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I am not happy with 141. Seems like a "spread the wealth" formula determined the bids. Cael Happel and three from the B1G should've been the call: Pucino, Mattin and Oliveri. Instead, only Mattin from the conference.

Agree with this 100%, especially when it comes to tournaments. As for 141, I think the Italians are in. Both Danny Pucino and Joey Oliveri had good RPI and Ranking slots. There are only four At-Large bids at the weight, so it will be close. Carl Happel, Saul Ervin, Cole Martin, Darren Miller, Javion Jones and Dylan Droegemueller are some of the others in the Matrix. For anybody looking for answers about their favorite wrestler, a good place to start is Pirate's "Police Blotter," which shows who earned an allocation and didn't get the spot.

You state a great case, especially about his name. In fact, that's such a great name I fact checked to make sure he's real. He is. He even made Round of 16 and Round of 12 the last two years. Pretty impressive! He has six "L MFORs" this year, though. If he can get a note from his doctor, he's in.

Burwick came within one match of wrestling Taylor Lamont in the BTT 9th place bracket, or as the Bible calls it, "The Apocalypse." Okay. I'm sold. He's in.

If you've never been beaten by Yianni Diakomihalis or Spencer Lee, and you like piña coladas and aren't much into health food, you're in. Meet me at a bar called O'Malley's where we'll plan your escape, takedown and pinfalls. But when you get to the bar, you will be shocked to find out that I am your wife!

What wrestler on your favorite team deserves an At-Large bid? Why do you say that? I hope that Pirate shows up with his "numbers" and "science" and "facts" and "logic" like he has in the past, but until then, who ya got? I'll go first. Danny Pucino, 141, University of ILLINOIS. Before the B1G tournament, he had a 13-7 record against D1 competition. He was #24 in both the RPI and Coaches' Poll. Solidly within the benchmarks. He's Italian. He has beaten the following wrestlers already in the field: Northwestern's Frankie Tal-Shahar (5th BTT), Purdue's Parker Filius (4th BTT), and Kal Miller of Maryland (9th BTT). Additionally, he beat Javion Jones of NIU (3rd MAC) head to head, and Jones will be in the 141 at large pool. This was by a solid 4-1 score. Six of his nine losses are to wrestlers who are currently top twelve in the weight at wrestlestat.com. His two worst losses are to fellows who won auto bids to the NCAA Tournament (Miller, 9th at BTT; Zargo, 7th at BTT). His drawback is not placing in the BTT in the spot right after the auto qualifier (10th).

Are you suggesting his nickname should be "The Gopher Choker," and that refs should be on the lookout for it in the future?

I rewatchwed what happened and was looking to blame Murin, but I can't. I do think mats can be bigger and some kind of cushion can be placed around them. Although not a problem so far at this event, scorers' tables and bleachers should be far away from the mat or cushioned. Yahya's head hit down with a crack. A very loud crack. He was intent on defending that double leg and expected the mat to be there. Hope he's gonna be okay. That was as bad as it gets with the whiplash and the unprotected floor. P.S. Byrd deserved the two seed over Mendez.

There are already some answers to the ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond Prop Bet Contest. Here ya go: Spencer Lee will get a first-period pinfall in his first match at the 2023 B1G tournament (No) Carter Starocci will not give up a point in his first two matches during the 2023 B1G tournament (No) Maryland will have two or more semi-finalists at the 2023 B1G tournament (No) The last match of the 2023 B1G tournament will involve Yianni Diakomihalis (No) Plenty of TBD prop bets left. Good luck! As for the ILLINI barf. Thicc Zac was great. He wears folks out. Lucas Byrd's ref gets special mention for allowing Nagao to take zero attacks during the match AND spend a cumulative 2:00 with a front headlock on Byrd.

Just a note to say that with Byrd's pin, that has to put the ILLINI in first place. Or close. Also, Patrick McKee's haircut is so awful he must have instructed his hairdresser to analyze each follicle to determine the exact length it needed to be to be the most unpleasant. Since that could take a year or more to do, I suspect a computer program, perhaps AI-assisted, must have been employed. When you eliminate the impossible, what is left, no matter how improbable, must be the solution. GO ILLINI!!!

Yianni should come and face Gomez and Sasso as well. Unless he's Oranges.

Here's a little history lesson for the board: Before World War II, the committee put out these pre-seeds: 1. Germany 2. Japan 3. Great Britain 4. Russia 5. Italy 6. Austria 7. France 8. THE U.S. OF ******-******* A. They actually seeded the French surrender monkeys ahead of Uncle Sam. But their chicanery failed! The United States won both brackets, in Europe and in the Pacific. My friends, if you believe---if deep in your heart you really believe---in our country, in our flag, in our way of life, then you know that the ILLINI will triumph over all odds and against all comers just like the good old USofMFingA. As history repeats itself.

Where does Mikey Carr end up in the B1G seedings? How does he fare against Peyton Robb? What about Dr. Zoidberg?

You mean, that they will break with tradition and let Yianni wrestle Sasso or Gomez in the B1G final?

These are prop bets 10 & 11: The last match of the 2023 B1G tournament will involve Spencer Lee (Y/N) The last match of the 2023 B1G tournament will involve Yianni Diakomihalis (Y/N) I've actually given it some thought, and what I would do is this: After the semifinals on Friday night, if both Spencer and Yianni have advanced to the finals, hold a coin toss. Whoever wins the coin toss between them gets the final match. Whoever comes in second gets the second-to-last match. The NCAA has broken with tradition before, this would be a great time to do it again. There is also the possibility that the Executive Producer of "ESPN Coverage of the 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships" is a Cornell alum or hates Iowa. In fact, that is about 97% of the population, so....

Hi! Your entry has been entered. That gives you an excellent chance to win at least one ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond t-shirt, which, as far as you know, has never been worn before. Good Luck!

PROP BET CONTEST Your good friends at the ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond are sponsoring a contest in conjunction with the B1G wrestling tournament. The Winner gets two IWB&F&B t-shirts. Second place will receive one t-shirt. Here are the rules: Pick "YES" or "NO" for each of the prop bets listed. Pick the order of the final team standings for the tournament (tie breaker). The person with the most correct prop bet picks is the winner. Second place goes to the person with the second most correct prop bet picks. The tie breaker is the final team standings for the tournament. Ultimate tie breaker is the closest placement of Rutgers in the final team standings. These are the Prop Bets: Spencer Lee will get a first-period pinfall in his first match at the 2023 B1G tournament (Y/N) A team point will be deducted from Iowa's score during the 2023 B1G tournament (Y/N) During the first commercial break after the beginning of the finals broadcast, there will be a commercial selling cars or trucks. (Y/N) Carter Starocci will not give up a point in his first two matches during the 2023 B1G tournament (Y/N) Nebraska will have three or more finalists at the 2023 B1G tournament (Y/N) ILLINOIS will have a finalist at the 2023 B1G tournament (Y/N) Maryland will have two or more semi-finalists at the 2023 B1G tournament (Y/N) During broadcast of the finals, the cameras will catch a nervous coach with his finger in his nose (must be visually confirmed/actual nasal cavity penetration) (Y/N) Taylor Lamont will wrestle and beat Kyle Burwick during the 2023 B1G tournament (Y/N) The last match of the 2023 B1G tournament will involve Spencer Lee (Y/N) The last match of the 2023 B1G tournament will involve Yianni Diakomihalis (Y/N) At least two champions of the 2023 B1G tournament will do backflips or somersaults of some kind (Y/N) The final team standings at the 2023 B1G tournament are as follows: [write names of teams] ABOUT THE PRIZES The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond t-shirts are made of 100% fabric and come complete with two or more armholes and a neckhole. They will be delivered to you free of charge by people who make a living delivering such things.

Since everybody loved that first set of seeds, I decided to post another with two questions: How does Silas Allred win all those matches when he is obviously the worst wrestler in all of them? Also, wtf you do with Brawlnagel, Warner and Caffey? Max Dean (PSU) (17-2, 8-0) Silas Allred (Nebraska) (20-5, 7-1) ZAC BRAUNAGEL (ILLINI) (17-5, 6-2) Jacob Warner (Iowa) (13-4, 3-3) Cam Caffey (MSU) (13-3, 6-2) Braxton Amos (Wisconsin) (16-5, 5-3) Gavin Hoffman (OSU) (13-5, 4-1) Jaxon Smith (Maryland) (15-5, 2-0) Michial Foy (Minnesota) (13-8, 4-4) Nick Willham (Indiana) (12-7, 3-2) Billy Janzer (Rutgers) (5-10, 3-5) Andrew Davison (NW) (16-11, 2-6) Brendan Yatooma (Michigan) (4-12, 1-6) Hayden Filipovich (Purdue) (5-19, 0-7)

I took your quote of Flo's seeds and added the wrestler's actual B1G dual record: 1- RBY 6-0 2- Mendez 7-1 3- Byrd 8-0 4- Raugusin 4-3 5- Cannon 6-2 6- Heilmann 5-3 7- Teske 5-1 8- Nagao 3-1 9- Foley 2-6 10- LaMont 1-6 11- Porter 4-4 12- Burwikk 1-6 13 - Norris 3-5 14- Sandoval 0-3 They got RBY and Sandoval right. The rest of it is a peanut butter and snot sandwich.

I'd add to what I wrote above that Jesse Mendez has been spanked by five and six points in two of his last four. Lucas Byrd was top five in RPI, while Mendez hadn't wrestled enough for an RPI. Given Byrd's high RPI, he still has 9 more wins and the same number of losses. But all that minutiae aside, Byrd gets the #2 seed because he's a two-time AA. The coaches know he gives it up every time it counts.

By way of explanation for my seedings, you can find these two paragraphs in the linked story: In the 133 seedings in the post above, you can see these precepts put into action. Two-time All American Chris Cannon got the benefit of the doubt over Brody Teske, even though Teske has the slightly better B1G dual record. Rayvon Foley got the same benefit of the doubt over Dustin Norris. Finally, it was interesting to me that Wisconsin won the lottery with Taylor Lamont, moving up a whole seed line from #13 to #12.

For the complete preview, including where I make fun of your favorite wrestler or team, here's a link to The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond. __________________________ 133. LUCAS BYRD (#6, 23-3, 8-0) There are really only three questions involved in Lucas Byrd’s tournament, from least important to most important: Will he be the second or third seed? Will he get revenge against Jesse Mendez? Will we finally get to see Byrd versus RBY? The answers to those questions will be yes, yes and hell yes. The world demands Byrd versus RBY. With the way the tournament brackets go, a second seed would get a first-round bye. Then, the winner between the 7th and 10th seeds. That would be Rutger's Joe Heilmann or MSU's Rayvon Foley given the seeds below. ILLINOIS fans would like to get a nice bonus win in the first round for the team standings, but saving Lucas’ energy for the later rounds is more important. The #3 seed would face King Sandoval of Maryland in the first round. As for getting the #2 seed, Mendez did have a win over the ILLINI during an early season tournament, but Byrd is 8-0 in conference while the Buckeye is 7-1. Moreover, the man in the Orange and Blue is a two-time All American. The ILLINI was ranked right behind Mendez in the previous Coach’s poll (#8, #9), and it was Jesse Mendez who has lost since then. Finally, in overall record, both have the same number of losses (3), but Byrd has nine more wins. There were eleven B1G wrestlers in the last Coach’s poll. Unfortunately, it is likely that a few of them have fallen off simply because the competition in conference is incredible. As an example, Michigan State's Rayvon Foley is an outstanding wrestler, but he is only 2-6 in conference duals. If he was just .500 in conference (4-4), his winning percentage against Division One wrestlers would be over .700 at 13-5. [NOTE: Foley still probably gets an allocation spot for the conference because of his Coach's poll (#16) and RPI (#28) positions, although going 1-4 in his last five might jeopardize that.] SEEDS RBY (PSU) (13-0; 6-0) LUCAS BYRD (ILLINI) (22-3; 8-0) Jesse Mendez (OSU) (13-3; 7-1) Chris Cannon (NW) (15-6; 6-2) Brody Teske (Iowa) (6-2; 5-1) Dylan Ragusin (Michigan) (13-6; 4-3) Joe Heilmann (Rutgers) (18-6; 5-3) Aaron Nagao (Minnesota) (14-3; 3-1) Henry Porter (Indiana) (13-6; 4-4) Rayvon Foley (MSU) (11-7; 2-6) Dustin Norris (Purdue) (10-13; 3-5) Taylor Lamont (Wisconsin) (9-12; 1-6) Kyle Burwick (Nebraska) (7-7; 1-6) King Sandoval (Maryland) (0-4; 0-3)

Talking about automatic qualification slots here, @nhs67. There was one weight last year where there were 12 AQ slots. There were four weights with only 7 and one weight with 8. The year before that, the B1G received these AQ slots across the ten weights: 7, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 5, 6 That was bogus. I'm inclined to believe my theory for more potential B1G AQ slots this year (improvement among conference teams) and @ugarles theory about the relative low performance from PAC10 teams this season. It's also possible that teams like Maryland and MSU added a bunch of individual wrestler wins by scheduling duals against more lower-tier teams.

First off, bravo @ugarles! I'm already using these in my world-famous ILLINI B1G Tournament Preview. My questions: The Big Ten seems to be shorted each year in terms of allocations at multiple weights. For example, there are usually multiple weights with only six automatic qualifiers. At the same time, there'll be weights with seven and eight spots. This year, you predict only one weight to have seven spots and all the other weights to have nine or more. What is your confidence level re: your numbers? In my mind, the conference got stronger this year, especially in terms of the ILLINI, Indiana, Michigan State and the surprising Marylanders (LOL. Their mascot is food). Yet, Rutgers and Purdue seem to have taken a step back. I believe their steps back have been more than offset by the improvements in those other four teams. Is that what happened? Is that why you predict so many B1G allocations?