Boring

Nobody wants to get stuck under a guy 50-100 pounds heavier than he is. I think they should bring back unlimited HWT, but with a caveat: it's still limited, but to 350 pounds. That would allow nearly all the fat boys who are great HS HWTs to continue wrestling in college without giving up on football.

Hamiti still looks skinny as a rail. He could pack on another 10 pounds and not look thick at 184.

It wasn't 100% joke. I was super bored watching Lee do the same old thing, over and over again, and nobody being smart enough to figure out how to prevent it. Until Ramos.

It wouldn't be much of a super fight. Both of those tournaments were weak this year.

My Fr year in HS there wasn't even a 190 pound weight class, it went straight from 178 to unlimited HWT. I saw guys who weighed around 180 pounds wrestling guys who weighed well over 300 pounds. There was a kid from Coweta who weighed 440 pounds.

Yeah, an entire squad of Olympic golds.

You guys are lightweights if David Taylor grosses you out. Remember Les Miles, the football coach at OSU and LSU? He ate a booger on national TV.

My bad. I thought he was a HS kid last year.

Not only that, but I bet he's a lot more excited at the prospect of wrestling for DT than Grandpa "Get off my Lawn" Smith.

But couldn't either of those guys still redshirt at this point? If Ferrari is better I'd start him and RS Arnold just out of greed for NCAA team points if I was Tom Brands.

I'd love to see Starocci wrestle KOT! For the record, I think KOT is better.

That graph is so deceptive. The vast majority of OSU's success was pre-1970s. Iowa has mostly dominated OSU since 1970. It reminds me of an article I read a couple days ago that listed the colleges with the most national titles in football. Minnesota, shockingly, came in with 6 NCAA football titles (they were ranked 10th overall, or something like that). They haven't won an NCAA title since 1960. The saddest part of that graph is the fact that at one time OU was a legitimate powerhouse in constant contention for national titles and now they are "bleh".

I can imagine an entire squad of one trick ponies doing Lee's armbar, over and over and over again. I suppose that's an improvement over locking up and pushing. Naw, Iowa needs to hire somebody else. I hear John Smith is looking for a gig.

It's going to be a blowout even if KOT pins Hamiti

Pretty sad statement. True, but sad.

Each will be a top 3 seed at NCAAs, and on opposite sides of the bracket in all likelihood. Yeah, shouldn't be too much downside.

The crazy part is that I think Hamiti moved to 174 to get away from KOT! Would love to see those guys wrestle in the finals. Hamiti has such slick takedowns, but KOT has insanely tough defense. 174 is going to be super fun at NCAAs with Haines, KOT and Hamiti. Those guys have all separated from the rest, imo, even though I have Haines and KOT a little higher than Hamiti.

Is weed allowed by the NCAA? I thought they tested for it.

That's insane. Taylor is literally twice as big as he was in HS!

Who are you talking about?

I wouldn't get too bent about it, everything always works out in the end at NCAAs. Wrestlestat's rankings are "good enough for government work".

Good points, dragit. Speaking of the money in college sports I saw that the QB of the Texas Longhorns has been offered $6 million just to enter the transfer portal. It's going to get more extreme with each passing year. I don't know how college sports can continue much longer. Who is paying these kids? I'm assuming alumni. I HOPE it's alumni, the idea of my tax dollars going to pay a kid to play college sports is offensive as hell.

That's not my point, although it's a true statement. Lots of times less talented wrestlers beat more talented guys just because they are stronger, faster, or maybe even meaner. I think that maybe you may be looking at my comments about the lightweight guys in the wrong perspective. I'm not saying all lightweight kids suck. I'm just saying they are younger and they generally have poorer technique than the kids with more experience under their belt, which makes logical sense. Of course all great wrestlers were 101 pounders at one time or another. For me it was 6th grade (not that I was particularly great, but I was that weight in 6th grade). For Spencer Lee it was 10th. For Gable Steveson it was probably 4th grade. But I digress. Regarding your question, I'll pick the late bloomer with superior technique every time. There are reasons guys might be late bloomers. Maybe a guy had a terrible HS coach but he thrives in a college wrestling room under superior coaching. I don't know who was Stephen Neal's coach in HS, but Neal finishing 4th at NCAAs as a FR when he only placed 4th at the HS level the year before shows how much coaching can improve a guy (as long as that guy has the minimum physical skills). The late bloomers that have the best potential are the guys who are superb athletes who were undercoached. Give those guys some decent coaching and bam, instant contender.

That doesn't really contradict what I stated though. 8th graders-sophomores DO usually have at least a couple years less wrestling under their belts and less physical maturity than older kids. It's not just a maturity thing, it's a technique thing. Technique improves over time. When I watch those really light kids wrestle I see a lot of so-called "Jr High" moves, and there's a reason for that: they are Jr High aged. Fr and Sophomores have less time under their belts. I suppose it doesn't really make as much difference today, when kids have 300 bouts of experience by the time they hit HS, as it did back in my day where a guy might only have 150 matches under his belt by the time he graduated. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but I'm not talking about freakishly talented guys like Yianni or Gable Steveson, I'm talking about regular guys who have to work their way up.