BAC

Personally I just don't think its about "Iowa Style" or non-Iowa Style, its that they just don't have the right coaching staff to elevate their guys to the highest level. Brands is an effective coach, no doubt, but he's just one guy, with a very specific stylistic approach and knowledge base. The problem is that he hasn't surrounded himself with enough complementary ideas and perspectives to compete effectively against top programs with more dynamic and varied coaching staffs. I don't think having 2 Brands brothers is much better than just one. They are pretty much clones of each other, and neither brings something to the table that the other doesn't already bring. After that you have Morningstar and Telford, but they're both Brands wrestlers/disciples, and neither was known for their on-the-mat creativity or diversity in technique, so its hard to see how they broaden the coaching staff's knowledge base. Same with Dennis, the HWC coach. To be sure, one good thing the Hawks have done in the last couple years is revive the moribund HWC, which now has several former AAs. But even there, its all just former Brands wrestlers. It is, in short, all Brands. All Brands, all the time. The net result is that if you're a new Hawk recruit, the teaching and technique you get is going to be largely limited to what's in Brands' head. The potential solutions to challenges you face will be largely limited to Brands' preferences. If the Brands don't know something or aren't good at something or don't care for a solution or approach that others like very much, you probably won't learn it. That's just extraordinarily limiting. They've effectively walled themselves off from the rest of the universe of coaching perspectives. There are SO many schools of thought out there, so many ideas and techniques, but they just aren't penetrating the Iowa/Brands bubble unless the recruit already knew it when he got there. Call it Iowa bashing if you want, but I don't think I am, as I think this is pretty much factual and hard to refute. Just look at all the examples of PSU guys losing to Hawks, only to get coached up to flip the series in their favor: RBY-DeSanto, Cass-Kerk, Kemmerer-Starocci, Rathjen-Kasak, and so on. There's almost no examples going the other way. There's examples of Iowa improvement, but then they hit the "Brands ceiling" -- the limits of what Brands knows or can solve -- and others pass them by. That's why there are so few if any recent Hawks who pierced the highest levels who weren't already sui generis when they arrived. It will stay this way until they either get rid of Brands, or Brands gets over himself long enough to bring other coaching perspectives into the fold. I don't see either happening anytime soon, nor do I see any Iowa fans raising any of these concerns, so don't expect anything to change.

Just chiming in to say that Coach Borrelli is one heck of a coach. There's always a couple programs that seem to have no business being discussed in the same paragraph as the PSUs, Iowas and Oklahoma States of the world, yet there they are, as they do so much with so little -- consistently taking mid-grade recruits and turning them into AAs. Little Rock is today's darling, but I'm thinking Northern Iowa under Schwab, or Edinboro under Flynn, or maybe American under Cody. Teams inexplicably in trophy contention, or at least top 10, by force of coaching. That's CMU. Yes, they've lost some of their sheen over the last few years, but how many teams have been so good for so long, while working with so little, as Borrelli's teams the past 30 years? Not many.

They're sure sticking by it. A little weird the school district let them do that.

Mirasola at 197? I figured Steven Little would be there after transferring in from Little Rock.

JB is great. DC is a train wreck. Totally unprepared to talk about the wrestlers, uneducated on the rules, lots of uninformed takes, and overall treating NCAA as little more than an MMA springboard rather than an end in itself. Hard pass.

Three 4th place finishes in a row. Right on schedule, he's in the consy semis. Can he make it 4 for 4 4th? Its a tough path. He'd have to beat Munoz, who handled him earlier this year. Then he'd have to lose to Berge/Salazar, which would really require him pumping the breaks since he'd be red-hot by then. But I think he can do it.

I'm still salty that Carr got a 4 seed. It should've been Mesenbrink and Carr meeting in the bottom half, with the winner getting Keegan in the finals. Or even Mesenbrink as the 4 seed, going thru Keegan, with Ramirez/Carr in the bottom bracket. Though I'm rooting for Mesenbrink, everyone knows Carr and Keegan are the class of this weight, and I'd have preferred Mesenbrink have to go through one of them to earn the right to deprive us of a Carr/Keegan final.

How weird is it that on the ESPN broadcast, they keep talking about how Brooks is going for 4, but they almost *never* mention that Starocci is too? They even keep putting up this graphic about Brooks's quest for 4, but not Carter. So yeah, I'd give OW to Carter if he wins. He's matches have been pretty boring, but he's at 75% at best and still took out 2 former champs.

I like DC but he has no business commentating these matches.

That's one of my favorite wrestling moments. Maybe a touch embarrassing for her at the time, but come on -- that's what being a wrestling mom IS all about. The vast majority would crumple up their glasses in a tiny ball if their kid lost a big match. Mrs. Lee should wear that moment like a badge of honor.

Boom, agree 100%. Best thing you ever wrote, Jimmy. He reminds me of the guy you bring to their first wrestling match who never wrestled before, who ends up LOVING it and getting REALLY into it, and now he won't shut up about it, which is both amusing and awesome at the same time. Yes, his understanding of what's going on may be a bit off at times, but his passion is absolutely genuine and totally infectious. And there's no denying he does his homework, EVERY time. The sport is lucky to have some really top-shelf broadcasters right now, and he's one of them. And when you're trying to join the sport, he brings an authenticity and relatability that no one really can match.

Cael vs. Manning. I've always liked Manning, but he really did Cael dirty with his tweet that Cael/PSU intentionally lied about Suriano being a possibility for NCAAs. I get that Manning is butthurt about Bubba not getting his at-large bid, but c'mon, Starocci knocked off Mekhi and is in the semis, but Manning still hasn't deleted his "gamesmanship" tweet. Put that man in the octagon with Cael.

Maybe his parents are on this year's seeding committee?

I kinda feel for USAW. You have to think they were clear that they wanted a commitment, not someone who was going to leave the job only 6 months in. I can't criticize Esposito since I don't know the full story, but I hope it was more than "something better came along," since it stinks to have this happen while an Olympic cycle is reaching its peak. Maybe USAW can snag one of the guys who leaves his shoes on the mat at Trials in April?

I think you're misapplying the subjective criteria. The number of injury defaults/MFFs is a favorable criteria, not unfavorable, as it reflects that a loss was not on the merits. And here it negates the "not a conference champ" criteria, and also impacts the "last five match" criteria, as the two Ls were defaults. He's undefeated in matches without an injury default. Taken together, that's an upward adjustment. Same with the other criteria. He's not outside the top 30 in Coaches Rank: he's #2 in the final rankings, behind Lewis. No bad losses, numerous quality wins. And wrestler "availability" doesn't mean to speculate or scour Twitter feeds for rumors: it means if the coach says he's expected to compete, as here, then he's available, without downward adjustment. How can anyone apply this criteria and not seed Starocci over guys like Wolak, Welsh and Kemp? Again, you're saying Cael shoulda done this or that, but no one at Penn State cares. He ran the table three times in a row and he's going to do it again. Its everyone else. Bottom line -- if the seeding committee didn't exercise their maximum subjective discretion to elevate Starocci's seed, then they screwed up big-time. Because as it stands, the #1 and #2 guys in the final Coache's Ranking are going to meet in the quarterfinals, and that's a seeding felony.

You still don't get it. It isn't Starocci's "cause." If it was up to Starocci, he'd be in the pigtail, and wrestle everyone in the bracket. Its a cause of everyone else in the bracket. Guys who worked hard for their seed, which is supposed to come with the right to not have to face Starocci right away. THAT is who the seeding committee needs to look out for. And you know full well it isn't solely a mathematical formula. The formula sets a baseline, after which there is subjectivity to argue someone up or down if he's within a few points of other guys.

This was exactly my feeling when I saw the brackets. They're so concerned about adequately punishing Starocci and putting high conference finishers above him, all in the name of fairness -- but how fair is that to a guy like Lewis, who busted his butt this season to earn a top seed? His reward is Starocci in the quarters. I mean, does anyone seriously think Carter cares where he's seeded? I'm not saying you make Starocci the 1 seed, but I think they took it took far. Sure, put him behind the B10 and ACC and B12 champs, those guys are legit and didn't face Starocci. Behind Griffith too, if only because Griffith showed up at the PSU dual and Carter didn't. But after that it all sort of falls apart. Most of these guys seeded ahead of Starocci I had to Google to figure out who they were. I think 5 is right but at least give Carter the 6 seed (not Welsh, who Carter beat), so he's opposite the Big 10 champ Ruth in the quarters, and the true King of the B1G can move to the semis.

Switch the position of "case" and "mind" and I'd agree with you.

I don't really disagree. As I see it, and I'm wildly oversimplifying here, Crookham can deal with Vito's lightning-fast attacks but Fix can't. Crookham does well against Vito because of his insanely quick reaction time to Vito's insanely quick attacks. I don't think that will come into play so much when Crookham wrestles Fix, who frankly doesn't attack much against top competition and is more of a counter-wrestler himself. And although Crookham is fast, he hasn't developed that into the sort of offensive arsenal that Vito has, so I expect him to struggle to score. In a Crookham-Fix match, I'd expect a low scoring, OT-type affair, where Crookham is a bit faster but Fix has the edge in experience and, perhaps, strength and gas tank. And if it happens right after Crookham has to deal with Vito, I'd give the edge to Fix.

Looks like Taylor's a finalist. Vote here: https://aausullivan.secure-platform.com/94th/gallery?roundId=6 The fan favorite is sure to be Cailtlin Clark, but I'm surprised she's even eligible after winning last year. I don't think there's ever been a 2x winner and think it is better that way.

Did anyone else notice that Brooks' walk-out music at B1G finals was ACDC's Hells Bells? I LOL'ed. Makes me wonder if Brooks has been trolling us for years, and is going to bust out PSU's seldom-seen "black pentagram" singlet at NCAA finals.

Can't think of another weight where seeding is so consequential. I think Fix is a bad stylistic matchup for Crookham, so I'd consider Crookham the favorite if he is top seed (Vito takes Fix out in bottom bracket), but Fix the favorite if he's top seed (Crookham takes out Vito in bottom bracket).

For comparison, here's an article talking about Jordan Oliver's draw at this tournament to qualify the US at 65kg in 2021. https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/7022343-breaking-down-jordan-olivers-insane-last-chance-draw

NCAA ringers? At 57kg, I like Darian Cruz a lot and I'm happy he's an Olympian. But in freestyle, he's not a ringer. He really doesn't have any international accomplishments of note. He's never come close to making a US team, and for PR, he's never come close to medaling at Worlds. RBY was a legit obstacle, but he was on the opposite bracket. At 65kg, I like Austin Gomez a lot. But in senior-level freestyle, he's no ringer either. Dangerous, but erratic, and has never been medal threat (tho maybe he is now). I wouldn't call Lachlan McNeil a ringer. The Cuban has medaled, but not recently, and he's pushing 40. The Argentinean is a tough out too, but never close to medaling. Nick Lee was definitely the favorite here, as was Zane at 57kg (or at least co-favorite with RBY). There's a reason these NCAA guys aren't pushing for a spot on the US team: they know its a longshot. (Well, maybe not RBY.) At Last Chance, there is *always* a bunch of medalists from other countries. And it tends to be a much bigger bracket too. Its nasty. We won't know until all the qualifiers are done, but Jon Kozak tweeted the other day that at 65kg, Tulga Tumur-Ochir, Haji Aliyev, Islam Dudaev, Bajrang Punia and Kotaro Kiyooka hadn't qualified. I'm not sure if the US has *ever* pushed someone through at this tournament. It's hard to overstate how heartbreaking the Pan Am result was.

Folding in international accomplishments, Kurt Angle deserves mention. 2x NCAA champ, world champ, Olympic champ. I might still pick Kolat as the overall guy, both because of his college and (especially) high school dominance, and because he was jobbed so many times internationally that his 1x bronze/1x silver don't accurately reflect how good he really was.