Eagle26

The obvious answer is Daton Fix, but there’s a lot of incredible wrestlers on this list. I think Mike Poeta deserves a mention too

Agreed. I like the addition of Parker and Hardy as well. Keegan O’Toole needs a mention as well. He would top my list.

Maybe they would throw some big money around to get DT to switch OSUs? He’s from Ohio. That would be the best move they could make after Tom Ryan retires. FWIW, I think Ryan is a great coach, and I think they will be fine as is. I do agree they should hire a big name young guy who is outside the program to get on staff and/or get some bigger names to join the RTC

Fair enough. Yes, I bet Levi weighed over 174 the day he got back from NCAAs last year lol. Doesn’t mean he would’ve done well at 174 that year. BUT, I think he was probably already stronger than most 165lbers last year. And, I do think he probably could put on another 10 lbs of muscles in a year. So he was not quite the biggest strongest guy at 174 like he was at 57, but he filled the weight pretty well.

In regards to Haines, he has a teammate at 165 who is the best in the country. He sucked like crazy to get to 157 last year. Knew he couldn’t do that to himself again, didn’t want to wrestle off MM, so the day after NCAAs last year he committed to filling out to 174. Considering how much he was cutting, his genetics, and 9 months of strength training with the best program in the country, I have no doubt he naturally filled out to 174.

Did they show the interviews?

Yes, I know I’m playing into your trap, but recruiting is certainly part of coaching. So you can’t say “best coach overall”. We all know that’s Cael right now. If you want to make the claim that he’s best at developing his own talent, now that’s a feasible claim that you can use to get the Penn State fan going. You’re welcome.

Hidlay was awesome! I listened to him and Sparks on Matcast the entire tournament except for the finals and I really enjoyed it. I missed them after listening to the ESPN crew lol. Did anyone watch the finals on ESPN+? How was it? Do you miss out on the post match interviews? I may have to watch that next year

I have an idea for that… what about if it’s 0-0 after two minutes, the ref has to put someone on a 30 second shot clock and if they don’t score, their opponent gets a point.

He beat Geno, Geno just won the Olympics. There is definitely reason to believe he is the best freestyle wrestler in the world right now. Whether or not he would prove that, we don’t know. But to say he “is certainly NOT”, would be a terrible take.

And you are two takedowns away from winning… just like you would be if you had given up two takedowns when they were 2 points. There’s no difference

I don’t buy it. You’re down one takedown either way. I don’t see an increase in cautious wrestling because of the rule change. This has been a gradual increase because guys are so darn good at counter offense. This. The stalling part is an unintended consequence for sure, but I don’t think there’s anything to suggest there are fewer TD attempts. I think the 3 pt takedown gives you a better indicator of the more dominant wrestler, but is it worth the trade off of more stalling with a 3 pt lead? Not sure.

I swear wrestling fans will complain about anything. Who gives a sh!t… we are all going to watch them all anyway! They can start the broadcast hyping Starocci’s attempt at 5x and then end with the biggest name in the sport. Makes sense to me, but I could care less what order they are in. It’s all about catering to the casual fan at this point.

8 guys in the top 3 is just ridiculous!! AND we all know Kerk would have very likely taken third even with a bum knee if he chose to wrestle. They have a great chance to set the points record too. Best team ever without a doubt now!

Name a team where all 10 starters were better

I know there’s a lot of talk about how this Penn State team supposedly under performed, but I honestly believe they proved they are the best TEAM ever. All 10 wrestlers in the top 6 in the country has never been done before, and it is truly an insane accomplishment! We all know tournament scoring favors a top heavy performance (ex. 5 champs and 5 0-2 could win the tournament). IMO that’s not the best way to measure a total team. I’ve always been impressed by Minnesota’s 10 AAs (they had no finalists and two guys get 8th). Penn State has already topped that with all guys top 6 and 3 finalists. Regardless of what happens today, we have never seen a team like this before!

Kudos to you for unwavering commitment to your schtick! No matter how irrational it is, you find a way to keep it going. LL, Davis, and Kasak all pick up wins in the consis to guarantee all 10 wrestlers in the top six, but I love that you continue to troll PSU fans by somehow finding something negative in that

Semifinalists should’ve already been given the points for 6th place (6), so it would be 6pts plus one advancement plus any bonus

For sure. Haven’t heard the “Perry pick” before, but I’ll take anything over the coffee grinder lol

And the other guy had his leg… should’ve been no control and a neutral danger count IMO. I’ll have to go back and watch it again to be sure though

I don’t think that was a takedown for Robinson

Wow! That was the move of the tournament from Peterson! So awesome I had to go back and watch it again. Don’t think I have ever seen someone roll through the opposite way from a navy to get the cradle! That was slick!

Should’ve known… Flo always finds a way to mess up big events. And yet I still pay every year…

We should’ve had Flo cover the tournament! I kid, I kid. It’s very frustrating but overall throughout the years, ESPNs coverage of this tournament has been far better than anything else we have ever had in the wrestling world

The why was David Taylor. DT never revealed his injury to his teammate until it was too late so we were left with Downey as our rep. I think that’s what he means by wasn’t given a fair shake