BAC

My criticism of tOSU's talent development is largely the same as I have of Iowa: (1) it's only hiring it's own alumni as coaches, and (2) it's allowed its RTC to lag. Regarding the first point, you have either Tom Ryan, or guys who've gotten their college wrestling education from Tom Ryan (e.g. Jaggers, Stieber, Jordan). I'm sure they're good coaches individually, but taken together, it's too much overlap, resulting in a one-size-fits-all approach that works for some but won't work for others. Way too many high-end recruits have been stuck in neutral for this not to be true. Regarding the second point, the Ohio RTC consists of 4 guys, all 92kg or more (including 3 HWTs), and Moore is the only guy with a realistic shot at a U.S. world team. I think one of the biggest keys to success is getting beat up on by guys better than you, forcing you to reach their level to compete. The RTC isn't really helping with that. That said, I think you're underselling Davino, Shaw and Waters. Davino is already capable of AA'ing. Waters is hilariously underrated as a recruit, and absolutely has the potential to be a 4x AA and multi-time champ. Shaw has been good a long time but jumped a level the past year. I hope they get the coaching and practice partners they need at tOSU.

Echoing this, I think this is a bigger development for the NWLC than the PSU college team, but either way it's super cool. In freestyle, you have two legit world team prospects in Lilledahl and Blaze at 57kg and 61kg, but they're a bit thin on practice partners. McHenry graduates, Nagao has been hurt, and Davis doesn't seem to do much freestyle. Nick Lee is probably their best bet, but he's a bit big for them. Adding Ono to that round-robin will improve them immensely. In folk, as good as Ono is, I'm not convinced he can beat out Nagao, Davis or Blaze, at least near term. Maybe, but I'm not sure he's much of an upgrade, given his weakness on top/bottom. Maybe he can give Davis/Blaze a chance to redshirt, but I doubt the result is much better. One thing that helps Ono, though, is the 3 point takedown. With that, a single takedown is enough to win a match if he can avoid getting turned, even if he gives up the escape and a riding time point. Some of these other freestyle-only guys, like Gelogaev and Abdurakhmonov, struggled against the top folkstylers, but they were more likely to need 2 TDs to assure themselves a win.

So if a kid "grew" and "has acne", calling him a steroid user is a "fair accusation"? If the bar's really that low to get your name viciously dragged through the mud on social media, these D1 wrestlers who go up a weight class better take their Preparation H. So if a kid "grew" and "failed for long enough making the team", calling him a steroid user is a "good accusation"? I guess these international wrestlers who bump up a weight class better hope they never make the team, or they too will get brutally defamed on social media and it will be "good." Here's a crazy thought. What if we just let the drug testers do their job and respect the results?

I've yet to hear a decent explanation as to why the free COVID year was 2021 and not 2020. What on earth was the reasoning behind giving 3 years of eligibility to the class that had their national championship cancelled, but 5 years to the class whose championship wasn't cancelled?

The baseless accusations on this thread are pretty despicable. The NCAA regularly tests for PEDs. Current policy here: https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/ssi/substance/SSI_DrugTestingManual.pdf

The thought has crossed my mind. Wouldn't be the first time Iowa ruined a kid by throwing him out there when they should've let him heal up. I'm just not if the facts bear that out here. Parco legit hurt his knee last match. I don't think we can pin that on Iowa. Teemer... not sure. Sounds like he's had hamstring and shoulder issues all year. Iowa sat him some, but would he have performed better yesterday if given more time to heal? Did Brands wrestle him too much, too eager to get bang for their NIL buck, so the donors aren't crabby? Maybe. I'll confess to this: I'm happy to see two guys that Iowa ran out of town -- Chittum (excited due to Ferrari transfer) and Siebricht (exited due to Parco/Teemer transfer) -- still alive at 157, scoring points, while Iowa had none. Nothing against Teemer, who I like, but I always like to see schools punished when they run a loyal homegrown recruit out of town -- and I like to see the aggrieved make good. Will be cheering for Glazier for the same reason, and also Beard/Barraclaugh (though those were less egregious).

Usually I'm happy to dance on Iowa's grave but I can't quite bring myself to do it. I just feel for Teemer and Parco. I have no idea what the full story is but they just seem so physically beat up right now. Definitely not themselves, and I can't find anything to dislike about either guy. Take away those two guys, and Iowa's performing about as it's seeded.

It's hard to argue against this, though he was before my time. Probably the best counter is Smith himself, who really revolutionized leg attacks his low single and how he integrated it with his hi-c. Other guys who come to mind when I think of wrestlers who excelled mostly by virtue of technique, as opposed to athleticism (though everyone we're talking about here excelled in both), are Taylor and Cael. Zeke is also a popular answer to this question (won FILA's "most technical" award one year).

I think this is right, though from what I could hear from the audio, it seemed like Ryan wanted 2 different sets of 2, not 4 from a four-count. But I may be wrong. In any case, I'm guessing the refs upstairs saw two different 1.5 counts. I thought the original 2 was justified (and didn't expect the refs upstairs to wipe them off), but I also thought the brick was incredibly stupid, as Cannon had a late-match 3 point lead and was in better shape. Ryan screwed over his wrestler on that basis alone.

Thought about these threads when I watched the Cannon/Fish match. If you haven't seen the feed, Ryan threw another fit. In fairness, I sort of get it. Cannon got a reversal, and then 2 backs. Ryan apparently thought there were two sets of backs (4 total), and threw a brick. The ref's back was blocking the view, but from what I could see, it looked like a stupid brick -- especially since Cannon was on a roll. Well, the refs in the booth upstairs went the other way, and *took away* the two backs that had already given. (I thought there was a 2-count.) Ryan freaked out, and the refs just sort of stared at him as he yelled, as if to say "dude, it wasn't my call, it was the guys upstairs." Finally Ryan starts demanding to know the names of the refs upstairs (I guess so he could find their address and egg their house?), and won't shut up. Fish got a nice toss in OT to win, so Ryan throws *another* brick, but only to whine about what happened 5 minutes before, how it's the worst officiated match he's ever seen, etc. Stieber's trying to tell the ref to please give them their brick back since Ryan's just being a wack-job. Anyway, another bad look for Ryan. His ill-considered brick cost Cannon the match, both by losing him 2 points and letting the lesser-conditioned Fish recharge for OT, and while perhaps his yammering was justified when the swipes were retracted, he just. wouldn't. let. it. go.

I'm all for calling stalling, but that was overkill. By a lot. Yes, he was backing up, but it was pretty mild. He also got shoved out of bounds some of the times he was called for backing out. Truth is, most refs would've only called him once during this whole sequence, which honestly wasn't that unusual for a heavyweight match where one guy is more powerful than the other. A good ref would've dinged him at twice, *maybe* a third time. But this guy? He dinged him 3 times in the first 40 seconds, and then twice more over the next 1:30. There's a reason the crowd was booing. It felt like the ref took the match away from us.

Thx for info! Good luck to him.

Maybe this was discussed elsewhere, but anyone know what the story is (if not too private)? Didn't weigh in today, and supposedly not using his last year of eligibility. Goodale predicted it would happen and claims its an "incredible story" but then sort of leaves us hanging. Tough way to end for a guy who took 4th as a true freshman, but it sounds like there's a lot going on here.

You owe me a beer Chromebird!

Thanks for update! Just curious, why does Gaitan have 3 points? (I thought he got a major, not a pin.)