SocraTease

You may have just won the Vernal Equinox Sentence of the Day Award with this gem (below). If Steveson does get stuck under that ballast of gravity and gravy, it may also be a Death Sentence Award. Does Steveson finally put Schultz on the Monjourno his man boobs have long deserved? Or does he get stuck under those fat sweaty titties and have a rib broken in the process from that cankle of a neck laying on our greatest 125kg ever?

I appreciated the film. Here's an old review of it when it first appeared ... circa 1979: "Wise Blood," based on Flannery O'Connor's 1952 novel about an inside-out religious fanatic of the rural South, is one of John Huston's most original, most stunning movies. It is so eccentric, so funny, so surprising and so haunting that it is difficult to believe it is not the first film of some enfant terrible instead of the 33d feature by a man who is now in his 70's and whose career has had more highs and lows than a decade of weather maps.Mr. Huston's affection for misfits has never been more profoundly expressed than in this uproarious tale about Hazel Motes, a young Army veteran who returns home from the wars — one assumes Vietnam — obsessed with the idea of founding a Church of Christ without Christ. Hazel Motes is no Elmer Gantry and "Wise Blood" is no exposé of well-paying religious fakery, although it is about salvation.Hazel's success as a preacher is minimal, even in a region where the crazier the homemade religion, the more likely it is to be popular. Small crowds do listen to Hazel as he stands on the hood of his battered car, and some people are taken by his creed: "I'm a member and preacher to that church where the blind don't see and the lame don't walk and what's dead stays that way." But Hazel is too preoccupied with his own visions to organize his church and reap the financial rewards. He is ruled by fears and furies of the unloving Jesus of his childhood, when his grandfather was a hellfire-and-brimstone preacher."Wise Blood" will be shown at the New York Film Festival at 9 P.M. today and at 7 P.M. tomorrow. Its commercial opening has not been set.Mr. Huston's best films have always been about misfits of one sort or another, from the early ones, "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Treasure of Sierra Madre," through "The Asphalt Jungle" and "The African Queen" to his most recent production, "The Man Who Would Be King," in 1975.The New York Festival's program makes a mistake, I think, in saying that "Wise Blood" marks a return by the director to the "hardheaded" style of his "Fat City." As much as I admired "Fat City," it seems to me that "Wise Blood" is more evocative of "Beat the Devil," the slapdash comedy classic written by Truman Capote. The seriously lunatic characters in "Wise Blood" are much closer kin to the would-be thieves in "Beat the Devil" than they are to the losers in the gritty, realistic "Fat City."Like all fine fiction writers, Miss O'Connor created a self-contained world that was immediately recognizable although very bizarre. No matter how odd the characters and how grotesque the events, one believes in her world because, among other things, it is consistent within itself.This is one of the achievements of "Wise Blood," which is lyrically mad and absolutely compelling even when we don't fully comprehend it. Shot in the South, the film presents us with familiar landscapes in which, however, all the people appear to be just slightly removed from the reality we know. This applies equally to casual passersby and to someone like the county sheriff, who appears in one brief, hilarious scene, and to the principal characters.In addition to Hazel Motes, beautifully played by Brad Dourif (the stuttering kid in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"), these include Sabbath Lilly Hawks (Amy Wright), a libidinous teen-ager who looks as if she had grown up drinking Cokes and eating French fries and never coming near a green vegetable; Asa Hawks (Harry Dean Stanton), her evil-tempered father, a conventionally fraudulent side-walk preacher; Enoch Emery (Daniel Shor), a crazy country boy who finds a "new" Jesus at the local museum in the form of the tiny corpse of a shrunken South American Indian; Hoover Shoates (Ned Beatty), a fast-talking promoter who wants to manage Hazel's career as a prophet, and Hazel's landlady (Mary Nell Santacroce), the lonely, middle-age woman who falls in love with Hazel. They're all splendid. Mr. Huston himself appears in several lividly pink fantasy sequences as Hazel's grandfather.The screenplay by Benedict Fitzgerald is not neat by usual movie standards. Characters wander off never to be heard of again. The movie delights in the odd moment that doesn't obviously carry the story forward. Yet it's always alive. Mr. Fitzgerald also seems to have preserved a lot of Miss O'Connor's dialogue. Nowhere else might you hear someone say, "Her hair was so thin it looked like ham gravy trickling down her skull," or another character, Hazel, defend himself and his second-hand wreck of an automobile with the statement, "Nobody with a good car needs to be justified."Hazel's journey toward salvation is terrifying, tortured and bloody; yet the end effect of the film is exhilarating, as it always is when you see something so well and seemingly so effortlessly realized. Mr. Huston is in top form. The Cast WISE BLOOD, directed by John Huston; screenplay by Benedict Fitzgerald, from the novel by Flannery O'Connor; photography, Gerald Fisher; editor, Roberto Silvi; music, Alex North; produced by Michael and Kathy Fitzgerald. At the 17th New York Film Festival, Alice Tully Hall. Running time: 108 minutes. This film is not rated.Hazel Motes . . . . . Brad DourifHoover Shoates . . . . . Ned BeattyAsa Hawks . . . . . Harry Dean StantonEnoch Emery . . . . . Daniel ShorSabbath Lilly . . . . . Amy WrightLandlady . . . . . Mary Nell SantacroceGrandfather . . . . . John Huston

Friday, March 21 12:00 p.m. ET - Session 3: Quarterfinals, Wrestlebacks (ESPNU/ESPN+) 8:00 p.m. ET - Session 4: Semifinals, Wrestlebacks (ESPN2/ESPN+) Saturday, March 22 11:00 a.m. ET - Session 5: Consolation Finals (ESPNU/ESPN+) 7:00 p.m. ET - Session 6: Championship Finals (ESPN/ESPN+)

Will Iowa place? There is still the category of "Best in Show" ... which also took place in Philadelphia.

125lbs (1) Luke Lilledahl (Penn State) vs. (8) Sheldon Seymour (Lehigh) (12) Dean Peterson (Rutgers) vs. (4) Vincent Robinson (NC State) (3) Eddie Ventresca (Virginia Tech) vs. (6) Jett Strickenberger (West Virginia) (7) Troy Spratley (Oklahoma State) vs. (2) Matt Ramos (Purdue) 133lbs (1) Lucas Byrd (Illinois) vs. (8) Braeden Davis (Penn State) (4) Angelo Rini (Indiana) vs. (5) Zeth Romney (Cal Poly) (14) Zan Fugitt (Wisconsin) vs. (6) Connor McGonagle (Virginia Tech) (7) Nic Bouzakis (Ohio State) vs. (2) Drake Ayala (Iowa) 141lbs (1) Brock Hardy (Nebraska) vs. (9) Jacob Frost (Iowa State) (5) Cael Happel (Northern Iowa) vs. (4) Josh Koderhandt (Navy) (3) Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) vs. (6) Vance VomBaur (Minnesota) (2) Beau Bartlett (Penn State) vs. (10) CJ Composto (Pennsylvania) 149lbs (1) Caleb Henson (Virginia Tech) vs. (8) Jordan Williams (Little Rock) (12) Ethan Stiles (Oregon State) vs. (13) Dylan D`Emilio (Ohio State) (3) Shayne Van Ness (Penn State) vs. (6) Lachlan McNeil (North Carolina) (7) Kannon Webster (Illinois) vs. (2) Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) 157lbs (1) Tyler Kasak (Penn State) vs. (8) Joey Blaze (Purdue) (12) Caleb Fish (Oklahoma State) vs. (20) Trevor Chumbley (Northwestern) (3) Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) vs. (11) Matty Bianchi (Little Rock) (7) Vinny Zerban (Northern Colorado) vs. (2) Meyer Shapiro (Cornell) 165lbs (1) Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) vs. (8) Cameron Amine (Oklahoma State) (5) Christopher Minto (Nebraska) vs. (4) Terrell Barraclough (Utah Valley) (3) Mike Caliendo (Iowa) vs. (6) Beau Mantanona (Michigan) (2) Peyton Hall (West Virginia) vs. (7) Hunter Garvin (Stanford) 174lbs (1) Keegan O'Toole (Missouri) vs. (8) Lennox Wolak (Virginia Tech) (5) Simon Ruiz (Cornell) vs. (13) Cade DeVos (South Dakota State) (3) Dean Hamiti (Oklahoma State) vs. (11) Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) (2) Levi Haines (Penn State) vs. (7) Danny Wask (Navy) 184lbs (1) Carter Starocci (Penn State) vs. (8) Jaxon Smith (Maryland) (4) Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State) vs. (12) Silas Allred (Nebraska) (3) Max McEnelly (Minnesota) vs. (6) Chris Foca (Cornell) (2) Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) vs. (10) Edmond Ruth (Illinois) 197lbs (1) Jacob Cardenas (Michigan) vs. (8) Gabe Sollars (Indiana) (4) Michael Beard (Lehigh) vs. (5) Josh Barr (Penn State) (2) AJ Ferrari (CSU Bakersfield) vs. (7) Mac Stout (Pittsburgh) (3) Seth Shumate (Ohio State) vs. (6) Stephen Buchanan (Iowa) 285lbs (1) Gable Steveson (Minnesota) vs. (8) Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State) (4) Ben Kueter (Iowa) vs. (5) Owen Trephan (Lehigh) (2) Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) vs. (7) Joshua Heindselman (Michigan) (6) Isaac Trumble (NC State) vs. (3) Wyatt Hendrickson (Oklahoma State)

Painful to watch ... almost like a kind of legal waterboarding with a very large audience

Mostly a recommendation for a film ... or perhaps an idea for a mockumentary / (sur)reality show starting Ferrari and his family ... maybe a reprise to the Jersey Shore show ... Okay, it's really just a late night a/musing

For some reason, I was reminded of Fannery O'Connor's novel, Wise Blood, which has been made into an interesting film. Here's a scene ... or, if you prefer, obscene (your choice):

Scores after Day 1 Pts. Max. If seeds. QF SF Cons 2 hold Team Standings Team Points Maximum Potential Points If Seeds Hold # QF # SF # Cons 2 # Cons 3 # Cons 4 (Rd of 12) Penn State 39.5 279.5 173 10 0 0 0 0 Nebraska 28 246 78 5 0 4 0 0 Oklahoma State 27 220 78 6 0 2 0 0 Iowa 19 188 68 5 0 2 0 0 Minnesota 18 212.5 64.5 3 0 5 0 0 Ohio State 18 187.5 31 4 0 3 0 0 Northern Iowa 17.5 261.5 54.5 2 0 8 0 0 Cornell 17 236 53.5 3 0 6 0 0 Illinois 16.5 211 37.5 3 0 5 0 0 Michigan 16.5 137.5 46.5 3 0 2 0 0 Purdue 12 109 26 2 0 2 0 0 Virginia Tech 12 206 61 4 0 4 0 0 Lehigh 11 132 36.5 3 0 2 0 0 Indiana 10.5 156.5 10.5 2 0 4 0 0 NC State 10.5 132 26.5 2 0 3 0 0 Penn 10.5 181.5 16 1 0 6 0 0 Maryland 9.5 107 23.5 1 0 3 0 0 Iowa State 9 155.5 26.5 1 0 5 0 0 Oregon State 9 106.5 15 1 0 3 0 0 Rutgers 9 155.5 15 1 0 5 0 0 South Dakota State 9 204.5 22 1 0 7 0 0 Navy 8.5 56.5 19 2 0 0 0 0 Stanford 8.5 179.5 10 1 0 6 0 0 West Virginia 8.5 56.5 27 2 0 0 0 0 Arkansas Little Rock 8 105 33 2 0 2 0 0 North Carolina 7.5 154 13 1 0 5 0 0 Pittsburgh 7.5 129.5 17.5 1 0 4 0 0 Northern Colorado 7 104.5 21.5 1 0 3 0 0 Arizona State 5.5 78.5 18.5 1 0 2 0 0 Cal Poly 5.5 78.5 17 1 0 2 0 0 Missouri 5.5 54 24.5 1 0 1 0 0 Oklahoma 5.5 128 6 0 0 5 0 0 Lock Haven 5 78.5 7 0 0 3 0 0 Central Michigan 4.5 78 5 0 0 3 0 0 Utah Valley 4.5 28.5 15 1 0 0 0 0 Army 4 102 4 0 0 4 0 0 Bucknell 4 77.5 4.5 0 0 3 0 0 Northwestern 4 77 4.5 1 0 2 0 0 Princeton 4 126.5 10.5 0 0 5 0 0 Rider 4 77.5 13 0 0 3 0 0 Wyoming 4 53 5 0 0 2 0 0 Binghamton 3.5 52.5 11.5 0 0 2 0 0 Virginia 3.5 77 4.5 0 0 3 0 0 Appalachian State 3 27.5 3.5 0 0 1 0 0 California Baptist 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 Columbia 3 27.5 3.5 0 0 1 0 0 Hofstra 3 27.5 3.5 0 0 1 0 0 The Citadel 3 76.5 3.5 0 0 3 0 0 Wisconsin 3 51.5 4 1 0 1 0 0 Cal State Bakersfield 2.5 51 14 1 0 1 0 0 Chattanooga 2.5 51.5 2.5 0 0 2 0 0 Harvard 2.5 27 2.5 0 0 1 0 0 Ohio 2.5 27 14 0 0 1 0 0 Campbell 2 26.5 1.5 0 0 1 0 0 George Mason 2 51 2 0 0 2 0 0 North Dakota State 2 51 2 0 0 2 0 0 Northern Illinois 2 26.5 2.5 0 0 1 0 0 Edinboro 0.5 25 0.5 0 0 1 0 0 Michigan State 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bellarmine 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Brown 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cleveland State 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Drexel 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Duke 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gardner Webb 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

I'm on ESPN plus but still have the TV on ESPN. There is a large audience that doesn't do this and this is the image presented to most of the world that watches. It says: we like commercial and non-wrestlers talking

It's terrible and embarrassing how much they cut away to (a) commercials and (b) totalk to country music stars, celebrities, parents, etc. when there are actually high level matches going on. You would never see this happen during basketball or football or soccer or tennis or ...

He's more likely to start an insurrection, impose tariffs, hawk some cheap product with his image on it, or request construction on the arena and stiff the Philadelphia workers by never paying them.

24 hours until the end begins .... of this season.

Wow, I didn't realize there were that many 3-timers. Surely, some of them would have won a 4th if given the opportunity. Crazy that 4-timers are becoming more common even if there are only 6 of them.

Nickal might be hawking these soon. It's hard to believe they actually exist. I remember wrestling a guy in a tournament who had his girlfriend's photo taped to his sock. The older guys on my team saw it and told me, "There is no way you can let this guy win". I deliberately ankle-picked him on that photo.

I'm going with Nolf. 117-3 career with really only 2 losses his freshman year to 2-time NCAA champion IMAR (the other "loss" was an injury default), whom he also pinned. 60 pins (an average of 15 per year; something rarely done even once a year anymore), the most pins in PSU history. 103 bonus point wins. And perhaps the most innovative, fierce, and fun guy to watch in his generation

I wish all the other teams the best in their chance to fight it out for second place.

I don't know if these brackets will give you more space, but I've tried to attach a set below. Good luck finding what you need. 2025 NCAA brackets 2.pdf

Here's the press conference with three wrestlers following Sanderson:

Sanderson Press Conference today:

A possible 5-timer this year? Carlton Haselrig says "Pfffff ... I had to use a second hand to count my titles". "Competing for Pitt-Johnstown in the late 1980s, Haselrig won an unprecedented six NCAA heavyweight wrestling titles. How? Through a quirk in the NCAA rules at the time. When Haselrig competed, wrestlers in Division II also could compete in the NCAA Division I championships. Haselrig wrestled for Division II Pitt-Johnstown, where he compiled a career record of 143-2-1. Haselrig was particularly successful in March. From 1987-89, Haselrig won three NCAA Division II championships at heavyweight. Two weeks after winning those titles, Haselrig went to the NCAA Division I championships, where he also won three heavyweight titles. Haselrig sent an NCAA record by winning 122 consecutive bouts at Pitt-Johnston, according to his National Wrestling Hall of Fame biography. He was particularly dominant at the national tournaments. Haselrig went 15-0 at the NCAA Division I championships. Until 1990, national champions in Divisions II and III earned bids to the NCAA Division I championships, according to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. After Haselrig won three Division I titles, the NCAA rescinded those bids, as Division I coaches suggested they provided lower-division coaches with a recruiting advantage. The decision became known as the "Haselrig Rule." As a result, wrestlers no longer can compete in multiple NCAA wrestling championships, meaning Haselrig's record is unlikely to be broken. Even Starocci's potential five titles would go down as an outlier. Haselrig also was well known for what he did after college. In 1990, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Haselrig in the 12th round of the NFL Draft. Haselrig played five NFL seasons, four with the Steelers, and was a Pro Bowl offensive lineman in 1992. Haselrig died in 2020 at age 54. "At the time, I definitely didn't understand the magnitude of it," Haselrig told the NCAA for a 2018 story. "It was no easy task to win even just one, but it makes me happy and proud to look back at what I accomplished." Penn State's Starocci begins his quest for a fifth national title Thursday at the 2025 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. He is the No. 1 seed in the 184-pound weight class, bringing a 21-0 record to his fifth NCAA championships." https://www.si.com/college/pennstate/wrestling/penn-state-carter-starocci-chases-ncaa-wrestling-history-one-record-elusive

For Whom the Balloon Blows ... only Penn State (and perhaps Banksy) knows.

Floyd "Shorty" Hitchcock excelled as a wrestler during his days at Bloomsburg University. He posted an 84-7-2 dual meet record and won 3 PSAC Championships. His senior year he won both the Division I and II National titles in the 177-pound weight class and was named the Outstanding Wrestler in both tournaments. He also won a silver medal at the 1973 World Games in Moscow. During his high school coaching days at Lake Lehman, he guided the Knights to 4 District 2 Titles and was a 4-time district coach of the year. In 1981, he coached Lake-Lehman to the PIAA Class AA State Championship. Two of his former high school stars were Rick and Rock Bonomo, who later achieved All-American honors at Bloomsburg.

They should invite the D2 and D3 champs to participate in D1 championships a week later. Give them the 32 and 33 seed if you don't know where to put them. It would add excitement to the tournament.