the roids. Chalk him up as the Guy I Want to Wrestle the Least. I think he has a great shot at gold. *** Jax: More of the same. Threw himself into the match and wrestled fearlessly. Got into some positions he wasn't quite ready for, but I loved watching him work his slide by. Tough ending, but very legit opponent. Zahid: I thought he was even more impressive in his gold medal match than against Ghasempour. He wrestled hard all match, with no sign of waning at the end. Compare this match to the tech he took at his hands just 2 years ago, and you can really see how far Zahid has come. Super excited for him as you just know this is a product of him deciding he needed to make a change if he was to reach his goals, and he made it. You reap what you sow.

That is a really tough task, as it stands. Not sure about how Iran looks in finals/repechage tomorrow, but on paper, they kill us in 65/97. And they're already leading.

If any Flo guys are out there, Levi’s quarterfinal video link seems to be broken

Be literal. What did he say that day?