Leaderboard

Not really. My point was that it was a bad point. The Michael Jordan of developing talent is a stretch to begin with. But Even if you are the MJ of something, why would you rely on that one thing? Seems pretty un-MJ like. He was the best at going to the basket when he entered the league, but he did not rest on that laurel. He developed the best post up game, developed the best turn around jumper, developed the best one on one defense, developed the best smack talk, brought in the best teammates. No one gets to the top of the mountain by ignoring facets of success.

I don't know him or the family but for a few very brief interactions, but I have spoke to a close friend of the family with whom he works out with pretty regularly. I guess they're expecting him to be 6'4, maybe 6'5. The Dad is a big guy. I think he's about 6'2 right now. He also looks like he's long arms as well. I think he'll end up looking like a taller, longer Mason Parris, but I've got no clue. He just seems like a kid who's having fun, loves the sport and is an absolute hammer.

But he has no shoes.

Feels like I picked a good year for my first trip to the US Open, especially if Spencer goes.

I'd assume if they had a betting line, Kolodzik would have had better odds to win a wide open weight class in 2021(or even moreso then 2020 tourney) than Glory who had Spencer Lee or Monday who had to get past both Carr and O'Toole in order to win a title. Kolodzik was a 3X AA who'd taken a 3rd, who lost to Ashnault in the Semi's 2-0 and there was no Yianni in that weight. Kinda baffling how he was the #6 seed in 2020 given he had multiple wins over the #1 seed(Lugo) the #2(O'Connor) and the #4 seed(Mauller) and he was undefeated, but...it's kinda moot at this point given...we didn't wrestled the tournament. The POINT was simply that Kolodzik had a chance to win it, he's experienced a great deal of success. It was more in response to the is this article written if not for Ramos.'

Right, I'm saying Kolodzik's chances IF he'd wrestled in 2021 were probably higher than Glory or Monday heading into this past years tournament. So of the three, he probably would have had the best odds to win a title before the respective tournaments. Not that important, just pointing out they did have a guy who could very well have won a title a couple years ago, but was caught in that baffling decision by the NCAA to give some athletes 5 National Championships and others just 3.

My view on this is that what we have now is a much more level and honest playing field. Prior to the portal, NIL, and freedom of movement for athletes we had a very unlevel and very dishonest playing field. All the power belonged to the administrators and all of the product was being produced by the athletes. And make no mistake, it is a product produced for profit. Even the non-revenue sports exist to distract from the profits made from the revenue sports. The administrators relied on an antiquated and foolish notion that it was somehow manly and a life lesson to stick with a bad situation. But this was such a cynical view and relied on fans being fans, first and foremost, and athletes ignoring the profits derived from their efforts. In that system it seemed unfair for a coach to recruit over an athlete if the athlete was expected to just play the bad hand they were dealt, then shouldn't the coach do the same? Of course, that view ignored the cynicism of the system which was plain for all to see. Or for most. Now with free (or near free) movement for athletes we have a more symmetrical system. The nostalgic among us will long for the days when athletes did not move around, but that was in service of a dishonest system. Sure, it wasn't always that way, and the NCAA certainly promoted an old school view of the amateur student-athlete at the same time they professionalized the profit mechanisms, but it evolved over time to be that way. So to my way of thinking, the whole concept of recruiting over is outdated.

Because we want to double Iowa’s point total at NCAAs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Going back to the original post and question, I believe Iowa would and should recruit Nagao over Teske if they feel that gives them the best wrestler at 133. Every school in the country will recruit over their guy if it gives them a better shot at winning, college wrestling is a business and coaches treat it as such.

Dake Cunningham is a good cowboy name

His nickname has to be Lillehammer

i feel compelled to say this... my younger son has had his ass kicked all over this country and this planet... luke is hands down the best wrestler he has ever been beat down by... more importantly, luke comes from one the best families i have ever encountered in this game... if you all want someone to get behind, this is the kid...

I think it was a good interview. Maybe even a really good interview. At the end of the day, as a fan of wrestling, we all have our subjective opinions of what makes for good wrestling and by extension good wrestlers. It is easy to look at records and titles and say who the good wrestlers are. But to me that is superficial. In my opinion, good wrestling is consistently working for pins and getting them. To me the real heart and soul of the sport is more on the mat than on the feet. Yes, neutral is a part of the sport, but I think it is a lesser part. You can totally win matches and titles in the sport with only takedowns and escapes (heck in freestyle you don't even need escapes), but to me you will always be lesser than those who put others on their back. So was there a double standard for asking if Spencer had a bad match that he only won 8-0, while Yianni eeks out 1 point wins all the time? Depends on your point of view. I have been watching college wrestling for the last 20 years (so I don't the 90s and earlier). To me, the top wrestlers are (in no particular order): Askren, Nickal, Ruth, Taylor, Metcalf, and Spencer with Nolf and Retherford right behind. Noticeably absent are the guys with the best record and most titles: Stieber, Yianni, and Dake. But such is the subjectivity of such lists. While Yianni is undoubtedly a very good wrestler, I am not particularly saddened to see him go. He was not, in that sense special. Spencer on the other hand was. I am saddened to see his collegiate career conclude, because he was one of the guys that you just watched with excitement because you knew he was probably going to turn a guy. He freaking took top in that match against Ramos AND turned him for 4 AND rode him out (who the heck does that?). That is the kind of threat the top tier guys have in my mind. And Spencer was elite in that way and Yianni was not. And everyone kind of knew that. That is why people did have different expectations between the two. Is it fair? Meh, who cares. It is an admiration and respect thing, more than a standards or expectation thing. Does that translate to real life pressure? Maybe it does. The fact that he is talking about it kind of shows that it did cross his mind. Good luck to his international career and personal life outside of wrestling. I will miss him at the college level.

USA wrestling reporting Gable will be wrestling at the US Open. Wow. Pretty cool.

https://deadspin.com/princeton-wrestling-chris-ayers-ncaa-champion-trenton-1850318558 Great article about a great guy and the amazing turnaround at Princeton …never realized he didn’t place in states in high school but won 120 matches and AAed at Lehigh

Mostly about her health challenges. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/sport/helen-maroulis-concussion-wrestling-spt-intl/index.html

I hope gold medal refs spend some time learning how to award 4 for amplitude

Does the interview actually say “college” as well. What I have read is that he is wrestling in the us open.

“What you thought I was going to let my son Parris go to Paris?”

He wrestled a kid from SD, Schunke, who is a giant (over 300 during football) at hwt & legit 4 star football recruit who is ranked 4th at HWT and made it look pretty easy.

Wow! I did not see that coming. Awesome news!

He is probably still applying aloe, hourly at that, to the wounds Arujau opened up during that lashing of a national championship match.

I never questioned Penn States integrity or reasoning for going after talent, I only questioned the overly expressed confidence of PSU fans

Then what about double that?

*And an ankle monitor.

I don't care if he's doing whatever he wants with his site. I just think it's hilarious given that his fans (and he) were screaming about the previous regime doing the same thing. I agree: it's a private company, he is the owner, he can set the terms of use.

CAN WE PLEASE STOP TALKING ABOUT AJ FERRARI GOING TO IOWA I'M BREAKING OUT IN HIVES!

Good for him if true but no wrestler is worth that much

Middlemen went to prison. Regular folk like us. Not the big guys who are actually spending the money.

It would, with even more fanfare, if Glory beat Spencer in the finals. Can't remember a robust discussion of what folks thought would have happened if those two had wrestled on Saturday night. I'm not sure what the odds should have been on that.

You missed the point entirely

Can’t support the old place, just a bunch of herbs that can’t mute audio on their Farmer’s ads. Defector is Normal Gossip! #accomplice (These words may mean nothing to most, if not all if you).

It's free agency, however in this case the teams do not have a cap, revenue sharing or a means to keep things semi equitable. Scholarship equity at 9.9 doesn't exist when you do not have to give a scholarship to cover all school costs. If the team you support is a "top" tier team with $$$ you should feel great about it because you can build a very solid lineup from the portal with $$$ . If the team you support is a mid level to lower level team then you should be angry about this, because your best guys will be filling the gaps of the top tier teams.

I agree, I find this instance very similar to Dean coming to PSU even though they already AA Beard. I know Teske does not have the same credentials but just a similar example. It did not harm PSU with recruiting in other weights and I am going to assume that it will not hurt Iowa with recruiting at other weights either.

All coaches on almost any level would put the best wrestler they can out on the mat at every weight. As long as it doesn't negatively affect their recruiting at other weights as far as scholarship allocations.

Sealey has dropped a bit, IMO. I don't think you can fault Lilledahl for losing to another elite wrestler in Bassett. I feel like Hopke has come along late, and really don't know much about him. 1) Ferrari 2) Davino 3) Lilledahl 4) Hopke Sealey: 7-8 right now.

Sealey took 3 losses in the offseason, 2 to non-elite guys and Angelo just destroyed him at WNO. Anyone not ranking Angelo #1 is disingenuous IMO. I would go Angelo, Davino, Hopke. Lilledahl would have been in the running for #1 or #2 except for his recent struggles. You could argue he still belongs up there as I think both his recent losses were in freestyle but he didn't look good in either match to me.

I would add Koy Hopke to that list. He is a stud.

I dunno. I'm certainly not a ranker. To my eye, I think Ferrari and Sealey are the best guys in the year, but that's all gut feeling.

Per Minnow it was a life-ender.

Didn't he just try to Muay Thai knee ths shit out of Mason Gibson's cousin (Bassett a HS frosh next season) who just beat him soundly via a 4-1 Decision?

No, Mason Gibson is in the same class as Luke

Luke Smith still has eligibility?? Man, these extra Covid years are crazy.

I think he's taken a couple of losses recently, so I'm not sure if he will, in fact, be the #1 overall recruit, but either way, very high level kid.

I'm a big wrestling supporter of PSU. I support both the Penn State Wrestling Club as well as the NLWC. I also support the NIL collective Success with Honor on a monthly basis with my funds directed toward wrestling. I'd like to do more, but right now I can't with how things are run. I can't direct money toward trying to entice Aaron Nagao or anyone else to attend Penn State. I'd love to direct funds to benefit specific athletes, but I can't. It gets spread amongst rostered wrestlers. I can however, purchase their collectibles, shirts, or autographed photos, but that can happen anywhere and it doesn't entice an athlete to sign. The NIL recruiting myth is a myth, except at just a very few universities that have very specific donors that perhaps might be on a morning television show, and have more liberal uses of the NIL application. Regarding Penn State and whether it is a "State School" or not, technically it is not. But it is under very firm influence of the state and state laws regarding the use of NIL. And regarding the fact that Cael's salary is not published isn't because PSU is not state run, it is because he is not in the top 25 salaries of the University. The 25th is the executive VP of health at $662,000. So he's under that. I'm guessing well under, but I'm sure he makes additional money from other sources besides the University. There have been some changes with Success with Honor's leadership recently. And they want to get more aggressive in trying to benefit PSU athletes. But it is clear 80% of those efforts are directed towards football. another 15% towards basketball. Those are the money makers. Wrestling is possibly a distant 3rd, but I'm not even sure about that.

To add, look at Burwick's situation from an outside perspective. Didn't know his coach was recruiting over him, didn't enter the portal in time, lost a good chunk of the season (could have been all). It's a two-way street and therefore the student-athletes, if they prefer to choose wrestling over the name of their degree, should be as empowered as their coaches who may recruit over them, leave them, or be terminated prior to graduation.

$5 gas, CA taxes and trying to find anything affordable in Atherton, Los Altos Hills, Woodside, etc., would make any coaching honeymoon in the Bay Area something to reflect on.

J Rob is an Okie State alumni that could sell tickets and recruit. Just typing this up for a friend of course

55kg- always light (bum dump tssst)... if nowry signs up he will walk through it... 60kg- nasty again... ildar, roberts, miranda, black, thomsen, moomey, gurule steps up in weight... none of the guys at the pointy end care for each other at all... next year this weight for olympics trials will be bananas with jones coming down... 63kg- couple of interesting things... tuma coming down from 67 and Fuenffinger is back... expect jones to handle his business... 67kg the big story will be joel adams and his coming out party... i would be very surprised if he wins it, but, he is a problem... 72/77/82kg same bracket as per... 87kg- Stefanowicz back for the first time since his olympic birth... vera and carslon with there to say hi... 97kg- rau back... interesting... 130kg- coon back... schultz has had a tough year so far in the poo style and he has never beat coon any way... still waiting on rulon to enter... waiting for attao to get a little more mature and this might just be his weight for years to come... he is only signed up for U20 but just wait... that kid is fun... not your typical heavy wrestler...

What a bunch of clowns.