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You chose to cut 37 pounds because you wanted to be the starter. Had you been able to beat the heavyweight you would have chosen to not cut 37 pounds (as evidenced by you moving up). When I was in high school, I weighed 185 as a sophomore. I chose to cut down to 152 pounds because I was unable to beat the 189, 171 and 160 pounders on my team. I chose to cut 33 pounds because I wanted to be a starter. No one made me do it. I chose to do it.

... old age low T ... @BobDole!

My excitement level is low as well. Maybe it’s injuries, lack of top teams or big matchups happening at what I consider watered down dual meets and tournaments. Take the SS for example, the match with Arnold and Ferrari not happening killed it. The highlight match of the tournament and it doesn’t happen due to a MFF. We can get KOT vs Haines but not Ferrari/Arnold. Hopefully the second half of the season heats up, January-March is a great time of the year when wrestling is going full steam.

Ive never been more engaged tbh, there are constatnly good matches and match-ups between teams.

No doubt the in season tournaments are a pale imitation of what they used to be.

Lucas Byrd v. Nasir Bailey The reemergence of the ILLINI as a national power. Webster and Scoles killing it. The Brawlnagels and Luffman back. Ruth at a new weight. This season has been anything but a downer for ILLINOIS fans.

Your apathy has caused you to not pay attention. There have been a ton of top 10 match ups. O'Toole v Haines Ramos v Spratley Ayala v Knox Hardy v Jamison Lovett v Henson Downey v Taylor Keckeisen v Plott Buchanan v Munoz Hendricksen v Feldman

125 133 141 149 157 165 175 190 205 285 any takers?

Ok now let's talk about the kids pulled out of the hallway to wrestle 106 and not just the top level wrestlers if you want to play that game. Of course, you don't want to because you tend to not have civilized discourse and instead want to dunk on everyone at every chance you get. But to open and close that discussion from my side, it is the same as heavyweight at the kids level - studs and duds, not much in between. By the way, what was your weight class your senior year of high school? Does that have any correlation to your feelings? And if you paid attention to any post of mine ever, you would know that I'm on your side about the tweeners like Green. It's a damn shame that only six arbitrary olympics weights exist. But then you throw out Hamiti, wrestling college, in the same paragraph. C'mon.

we need better democrats here.

I met a two-time NCAA champ who said six-packs were over-rated. He won both titles without one. So my humble brag is that I have always been just like a two-time NCAA champ.

Although this trend has been covered a fair amount in threads over the years it's a good new topic here for a lot of reasons. And introducing yourself by complaining means you are in the right place. My two cents would be that the death of the in season tournament is the most prominent symptom of the larger point that only one thing matters at all in the sport anymore -- the three days where there is a sold out 20,000 seat arena and wall to wall national TV coverage. It's so bad that even the conference tournaments aren't taken seriously for any purpose other than as a qualifier - MFFs galore. Not sure how many times I've gone to or tuned into a dual mainly to see a particular guy and he is in street clothes. It's just incentives. All the incentives are for the NCAA. Sports are all like this now. Basketball is unwatchable because of the incentives created by the 3 point shot. Baseball is heading that way because of the incentives created by high velocity pitches and the inability to get batters out more than twice. All the money for coaches and wrestlers is the NCAA finish. So they don't Wrestle much and don't seek out risks. Wake me up in March.

"You gotta win to get love. That's just life. Look at Don Shula, legendary coach. Look at that Asian guy, holds the world record for eating all those hot dogs in a row. Look at Rue McClanahan, from the Golden Girls. All three people great champions. All loved." - Our generation's greatest sports philosopher This quote moved me so much that I decided to see who the greatest winners of our time were. Using the results of the first, third, fifth, and seventh place matches for the last 10 tournaments we can figure out which team ends their season with a win most often. Surely that must be Penn State. Maybe Cornell. How about Michigan? Turns out The Ohio University, Air Force, Michigan State, Brown, and Clarion are the Rue McClanahans of college wrestling. They are greater winners than the lowly lions, the big blah bears, or the woeful wolverines. And so we must love them. These five titans of college wrestling are the only teams to win ALL of their season ending matches. Indisputably this makes them the greatest winners of all time of the last decade. Below are all the teams to win at least half of their final matches.

Didn’t notice that, good catch

So it isn't just me. Nice to hear. and I agree with Madmardigan that it seems alot harder to catch a match here and there. I'm thankful for those Indian dudes that post matches followed by a pottery video.

Di Shu Ya Gongfu (Chinese: 地鼠牙功夫, literally "Gopher Teeth Kung Fu", originally named "Big Gopher" (Chinese: 大地鼠, Dàdì shǔ) is a Chinese martial art that has its origins in Hoy Hong Temple out of Gopher techniques of Five Animal Kung Fu, Ng Ying Kungfu (Chinese: 五形功夫).[3] The system "was modeled after the demeanor and fighting strategy of an attacking gopher. Techniques unique to Di Shu Ya are ripping, hooking, clawing and grasping applications."

Not to worry, Big 10 season is upon us.

I feel my excitement level as being lower than it usually is at this time of year. Not sure why exactly. It could be my fault entirely.

thanks for confirming

Seems like the least amount of TV aired matches/events I’ve ever seen. Used to be able to catch some duals and at least a tournament final or two between one of the ESPN channels, Big10 network, and the ACC network by this time of year. Now almost everything’s behind a paywall of some sort.

He wrestled unattached at the salute

It has been D level so far.

Ranking seafood preparations: 1. Cajun blackened. 2. Mom hand-breading my fresh crappies and sunfish. 3. Gumbo and Bisque. 4. Probably something French 5. Landry's (seafood restaurant) 6. Bonefish Grill (seafood restaurant) 7. Long John Silver's / Captain D's (fastfood restaurant) 8. High school cafeteria. 9. Hospital cafeteria. 10. Chef spits on your fish post-cooking. 11. Sushi.

Perhaps. It may be the hype machine like the soldier salute and they spend an hour on the potential matchups at FRL and half of the studs are no shows. The Scuffle used to be one of the top events and the field looks sparse.

I love all the people.

Cael at least usually wrestles his full lineup for the big duals

link for Cornell @ Mizzou https://www.espn.com/watch/roadblock?id=716a9c4f-261e-4bcc-9715-012aab884a02&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3pLRlHzTMaigIgd_n1c4yOtv0hB-4wv5zmCN-trQqMmtIUlD2JfqYcaqY_aem_juEWtXeVLF_F95RZfSh37A&om-navmethod=espn:globalsearch:results

I see nothing wrong with this.

It was a joke lol.

if you weigh 215 you can make 205 after 1 practice. if you weigh 225 you can put on good weight and have zero excuse at HWT. we're back to the issue of people acting like all hwts weigh 285 except the tweeners. i'd like to get the weigh in sheets for the final day of NCAA's the last decade or so for the HWT finalists. i'd put money of their average weight being around 245 ish. Snyder, Cassar, Gable, Paris, Hendrickson...all 'small' hell, Derek White had a completely uninteresting career at 197 then all of a sudden became a Top 2 guy at HWT. Zabriskie won a title and he was small as hell. he, White, Cassar....all three former 197's the weight is atrociously thin. and despite 197 being relatively deep currently, it's historically been very thin. there's no depth, guys. y'all are trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. you're suggesting rule changes based off a few anecdotes. name me ONE guy....one guy...that didn't make his mark solely because he was in between 197 and HWT.

He is currently registered for the Scuffle according to Flo

With Rocky coming back next year (sounds like redshirt of some kind), there doesn't seem to be a reason to keep Sinclair on his redhsirt. With Rocky and Colton Hawks returning next year, Sinclair can redshirt then vs wasting a year of eligability sitting on the bench. Sinclair has shown he can be very competitive at 197 now. Am I missing something?

5 ranked guys at 125, 6 at 133, 4 at 141, 149 & 174 appear to be the deepest weights, 133 with 5 in the top 20 probably the best (+ Burwikkk), or 174 with 2 in the top 10 (Wolak & Sax) Also several intriguing redshirts/current backups such as Sonny Sasso, Zack Ryder, Mirasolas, and Kurt McHenry. Speaking of Sonny Sasso, not sure if that starting spot is currently settled as both he and “the GOAT Andy Smith” are entered. However in another potential VT roster battle Catka is entered at heavyweight but not Mullen.

All times Eastern, with local times in parenthesis. *-indicates event is believed to be eligible for a one-pound weight allowance Friday, January 3: Purdue at Kent State, 6:00 PM Pitt-Johnstown at Pittsburgh, 6:00 PM Cornell at Missouri, 7:00 PM (6:00 PM) Cleveland State at Ohio, 7:00 PM Air Force at Oklahoma State, 8:00 PM (7:00 PM) Saturday, January 4: American, Appalachian State, Army West Point, Bellarmine, Bloomsburg, Brown, Campbell, Chattanooga, Clarion, Davidson, Duke, Gardner-Webb, Little Rock, LIU, Morgan State, North Carolina, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, Oklahoma, The Citadel, Virginia, Virginia Tech at Southern Scuffle, hosted by Chattanooga, 9:00 AM Bloomsburg, Edinboro at Bobby Kauffman Open, hosted by Edinboro, 10:00 AM West Virginia at Princeton, 7:00 PM California Baptist at Utah Valley, 8:00 PM (6:00 PM) Sunday, January 5: *American, Appalachian State, Army West Point, Bellarmine, Bloomsburg, Brown, Campbell, Chattanooga, Clarion, Davidson, Duke, Gardner-Webb, Little Rock, LIU, Morgan State, North Carolina, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, Oklahoma, The Citadel, Virginia, Virginia Tech at Southern Scuffle, hosted by Chattanooga, 10:00 AM Binghamton vs. Maryland at Clifton Park, NY, 11:30 AM Columbia vs. Lock Haven at Clifton Park, NY, 11:30 AM Oregon State at Ohio State, 1:00 PM Binghamton vs. Lock Haven at Clifton Park, NY, 1:30 PM Columbia vs. Maryland at Clifton Park, NY, 1:30 PM Nebraska at Northern Iowa, 2:00 PM (1:00 PM) Binghamton vs. Columbia at Clifton Park, NY, 3:30 PM Lock Haven vs. Maryland at Clifton Park, NY, 3:30 PM

As a big Penn State wrestling fan you know I have to take Notre Dame. Oh yeah, another fun fact about me. I grew up in the Chicagoland area with red hair and freckles.

Because 1) the gap of 90 lbs between these two weights eliminates people from the sport altogether. No one is going to avoid doing the sport altogether if you move around the middle weights (not the kind of people we would want in the sport anyway...) 2) As an added bonus, it directly leads to internationally relevant weight classes. This is emphatically less important than point one, but still a nice bonus.

Not anymore. The NCAA only tests for postseason competition though, in-season drug testing is done by the individual schools or conferences. We had something similar, it was "don't do stupid things" even though there was no official dry rule. It mostly worked itself out, during the season most wrestlers and pretty much all of the starters did very little if any partying by choice because everyone was so keyed into training, cutting, and keeping any sort of edge for competition.

I think a good idea is to not notice ticky-tack things like that. I have a lot on my mind when I ref! (aka discretion)

You'd better have your rulebook handy when you bring the guy to the table for that (pages 12 +17 btw)

that ref is a dork.

one of my favorite things to do is when a ref makes a stupid call like that i ask them to cite the exact page number from the nfhs rule book that it talks about whatever they dinged them for.

NIL for forum posters?

It is a concerning issue, billions of dollars are being spent on all the big data centers to store our data. They already use our data to influence elections, who knows what else they are using our data for. I got a feeling everyone is gonna be pissed about all the data collection in the future.

A new SundayMoringComic Strips w/Jombo for every day, how nice would that be. Though... wouldn't it lack the originality that ILLINIWrestlingBlog brings to the table? D3

Bla. Bla the game changed so you adapt. Where did messenbrink come from ? Or kerk. Or nagoo. Or truax. Or dean. it’s a fact. They have had the #1 best results over time not counting psu.

As a staunch supporter of booze in all forms even I can admit it does not help my wrestling.

ELITE flavor. Cherry very overrated. Smores not too shabby.

Frosted Brown Sugar

I'm eating a pop tart as I type this reply.