BruceyB

At least LL and Davis losing here doesn't hurt Carl's record in the semis/finals.

I bet these boys wouldn't be running from Erin.

Woods and Eierman did not transfer to Iowa as seniors and each also had their best NCAA performance while donning the black and gold. Correlation does not equal causation, but still worth noting.

I agree with you. I think it's also so much different now than it was even 15 years ago. For the most part, 15 years ago guys wrestled their high school schedule, NWCA nationals, Fargo, and maybe another big event or two. Most blue-chip recruits would only be truly tested in a handful of matches each year in high school, and cruise their way through most of their high school careers. Now, guys are beating up their bodies through high school with things like WNO, 16u WTT, 20u WTT, Super-32, and already coming into college with more wear. They then beat their bodies down further by prolonging eligibility with the ease of medicals, covid-years, frequency of Olympic redshirts, etc. The rigor of a college wrestling schedule is not conducive to what a 24-25 year body requires to perform at it's peak.

To be fair, I am a huge KOT supporter, but I don't think this is a fair statement. KOT has a quality in him where he can just get it done. Even in his post-match interview, he acknowledged that he thought he might lose the match, but the difference between Norman and Keegan was that Norman tried to survive on his lead and shut down his own wrestling thinking he had enough separation to get the win. He did not. I think Lorenzo Norman is going to be an absolute force for the rest of this tournament and the next three, but this was likely a big learning lesson. That being said, I am very nervous for KOT assuming he makes the finals against either Hamiti or Haines.

I said it after CKLV.. I thought we was a problem. I was nervous for KOT when I saw the draw and that it was going to be an evening match when Norman was going to be feeling good. As for the original question, I can't recall a 1/4 Finals round that I have been as excited for as this. You have a number of guys who could be surprise semi-finalists, elite guys facing off in the quarters. It's always a good round, but this year it's a step above IMO.

125: Strickenberger 133: Romney 141: Jamison 149: Webster 174: Norman could be as I'm curious if his weird losses were due to weight issues. 197: AJ Ferrari says he'll be 215-220 Saturday night. Whether or not he's wrestling, we'll see. 285: Schultz

I'm sorry. I actually almost deleted it because it felt like too much salt in the wound. The hawks are back ahead now.

I missed who initiated the challenge.. when the swipes were wiped off the board, I assumed OKST challenged. Brutal turn of events.

20 points after two rounds is crazy. Flyingcement and Jmoney would be tied for 4th over Iowa.

Overall I think freestyle is a much easier sport to learn than folkstyle. You basically need to learn how to wrestle in neutral, learn a gut/lace, and defend a gut/lace, and largely gain a feel for avoiding exposure. You just don't need to wrestle the style your whole life to be the best in the world. Folk is much more nuanced and you have to be proficient in so many more positions to be successful. For the most part, even 15 years ago, guys would wrestle freestyle from March until April, and then maybe a training camp before Fargo. Freestyle was just a way to keep wrestling, but didn't garner nearly the focus that it does with today's athletes. How many guys were competing at cadet and junior worlds 15 years ago? Younger guys are wrestling plenty enough freestyle now to be ready to make world teams even while in college. The only reason we haven't seen more young guys making teams is because we've had so many stalwarts holding down weight classes for more than a quad. In my opinion, many of the attributes we credit wrestling for instilling in us as athletes derives from it being primarily folkstyle focused in the U.S. Wrestling gets credit for building toughness, discipline, hard work, etc. But you just don't necessarily need to have those attributes nearly as dialed in to have success in freestyle. Chamizo, Musukaev, and all of the other gassers throughout the years could never have the same kind of success that they've had in freestyle if they were to wrestle folkstyle unless that made changes to their training habits. That is what I think you'd lose in American wrestling culture if we switched fully to FS. You lose a lot of the toughness and grit that folkstyle instills.

mat 6

to be fair, he didn't wrestle at all in that third period, he got pushed around like he was on skates trying to avoid action.

He was literally holding him on his back.. when time expired.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Robinson with the superduck on the reset with 9 seconds to go..

Voelker vs Salazar and Surber vs Braunagel in first round of consis. Tough.

To be fair, it's easy to be relaxed when you know you're on a different level than anyone you're going to wrestle in a tournament.

They'll win the title without any challengers. But they also have 10 wrestlers that are going in believing they can win a national title. PSU's winning percentage in the semis is an absurd 83%. If they all of the sudden have a number of wrestlers on the backside after Friday night, that would be a disappointment by their own standards they have created.

This is my purpose of the post. If they fall short, it just brings them back down to reality. What they've done over the last decade plus is just unheard of. This year just seems like they may regress to the mean more than in recent years. If they continue their ridiculousness this year, I will just have to defer to the penn state bump from here on out.

Starocci is one of the greatest without a doubt. However, when comparing him in the pantheon of greatness, he lacks the attributes that many other athletes have displayed. He is an absolute winner first and foremost, but he doesn't display the same level of dominance that many other of the greats have shown. I know it's not a parallel example, but what has he done on the senior level that rivals his college success? Most of the all-timers were top 3 on the ladder while still in college, but Carter has not shown an ability to compete with the best even through his 5th year of college.

Taye Ghidiali is a prime example of this, and from his own mouth, Scotti Sentes was the one that encouraged him to transfer so that he could be in a better training / financial situation rather than staying at Cambell. Who knows how much he'll be getting for his year at Michigan, but it's certainly going to be helpful in setting up his life after collegiate wrestling is over. Taye had nothing but loving words to say about Scotti and his time at Cambell, and mentioned how important Scotti will be in his life going forward. It's not about an athlete turning on their program, but undeniable beneficial opportunities that can come to athletes to transfer in todays college landscape.

This isn't fair. How close is the relationship between Metcalf and the Brands bros, Gilman and the bros? For a reasonable comparison we need someone like Spencer Lee to take a head coaching job somewhere and for TnT to be dismissive of him ever being an hawkeye. To be fair, I don't see them turning on their athlete if it's purely a career move. Tom Brands left Iowa to pursue his own coaching dreams before coming back to his alma mater.

51-10 in the semis is absolutely ridiculous. 40-2 when the higher seed is even more insane. But I am curious, do you think with the seeds this year that PSU reverts closer to the norm? Or are you standing by the PSU bump? As I stated in my original post, I think this year may be more humbling for the PSU faithful than in recent years. They'll still easily win the title, but I do think they need to overperform to crown more than 3 champs this year. A ridiculous bar that they have created for themselves.

Agree 100%. That's why we need to change criteria to fall more in line with what is best for the sport rather than what is best for the individual athlete. Meyer Shapiro is the epitome of this issue. He wrestled essentially nobody this season and is rewarded with a #2 seed. There are a great deal of wrestlers with better wins on the season, and should (in my opinion) be seeded above him based on that. Brandon Cannon's wins over Askey and Miller are better than anything Shapiro can boast this year. Cannon should be seeded higher than Shapiro who didn't wrestle anyone. But because he came into the season ranked highly, he is rewarded for not taking any losses outside of an injury-default. This is the problem. Maybe the best thing is to get rid of pre-season rankings and rank purely on in-season results. To be the #1 ranked guy, you have to seek out the best competition to earn that #1 rather than maintain your ranking from last years results. Thoughts?

I messaged WKN and asked his permission to sanction a side-bet portion to his dark horse competition. I am proposing a $10 buy-in winner-takes-all pool. I am happy to handle entry fees unless the board would feel more trusting of a longstanding member who is willing to take on the task. We will follow WKN's criteria, and the highest finisher of this side-bet pool will win all of the money. I'll gladly handle the monitoring of this if we have a minimum of 15 participants. To clarify, @Wrestleknownothing's competition is 100% free. This pool is just for the degenerates like myself that would like a little extra action on the picks. If you would like to get this going, just comment.. "I'm in"