AgaveMaria

Iowa had never won an NCAA title before Gary Kurdelmeier took over. He brought in Dan Gable from Iowa State. Actually, recruited him & got the commitment before ISU made an offer. Then Iowa took off and the rest is history. Cael was at ISU as an assistant coach under Bobby Douglas. Then make head coach. Did well and moved on to Penn State and the rest is history. How much credit for Danny & Cael as great coaches to Gary and Bobby?

You won't see Askren become head Coach at Wisconsin. Head Coach is a job. He won't put up with all that is involved. Time on the mat & part time coaching/academy stuff is for him. Not a full time job with all its pressures.

Robles is getting better all the time. Wish they would put John Smith on the job. More insightful & not afraid to say what he sees.

It is amazing that Joe did what he did with his health problems. If they had caught them before College he never would have seen the mat. One of my favorite wrestlers & a good guy. At the time I figured Joe would have the better career. Cael amazed us all & he continues to do so. He and Joe made a good package at Iowa State.

Figueroa may well lose due to stalling calls - due to his style. Backing up for counter wrestling and the wrong Referee - he might find himself stalled out. The guy is very good but his style will give him problems.

Cael Sanderson and Joe Heskett both enrolled at Iowa State. Both at the top of the recruiting class, with Heskett at the time rated a bit higher than Sanderson. Heskett had beat Sanderson at the Reno Tournament the year before in High School. At the time - which would you have put your betting dollars on to be a 4 time NCAA Champ?

Yojo wrestled when Freshmen were not elegible. He wrestled and won Olympic Gold in 1964 after his Sophomore season, before his Junior season. I'll go with Myron Roderick (his coach) and his statement: "I never saw him tested on the mat". As a Graduate Assistent Yojo would get frustrated with the team as none of them could keep up with him in warmups. He won his second Olympic Gold in 1968 - with a dislocated shoulder. He wasn't flashy. He did not pile up points - part of his philosophy of not humiliating opponents. He did hurt an opponent bad one time - this after the referee called him for stalling. After the call he went to work and ground him into the mat and punished him. As this wrestler later told me "he hurt me bad". On my all time list I have Yojo #1 - in US College wrestling. Internationally it has to be Osamu Watanabe. Supposedly 186-0(Encyclopedia Brittanica) and never gave up a Takedown. Yojo and Watanabe both wrestled for Japan in Freestyle.

It is coming. Penn State has a nice history with Cael & Co of wrestling matches to help some schools. They show up & the gym is packed with fans. Even the hometown folks knowing PSU is probably going to shellac their team, hosting PSU helps promote the sport & gives their program a boost. With former PSU great David Taylor now coaching OSO - this one will happen. Plenty of open dates for them to meet in a home & home format. It is coming, no doubt about it.

4 timer at Big 10. Not at the Big Dance.

BruceyB wrote: " but I think that's just more of an embarrassing heat of the moment reaction than a depiction of who he is as a coach, mentor, and man" It is those "heat of the moment" reactions and actions that define us. They show who we really are, positive and negative. That they are not usually on display - just how it is. Bottle it up & only show it under pressure. Just like those who are drunk and do stupid stuff "That's not who I am". Sure it is - you show it - and later realize the real you came out. That said, Ryan is a damn good coach. All who associate with him have so many positive things to say about him that this coming out as a negative is just part of a complex man. This is a small part - it is not like AJ Ferrari where the negative overrides almost all the positive, or Andrew Long where the negative was so strong it ended up with him in prison. Knowing Ryan isn't perfect is not a surprise. Watching him through the years I would gladly send my kids to wrestle for him if they had the talent. He isn't perfect. The only perfect one - is a myth. Tom is real and a positive force in College Wrestling. (it's not like he throws chairs, is it?)

Since the Cornell that won before is not Cornell of the Ivy League - they are my first Choice. Good program & two 4 timers in their history. Still with Campbell Fighting Camels as the second choice. Love that mat! Have a good Campbell baseball hat with the Fighting Camel logo - my favorite next to my FRITO-Lay Sunflower growers hat. (farm country here & neighbors grow corn for them - as well as Oats for Cheerios)

I know they don't stand a chance but would love to see The Fighting Camels take the Team Trophy. Second choice was going to be Cornell or UNI - but both have won it in the past. So, will go with Nebraska & the Spiderman at 141 this year.

Pair him with John Smith. Loved Smith commenting during the Olympic games. Insight from a master. Was reeling off options the wrestler could do as the match was in progress. Went back & watched again a number of times and listened to his doing this. Learned a lot I had not thought about before. Informative, not repetitive.

Still Larry Owings beating Dan Gable & ending his High School to College undefeated folkstyle winning streak.

Considering the overall condition of Utah Valley Prep - it has to be Barraaclough.

Iowa HAS the talent. What they don't have is coaches willing or able to move past Dan Gable and what worked for him. Dan was not one dimensional. Tom & Terry basically are. "Dan did it" is as dumb as photographers with "Ansel did it". Mired in the past - not learning from the past are very different. Gable was a grinder on the mat but did not force that on kids who can't do it. That was "The Iowa Style" but he had some wrestlers who did not quite fit the mold. He was smart enough to push them in their style with his determination. Tom & Terry don't do this. Iows has the talent. They don't have a coaching staff that can develop that talent past high mid levels. Very few who come in show a lot of improvement. It is the coaching.

The biggest problem Iowa has is the coaches inability to move on from Dan Gable. Jim Zalesky could not do it. Go ahead and listen to him in his pre-match talks. Try & fail. Tom Brands can't do it. Try & fail. He is good but his inability to change his approach, to fine tune it and make it his is failing the program. Both were great wrestlers and both good, not great coaches. Both for some reason trying to be Gable, without his tools. Until Tom & crew move on, taking the best and incorporating a new(for them) approach & be willing to further tweak what is working - Iowa will be a top team, but not at the top. Being "the best of the rest" is where they are at and that is in danger of being lost as they flounder trying to make "same shiz, different year" work.

Based on what we have seen Iowa will have a tough time finishing higher than 4th. What they are really worried about is their long streak of having a Wrestler in the finals. Two look decent for it but losses in the Big 10's have to be of concern to the Terrible Two & fans.

Employing all these incredibly realistic (and somewhat creepy) tactics to appear and smell dead to predators is a much more effective way for opossums to stay safe, than running or fighting (via A-Z Animals).

Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry said it best: A legend in his own mind.

They are not yet at the level of frustration of John Smith. He sure looked like a crabby old guy yelling "get the hell off my lawn" when he would watch a number of his wrestlers on the mat. T&T still whoop it up and encourage them. Problem is, it is not working. They have the Gable legacy but have not moved past it because they don't have the Gable talent for coaching individuals.

Friend who are not normal wrestling fans watched the finals with me. They commented about the broadcaster and all the information/explanation given during the matches. They like it for helping them understand what was happening. Much of wrestling is a confused mystery to those who are not already familiar with the sport. Commentators like this help a lot. Original poster is lucky he wasn't around when Howard Cosell was broadcasting.

Too many Penn State wrestlers looked as if they expected to phone it in. Way close matches that shouldn't have been that way. Losses unthinkable a week ago. Some seem to forget that Tournament Time means most everyone ups their game. Forget that & you are in trouble, as evidenced by too many PSU performances. Then again the Sanderson crew is generally not at their peak for Big 10's. That comes in two weeks. Big 10's are a wakeup for some of them. We'll see if it holds true this year.

If his skin turns Orange will he later run for President of the US?

Big question on him is this: does his mom wear glasses?