Leaderboard

He owes you an explanation? Seriously?!?!!? Okay, I'll bite......why would he owe anyone--you, me, Brands, Gable, The Man in the Moon---anything? Premier athletes compete to satisfy themselves. I for one don't believe he--or any one else who toed the stripe last weekend--owes anyone anything. Just my view from the cheap seats......

Haven't been able to find any stats related to their off-the-mat bowling history. If you find it, I'll include that, too.

Title says it all. More of a test post to make sure everything working for when I have a relevant pithy comment.

I almost want to vote for Vito just for what he did in the Semi's and Finals...but it should be Parris. Even if Kerkvliet wrestled with all the urgency of a trust fund kid looking for a job...

Cue Schalles math blog in 3-2-1 …

Hindsight is 20/20. Coming into the tournament, Ramos was pinned by Lee in the 1st period the previous meeting and Ramos didn't make the B1G semifinals 2 weeks earlier. There was no guarantee he would make the semis at NCAAs. Perhaps Lee should gameplan more, but there is no way Spencer can gameplan for everyone as much as they plan for him. Also Lee was up 7-4 and on top in the 3rd, he wasn't unprepared, Ramos kept wrestling and hit his move and deserves all the credit.

Those are just tv cable ratings which from my understanding does not include any streaming platforms that could be watching. I may be wrong but I think that when including streams it may have a big impact on the numbers or at least I sure hope it does.

https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/10776671-2023-ncaa-d1-wrestling-off-season-transfer-tracker

With the great American Hero Wyatt Hendrickson someone is getting pinned most matches, it's just not Wyatt.

Andonian

This theory is a shot in the dark and I have absolutely no data to support it but in today's drive of sports gambling a lot if not all other sports are able to gamble on which pushes viewership. Barstool sportsbook allows you to gamble on anything from football to cornhole, when the casual sports fan is looking for something to watch I am sure that they find something that they are able to place wagers on. Even if it were just the finals that they would set lines for and allow the casuals to bet on would add some excitement and attraction to the sport.

A few OT/Tiebreaker clarifications 1. First choice goes to wrestler with first non-escape, non-penalty point. Disc is flipped if only escapes/penalties have been scored. RT point counts as a non-escape, non-penalty. 2. First choice can be top, bottom, neutral, or defer. Second choice can be top, bottom, or neutral. 3. If tied after the tiebreakers, riding time in OT is the deciding factor. 4. If riding time in OT is equal, they do a 1 minute SV period. 5. If still tied, another set of tiebreakers. Repeat 3-5 above until you get a winner.

The horror.

Let's start with the team race. Expectations We all know who won and by how much. But who made the seeding process look flawed? Well clearly that is American, Clarion, Drexel and Northern Colorado. They just need a few more wrestlers. Sometimes it is more about how you perform relative to expectations, than how you perform outright. But seriously, the out-performers of the tournament were Ohio State and Michigan. Of course, there is more room to out-perform when you start with lower initial seeds, but Ohio State's rise was enough to take them from a pre-tournament predicted 9th place finish all the way up to an actual fourth place finish. Penn State? Right on seed. For all the drama of a 2 for 5 Saturday night, really no drama thanks to guys like Bartlett and Van Ness beating their seed (and to a lesser extent Dean). Missouri over-seeded? Not so much. Can we put that one to bed? No. Never. That was foolish of me. Sorry. Bracketology Most busted? You got it. 125 was the most busted, but not for that reason,. For the other reason. We can credit App State's five seed for the biggest contribution followed by Oregon State's seven seed. That Iowa kid was only the third biggest contributor. On the flip side, 157 went closest to chalk. Seven of the top eight seeds finished on the podium and the won who did not, made it to the blood round (where he lost in SV to another top eight seed). For standard deviation though, it is actually 174. Take your pick. But Why Is It Always About the Big Dogs? After all, who doesn't love an under dog? The biggest out-performance always comes from the guys with the most to gain. Stand up and take a bow, gentlemen. Starting with Northern Colorado's Vinny Zerban who came into 157 as the 32 seed, but made the blood round for a Rocky Mountain High out-performance of 23 slots (I give him credit for ninth. Because). Next we have Virginia Tech's Eddie Ventresca who tore up his bracket, screamed at the Wrestling God's and said, "seeds don't matter." He came in as a 27 seed, but left as an All-American (7th). Not to be outdone, West Virginia's Killian Cardinale said, "yes, please, and thank you. I will take some of that." As he came in as the 28 seed at 125 and finished finished on the podium (8th). (OK, he was slightly outdone in that Ventresca beat him 7-6 in the seventh place match, but come on, why ya gotta be like that?) And not exactly bringing up the rear (but coming from there) Cal Poly's Dom Demas exemplified the "chip and a chair" mentality. When given a second bite at the apple by being awarded the 33 seed at 149 after an injury to another wrestler, he made it all the way to the blood round's blood round (let it be a thing) for a healthy 20 slot jump. Last on my arbitrarily sorted list, but first in Sparty's heart is Caleb Fish. The 165 pounder was seeded 29, but made the blood round. That Fish is a keeper.

It's not the OW or who we think is the best wrestler. It's the Hodge Trophy. Parris was the most dominant, most pins, and did it in what may have been one of the two toughest weight classes. If Parris doesn't win then it's not really the Hodge rather just a makeshift OW.

Nothing on BWI about this. Given the number of black athletes on the team at PSU and what purportedly got him kicked off the team at NC State, might not be the best fit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How well do you think this would go over in 2023?

@LJB Bag 'O' Glass

sigh...I watched them live. Mr. Pragle is still old...er.

Ok, they running today? Or is this in 12 months after Parris gets done dominating as an Edge for the Maize and Blue and he's getting ready to run a 40 for the combine? Because they can shave a couple tenths off that time. His 4.76 could become a 4.56 real easily! Luke Van Ness, 6'5 275 LB from Iowa, played a 5 tech and played OLBer, I'm pretty sure he just ran a 4.58 or something. I could see Parris doing that. Parris is the type of guy you use a 7th round pick on...if you have 4-5(as my team generally does). I could see him wrecking OTs with those hands and that speed...plus, I'm guessing he can bend off that edge. Kerkvliet was my favorite to go from Wrestling to Football(hypothetically)...but my God...just listening to him in his post-match interview after the Semis, Bobby Boucher makes him look like a genius.

My money is on Mason FWIW.

I'd say sticking around may have served them both pretty well.

Glory was going to beat him too. Would have made him front runner for hodge - if Lee was able to make it to the finals that is..

I don't buy that as 19 out of the last 20 years the team race was all but locked up before the finals began. The team race is a storyline that is at the bottom of the list.

The team race being decided before the finals was a big factor as well

Also, just saw on twitter that there was UFC london which the main event was happening around the same time as the NCAA finals which probably took out a lot of the casual MMA fans that would tune in as well.

Lol, I’ve been on this rant for 10 years. Most programs don’t actively volunteer this information to keep you informed and involved.

Nebraska has a bright future.... that lineup looks good next year. Even though they dropped a bit the team is trending up. You care correct on Condomitti -He was the guy and Wilson still ended up at the NCAA tourney. With a transfer or two and Lovett back in the lineup - way to go Idaho - they are going to be formidable.

Tom?

When you have to determine something between candidates who are close, you pick nits. In an era of ducking matches, I used this metric as a measure for this graphic to show he put it on the line more than anyone else. He wrestled every available match. If everyone had within a reasonable spread, I wouldn’t have used it. In some cases, Parris had almost double as some candidates. That doesn’t imply everyone ducked, but just another data point. As everyone knows, there are lies, damn lies and statistics.

He doesn't like any version of wrestling where you can touch your opponent's legs. He prefers when they play patty cake for 6 mins.

Could it be that he finally just HEW (folkstyle)? I have no data or information to support this but had this though... if he wasn't going for his 4th title, I wonder if he even would've wrestled this year? I know he was all in on Iowa's title and was a team guy but he just seemed so burnt out and tired. After he lost to Ramos maybe that was just it.

Don't know if it's across the board or just Spencer, but he said on a podcast that he doesn't watch tape or game plan for anyone. He just goes out and wrestles, and it usually works. Tony Ramos and Gilman have also said they were shocked when they left Iowa and saw how comparatively little live wrestling other programs do. Tony said they do drill at Iowa but the majority of practice time, at least when they were with the Hawks, was live goes, conditioning, and strength training. Said Coleman Scott spends a lot more time with drilling and instruction and less time live wrestling. Gilman said similar, that there's a lot of "just rolling around" in the PSU room. The brutal practices worked for Gable, but I think wrestling has changed a lot since then and the spaghetti wrestling and scrambling today leads to more injuries IMO.

What's the gf name, should we ask her what smelled?

A longer version is on the Chael/Lee thread, but here is the shorter version of what I do/don't think. Don't think Lee was injured, at least not anymore than he already was from his overall rehab journey. Do think he'd have wrestled back if he could. Don't think he could because he was too psychologically distraught from the loss. Do think Iowa issued a wishy-washy press release to keep the wolves at bay, implying injury without ever actually stating it. Don't think he owes fans an explanation. Do think he will speak to it eventually. Don't think Spencer deserves blame for not doing something (wrestling back) he was just not mentally capable of at that time. Do think Iowa bears some responsibility for that outcome by convincing Spencer he's the best ever and totally invincible, given that the whole reason Spencer got so good is that he's insanely self-critical and never satisfied with his performances. Don't have any solid basis for any of this rank speculation on my part. Do think I'm mostly right, even though Spencer's PR people on the NIL front will push him to play the injury card.

Ramos did match up well with Lee, but a big part of that is his preparation and game planning. Ramos talked about how Spencer lived in his head every day and how much time he and his coaches spent watching tape and working through situational strategies. Similarly, Brands and the coaches deserve some of the blame for not game planning for Ramos and giving Lee the best chance at winning. We are talking about a kid who took Spencer down multiple times before and even got swipes. That was lazy coaching to not be ready, especially if they knew Spencer was wrestling with an injury.

Yeah that's why they don't do OT in the NBA, NFL,NHL,MLB all the premiere sports just do criteria if there is a tie after 6 minutes. God I love good leg lace, roll him through three times that's pure excitement.

Well there you go ... he should win the Hodge ... only one loss but woulda beat the undefeated national champ.

Vougar Oroudjov Wrestling 1987 CADET European Champion 1989 Junior World Champion Runner UP 1990 Junior European Champion 1991 Senior World Champion 1992 Barcelona Olympics Bronze medal 1993 Senior World Championships Runner Up1994 Goodwill Games Champion Gold Medal 1995 European Champion 1995 World Cup Champion 1995 World Champion 1996 Atlanta Olympics Fourth Place Coaching 2000-2004 Lanssen College Assistant Coach 2004- Present Nassau Community College 2007- Present VHW Club Wrestling Owner and Coach Certifications – Bronze Coaching Certification Education Osetia university (1997) Bachelors Professional Memberships USA Wrestling Hometown- AzerbaijanSyosset, NY HS attended- Baku sport school Hobbies- Fishing, Family- Zhanna wife, Nick, Vito, George Dads DNA was quite evident during Vitos total dismantling of his opponents last weekend.

Mason Parris sticks out to me as the Hodge winner. Very impressive resume and wrestled a full season this year.

By far the worst tactical mistake at the NCAA was allowing ESPN to take over 3 hours to show 10 matches. I'm all for advertising dollars and all......but if you want to draw in new (casual) fans, then dragging the event out longer isn't the way to do it. Just my view from the cheap seats.......

If Heimselman was in the bracket at Big Tens or Nationals, Ramos may never have made it to Friday night's match with Spencer Lee. Malik should get some credit in the history books for that butterfly effect magic.

with a name like Bonaccorsi - I bet his Mom makes a mean Bolognese sauce!

It's true, I've driven from Denver to Iowa and back a few times and there's a brutal stretch from Northern Colorado to the Nebraska border that smells really really bad. Heard it's because of the mega feedlots there. Even with the windows up and A/C on it was unbearable.

9 was like 10%! But good point, I do pride myself on being a friendly competitor. Let's see how it goes next year.

Richie Figueroa will be a contender at 125

I know a seal and a ranger who are each relatively small. Seems like elite abilities (physical and mental) are more important than size for this sort of thing. Which makes sense to me.

Meh, I hear you, just saying. Every ranking service, media seems to be in the dark on it. Majority of casual Iowa fans probably still think he's coming. Doesn't bother me one way or the other, but a small statement would easily dispel the fog.

Eh...that was a good one. It was a sloppy shot from distance late as well, wasn't it? I think Gomez likely loses to Sasso. What about Murin vs Yianni? Anyone else think Murin maybe should have gotten NF there...outside of Iowa fans(I'm pretty sure I know your position).

They might also do night before. Can’t remember. A couple of those all-star events are pretty flexible in order to get people signed up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk