Hendrickson, Hamiti, Spratley progress...did I/we underestimate David Taylor?

[maligned]

Wow. I'm amazed by the growth in several of the Okie St. guys. I thought DT would be able to recruit and build an NIL program at elite levels. But I never thought he'd have the selflessness and mentoring mentality to develop guys' wrestling like Cael and Manning, for example. I still won't cheer for them anytime soon, but I have to give huge props to DT and his guys for the preparation and individual progress they showed.

Edited March 23 by maligned

[paboom]

Iowa fans have to be thinking, "what if?"

[jchapman]

Hamiti did look very improved.  Hard to tell how much was the weight class change.  I have no idea how he made 165 for three years.

[BruceyB]

39 minutes ago, jchapman said:

Hamiti did look very improved.  Hard to tell how much was the weight class change.  I have no idea how he made 165 for three years.

I think Hamiti showed more improvement in his approach more than necessarily his ability. He was always someone that seemed like he would wrestle through any position in an attempt to "win" where especially in this tournament, he looked more content to stay out of risky scrambles rather than test guys like Levi or Keegan. The old Hamiti likely starts rolling around with Keegan during that exchange in the first period, and Keegan ends up winning the scramble.

[boconnell]

1 minute ago, BruceyB said:

I think Hamiti showed more improvement in his approach more than necessarily his ability. He was always someone that seemed like he would wrestle through any position in an attempt to "win" where especially in this tournament, he looked more content to stay out of risky scrambles rather than test guys like Levi or Keegan. The old Hamiti likely starts rolling around with Keegan during that exchange in the first period, and Keegan ends up winning the scramble.

100%.  He lost the Big 12 in that exact manner just two weeks ago.  He wore himself out in that match trying to score everything against O'Toole.  In the semis and finals this weekend he was far less ambitious.  It was less fun to watch on some level, but if you keep running out of gas, it might be smart to take your foot off the gas pedal sometimes.

[nickp91]

The David Taylor coached this year. I have no fear in him developing guys Absolutely stoked for the future of Oklahoma State 

[maligned]

3 hours ago, BruceyB said:

I think Hamiti showed more improvement in his approach more than necessarily his ability.

This is exactly it. Being better prepared and having a better approach are huge components of being a better wrestler. It takes great coaching to help gifted guys harness their skills.

[nhs67]

4 hours ago, jchapman said:

Hamiti did look very improved.  Hard to tell how much was the weight class change.  I have no idea how he made 165 for three years.

He doesn't look an ounce larger, it's impressive.

I hope he goes the DT route and heads up to 86 KG.

[billyhoyle]

Not me. Not sure why you thought one of the best wrestlers of our time who was coached by the greatest coach of all time wouldn't be a great coach as well. Gilman is a pretty good coach as well. 

[maligned]

1 hour ago, billyhoyle said:

Not me. Not sure why you thought one of the best wrestlers of our time who was coached by the greatest coach of all time wouldn't be a great coach as well. Gilman is a pretty good coach as well. 

Sorry. Jon Jones and Mike Tyson were among the best ever at their sports and had phenomenal coaches. Neither strike me as ones that would be good coaches themselves. There's just too much going on in their heads. Bringing out the best in world-class athletes needs special qualities that you don't automatically have just because you're world-class yourself.

Edited March 24 by maligned

[wrestle87]

I seriously underestimated where they would land, especially after conferences where it looks like the whole team was about to lay an egg.

Guess coach Taylor thoroughly subscribes to Dan Gable's old chart of peaking workload a few weeks before tapering to peak for performance.  Whatever my worries were, and they were certainly there, he gets to put his coaching stamp on the two biggest (over)performers of the tournament.

Yeah, he knows what he's doing, and is going to be a problem for many coaches for a long time.

[Boring]

11 hours ago, jchapman said:

Hamiti did look very improved.  Hard to tell how much was the weight class change.  I have no idea how he made 165 for three years.

He still looks skinny at 174! 

[Boring]

3 hours ago, wrestle87 said:

I seriously underestimated where they would land, especially after conferences where it looks like the whole team was about to lay an egg.

Guess coach Taylor thoroughly subscribes to Dan Gable's old chart of peaking workload a few weeks before tapering to peak for performance.  Whatever my worries were, and they were certainly there, he gets to put his coaching stamp on the two biggest (over)performers of the tournament.

Yeah, he knows what he's doing, and is going to be a problem for many coaches for a long time.

I think the Brands boys drive their boys too hard and that's one of the reasons they limped home to a 4th place finish this year. That's a guess because I've never visited their barn, sorry, "wrestling room", during a practice. The Hawkeyes just looked burned out, even their lone champion Buchanon looked like he was pooped in that tournament, and the less said about Teemer and Parco the better. 

Working hard to improve is laudable, but you got to let the boys fully recover their strength by the end of the regular season, and I don't think "take it easy for a couple weeks" is in the Brand' boys' natures. I think they are trying to catch up to Cael with pure hard work and driving their kids too hard, and that just isn't gonna do it. "As long as it takes" is the wrong answer to the question below, that's how you crush team morale and wear the kids down. 

 

[wrestle87]

28 minutes ago, Boring said:

I think the Brands boys drive their boys too hard and that's one of the reasons they limped home to a 4th place finish this year. That's a guess because I've never visited their barn, sorry, "wrestling room", during a practice. The Hawkeyes just looked burned out, even their lone champion Buchanon looked like he was pooped in that tournament, and the less said about Teemer and Parco the better. 

Working hard to improve is laudable, but you got to let the boys fully recover their strength by the end of the regular season, and I don't think "take it easy for a couple weeks" is in the Brand' boys' natures. I think they are trying to catch up to Cael with pure hard work and driving their kids too hard, and that just isn't gonna do it. "As long as it takes" is the wrong answer to the question below, that's how you crush team morale and wear the kids down. 

 

I couldn't agree more.  

I am so thankful for current athletes that coaches are gradually doing away with the concept of using coaching to exorcise their own personal demons on their wrestlers.  That used to be 90% of coaches in the sport.  Now it seems like, at least at the collegiate level, it's more 50/50.

The Iowa program is a fundamental part of the sport in the US.  We need them to be successful based on the modern standard.  It used to be that broken and angry was good enough to win titles.  It's not anymore.  Depending on the match I'm 50/50 whether I root for a hawkeye wrestler, but I will always root hard for the program.  If that program struggles, the entire sport will be facing some bad headwinds in the near future.

[Truzzcat]

Teague travis, Surber, Plott are the only guys that did not improve upon what they did last year and Plotts was essentially just the weight he was competing at and Travis missed almost the entire year. I do not think you could have asked for a better first year from DT and the staff.

[okokzach]

1 hour ago, Truzzcat said:

Teague travis, Surber, Plott are the only guys that did not improve upon what they did last year and Plotts was essentially just the weight he was competing at and Travis missed almost the entire year. I do not think you could have asked for a better first year from DT and the staff.

Yup. And Surber had by far his best regular season. Something was very off this weekend but we may never know what

[Boring]

6 hours ago, okokzach said:

Yup. And Surber had by far his best regular season. Something was very off this weekend but we may never know what

Surber was embarrassing. That guy didn't have enough aggressiveness on the mat, ever.