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always knew he'd be behind bars one way or another

I think AJ's always been religious. The only thing that's changed recently is he no longer believes that he's God.

…is the only person that beat Michael Caliendo in an attached match, that hasn’t won a NCAA title? Looked into Kharchla’s wrestlestat after Rocco Welsh claimed he needed better partners. In 2023 he beat Michael Caliendo at NCAA’s, although Kharchla only finished R12 and Caliendo got 7th. But I noticed that since his redshirt year, Caliendo has had 14 losses. They were to: Mitchell Mesenbrink 6x Keegan O’Toole 3x Shane Griffith 2x Dean Hamiti David Carr and Carson Kharchla. That’s got to be some sort of record for most # + highest % of total losses to eventual National Champs right?

... some of Porta's best work:

The framing of virtuous Penn State. So fun. This is a dirty game now, fellas, and PSU is playing it as much as anybody else.

Volk to Minnesota Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This was an obvious choice, no matter how stupid Bo nickal gets.

In case you're dragging. . . can't watch this one enough! Jacob Butler | @sebastiannriveraa is overrated #wrestling #wrestletok #wrestlingmemes #ncaawrestling | Instagram

You missed April Fools Day by 48 hrs.

Remember when it was only Iowa fans that were insufferable.... I'm worried about some of you. Look what NIL and the portal has done to your lives. Come back to us.

Can you guys please take your discussion on the perils of NIL to another thread? It would be super awesome if the thread on the transfer portal was focused on the athletes in the portal and where they are going. There are hundreds, probably thousands of people who come to these forums for updated information and informative discussion about the sport, but these super long irrelevant arguments really ruins the forum experience for those non-members who just come here for the must current info.

Cold blooded!

There could not be a funnier situation in the history of wrestling forums then AJ going to Penn State or Okie State.

It's almost as if winning and dominating aren't the exact same thing. Wild!

My wife named our son after her trainer, first, middle, and last name, and it was just because she liked the name. The one part I never understood was why she added “Jr” at the end.

At some point, everyone has been rumored to Iowa. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

got pictures?

This is getting a little lost in Socratic questioning of what "poaching" truly means. I do not know if the events in December led to PSU representatives reaching out and seeing if Rocco would like to join them, or if Rocco reached out to see what they could offer him if he hopped on the PSU train. At the end of the day, PSU is not getting Rocco Welsh for free, and they brought in a high profile transfer from another school. I'm not claiming villainy. I just don't understand the efforts to act like PSU is operating in a more virtuous manner than any other of the big players.

They reviewed it and said, "We didn't see anything."

U.S. world/olympic medalists during Cael's tenure.. Dake - Cornell Diakimahalis - Cornell Arujau - Cornell Snyder - tOSU Stieber - tOSU Burroughs - Nebraska Green - Nebraska Lee - Iowa Gilman - Iowa Ramos - Iowa Valencia - ASU Fix - OKST Cox - MIZZ Gwiazdowski - NCST Parris - Michigan Steveson - Minnesota DT - PSU Retherford - PSU Brooks - PSU What does starting at PSU have to do with medaling at worlds? Of all the greats at PSU over the last 15 years, three have gone on to win world medals (this entire list is off the top of my head, it's not 100%). If anything, their dominance at the college level but inability to get those studs on a world team is concerning. I'm being facetious, but honestly.. their dominance at the NCAA level has not at all translated to senior level competition.

If Ryan gets canned before Bono, I will riot. The entire state of Wisconsin is putting out the best in-state talent EVER and he is the reason why they won't go there.

No. You are choosing to interpret things in the way that most aligns with what you want to be true.

If so, why have you been complaining so loudly for the last couple of months?

Volk and Flynn are both decent sized 125 pounders (at least not undersized). My guess is Gopher strength coach, Scott McWilliams works his magic and puts 8 pounds on Flynn's frame.

Give Nickal's 2019 Hodge to Nolf. Problem solved.

think the answer is Greg Gibson.

Brooks better be scared to bump up. He only gets his underhooks from one deity but Yoshida gets his underhooks from Buddha AND Allah. 2 gods > 1 the math speaks for itself

Carson was right there with O’Toole the year he won his first one. Would have loved to see how good he could have been if he had stayed healthy and not blew out his knee. Same goes with Sammy Sasso. This season would have been very interesting to watch as an Ohio State fan if Kharchla stayed healthy and Sasso didn’t get shot. You can even include Nick Feldman and his neck injury where he hasn’t been the same since.

How cool is this?

This is such a weak take. The “participation” generation are the parents who demanded trophies for their kids.

The criteria is about dominance. Not about cool accomplishments. Once get your head around that, it makes sense.

Defeating a two time Hodge winner should be criteria enough. Congratulations Cowboy!

Congratulations to Capt America

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHzkAh1P8j7/?igsh=ZWp6NDZud2EyaHp2 Bailey and Williams commit to Iowa. I feel bad about this one, but they'll be fun to root for.

Rumor has it that Tom is still in the Wells Fargo Center today, waiting for the refs in the booth upstairs to come down so Tom can have a chat with them.

So judging by track record, what % of those assertions is true?

When you can't recognize a joke, you may be a PSU alum.

It was nice of you to prove @VakAttack's point. Iowa gets dragged over the coals for bringing in outside talent along with just about everything else they do (sometimes by myself, admittedly). But meanwhile PSU brings flips Jayden James, brings in a world champion in Ono, and now Rocco Welsh within 4 days of each other and I haven't heard much if any criticism about their lack of loyalty to the wrestlers that committed to them. A lot of rocks being thrown from the glass house.

It has only been two years and I am only looking at the NCAA tournament, so any conclusions are going to be a bit shaky. And bonus point scoring is notoriously volatile from year to year. Anyway... I have bonus by type going back to 1988. The only significant rule changes I can think of (other than the 3-point TD) over that time that affect bonus are changes in near fall possibilities. But I do not think they have a significant impact. The 2-point years are in blue (highlighted) and the 3-point years are in orange (faint). And I use percentage of matches rather than raw numbers because the number of contested matches was highly variable prior to 1998 (ranging from 547 to 636). Major Decisions With the advent of the 3-point TD, major decisions jumped last year and this, but they "jumped" from historically low levels. When looked at through the broader trend (dotted line) all they really did is return to the trend. It seems like the 3-point TD has had little effect on the amount of majors at the NCAA tournament so far. Pin Falls PF are generally down and have stayed that way with the 3-point TD. I have theorized in the past that this is a direct result of matches ending sooner in TF before they can become PF in the 3-point TD era. For now, I am sticking with this idea even though proof is thin. Tech Falls Now this is where we see a pretty big impact. I put two trend lines in all the graphs. The highlighted one is the trend without factoring in 2024 or 2025. For MD and PF you cannot tell that there are two lines because they are on top of each other. But for TF adding in the two years of 3-point TD significantly changes the trend upward. It is clear to me that the immediate effect of the 3-point TD is an appreciable increase in TF. Did the 3-Point TD "Work"? I also think (without the data to back it up) that this is (weak) proof that the desired effect of the 3-point TD was achieved. There are more TDs relative to trend. If it were simply the case that the same number of TD were occurring but 11-14 point MDs were now 15+ point TFs, and PF were being turned into TF, both with the same number of TD as before, then there would be a decrease in MD (there is not) and a decrease in PF (there is, but it also fits the trend). NOTE: What the hell happened in 2006? An absurd 16.9% of matches at the NCAA tournament ended in PF? What an outlier.

Take the exact rankings with a grain of salt. Also consider this a cry for help. I cannot find TF, or MD stats for 1999 Stephen Neal, 2001 Nick Ackerman, 2004 Emmett Wilson, 2007 Ben Askren, or 2010 Jayson Ness. Their dominance scores are higher than what I have hear, as a result. Any help with filling in the missing pieces would be appreciated. I also need breakdowns between TF and MD for 1995 TJ Jaworsky, 1998 Mark Ironside, and 2013 Kyle Dake. For these I know how many combined TF/MD they had, but not the split between TF and MD. I just used a 50/50 split. The net result is that Stephen Neal, and 2007 Ben Askren will be at or near the top if the data can be found.

No Johny Hendricks ability to get pinned and not get pinned? /

I hope he does. And then he can give back his NCs, his podcast microphone, and delete his online presence.

How do you think he does this year? What do you think is his optimal weight?

Like that? @flyingcement

would be funny if you guys were breaking transfer news hidden somewhere in those paragraphs for people to find like a where's waldo

It’s too over the top to be real imo. Felt cartoonish. He is kissing azzes in the form of praising psu. I don’t believe that for a sec. He is selling that he is “sellable” and wants a jersey shore nil bag….. and he will get one in all likelihood from someone. I remember in a management class in business school. You can change who you are in the short term. In the long term you will always go back to the real you.

The worst was his challenge in a match they were winning, and the challenge resulted in losing points and eventually losing the match. That might have been the most active negative I've ever seen from a coach in a wrestling match. If he just skips work that day Cannon beats Fish.

Iowa and Michigan get bad raps for always having transfers, and they often do, but for the most part their transfers are grad transfers or guys that hit the portal when their coaches left (Franek & Caliendo leaving NDSU because Kish took the OU job, for example). Penn State still holds the title for most obvious poaching job in all of college wrestling, after Minnesota coached Aaron Nagao up to a great season and a 5th place finish, followed by being offered hundreds of thousands to transfer at that very NCAA tournament by some booster, and jumping ship. PSU doesn’t do it as often, but are the most blatant poachers out there when there’s someone they want. Call me bitter because he was poached from my team, idc. It’s still what happened. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk