fishbane

The same way I can accurately say David Taylor improved at PSU. I don't see how I cherry picked anything. I literally listed every transfer that made the lineup. It's too difficult to tell if Kurt McHenry improved when he was never a starter at Michigan and never a starter at PSU. You and other don't want to count improvements of Lawson, Mesenbrink, Kerkvliet, etc. I already explained why I said Dean and Sanderson were improved at PSU. Can you not follow the line of thinking at all? Sanderson 2009 at ISU 20-9, 4th Big 12, 2-2 DNP NCAAs. 2010 at PSU 32-7, Big Ten Champ, 6th NCAAs. Max Dean at Cornell 54-12, EIWA Champ, 8th and 2nd at NCAAs, failed to qualify for the 2021 OTTs. At PSU 48-6, Big Ten champ, NCAA Champ, NCAA 7th place, qualified for the 2024 OTTs.

That is the point. Some people were saying all these transfers into PSU "got worse." I put it in quotes. They did not. There was a reason for that. Truax changing weights and his NCAA performance dropping from 4th to 5th is not what I would call getting worse. Some disagree. Suriano was also missing in 2021, but perhaps you didn't mention him because his addition offset Lee's absence. I think Hildebrandt had a good tournament in 2021, but there was also an element of good fortunate at play. Some of the best guys sat out and he wrestled an abbreviated MAC-only schedule. He entered NCAAs undefeated (10-0) and in that field it got him the 4 seed. He made the semis and the best wrestler he had to beat to get there was Brody Teske, which he did in OT. Teske wrestled an abbreviated Big 12-only schedule to a 12-1 record which was good enough for the 5th seed. Teske's only regular season loss was to Courtney (ASU) and his best win was over Mastrogiovanni (OSU). The 4 and 5 seeds typically enter NCAAs with more impressive wins than Mastrogiovanni (21 seed) and Noah Surtin (18 seed). Hildebrandt went on to beat Latona in the consi semis 5-4 and ultimately finished 4th. His win over Latona that year at NCAAs is the only time in his entire career he beat an AA after they had AAed (Latona was guaranteed top 6 finish at the time of the match). It was just a weird year and Hildebrandt made the most of it. If Hildebrandt had wrestled a Big Ten schedule in 2021 he isn't the 4 seed. This is exactly what happened the next year at PSU. He also had some bad luck with the draw. He drew Noto in the first round and then would have had to beat Teske, McKee and Cardinale on the trot to make the podium. So 4th in 2021 to 1-2 in 2022 was caused by 1) a weaker field, 2) good luck with the draw from the MAC only schedule in 2021 vs Big Ten schedule and bad luck with the draw in 2022, and 3) parity - beating Teske in OT in 2021 and losing to him in 2022. Hildebrandt wasn't noticeable worse at PSU. I did this to prove a point. This too. It makes as much sense as saying Gabe Dean "got worse" at PSU.

No idear. Unlike Buchanan, Teemer, and Angelo Ferrari, he isn't in the Iowa directory. https://iam.uiowa.edu/whitepages/search/

Perhaps they had a slightly worse result at NCAAs than the best result at their previous institution, but it isn't the whole picture. I also think the assessment that they "got worse" is false for a majority of them. Look at Hildebrandt for example. He was 4th in 2021 and DNPed at PSU in 2022. 125lbs at the 2021 NCAA tournament had to be one of the weakest weights in recent memory. You could take almost any place winner in that bracket and they failed to place higher in subsequent seasons. Spencer Lee, Brandon Courtney, Pat McKee, Drew Hildebrandt, Sam Latona, Taylor LaMont - they all "got worse." Hildebrandt only lost five matches at PSU - Suriano, McKee, DeAugustino, Noto, and Teske. McKee and DeAugustino he lost those guys and never beat them at CMU. Suriano and Noto are probably better than peak CMU Hildebrandt. The argument that he got worse essentials is he lost to Teske at NCAAs in 2022 and beat him in OT in 2021. If he regressed at PSU it wasn't by much.

I think he just repeated Sonnen's take from the bad guy's FRL appearance that same week.

Jenkins improved at ASU, but is a close call like Sanderson. Everyone is pointing how Cael Sanderson was Cyler Sanderson erstwhile coach at ISU. Berge transferred from Sanderson back to Sanderson too. PSU->SDSU->PSU.

Jimmy Lawson wasn't placing at NCAAs out of high school. He definitely improved at PSU. I don't know what your are getting at. Admittedly Long, Dean, Truax, and Sanderson were close calls. Long and Truax each placed one spot lower at PSU. Long had a better record, better seed, and won a conference title at PSU. It seemed like it was too close to call to me. Truax is a better case for regression. He was 4th thrice at Cal Poly and 5th at PSU. He also had more losses, but that could be higher strength of schedule in the Big Ten. It would really be picking nits to say he regressed. Putting Clyer in the improved pile was close. His best season at ISU was very similar to his single season at PSU. I would have had him at no change if that had been the season before he arrived at PSU, but he transferred after his junior year. That season he was 20-9 and 2-2 at NCAAs. The next year he was 32-7, Big Ten Champ, and 6th. The more compelling case why he shouldn't be included in an analysis of PSU transfers is of course that Sanderson was his previous coach. Dean I think is pretty clearly in the improved at PSU group. He was 8th and 2nd at Cornell and 1st and 7th at PSU and was up a weight at PSU. He also lost more matches in his best season at Cornell than his entire time in Happy Valley.

It probably comes down to small numbers. Plenty of transfers have improved at PSU under Cael. I think below is the list of transfers that made the starting lineup during his tenure. I think the only ones that definitively were worse at PSU were Conel, Hildebrandt, and Nagao. Nagao still has time to turn things around. Cyler Sanderson - Best finish at ISU was 7th. At PSU he was Big Ten champ and finished 6th. Improved. Andrew Long - Was a national runner up at ISU. He was 3rd at PSU and has a slightly better record. No change. Jimmy Lawson - 1x AA finishing 6th as a senior. Improved. Jered Cortez - Similar performance as Illinois. No change. Carson Kuhn - Similar performance. No change. Brady Berge - Similar performance. No change. Kyle Conel - 3rd place finish at the year before was an anomaly. Injured. Worse at PSU. Greg Kerkvliet - National Champ. Improved. Max Dean - National Champ. Improved. Drew Hildebrandt - Better at CMU. Worse at PSU. Mitchel Messenbrink - National runner-up. Improved. Aaron Nagao - better at MN, but has two years left. Worse at PSU. Bernie Truax - 4th 3x at Cal Poly. 5th at PSU. No change.

Iowa already did this for at least two duals last season. Against Cal Baptist and Oregon State they wrestled 133 Brody Teske 141 Real Woods 149 Victor Voinovich 157 Jared Franek 165 Michael Caliendo 184 Brennan Swafford All six were transfers. By the end of the season Voinovich lost his spot to Rathjen and Swafford was assessed a gambling ban that had been overlooked. At time throughout the year Schriever wrestled in favor over Teske, but Teske had regained the spot by Big Tens.

It's more clever than his attempt to blame Glazier and the fans in his interview with Clash of Combat immediately after the Salute.

He seems to be embracing it, which given his position may be his best play. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-K--U3JSr6/?igsh=MWlheGdleGtuNzRlOQ==

It's even worse than that. They only entered 9 wrestlers at PAC-12s last year. 8 of them went 0-3 finishing in 6th place. Despite the name there are only 6 teams in the PAC-12 and they had 5th place matches at the tournament. So 8 of their 9 wrestlers were dead last. The last guy you correctly pointed out was 1-2. He finished 5th.

Maybe they blew the entire budget getting Ferrari on campus in the first place?

Maybe they kept them vacant intentionally. They will use the money to hire a videographer to document Ferrari and security to keep him out of trouble instead of assistant coaches?

The Bakersfield team site only has a head coach listed (Luke Smith) with both assistant positions vacant. They should probably hire some coaches first. They are a team coming off an 0-12 season with a head coach and no assistants...

Greco did have one of the biggest story lines of the 2024 games - Lopez winning a 5th gold. This may have influenced the poll.

Razambek Zhamalov received a parade in Dagestan. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-7t2zLs_t5/?igsh=YzJkY3ExZ3oyaXox

8. Is Nick Lee going to be actively competing now that's he's an assistant coach. Even if Dake is done along with Lee and everyone else Jimmy listed NLWC still has Lilledahl, Bartlett, Haines, Messenbeink, Facundo, Starocci, Brooks, Dean, Mirasola, Snyder, and Kerkvliet who all qualified for the last Olympic trials. HWC only had two wrestlers at the OTT Spencer Lee and Alex Marinelli. Marinelli retired. Spencer sounds like he's on the fence. Sure they picked up Buchannon and Teamer, but they are still way behind.

During Nolf's match one of the announcers mentioned that he is moving to Austin. Does this mean the end of his wrestling career?

Nolf vs Rotuolo - https://www.youtube.com/live/IyneYOMCvI0?si=JNnQbuKffjkcBBjz&t=19595 Downey vs Rockhold - https://www.youtube.com/live/IyneYOMCvI0?si=ynL6uFV6sCcZvbw3&t=6010 Kerkvliet vs Andrew - https://www.youtube.com/live/IyneYOMCvI0?si=MlV-Et_qEvRekamF&t=10153 Downey vs Bradley - https://www.youtube.com/live/IyneYOMCvI0?si=28nvzv0F7zBxOOWe&t=14460

Nolf lost by kneeler in R3. Kerkvliet lost a unanimous decision. Downey defeated Rockhold by unanimous decision then lost a split decision in the quarters. Full matches are available on the B Team YouTube -

I thought Downey tapped due to exhaustion which at the conditioning level we saw at the Olympic Trials might be pretty fast this match was back in 2020. It was like 15 minutes into a no time limit match. Probably the worst possible rules for a match with a wrestler against Gordon.

Dake was somewhat old to be winning a title this year. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union (1993-current) only 12 World/Olympic titles have been won in men's freestyle after the winners 33rd birthday. Of those 12, one was stripped for doping violations and three were at non-olympic weights. Next Olympics Retherford will be 33, Dake will be 37, and Snyder will be a few month short of his 33rd birthday. Hard to bet that any of them will be closer to winning gold in 2028.

He was the English language announcer at the venue. He did a great job as usual and showed expanded range hyping the crowd with his arm dancing before the start of each session.

Different situation, Kyle Dake has not achieved everything on Taylor's list. National champion, world champion, Olympic champion. Dake is still missing the last one. If Taylor was still missing that I am sure he'd be more motivated to train/compete this year.