BuckyBadger

I hope it’s as simple as that if he wins.

Admittedly, not much from a policy perspective.

I think that’s correct. The problems I have with Trump are not political. I was thrilled with how they took out Soleimani, the Abraham accords etc. My concern is that Trump doesn’t really believe in anything. Kamala is a far left progressive. She may try to play more to the center, but it’s pretty clear what she is. She’s more or less a known commodity. Trump will wake up one day and decide he likes something he hated yesterday. His governing is not rooted in any world view but what will make him look good in the news cycle. He seems unable to separate advice at odds with something he proposed from a personal attack. I agree with that we are one blink away from a war with Iran, and in that situation you need someone committed to a clear strategy and execution of a plan. Especially when things get rocky and the news cycle goes against you. Im also not sure he has any allegiance to any voting group or idea. For example, I could see him backing Ukraine against Russia, but I could also see him appeasing Russia and abandoning Ukraine. The man is a surprise every day and it seems to have nothing to do with politics. I thought Pompeo was great, but think Trump is too volatile to be the man in charge. Maybe I’m wrong, and when the stakes are high he won’t play his petty games, but I’m not convinced.

Totally agree Agree as well, but I don’t think Trump presents less of a risk in that sense.

If there are no skeletons in her closet that come out, or some unexpected event that will force her to have to be more forthcoming I think it will work. Perhaps a debate with Trump could be damaging if she really gaffes.

What I have an hard time understanding about the Bono situation is how it got to this point. I mean I understand that it comes down to recruiting and relationships in WI, but if you look at his history he did pretty well before he got to Madison. He had a track record of success at SDSU. I think most people would agree that he did a really good job with that program. It’s not like he came to UW with the reputation and track record he has now. When he was hired I thought he would be able to bring UW up a notch or two. But for whatever reason he has effectively been blacklisted by top in-state recruits. I’ve read all the stories on here about him and Askren, so I get it. But at the same time it seemed like UW got a pretty decent guy to lead the program at the time. I guess sometimes certain people and places, or differences in culture or whatever can be a really bad fit.

@Fadzaev2 That’s impressive. Which year stands out as most memorable?

Given the short trip to Philly (currently live in the DC area) and that I haven’t been to NCAAs since 2005, I’m going to try to attend.

Unfortunately, this is true. And Bono was just given a 5 year extension. The future is pretty bleak for now.

Freestyle - Iran with 3 silvers, one bronze. Japan with 2 golds and 1 silver. US with one silver and two bronze. Greco - Iran with 2 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze. Japan with 2 golds. Cuba with 1 gold and 2 bronze. And Kyrgyzstan with 3 bronze.

We have 250k high school male wrestlers that wrestle folk style. Probably a small fraction of them train in freestyle as their second style. The fact is our system trains our wrestlers very intensely in folk style through the early 20s while the rest of the world regularly produces wrestlers that are having great success on the senior level when they are in their early 20s, sometimes younger. So I’m not sure if I agree on the US winning the participation war. But I do agree that how we train is the issue. Our whole system uses folk as a base. It’s not surprising that the majority of our guys are not good at throwing, uncomfortable locking up in many positions, and don’t typically score back exposure off of their opponents offense. These are all critical freestyle skills. Dake is really the only guy I can think of that has those skills and he even forces things that aren’t there (as evidenced by his last two Olympic appearances). I don’t think we’ll drop folk style in the US, because it’s our domestic style and it has a fan base. But I think it’s also the reason why we won’t reach our freestyle potential.

Does the US as a country have the ability to be the best in the world? Yes. But the reason they aren’t consistently above the competition, like we are in basketball, is because wrestling is not even in the top 5 of sports that kids in this country pursue. Maybe not even 6-10. And on top of that, most wrestlers in this country don’t even wrestle freestyle! While Iran/Russia/Georgia etc have a smaller total population, wrestling is much more popular there. In Iran I’m guessing it’s top 5 (maybe even top 3). In southern Russia (Dagestan, Chechnya, Ossetia) it might even be number 1. Wrestling is a big part of the culture in that part of the world. Even non-wrestlers over there follow the sport and feel invested in their success. That’s not true in the US. I think another reason much poorer countries are able to do really well is because wrestling is a poor man’s sport. You really don’t need much in the way of equipment. It’s kind of like dirt poor East African countries that produce the best middle and long distance runners. It’s in their culture and you don’t need any significant resources to do very well. Having said all that, the US results the last few cycles have been really good. We have been on the verge of being team champions. For a sport that probably is not even top 10 in terms of popularity here, we are holding our own and continue to produce many cadet/junior world champions. That was not the case 10+ years ago.

I turned it off after regulation ended and it looked like Vali v won. Then later I see Zhamalov advanced in the bracket. What happened, and was it legit? I didn’t see anything controversial during the match.

WWE didn’t work out, NFL is unlikely to work out. I suppose he could pursue MMA. But if not, that leaves wrestling.

For 2028 I could see: 57: Spencer 65: Yianni 74: ??? 86: Brooks 97: ??? HWT: Gable That’s a solid 4 weights. There will be other guys that step up between now and then for the unknowns. The golden age could still be going strong, just with fresh faces.