CHROMEBIRD

I was impressed with Haines in the postseason, but he got manhandled by AOC. He'll climb that list if he hits the weights this offseason. Also think the gap with Siebrecht is narrower than many believe.

I think they're just 2 different wrestlers. Gabe definitely was the more dynamic of the two but then again Max was making the most of his assets while wrestling up a weight (supposedly).

Did you go to Franklin Regional? Why so over Spencer?

The Hawkeyes don't need Ferraris, they need a Pinto.

Great to see that it went to the right candidate. Congratulations to Parris.

Lesnar Grajales? Did he pin/get pinned a lot? Shakur Rasheed for a while 125 kid from American University

gilman had fully functioning knees.

A while ago Darrion Caldwell said on a podcast or interview or something that not all wrestlers want to go to school in the cold (even Jersey kids) or on the other side of the country. He could have gone to Nebraska and had a good relationship with Manning but chose NC State. He didn't want to deal with those winters in Lincoln. It's too bad there aren't more D1 options in the South and Southwest, they would be attractive destinations for many. Easier to make weight too.

Yeah, I'm keeping my expectations in check bigtime. My bigger nightmare would be to see him dominate Worlds for 3 years and then miss the 2028 Olympic team in his last Final X match. That's not a jinx, just something I will steel myself for if we ever get to that point.

That's true about the gas tank. Even when he was in high school you could see that his conditioning was good but not great. He just hasn't wrestled a ton of full-length grinders in his career. The attitude comes with wrestling at Iowa and isn't necessarily a terrible thing.

Could also have been approached by someone not officially affiliated with the program, for example, a potential NIL sponsor. That's something that can happen now.

People get too quantitative with these GOAT rankings. Numbers are important but so is context. A win is not a win when comparing records. Sure there others with more wins but whenever Spencer won, it was very often an absolute manhandling. Pinning and teching so many opponents in the 1st period has to count for something. So should his leadership on the team and the excitement he brought to CHA and the sport itself. Those cannot be measured, but should be considered. But on the other hand.... I will say that a lot of the rankings and "best ever" talk these days should come with an asterisk, Spencer included. The bonus Covid year has thrown a wrench into the parity of college wrestling. There are more older wrestlers than ever competing with incoming kids who are much younger and less physically developed. That might partly explain why the NCAA finishers looked the way they did. A lot of the guys on the podium would've been gone by now if it wasn't for the freebie season.

Lizak was good from top, but he mostly rode and stalled. Zain put a hurting on his opponents from top, but didn't always turn them. Lee rode, wrecked, turned, and pinned opponents from top so often and so efficiently it would make Gene Mills blush. Nobody wanted to be underneath Spencer.

Oops! I now realize I may have been thinking of "olddirty" or someone similar. Who were you before?

Could be a confluence of factors. Many mentioned above, plus: 1. ESPN went all in on their coverage of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. Since they didn't have broadcast rights to the Men's March Madness they promoted the hell out of WBB on tv, on their web site, and on social media to the point where it drowned out their own (minimal) promotions of wrestling. 2. Moving coverage to ESPN+. The trend might be towards streaming, but a lot of wrestling fans skew older and many prefer to watch on TV. ESPN turned their backs on an entire segment of viewers by moving the full mat coverage off of ESPN3 and onto Plus. Additionally many younger viewers and former cord cutters are now economizing with their streaming. There are too many streaming platforms out there, killing you by a thousand papercuts, so people are making tough choices with their streaming subscriptions or resubscribing to cable. 3. Brick challenges. This is more long term, but the reviews are ridiculously long and extremely disruptive to the flow of matches. It's easy for people who watch live to get turned off by all the dead time during reviews, and instead catch the replay or highlights. NCAA needs to fix this before more fans are discouraged from watching (or attending) live wrestling matches.

I see you've upgraded to uppercase letters and spaces in your name, lol. Welcome!

Get a room you two!

Can Matt Ramos make 125 again next season? I thought he might have been bulking and growing himself into 133 even before he transferred to Purdue and was not wrestling up a weight last year. He does look slightly big for 125.

It would be kind of funny if a supplement company or something put up marketing banners on the ceiling during tournaments

The "dairy air" as we called it...

I thought it was foolish for Max Dean to bail, but he seems very very satisfied with his decision. Gave some great interviews after his last match of the tournament. I'm happy for him.

The article that @Tigerfan shared is quite enlightening. I respect Jesuroga's choice to go after his dream of becoming a SEAL but it sucks that making it through BUDS is almost arbitrary and Navy careers can bottom out from those who don't make it through the program. That's a big roll of the dice.

Dunno if criteria would work out in folk because of the scoring system. It would create a culture of cheap tilts for 4.

Joel. Good wrestler, but it remains to be seen if he's "Iowa Good" and can crack the lineup.