TylerDurden

Going through this, I was surprised that there were only two weights I hesitated at all to pick a winner: 141 and 197. For me, the other eight weights had clear favorites. Wt. - Winner, School - Confidence (10 being most confident) 125 - Spencer Lee, Iowa (10) - I don't see anyone in the field who can beat him. 133 - Roman Bravo Young, Penn State (8) - There are a couple of potential landmines in Fix and Vito, but they're on the other side of the bracket. 141 - Andrew Alirez, Northern Colorado (2) - Pretty low confidence in this pick, but not because of Alirez and his talent. Woods is definitely a contender (and perhaps the true favorite) and there have been close matches among the top seeds in this weight. I could see this bracket going crazy, despite two unbeaten wrestlers. 149 - Yanni Diakomihalis, Cornell (9) - Despite the early loss to Gomez, I can't see anyone clipping Yanni. 157 - Austin O'Connor, North Carolina (6) - O'Connor got a pretty good draw, IMO. Not much in his path to the final, whereas the bottom half is much more competitive. Lewan might keep the score close, and Franek could do the same, but those scores will be lying to you as AOC cruises into the final. 165 - David Carr, Iowa State (4) - Crazy bracket at 165. To me, Carr is the clear favorite, but I can't feel too confident when you have this amount of quality in the field. 174 - Carter Starocci, Penn State (7) - This is a battle for second between Lewis and Labriola. Starocci is on his way to being one of the best ever 184 - Aaron Brooks, Penn State (3) - I should have Brooks higher on my confidence ranking, because I think he's a top 5 NCAA wrestler, but I can't ignore Hidlay and Keckeisen. Brooks is better than both, but likely will have to beat both to win. 197 - Nino Bonaccorsi, Pitt (1) - Nino is the default pick as the No. 1 seed, but I don't have any confidence in this. Dean/Allred are 8/9 - both could beat Nino. 197 is not for the faint of heart. Wouldn't be surprised to see any of these guys win: Nino, Dean, Allred, Beard, Laird, Elam, Warner (yes, Warner), Trumble, Sloan, Cardenas, Truax. HWT - Mason Parris, Michigan (5) - Parris is healthy this year and looks fantastic...BUT...there are guys in this field who can beat him and based on that, I give Parris a 50/50 shot at a title.

I feel really bad for Lee. He was (is) a great wrestler, but injuries have made him a shell of his former self. Does he have another year of eligibility? A change of scenery might do him well. Indiana, perhaps?

Losing to Vito and RBY isn't exactly going to shake things up because 1.) RBY is the top seed, clearly, and 2.) Vito isn't in the conference. Mendez has earned the No. 2 seed at the B1G Tournament. The good news for Byrd is that he'll have a chance to wrestle in the same tournament on the same side of the bracket. Hopefully he won't be devastated because of his seeding and wrestles to the best of his ability. Side note: Does Illinois care about its wrestling team? I wanted to check Byrd's results and the stats link on the Illini website has 21-22 final stats. That's horrible for a B1G school.

Indeed. He was moving his arms, grabbing and rolling wrists, but he was stalling for the final minute or so. On the other hand, Cass was pretty much lying on his stomach, and not truly making any attempt to escape, so he didn't get the benefit of a stall call. I think I counted 3 times he raised his chest up, but it wasn't a true effort and the wrist rolls stopped that action. Gas tank was empty. If the official called a stalemate, I wouldn't have been upset at all.

I really feel for Brayton Lee. Guy was wrestling really, really well last season before the injury. He's definitely not that guy this year. His pace is much slower. I hope he can rediscover his fight and make a good run.

I *think* it could be a cut issue. He wrestled last HS season at 152, if I recall correctly. D1 is a grind, especially if he's cutting hard. Of course, it could just be the grind. Guy is a true freshman, he was bound to take some lumps. It happens.

I think this is correct. CJ himself is a big name with current HS kids, but his dad and his dad's club ties are also significant. Either way, I think Angel is on the right track and I hope he hits that home run in recruiting that he needs to jump levels.

Indiana has a *chance* to finish its B1G schedule at .500, something it hasn't done since 2009-10. IU is at or near the bottom of the B1G in resouces for the wrestling program. Getting them to a competitive (relatively, of course) position is a decent accomplishment. Angel gets his guys to compete hard. The trick is landing recruits talented enough to translate that work rate into podium finishes. The state of Indiana has produced some really talented wrestlers. Keeping them at the state's flagship institution would dramatically shift their fortunes. My guess is that it would take convincing a cohort of tops guys to come at the same time to really shift recruiting. Would also take at least some leap of faith. However, if I knew how to convince HS kids to join a program, I'd probably be on staff. Off the top of my head, these guys are the recent category of wrestler from Indiana that I'm referencing - could fill out a decent chunk of your roster with guys like this. Nick Lee, Penn State Chad Red, Nebraska Mason Parris, Michigan Lucas Davison, Northwestern Jesse Mendez, Ohio State Brayton Lee, Minnesota Silas Allred, Nebraska Zeke Seltzer, Missouri If you go back a bit more, add Jason Tsirtsis, Andrew Howe, Reece Humphrey, Angel Escobedo, etc. I think the potential is there...probably going to take a NIL booster to help it along.

I don't know that there needs to be a wholesale alteration of the rules, but I would be in favor or reevaluating the value each scoring move holds. Changing the point value changes how people wrestle. I would guess that if you increased the value of a takedown to 3 points and increased the penalty for stalling to 2 points, you'd see a different approach to a match.

I think you saw underdogs doing what they could to keep it close and the referee allowing them to not wrestle. Barlett, for instance, wanted no part of an offensive attempt against Woods. He squared up and defended all the way to a loss. Could have been dinged several times for stalling. Brands did nothing against Starocci. If the referee was so inclined, he could have stalled him out, yet he only got hit once, I believe. Perhaps the referee decided that he wasn't going to decided the outcome. This dual reminded me (again) that stalling is the most inconsistently called rule in the sport. Also, one of these guys is actually going to stick Spencer Lee with that cradle. That's twice in the last couple of weeks he's found himself inches away from being stuck.

I can see Iowa winning anywhere from one match to seven. I'm not brave enough to predict either extreme. 125- Lee pins Steen 6-0 Iowa I think most agree this outcome is the most likely one in the dual. 133- RBY > Teske 6-4 Iowa Teske is game, but in this dual, at home, RBY gets bonus. I'll say major, but it could be more. 141- Woods dec. Bartlett 9-4 Iowa This, to me, is the best match of the dual. If Bartlett wins (and he definitely can), Iowa has no chance in this dual. 149- Murin dec. SVN 12-4 Iowa I'm not confident with this pick. Murin is a veteran, but has one quality win all year. Van Ness hasn't shown he has the offense to beat a guy like Murin yet, thus the pick. 157- Haines dec. Siebrecht 12-7 Iowa Assuming it's Haines, I think he wins a 5-3 sort of match. 165- Facundo dec. Kennedy 12-10 Iowa Facundo is the choice for two primary reasons: 1. He's at home. 2. I expect this to be a one-point match. This one is a toss-up. I'd pick Kenedy if this were in Carver. 174- Starocci majors Brands 14-12 PSU Brands has wrestled a tough schedule and, to his credit, has kept things close against the top-10 guys. Problem is, he hasn't beaten either and they aren't as good as Starocci. This one could go for more than a major. 184- Brooks dec Assad 17-12 PSU I'd like to give Brooks more, but their bout history suggests a decision. 197- Dean dec. Warner 20-12 PSU Similar to Brooks/Assad, their history suggests Dean by decision. 285- Cass dec. Kerk 20-15 PSU Their history suggests Cass should win a decision and I'll pick that in the same fashion as 84/97 for consistency's sake, but I think Kerk is going to win this.