Packard

So the standard of being the best is too much for Iowa? That’s an interesting take. Even so, the standard doesn’t have to be as high as beating Penn State. How about produce a National Champion? Just one besides Spencer Lee. They’re able to bring in the best recruits, have every resource you could possibly need, recruit half their roster from the Portal, and still… no individuals stand at the top of the podium. They scrape by just getting somebody into the finals! If Tom and Terry were as great as you claim you’d think somebody could sneak onto the podium (outside of a generational talent)

Mainly because Spencer Lee came into college ready to be a multiple time national champion. He could have gone to NDSU and won 2 nattys. So, take out a generational talent that didn’t require much coaching and Iowa hasn’t had a national champion since 2017. In that time span, off the top of my head, VA Tech, Northern Iowa, and Cornell have all had multiple people win a natty. For the premier program in college wrestling that seems like an underperforming program.

The Brands and Iowa underperformed as usual. They consistently do the least with the most resources. Take Spencer Lee out and they Cory Clark was their last National Champion - in 2017.

We saw Bo Nickal bashing Greco and Kamal Bey responded. The Greco faithful love to say Greco is the most popular style in the world. What data do they have to support this?

I’ve enjoyed the format. Great opportunity to see our athletes that I don’t normally watch. Greco is… well Greco. Those athletes deserve as much recognition as any others. However, I am perplexed why 57 and 65 just wrestled this morning. Can’t make sense of that.

Elore/Molinari. Do we not teach a head in the hole cradle in the international styles?

Is it possible to score a TD in Greco Heavyweight?

It was hard for Nolf to even make contact with Dake for the majority of the match. What’d he supposed to do just dive from across the mat?

Passivity is more confusing than stalling. Dake backs up and circles the entire second period while Nolf chases, or stands in the middle, but Nolf gets put on the clock?

Did Snyder leave NLWC?

I don’t watch freestyle enough to criticize officials, but I see wrestlers compare how US officials call matches vs international officials. Wouldn’t it make sense to bring in some international refs for these tournaments so we get a sense of how matches will be called?

So Burroughs has to take out the entire NLWC to make the Olympics? Feels like a video game.

That’s a good point I’ve wondered about myself. It seems the portal guys that come to PSU are not the same style as the HS recruits. They all seem to be stingy defensive guys that win close matches, but never open up offensively. It seems really odd the contrast.

PSU is obviously at a standard not seen for a long time. I doubt anybody can come in to Iowa and overtake the Cael machine right now, but Iowa fans should expect to be the clear second best team. Sure, over the last five years they’ve have the second best overall finishes, but they are still not the dominate team. Instead of putting 4 or 5 guys in the semis with 3 making it to the finals, they are crossing their fingers, hoping on a wing and a prayer, to get 1 guy to the finals. The expectation isn’t dominated 2nd and competing for 1st, it’s hoping to continue traditions. Although other coaches haven’t elevated programs to Iowa levels, what could Dresser, Schwab, Pop, Grey, or any number of guys do with the resources that Iowa has?

In many cases the gambling case and Ferrari would be job killers. Iowa has always been “no excuses get better”, but the gambling probe was nothing but excuses. Brands never really took responsibility. It was just the blame game. Compound that with having a new AD who served this past fall as the interim. While she was trying to get the job as AD she had to deal with a legal investigation and then had to tell Brands he couldn’t bring in a wrestler because of bad PR. That can’t leave a good taste in her mouth. Have to wonder how her experience with the Ferentz OC situation influenced her as well. A lot to unpack. Hard to imagine their aren’t some changes coming down the Hawkeye way.

Haha good point.

It’s not really an irrelevant response to point out those factors. Theirs no evidence that Taylor would be interested in leaving PA to go be the HC at Iowa. Especially not anytime soon. In fact the evidence shows the opposite based on actions which show setting down roots. Sure, Cael going to PSU was a surprise, but at least there was evidence he wanted a coaching challenge. Take for example he was actually a college coach. It’s not really a leap to say DT replacing the Brands is unlikely.

The DT rumors seem ridiculous. Kinda like JB being mentioned a few years ago. But it sparks the question of who would be a better replacement for Iowa? Change for the sake of change rarely works out. When Zalesky was fired you had the Brands waiting in the wings who were over achieving in their coaching careers. Who is doing that now and would they be a fit at Iowa? I have a hard time seeing Gable giving the go ahead to fire the Brands and that definitely plays a role. So do you make changes at the assistant level?

Did anybody see the interview with Brands last night? Sounded like he was on the verge of tears the entire time. Does he know something? Iowa finished fifth behind Iowa State. Two Iowa schools had a national champion (Iowa State and UNI). Iowa had four AAs, the same amount as Arizona State and VA Tech. None of the Hawkeyes finished the season with a win as they lost in their placement match. Out of 43 matches they scored bonus points in 11 of them. Probably the worst part for the Hawkeyes were the season storylines. They started the season with a gambling investigation/suspension, halfway through the season AJ Ferrari dominated the headlines, the Big10 storyline had nothing to do with Iowa competing for a championship, but whether they could keep the streak alive of halting a finalists - which luckily Glazier limped into the finals. Then the NCAA championships had no discussion of Iowa competing, but could they keep the final streak alive - the same story as last year. Going back to 2015 the Hawkeyes have only had multiple finalists TWICE. Just doesn’t seem like the Hawkeyes are moving in the right direction.

125 for sure. Fig spent the entire match back pedaling. It’s hard for Ayala to even force action when he’s literally chasing the entire match.

I imagine Hidlay will spend 65% of the match with one foot out of bounds.

125 - Wanna pick Figs as he’s had a great tournament, but I’m going Ayala. He’s apparently the only person the Brands have been coaching all season. 133 - Vito. Set the over/under of Fix’s shots at .5 and I’ll take the under 141 - Hard to pick against PSU on Saturday night, but Mendez comes out on fire and forces the action. Beau can’t score enough in the last 20 seconds to win 149 - If I had money I would pick Gomez, but since it’s a free Internet forum I’m going with the Georgia boy. Henson gets our first national title! 157 - Haines. 165 - Carr, like Fix, is a frustrating watch. An elite talent that wrestles the most boring matches 99% of the time. Mitchell makes him wrestle for 7 minutes and wins his first Natty 174 - Starroci 184 - Parker. Good for UNI. Fully believe if Schwab, or Dresser, were at Iowa it would be a more respectable program 197 - Brooks. Terrible decision to put this on last. Will be the worst match of the evening. The only question is how many miles will Brooks run chasing down Hidlay. If the officials called this match correctly Hidlay would be stalled out before the third period. 285 - Was really looking forward to a fired up Bastida or Hendrickson taking on Kerk, but I think Davidson will bring it tonight. Kerk is just too good though and wins his first.

It’s fairly obvious the Iowa guys aren’t improving greatly in the room. Many regress it seems, but is it any wonder? One of the assistants was known as MorningSTALL and the other was a heavyweight with a limited offense. And people wonder why they can’t keep up?

Isn’t this the story with Mizzou every year? Every year they get pumped up coming into the tourney and invariably under perform (based on seeds and expectations).

You call this mediocre? Doubtful Iowa places top 5. Sad thing is when Penn State has though 6 and 7 place years it’s because they redshirted everybody and are loading up for another 4 year run. This is the best team Iowa can come up with. Not looking much better in the future either.