Iowa 125 pounder press availability

[dragit]

Ladies and gentlemen, 11 minutes with the great Spencer Lee.  This goes about the length of half a dozen of his matches. 

Some thoughtful stuff in here. 

Most interesting revelation -- he is extremely engaged with other Iowa sports, roots for and talks to athletes in other sports to pick their brains and says he's attended events for every Iowa varsity team except rowing, "just because I don't really know how to go to a rowing event because I don't think we've have a river we go to, I've certainly watched them compete but I've never been to one.".  

 

[BAC]

My main takaway is Lee is still salty about getting booed at PIAAs when he took late-match injury time during his eventual loss to DeSanto.

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

Clearly setting himself up for his dream job of being Iowas next AD after he’s done coaching the Hawkeyes

[dragit]

This is great.  At the 10:05 mark, Brands says that the Big Ten Network has taken to calling Iowa before matches to ask if Spencer is going to wrestle, promising confidentiality on the answer, so that if so, they would want to delay the start of the dual so when the preceding basketball or whatever game goes over, the wrestling broadcast doesn't miss the 125 match.

 

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

Spencer Lee is college wrestling's biggest star.  He has his own page on the Iowa athletics website for crissakes.

[Wrestleknownothing]

57 minutes ago, dragit said:

This is great.  At the 10:05 mark, Brands says that the Big Ten Network has taken to calling Iowa before matches to ask if Spencer is going to wrestle, promising confidentiality on the answer, so that if so, they would want to delay the start of the dual so when the preceding basketball or whatever game goes over, the wrestling broadcast doesn't miss the 125 match.

 

I noticed on Sunday that they moved the scheduled start to 2:05 

[flyingcement]

4 hours ago, dragit said:

Ladies and gentlemen, 11 minutes with the great Spencer Lee.  This goes about the length of half a dozen of his matches. 

Some thoughtful stuff in here. 

Most interesting revelation -- he is extremely engaged with other Iowa sports, roots for and talks to athletes in other sports to pick their brains and says he's attended events for every Iowa varsity team except rowing, "just because I don't really know how to go to a rowing event because I don't think we've have a river we go to, I've certainly watched them compete but I've never been to one.".  

 

Love also that he implies riders are weak, turners are strong, and pinners are best

[dragit]

29 minutes ago, flyingcement said:

Love also that he implies riders are weak, turners are strong, and pinners are best

Yeah for sure.  Related to that is him saying that he wrestles hard all match, every position, and says most don't.  That's why he sometimes (particularly coming off injuries when he's not full strength) is called a "first period wrestler."  He ain't conserving energy - he's getting after it.

[jchapman]

13 hours ago, dragit said:

Ladies and gentlemen, 11 minutes with the great Spencer Lee.  This goes about the length of half a dozen of his matches. 

Some thoughtful stuff in here. 

Most interesting revelation -- he is extremely engaged with other Iowa sports, roots for and talks to athletes in other sports to pick their brains and says he's attended events for every Iowa varsity team except rowing, "just because I don't really know how to go to a rowing event because I don't think we've have a river we go to, I've certainly watched them compete but I've never been to one.".  

 

The boathouse is right off the Iowa River.

[dragit]

1 hour ago, jchapman said:

The boathouse is right off the Iowa River.

He never claimed to be majoring in geography.    

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

24 minutes ago, dragit said:

He never claimed to be majoring in geography.    

That was Ben Askren!

[olddirty]

Being a college coach, a highschool coach, and a wrestler who was on the sports calendar twice, I can confidently say that your experience in sports has way more enjoyment when your fellow athletes go watch, and it builds so much synergy when individuals, and especially entire teams, go out and root on their fellow athletes.  Some of the best memories I had off of the mat in college was going to random events like womens fast pitch or lacross meets and rooting like hell for randoms in our classes and getting to see their faces when literally, we are the only ones to show up their entire collegiate career that werent family.

[dragit]

10 minutes ago, olddirty said:

Being a college coach, a highschool coach, and a wrestler who was on the sports calendar twice, I can confidently say that your experience in sports has way more enjoyment when your fellow athletes go watch, and it builds so much synergy when individuals, and especially entire teams, go out and root on their fellow athletes.  Some of the best memories I had off of the mat in college was going to random events like womens fast pitch or lacross meets and rooting like hell for randoms in our classes and getting to see their faces when literally, we are the only ones to show up their entire collegiate career that werent family.

Which makes it even cooler when the guy who wrestles in front of full houses and who the TV network changes the schedule to cover is the one showing up at your competition.

[lightweight]

Tough when you can't hear the questions being asked.  But he certainly came across as at ease with the whole format, mature, etc.  I hope he finishes the season injury-free and our next national champ at 125.  

[dragit]

Bumping this topic with the tape from yesterday, the last session of this kind ever with the great Spencer Lee. 

Great stuff from beginning (laughing at himself for being the only dork to wear his letterman's jacket) to end (amazing anecdote at about the 6:40 mark about Terry giving a private lesson to a graduating senior whose career was already over the week after Big Tens, followed by explaining the familiarity gained with the medical staff and coaches because of the amount of time together), with some discussion about his relationship with Yianni thrown in too.

The most newsy thing in here to me is that the way he talks about his post-college life seems to imply that he won't necessarily be wrestling; I got this impression a tiny bit from a prior press conference and a little more so from this one, watch for yourself and see what you think (5:10 mark).

 

[Mr. PeanutButter]

36 minutes ago, dragit said:

Bumping this topic with the tape from yesterday, the last session of this kind ever with the great Spencer Lee. 

Great stuff from beginning (laughing at himself for being the only dork to wear his letterman's jacket) to end (amazing anecdote at about the 6:40 mark about Terry giving a private lesson to a graduating senior whose career was already over the week after Big Tens, followed by explaining the familiarity gained with the medical staff and coaches because of the amount of time together), with some discussion about his relationship with Yianni thrown in too.

The most newsy thing in here to me is that the way he talks about his post-college life seems to imply that he won't necessarily be wrestling; I got this impression a tiny bit from a prior press conference and a little more so from this one, watch for yourself and see what you think (5:10 mark).

 

Lee's interview on BTN - he says he plans on sticking around Iowa city for a long time in pursuit of world and Olympic gold. 15:40ish mark

[lightweight]

I'd like this guy even if he weren't from Western PA.

[ionel]

3 hours ago, Mr. PeanutButter said:

Lee's interview on BTN - he says he plans on sticking around Iowa city for a long time in pursuit of world and Olympic gold. 15:40ish mark

Can he actually do that while also serving as president of the university?  Asking for a pastry friend.  

[Mr. PeanutButter]

14 minutes ago, ionel said:

Can he actually do that while also serving as president of the university?  Asking for a pastry friend.  

Good question. We may need to alert the compliance department