fishbane

I am a HUGE fan of Aaron Brooks saying crazy religious stuff in interviews. Give me more of it! It is must watch, so much better than just thanking a generic god in a generic way. If Yazdani ever wrestles him and wins then I would like nothing more than for Yazdani in his post match interview thank his God and point out some false Christian belief. Call the Holy Spirit a false god. Exactly! Would Yazdani dispute this statement? It is my understanding that Muslims so not believe the Holy Spirit to be God. Yazdani himself is unlikely to believe that his under hook is derived from the Holy Spirit. Brooks is more likely to get pushback from Christians on this point than Muslims. Correct. Aaron Brooks believes the Holy Spirit to be God. This is the same thing to Aaron Brooks. I doubt Yazdani would say that the Holy Spirit gave him under hooks. He might say that God did, but that is probably a little different than what Brooks intended given the earlier statement. Isn't this how religions work? Are there actually Christians that think that the Islamic belief that Jesus of Nazareth was not a God is as valid/more valid/superior to their own belief that Jesus Christ is God? Are there Muslims that think the Christian belief that Jesus Christ was the son of God to be as valid/more valid/superior to their own belief that he was merely a prophet of Allah? Are there major world religions that don't have conflicting beliefs? It would seem to me that if anyone accepted all teachings of any major religion as true that would result in a logical conclusion that some central belief of a competing religion is false. Should athletes only talk about aspects of their religion that don't conflict with other major religions at press conferences?

He didn't say Yazdani's were not from God. He said "I don't know who gave those to Yazdani." It is possible that God gave them to Yazdani and Brooks is simply unaware of that fact.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CtULQMgsDjB/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Are the limp and crutches all an act? Playing possum?

He did a lot with a little. Three wins on only 6 points scored and shut out in 3 losses. He didn't bother scoring if he wasn't going to win the match. It's wise to be efficient in a multi day tournament like this. Compare this with that 167lb bracket from 1984. I have doubts that Melvin Douglas was actually injured. I think he probably just blew his load in that first round match that he won 35-0. It was the most points put up by a wrestler in a match in the entire tournament. Wore himself out by the quarterfinal round. Hilger on the other hand wasn't going to waste any energy scoring points that weren't going to win him a match.

It was worse than that. He was 3-3 for the tournament with 2 forfeits and a 6th place finish. His overall scoring differential was -4 (8-12). 1st round L Dec 4-3 Jelic (Pitt) 1st round consolations W FFT Degenova (Temple) R12 W FFT Douglas (OU) - AA Finish Assured Consi-Semis 1 W Dec 1-0 Williams (Utah State) Consi-Semis 2 L Dec 4-2 Carver (Fresno State) 5th Place Match L Dec 4-2 Relic (Pitt) I don't think a negative scoring differential for an AA is really that unusual. I mean it's not typical, but it probably happens to a couple guys each year. All you really need is a guy to get his doors blown off by a Spencer Lee/David Taylor/Zain Retherford type and win several close matches. Getting an AA placement without winning a match by anything other than FFT? That has to be very unusual. Maybe a handful of times in history. Drew Hildebrandt had a negative scoring differential when he placed 4th in 2019. W Dec 3-0, W Dec 2-1, W Dec 4-2 (SV), L MD 11-0 (Spencer Lee), W Dec 5-4, L Dec 5-3. Overall that is 17-21 for -4 differential over a 4-2 record with a 4th place finish.

I don't think it will work that way. If you make all scoring actions with 2x their former value and rescore all matches you will find that the margin of victory/defeat has doubled. The matches have not changed. It may be that instead of having matches with 0-2 point difference being stallfest with one guy planning to steal a takedown at the end of the match to win/force OT the same thing now commonly happens in matches with a 0-3 point difference. Idealling I'd like to see the number of scoring actions in a match increase not necessarily just points.

I wonder if the number of MD and TF will increase by a statistically significant amount with this change. It would seem like the points are being inflated with no adjustment to the MD and NF thresholds. It would be interesting to compare the rate of TF and MD in the 2014-2015 (back when NFs were only 2 or 3 points) to next season with a 3 point takedown and 4 point NFs.

He only received 1 forfeit. W Dec (32), L Dec (1), W Dec (16), W Dec (18), W Dec (26), W FFT (12), L MD (11), L Dec (5) to finish 8th. 16 was the highest seed he beat via non-FFT to make the podium. Still he won 4 matches to get there. As JB pointed out, two forfeits with no wins getting you to the podium is not possible since full wrestlebacks were implemented in the early 1990s. In today's format you would need to somehow get 4 consecutive forfeits in the consolations to get to the podium without winning a match. I guess on the front side it would take only 3 but that would require someone to enter the tournament injured and not wrestle which has happened (Nick Suriano, Dustin Schlatter, etc.) but less likely than a forfeit in a later round.

In 1984 Rudy Isom lost his opening round match at 167lbs to Jeff Jelic 4-3 of Pitt 4-3. He then won two consolations matches by FFT assuring himself of a top sure 8 finish. He ended up winning his next match 1-0 to make the consi semis and then lost before falling to Relic for a second time to finish 6th. Has anyone ever had an easier path to AA? It would be wild if someone lost in the first round won twice by FFT then lost two consecutive matches to finish 8th. Has anyone ever only won matches by FFT en route to an AA finish? If so, what's the highest finish achieved in this manner? 1984 Bracket http://www.wrestlingstats.com/ncaa/pdf/brackets/NCAA 1984.pdf

I had read on Wikipedia that it was created by two fellas from Erie, PA and that the first trial competition was held at Erie Tech. One of the creators was an arm wrestler named Dann Carr. I don't believe he is related to the Carrs from Erie that are know in wrestling. I'll have to check out that ESPN piece. Thanks!

Darrel Gholar was a contender on series 3 of American Gladiators in 1991 (May have been filmed in 1990). He won a couple rounds and ultimately fell short in the semi finals to a baker from Brooklyn. He handed Gladiator Nitro his only loss of the season in the conquer ring in his semi final loss. Conquer is a modified wrestling competition where the contender has 10s to force any portion of the gladiator outside of the circular competition area. I think this is interpreted as some body part of the touching the ground outside of the area and not a 3D cylinder. Nitro was 5-0 in the conquer ring in season 3 before losing to Gholar. In the episode the announces play up Gholar's wrestling ability describing him as a wrestling coach from Minneapolis, MN and greco roman olympic alternate in 1988. I found some collegiate results for him from the University of Minnesota. He was 3rd at Big Tens at 158 in 1983 and Big Ten runner up at 167 in 1984. He was the 10 seed at NCAAs in 1984, but had some bad luck. He lost 7-1 in the second round to 3 seed and future 2x Olympian Melvin Douglas. Douglas lost his next two matches by FFT and DNP. In 1984 there weren't full wrestle backs and since Gholar lost to someone who failed to make the semifinals he was not given a wrestle back. Meanwhile the 4th place finished at Big Tens, Rudy Isom of Wisconsin, lost in the first round then won two successive consolation matches by FFT to make the podium. Does anyone know the story behind all the FFTs in the 1984 NCAAs at 167? Does anyone have results from the 1988 Greco Olympic Trails? I'd guess for him to an alternate he would have lost in the best of 3 at either 74 o2 82kgs. If anyone is interested in his appearances on American Gladiators there are links to the full episodes below. 1st round https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkSVQLDpKc Quarter final https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpQKRfcYdDc Semi-final (Conquer win over Nitro) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeQrdADGs0M

RIP

They had posted the list on instagram two days ago. Not sure who posted first Jimmy here or Flo on instagram. I suppose if one starts as many conversations as Jimmy a few will gain traction and make it on FRL. https://www.instagram.com/p/CslishPuL57/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGDJXW5ZtEk The Bad Guy says Fraser and Russell came up with the RTC system in a van he was in sometime in the late 1990s. He also says Albert Ferrari is on the Iowa campus and he is going to hit the weight room with him.

I agree with 1032004 on this. You should compare to last year only if that athlete is returning, but not when a transfer replaces a spot occupied by a graduating senior or someone leaving the team. For example Nagao's impact at PSU should not be measured against RBY's performance this year PSU would have lost RBY's points anyway. If Nagao didn't transfer PSU would be putting out Timothy Levine, Karl Shindledecker, Baylor Shunk, Gary Steen, Marco Vespa, or Braedon Davis? Nagao's impact would be replacing one of them in the lineup.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsjpxdpO_YD/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== He'd be the first to win 5 Olympic golds in wrestling should he pull it off. With Rulon also planning a comeback could he retire another legend in their final Olympic games?

The main motivation would not be holding to a weight class that is too big or too small up to a month before the trials. It's true that both should have completed their degrees or certainly could be by the end of next season. I even think 184 is sub optimal if Lewis is fixing to go 86kg. The word is that Aaron Brooks will go 197 next season for an Olympic run at 86kg. Amine move up to 197 for the last Olympics.

Lewis? Is that likely? Wrestlestat still has him at 174 for next year. I'd think it would make more sense fore Starocci and Lewis to take an Olympic redshirt for a run at 74kg than bump up to 184lbs/86kg.

Not sure. Fix and Vito both have another year should they choose to use it. I'd guess it's possible they switch weights if they choose to wrestle to better align with an Olympic weight, but I'd pick either over Nagao next season. If they sit out they could use an olympic redshirt and return the next year. In the long term, Nagao may be he the biggest impact as only he and Vionovich have 3 years remaining and Mesenbrink is the only one with 4. Nagao could have 3 top 3 finishes at PSU.

Do you mean 184 or 174? I am not sure if Griffith goes 174 or 165. I think the chances of him going 184 are slim. Wrestlestat has him at 174 and my statements were assuming he goes up to 174. My thoughts were that Lewis and Starocci at 174 would be as tough for him to get past as O'Toole and Carr at 165. He could win either weight, but I think Truax is more likely to win 184 or 197 (Do we know for sure where he will be either?) than Griffith is to win 165 or 174.

Problem is he is moving into a weight that also has two returning NCAA champs (Lewis and Starocci). I'll say Truax scores the most points at NCAA points on that list. Probably not the biggest impact as PSU would win the title without him. Biggest impact in terms of accounting for the largest % of his team's NCAA point total would be Seth Nevills. Michigan will have the most NCAA points from transfers collectively and Griffith might be that sweet spot of highest % of team points for a trophy team.

They sold out the last time they were supposed to be in State College (2020). Tickets were half the price then. B cause of COVID they ended up being held in Fort Worth, TX at reduced capacity. This presale was for people who had purchased tickets for the 2020 trials in State College that were cancelled.

The tickets were definitely more expensive. I recall that there were upper level tickets available for $58 or $102 last time. This time they were closer to $250. Lower level tickets seems about 2x more expensive as well. There were definitely some shenanigans with the ticket prices this time. I saw some seats where seats 1 and 2 in the row were $20.50 more than seats 3 and 4. They were sold in pairs so I'm not sure if seat 1 was $20.50 more, it was $10.25 extra split evenly over the two seats, or distributed some other way. In any event, I had never seen a premium for seats at the end of a row like that.

Are you not entertained?