alex1fly

That's fine with me. I'll be very pleased with a confidence boosting year, getting back in the saddle as it were with a bunch of new faces. We need to worry about fielding a solid lineup and maintaining momentum more than we need to worry about other teams. Never mind the maybe-allowed-maybe-not-hopefully-nobody-looks-into-it-too-deeply methods they use to achieve & maintain success. Amen. We all had high hopes for Travis. Really nice guy along with being a mat monster. Not flashy, but stingy. Some flashes of Dean Heil - didn't blow many people away (unless they were just not his caliber) but had many, many, many solid wins and was a reliable dude in the lineup. Also a bummer he didn't get to get cheered on at Senior Night - I think he was considering another year until his latest injury at NCAAs. Maybe if he's still in Stillwater he'll get some cheers at 2024 Senior Night... dude certainly deserves it!

I don't think we need to get too gossipey about it but its no comparison IMO. Mastros hurt a few feelings, Ferraris caused long term trauma to many people in multiple categories of criminal behavior and nearly killed several in the process of several independent events... not to mention being creepy and stalky af. Either way GLAD THEY'RE GONE and hope the team vibe is better!!

"OSU cuts more weight than anybody else" has become a meme. It's meaningless to cherrypick a few OSU examples to support your argument and leave out discussion of any other OSU wrestler or any other wrestler from any other program. I don't think Flo necessarily has a handle on OSU's starting lineup, but it was cool to see the last 10 years' of NCAA finishes. I've been trying to hunt this info down, guess I just needed to look at Flo (gross but hey). As a fan these past two years have been long (again thanks Ferraris and partially Mastros for blowing up our lineup), but four 3rd place and two 2nd place finishes in the last decade is quite respectable. I'd say we've had a good run and I look forward to seeing the squad back in action this year. Last 10 NCAA Championships: 2013: 2nd 2014: 3rd 2015: 7th 2016: 2nd 2017: 3rd 2018: 13th 2019: 3rd 2020: Canceled (COVID) 2021: 3rd 2022: 14th 2023: 18th

Amen. For so many reasons

Well rock and roll, baby. Mastro at 125 beating McKee was one of if not his biggest win. Mastro showed signs of greatness but never quite put it together, and then quit the team mid-season last year. He's still in Stillwater running his zoo so seems like a HEW situation but who knows. We were pretty spoiled by 4 years of Piccinnini at 125... I remember seeing Nick's first match at OSU and thinking he was going to be something special. What a performer that guy was and still is in MMA.

Haha there's some truth in this! Maybe John should grow HIS hair out, at least to hide his scowl.

Besides Carroll and Thompson doing well at U20s, its all speculation/chatter. But those two at least have a headstart on their D1 careers, Carroll especially. Thompson seems like he has a mean streak that I'm excited to see. Don't know much about Spratley but his predecessor was a lanky cagey defensive wrestler. Also don't know much about Jamison or Alvarez but I'm glad that two of the transfers are from Minnesota so they can have that personal connection in a new place. And as a fan I hope that the new guys are fired up not only to win but to help OSU get back in the perennial trophy hunt. Of course everybody wants that for their team, but we went from taking 3rd at NCAAs to back-to-back worst finishes in program history - stupid Ferrari fiasco had half our lineup shifting weights just to fill the spots.

It's risky for sure. Mid-career RS can lose momentum. But can also come back with extra fire. We'll see!

Pros. The searchable archived matches in particular are amazing - you don't have to watch live. The yearly price is less than the price of a single night in a hotel. They cover more events than any one person could by traveling. FloArena works pretty darn well for keeping track of tourneys. The technique videos are pretty cool. Cons. They have a near monopoly. They lean too hard into the talking head/pundit side of things. Streams drop often. Apps aren't always easy to use. And this a personal beef but as an Okie State fan when the Big 12 dropped Flo and went to ESPN, Flo took every opportunity to badmouth us and make us look like idiots. Even now they have a clip on IG of Daton vs Desanto... and it's a 0-0 scramble. Not a Daton takedown, not a Daton counter, nothing about the Daton win. They seem to abhor portraying OKState in any kind of positive light. This may be a reach but it happens often enough to make me wonder. They do interview some OKState guys but it the vibe is often "we have to do this, if only it was a Big 10 wrestler I'm interviewing then I'd be excited". I'm not saying they should worship the ground OKState walks on, but the way they choose to portray our program DEFINITELY changed when the Big 12 went to ESPN. Honestly its not a bad product overall, but it might not be a bad thing if they got bought out by a real sports network that knows what they're doing and doesn't feel like a tech startup.

Serious answer: pushout points Goofy answer: Eliminating stall calls Allowing Spencer Lee to keep competing for the team at every weight class

It was tongue-in-cheek, lol MMJ is legal in Oklahoma for 18+ Getting popped for puffing ganja is hardly worth "troublemaker" status IMO but surely others disagree. If that's the worst kind of trouble Thompson gets in during his time at OSU I'll be happy about that.

If by it you mean weed then medical weed has been legal there for several years. But if by it you mean driving recklessly and rolling your car and nearly killing people and narrowly escaping death and harassing/raping women and shooting up your teammate's house and assaulting people and committing burglary then no, that is not legal yet in Oklahoma lol

I'll believe it when I see it. I'm sure it's been discussed and will continue to be discussed as we get closer to the season. Wittlake's status is is still a bit unknown (has another year, but is working through health issues, may or may not want to return), which seems to be the main reason for Plott potentially taking a redshirt.

After the Ferrari fiasco I think it'd be silly to assume anyone can stay out of trouble. But one would hope that the staff are going to have a close eye on kids' behavior and nip any nonsense in the bud.

I haven't seen any or heard any rumblings about Plott redshirting besides forum posters saying "Should he? Could he? Would he?" And the dude just won U23s. What would he do with his redshirt year? I for one am excited about next year's lineup. Bunch of new dudes on the mat and as coaches. It's been a weird couple years as a Pokes fan with the whole Ferrari vs Mastro feud and subsequent lineup shifts.

Heavyweight to 197 to... what does he look like now?

That dude does seem to dominate this forum. Looks like he starts threads almost every day and loves the attention that his SEMI CONTROVERSIAL HOT TAKES get. Is he a moderator or just a forum enthusiast?

Lol thanks. Likewise. I do have to say, it’ll be hard not to be cheeky a bit given how people on here behave but hey I’ll try to keep it respectful and low drama (after this thread is done of course)

I see Carroll at least trying to take shots. And he’d be exciting for the fans. Doucet won a lot of matches in OT rideout and was rarely aggressive. Downside of redshirting anybody these days is they might transfer. Joe and Chandler incident. Basically a coin toss. Joe had higher potential but because he had been sick or whatever until the Big 12s who knew how he’d perform in a tourney setting.

Just wondering out loud if anybody can Spencer Lee like Spencer Lee. See when Spencer Lee Spencer Lees, he Spencer Lees like a real Spencer Lee would. And Spencer Lee would certainly approve of how Spencer Lee Spencer Lees especially when its EXTRA Spencer Lee-ey. Some might postulate that Spencer Lee could beat Penn State single-handed, others might say an entire team of Spencer Lees would be needed. Others yet want to replace the word "win" with "Spencer Lee" so that wrestlers can have a record of Spencer Lees and Losses. However due to NILs and RTCs, some think that no amount of Spencer Lee-ing will ever be enough Spencer Lee to out-Spencer Lee Spencer Lee even with a Spencer Lee's worth of Spencer Lees. This is my attempt to fit in here at intermat forums. How am I doing lol

Seems simple enough to require a minimum amount of matches to go to nationals, say, 15 matches? There also should be some way to treat forfeits as losses that affect your rankings without being too harsh on a kid for having to sit out with an illness or injury. Maybe they get 3 medical forfeits and then by the 4th it is counted as a loss? I do agree though, it seems ridiculous that someone like Spencer Lee can maintain his #1 ranking having wrestled zero matches, and sail on to NCAAs with the top seed after competing in only the Big 10 tournament. Granted I don't fully understand seeding and rankings and all that so I could be greatly oversimplifying it.

I could spend an hour just on the museum grounds. Gorgeous gardens.

As an outsider this seems to be a large contributor but I don't know

I visited Tulsa this summer for a couple days and did touristey things. Pinned (hehe) a bunch of things to a Google Map after talking to some locals for recommendations. Here it is in case anybody wants to take a look: https://goo.gl/maps/L9RYbcnQEvrBuWdy7 My favorite spots were The Gathering Place (a world class park that you could spend an entire day in) and walking around Downtown. There's a lot of cool architecture downtown and it's a fun walk after 5 PM when the offices empty out. Good restaurants, bars, music venues. Velvet Taco was my favorite place to eat, went there twice, they have a bunch of fun fusion tacos. The Philbrook Museum and Woodward Park have really nice gardens that you can walk around w/o paying admission and are both next to each other and close to The Gathering Place. The Philbrook was closed when I was there, but its supposed to be quite an attraction. There's a couple hip neighborhoods if you want to cruise, Brookside and Cherry St. If the weather is crap you can go down to the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks which is decently fun. Apart from those highlights feel free to take a look at my map above! Hope this helps anybody!