BuckyBadger

The scenario you lay out would be great, but like you said, very unlikely. I don’t know how old Messenbrink is, but very rare at that stage in life to take over a DI program. And then of course, where do you find big booster money. But more realistically, find a younger coach that Askren is on good terms with. Brandvold seems like the obvious choice. He’s a UW alum and has recruited AWA guys to Minnesota. If you had a guy like him who could recruit only a quarter of the talent the state produces now, you’d have had a number of AAs and a championship or two the last five years or so.

The state of Wisconsin had 4 finalists, 2 of them champs, I believe none of them ever considered UW for school. Just another data point showing what the program could be if they could be recrui in state.

JB is doing a great job of announcing and doing play by play. But please stop trying to pronounce accents of foreign names. It sounds very forced.

Are the Stouts brothers?

The year Trump came to NCAAs and when they asked Starocci about meeting him he said it was really cool and Trump has a big pair of balls.

What happened with him this year? Last year he looked like he was on the verge of being a title contender. Barring injury, I can’t think of someone that looked so good and then had a complete drop off.

What’s the minimum number of matches to qualify for nationals? Maybe 8? If he was 3-1 coming into the season, then OSU was betting he’d have at least 4 matches this weekend? Essentially all or none. I guess its working out.

I’m not familiar with the PAC-12 going in on Olympics sports, what did they do differently from other conferences? From what I could tell the demise of the PAC-12 has more to do with revenue sharing/TV deals etc not being as competitive for many of the schools compared to joining other conferences. And probably little to nothing to do with investing in Olympic sports. But I’m no expert in this, just my impression.

We’ve always been a money loser for athletic departments. But historically the Universities were the development infrastructure for many Olympic sports, and I guess that was valued enough to keep these programs. If college sports becomes completely profit driven, and it’s shaping up that way, then yes we are in big trouble. If the powers that be still value the Olympic development aspect, and cut a slice of the pie for these sports then hopefully we’ll have a good wrestling infrastructure going forward.

That’s true and I agree. But what about when it works and it just makes us worse off? For example, constant updates on the phone whether it’s text/twitter etc are actually rewiring our brains and arguably leading to depression. And for what purpose? So we can see who liked a pic we posted.

Having grown up in the 80s I am old enough to have experienced life without the internet, smart phones (or even dumb cell phones), instant updates etc. While there is no arguing how certain technological advancements have made our lives easier and less burdensome in many ways I often wonder if it truly makes life better. The 80s or some time adjacent seems like a peak in terms of balancing living more comfortable lives because of technological advancement but not becoming such dependent, non-thinking, overly depressed people so fractured as a society in the way we are today. There is some inflection point we passed a while back with technology. Now, a lot of people wish AI would go away, myself included.

Cory Cooperman, Scott Schatzman, David Hirsh, Bill Hyman are a few others. Not sure about Eric Tannenbaum

Brawler physical types seem to give him more trouble. But it’s hard to gauge since his losses last year seemed to involve head injuries.

How about it Jimmy, what’s your wrestling story?

Setting aside fan interest, tournaments are important for wrestlers to get used to the grind of making weight multiple days in a row and wrestling 3-4+ matches a day. This is one of the most grueling aspects of nationals and if you haven’t done it during the season you are at a potential disadvantage.

Can you expand on this? Are you saying there isn’t much financial support outside of what the university puts into the program?

While this list has grown over the years it’s still a pretty exclusive club, which is why it’s surprising that another 4 timer is not listed here….the very first one.

Arnold doesn’t even sound confident in his call out. He actually looks a bit nervous. This is not going to go well for him.

Teemer, Shapiro, Figueroa, maybe Crookham and others are all highly ranked and were out a long portion of the season. Many of these guys haven’t wrestled a tournament this season due to injury, and most likely won’t before post season. I could see this being a real disadvantage come nationals when being used to the grind of multiple weigh ins/matches over multiple days is a good measure of wrestling shape and prep for Nationals. Have there been other high ranked guys who missed the first half of the season and won?

The real bet is whether PSU will have 10 AAs.

Good point. Asfar as me getting caught off guard. Well, let’s just say my tax bracket doesn’t quite get me to the muni discussion.

This will never pass, who do you think are the main owners of muni bonds? People in the highest tax brackets who want to minimize their taxes —> people who are more likely to have voted for Trump. Just because the idea was floated doesn’t mean it’s likely.

I called a couple schools a month ago or so and if you didn’t put your name on the list by a certain date they didn’t have any tickets left. So when they release their allotment I think the best I can hope for is the prices on Ticketmaster come down from current levels.

I just care about getting in anywhere for a reasonable price. But I think the $400-$500 tickets are gone at this point?

I’m guessing you got on a list and bought directly from a university when they became available? If not, would you be willing to share your source? I’m still looking.