JeanGuy

I don't know Starocci is one of those guys that knows how much he needs to do to win. I didn't think that the match as close as it was, was ever in doubt.

They have been awarding a team championship in wrestling for around 90 years, and it seems to work. There has never been an NCAA Wrestling Dual Tournament. The NCAA isn't interested. It has always been some outside entity trying to get their piece of the pie. I'm not saying things can't change but what is the benefit of the change? Does it serve the competitors? Without NCAA sponsorship it isn't legitimate in my mind.

My opinion is that Keuter has been told to wrestle. There is no way that Ferentz gives him a year away from the team if he thinks he is in their plans at football. Again, just my opinion as somebody who has been around Big Time College Football. As to his wrestling I would be surprised if he is not an AA this year. He seems plenty big to be at 285 with the way the class has been trending.

I am going to argue with ChapGPT's assessment much like people argue with computer rankings.

Keckeisen wasn't a good enough test for you?

I really hate the coaching tree concept. The best coaches should have multiple influences plus their own personal flavor. A guy like Gillman is a great example. He has influences from Brands, Sanderson, Varner, plus a list of many others that work with the national team. Couple that with all the athletes that they train with. If you are going to be a good coach all those things should be incorporated into who you are as a coach.

Coaches don't want guys approaching 40 matches a year for the most part. Going to tournaments especially the top guys add a lot of matches. Is there a benefit to Gable Steveson to wrestle 35 matches this season versus 20? Probably not. Sports as a whole are changing and I think the big tournament model is going to be gone before long.

While they are not old by age, they have been coaching a good amount of time. Tom has been a head coach for 20 years. He might be thinking 25 years is plenty and retire. I think it is a valid question of any team that a coach that is approach 25 years of running programs and 60 years of age. Ohio State should be asking the same questions.

So many people just don't understand the amount of salt is the proper seasoning. Salt has been demonized but it really is the key to all great dishes. At least in my opinion.

Is ducking really that big of an issue? How many potential top end matches don't happen in a season? The bigger issue seems to be how teams view the right number of matches for their guys. Mostly across the board guys are wrestling a lot fewer matches than in the past. It would be interesting to see the entries of Midlands and the Southern Scuffle now versus say 2000.

That is the problem, they have nothing to do with it but yet they do. NIL in its correct form allows students athletes to profit off of their name image and likeness. The collectives have made it so the schools are paying for participation and that is not what NIL is about. The NCAA needs to rein in its own institutions and get things back to the correct application of NIL.

I'm with you on the 5-time thing. To me it is pretty meh. The better discussion would be who of the 4-timers could have been 5-timers if given the chance. I would guess most. I do think it will be an interesting match-up. I think many underrate the strength of Starocci. I think he has an edge there in his ability to finish when most guys would give up for the stalemate. I am interested to see who Steveson is today (March) versus when he was last competing.

For whatever reason Sanderson seems to like to keep guys between 15 and 20 matches in the regular season. He isn't interested in seeing guy wrestle 35-40 matches a season. There does seem to be a downward progression in his thought process. Taylor and Ruth wrestled 137 and 139 matches respectively. Move to Nickal and he was at 123 matches. Now you look at guys like RBY going down to 111 and then Brooks at 92. I don't know if it is ducking or just philosophy one what is the right number of matches for a guy.

He seems to have crazy strength. I've seen him pull some legs to get a takedown that didn't look like he had a chance.

The Big Ten Dual schedules are different to say the least. Sometimes you will have a dual against a league member and it not be an official conference dual. I would be surprised if Haines did not go out against O'Toole. With schedule that they wrestle there is no load management reasons for guys not to go. I really look forward to the match.

my mistake I thought Jimmy was saying who would go into the post season undefeated not NCAA's

They won't meet until Big Ten Tournament, correct?

What makes Lee's competition tougher? I don't know that you can weight competition by weight. You are only wrestling who is there. I can't say that 125 DURING Lee's years is tougher than Nolf's 157 class. Are you basing or on Lee being beat by other guys? I can argue Lee is lesser for losing to those guys just as easily as I can say it was tougher because Lee lost.

I can't count the Hodge as a real factor. It is so subjective. Is Jason Nolf a lesser wrestler because he never won a Hodge? It is interesting looking at the data. I am not sure where I would rank Lee using my own eye test. As dominant as he was, he is also a guy that was caught staring at the lights multiple times.

I think fix is he who is. Kind of like Beau Bartlett. Some guys are just going to sit and wait to counter. That leads to a lot of close matches and against high level competition those are 50/50 at best.

I will be surprised if he wrestles more than 4 NCAA matches prior to Big 10 championships. I am thinking the 4-home matches after the first of the year.

I do believe there is a backflip injury clause.

It seems that the problem is that the NCAA lost control of the NIL game. It was supposed to be that an athlete could be reimbursed for the use of the name, likeness or image. All of that seems perfectly reasonable, but the NCAA somehow let it become the wild west so I am not sure you can put it back in the tube at this point. Eligibility should also be a no brainer. They are an organization that should be able to set their own rule for participation. Whether it be 5 years to compete 4, an age limit, or academic progress should definitely be in their control. My guess is they are gun shy and don't really want to fight that fight and soon sports will separate from the schools. What the academics refuse to acknowledge is the marketing power of athletics and its place in applications. They think that students want to go to good old State U because it has the top geology program in the country and that just isn't all that true.