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I need to get this one out of the way a little early this year as I have a few things coming up that will distract me from the forum for a bit. Once, Twice, Three Times.... The great Lionel Ritchie said it best. Who will be a "timer" this year? Possible Two-Timers (not that kind, the good kind): 125 - Richie Figueroa 141 - Jesse Mendez 141 - Andrew Alirez 149 - Caleb Henson 174 - Levi Haines 184 - Parker Keckeisen 197 - AJ Ferrari 285 - Greg Kerkvliet Possible Three-Timers (As Easy As 1, 2, ...) 174 - Keegan O'Toole 285 - Gable Steveson Possible Five-Timer ("There Can Be Only One") 184 - Carter Starocci Movin On Up I have tracked the highest scoring wrestlers in NCAA history (using current scoring rules) down to number 234. To make the list you need to meet, or exceed Ed Peery's 59 total points. There are a handful of wrestlers who have a shot at moving onto the list, and a few who will move up the list (barring catastrophe). The Possible Newbies (* denotes fifth year) Ridge Lovett currently on 31 points Beau Bartlett currently on 35.5 points* Kyle Parco currently on 40 points* Stephen Buchanan currently on 40 points Wyatt Hendrickson currently on 48.5 points* Cohlton Schultz currently on 58 points* Going To A Deluxe Apartment In The Sky? Who are the guys already on the list that have a chance to move on up? For reference, the top 5 scorers in NCAA history are: Cael Sanderson (107.5) Logan Stieber (103.5) Ed Banach (102.5) Mark Churella (99.5) David Taylor (99) A Toast To The Most? We are Americans. We like the most of everything. Do I want fries with that? Silly question. I want all the fries. Bigger, Higher, Better. There are at least two possible mosts on the line. Team Points Who knows what is happening with Josh Barr? Perhaps only Nick Suriano. But, assuming he is healthy, and assuming Braeden Davis can stay out of scrambles, PSU has a very real shot at decimating the team points record that has stood the test of time. As long as by time you mean 12 months. I will update my projection for them some time after seeds come out, but based on post-conference rankings they could be as high as 199 points. Though I highly doubt that. Losses We all know about Carter Starocci and his pursuit of the most NCAA titles, thanks to the NCAA decision to grant as many years as it takes. But there is another side to that coin. With more opportunity to win comes more opportunity to lose. And sadly there is a wrestler who has the chance to become the losing-est wrestler in NCAA tournament history. But don't take that statement as a judgement (as many on the forums are want to do), because to attain that title a wrestler needs to be a winner first, and foremost. Oh, the irony. The only way to rack up loses is to win. Finishing 6th or 8th gets you three loses. That's an All-American, baby. So shout out to Kyle Parco. Having finished 6th, 8th, 4th, and 5th he has 10 total loses (3+3+2+2). If he finishes with 2 more loses (fourth or worse), the record is his, and his alone. With an asterisk, of course. The current holders of the title, with 11 total loses, are Kirk Mammen (Oklahoma State 6th, 6th, 5th, 8th) and Ben Bennett (Central Michigan 6th, 8th, 6th, 4th). Long may you ride. If I have left anything out, please add to the list.

I’m not sure if anyone has brought this up yet, but a good cap to a career by Gavin at Lock Haven this season. 15-2 record, a conference championship and another NCAA tournament bid.

Iowa had a bad B1G tourney, but a good year so far. Not loving the mean-spirited posts attacking Iowa on here and on other wrestling social media. They show year after year that they are a strong and thriving program, even if you don't love their flavor of wrestling culture. Their guys always bring it and their coaches and team work their tails off and care about the sport and their guys. So, while I almost never pull for them in a match, respect to Iowa and their coaches even if occasionally there are some missteps. Its part of the sport. NCAA wrestling is better for Iowa and their occasionally dark but always strong energy.

Daton Fix just saw this thread and is lacing up his boots

Remind me which is the school to most recently win a title other than Penn State? Iowa coaching staff does have problems, and I would like to see some new assistants, but the biggest problem any coach at Iowa isn going to have is that they're the only program in the country that is held to the standard of "be better than Penn State." There is no program that is consistently above them. To make it more difficult, their also held to the standard of their own history. So they have to be better than two legends, Sanderson and Gable. One is impossible since he's retired, and the other is on as historic a run as Gable went on. Nobody else is held to this standard. Nobody. That said, I would move on from Telford and shift M* into a recruiting coordinator position, and bring in new coaches in those roles, preferably outside of the Iowa family to get some new blood. Terry, specifically, is one of the very best coaches in the country; people swear by him. The Brands brothers are one of the draws of the program whether you want to admit it or not. Ask Spencer Lee why he came to Iowa.

Logan Massa time, baby

mspart -- "That Gable ability to get in heads is something that cannot be taught in my opinion. That's what makes him great". You are 100 percent correct. I've known Dan for nealry 50 years, both in my role as a newspaper reporter and as a friend, and he is totally unique in that regard.

I have a big swing and I miss for a PSU fan. Levi Haines should be on the list of possible newbies. He has 44 points already in his two tournaments.

I just don't understand why it's either "they're perfect as coaches, no notes" or "they suck and the entire sport has passed them by." They're good coaches, but have definitive flaws, one of them they're working on fixing (trying to bring in more of the top end high school talent as opposed to just one or two big fish and "coaching up" somewhat lower ranked guys) and are bridging the gap in that strategy with transfers) and the other is one that I desperately want them to fix (more diversity of thought/experience on the coaching staff). They're still awesome coaches, and they get very good results.

That Parco stat is gold and has a real shot of happening

They might tonya harding him in the tunnel before the finals.

The coaching staff needs to be revamped. They hold a standard for their wrestlers but not themselves. Instead of developing, they get frustrated at their guys and go buy a replacement. They need to hold that standard to themselves.

Did Endene actually enroll and attend classes at Wisconsin? ------- The other D1 schools that I'm tracking have former wrestlers at D3 nationals: Matthew Kelly - Binghamton Logan Flynn - Bloomsburg Jacob Blair - Bloomsburg Nolen Zeigler - Bloomsburg Jake Eckerle - Buffalo Sam Kotch - F&M Carson Martinson - Iowa Kaiden Wagner - Lock Haven Garrett Totten - Navy Eddie Simes - NDSU Tanner Gerber - NDSU Alden Smith - Northern Illinois Dylan Harr - Pitt Nate Camisciolli - Purdue Jacob Venezia - Sacred Heart Austin Cooley - SIUE Benyamin Kamali - Virginia

Meh. I can see why this wasn't called a slam. It started as a suplay but he sort of pivoted at the end. The ref and reply officials all saw it the same way. If they had just kept on wrestling, no one would be complaining about the non-call. I wouldn't have been shocked to see it called a slam after the replay, especially since his head appears to make contact first, but it isn't "absolutely inexcusable" to let it go either. Speaking of CP's histrionics, is it really necessary for him to complain that this is "incredibly dangerous," when this very same move is permitted in freestyle? And given that women's college wrestling follows freestyle rules, is it helpful or accurate to say that women's wrestling permits "incredibly dangerous" moves? Come on man. Bouzakis is incredibly powerful, but that's the source of the danger, not his moves.

Screw you, your buddy, whoever he got it from, and your commitment to logic.

Saw this on HVI, worth a read. This person likely paid attention during their 7th Grade Probability Unit: Here's an email from a buddy of mine concurring with my argument that Penn State losing nationals is not only virtually impossible but would be the biggest upset in the history of college sports (makes Michigan losing to App State look like nothing) It's not even just how good Penn State is, even though that's definitely the main thing, it's how spread tf out the other contenders are. There are 40 dudes currently ranked in the top 4 at a weight from 20 different schools. 9 are from Penn State, and 12 are from schools who have exactly 1 such dude. Nobody aside from Penn State has more than 4 (Iowa) and only 3 others have 3 (Nebraska, Minnesota, OkSU). And among those 4 who have 3+ such guys, there's tons of overlap. OK State and Minnesota are both there at 285 and 184. Nebraska and Iowa are both there at 149. Nebraska and Minnesota at 141. Where there's an opportunity to pile up points for any of them, it's mutually exclusive and likely to be somewhat divided as the tournament progresses. Basically, outside of Penn State, the only team with a serious shot at 100 points is Iowa, and they'd have to perform substantially above their current rankings and get substantial bonus points to do it. According to their Flo rankings, they're looking at 56 placement points. Even if they performed to expectation and got bonus points at the same pace as Penn State did last year, both of which, I mean, this is Iowa we're talking about so lmao, they're looking at 92 points. That's definitely not a bad tournament, especially for someone without a national champ, but this hasn't been good enough for a national championship since 1989, and in only about half of years since is good enough for second place. You've got a Penn State team where anything less than 130 would be an unmitigated dumpster fire and a field where anything above 90 is exceeding expectations.

CJ absolutely deserved a spot there as we agree ... wins over several guys who qualified, #21 in coaches poll, 1 spot below qualification at conference, bonus point for cool factor.

@nhs67 just went from six to midnight

i don't hate it. they had great seasons and just 1 loss. i think seeds could be a different story though.

Like Bum Phillips said, he can take his'n and beat your'n, and then he can turn around and take your'n and beat his'n.

The real MVP is the compliance officer at Little Rock. Michigan's Dept of International Eligibility is going to throw such a huge bag to get them into Ann Arbor asap

Cael is just following in Dan Gables footsteps and building a dynasty at one school, which is boring. If he really wants to be the best he should switch schools every 5 years and try to win a natty at multiple Big 10 schools.

I can say with absolute certainty that there is a room in Wisconsin that has highly ranked wrestlers from Mizzou, Minnesota, UNI, and Penn State all wrestling with each other in the offseason.

Then why do they consistently beat everybody else?

Cael and Kerk have been preparing for Steveson and have a super-secret move/strategy they are saving for NCAA’s.

Agreed. I saw Cael with brass knucks in his pocket. He started to pull them out but realized that it would be best for the NCAA finals, unless he needs to pull them out at Hendrickson first. If so, he's got powder ready to throw in Gable's eyes.

Alirez is out of eligibility after this year. Unless you are talking about competing for the HWC.

Wrestlers don't grow at Iowa.

So the standard of being the best is too much for Iowa? That’s an interesting take. Even so, the standard doesn’t have to be as high as beating Penn State. How about produce a National Champion? Just one besides Spencer Lee. They’re able to bring in the best recruits, have every resource you could possibly need, recruit half their roster from the Portal, and still… no individuals stand at the top of the podium. They scrape by just getting somebody into the finals! If Tom and Terry were as great as you claim you’d think somebody could sneak onto the podium (outside of a generational talent)

Sunday 3 PM EST, 2 PM CST?

And another thing: why did they have a 6'4'' guy interviewing the winners, and making even Gable look tiny? Perfect job for Shane Sparks! Or the guy that used to do the interviews.

Deluca is little. He is a career 125 according to himself.

More like they like to buy nice things and run em straight into the ground. It's like some idiot buying a new car every year and beating the hell out of it, then getting upset at the car when you have a beater. Rinse and repeat.

Can we add Sparks and Gibbons stupid coffee grinder inside joke to the annoying list? We get it, you call it a coffee grinder in Wisconsin. A lot of moves have different names, it doesn't need to be referenced on every single broadcast. I still like the BTN crew and can certainly get over it but its annoying.

Who wins the Hodge?

3 of the above names will certainly be eliminated from the realm of the undefeated by the end of the season. Either Keck. or CStarr (or as a longshot both) Two from Steveson, Hendrickson and Trephan. In addition, we may conceivably see KOT, Henson, and Ford Pinto fall since they all have serious fellow competitors at the weight. It's like an Agatha Christie novel: And Then Were None ... though I'm pretty sure MM and Steveson will survive the bloodbath.

How am I overweighing the conference tournament in these two circumstances? Bartlett's only top 10 wins this season are Mendez and Hardy. He lost to Vombaur in his only other top 10 matchup. Hardy matches his best win, and just won the tournament that he took third place in. If Bartlett actually notched some other notable wins this season, maybe I would feel more strongly that he deserves to be the 1 despite the conference tournament. PSU's schedule is basically what you just described.. get to 15 matches and roll the dice at B10s.. they rolled the dice and Bartlett didn't get the job done.

We're really talking about results from the first week of December as a reason to ignore what happened this weekend? Alirez should get hammered in the seeds. His best win of the year is Jacob Frost, and he just lost to Tagen Jamison. Jamison should 100% be seeded higher than Alirez when you compare their seasons. Likewise, why should Bartlett be a top two seed at this weight? He is 2-0 over Mendez, 1-0 against Hardy, and 0-1 against Vombaur. Before this tournament he had only wrestled two matches against top 10 opponents all season. Hardy gets punished because he went to CKLV while PSU sat at home? Hardy should absolutely be seeded higher than Bartlett after this weekend. We need to stop punishing guys for wrestling difficult schedules and rewarding wrestlers and teams that avoid competition.

works for me

I agree. My point was that Hendrickson took a legit injury time and it was then CS's choice.

Schultz didn't want bottom, he wouldve been stuck there for the duration. Looked like right wrist like he got a stinger.

Tommy Askey beat #2 ranked Jacori Teemer and #5 Ethan Miller (1 seed) in the same tournament and still only placed 5th. Welcome to the Big Ten tournament!

They are certainly getting a lot of mileage out of that coffee grinder reference. Did Sparks drop it in the Anthony Robles movie?

coffee grinder, bring the hips to the party, mat return, resalites, these get old, but really that is my only complaint about the B1G crew

I am probably missing something, as usual, but I didn't think this interview was bad at all (by his standards). He didn't come across as psychotic and didn't say anything particularly offensive. His manner seemed relatively calm and somewhat professional. He seemed to acknowledge he had some personal work to do. His dig about practice room competition wasn't exactly teammate of the year stuff, but it was delivered low key and quickly and obviously it's true and the elephant in the room if not addressed. I do agree that the 3 point stance line was quite ironic and comical. Again, I began this with the caveat "by his standards," and if I were a coach I wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole, but given who we're dealing with, I didn't think this interview was particularly negatively notable.

Transferring? As a former coach, I can only say I'd avoid this kid like the plague. Talk about someone that would compromise your program? Me, me, me, I, I, I. Kinda sounds like someone else constantly in the news these days.