Konquest

"We build it, we don't buy it" People should absolutely take that as shots fired, and Manning has a great point. Go Big Red.

Askren's moves pretty much changed the sport. In the mid 90's when I was competing, no one would have had any idea how to deal with passing legs, weird merkle positions, baiting people into cradles while they are in on a shot, etc. My coaches would hate me but opponents would be completely bewildered like Jake Herbert in the NCAA final.

Parker Keckeisen 133-2 with the only non-NCAA champ losses to Truax once and Hidlay once, he avenged both of these losses 2x each.

An old-school coach that I had at a HS camp told me that Greg Gibson could explode a properly inflated basketball with his gut wrench lock, kind of like Danny Hodge and the apples.

I don't get it either. DT beat Brandon Hatchett and Tyler Caldwell in his NCAA finals the years he won. Brooks beat Trent Hidlay 2x, Parker Keckeisen, and Myles Amine in his championship matches. C'mon, people.

Strictly in terms of guys he coached in college, I'm going with Brooks.

Pretty much the entire Nebraska lineup. Those guys love each other, love wrestling, and have a team culture that makes you want to root for them. No billionaire funded lineups. Lost in all the storylines/historical moments from NCAA's is what Antrell Taylor has had to overcome in his life to get to where he is.

I'm going with one that hasn't been brought up yet: Adam Coon.

He never won state in Illinois. I think he got beat by Lemley in the finals a couple times if I'm not mistaken. He grew up wrestling for the Harvey Twisters. If you know, you know.

He majored Cobe Siebrecht and beat Cody Chittum as well this past season. He's from the suburbs just north of Milwaukee where I live that have produced so many tough kids coming out of Max Askren's club. I coached middle school for a few years and he would spend his limited free time officiating, along with the Mirasola twins. Great role model for kids in the area. His dad was his HS coach and is a great guy, too. They are the "Highlanders" and are famous for wearing kilts to the state tournament.

You don't beat guys like Brock Hardy or Jesse Mendez 2x in a season if your heart isn't into it.

Still did "Faith Sunday" and "Mama Rahn Monday" on Instagram. What I found interesting is that he's pondering a cut to 79kg.

Not one mention of Ben Davino is really disrespectful. Arguably the the top guy on this list IMHO

Exactly, and do you see him getting away from Hardy or Mendez?

I'm also going to throw out the bald duo of Brock Hardy and Parker Keckeisen. You're never going to hear anyone say anything bad about those two because they are great dudes who show respect to all their competition. Mendez said as much in his post-match interview and his presser later on. I was also quite impressed with Gable Steveson on the podium.

Yeah, he's going to be problems on his feet for anyone but two things he hasn't dealt with are: 1. Making weight all season with college weigh-in rules and how that affects strength, conditioning, and explosiveness. 2. Elite top wrestlers. I'd take a Lovett-type wrestler over a world champ up a weight or two from international competition who's never wrestled on the mat.

The MIC has been funding performative patriotism in the NFL for decades. There is always going to be that little voice in the back of my head that wonders if the HWT finals last night were some kind of "patriotic" script that was paid for by President Musk (who stood there with his arms folded all night and looked butthurt that the athletes weren't flocking to him). Steveson clearly has money on his mind and is willing to debase himself for it (WWE, which is run by a member of the Presidential cabinet), and the whole saving the heavyweight match for last...there is always going to be that quiet little suspicion, like with Mijian Lopez. Burroughs, OTOH, obviously listened to the criticism and was WAY more subdued re: talking about himself in terms of accomplishments and "What I would do" -type commentary. Good on him. Sometimes what makes someone good at one thing, especially in combat sports, makes them struggle with another. JB took the feedback and honed his skills on the mic, and he should be commended for that.

Yup. Dude is the same IRL as he is in front of a camera.

What did Trent Hidlay major in? I don't know or really care, but it's entirely possible that he has some formal training in this kind of thing depending on his coursework...

Go to his instagram and you'll see he (Steveson) has slimmed down quite a bit

He has a back injury and is nowhere close to 100%. Instead of playing it close to the vest, he flat out said in his post match interview that there are a lot of techniques in his arsenal that he simply can't do at the moment.

Lenny Pinto

"Tophy" Minto almost TFing Julian Ramirez was pretty impressive.

Penn State, UNI, and especially Minnesota are snapping up Wisconsin's best. It used to be that they'd pretty much be a lock for Mizzou.

Even more insane is that as a senior in HS, Sparks won a CA state title over a Valencia brother, who was probably being coached in wrestling before he could walk. Sparks must be a hell of an athlete. Parker Keckeisen did a clinic a few years back for the program I was coaching (his alma mater, actually) and he mentioned that Jeremiah Kent from Mizzou didn't start wrestling until HS, and used him (Kent) as an example of how you can improve rapidly if you have the right work ethic and surround yourself with the right people. Kent might not have AA'ed or whatever, but he started wrestling in 9th grade and was a Fargo AA and got a college scholarship in a sport that most of his competition had been doing since they were 4 or 5 years old.