JimmyCinnabon

You are correct, I did not read it before posting but I read through this thread. After reading the article it doesn't change anything about what I said. The crux of his complaint is that this type of thing goes back to how Suriano was handled, which has been disputed by more than one PSU wrestler who was on the team at the time. This seems like nothing more than Manning really advocating for one of his wrestlers, which is fine for him to do and two it just comes off as sour grapes that his 16-12 guy who placed 9th at the B1G tournament didn't get an at-large. The idea that you seed a guy based on how healthy he is, is absurd. Where is the line here? Does every coach bring in a medical report about each of their wrestlers so it can be included in the seeding? If a guy needs to wear a knee brace or a shoulder brace are they to be seeded lower? You can go back throughout the tournament history and look at guys and say, "they were not even close to 100%" and then start leveling gamemanship accusations at coaches because they didn't walk into the seeding room and tell everyone their guy is hurt and to seed him lower than they normally would. That's just insane, which is 100% what Manning is claiming should happen in that article. Where is Manning's criticism of Tom Brands for not walking into the NCAA seeding room and telling everyone Spencer Lee doesn't have any ACLs so they need to seed him accordingly over the years? Did Tom Brands walk into the seeding room and tell everyone Michael Kemerer barely has two working shoulders and to dump his seed? What about Jayden Eierman two years ago? Of course not because that's insane but it's what Manning would like. When has Manning ever walked into a seeding room and told them to dump the seed of a guy on his team because he's not 100%? Never.

Any NFL head coach can use his players as he sees fit. He can play them one game or seventeen. That's how it works.

Or, and this might sound crazy, the reason that Cael isn't held accountable for these shenanigans that people seem to believe are occurring is that shenanigans aren't happening and there isn't anything to hold him accountable for. Either Cael is getting away with all kinds of shenanigans and nobody is willing to do anything about it (why wouldn't people do something about it)? Or the simple answer in that Cael isn't some devious mastermind of shenanigans that people seem to think he is. And by the way, former PSU wrestler Matt McCutcheon responded to Manning's accusations about Suriano and said Nick was truly making every attempt to wrestle in that NCAA tournament, up to and including the night before the tournament.

The problem is that after he won his third title he said, "excuses are for wussies." And now he is excusing why he didn't win four titles and why he didn't have an Olympic run (other guys who wrestled in college had Olympic runs while in college). I even think these are perfectly legitimate points. Maybe if COVID doesn't happen he would have been a 4xer (we will never know) and maybe that does lead to an Olympic run for him. It's a fair thing to say. It's just that he set the bar at, "excuses are for wussies" a year before he didn't win his fourth title and here we are with him giving us what sounds exactly like excuses. It's really easy to say things like that when you win. If he had never said what he said I think people would look at it differently. These criticisms are of his own making.

Referencing Retherford and Nick Lee are two perfect examples. Nick Lee's first couple of years he was a horrible scrambler. He consistently turned the wrong way in scrambles that should have been TDs and he ended up giving up a takedown. I thought that Nick might never learn how to scramble but he actually did and became a pretty good scrambler with what seemed like a lot of practice because he just was not a natural at it. And Zain wasn't really either. He was probably better than Nick off the bat but Zain is not an overly athletic guy, either. He is just so strong and technically sound like Nick Lee that it makes up for their lack of pure athleticism at this level just like MM. Mesenbrink is still really young so I am hoping that he learns how to scramble better.

He isn't the number one guy, though. If he was the number one guy he would be seeded one. If they seed him 9 then he needs to be treated like the 9 seed. Otherwise they should have seeded him as the 1 seed. People on this very forum defend the decision of him being the 9 seed and if he wins they want to treat him like he's the 1 seed? That doesn't make any sense. He's a 9 seed so let's treat him like he's the 9 seed. If he is obviously still the #1 wrestler he would be the #1 seed.

I think where MM is vulnerable is that he isn't all that athletic. I know that sounds stupid with how good he is but I think his technique and motor are what makes him so good, not his athleticism. There were a few times this year when he looked downright goofy trying to defend an attack. There are just times when he looks really stiff when being defensive like I've never seen before where other guys would have easily countered for a takedown. He is just very technical with a wide variety of attacks coupled with a huge motor and insane chain wrestling. I think where he lacks is scrambling where athleticism is key and is why Hamiti was able to really dominate him until the MM motor was able to crush him.

When you combine this with being the 9 seed and an at-large I think if Carter wins it's a no brainer. He has to be OW.

I still think if the 9 seed wins they are the OW unless a lower seed wins it all this year. If Carter wins he has to be OW in this scenario.

The reality is that for most guys a good seed at the tournament can be the difference between being an AA or not. Or making the finals or not. For the elite guys it simply doesn't matter where they are seeded. The truly elite guys will win it all no matter who they wrestle and when. Guys like Fix aren't concerned with seeds anyway.

A lot of people on here were advocating for committee intervention at 165lbs the last few days. I wonder how many of those same people are arguing the opposite for 174lbs.

I guess we are playing these silly games. I’ll bet his two opponents take great pleasure in beating him too.

I had never even heard of him before he wrestled RBY in the B1G finals last year. He was certainly a guy who came late to the party and really made a name for himself at the very end of the season last year. I expected him to be better than he has been this year but I am certainly biased as a PSU fan and alumni. He would only be a disappointment if you had bloated expectations for him like I did. He still took 3rd at the B1G. However, Nagao does have some vulnerabilities. His neutral defense is not good. Guys can get to his legs easily and once that happens he isn't very good at defending it. He also doesn't finish cleanly on his shots. He relies on the low single/double at the ankles too much. He is very quick and gets to the ankles of guys easily from that quad position but it allows a guy a chance to scramble. Those who are good scramblers will often stalemate it or simply beat him in the scramble for a TD. I thought he would get better from the neutral position as the year went on but he is pretty much the same. I think he will AA again this year but the weight is pretty deep and him matching his placement from last year will be tough.

I had to read this like a half dozen times to even know WTF you were talking about. Maybe next time specify the team you're actually talking about in the post because this was frustrating.

It's Rumham.

You could just listen to Baschmania. It's a religious podcast that interviews wrestlers about their faith.

We absolutely do. Life on planet Earth evolved from our oceans over millions of years.

I haven't felt like a man since I got married.

You must've really pissed him off!

One man's spectacle is another man's wrestling interview, I guess.

You're out of your element, Donnie.

Some say that if you listen closely at the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex at night you can still hear the pitter patter of Nick's shoes drilling in the room.

I think your post underscores just how difficult it is to score 200 points. Literally everything would have to have gone right this year for PSU and it did not. Bartlett and Truax could have won titles and it woudn't have been enough without Starocci. Starocci could have been 100% healthy and without Bartlett and Truax winning titles it wouldn't have happened. You need a perfect storm to score 200 points these days.

If only they practiced this. The second part, the Bible specifically says to not proselytize in public, but rather to pray behind closed doors.

Tom & Terry are still elite college coaches. I'm not an Iowa fan but I think they'd be nuts to get rid of them. Finding coaches that are at their level isn't easy and if it was you'd see a lot more programs doing a lot better.