jmoney

Right- and that’s sad at least to me. Has the tournament always rewarded late season health / fortune? Does the tourney “want” top form guys getting to the late matches or is this a new trend ?

I’ll concede the Robinson point I’m always shocked how much a wrestler’s seed can fall off one year to next but Robinson hasn’t had a great year. Poulin was penalized for wrestling tough opponents. Moran at 14 just feels harsh with a solid B1G finish. McGowan I insist will not make the R12 without that seed gift. He’s still unlikely to.

Way too large. McGowan Princeton and Provo are ranked way above their abilities. Meanwhile Moran is seeded 14, Poulin is 13 and Robinson is 12: CCCCCriminalllll

Glory, Pletcher, McKee, Deakin

Big Ragusin fan! Classy, hardworking guy- it's almost shocking he earned All American honors just once with how talented he is.

thank you, good sir!

Ran into a late 90s era member of the Providence Catholic wrecking crew at a party. He and I bonded over how hard Northwestern was for me (a premed major) to get four A- and zero A in a quarter studying 35 hours per week and him to get 2 B-, 2 C+ after being a really good high school student managing as a member of a dedicated wrestling program. He said being such a mediocre student at Northwestern was embarrassing to him. It made him feel a lot better that you can do everything possible at Northwestern and still only have a 3.7 GPA in premed.

You and I know that nobody is ever beating Messenbrink

Got my 1990 Bo Jackson’s at a Chernins shoes for half off. My fave shoes to this day- slickest cross trainers.

They’re so bad at calling stalling if they don’t get better then there should just be a shot clock starting every time a guy doesn’t shoot within 30 seconds. Make them wrestle. I don’t remember matches so passive ten years ago.

+1

touche

this site could be wiped out by a reddit group in 5 minutes' time

That would be such a statement to wrestling community that he isn’t a stale granola bar. But I’m pretty darn sure Tom Brands has the personality of a stale granola bar and will die on his sword without making any changes. The way Metcalf and Gilman speak about that place it really gives you a sense they realize they were missing a whole lot of open minded thoughts and positivity being trapped in that pressure cooker.

Well said

Doesn’t look like a 141 to me? His style seems to rely on being a bit overpowering and he would do better at 133 for another school.

Catching up here. Iowa wrestling flat opening wrestling. How did Ayden Smith 125 get a 5 seed? Peterson at 8 is also rather criminal. Shawver Brown was a crazy 8-9 match reminded me of 125 pounds many moons ago when bIg10 had more parity at 125!

he hit that first takedown pretty easily; he's wrestling like a man coming off an injury who knows more pressing battles are ahead. But I digress- he has not looked good at IOWA. Just watched Ryder Block look mediocre also. Brands has to go.

wow, seems to be working- didn't realize he now is defeating Evan Wick!

Imagine if he wrestled four years for either Taylor or Sanderson !

J Jaggers or Darrion Caldwell

Here is some Lucas Byrd data on all matches against R12 and All-Americans. For his career he has wrestled like a guy who will place 3rd or 4th in this tough field. For his career, he has gone 7 wins and 7 losses in matches against guys whose best finish was 2nd, 3rd or 4th. He has been able to defeat 5 of the 7 unique guys he's faced at these rankings. He had a 75% win rate against Ayala, 50% win rate against Ramos, 50% win rate against Korbin Myers, 100% against both Romney and McGee, and 0% against DeSanto and Fix. Given that Fix is a 5 time 2nd placer and Desanto a 2 time 3rd place finisher, doesn't Byrd feel like a 3rd or 4th finisher? This season he has had a 5 point margin against his lone R12 opponent Ungar. For his career he has averaged 1.84 point margin against All Americans. This season he has exceeded that with two wins over Shawver and Ayala with a margin of 3.5. The rest of the data follows and shows Byrd is a master of the close one. He only tends to score against guys whose best finish is 5th or worse. FIRST Unique Guys 0-1, Overall 0-2, Score 5-7, 2.5-3.5, margin -1.0 Mendez 2-3, Mendez 3-4 SECOND Unique Guys 2-4, Overall 4-3, Score 19-11, fall W, fall L, 3.8-2.2, margin +1.6 Ayala 7-2 Ayala 3-2 Ayala Fall Ayala 2-4 Fix 2-3 Ramos 5-0 Ramos Loss fall THIRD Guys 2-1, Overall 2-3, Score 15-19, fall W, 3.75-4.75, margin -1 McGee fall Desanto 4-5 Romney 2-0 Desanto 6-10 Desanto 3-4 FOURTH Guys 1-1, Overall 1-1, Score 5-8, fall W, 5-8, margin -3 Myers fall Myers 5-8 FIFTH Guys 3-2, Overall 6-2, Score 44-18, 5.5-2.25, Margin 3.25 LaMont 5-1 Davis 12-1 Davis 7-1 Ragusin 6-5 Ragusin 1-3 Ragusin 6-1 Nagao 2-4 Ragusin 5-2 SEVENTH Guys 3-0, Overall 10-0, score 51-17, 5.1-1.7, margin 3.4 Foley 8-1 Cannon 3-1 Cannon 5-2 Shawver 6-5 Shawver 3-1 Cannon 2-1 Foley 5-2 Cannon 8-2 Cannon 4-1 Cannon 7-1 EIGHTH Guys 1-1, overall 1-1, score 7-7, 3.5-3.5, Margin 0 Turner 3-1 Hayes 4-6 R12 Guys 8-1, overall 11-1, 1 fall W, score 83-33, 7.55-3, Margin 4.55 Philippi 6-2 Olivieri 13-2 Redding 13-3 Phillippi 5-4 Ungar 7-1 Ungar 2-0 Bouzakis 8-5 Rini 3-0 Teske 13-10 Phillippi 3-4 Hudkins fall Hudkins 10-2 Score Overall ALL MATCHES: Points 229-120, 4 fall W, 1 fall L, 5.33-2.79, margin 2.54 ALL AA matches 146-87, 4.56-2.72, margin 1.84 Wrestled 22 unique guys who have earned AA, going 12-10 against, Overall 24-12 counting repeats. Only 5 unique wrestlers in this group have defeated him every time they’ve wrestled: Mendez (1st twice, 6th), Desanto (3rd twice, 5th), Fix (5 time 2nd), Nagao (4th, R12) and Hayes (8th). Wrestled 9 unique guys who have earned R12, going 8-1 against, Overall 11-1 counting repeats 17-11 against R12 and AA in 3 point matches, meaning he has been beaten by over 3 points twice in his career, I think. A master of the close one...

it's time to square off that circle!

What about Byrd over Ayala this season 7-2 and last 3 meetings straight? I just watched that Boarman match as it’s being used to slander Byrd into a low tier AA wrestler and Boarman ran and was hit with a stall point by 1:05 of period 2. Pictures for entertainment value. That’s a lion going after his prey and Boarman is running laps around the mat circumference here and wasn’t hit for stalling on this sequence how he should have been.