Mesenbrink transfer

[BuckyBadger]

How in the world did he end up at Cal Baptist?

[Offthemat]

Probably wasn’t for the snow. 

[nhs67]

11 hours ago, TexRef said:

Serious question, but what happened between Bono and Askren? 

Askren has talked about it in spurts on FRL and then he will say things like "I'm going to shut up about it now."  He doesn't like his approach to coaching and the entire Burwikk scenario accents precisely why he doesn't like him.

[nhs67]

3 hours ago, BuckyBadger said:

How in the world did he end up at Cal Baptist?

Askren also touched on this... nobody really looked at him or took his recruiting seriously.  Cal Baptist did.  He had said that he was getting all sorts of calls after the Haines victory, but he had already committed.

[BuckyBadger]

That’s surprising. I don’t know how a guy like that goes under the radar.

[ionel]

2 minutes ago, nhs67 said:

Askren has talked about it in spurts on FRL and then he will say things like "I'm going to shut up about it now."  He doesn't like his approach to coaching and the entire Burwikk scenario accents precisely why he doesn't like him.

fakke news

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

5 minutes ago, nhs67 said:

Askren has talked about it in spurts on FRL and then he will say things like "I'm going to shut up about it now."  He doesn't like his approach to coaching and the entire Burwikk scenario accents precisely why he doesn't like him.

It may have had something to do with getting rid of McDonogh, also.  McDonogh was one Iowa guy Askren liked!  I believe he feels Bono is duplicitous.

[MNRodent]

40 minutes ago, nhs67 said:

Askren has talked about it in spurts on FRL and then he will say things like "I'm going to shut up about it now."  He doesn't like his approach to coaching and the entire Burwikk scenario accents precisely why he doesn't like him.

I think it is partly him not liking Bono and partly the U of WI in general, going back to Barry Davis and comments that he made when Askren was being recruited.

 

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

28 minutes ago, MNRodent said:

I think it is partly him not liking Bono and partly the U of WI in general, going back to Barry Davis and comments that he made when Askren was being recruited.

 

Maybe... but he was running the Badger RTC when the falling out happened and he resigned.

[Gus]

5 hours ago, MNRodent said:

I think it is partly him not liking Bono and partly the U of WI in general, going back to Barry Davis and comments that he made when Askren was being recruited.

 

I disagree. He did not like Barry Davis because Barry did not believe in Askren's ability to compete at the next level. I think that he doesn't like Bono because he shady and does not have the athletes best interest in mind a lot of the time. Say what you want about Askren but he puts a huge emphasis on believing in kids and making they truly enjoy competing.

[MNRodent]

1 hour ago, Gus said:

I disagree. He did not like Barry Davis because Barry did not believe in Askren's ability to compete at the next level. I think that he doesn't like Bono because he shady and does not have the athletes best interest in mind a lot of the time. Say what you want about Askren but he puts a huge emphasis on believing in kids and making they truly enjoy competing.

I'm not sure what part you are disagreeing with.  He dislikes both past and present Badger HCs, for different reasons, hence projecting a negative view towards the program in general that his athletes pick up on.

 

[Gus]

18 minutes ago, MNRodent said:

I'm not sure what part you are disagreeing with.  He dislikes both past and present Badger HCs, for different reasons, hence projecting a negative view towards the program in general that his athletes pick up on.

 

I disagree that he does not like Wisconsin in general

[Idaho]

[TexRef]

7 hours ago, MNRodent said:

I think it is partly him not liking Bono and partly the U of WI in general, going back to Barry Davis and comments that he made when Askren was being recruited.

 

I know that a lot of Wiscy people didn't like Barry Davis and thought he was trying to turn UW into an Iowa Lite lol. What was said when Askren was being recruited? 

[MPhillips]

8 minutes ago, Idaho said:

Hahahahaha...

[scourge165]

22 hours ago, flyingcement said:

Lots of places could use him.  Not many places that couldn't.  The only unlikely destination would be Wisconsin, as funny as it sounds.  Based on the Bono and Askren beef.  I think only Josh Otto went from Askren Academy to Wisconsin of the current team.  

No, they've got quite a few guys there. Just not the top guys.

 

Also, I wouldn't assume guys Messenbrink worked out with would be a selling point. Anyone watch the Last Dance? How a certain someone reacted in practice due to their "competitive" nature?

Messenbrink wasn't allowed to work out with other Wrestlers half way through last year. This coach who was totally biased against him(John Messenbrink)...wouldn't let him. 

 

All of this to say, the kid is competitive as hell, probably going to be great because of his maniacal work ethic and how angry losing makes him. He needs to tone that down and I haven't a clue if that led to Cal Baptist not working out...but he seems like a Iowa/PSU type kid. Particularly PSU given his Freestyle aspirations. And now people are yelling at this post telling me how stupid it is, they've got Haines and Facundo and Kosak and a logjam. Yes, but Cael said Haines is "not long for '57." There's a believe that his RS was pulled this year because he likely wouldn't make '65 next year and could use a RS.

So he could actually slide in at 157 pretty easily. 

All the same, I'm gonna bet Iowa. 

[MNRodent]

36 minutes ago, TexRef said:

I know that a lot of Wiscy people didn't like Barry Davis and thought he was trying to turn UW into an Iowa Lite lol. What was said when Askren was being recruited? 

Askren mentioned on FRL that a third person had been told by Davis that, something to the effect of, Ben wouldn't be very good in college.

[scourge165]

26 minutes ago, TexRef said:

I know that a lot of Wiscy people didn't like Barry Davis and thought he was trying to turn UW into an Iowa Lite lol. What was said when Askren was being recruited? 

First of all, Barry was a VERY disorganized recruiter. He was not good in person. There's an elite recruit...Davis was supposed to be at his house at 7PM. 9PM he calls and says he's "running late, is it ok if they still come." Sure, no problem. 11:30 on a School Night they come. And while Iowa was offering him 40%...Barry had never seen him Wrestle and only met with him because he'd heard he was good.

So Barry didn't think there was much talent in Wisconsin(he was not wrong, particularly 20 years ago, but he kinda ignored what talent there was there).

--This and then just Wisconsin's general Malaise is why Barry wasn't loved as the HC. I mean...people who knew the guy really liked him, but they didn't want him running the program.  

 

That said, he has Askren up for a visit, Askren was talking shit to the guys on the team about how he could...well, do what he ended up doing. They didn't like him, relayed that back to Barry. SOMEONE said they didn't believe Askren would have a lot of success in College...and at the time, very few people thought he would, and anyone who says they knew he'd go 2,2,1,1 and be so dominant or anything CLOSE to that...they are less trustworthy than George Santos. 

 

So they didn't go after Askren hard. Then Bono it was a couple things...mostly due to Covid and McDonough not being retained, Rotundo's scholarship money. About a week before he signed, they changed the offer. It was more backloaded. If he was on the team 5 years, it'd get progressively bigger. That wasn't the original deal, but they had to make room for another Wrestler. Askren said this was dishonest and immoral. They told the family....again, a week in advance, it wasn't an issue, but not it is. So how big of a deal you think that is, that's up to you. ALL of the rest of it is so petty and ridiculous that it's not worth getting into here. A big factor was one side wanting to get their club into the Wrestling room with the RTC guys and the other side having the University limiting how many people could be in a place at one time.

 

Two big Egos. One Ego thinks he should have gotten the job as the HC at Wisconsin. The other did.

 

[scourge165]

Just now, MNRodent said:

Askren mentioned on FRL that a third person had been told by Davis that, something to the effect of, Ben wouldn't be very good in college.

You beat me by seconds. Though, it wasn't Barry who said that, that WAS the belief at the time.

It was also the belief by a LOT of people at the time. He was not a great athlete. He wasn't explosive. 

He made himself great. That and he's got incredible grip strength and flexibility in his shoulders. Watch Jake Herbert trying to get Askren off his leg. He could NOT do it. 

[scourge165]

9 hours ago, nhs67 said:

Askren has talked about it in spurts on FRL and then he will say things like "I'm going to shut up about it now."  He doesn't like his approach to coaching and the entire Burwikk scenario accents precisely why he doesn't like him.

The Burwick scenario is a good example.

It's something Bono had no control over yet he's still taking all the shit for it.

[MPhillips]

5 minutes ago, scourge165 said:

It's something Bono had no control over yet he's still taking all the shit for it.

Do not let that jensen cat see this...

[ionel]

1 hour ago, MPhillips said:

Do not let that jensen cat see this...

[Offthemat]

It’s out of the bag now. 

[gimpeltf]

Does she have Bono's tongue?

[MizzouFan01]

Didn’t Askren say in FRL that Davis only offered 40% scholly and he was looking for a full ride. Believe he stated that only being offered that proved Wisconsin didn’t believe in him so that to him was a slap in the face. He did say that another school along with Mizzou was all in on him. But Brian Smith won him over saying he wouldn’t constrain Ben and let him wrestle his way instead of trying to make him conform.