PencilNeck

Don’t forget military service.

Ten over two equals nine.

Excuse me, Flo, what's the suit du jour?

you really think this would discourage stalling?

RAGBRAI’s overnight town tonight is Ames, IA, the home of Iowa State University. Lebron James (of “the announcement” fame) was known to be a frequent bicycle commuter. Therefore you have to assume that G.S also likes bicycles. Therefore he is probably going to announce he is going to wrestle for ISU next year.

8 of the bottom 14 teams in the B1G…

Honestly, a good stalling tactic if you’re winning but gassing and about to give up an escape or reversal might be to base out and allow the reversal. Then your opponent has to consider if they should cut you meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking… okay, that’s a terrible idea, but in just the right situation…maybe?

Wanna bet on that?

kind of like having half a dozen ways to beat up another athlete including boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo, and two styles of wrestling...

If you're going to magically change rules for maximum fairness, why not wish for a maximum two entries per country instead of just one. That's the real issue here (I know, in deference to smaller countries getting changes to medal, this is not ever going to happen). If you want to double-dip, you can enter free and greco. you cannot wrestle two weight classes in the same event in the same meet though.

What about Lee and Yianni vs Steveson.

Interesting list. Is it too pedantic to point out that with Ruth, Taylor, and Stieber, you're counting a lot of titles, placings, and points from over 10 years ago?

I may come off as a scold here, but do 9 year-olds really need to be playing tackle football?

Will there be an NIL deal for cigarettes? Seems like it would send the wrong message.

Yeah! I miss reversals.

I wouldn't really expect statistical significance on the change in pinfalls. It's different wrestlers, and college guys are good at avoiding getting pinned. however, more techs means fewer minutes wrestling, so it's near certain that during some of those minutes and seconds that weren't wrestled, there likely would have been some falls happening. and if even of one of those missed pins happens in a close dual... The first college match i attended in 2016, I saw a 7pt move. It was sweet. takedown, backpoints, and then i think injury time. Of course if you give up a 7 pt move, make an escape, and then earn just two takedowns under new rules you're only trailing 8-7 at that point. the example of the 7pt move to earn a major at the end is an interesting one though! I guess the moral of the story is stay off your back. that would seem kind of like a cheap major, but not as bad as getting pinned in overtime. that never seemed like it should be worth the full 6 points (or whatever it is in a tournament) to me.

Techs will likely go up due to more points available for the same scoring sequences. Pinfalls could go up or down. Obviously making techs easier will mean you have less time to pinfall your opponent, so fewer pinfalls due to that. However, incentivizing takedowns could mean more on the feet wrestling, people choosing neutral, etc. Now, if the number of takedowns increases, the opportunities for taking an opponent down to his back (a better way to pinfall an opponent than stalling with an ankle ride or whatever) also increases. of course that also means more NF, so quicker techs from that as well, but any time you get someone on his back, especially in a good hold and not a cheap tilt, you increase the odds of a pinfall. So - Techs almost certainly up, pinfalls a bit undetermined, but likely slightly down, and majors certainly up. I like that we'll see more majors because you can give an absolutely dominating performance and win like 6-0. Will be nice to see some of those matches earn bonus points because 6-0 or 8-2 or 10-4 under 2 pt TDs for college wrestling is a dominating performance.

My middle school coach used to do this. When starting from the heavy weights and going the other direction, he'd declare the smallest 70lber in the room as the toughest wrestler on the team once he finally scored a takedown on a tired lightweight guy.

super versatile! could likely fill in at any weight class, coach, and provide color commentary all at the same time.

Well, that’s silly. Why should a pin later in the match after you’ve turned the opponent multiple times and failed to pin them for several minutes count for more than a first period fall. I think dual scoring is pretty close to perfect already, but I do love the idea of penalizing forfeits in some way. Seems like that should be worth more points than a pinfall actually.

I-N-I!

This does explain a lot.

What’s with the cast? 300k followers? Seems pretty impressive actually. Also impressive to me are these top varsity athletes doing the 4 year plan despite what would have been easy to spread out to 5 because of the redshirt season starting out. Illinois attracts some smart athletes. speaking of attracts. That’s a really good looking couple!

As a fan who discovered the Illini wrestling blog this past year myself, perhaps Edmond is also a reader. for example, this post https://illiniwrestling.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-illini-b1g-tournament-preview-vol-3.html?m=1 “ 165. DANNY BRAUNAGEL The ILLINI has faced injuries again this year, with the latest being a progressively larger wrap on his hand until he missed the last dual against Iowa State. The time off was likely for recuperative purposes, but I have no insider knowledge about that. ” see, if Dan’s hand was giving him trouble in recent memory, he probably wasn’t drilling his scissors motions back when he was wrestling with a wrap or tape or whatever on his hand. So a safe bet would be that Dan would choose paper or rock. If paper ties paper and paper beat rock, the value of Ruth choosing paper might be 0.75 (out of 1). Similarly, scissors vs paper (win) or rock (loss) has a ex ante value of 0.5. Rock would be the worse choice in this scenario, as the value is 0.25 (tie vs rock, loss car paper). however, Danny, an academic all-district honoree (whatever that is) So he probably KNEW that Edmond KNEW, and practiced scissors before the face off, or perhaps Dan just used his other hand. Though I wonder if Edmond knew that Dan knew about the scissors practice…however, if Dan was extra astute, he probably counted on Edmond knowing that Dan knew that Edmond knew that Dan knew about Edmonds initial strategy, and that is likely what made the difference. either way, a fun moment between teammates. both gents are among of my favorite Illini to watch wrestle. Hoping for big things from both next year, though I am kind of curious who would have won in a real match. I’d guess Edmond, but that’s based on watching them in duals during the season and the fact he’s maybe a bit bigger but I have no idea how they match up in practice, plus this was Greco, so who knows.

There is no better wrestling name than that of the 2-time AA HWT from Illinois, Karl Roesler.