ILLINIWrestlingBlog

From my just-published preview of the Maryland dual: "LOL. Their mascot is food."

Recap of the Wisconsin dual for ILLINI fans and Wisconsin masochists here. SAMPLE: "So many great stories, so many heroes, so many reasons to believe. It was bigger than the program turning a corner, though it was that. It was more like a new star was born in the center of the galaxy. From the near-miss against #2 Iowa on the road to the rousing win over a ranked Wisconsin at home...."

I don't know if it matters in a dual with ILLINOIS, as Lucas Byrd is 3-0 against Burwick with a major and 5-0 and 5-2 decisions. Now, Lamont's overall losing record even before facing RBY and Byrd might have caused Bono a twinge of regret. What matters here is that Wisconsin has not allowed Burwick to wrestle attached for Nebraska. Did the Nebraska football coach steal some players from Wisconsin's football team? That doesn't make sense, though, because it would be like a homeless person stealing bags from a bag lady.

The ILLINI agin the stinking Badgers: 125. Wisconsin heavy favorite. 133. ILLINI heavy favorite. 141. Depends. If Zargo, toss up, but that would mean he ducked PSU. If no Zargo, ILLINI solid favorite. 149. Wisconsin heavy favorite. Kevon Davenport has tried to toss folks in ~30% of his matches this year, including Sammy Sasso. Think a toss happens here. 157. This was a Wisconsin solid favorite, but now there's Mikey ******* Carr. 165. Wisconsin heavy favorite. 174. ILLINI heavy favorite. 184. ILLINI solid favorite. 197. ILLINI slight favorite. Zac beat Warnerov, Amos got smashed by Dean. Does Bono ducks his wrestler to avoid three straight losses? 285. Wisconsin heavy favorite. BTN @ 3:00 (Central). Before the addition of Carr, Wisconsin wins via more bonus points. Now?

While he discovered and named the Multiverse working side-by-side with Dr. Joseph McKenna.

I don't know. Hope to find out soon. Still getting over the shock of seeing Carr walk out onto the mat. Cheers!

Cardani had surgery in the off-season. Maximo is super talented, but has been slowed down by injuries and illnesses. And speaking of injuries ... ... Mikey Carr had an amazing redshirt freshman year, wrestling in the B1G finals after beating Nick Lee handily in the semis. And those weren't my favorite moments of that year. My favorite moment came in his first varsity match against Jaydin Eierman when he shot a double and picked him up and carried him around the mat on his shoulders until the ref called him for stalling. Ha! Who even does that? Then, injuries tore him apart. As a model student and citizen, he's the perfect reason for medical redshirts.

It's not ILLINI Time. Soon, it will be ILLINI Time.

Iowa is going with all of their expected starters, although there's one "or" wrestling: Either Teske or Schriever: 125. Maximo Renteria vs. Spencer Lee 133. Lucas Byrd vs. Brody Teske/Cullen Schriever 141. Danny Pucino vs. Real Woods 149. Kevon Davenport vs. Max Murin 157. Anthony Federico vs. Cobe Seibrecht 165. Danny Braunagel vs. Patrick Kennedy 174. Edmond Ruth vs. Nelson Brands 184. Dylan Connell vs. Abe Assad 197. Zac Braunagel vs. Jacob Warner 285. Matt Wroblewski vs. Tony Cassioppi Wisconsin has more "ors" wrestling: 125: Maximo Renteria vs. Eric Barnett 133: Lucas Byrd vs. Taylor LaMont or Nicolar Rivera 141: Danny Pucino vs. Joseph Zargo or Felix Lettini 149: Kevon Davenport vs. Austin Gomez 157: Anthony Federico or Luke Odom vs. Garrett Model or Drew Scharenbrock 165: Danny Braunagel vs. Dean Hamiti 174: Edmond Ruth vs. Josh Otto or James Rowley 184: Dylan Connell vs. Tyler Dow 197: Zac Braunagel vs. Braxton Amos 285: Matt Wroblewski vs. Trent Hillger or Peter Christensen I don't think the Iowa "or" is much of a drop off. It might even be an improvement. Time will tell. Four of the Wisconsin "ors" are major drop offs. Poor Maximo. Beset with injuries and illnesses and now gets his first two B1G dual starts against Spencer Lee and Eric Barnett. Could be a decent match with Barnett if the Badger is pulling as much weight as I think he is.

If you are including this from the lost Covid year: 2020 NWCA All-American (First-Team) I agree with you 100%. Those count in my eyes. That change has been made to the preview. Thank you. As for your second point, would you be willing to give a statement under oath to our investigators, the Hardly Boys and Encephalopedia Brown?

Good point about Purdue, Mr. PeanutButter. Will Spencer's knees be ready for a brash and tricksy Matt Ramos, though? Will be interesting to see what Brands/Lee decide. I thought I saw that Assad had won Soldier Salute. Didn't know about the tweaked knee. Assad has been an ILLINI-killer, so we scoured the state for somebody who could beat him, much like the Soviet Union searched their country top to bottom for an anti-Gable for the Olympics.

Then, after Iowa, the ILLINI face the stinking Badgers. That preview is here. This could be interesting based on who didn't show up to the Midlands for Wisconsin, and who got injured there. No Gomez, and injuries to Zargo and Hilger and Hilger's backup. This could be a nail biter like The Mystery of the Mysterious NPO.

A preview of the Iowa match is here. Does Spencer Lee wrestle? I think with it being at home and the first B1G dual of his last season, he will. On the other hand, it could be that he needs more than a week off after four live matches in two days, which he hasn't done in a calendar. I've got Lucas Byrd and Edmond Ruth as favorites and the ILLINI at 125 if Spencer is a no go. The upper weights should have some good matches as well. Danny Braunagel and Kennedy in a toss up. Up and comer Dylan Connell against Assad, the latter being the solid favorite, but Connell is starting to believe. Zac Braunagel versus Jacob Warner.

Thanks for the answers! It would've taken me two hours on Google before I gave up looking for the answers.

Also, if my understanding is correct, the five free competitions rule only applies to true freshmen, and not, in example, for somebody like Iowa's Drake Ayala or Nebraska's Kyle Burwikk. Is my understanding correct, though?

Any time during the year?

I seem to remember that the rule is slightly different for redshirt freshmen who might use one of their five freebie varsity matches once conference dual season starts. What is the rule again? Conference season kicks in big time shortly. What will be the impact from true redshirt freshmen, if any? Why won't Bono sign Burwikk's release?

As a fan of one team, and as a hater of all other teams and their wrestlers, I have to say that I loved the Midlands, the MSU Open, and the Tiger Style Invite. Here's why: Action. In those tournaments, there always seems to be one your favorite team's wrestlers on the mat. On day two of Midlands, there were back-to-back-to-back-to-back ILLINI matches. Once, there were three ILLINI starting at about the same time. Izzy and you saved Christmas last year, no doubt, but you did it with a medium-sized tournament that provided an excellent fan experience. I think (and hope) that is the future.

Byrd always rumbles. He went into the match rumbling but got hit with a cradle. Not sure exactly, but it was something like 9-1 and 11-2 during the match. Lucas then went to work with lots of takedowns, stacking them like pancakes at Merry Ann's Diner in Champaign, ILLINOIS. He took the guy's soul, but the scoring table took the win.

About that Lucas Byrd comeback win, I'm still pissed. Here's what happened: At the start of the third period, Byrd gets a caution on the start. The table says, :03 is off the clock, but they don't take the time to change the clock. I'm actually cool with that because Byrd was wearing the hell outta that Penn wrestler. What I'm not cool with is that the table and the refs forgot about that :03 at the end of the match. That :03 equals the final takedown that was disallowed because "time" ran out. On top of that, I don't want to sound like Jombo, but stalling barely made an appearance in that match. It should've had a starring role, above the title. So instead of an "L," in my mind it was a miraculous comeback. And anybody who disagrees goes to the top of my enemies list.You see, even Jombo agrees with me:

I forgot to mention Trey Sizemore (and probably others). Sizemore has been a revelation. He's still in it for a podium finish, and he's wrestled real well. Another thing I noticed was that Danny Braunagel was called for potentially dangerous during his first takedown attempt on Peyton Hall. (It was a good call). But Danny learned. During his second takedown attempt, he passed the leg quickly and got to the waist lickity-split. That shows smarts and natural instincts. Finally, @MPhillips, what can be done about this lack of NUDGERS? It's not like it takes much skill to NUDGE. There are no special schools that teach NUDGING. And still there are no NUDGERS! HARRUMPH!

Four ILLINI in the semifinals to include Lucas Byrd, Danny Braunagel, Edmond Ruth and Zac Braunagel. These guys were all the higher seeded wrestler in the quarters except that little Brawny got a big upset against Peyton Hall. By the way, I haven't seen trick knees like Peyton Hall since Tyler Nixt. What an incredible defensive resource. PREDICTION: I think in the next couple of years there will emerge a new kind of wrestler: The stud who only has a loss on his record to Lucas Byrd and Edmond Ruth. THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! Ermak Kardonov is a Russian wrestler who is really good at freestyle. He's at the ILLINI RTC now. Watching him deal with bottom and top wrestling at the Midlands was both tense and hilarious. Go Ermak! KAREN-TYPE WHINES: If you are going to stream a tournament, you need to also have a dashboard or brackets that a body can click on to take you directly to the match you want to see. Having one company stream while another company carries the live brackets and dashboard sucks. I almost swatted BTN Headquarters because of this. A second peeve is the lack of nudgers. Apparently none of these companies can find or afford to hire someone to nudge the camera when the action moves to the side of the mat. ALL I'M ASKING FOR IS A NUDGE. ARE NUDGERS SO HARD TO FIND? IT WOULD TAKE THREE SECONDS TO TRAIN A NUDGER IN THE ART OF NUDGING! ONLY FOR HARDCORE ILLINI FANS: I was really impressed with Dylan Connell and Danny Pucino. Connell got beat 1-8 by Pitt's Reece Heller in the dual, then turned that into an SV loss at Midlands. He's still in the mix for a placement. Same with Pucino. These guys are wrestling their first full years at ILLINOIS, and will be forces for good in the future. Really disappointed that nobody at 125 or 157 from the team could show up and pick up their teammates.

Midlands had one of the biggest matches of the year. Saul Ervin, of the famous Ervin wrestling family, versus a guy whose last name is the perfect viral Tik Tok video. Can't get better than that. Maybe the perfect in-season wrestling tournament is the friends we meet along the way?

Luke Luffman had surgery. In other words, a duck conspiracy so vast it involves the ILLINI Athletic Department and a team of medical professionals. I'm disappointed that Maximo isn't there, and I don't know why. It surely isn't to duck competition, though, as he needs some wins to pad his NCAA resume before facing Spencer Lee and Eric Barnett in duals next week. As for Edmond Ruth as the #1 seed, I've explained that sufficiently. Blame Nolf or Cenzo or McFadden or Iowa or Nebraska for not showing up, the slackers! Finally, I agree that Cannon should be the #4 seed over Heilmann even though Cannon is 4-3 this year while Heilmann is 11-1. Cannon has a proven track record in big tournaments. I would keep Glory at number three ahead of Cannon, at least until Cannon shows that he is past whatever injury he suffered at Cliff Keen.