goheels1812

Dean Heil. Guy tried to pin himself from the crab ride more than anyone else I can ever remember.

Chandler spent 7 minutes trying to figure out when and how he could hit an assassin lol. He was fun to watch. I hate he didn’t get to wrestle in his final NCAA tourney, but oh well.

Calling AOC a stall merchant on every UNC post and then using the term manlet. Sir, I believe I have found your twitter account that you troll from.

70% bonus rate says hi.

If it makes you feel any better AOCs only take down surrendered wouldn’t have counted if Coleman didn’t swallow his brick for 60 seconds and then decide to throw it significantly later. AOC very clearly had a 2 first from the tripod position and the ref was at a bad angle to see it. Then the refs told him “nah man that’s way too late” and wouldn’t review it lol. But kind of similar to the RBY thing.

I’m obviously biased, but I don’t know man. I’ve been in a college wrestling room and I can tell you right now it’s hard. It’s so hard to be your best in every match every year. I agree 157 wasn’t a juggernaut of a weight class, but not giving up a regular season takedown is absurd. You have to be perfect constantly against the best of the best that have a chance to be a starter at the next level. Based on what you’re saying, it would make sense for Alirez also not to surrender a takedown this year, which didn’t happen. That’s a very very difficult feat to accomplish.

Zerban is a really really good wrestler. Him getting the 32 seed was reasonable based on his record (which was something like 23-12 if I’m remembering correctly, along with a flurry of losses to finish the season). But he wasn’t a typical 32 seed. I figured he’d do well on the backside.

I figure that will be the big knock on him is the competition aspect. I’m pretty confident Humphrey’s was the 2nd best 157 pounder this year and AOC did knock him off in the semis (although it was a tight match) so I’m glad O’Conner saw him. His resume was 2 wins over Andonian (AA)including a major, win over Ed Scott (AA), couple wins over Vince Zerban (round of 12 from the 32 seed), win over Humphrey’s (placed 3rd) and then obviously the win over Haines. All you can do is beat the guys in front of you and AOC did that convincingly this year.

I would cast my vote for Parris in a normal year, but will vote for AOC this year because I’m a fan and think he’s earned it. 70% bonus rate. Only allowed 1 takedown and 1 reversal all year. Beat a ton of high level kids at his weight. When you talk about a season of dominance, AOC’s name has to be in the conversation at the very least.

You telling me Blue Dragon (or whatever his screen name was on the other board) never joined us over here??

No because I am too (even as a UNC fan). 1 time NC state champion from Sun Valley High School (local to my area) to a national champion. To my knowledge he’s the only 1 time NC state champion to win a national championship. I didn’t care what singlet that guy was wearing, I was going to be rooting for his success.

UNC has huge shoes to fill now that O’Connor won’t be in the room for the first time since 2017. Everything I’ve heard out of the room is that he was the standard setter and a great leader. I think the team as a whole will improve from a disappointing year, but I’m interested to see who will fill the leadership role that’s being left. I’d say overall UNC is trending steadily. Another 3 All Americans in 2024 and Lachlan McNeil continuing to improve (assuming he doesn’t take an ORS) and pushing for a top 3 finish at 141 feels reasonable.

I’ll put in a phone call to the UNC room and let Austin know he needs to step it up because the message board doesn’t have time for underachievers.

It’s best to view @LJB like your crazy old uncle that shows up to Thanksgiving yelling about everything under the sun. He has really good points sometimes, but other times he goes full oldmanyellsatclouds meme. Then once you leave thanksgiving you realize he actually made some good points in there and you sort of start looking forward to next year

I’m still a little disappointed in UNC’s season (losing dual record, first ever dual loss to app state, only 5 qualifiers which is down from 9 a few years ago), but I can’t deny how well Coleman prepares his guys for March. 5/5 wrestled at or above their seeds. Gavin Kane lost his first match and then ran the gauntlet to All-American. Even the most optimistic UNC fan wouldn’t have predicted Lachlan McNeil to place 4th this year. We now have 3 straight years with a wrestler competing Saturday night for a national championship, with 2 wins. UNC continues to average 3 All Americans per season and knocks off guys heavily favored against them in March. It’s a nice little thing going in Chapel Hill.

That’s awesome! This year was the second year in a row I missed the ACC tournament after about 12 years straight of making it after I wrapped up college (young kids have me busy). I’m definitely planning on getting back to going next year. I used to post UNC and ACC previews back on the old board from roughly 2015-2020 before life got busy, but I’m planning to start back this coming October. It doesn’t get a ton of engagement lol, but I try to give the conference a little bit of recognition and interaction on the board sporadically. I got over to this board a little late in the season so I missed a solid chunk of time to talk about ACC guys

Ah nice! I know we are supposed to be bitter rivals, but it’s nice to have other ACC fans on the board. Were you on the past board? I don’t remember your username over there. I know there’s a VT fan on here too that posts occasionally.

Lol. Are you an NC State fan? Not trying to stoke the fire, just curious. To my knowledge we’ve never had an NC State fan on the board. My wife is a State grad so I come halfway in peace.

This was a fun read and really insightful. Thanks for the work you put into it!

When this happens, I heard every starting Penn State wrestler is transferring to Iowa! Again, I’m never going to out my sources. And if I’m wrong it doesn’t matter because it may not happen anyways.

You’re making a bold assumption that I like/support Gable and agreed with what happened there (as far as him coming back)… can you point to where I ever said that? You said the situations were the same. They are not the same. AJ is being charged, Gable wasn’t. All forms of sexual assault are unacceptable in my opinion. The hill you have chosen to die on is “at least it wasn’t as bad as Gable!” That’s fine if you feel that way, but don’t expect everyone to jump right on board with your line of thinking.

AJ was a bad dude and really fun to pull for in March. Every once in a while you see/remember a name that gives you good wrestling memories and he’s one of those guys for me.

Couple things. 1st) the Gable and AJ situations are different. Gable was arrested, but never charged. AJ has been charged with felony sexual battery. 2nd) If (and I want to really emphasize the if here) AJ (or any athlete with similar charges) is convicted of a sexual assault crime against a female then it’s very fair to compare him to Brock Turner when it comes to having a second chance. I want to emphasize AJ is innocent until he’s proven guilty in a court of law. But it’s going to be natural to compare his cases to other collegiate sexual misconduct cases.

For the most part I do agree with this wholeheartedly, but I think some nuance applies. If a kid steals from Walmart, of course they should get a second chance. If a kid gets blackout drunk at 18, pees on a wall, and then vandalizes a car, of course they deserve a second chance. When you start talking about the sexual assault and rape I think you start to get in that nuanced area because someone else is involved. If the allegations are true, the woman in the situation will spend the rest of her life living with what happened. It’s not something she can just get over and move on with life. Did Brock Turner deserve a second chance at swimming after his 6 month sentence? I’d argue he did not.