ILLINIWrestlingBlog

Oh, I forgot to mention headbands and wristbands. According to all of the free AI programs that I've used, every athlete in the world wears either wristbands or headbands or both. See the image of Coach Medlin above. It's like they're all Rafael Nadals or Bjorn Borgs. Also, each program will do its damndest to make people look like Taylor Swift or Anime or battle droids. Have they been programmed to provide honest output or what they "think" people want?

Let's say you have a quantum computer that approaches AI, and it has "watched" every wrestling video on the internet, has self-taught comprehensive knowledge and understanding of human anatomy, body mechanics, kinesiology and physics. Couldn't that algorithm develop new wrestling moves? Or, have we, like an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters discovered every tie and hold that there is to discover? On another subject, I understand that there are services available that will provide wrestlers with scouting reports on future opponents. These will tell you what kind of shots your foe likes to take, his or her favorite ties, etc. How granular does it go? How granular will it go? My guess is that someday it will be shockingly granular. Take, for example, a bar arm and half-nelson combo. With knowledge of the opponent's physical frame and apparent strength, and an understanding of universal human biometrics, as well as the special abilities of your adversary, the machine will be able to provide graphic illustrations on where to apply the pressure, how to apply it, and even when to apply it given your opponent's average stamina rating. The graphic would show with exact precision the angles of your elbow in the half, where exactly to sink the bar arm, and the perfect angle for you to get maximum rotational force with your legs, arms and torso given your size and body shape and the size and body shape of your opponent. I wondered how soon we might see this, so I conducted an experiment. As the biggest fanboy on this site (although still an impartial journalist), I asked various AI programs to provide renderings of the ILLINI coaching staff. As you can see from the images below and from what I'm about to tell you, the output was variously interesting, strange, awful, pretty cool and at other times silly. In the rendering of Coach Poeta below, the AI decided that he should be amputated below the right knee. In IMAR's rendition, the AI program decided that he should be depicted in a Cubist way, the ref in Modern Realism (though having an Infinity Stone on his forehead kind of ruins that effect), while the coaches in the background look to be done in Water Color. The ILLINI coach is wearing a scarf, which looks very gallant! Additionally, for some reason the program decided to put a Coke and a hot dog on the mat. As for the other ILLINI coaches, Jeremy Hunter and Austin O'Connor, every single render that I attempted turned one of them into a battle droid and the other into Taylor Swift. I gave up. In conclusion, I don't think wrestling coaches and assistants have anything to worry about in the foreseeable future. Their art and science will be needed. Additionally, my guess is that wrestling scouting reports will continue to be a thing and get incrementally better. All we have to worry about at the present is bad AI wrestling art.

The Select Committee has investigated the proposition, heard evidence, and is now in agreement: Wrestling shall be part of the Winter Olympics.

Excellent! I love these and do one for every ILLINI dual. Wrestlestat.com is extremely handy for this kind of write-up. As you suggest, it should be close. I like both teams a lot. Army has three ILLINOIS kids on the roster, but none of them are starters. Campbell has two kids from the Land of Lincoln on their roster, and both of them start (Molton and Zaccone). Furthermore, Zaccone was an ILLINI for one year but had the unfortunate luck to be a redshirt the same season as one Lucas Byrd. He's tough, and I agree that he should be favored. Can't wait for the fun to begin! Cheers!

Nobody is required to upload a selfie or video of them wearing a singlet on November 1, 2023 (aka National Singlet Day). However, if you want to win a prize package, then you'd better. The prize package includes an ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond t-shirt, 2 Chunky bars and a piece of wire. On the other hand, what happens when you go out to the drug store or to your doctor's appointment or show up at your probation office for the monthly drug screen and everybody else is wearing their singlets?

Speaking of expendable sports, the Winter Olympics is comprised--almost entirely--of expendable sports. Besides figure skating, skiing (I guess) and hockey, everything else is trash. Curling? Biathlon? Nordic Combined? Sledding? Freestyle Skiing? Snowboarding? Snow Angels? (not a real Olympic sport). All trash. Did you know that there are only 31 sites in the entire United States where you can practice ski jumping? How many times have you gotten into an argument with somebody and decided to settle it by Ski Jumping? On the other hand, there are over 10,000 high schools in America with a wrestling team. There are another 400 college teams. The IOC needs to add a real Winter sport to their program: Wrestling. And so the revolution begins:

Move wrestling to the Winter Olympics. Think BIG! We can start with a whisper campaign about this--so that Judo and Basketball don't realize we're stabbing them in the back--but if we keep it up soon we'll be marching into IOC headquarters like the Bushwhackers marching into the ring at Wrestlemania. The Olympics are always looking for favorable publicity. What you have here is a natural winter sport switching over to compete ... in the Winter. Instead of French skiers and Colorado snowboarders WHO NOBODY KNOWS OR CARES ABOUT you get the drama of 97kg in Freestyle, the Greco heavyweights and the Japanese women. This is from a report from 2022 about the Beijing Winter Olympics: The Games drew their lowest U.S. ratings ever. Reports released Monday indicate there was an average total audience of 11.4 million viewers for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. That is a sharp decline from the 19.8 million average for the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. We would add an entire new world market to the Winter Olympics, and what else can they do to arrest those flagging viewership numbers? Snow Sculpture? International Snowball Fights? They are in a death spiral. They need us. We need them. Don't give up because of the hurdles, fight hard because of the opportunities!

It's indoors. It should be an option. THINK BIG!

Greco is freaking awesome! It is too tied with tradition to be left out. The high amplitude throws are the only rival to gymnastics when it comes to explosiveness. And putting both guys down in a match used to make no sense to me, but it adds to the excitement. More throws! Americans need to get more comfortable in par terre. In 2024, the Olympics are adding breaking which pisses me off. They call it "breaking," though I've always thought it was called breakdancing. Then, there's skateboarding, and you can bet they're talking about Call of Duty. We need to keep every wrestling slot--or add them. My suggestion: Move all wrestling to the Winter Olympics. It would be king!

Oh, what will Jombo™ do next?

POLL. Which is the bigger icon of Iowa Hawkeye wrestling: A. Dan Gable. B. Carver-Hawkeye Arena. C. Jombo McFeedstore™. D. Lincoln McIlravy.

The first and still the best wrestling web-comic is “The Adventures of Jombo™.” For months now, this strip has entertained dozens of people across the country. And the new issue is out! Oh, what will Jombo™ do next? Today we deal with the latest twist and turn in the Ferrari case: A continuance in his trial until October. You know what wrestlers call it when a lawyer continues a case until a later date, don’t you?

We think so. Introducing Amazing Stories! This wrestling web-comic will deal with any wrestling team that makes headlines for the wrong reasons or is sufficiently interesting for another reason. Issue #1 deals with Penn State and Professor Carl Sanderson. This post and the comic herein is a reminder that I hate all of you. It’s not just Iowa that I hate. If you’re not a fan of the ILLINI, I hate you. Just remember, though, it is a measured, professional hatred. Nothing personal. Business.

It is totally irresponsible for us to prejudge the event, but, my dude, that would be a winner. Haha!

As you can see below, a pie chart has been created to show our lofty goals for National Singlet Day -- November 1, 2023! I am in the process of contacting singlet manufacturers across the country to advise them of National Singlet Day. We expect every reader of this forum to each get 1,300 friends to sign up and wear their singlets on this occasion. There should be singlets for as far as the eye can see! Please don't forget that National Singlet Day is November 1, 2023.

I don't think you can say that the infraction is akin to jaywalking or a moving violation in one paragraph, and in the next, acknowledge that colleges have billions invested in the issue and have some incentive to protect that interest. In fact, university sports departments are starting to earn a quarter billion dollars in revenue annually. The valuation of the athletic departments and facilities at those schools must be in the tens of billions of dollars. Jaywalking or moving violations will not upset that apple cart. A point-shaving scheme might. Even the appearance of impropriety could be damaging. Now that that's off my chest, let's take a light-hearted look at sports. It just so happens that young Brands will now go down in Hawkeye history as the subject matter of a "The Adventures of Jombo" strip. (You can purchase an NFT of this strip for one million dollars (US) and own an important part of Hawkeye Wrestling History. Truly, a gift to cherish and hand down to your children).

Sure, I hate Iowa. If Iowa was drowning in a lake, I would shoot it. I also don't care for Nelson Brands because he beat Edmond Ruth in the blood round. With that bit of transparency out of the way, I would ask the posters on this board to think of the Mount Rushmore of sports scandals. On my Mount Rushmore, two of the spaces are taken up by gambling, Pete Rose and the Black Sox. Then, I would have the SMU football death penalty and the steroid era in baseball (McGwire, Sosa, Bonds). I want to squeeze in Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan because that was silly and disgusting and creepy all at the same time. Plus, we ended up getting an x-rated video out of it! The point is that I hate Iowa, and the point is that gambling and sports don't mix.

Well, that was quick and unfortunate. I'm out, D3. Thanks for being such a good play-by-play and color commentator!

Armenian the #2 seed. Go Sarge!

Easy to root for the fellow on deck on Mat C, SGT Xavier Johnson:

What if ...

And the fall is challenged, but the challenge is lost! Turkey-Yeah! into the finals, Ukraine into repechage. Win-win there. Cheers and I'm out, D3!

I'm rooting for Turkey-Yeah! here because that would bring to repechage the Ukrainian who beat Braunagel. Sancho is out with the loss by the Armenian giant. Durn.

Wow. That 67 kilo Armenian must be six-foot tall! Sancho has to hope he goes on to win in the semis. The American loses by techfall.