Biggest Darkhorse's to make a run at NCAA's

[KLCarnegieTech_1969]

Your comment is well taken.  I was getting a little ahead of myself.  I still think Matthews is a dark horse. He won't get a great seed.  He is 14-9 and is going to be a bracket buster.   As far as Yonger, Beard and Henson, they are legitimate contenders.

Edited February 28, 2024 by KLCarnegieTech_1969

[MPhillips]

  On 2/28/2024 at 6:05 PM, WrestlingFan89 said:

but I wouldn’t expect you to know this.

Expand  

Nor should you...

[Gus]

My lowest ranked (intermat rankings) guys at each weight with a decent shot at making the finals:

125- #19 Richie Figueroa

133- #3 Daton Fix

141- #14 Cole Matthews

149- #6 Casey Swiderski

157- #15 Brayton Lee

165- #5 Mitchell Mesenbrink

174- #11 Rocco Welsh

184- #8 Bennett Berge

197- #11 Zach Glazier

HWT- #6 Lucas Davison

[MPhillips]

  On 2/28/2024 at 6:18 PM, Gus said:

My lowest ranked (intermat rankings) guys at each weight with a decent shot at making the finals:

Expand  

This is an entirely different thread...

[PortaJohn]

  On 2/28/2024 at 6:05 PM, KLCarnegieTech_1969 said:

Your comment is well taken.  I was getting a little ahead of myself.  I still think Matthews is a dark horse. He won't get a great seed.  He is 14-9 and is going to be a bracket buster.   As far as Yonger, Beard and Henson, they are legitimate contenders.

Expand  

Will be interesting to see where Cole is seeded after the ACC tournament.  He has been shaky this year and yeah if he gets seeded in the mid teens and makes a run placing then that's a good dark horse pick

[Wrestleknownothing]

  On 2/28/2024 at 6:05 PM, WrestlingFan89 said:

West Virginia is in the Big12, but I wouldn’t expect you to know this.

Expand  

Built in excuse

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

  On 2/28/2024 at 6:47 PM, PortaJohn said:

Will be interesting to see where Cole is seeded after the ACC tournament.  He has been shaky this year and yeah if he gets seeded in the mid teens and makes a run placing then that's a good dark horse pick

Expand  

You just gave me an idea for a new contest.

Call it The Dark Horse Race. Or the Dark Horse Derby? Whatever. We have time to workshop that.

Rules: After the seeds come out, pick four wrestlers seeded 17 or below to AA. Points awarded for the difference between their seed and their finish. (I will work out something for finishes in a range). Bonus points of some sort for an actual AA.

[FanOfPurdueWrestling]

I hope to see Joey Blaze beating some folks seeded higher than him.

[jmoney]

  On 2/28/2024 at 12:55 AM, Hammerlock3 said:

i'm bewildered by the people some are willing to label "dark horse".

Expand  

new rule: every post involving darkhorse must start by defining criteria for nominating and excluding darkhorses from the conversation. Anything less and we are all talking to walls, which incidentally is drastically less entertaining than talking to our laptop screeens

[ionel]

  On 2/28/2024 at 8:18 PM, jmoney said:

new rule: every post involving darkhorse must start by defining criteria for nominating and excluding darkhorses from the conversation. Anything less and we are all talking to walls, which incidentally is drastically less entertaining than talking to our laptop screeens

Expand  

wait ... what are you talking about?

[Hammerlock3]

  On 2/28/2024 at 8:18 PM, jmoney said:

new rule: every post involving darkhorse must start by defining criteria for nominating and excluding darkhorses from the conversation. Anything less and we are all talking to walls, which incidentally is drastically less entertaining than talking to our laptop screeens

Expand  

yeah I feel like you are going for something but i don't know what.

[Truzzcat]

  On 2/28/2024 at 6:47 PM, PortaJohn said:

Will be interesting to see where Cole is seeded after the ACC tournament.  He has been shaky this year and yeah if he gets seeded in the mid teens and makes a run placing then that's a good dark horse pick

Expand  

hes going to be an absolute nightmare to seed with wins over mendez,lachlan,jack,crook. I cannot name someone off the top of my head with better wins but he has a lot of really bad losses too.

[PortaJohn]

  On 2/28/2024 at 7:14 PM, Wrestleknownothing said:

You just gave me an idea for a new contest.

Call it The Dark Horse Race. Or the Dark Horse Derby? Whatever. We have time to workshop that.

Rules: After the seeds come out, pick four wrestlers seeded 17 or below to AA. Points awarded for the difference between their seed and their finish. (I will work out something for finishes in a range). Bonus points of some sort for an actual AA.

Expand  

Will we be capped at a certain amount when we draft?  Higher seeds worth more?  And Richie Figs should be eliminated from the draft pool or any 125 pounder for that matter.  

[Wrestleknownothing]

  On 2/28/2024 at 9:12 PM, PortaJohn said:

Will we be capped at a certain amount when we draft?  Higher seeds worth more?  And Richie Figs should be eliminated from the draft pool or any 125 pounder for that matter.  

Expand  

I am open to ideas. Another thought would to expand it to ten picks, one per weight.

[randyfoxwell]

Is Aaron Brooks considered a dark horse?

[Hammerlock3]

  On 2/28/2024 at 9:30 PM, randyfoxwell said:

Is Aaron Brooks considered a dark horse?

Expand  

yeah he lost to marcus coleman last year, got seriously exposed by Valencia...I've got the feeling he is ready to make a run though.

[MPhillips]

  On 2/28/2024 at 8:18 PM, jmoney said:

Anything less and we are all talking to walls

Expand  

 

[ionel]

  On 2/28/2024 at 9:20 PM, Wrestleknownothing said:

I am open to ideas. Another thought would to expand it to ten picks, one per weight.

Expand  

Thought we were talking about "Biggest Darkhorse."  I'm beginning to understand this "darkhorse" thing, thanks to @jmoney, am assuming "biggest" means HWT.  

[bnwtwg]

125 Blake West - Northern IL

125 Eli Griffin - Cal Baptist

149 Caleb Tyus - Southern IL

 

[ionel]

  On 2/28/2024 at 9:20 PM, Wrestleknownothing said:

I am open to ideas. Another thought would to expand it to ten picks, one per weight.

Expand  

I like the idea of pick 5 and put in ranked order of what you think is most likely, this will break any ties.  We don't expect a dark horse from each weight.  The pick 5 also allows you to pick more than one from a weight.  Some might want to pick all 5 from 125lb.  

[1032004]

  On 2/28/2024 at 10:31 PM, ionel said:

I like the idea of pick 5 and put in ranked order of what you think is most likely, this will break any ties.  We don't expect a dark horse from each weight.  The pick 5 also allows you to pick more than one from a weight.  Some might want to pick all 5 from 125lb.  

Expand  

125 should be excluded

[ionel]

  On 2/28/2024 at 10:49 PM, 1032004 said:

125 should be excluded

Expand  

nah thats the fun weight, go all in on 125!

[PortaJohn]

  On 2/28/2024 at 10:50 PM, ionel said:

nah thats the fun weight, go all in on 125!

Expand  

but then it'll get jinxed and everyone will wrestle to their seed 

[1032004]

  On 2/28/2024 at 5:11 PM, PortaJohn said:

If the tournament was seeded today the lowest seed with the highest potential would be Richard Figueroa.  

Expand  

No one is a dark horse at 125 (particularly the guy who went undefeated in redshirt last year including a win over the current #1), but kinda to @ionel’s point, while Figueroa is probably the lowest ranked guy with the best chance of winning, I wouldn’t say he has the highest potential.  Among guys ranked below him on both Intermat & Flo, I’d give all of the below a shot to win:

Peterson (22/20)

Sotelo (23/26)

Molton (20/29)

Palmer (25/UR)

[Paul158]

  On 2/28/2024 at 10:10 PM, ionel said:

Thought we were talking about "Biggest Darkhorse."  I'm beginning to understand this "darkhorse" thing, thanks to @jmoney, am assuming "biggest" means HWT.  

Expand  

that would be the Nebraska heavyweight Hutmacher . He cut down from 335 pounds.