SocraTease

Penn State seems to be almost locked in to a four year rinse and repeat cycle since 2010-11: 4 championships in a row (starting 2010-11) Then "punt" (6th) 4 championships in a row (starting 2015-16) Then "punt" ... sort of (2nd) 3 championships in a row (starting 2021-22) .... and likely the 4th championship this season (2024-25) Year Record Conference Conf. champ # NCAAs/Pts AAs champs Season Record Conf. (Points) Conf. Champs NCAA (Points) AAs NCAA Champs 2023-2024 12-0-0 1st (170.5) 5 1st (172.5) 8 4 2022-2023 16-0-0 1st (147.0) 4 1st (137.5) 8 2 2021-2022 17-0-0 2nd (141.5) 4 1st (131.5) 6 5 2020-2021 6-0-0 2nd (124.0) 2 2nd (113.5) 6 4 2019-2020 12-2-0 4th (107.0) 2 Canceled () 0 0 2018-2019 14-0-0 1st (157.5) 4 1st (137.5) 7 3 2017-2018 14-0-0 2nd (148.0) 3 1st (141.5) 8 4 2016-2017 14-0-0 2nd (130.0) 2 1st (146.5) 6 5 2015-2016 16-0-0 1st (150.5) 3 1st (123.0) 6 2 2014-2015 11-4-0 5th (96.5) 1 6th (67.5) 5 1 2013-2014 15-1-0 1st (140.5) 2 1st (109.5) 7 2 2012-2013 13-1-0 1st (151.0) 4 1st (123.5) 5 2 2011-2012 13-1-0 1st (149.0) 3 1st (143.0) 6 3 2010-2011 17-1-1 1st (139.0) 5 1st (107.5) 5 1

I enjoy Bassett's high energy wrestling and he seems like a good kid, but this has got to be one of the most protracted "Advertisements for Myself" in sports history. He started off eliminating 7 schools each week and it was kind of fun. Then he went to 3 and it became more "ho hum". Now it is down to 1 each week with what (?) 17 still left. (Pitt Johnstown coaches are waiting with baited breath .... NOT.) What's next? Will he eliminate a letter or a vowel in the name of universities? Will he hide clues in locker room jock straps? Will he turn to Wordle or crossword puzzles with hints? Will there be prizes hidden in cereal boxes across the country? Will he use skywriting planes to announce and eliminate the penultimate university (scratch that: it might actually be interesting)? Will he surprise all of us and announce that he is skipping college to focus on freestyle or to take up Inter-gender wrestling a la Andy Kaufman? And will we have a final answer before Christmas in 2026? Stay tuned to "Bo Doesn't Know ... or Does He"?

Limit the number of times you can leg lace or gut someone to 2 in one sequence. That seems reasonable to me to prevent early ends of a match and keep things interesting.

Someone remarked in a post (to which the above comment was a response) that a state champion wrestler plays the lead, but I didn't see that in the article below and even if he is a state champ the question arises, which state? PA, Ohio, NJ, NY, or California (and a number of possible additions) -- that would be great. A few other states (I won't name them), perhaps not so amazing. https://www.thewrap.com/jharrel-jerome-unstoppable-transformation-wrestling/

Well, let's hope we get a Taylor-Sadulaev match at Worlds because if it doesn't happen now it will likely never happen since I sense this is Taylor's last dance ... although who knows?

Mirasola seemed to make some "dumb" (rookie) mistakes in mat strategy and time management at Junior Worlds that cost him matches for a medal.

Yea, he doesn't concede many points. He has really strong hips (like Cenzo). And he can suck a leg in while lying on his belly because he is country boy strong as hell.

Levi Haines takes out O'Toole 6-0. Two TDs, a pushout, and a passivity point. He gets David Carr in the third place match https://www.flowrestling.org/events/12791900-2024-world-team-trials/videos?playing=12839790

So .... we need to wait three hours now for Round 2 of the finals? (3 PM EST?) This event is too drawn out. They had all the semis for all the weights and styles on one single mat. I guess they need time to colonize our minds more slowly with commercials The Sirens' Call HOW ATTENTION BECAME THE WORLD'S MOST ENDANGERED RESOURCE By Chris Hayes ABOUT THE SIRENS’ CALL A powerful wide-angle reckoning with how the assault from attention capitalism on our minds and our hearts has reordered our politics and the very fabric of our society We all feel it—the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, “With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.” Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the nineteenth century: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated. The Sirens’ Call is the big-picture vision we urgently need to offer clarity and guidance. Because there is a breaking point. Sirens are designed to compel us, and now they are going off in our bedrooms and kitchens at all hours of the day and night, doing the bidding of vast empires, the most valuable companies in history, built on harvesting human attention. As Hayes writes, “Now our deepest neurological structures, human evolutionary inheritances, and social impulses are in a habitat designed to prey upon, to cultivate, distort, or destroy that which most fundamentally makes us human.” The Sirens’ Call is the big book we all need to snap everything into a single holistic framework so that we can wrest back control of our lives, our politics, and our future. SEE LESS

Including his dance to evade action when he gets a lead, which often lasts 1-2 minutes.

Fix v. Blaze on deck mat 2

Methinks there might be too many semifinal matches on one single mat. Let's get back to freestyle. And quick. The sun might burn out soon.

I'm not clear about the schedule (which FLO has posted below). Do they just wrestle the semifinals today at 5 PM (Central Time) for 70KG and 79KG (and then the best out of 3 finals tomorrow because no one is sitting out at these weights)? But wrestle the semifinals AND penultimate "finals" of 61KG and 92KG today and the best of 3 "real finals" tomorrow (because 2 guys at sitting out respectively at these weights)? All times are local Central time and will include all three styles Saturday, September 14 10:00 AM: Prelims, Quarterfinals and Consolations 5:00 PM: Semifinals and Consolations Sunday, September 15 10:00 AM: Consolations, Consolation Semifinals, 3rd Place and Round 1 (2 out of 3) Finals 2:00 PM: Round 2 (2 out of 3) Finals *Round 3 if necessary

"Game" not "gay"

Because only four (non-Olympic) weights are being contested

Nope. But he may have a first round bye in the round of 16 if everyone shows. Then the winner of the 8/9 match

Per Flo: According to USA Wrestling’s team selection criteria, as the 2023 World Champion at 86 kg, David Taylor will be the #1 seed in the 92 kg bracket at the World Team Trials. As a 2023 world medalist at 92 kg, Zahid Valencia will sit out to the best of 3 finals. That means David Taylor will have to win at least 3 matches to get to Valencia in Sunday’s finals. Pre-Seeds: David Taylor (Cowboy RTC/ TMWC) Trent Hidlay (Wolfpack WC/TMWC) Jonathan Aiello (Pennsylvania RTC/TMWC) Michael Macchiavello (LVWC/TMWC) Eric Schultz (Nebraska WTC) Aeoden Sinclair (Tiger Style WC) Patrick Downey (NYAC) Marcus Coleman (Cyclone RTC) Cameron Caffey (Michigan WC) Maximus Hale (Pennsylvania RTC) Nick Stemmet (Illinois) Zane Mulder (Burg Training Center) Luke Duthie (Pennsylvania) Eze Chukwuezi (Spartan Combat RTC) Aidan Brenot (Bison WC

I have to wonder what kind of shape DT is in. I'm glad he is competing, but it seems like a very late decision and he has probably laid off training since WTT in spring, where he did not look like his old self (gaining zero takedowns on Brooks). He's got to get by guys like Hidlay and Mirasola and Mach and Schulz first.

As a few others have noted, Bassett is indeed just milking social media and drawing out the process for attention or to up NIL money. FLO and other outlets are playing along with the game. So be it, I suppose. The wrestling world is in a pause mode and quiet lull for a while (until the college season starts) with the possible except of freestyle trials this coming weekend. I'm relatively certain that only a few schools have ever been in the running: Penn State, Iowa, and maybe Oklahoma State with long shots like Cornell or perhaps Princeton if he wants an Ivy league education and has the grades and scores to get in.

Maybe their new nickname should be "The Mercenaries" Mercenary -- noun a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army. "He had planned to seize power with the aid of a group of mercenaries"

Top notion guy in all respects. I just saw he is married to Whitney Condor (former world team member) and they have twin girls. Look out if those girls decide to wrestle down the road.

Maybe Belarus can put in their President (aka dictator) Lukashenko at 74KG and Russia can put in "Blackbelt" tyrant Putin at 57KG. And then the rest of semi-free world can beat the crap out of these two authoritarians. Oh, throw in Kim Jung Un for North Korea at 125KG.

Brooks is a faith-based rather than fact-based guy. That tells me to take what he says with a great grain of salt. He's too willing to tell himself (and others) a magical story about the world, and what he sees is no doubt colored heavily by what he seeks (and wishes to see). His stories are far too simple and simplistic to actually reflect a reality that is usually many shades of gray rather than stark black and white. I wonder what Brooks will say if he gets Yazdani or a Muslim from another country in the Olympic finals: my guess is that he might cast it as God's plan to do battle against heretics or something of the sort. NBC might be wise to keep the live mics away from him.