Pa in Taiwan

You're absolutely right about Nolf. He WASN'T showing the flashy moves his freshman year. Haines is a monster, and if he comes back at 165 he will be at the top of the weight class with a few other guys. His developmental potential as a 19 year old, both in strength and in skills, combined with his chop wood, carry water attitude towards training, will see him making the MOST improvement of any 165 pounder. "People" saying Haines is not special are still disgruntled about the epic fail of their "got it in the bag GOAT" and the disintegration of the Iowa team, fighting it out for second place, light years behind PSU. Sour grapes indeed.

Utter bollocks, as my Brit friends say! Haines is just good?? He's not special?? After what you've seen in B1G and NCCAs?

McGee really brought it in the match with RBY, didn't he? Super impressed.

The worst thing about this is the effect it will have on Spencer Lee himself. Unwilling or unable to face the wrestling public, he forfeits out. Unwilling or unable to compete for third place, he turns his back on the Iowa squad, which he has constantly cited as his reason for wanting to win it all. Psychological problems could be avoided by putting on the singlet and wrestling in the consis. This is called moving on with life. Forfeiting out is the wrong thing to do; it allows the loss to fester and calcify. Spencer should have chosen to wrestle to cleanse it and himself.

Please see the following thread: Where does 1,1,1,6 rank among 3Xers?

No, he's not the GOAT. It's past time for the Hawkeye fans to recognize that what Tom Brands said about Spencer Lee being the best wrestler of all time was MOTOVATIONAL. Spencer Lee is a fantastic wrestler, a beast, a hammer; everyone knows this, and nobody denies it. He is NOT the GOAT, not at the NCAA level and certainly not at the global level in men's freestyle. I hope he finishes the tournament and gets third in his usual dominating fashion. It will help him get over this loss. I hope his knees are strong enough to wrestle for the 57kg spot on the US team. I believe that if he's healthy, he has a good shot at it. Rest well, Spencer. Life is long, and in the scheme of things, this is a big bump that you will recover and bounce back from.

Andonian did NOT want to wrestle that third period. This is the problem with getting up 6-0 early and then thinking that you can ride your lead to victory. NEVER stop wrestling to score points. Andonian became completely passive sometime in the middle of the second period, hoping that he could hang on and win. Big mistake. Haines is fit; he learned to chop wood and carry water from Nick Lee and David Taylor. He will continue coming.

"I go flying so high, when I'm stoned." No! Frequent flyers don't get ads of people "trying to do the dirty" on planes.

Never make comments about the nature of the advertising on YOUR computer. The algorithms choose ads based on your browsing and habits. Just saying.

And the long straps of the harnesses are connected to the pulleys of a mechanism under control of the refs, one that will pull the coaches three to five feet backwards when the refs hit a special button. Button can be used repeatedly if the coach steps on the mat. It would be a joy to watch some of these guys getting yanked back 6 or 10 feet when they get too noisy and aggressive.

This seems reasonable. I'm wondering how Spencer Lee is going to put together three wins over quality opponents all on the same day. I will NOT be surprised to see him lose this year. I agree that he is one of the most dominant wrestlers in NCAA wrestling today, but when you shut down after one period the way he did against McKee, people start to wonder. How would he fare in the next match in a tournament? Lee can make all the excuses they want, and whine that McKee didn't score any takedowns, but the third period I just watched had one wrestler creating offense, and it wasn't Spencer Lee. My God, he was staggering. I'm amazed he wasn't dinged for stalling! The earlier comment about Gilman resonates. Thomas Gilman DESTROYS this Spencer Lee.

Listen to the beginning of the video, where Taylor quickly secures his first takedown. "The last two matches, 33-2 in favor of Taylor, two technical falls." The applause you heard was for Moore. He avoided the technical fall.

And as for Tom Brands and his rating of Spencer Lee, I just wanted to tell LJB that I have both Uguev and Idrisov putting a beating on Spencer Lee.

I see Iranians in the brackets. Perhaps not the top guys, but they still represent the country.

Regarding the "PSU hate" or the "Iowa hate", folks just need to learn to ignore that stuff. It's a feature of modern life, at least for people who stay connected to any kind of social media. I was curiously surprised to find that Iowa wrestling news started appearing on my Facebook page, and I took a look at some of the comments after the loss. To say that it was loaded with coulda, woulda and shouldas is an understatement. Another curious phenomenon was the total lack of understanding of folkstyle wrestling; it mostly consisted of "Go Hawks". I immediately snoozed it forever. I would do the same for a PSU wrestling news thread on my page. I'd rather come online here once in a while; at least some of the people understand wrestling a bit.

Brands came into this match with a clear strategy, courtesy of Coach Brands. Slow the match as much as possible, stall as much as possible and don't give up points, and then try to steal it late with a Hail Mary takedown. Keep it a super low-scoring match. He almost succeeded. I agree with you that Starocci also contributed greatly to the snoozefest by wrestling a very conservative match. Perhaps Cael is to blame for this by telling him to make sure to get the W and not much more. In my neck of the woods, Taiwan, the match started at 10:30am. I got up and had to make a decision. Should I go climb Monkey Mountain on a beautiful, cool Saturday morning (Yes, your Friday night is my Saturday morning), or should I stay home and listen to the match on gopsusports radio broadcast. I decided to get outside and climb the mountain and come down and catch the end of the dual meet. I'm so glad that I did. I came down and immediately checked what was up. It was 174. I rode my scooter home and caught 197 and Hwt. on the online radio broadcast. I felt energized by my workout on the mountain and had zero regrets for missing this snoozefest of a dual meet live. I expect that B10s and the National Championships will feature some fireworks from both of these teams.

I was quite surprised to hear that Cael's record at PSU vs. Iowa is now 6 wins against 5 losses.

Say the score, clown: PSU 23- Iowa 14. Now, tell me how that swing works that gives Iowa the chance. Does Assad beat Aaron Brooks?

He was in that range tonight.

I look forward to Kerk as the US senior men's wrestling representative after a few more years in the room at PSU and the NLWC.

This is an extremely reasonable viewpoint, and it highlights the value of this dual meet. This value is the fact that the tight matchups and tossups in the PSU/Iowa lineups make this a dual meet that could really go anywhere. It's really good for NCAA wrestling. Homers of both stripes are excited and worried, excited that their squad could pull it off, but worried that they may lose as well, for the opposing team is formidable and capable of bringing top game. It will be decided by individual performances, especially in the weights 141-167, but also of course in the two final weight classes, 197 and HWT. To my fellow wrestling fans from both camps I say "Enjoy! This is what it's all about!". And I remind you to stay respectful on the comment boards. After all, even a loss can be revenged in B10s and the NCAA Championship Tournaments. Imagine that some of these swing matches may be taking place three times over the next two months!

He won't need to wait for the Russians or Iranians to find no hesitation in attacking those knees. Gilman, Vito, and the rest of the US field at 57kg will be all over Spencer's knees.

Dreaming bro! Woods only wrestles in the first period. Then he gasses. I've got Bartlett over Woods, and that may be a stretch, but Woods majoring Bartlett? Even more of a stretch! He led 8-0 with 2 minutes of riding time at the end of the first period against Joseph Zargo, unranked but a tough kid. He won that match by decision, 9-2. In other words, he didn't score a point in the second or third periods, and he even got dinged for stalling in the third! Woods is not in top shape, and if Bartlett can weather the first period without giving up a lot of points, he will win the match in the second and third periods.

Cael says nix to that.

That's a lot of commentary about a match that's not going to happen. SVN is wrestling 149; Woods is at 141. Bartlett will meet Woods, and I agree with one conclusion from Wrestleknownothing, namely that 17 people choosing Woods and only one choosing Bartlett is the biggest surprise here. Now if we were calling the match according to who will be in the lead after the first period, I would agree with the Woods supporters. Unfortunately for Woods, it's a seven-minute match, and I predict that he gasses.