Griff the BullRam

For sure. Not taking away his accomplishment, but he's not the first name that comes to mind in a group with Ed Ruth, J'Den Cox, Spencer Lee, Kyle Snyder, Jason Nolf, etc

3X NCAA Champ Jake Rosholt would like a word here

Casey Swiderski vs Shayne Van Ness

174 Ben Askren. I know he graduated almost 20 years ago and he's a hero in many many ways today, but the just LOVED stirring it up. He wore a suit and carried a briefcase that said "I mean business" written in duct tape at a hs tournament simply because the online forums at the time said he wasn't taking wrestling seriously enough. He grew his hair out because people hated it. If you read his book, you know he would talk trash at weigh in lines just to mess with his opponent. And as we all know now, the guy just genuinely loves wrestling

Micic didn't wrestle every single year, but he had 8 years. Wrestled at the 2022 NCAAs, and was a redshirt at Northwestern 2014-15 season. Not sure Tanner Hall did 7 years, but pretty sure he did a mission trip right out of high school

The new Purdue AD just publicly announced that he's a bozo yesterday when he said "We are here to win championships. If you don't want to win championships, go to Indiana"

Yianni did lose to Gomez his senior year. Still, only 2 losses in his college career, both to NCAA finalists known for being funky, wild, unconventional, etc

I'm not sure who that was, some guy affiliated with Northwest, but no, it wasn't Mark Bader

Were the "experts" the ones selling the 2 piece, or at least had a financial interest in them? I've been coaching high school for about 15 years now, been at 2 different school that each have the 2 piece, and they are seldomly used, even among freshmen and other first year wrestlers. I used to be in the crowd that pushed for the 2 piece, but for whatever reason, they just haven't caught on. Even some of the powerhouse teams were wearing them at state when first allowed, but they just haven't become as popular as I thought they would.

Pyles tweeted out "Ohio State didn't pursue Anthony beyond a preliminary conversation. The NIL ask/competition made it basically a non-starter for the Bucks"

Way too many words here

Agreed. I've been coaching high school for 14 years. Since the two piece was allowed, we've given every kid on our team the option of choosing that over the singlet. Some of the newer wrestlers would choose the two piece, but the experienced kids almost always chose the singlet. Sure, some of it is that the two piece is new and the guys with experience just couldn't get on board with that. The first year at our state tournament, some of the better teams who qualified most of the kids would have everyone wear the two piece, and there were a fair amount of other individual kids wearing the two piece. Since then, you don't see it a whole lot. I'm all for the it if it's really going to grow wrestling and get kids out that otherwise wouldn't, but at this point, it almost seems like a failed experiment. It's still great that kids have that option, and I applaud Flo for doing the two piece at WNO, but it simply hasn't caught on, and I don't think it's for a lack of trying. All this said, I still love it when D1 schools wear the two piece

Norman had O'Toole on the ropes in the round of 16 at NCAAs. Keegan had to get two third period takedowns to beat him. No doubt the guy has the skill and talent, and he was injured during this? Damn, he's freaking tough

I remember years ago, when Helen was dealing with her head injuries, someone from the media asked her something along the lines of if she was hanging it up, after she lost first round at Worlds. Social media went CRAZY, saying how disrespectful it was, you can't ask her that, etc. Going back to the original thread topic of "wrestling needs real journalists", they got crucified when they asked one of the toughest questions you could, and now, it seems the tide has turned that they aren't pressing hard enough on Snyder. I realize these are different situations, but if we want "real journalists", shouldn't we want them to ask the tough question, regardless of the situation?

Nestor Taffur. RIP Boston University wrestling