PNWfan

He brought this on himself.

I'm sure people watching ESPN saw Ferrari matside "coaching" Antrell Taylor and Chris Minto in the finals. Anyone think that is because he genuinely cares about his teammates and wants to coach them up? Or is it because he knows he will likely be seen on camera and sees it as an opportunity to bring more attention to himself?

I saw Hayden Hidlay post a "goodbye" note to Stanford on IG. He must know where he is headed next.

Dee Lockett and Facundo both DNP's for Okie State. Lockett was particularly surprising, although he had been living on the edge all season with tight matches against better opponents, and it seemed to finally catch up to him the final month.

Saw -200 when they released the lines and bet as much on Barr as they would allow me.

Typical DK, no parlays on individual titles and extremely low limits on the single individual bets.

Nebraska top 5 is -310. Top 3 is +200.

Good luck Lucas Byrd. Got exposed at Big10's and now will be wrestling in a stacked weight with a low-ish seed. The complete opposite scenario from last year, let's see if he AA's.

Can ESPN+ producers also make the decision to add riding time on the scorebug? I noticed they had it on there during the ACC Finals last night, so hopefully that is the norm for NCAA's.

RIP

Once Byrd's defense gets cracked through a little bit by some of these tougher youngsters, he will be in trouble. He won a natty last season by utilizing a very stingy defense and also benefiting from a weak weight class. His defense is still stingy, but the 133lb class is world's better than what we saw last year.

The post would have been far less confusing had he just given the actual win% for each wrestler. Fortunately, @BarSeries helped to clear that up.

If Jimmy pastry things Ok St is anywhere near 25% chance to outscore PSU (as he seems to suggest in his final paragraph), he should be running to the casino to get that bet placed on Ok St. Guessing their actual odds will be less than 5% likely. Run, Jimmy, run!

The only way I can make sense of the post is if they mean that between those 4 guys, there is an 85% one of them wins 133 lbs. Otherwise, it makes no sense.

Byrd's game is built on a rock solid defense where he minimizes scoring against high level opponents and grinds out close wins. The pin against Ayala in the Big10 finals was a fluke. Credit to him for seizing the opportunity and capitalzing, but that is not typically how he wrestles. I think Byrd gets top 6 at NCAA's, but I would be surprised to see him repeat with some of these young guns at the weight class that will really test him.

Easy-ish. Got a little dicey after Facundo lost. Even if Arnold didn't get screwed and beats Ryder to make it 17-14, 11.5 still likely cashes with Merrill getting tech or pin against Sampson, thus deciding the dual, and Doucet either getting a tech or pin against Marty (guessing Brands was only going to send Kueter out against Doucet if there was a possibility Iowa could win the dual going into HWT).

It is pretty bad. I think Van Ness is probably the best guy, but I would like to see him have to earn it at NCAA's. My fear is that won't happen.

Gilman lost me when he couldn't make it more than one year at Oklahoma State. He must be extremely abrasive and difficult to work with.

Wrong...it is good for the soul.

The ESPN+ Matcast octobox is the best way to go on Thursday, at least for the first session. Shane Sparks and Trent Hidlay did the commentary last year and were fantastic. It also allows you to see what is happening in every match, albeit in a smaller screen. The problem with ESPNU on Thursday is that they are going to be cutting to commercial during matches and they pick and choose which mats they are showing. ESPNU on Friday morning is okay, but they usually don't show all four mats at once. ESPN for the semis on Friday evening is great, they show both mats, interviews, etc. The only issue is the blood-round runs at the same time, so you will need another TV, computer, etc. if you want to see those matches. Is it March yet?????

Excellent point. May be a classic case of being a "tweener" at the Olympic weights. Wouldn't be the first time we have seen this; Zain Retherford always seemed to be best at 70kg.

Metcalf would make a lot of sense and he has been getting groomed as an assistant now for years. I'm sure he would love to take the next step in his career soon.

Exactly! These refs have become trained, especially in high level, high stakes matches, to just let these guys stand in the middle and do nothing for 3 minutes with no stall calls. I would be in favor of a freestyle pushout rule, I know that is controversial, but I think it would help to push the pace and encourage action. Yes, you will probably get some matches that turn into a sumo match, but is that worse than a 2-1 stall fest? I'd argue no.

Ferrari is to blame for how the match against Welsh unfolded. He chooses to wrestle ultra conservative against top competition and relies on either hoping to get one takedown or winning the match in SV with tough defense and rideout time. His defense is so great that most of the time that strategy works, but we saw how the script can flip in the match against Welsh. I think it also makes Ferrari more volatile at NCAA's when the margin on matches can get razor-thin as you get into the quarters/semis/etc.

Where has Kyler Larkin been? Does he not travel when ASU wrestles road duals?