ILLINIWrestlingBlog

The criminal charge would be assault, which Iowa law defines as follows: Iowa Code 708.1(2)(b). Ladies and Gentlemen of this supposed jury, I put it to you this way: Say that you are peacefully seated in a public arena and a visibly agitated low-functioning 139-pound Senior citizen runs right at you with furrowed brow while screaming something unintelligible. Is that assault under Iowa law? Damn right it is. Now go back to the jury room and follow Iowa law. Do your sworn duty. Do justice.

Classic JOMBO™

This is the clear winner in the predictions contest. It's stunning. Aesthetically pleasing. See how all the lines line up in a satisfying way? Besides that, it is functional and easy to read. The rest of you should be ashamed of yourselves! The next time Intermat's IT coding bro is in the office, y'all oughta have him put in a template like those bullet/numbered lists. Make it just like this. While he's at it, have him whip up something similar for Freestyle/Greco with the weights and maybe a place to list a country abbreviation, the Gold, the Silver and two Bronzes. As for the dual itself, knowing that one of Brands or Manning will lose almost makes up for the fact that that means one of either Brands or Manning will win. Also, there's already two threads on the Iowa board calling for nepo-baby Nelson Brands to start. Amazing! Patrick Kennedy finally brings excitement to the lineup, but a loss against a dangerous wrestler, and that's it. One of those guys is 45-20, while the other is 60-20. Both have similar NCAA results. One was Round of 12 and Round of 16. The other was a low AA and an early out. Here's the rub. In the same number of Big Ten Tournaments and NCAAs, Kennedy has been involved in 5 bonus point matches. Brands has been involved in one. He gave up a major decision. I'm not trying to use reverse psychomocology here, but the decision is clear: Brands should start in the post season.

PLEASE, PLEASE! Can you imagine 125 to 141 going like this: Munaretto, Raney, Raney? Add that to Aaron Stewart, Wyatt Medlin and George Marinopoulos, as well as the guys who'll be Juniors and Seniors on that team, and you have trophy contender. As for getting them on campus, I know the Raneys are big into Freestyle and Greco. I know Munaretto is big into Freestyle and very, very good at Greco. I don't know if he wants to pursue it in the future. Come train with a former Freestyle World Team member at your weight (who is now training Greco in Zane Richards), IRTC Freestyle and Greco guru Bryan Medlin and 2xAA and next NCAA Champion Lucas Byrd (who was on an age-level Greco World Team) and National Champion Jeremy Hunter.

Neither. Stewart, the Raneys, Medlin and Marinopoulos.

It's all about peaking, right? Or, no? I don't know. I never peaked at anything besides ice cream and breakfast cereals. In any event, the ILLINI are striking out on a bold strategy to keep their wrestlers rested and uninjured. In the next two weeks, for example, Penn State will wrestle four duals to ILLINOIS' one. Caging Byrd and the Brawlnagels like that is an experiment in and of itself. How will that play against the old stats? Will it be a factor? Should the numbers be revisited after conference tournaments? I do know the team is bringing in some outside studs to work with them. It's all very mysterious, and I'm interested in seeing if the whole paradigm is exploded. On a completely unrelated but thoroughly intertwined note: If Brands is five, and the Spencer is six, then Bo is ________?

Hear me out. It all makes perfect sense, starting with a win by Lucas Byrd. As has been stated by none other than Peter Griffin, Byrd is the Wyrd, and the Wyrd is Byrd. Then, sometime later in the dual, Carl will duck at least one wrestler, just like he ducks the National Duals every year. According to statistics being suppressed by the deep state and @Wrestleknownothing, Beau Bartlett has won or lost 114% of his matches by three points or less. That is exactly the type of opponent that Danny Pucino upsets. He has used different exotic moves to beat AAs like Cole Matthews (misdirect ankle dive), Vance Vombauer (inside trip) and Dylan D'Emilio (I forgot but it was fun-KEY). There's actually a word for it: "PUCINO'D." To make matters worse for Beau and his dashing Princess Bride mustache, he has to wrestle Jesse Mendez two days before facing the Irish Italian Turbo Leprechaun from ILLINOIS. This may turn out to be the worst weekend of his life. Single tear. Kannon Webster is a huge 149 pounder, and he's struggled a little this season with the Food Monster, but he's now acclimatized. That's bad news for Shayne Van Ness, a guy who has somehow managed to misspell his own first and last names. HOW DO YOU MISSPELL YOUR OWN NAME? He does it twice. The Nittany Lion will have to face Dylan D'Emilio on Friday and two days later, Kannon Webster. Van Ness has been majored less than a month ago. This match will not go well for him. At 157, I'll let this graph speak for me: This match is still two weeks away, so this is only volume one of my proofs. Things can change between now and then, but Wrestlestat.com has Techenbrink only getting a decision against Braeden Scoles. (It was a major two days ago). What will it be in two weeks? And, Stallrocci lost to Donnell Washington, somebody who is 0-2 against Edmond Ruthless. I'll save the rest for another day.

MILITARY APPRECIATION DAY As it was Military Appreciation Day, the ILLINI bench wore Army-looking shirts, they had ROTC guys doing a pushup contest (If you've ever been in the Army, you'd know that they get quite enough of those ... in the Army!), and best of all, a video message from ILLINI 197 pounder and Engineer currently stationed in the Middle East, JOE JOE BRAUNAGEL: THE VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS It was a 35-8 win for the good guys. Video, audio and image credits at YouTube. THE RECAP The ILLINI zoomed past the thirty-point mark for the seventh time this season. Their record improves to 9-3. They have scored 279 total team points for a 23.25 average dual score. Their opponents have scored 139 team points for an average dual score of 11.58. That's more than doubling up the opposition. The official recap states that #13 ILLINOIS Wrestling Steamrolled #27 Purdue. Get it? Boilers? Steam? Anyway, we think that the team from Indiana got SteamPunked. There were lots of bonus points with Lucas Byrd, Danny Pucino and Kannon Webster earning tech falls. Braeden Scoles got the pin against Stoney Buell. Earning major decisions were Zac Braunagel and Luke Luffman. Danny Braunagel came one point away from a major against his #26 ranked foe Brody Baumann. Here's a link to the official recap and a box score: 125: #1 Matt Ramos (PUR) tech. fall Caelan Riley (ILL), 19-1 (2:32) ILL 0 I PUR 5 133: #4 Lucas Byrd (ILL) tech. fall Jacob Macatangay (PUR), 25-8 (6:17) ILL 5 I PUR 5 141: #15 Danny Pucino (ILL) tech. fall Christian White (PUR), 20-4 (6:18) ILL 10 I PUR 5 149: #13 Kannon Webster (ILL) tech. fall Isaac Ruble (PUR), 19-4 (5:23) ILL 15 I PUR 5 157: #7 Joey Blaze (PUR) dec. #31 Jason Kraisser (ILL), 8-1 ILL 15 I PUR 8 165: #13 Braeden Scoles (ILL) over Stoney Buell (PUR), fall (3:44) ILL 21 I PUR 8 174: #23 Danny Braunagel (ILL) dec. #26 Brody Baumann (PUR), 15-8 ILL 24 I PUR 8 184: #12 Edmond Ruth (ILL) dec. Orlando Cruz (PUR), SV-1 5-2 ILL 27 I PUR 8 197: #16 Zac Braunagel (ILL) major dec. #27 Ben Vanadia (PUR), 17-3 ILL 31 I PUR 8 285: #10 Luke Luffman major dec. Hayden Filipovich (PUR), 9-1 ILL 35 I PUR 8 THE BROADCAST Brian "Voice of the ILLINI" Swaw did another great job on the call. Unlike a number of other wrestling color analysts, who'll tell you what'll happen next, and then the opposite happens, he's almost always spot on. He was assisted by Ethan Oskroba. There were only two "plays" from Oskroba, and one "kill." We will allow the kill.

I've got ~30 minutes left on my free Foxsports.com preview. I've decided to spend it on 184 - 285. Hype works! But here's where you come in: I need to know when 184 is about to start. Don't **** this up for me!

WHAT: ILLINI dual Purdue WHEN: Saturday, February 1 at 2:00 pm Central WHERE: Huff Hall ADMISSION: Free SPECIAL: Military Appreciation Day TV/STREAMING: BTN+ (subscription service) A DAY IN HISTORY It is February 16, 2024. You are almost stuck at home babysitting little brother, but Tomb Raider Remastered just came out, and you know that he and his salacious little weasel friends will be locked up in his room for 48 hours playing the game. Wendy suggested that you go with her to see Madame Web or Lisa Frankenstein. You told her [cough, cough] that you were sick. That's because you and the boys have planned a road trip to West Lafayette. Beyoncé's Texas Hold'Em is playing on the radio preset when you start the car, at least until you almost break your finger turning it off. Cheesy Burrito, your high school team's heavyweight, brought the new Ye piece, and he plugs it in. You're worried. You know this is a bruised and battered bunch of ILLINI taking the mat against Purdue. Lucas Byrd and now Joe Roberts are out for the year. On top of that, both Braunagels are taking Olympic redshirts. Freshmen Caelan Riley, Logan Swaw, Chris Moore and Peter Marinopoulos are in the lineup. Gulp! Oh, and you forgot, Isiah Pettigrew is playing the hero, coming back from in-season knee surgery. But somehow, you find yourself screaming as the ILLINI start taking care of business with a Pucino pin and a Ruth major. After 197, Purdue leads 18-16. You swore that Freshman "heavyweight" Peter Marinopoulos just tried to score with a flying squirrel. He did get two takedowns and a win, and ILLINOIS comes from behind for the 19-18 victory! Here's a link to the recap, and below you have the box score and a photo: 125: #1 Matt Ramos (PUR) tech. fall Caelan Riley (ILL), 17-1 (4:55) ILL 0 I PUR 5 133: #24 Tony Madrigal (ILL) dec. Dustin Norris (PUR), 7-2 ILL 3 I PUR 5 141: #25 Danny Pucino (ILL) pins Christian White (PUR), (6:10) ILL 9 I PUR 5 149: Marcos Polanco (PUR) dec. Jake Harrier (ILL), 10-8 ILL 9 I PUR 8 157: Isaac Ruble (PUR) dec. Logan Swaw (ILL), 5-1 ILL 9 I PUR 11 165: #31 Stoney Buell (PUR) major dec. Chris Moore (ILL), 11-3 ILL 9 I PUR 15 174: #8 Edmond Ruth (ILL) major dec. #32 Brody Baumann (PUR), 11-2 ILL 13 I PUR 15 184: Dylan Connell (ILL) dec. James Rowley (PUR), 5-3 ILL 16 I PUR 15 197: Ben Vanadia (PUR) dec. Isiah Pettigrew (ILL), 9-7 ILL 16 I PUR 18 285: Peter Marinopoulos (ILL) dec. Hayden Filipovich (PUR), 8-6 ILL 19 I PUR 18 THE TEAMS Wrestlestat.com predicts a 26-7 win for the good guys. The ILLINI are the #13 dual team in the country, while the Boilermakers are at #33. The Orange and Blue have an 8-3 record, 3-3 in conference, with wins over SIUE (41-3), Binghamton (30-10), Arizona State (37-6), Missouri (23-14), North Carolina (24-14), Indiana (34-3), Northwestern (33-7) and Maryland (33-7). The losses were to Ohio State (9-24), Iowa (6-28) and the criteria mishap with Rutgahs (15-16). Purdue is 8-3, 1-2 in conference. They have beaten Gardner-Webb (34-10), Buffalo (45-0), Princeton (26-15), Chattanooga (41-3), Cleveland State (35-9), Kent State (31-10), Northwestern (31-13) and NIU (29-8). They've lost to Army (19-20), Indiana (11-25) and Ohio State (10-24). INDIVIDUAL MATCHUPS 125. #149 CAELAN RILEY vs. #2 Matt Ramos. The Boiler has a huge advantage in the rankings, in records versus common opponents, and in previous head-to-head results. In last year's dual, Ramos scored a tech fall against Riley. This year, the algorithm is predicting a major decision. Against a national finalist, that would be a fine, even expected result. Caelan got his first Big Ten dual win recently, so we can anticipate an improvement over last season's tech fall result. On the other hand, Ramos is 20-0 on the season with a 75% bonus rate that includes eleven tech falls. Caelan will need to fight against those tilts. 133. #3 LUCAS BYRD vs. #95 Dustin Norris. The Purdue kid is a quality wrestler undervalued at #95 by Wrestlestat.com. He was a teammate of Lucas' at La Salle in Cincinnati, Ohio and a 2x state champ. Norris is 6-7 on the year and 30-42 in his career, but he was recently on a five-win streak. That ended in his last two duals, which were a tech fall loss to Angelo Rini of Indiana and a loss by major decision to Nic Bouzakis. We are going to guess that the Boilermaker, as he's tall for the weight, might be having problems with the cut. He was at 100 pounds in 2017, then 106, then 113 and finally 126 in high school. Lucas has a decision and a major against him in their two dual matchups. Wrestlestat.com is predicting a 10-3 decision for the ILLINI. There is a massive disparity between their records against common opponents. Byrd is 32-1 against the same guys who hung an 8-23 record on Norris. 141. #18 DANNY PUCINO vs. #43 Greyson Clark. Unless he's a caped crusader with a secret identity, we think that no ILLINI should lose to a guy named Greyson. Unless it is at bridge or cribbage. Clark is 9-8 on the season with a commendable 26-18 career mark. At last year's dual, this was only a two-point win for Danny, so we will need the Irish Italian Turbo Leprechaun up for this match. The two have similar records against opponents, but Pucino has a perfect 6-0 record against Boilermakers, and that includes their former All American at this weight, Parker Filius. Wrestlestat.com is going with an 11-6 win for the good guy. Pucino is Purdue Kryptonite! 149. #10 KANNON WEBSTER vs. #122 Isaac Ruble. The Purdue kid wrestled 157 last season and had his best record at 8-4. That included a dual win over Logan Swaw. He's at 7-7 this year in a full-time starter's role. This weight seems to be less agreeable to him, as he's given up a fall and a major decision to D'Emilio and Cartella from OSU and Northwestern. Ruble tried a slow standing granby against D'Emilio, and the Buckeye was waiting with a half-nelson to get the fall. The Boiler is a leg rider. The best wrestler he's beaten at this weight is #84, and he also lost to that guy on the same day. Wrestlestat.com is predicting a major for the stud from Washington. 157. #46 JASON KRAISSER vs. #10 Joey Blaze. The algorithm points in the other direction in this match, predicting a regular decision for Blaze. They have remarkably similar 6-7 and 6-8 records against common opponents with Kraisser's mark slightly better than his opponent's. But it is Blaze with the current 13-3 record (30-15 career) and a pretty recent 2-0 win over Peyton Keller of Ohio. He also beat Trevor Chumbley, Peyton Robb and Ed Scott last season. He's got some very good wins, and during the last two years, he seems to always beat the wrestler in front of him unless they are ranked at least #20. Wrestlestat.com is predicting a relatively easy 10-6 win for him, but does that include mad scrambles? Against good opponents, Blaze likes the long scrambles that are opportunities for Cardiac Kraisser. The remainder and a full unedited version at this link.

ELO Also known as the Electric Light Orchestra. Not my type of music, but I got their greatest hits recommended on YouTube and, wow, they were impossibly good. I think of all the love given by music critics to the Beach Boys, and, my dude, it all should’ve gone to ELO. Five of the first six songs on the greatest hits video below are better than anything the Beach Boys ever put out. Actually, there’s an entire hour of music in that video better than anything done by the Beach Boys. This is a digression, but the Beach Boys really piss me off. The United States had Elvis, then England had the Beatles. We needed an answer, and what we came up with, to the eternal shame of our spotless minds, was the Beach Boys. An example. They had a Christmas song called “Little Saint Nick.” There’s an atonal lyric in it that goes like this: “Christmas comes this time each year.” Think about that. No wait! Don’t think about it! It will corrupt your brain. Educational, yes, but doesn’t it make you want to choke out a Beach Boy? Sure it does. Don’t ******* lie to me. Digression complete. I’m especially grooving to ELO’s Livin’ Thing, which is the second song on the greatest hits video below. It has everything. Flamenco, orchestra, opera, pop, rock, ABBA, doo wop, Victorian chords. I think the sixth or seventh or eighth best song among ELO’s greatest hits was a banger called Mr. Blue Sky that was used in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the super-underrated Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. ELO’s sixth or seventh or eighth best song is good enough to play, in its entirety, to start a movie in a multi-billion-dollar franchise. If you can’t dance along with Baby Groot to it, then you’ve been dead for a week, and brother we know it’s been at least a week because after only six days, your skeleton would get up and jangle about on its own. Lately, I’ve played ELO's greatest hits video for hours and hours without an advertisement:

New Yokozuna: Hoshoryu!

I've never thought about any connection, but I would bet that you are right. In America, football steals many top athletes on the portly side. In Japan, they have schoolboy nationwide Sumo tournaments and championships. Being a university grand champion is very prestigious. They have their own throwing-type folkstyle in Mongolia. Yes, I think that there is at least some loss to Sumo.

I hope that that is what happens. I'm a little leery of this: "The association will make the upgrade official on Wednesday at a meeting on wrestler rankings for the next tournament and an extraordinary meeting of its board of directors." The Japanese Sumo Association will make the final call. What benefits Hoshoryu is that there can be multiple Yokozunas at the same time, and there are Japanese wrestlers who will be striving for it very soon. Kotozakura missed out in this basho--if he had won or finished runner up--but he had a losing record! Glad to hear you are getting some local Sumo love from those American broadcasters. I saw Tochinoshin fight many times. He was a monster who made it all the way up to Ozeki, second highest rank, before leg problems derailed him. His crowd-pleasing hold was to bear hug an opponent and carry him just outside the ring and drop him. That is actually something to see when it is actual, real wrestling with somebody fighting against you, and not American pro wrestling. Cheers!

We haven't posted about Sumo recently because there has been abysmal Sumo coverage on YouTube. The Japanese broadcasting company with the rights to show the tournaments clamped down on anybody publishing videos of their product. Thankfully, NHK has started putting out English language broadcasts of the 15-day tournaments. This was the perfect time to sell your product in America. There is going to be a changing of the guard. The great Yokozuna Terunofuji retired after a bad start in this tournament. He was a favorite of ours. So, his retirement was a sad event. But he had bad knees. It was time. But there was also a new hope: Hoshoryu. He ended up winning this basho with a 12-3 record followed by a win in a three-man playoff. The council that decides Yokozuna promotion will consider whether he will be elevated to that highest rank. He has another recent tournament win in his favor, and he has been amazingly consistent in obtaining winning records in bashos over a long period of time. His uncle was a Yokozuna. He has a style reminiscent of the greatest Yokozuna of all, Hakuhō. His recent Sumo has been dominant and exciting, and Sumo needs a Yokozuna. But the council that decides the promotion must also look at his negatives. First of all, he is Mongolian, and the Japanese have hungered for a Japanese Yokozuna for quite some time. This is not part of the promotion equation, but you have to feel that it will be an undercurrent. Secondly, his recent performances have been very, very good but not the domination you want to see from your Yokozuna. He won this basho at 12-3. He was runner-up in the tournament before that with a 13-2 record. This is all very good, but in the tournament before that, he was 8-7 and lost to many basic rikishi. Before that, he was 9-4-2 and before that 10-5. Is that Yoko material? To put it into some perspective, the now-retired Yokozuna Terunofuji won or finished runner-up in six of the seven bashos right before he was promoted to the highest rank. Finally, Hoshoryu also has a total of two basho wins and two runner-ups in 27 upper-division tournaments. Is that Yoko material? Probably not, but he's one of my top two favorite Sumo wrestlers, so I'll be rooting for his promotion. My gut tells me that they will wait for one more tournament to see how he does. On another subject, the three-rikishi playoff showcased not only the potential new Yokozuna Hoshoryu, but also Oho and Kinbozan. Oho is Japanese, and he's always had the talent, but he's never fully achieved the results that his talent demands. In this tournament, he did. Interestingly, in his very first professional tournament back in 2018, Oho had to face another debutant named Hoshoryu. And Oho beat him! The other player in the three-person playoff was Kinbozan, a native of Kazakhstan. He came pretty much out of nowhere to reach the top on the leaderboard on the final day. He has the height and the weight (6'5" and nearly 400 pounds), but except for his first tournament in the upper division where he finished 11-4, he had a losing record in six out of nine bashos. In fact, he was demoted to a lower division a couple tournaments ago and had to win his way back to the spotlight. The big question for him is this: Will he become the most famous Kazakhstan wrestler in the future, or will that always be Borat? GLOSSARY: SUMO -- Japanese wrestling in a raised ring. YOKOZUNA -- Highest rank in Sumo. RIKISHI -- Sumo wrestler. NHK -- The Japanese broadcasting company with the rights to upper-division Sumo. BASHO -- Sumo tournament.

I think that Kraisser's defensive fall was a good no call. Sure, Jason was reaching back and had both hands locked around Conner Harer's neck, and Harer's back was flat on the mat for a couple of seconds with the ref right there to see it all, but, man, you can't call the defensive pin against the home guy in his home gym. Great call! I thought it was a fantastic entertaining dual. One of life's great blessings is to see Lucas Byrd hit an ankle pick that sends his opponent's butt to the mat as if it was dropped from Space. For me, it's like the first flower blooming in Spring. The ILLINI needed a bunch of the takedowns that they were one or two ergs away from getting. Credit to Rutger's stingy defense, and their granby rolls. They grow excellent tumblers in Joisy. Webster and Scoles aren't completely back yet, but the team took a month off in December. Hope they dialed in the right time to peak like it is a Moon landing. Edmond Ruth will have to explain to my doctor why I have high blood pressure, and, finally, Zac and Poz was a war.

RESULTS: Weight Matchup Score 125: Caelan Riley (ILL) dec. Abram Cline (MARY), 10-5 ILL 3 I MARY 0 133: #4 Lucas Byrd (ILL) dec. #11 Braxton Brown (MARY), 7-3 ILL 6 I MARY 0 141: #12 Danny Pucino (ILL) dec. Dario Lemus (MARY), 8-5 ILL 9 I MARY 0 149: #12 Kannon Webster (ILL) over #32 Kal Miller (MARY), fall (4:39) ILL 15 I MARY 0 157: #6 Ethen Miller (MARY) major dec. #22 Jason Kraisser (ILL), 15-6 ILL 15 I MARY 4 165: #13 Braeden Scoles (ILL) tech. fall Alex Uryniak (MARY), 20-3 (3:15) ILL 20 I MARY 4 174: #21 Danny Braunagel (ILL) tech. fall Branson John (MARY), 22-7 (5:24) ILL 25 I MARY 4 184: #13 Jaxon Smith (MARY) dec. #10 Edmond Ruth (ILL), 4-3 ILL 25 I MARY 7 197: #18 Zac Braunagel (ILL) tech. fall Chase Mielnik (MARY), 20-4 (3:55) ILL 30 I MARY 7 285: #10 Luke Luffman (ILL) dec. #12 Seth Nevills (MARY), 4-2 ILL 33 I MARY 7 That was a whuppin'. Maryland started out 3-0 in the Big Ten, but that came to a screeching halt. Braxton Brown, Seth Nevills, Jaxon Smith and Ethen Miller are quality wrestlers. They just happened to wrestle at weights were the ILLINI have a better stud, or the ILLINI were good enough to keep the matches close. Close-ish in the Miller/Kraisser matchup considering Miller is ranked #6 and is undefeated now at 16-0. Luffman and Byrd are stacking top ten and top fifteen victories. I think Kal Miller is a darn good wrestler, but we got OG Webster tonight. Glad to see Caelan Riley get his first B1G dual win. He also accounted for multiple takedowns. That should help the confidence quite a bit. Big match with Rutgers on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how they respond to their PSU beatdown. GO ILLINI!!!* *GO ILLINI intended in the most fair and impartial journalistic manner.

It is on the ESPN+ schedule, but it is a mistake. Oklahoma wrestles Northern Iowa on Saturday.

I once did a graphic about how the ILLINI shouldn't fear the turtle, they should kill the turtle! Can't find it now. Cheers and GO ILLINI!!!

Expect a Double Bonus Special Issue on this topic in the Sunday Funnies.

WHAT: The ILLINI dual Maryland WHEN: Friday, January 24 at 6:00 pm Central WHERE: College Park, Maryland TV/STREAMING: BTN+ (subscription service) STREAK: The ILLINI are 8-0 in the series WHY WE HATE MARYLAND I'm having a rage seizure thinking about this state. The name sounds like a cheesy amusement park or Putt-Putt course. Maryland was actually named after a lady who wasn't even technically a queen because she was the wrong religion and was never coronated and then fled England as soon as her husband's head was chopped off. Moreover, there's this phrase, "a bunch of Mary's." It refers to a group of men who won't fight or who don't fight well. Perfect. Finally, the state had THE IDEAL OPPORTUNITY to change its name. In 1776, there was a freaking revolution! You can bet that it was discussed at high-level meetings, and a bunch of Mary's probably chimed in with, "Well, it's already on all the stationery." THE RUTGERS MATCH Maryland will only have one match this weekend. The ILLINI will have two. After traveling to College Park for that dual, they'll need to hit Piscataway, New Jersey for a dual with Rutgers on Sunday at Noon Central. ILLINOIS is 3-2 all time against the Scarlet Knights. In a tweet discussing the top tier of the conference, Shane Sparks gave them bulletin board material by putting the Orange and Blue above the team from Jersey. On the other hand, Wrestlestat.com is going with a 16-15 win for the bad guys. There will be great matches up and down the lineup, but wins from the Brawlnagels and Luuuuke Luffman will be key to victory. SCOUTING MARYLAND The ILLINI are #13 according to Wrestle.com and have a 7-2 dual record with wins over SIUE (41-3), Binghamton (30-10), Arizona State (37-6), Missouri (23-14), North Carolina (24-14), Indiana (34-3) and Northwestern (33-7). The losses were to Ohio State (9-24) and Iowa (6-28). Maryland is 8-5, and for the first time, starts the B1G season 3-0. They have a team ranking of #28 on Wrestlestat.com. The Terps have wins over Kent State (29-10), Bucknell (26-11), American (38-0), Morgan State (43-3), Michigan (19-18), Michigan State (27-11) and Wisconsin (24-13). Losses were to Pitt (12-25), Rider (17-18), SDSU (7-27), Binghamton (10-28) and Columbia (18-19). We're not sure which dual box score would be the most relevant to our discussion, maybe the loss to common opponent Binghamton, but we know which one is the funniest, so we'll show the win over Michigan: 125: Christian Tanefeu major dec. (12-4) Tyler Garvin (Michigan 4, Maryland 0) 133: No. 14/15 Braxton Brown fall (5:45) Nolan Wertanen (Maryland 6, Michigan 4) 141: No. 12/9 Sergio Lemley dec. (6-3) Dario Lemus (Michigan 7, Maryland 6) 149: No. 29/32 Kal Miller dec. (4-3) No. 28 Derek Gilcher dec. (Maryland 9, Michigan 7) 157: No. 6/8 Ethen Miller dec. (4-2) No. 16/19 Chase Saldate (Maryland 12, Michigan 7) 165: No. 26 Beau Mantanona dec. (6-4) Alex Uryniak (Maryland 12, Michigan 10) 174: No. 32 Branson John dec. (5-4) No. 25 Joseph Walker (Maryland 15, Michigan 10) 184: No. 13/11 Jaxon Smith dec. (4-1) No. 19 Jaden Bullock (Maryland 18, Michigan 10) 197: No. 3/2 Jacob Cardenas tech fall (15-0, 4:54) Chase Mielnik (Maryland 18, Michigan 15) 285: No. 10/12 Josh Heindselman dec. (4-2) No. 13/14 Seth Nevills (Maryland 18, Michigan 18) ***the Terps earned a point on criteria for the pin at 133, making the final score 19-18 in favor of Maryland A DAY IN HISTORY It's January 30, 2015. At the movies, you can choose between American Sniper, Project Almanac and Paddington. You're thinking that Paddington would be so awesome if you were like four. Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift are playing on the radio. Not your cup of tea. But the day will turn out to be nearly perfect as you head to Huff Hall to catch the ILLINI wrestling team put a Chicago back alley beatdown on Maryland. You get to see Jesse Delgado and IMAR on the same team along with Zane Richards, Jackson Morse, Steven Rodrigues and Zac Brunson, all of whom were, or would become, All Americans, although seeing Delgado in that shoulder brace kinda makes you sad. How did that ILLINI team not win the NCAA tournament? The Maryland wrestling team must be thinking the same thing as they get beat 3-32. IMAR and Morse get tech falls, while Zane rolls up a major. It is a good day. Here's a link to the recap; the box score and video highlights are below: #4 Illinois 32, Maryland 3 157: #2 Isaiah Martinez (ILL) over Lou Mascola (MARY) (TF 20-4, 4:32) 165: #8 Jackson Morse (ILL) over Tyler Manion (MARY) (TF 18-2, 4:15) 174: #8 Zac Brunson (ILL) over Josh Snook (MARY) (Dec 4-1) 184: #18 Nikko Reyes (ILL) over Tony Gardner (MARY) (Dec 6-2) 197: Jeff Koepke (ILL) over Rob Fitzgerald (MARY) (Dec 4-3) 285: Brooks Black (ILL) over #13 Spencer Myers (MARY) (TB1 2-1) 125: #1 Jesse Delgado (ILL) over Josh Polacek (MARY) (Dec 3-2) 133: #2 Zane Richards (ILL) over #16 Geoffrey Alexander (MARY) (MD 14-4) 141: #13 Steven Rodrigues (ILL) over Shyhiem Brown (MARY) (Dec 3-2) 149: Ben Dorsay (MARY) over Kyle Langenderfer (ILL) (Dec 3-1) THE INDIVIDUAL MATCHUPS 125. #173 CAELAN RILEY vs. #165 Tyler Garvin. This is Caelan's time. Wrestlestat.com is predicting an 11-5 win for the kid from Lockport. That's not just a win, but a blowout! Garvin is a true Freshman with a 4-13 recored and a current nine-match losing streak. He has beaten the #74 wrestler from American, though, so Caelan will need to be sharp. THE REST AT THIS LINK.

... MEANWHILE ON OTHEREARTH