IA v MN

[666]

Hawks feast on rodents!!!

 

 

A dominant performance by the Hawkeyes. I picked the rodents to pull off the upset at home, giving them the "homemat advantage", which proved about as useful as a fart in the wind. The rodents were not wrestling inspired!!

Joe Cruz will make R16, at least, at NCAAs, and I wouldn't be flummoxed if he managed to squeeze in at R12 or maybe even place. He's still pretty unpolished, but he has guts aplenty. He's improving consistently. Ayala dominated. Hawkeye scrub Schriever turned in a decent performance, managing to avoid giving up bonus points. Parco/Teemer turned in less than impressive wins, in my opinion, although Teemer at least faced a tough opponent. Caliendo overperformed, and I think he's clearly #2 at 165 at this point. Kennedy turned in a great performance. All of Iowa's transfers wrestled good enough to get the job done. McEnelly's win over Arnold didn't impress me much, to be honest. That match just showed me how much work McEnelly still has to do to get to the top of his weight class. I'd say he's a 4th place type guy at this point. Buchanon's win over Salazar was less than impressive. Steveson smoked Keuter like a Christmas ham.  But overall a strong effort by the Hawkeyes. 

[BruceyB]

7 hours ago, wrestle87 said:

I gotta go with Gable.  Messenbrink can score with gas pedal and motion, but guys can grab him and slow him down a bit.

Gable is out there with the biggest,  strongest guys on each team, and he treats them like they are made out of paper mache.  The only reason someone in college stays on the mat all seven minutes with Gable is because Gable doesn’t feel like working too hard that match.  I know Keuter’s not likely AA level, but he’s in R12 discussion. Gable treated him like he was a 5th grader.  He legitimately might have been able to beat him using just one arm.  And that’s nothing against Keuter, that’s just Gable being an alien level wrestler.  Legitimately generational.

I’d go so far as to say that the last time a whole field was this outclassed by one guy was Cael’s senior year. 

I'd argue that Hendrickson essentially does the same thing to this field. Mesenbrink tech'd the #2 wrestler at his weight. We'll see if Gable can dominate the two top contenders in the same way.

[666]

8 hours ago, wrestle87 said:

I gotta go with Gable.  Messenbrink can score with gas pedal and motion, but guys can grab him and slow him down a bit.

Gable is out there with the biggest,  strongest guys on each team, and he treats them like they are made out of paper mache.  The only reason someone in college stays on the mat all seven minutes with Gable is because Gable doesn’t feel like working too hard that match.  I know Keuter’s not likely AA level, but he’s in R12 discussion. Gable treated him like he was a 5th grader.  He legitimately might have been able to beat him using just one arm.  And that’s nothing against Keuter, that’s just Gable being an alien level wrestler.  Legitimately generational.

I’d go so far as to say that the last time a whole field was this outclassed by one guy was Cael’s senior year. 

Steveson is close to being a 100% lock. I think Hendrickson has the technique to hang with Gable and keep it to a decision, but he also has the potential to pin people. I don't care how good somebody is if a good pinner somehow gets them on their backs they can lose, and that includes Steveson. It's like a puncher's chance in boxing, except we'll call it a pinner's chance.  I'd give Hendrickson a 5-10%  chance based on that, and only that. 

I think it's Steveson/Kerk in the NCAA finals, and Hendrickson finishes 3rd again. The battle between #2/#3 seeds at NCAAs at HWT should be a really good one between Kerk/Hendrickson though. 

Edited Saturday at 05:15 PM by 666

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

16 hours ago, SocraTease said:

I can't stand watching Teemer wrestle.  He does nothing for 99 percent of the match.  In fact, he just backs up and backs up and backs up.  He should  be hit for stalling early and often.  He would be defaulted out of freestyle match in the first two minutes

Defaulted out?  I'm not sure what that means?

[SocraTease]

5 minutes ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Defaulted out?  I'm not sure what that means?

I misspoke (or mis-wrote).  Clarification: In freestyle, Teemer would get lots of passivity calls and lose that way.  And, yes, I was being a bit hyperbolic to make the point.  Minimally, he would need to adjust his wrestling because he doesn't stay in the center of the mat in folkstyle (he backs away) and would "dinged" for that constantly if he didn't make changes to his approach in freestyle.

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

1 minute ago, SocraTease said:

I misspoke (or mis-wrote).  Clarification: In freestyle, Teemer would get lots of passivity calls and lose that way.  And, yes, I was being a bit hyperbolic to make the point.  Minimally, he would need to adjust his wrestling because he doesn't stay in the center of the mat in folkstyle (he backs away) and would "dinged" for that constantly if he didn't make changes to his approach in freestyle.

That is not how it works with passivities in freestyle, though.

[Caveira]

1 hour ago, SocraTease said:

I misspoke (or mis-wrote).  Clarification: In freestyle, Teemer would get lots of passivity calls and lose that way.  And, yes, I was being a bit hyperbolic to make the point.  Minimally, he would need to adjust his wrestling because he doesn't stay in the center of the mat in folkstyle (he backs away) and would "dinged" for that constantly if he didn't make changes to his approach in freestyle.

Clarification.   Teemer would strike out every single at bat in baseball trying to use his wrestling skills in another sport with different rules.  

[ionel]

1 hour ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

I'm not sure what that means?

... maybe that he wouldn't take the shot?