SocraTease

20-3 Michigan lead. Unless Iowa pins in every remaining match, they will lose the dual.

10 minutes of our lives stolen. But, hey, it's Groundhog Day, aka Will Lewan Day, where his matches repeat themselves endlessly.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Iowa's locker room at the break .... What are T and T saying?

Will Lewan's doppelganger is Jason Tsirtsis.

Why would Messenbrink choose down in the third? He could have scored many points on his feet

As I see it, there are two kinds of people in the world: those who divide people into two kinds of people, and those who don't.

To Jon Kozak (who seems to be in the know): Is the scheduled wrestle off between Yianni and Nick Lee still happening this weekend? I see Yianni's name listed for the Pan Am qualifiers. Is that just pro forma or has Lee withdrawn? Thanks.

Is it possible that Nick Lee withdrew ... or is this wrestle off at 65KG still on?

That's possible. He might have seen it as akin to "running up the score" against a weak or defeated opponent in other sports and a form of humiliation. Starocci is, however, in the top 2 for the Hodge and one, of course, needs pins in a close race.

Flo's rankings from Jan. 10. Olejnik has lost since then RANK NAME SCHOOL WEIGHT YEAR RECORD PINS BONUS RATE DOMINANCE SCORE 1 Carter Starocci Penn State 174 SR 6-0 4 100% 5.16 2 Aaron Brooks Penn State 197 SR 6-0 3 100% 5.33 3 Keegan O'Toole Missouri 165 JR 10-0 4 90% 5 4 Greg Kerkvliet Penn State 285 SR 6-0 0 83% 4.16 5 Trent Hidlay NC State 197 SR 16-0 4 87% 4.87 6 Parker Keckeisen UNI 184 JR 16-0 2 75% 4.37 7 Ryan Crookham Lehigh 133 FR 10-0 1 70% 4.1 8 Ridge Lovett Nebraska 149 JR 14-0 3 64% 4.28 9 Izzak Olejnik Oklahoma State 165 SR 15-0 4 53% 4.2 10 Yonger Bastida Iowa State 285 SR 14-0 0 64% 4.07 11 Beau Bartlett Penn State 141 SR 9-0 4 66% 4.55 12 Levi Haines Penn State 157 SO 6-0 2 66% 4.5 13 Real Woods Iowa 141 SR 9-0 0 55% 4.11 14 Daton Fix Oklahoma State 133 SR 3-0 0 66% 4.33 15 Austin Gomez Michigan 149 SR 1-0 0 0% 3

One guess (just speculation): he was still angry at how long the Beau Bartlett TD was allowed to play out in the first period. He seemed to be livid earlier in the match about that. The tie up lasted a very long time and the ref did not call a stalemate. But that, of course, wasn't Cunningham's fault. Who knows? Any lip readers out there?

Sounds like Mauller was mauled. maul verb verb: maul; 3rd person present: mauls; past tense: mauled; past participle: mauled; gerund or present participle: mauling (of an animal) wound (a person or animal) by scratching and tearing. "the herdsmen were mauled by lions" treat (someone or something) roughly. "the body was badly mauled in battle" INFORMAL defeat heavily in a game or match.

Ah, a play on Voltaire's remark: “S'il n'existait pas Dieu il faudrait l'inventer." (If God did not exist he would have to be invented.)”

I wondered that myself. Wasn't it 19-5? Or was there a stalling point added at the end?

Penn State hasn't given up a TD in 17 straight (individual) matches.

Over the PSU boards, they are saying no Gomez, no Kasak and no Starroci

Someone should pay you for all your great work ... or, minimally, give you a free ticket to NCAAs each year.

Nomen est omen (A name is a sign/omen): 184: #23 Maximus Hale (PENN) over Blah Dahnweih (UNC) (TF 23-7 0:00)

Many athletes, and especially but not only wrestlers, seem to be addicted to utter nonsense. They project the wrestling mat (playing field) onto the greater universe, and see all things as a cosmic struggle. Jacob wrestling an angel ... or whatever. "God" (whomever that is) is on their side. Jesus (in actuality a nonviolent, flawed, and very mortal human) helps them to imagine they (and he) are immortal. And so on. It's really, really embarrassing how individuals who claim to be committed to the "here and now" flee from it into an imaginary void. If only this flight possessed the "truth" of myth. Instead, it is a kind of wounded narcissism, one that drowns on the very surface of things. Ferrari is someone who makes an extremely great and historical sport—yes, wrestling is magnificent—so much less. His addition is a hundred fold subtraction.

Toxic religion (especially Christianity) is a real problem in wrestling. Faith over facts. Loyalty over truth. It's fed by narrow individualism, the blind belief in a simplistic struggle of good vs. evil, and all kinds of utter nonsense. It's been going on for decades and anyone awake and aware enough can see it. It's amazing that so many people are in denial about this embrace of authoritarianism and religiosity, and the fact that a large swath of international wrestling culture (Russia, Iran, major parts of the U.S., etc.) is extremely reactionary. It's also there not just in these "Jesus trained" zealots but also in the very culture. It's embarrassing and dangerous. We see it with all kinds of figures from Marinelli to Brooks to Nickal, and so many more. They need something to seize upon to justify and rationalize their "sacrifices," but there is of course no (zero, nada) evidence that the fictions they subscribe to exist. Evolutionarily, these delusions might help them to believe they are destined to win. But if you step outside this tiny, ghetto culture and have even a half decent understanding of biology, history, philosophy, or psychology, you will see how delusional it all is. Ferrari is simply a laughable form of it— a clown like others in a larger community who trump-et themselves in pathological ways.

Nickal is a far right wing Christian evangelist. He's "Jesus-trained" like Marinelli, but more pushy about it. Rogan is a shill and conspiracy theorist. Both of them are deeply uneducated or at best half educated. Why would anyone get their news or opinions from these toxic figures? If you think that Biden rambles, take a look at this. It is common course for he who will not be named: "Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s true! — but when you're a conservative Republican they try — oh, do they do a number — that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are — nuclear is so powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what's going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what's going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it's all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don't, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible."

... when you put on a singlet and can't see your toes because your bulging belly resembles a woman's in her last trimester .... when you go back to your high school room over the Christmas break and get head-locked and decked by the third string JV guy, who laughs increduously at your claim that you once made it to the state finals .... when you find yourself spending more time on the Intermat forums responding angrily to posters who make fun of your losses than you do actually training for an upcoming match .... when your ears are so disfigured that they are poked with a fork at the steakhouse salad bar by a patron who actually mistakes them for cauliflower

I think all the ranking services should rank "Nobody" at the #1 position for 125 pounds each week until or unless a big dog (clear favorite) emerges to legitimately take over the spot. It seems like at least once a week that one or more of the top ranked guys goes down to defeat. Perhaps its a variation on the so-called Sports Illustrated Cover Curse.