BAC

Here's a more recent interview if you haven't seen it. If by "next chapters" you mean he got married, I dunno. He does make some comments about making her his priority, but at the same time he seems pretty dialed in and also says he'll continue competing in freestyle after he graduates. Seems like a good kid.

Love him or hate him, I personally appreciated the "Aw did the widdle wussian wakey from his nappy?" gesture.

That's a good find. Right on point. This was a really bad call by the ref.

Gotcha. Yeah, before the freestyle match I'd have given KOT the edge, but after their last match I'd the slight edge to Haines since, freestyle or not, it was two TDs to none. Simplistic, yes, but I don't think unreasonable.

I'm not sure why you characterize seeing this as a 50-50 match means "KOT is not getting enough respect." Heck you yourself say you "would argue that Keegan goes into the matchup a very slight favorite." So giving 55-45 to O'Toole is being respectful, giving 50-50 odds isn't? I think there's room for differences of opinion here without being disrespectful to either wrestler. Both have won national titles, neither placed worse than third, both average 1 loss a year. Haines beat him in freestyle 6-0 a few months ago, but I don't think anyone would be surprised if O'Toole reversed that result. Put me in the camp of slightly favoring Haines.

Waters won by injury default. Not sure why the brackets show it as a pin. It may well have been a tech absent the injury, as Waters was up big. Regardless, even if someone else (Alton?) pinned their way through, I'm personally more impressed by a guy who can tech his way through the competition -- especially when the closest (longest) match is one that went just 23 seconds into the second period. The other crazy thing is that most of these points are coming from takedowns. Looking at those short times, you'd think it's a Spencer Lee type match where he takes the guy down and racks up a bunch of back points in a series of tilts. But you'd be wrong. It's almost all takedowns. No doubt the 3 point takedown played a big role in letting him rack up the techs so quickly, but man, he is FAST. I think it was his semi match that I counted 3 takedowns before 15 ticks were off the clock. Not trying to oversell him. Against top competition, he ekes out wins just like everyone else (e.g. Valencia, Zepeda, etc). But if his opponent is a level below him, it's just a whole different ballgame. I don't think I've ever seen anyone who can rack up so many TDs so quickly. It's something to behold.

Not to get all fanboy about Bassett, but ... has anyone ever had a more dominant run at Ironman than Bassett's run this past weekend? He won every match by tech, including in the finals in 2:23 -- which was the LONGEST of all his technical falls. I mean... c'mon. That's insane.

I think that's spot on. It's also the first time wrestling fans got to see PSU's full A-team lineup in action. It's a scary sight.

Same. I figured Beard would win, with the odds of a Barr upset about the same as Beard putting up bonus. I didn't have Barr winning by bonus on the radar. Per Wrestlstat, that's only the third time in 7 years of NCAA competition anyone's put up bonus on Beard, the other two being majors by Buchanan and Hidlay. If that's any indication, Barr is going to be a load.

Fun fact: Levi Haines' two state finals losses (he went 2-2-1 in his 3 trips) were to Lehigh's 125 and 133 lbers.

Ty Whalen is, to me, one of the more interesting stories at 149 lbs this year. You never hear him get mentioned in the title conversation, and rarely even as a potential AA. And in some ways that makes sense, as he's never qualified for NCAAs, going 15-13 in his last (and only) full year (2022-23). But since then, he went undefeated last year while unrostered (10-0), and is undefeated this year (9-0). His schedule's been pretty light this year, with his best wins probably being Griffin and Buesgens, but last year he won Midlands, including wins over Parco (4x AA) and Watters (4th last year), each of whom could only score a point on him. That notwithstanding, Whalen is ranked way below Parco/Watters. Maybe that's defensible given Whalen's limited body of work, but it sure seems like people are sleeping on Whalen. I think he has Parco again on Friday, no? I haven't seen enough of his matches to judge. How good is he, really? Is the kid a title contender?

Agreed. Gable aside, they seem to have a bunch of guys who are under-ranked. Will be interesting to see how they develop this year.

Looking past how? I'm pretty sure this thread is titled "Iowa's Lineup." I'm guessing you haven't seen my posts about Dean/Beard or the rumors about Keckeisen. There's a reason I've rooted for Beard ever since. But even Dean/Beard pales in comparison to, say, Glazier/Buchanan. It was pre-NIL (so no $), Dean wasn't "stolen away" (he was already looking to move), and the extent of PSU's role in Dean's decision was never verified. But Glazier was a 6th year senior, a loyal Hawk with black and gold in his veins, who was poised to make a high-AA run after a 20-4 season, who was unceremoniously run out of Iowa City after Iowa sicced their donors on the #1 guy who wasn't even looking to transfer. And that's without even getting into the 7 combined AA finishes of Parco/Teemer, two guys who also weren't looking to take their last year of eligibility at anywhere but ASU until some Mr.-Monopoly-Looking donor dude from Iowa showed up with bags of cash in his hands. Barf. Honestly, if Iowa was my team, I wouldn't even be able to cheer for their wins. Yes, the portal and NIL is the new normal. But poaching guys not in the portal isn't normal and need not be, and spitting on the loyalty of home-grown high-achievers isn't normal and need not be. Fact is, on these latter tactics, Iowa is a league of its own. You can say "everyone's doing it" but that just isn't true. When it comes to hunting down their rivals' top guys who are NOT in the portal, and using donors' money to yank them away, without the slightest semblance of loyalty to longtime high achievers already in their stable, Iowa's at the top of the mountain, and no one else is close. It's truly something to behold.

I'm anti-poaching of guys who weren't looking to transfer, and I'm anti recruiting-over of homegrown guys who put in the time and achieved a high degree of success. I have been, and will continue to be, vocally critical of any and every coach/program that does that. The fact that these abhorrent practices happen to overlap with my general dislike of Iowa is mere fortuity.

What's wrong with that? It sounds like you're asking WKN to goose the numbers with in a way that somehow helps Lee so that his ranking matches your perceptions. That's sort of the opposite of a data driven approach. Who do you think he should be ranked higher than, and why?

I dunno, I thought ISU was doing pretty good with making their case to guys after they enter the portal, like Bockman, Carroll, Echemendia. But they're totally getting outclassed by Iowa in the pre-portal poaching of other schools' multi-time AAs, enlisting donors to use massive NIL bribes to lure away rivals' top guys who weren't planning to transfer. I think Dresser knows he needs to step it up on that front, and I think we can all agree that Iowa/Brands really leads the way on that.

If by "outcoached" you're including the coaching done by prior coaches of Iowa's expensive free agent transfers, then I can probably agree with you. If it's homegrown v homegrown, I have it 15-11 ISU from the last dual, so I'll give the edge to Dresser over Brands in coaching. If it's donors v. donors, I'll agree it's Iowa in a landslide.

I don't know the full story but want to know. What I do know is that Steller Trained isn't just the 10-12 kids that the documentary makes it seem like. If you follow youth wrestling, you see its an army of hundreds. Many are walk-ins but its huge. It's like it sprouted out of nowhere, and they're incredibly loyal to Chance. It wouldn't shock me if the project was borne from some sort of court-ordered community service, but to my eyes, what he's accomplished in youth wrestling in such a short amount of time is a big story all by itself. And you have all these parents who, despite his backstory, entrust their kids to him. I don't want to be overly critical of the Flo crew, who probably had to do a lot of editing as it is just to bring it down to 2 hours. But for me personally, before seeing the film, one the most enduring aspects of Chance's story is how he went from being down-and-out to being this mega-star at WTTs with a bigger youth fan base than... well, anyone. They touch on it, and they're shown at the end of the film, but without ever really explaining or asking Chance how they got there, what Steller Trained is, or what role it plays in his story.

You have to respect that Dresser calls it as it is. He was right to call Brands an "orange" a few years back, just as he's right to make this observation, and giving the "donor base" equal billing to Brands. You can call it sour grapes, but I don't think Dresser is denying he'd do it too if he had those sorts of moneyed backers. You can call it passive-aggressive, but the reality is that Iowa didn't out-recruit or out-coach ISU: they outspent them. Dresser didn't take it that far, but he's right to add a shout-out to the donors who did, in fact, make this win possible.

IMO, it's not a about winning the dual, it's about locking down the loyalty of your blue-chips and giving the fans what they want, while not jeopardizing the dual's outcome. I don't see any different than them sticking Arnold in the same dual last year. It's a recognition that the fans love to see the new big-time recruits, and that in today's poaching world, you'd better built some team loyalty among your big-time true freshman to guard against a rival dangling an enticing NIL deal in front of them. The 5-free-competitions rule (which I love) makes this all possible. I don't think it says Ferrari's beating Arnold in the room, only that he's sufficiently within reaching distance that it a meaningful drop-off either way, and therefore is not likely to be the determinative factor in the dual's result.

After watching it, I couldn't help but wonder if some of the most compelling content was on the cutting room floor. You could tell Chance and his brother wanted to be very careful about what they said about their upbringing, and I also had the sense that Flo was being careful to not air anything that might be overly critical of, and alienate, someone (a coach, a program, a wrestler) to whom Flo needs access. It's probably a very tricky part of Flo's job.

I enjoyed watching it. Flo stepped up their game on this one. The camera work was very good, nice drone work, and it's a solid mix between wrestling action and interviews. They way they handled the 2023 WTTs was really effective too, especially toward the end. My only real critique is they could/should have done more to talk about his Steller Trained coaching work, including how that came about, its significance to him, how it got so big. They show his crew swarming him at 2023 WTTs but never touch on the backstory and what role, if any, they had in his getting and staying sober. Shoutout to his wife. We should all be lucky enough to have someone who sticks by their guy like that.

Have any of the refugees (Hamiti, Gomez, etc) made any comments about Wisconsin, or are they all keeping it close to the vest? Hard to see how anything changes unless one of the recent departures decides to speak up and state the issues they had with the program that led them to leave.

I'd be surprised if he's getting any money apart from a break on tuition. The kid just lost his starting spot to someone a little better than him, a 197lber who couldn't make 197 anymore. Trephan's a 6th year senior with one more year of eligibility, and is a legit AA contender. I highly doubt there's anyone at NC State who's upset about this. I think everyone gets it.

I feel like they could have given him a more compelling by-line. Like maybe "On a one-match winning streak" or, perhaps, "put up 5 points on Iowa's top-10-ranked Gabe Arnold."