ILLINIWrestlingBlog

As an impartial and respected wrestling journalist, I have to say that ILLINOIS is the team to beat next year. Due to a disquieting number of injuries (Lucas Byrd, Luke Luffman, Joe Roberts, Isiah Pettigrew, etc.), Olympic redshirts (both Brawlnagels) and Freshman redshirts (Kannon Webster, Braeden Scoles), the school had a poor dual year. Even so, some on this board would probably say, unfairly, that I was obnoxious about their potential. Well, just you wait. Get those folks back, except Joe Roberts, who unfortunately has medically retired due to concussions, and fill that spot with Webster or Scoles, and SHAM-WOW! Still need to shore up 125, but the rest of the lineup will be angry dog tough. As for the original post, I see the Big Ten as tougher, top to bottom, than at any time I can remember in the last 30 years. The B1G has 13 quality teams, and I expect evil Northwestern will be back in the mix eventually. Michigan State is teetering on the edge because of the transfer portal. I think the Spartans might end up with a crap dual record, but that's just because the conference is so tough. So, I'm going to say 13, worst case 12, very quality teams. Can't ever remember that being the case.

Spencer Lee won't have to wrestle Aman of India, which would've been the toughest hurdle. He also doesn't have to face two of the bigger, stronger former medalists in Zanzabar Zandanbud of Mongolia or Horst Lehr of Germany. The questions to be answered for Lee: 1. He'll need a good cut, as he has a first-round match, while China's Wanghao Zou gets a bye and will be waiting for him. 2. Egorov in the next round is a former Russian and has medaled at the Euro Championships. 3. Sarlak of Iran or Dingashavili of Georgia in the semis to win the spot.

I'm going to add Joey Gunther's name to the post right now. Thanks for the information!

I can see ILLINOIS and Penn State leading the way. Minnesota right in there as well. It will be an exciting time. Every RTC will need to have an MMA component. It is a way for many more wrestlers to train and still make money and earn endorsement deals and influencer status on social media. I just want all wrestlers to remember this: Keep your bloody hands up! In the original post, I forgot to link to the article that I posted that goes into much more detail, especially a rudimentary scouting report of Austin O'Connor's opponent and information about how Johnny Mologousis has become a rare commodity in the sport: A vicious takedown artist who is putting people away with his fists. The image below is from about 25 seconds into Goose's last fight, which ended in 32 seconds:

ILLINI Assistant Coach AUSTIN O'CONNOR is set to make his MMA debut on June 9th. Former ILLINI starter at 157 JOHNNY MOLOGOUSIS is now 3-0 in the cage, and nobody has got past his fast hands into the second round. He recently went viral with a :32 TKO win. Former 197-pound Big Ten Champion MARIO GONZALEZ is a World Grappling Champion. JESSE DELGADO, who now coaches a wrestling academy right back home in Champaign retired as an undefeated fighter. But I saw him sparring in a video at the ILLINOIS practice facility.... There is almost half an entire starting lineup for the ILLINI Wrestling team (DEUCE RACHAL, WE RACHAL, ERIC BARONE & MOUSA JODEH) training at an elite BJJ club in the Chicagoland area. BROOKS "BIG RIG" BLACK, former starter at heavyweight for the ILLINI, just won in the cage over the weekend with an arm triangle. Then--and this one caught me by surprise--IRTC Head Coach BRYAN MEDLIN was 5-1 in the cage back when cannibalism in the ring was not only allowed but encouraged. That makes him a master instructor in Folkstyle wrestling, Freestyle, Greco and MMA. I know stupid Penn State has Nickal, as well as Ed Ruth (whom y'all kindly shared with us) and that the Gophers have Blockhus, and I believe, one of those damn McKee boys, but is this something that every school is doing? To this extent? How do you think college wrestling will affect MMA, and how will MMA affect college wrestling? Will the future be Regional Training Centers that not only include but emphasize MMA? Of course, there's also Izzy Martinez in the area training the big dogs for the UFC.

Today we are pleased to announce a deal that will combine the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the Jombo™ Comic Universe. Tomorrow, we will inform Disney and Marvel Studios. In the meantime, let’s celebrate with a wall poster of your favorite JCU and MCU villains. Hang it up in your dorm room, basement or closet. Be one of the cool kids and not a total loser jerk!

Up front, I'll admit that I don't like WWE. It's a stupid soap opera. That probably influences my opinion, which is this: Gable Steveson comes out of this as the babyface, while WWE is the heel. How un-American was it for them to hold off on a decision until after the OTT? Are they rooting for Russia or Iran? Was this a way to shuttle him off to the UFC? The WWE had to have had a handler working personally with him. Did that handler not know that he has a nonfungible talent with a limited window of opportunity?

I don't know the field at 65, but at 57 kg I feel that Spencer is a lock as long as he doesn't have Aman right off the scale. Even then, I'd give him a 90% chance to win the true bronze match. What happened to Zou Wanhao of China? They are sending another guy who has awful international results. I think Lee beats Zou, but if he were there, the percentage would drop somewhat. Other contenders are Sarlak of Iran, Horst Lehr is strong for Germany, and so is Zanabazar Zandanbud of Mongolia, but I don't think any of those guys can avoid Lee's leg attacks and guts/laces. Dark horses are Vladimir Egorov, a Russian wrestling for Macedonia. Dude has wrestled as high as 65 kg two years ago. Recent Euro Champ at 57 kg. Muhammet Karavuş of Turkiye is a recent Euro and Junior Silver. Looks pretty big. The cut will be key for all these tiny fatties.

Let me answer your question with a question. In the event of a large Crocnado, who do you want fighting by your side? Danny Nini or Levi Haines? I wouldn't risk my life or the lives of my family on somebody with, as far as we know, zero experience with large reptiles. I would rather fight side by side with the guy who laid on top of a gator as comfortable as a six-year old watching Saturday morning cartoons.

I appreciate your opinion, but I will go with Coach Austin O'Connor's.

Danny Nini of Lake Highland Prep in Florida, and more recently, the University of North Carolina is now an ILLINI. You can take him off the board. This shores up the final spot in the ILLINOIS lineup, the one at 157. Now, Logan Swaw can take his redshirt while Braeden Scoles can eat, pump iron and fill out to 165. An explanation for the image below: Nini wrestled up a weight against Haines two years ago in the UNC/PSU dual and lost by a very respectable 1-4 score. That same year, he wrestled in four other duals at 149 for UNC with ILLINI Assistant Coach Austin O'Connor wrestling right after him at 157.

We need this. Fans being fans. As an impartial and highly respected wrestling journalist, I can't take sides, but I like to see others do so. On another note, did I start the wild conspiracy theory that Iowa gambling officials were staking out Iowa dorms and wrestling facilities?

I walked beans and detasseled corn from grade school to high school. We corn folk grew up that way. Just trying to impart some knowledge about my experience with juries in a similar area. Unlike a county court, Federal courts draw their juries from a large number of counties. Iowa has only two Federal Districts, the North and the South. There are 99 counties in Iowa divided into those two districts. And, I'm sorry, but most of the counties in Iowa are full up with corn folk. P.S. I also wouldn't take the case because I ******* hate Iowa.

Because this is such a big day in the JCU, we are providing a double feature. That’s so you can get to know our new hero, Mike Grey, Boy Coach. That little rascal! Well, I oughta….

Thanks, @CHROMEBIRD and @ionel! This is a big day! Today, we introduce a new character into the JCU (The Jombo™ Comic Universe). This new comic seems really stupid and silly, but that’s why I like it so much.

We didn't see any 57 kg retirements, thank goodness. We could see some really fun non-Olympic-weight World Team Trials brackets. For example, at 61 kg: Zane Richards Vito Arujau Nick Suriano Nico Megaludis Thomas Gilman Nathan Tomasello Daniel DeShazer Daton Fix The Kindergarten Corps

P.S. I would not have taken this case on a contingency fee basis.

This is not legal advice, and I'm not going to take the time to research even the most basic aspects of the case other than to skim the article. With those caveats, here are my opinions. This is a federal lawsuit. I had federal jury trials in the Central District of ILLINOIS, which I think will be similar to the jury pool in Iowa. There were a lot of "corn folks" and those who were deeply religious on the panel of prospective jurors. They were skimpy with money on the whole. That is a good thing and a bad thing for the athletes. There will be wrestling fans and skeptics of the government in that pool. On the other hand, there will also be the religious who think nobody should be gambling, much less young adults. And even if they win, those juries are notoriously tight-fisted with $$$. But to even get to trial, the athlete/plaintiffs will have to get past governmental/qualified immunity and motions to dismiss. These are huge hurdles in this case. If I represented the state agencies and state officials, I would certainly want to argue that any information provided by GeoComply, a service that the athletes agreed to in their sign-up, could never be poisoned fruit. Anything like that that falls into the lap of enforcement agents (and is not coerced by them) is like free bacon at a buffet. Eat as much of it as you can and avoid the stomach-filling toast. Once the enforcement agents had that information, which they had every right to receive, the article states that "state investigators subsequently had warrants to obtain and search the athletes' phones...." Seems pretty open and shut to me. Still, I have read (what may be wild conspiracy theories) on social media that enforcement agents were walking around on campus searching with electronic devices and computer programs. That would be a much harder question if they didn't get a search warrant for that. I think, though, that those are most likely conspiracy theories because GeoComply would give them all the information that they needed (name of athlete, address, email, etc.) so they could just get a warrant to search their phones. My main hopes in representing the athletes/plaintiffs would be: (1) To have a very government-skeptic judge, so I hope they did some really nice forum shopping to find that judge, and (2) Ask the court to hold that the Draft Kings and Fan Duel sign ups were adhesion contracts. I haven't kept up with the law in that area, but I have always felt that the standard internet sign up provisions that suggest you read pages of small print and click "yes" or not be able to join the site are adhesion contracts. Yet, even if they were held to be adhesion contracts, does that get past the immunity question? Were the enforcement agents acting in the course and scope of their duties, and, even if what they did was eventually held to be unconstitutional, was it within the gray area to which qualified immunity would apply?

Just watched a bunch of U17 US Open Greco, and it was astonishing! ILLINOIS has dominated in Greco for years, as can be seen in the Fargo and National Duals record books and even on this year's Senior World Team, but other states are starting to pick it up, and there are some exciting kids in the pipeline. As a nation, we've sucked at the simple gut wrench even in domestic competition, but Wyatt Medlin, by himself, must have had about 20 in this tournament from start to match three of the best of three finals. And there were throwers! Really big stuff. I wish y'all coulda seen it.

I would say this about the ref in that match: Don't make a production of it. That was how a WWE ref would make the call. Especially, don't be that demonstrative in making a huge call that benefits a hometown wrestler on his hometown mat late in an important match. On the other hand, singlet pulls are very hard to see, so I appreciate the fact that the ref let everybody know what happened. I would suggest, though, blowing the whistle, signaling the call (like a normal human being), then jogging over to the head official to explain what happened. That way, it can be shared with the fans in attendance and the TV announcers. As for the ref getting run over by the action. It happens in Sumo at least once each tournament. The difference is that some of those Sumo refs are old enough to have taught the Five Point Exploding Heart Punch in Kill Bill: Volume Two. Also, the Dohyo in Sumo is almost twice as small as an Olympic-sized mat, and the ref knows everything is going out of bounds and usually at speed. Shouldn't happen in Freestyle. Did the ref blow his whistle early out of self-preservation? Could Zahid have finished that takedown?

I like the slip throw rule. The original poster writes: "No, then no one will take a chance at a throw!" That's old rhetoric. Sometimes old rhetoric is the best rhetoric. Would we ever see another arm throw in our lifetimes if slipped throws were penalized? Double over-hook throws? Headlock throws? Goodbye forever to those, my friends. Additionally, if you catch the wrestler attempting to throw and stop his momentum, you can score a takedown yourself or hit your own throw for exposure. So, there is a remedy for half-baked throw attempts that slip. What I would change is that a slip throw in the Passivity Zone would be a Caution and Two with choice of position. Otherwise, let them try! Unrelated, but I thought the image below was funny when I saw it the other day. Is that Alabama Greco? I love the internet:

Not International rules, but NCAA. It was a home dual for ILLINOIS versus Michigan. Mike Poeta is a Freshman wrestling up a weight at 165 against Ryan Churella. Match is tied as regulation time expires. Poeta hits a double in sudden victory for the apparent win. Crowd goes crazy. Ref calls an equipment grab, claiming that the ILLINI pulled on Churella's knee pad. We screamed our displeasure. I've never been louder expressing my dissatisfaction (except when I saw my toddler boy start to cross our street without looking both ways). Poeta loses by an infraction point in SV. So, in the first interview I ever had with then-Associate Head Coach Poeta, I ask him about it. He basically said, "It was a good call. I grabbed the knee pad. It was inadvertent as my fingers got stuck, but I grabbed it."

The ILLINI will be sending a powerful team: Kannon Webster, Braeden Scoles, Chris Moore, Logan Swaw, Will Baysingar and others. That's two Who's No 1 wrestlers, a true Freshman NCAA qualifier, a Big Ten Tournament starter and a spot starter. Probably have some incoming Freshmen/high school Seniors show up as well. So excite!

Greco is a manly pursuit and not for everyone.