dragit

That would make him like all other top comic talents. To come right off the mat after a grueling seven minutes and do back to back stand up sets like that is not something that a happily married homebody like KOT or all of the other boring wrestlers could pull off. AJ may have even surpassed Palacio this weekend.

Sorry. There for posterity. Don't fight it.

This was a nice bookend to his interview off the mat with Quint, which was top level comedy, the high point being when he cited a Bible verse and asked Quint if he knew it, Quint responding deadpan, "No, I don't," and then asking him another wrestling question, with AJ then when he had a chance reciting the whole verse. That he keeps proclaiming being "humble" as the key theme during these, umm, not humble, interviews is what makes all these interviews instant and automatic viewer gold. In a related story, ESPN wants to thank KJ for having Cardenas take bottom, which guaranteed the post-match interview. They weren't interested in sticking around through the last match to have a chat with Cardenas about how amazing Ann Arbor is.

I think all this Penn State/Nebraska stuff is pretty straightforward. Some folks got threads going based on their correct recognition that Penn State might not have the same type of individual champion stable they've had throughout their amazing run. They were right. There was really only one PSU guy who was really a lock here, MM. Even their 4x champ wasn't/isn't really a lock. He's got one of the top four PFP guys in his weight class and has had to go to OT vs Keck and the 3 seed already this year. This isn't a team full of Taylors, Ruths, Retherfords, Nolfs, Nickals, Brookses, Halls, etc. 125 - wide open race, true freshman who had a great B1G, but so did Davis last year and there was no reason to think anyone knew who could win this weight class. 133 - not a strong champion contender. 141 - super cautious, has never shown he's likely to get it done. 149 - one of a group of guys who could have won but not close to being a dominator. 157 - a legit co-favorite, kind of a surprise what happened to him. 165 - prohibitive favorite. 174 - not the favorite, he's two weights up and KOT is the guy, and Hamiti not surprisingly has taken that step up that was long expected now that he's now coached by . . . Penn State's number one product in the Cael era. 184 - amazing but not a lock. 197 - up a weight and young. 285 - no chance to win with the GOAT in the bracket. Bottom line, this wasn't likely to be a 4+ champion team, which is the model of the great PSU teams. But the idea that they weren't going to win, even if Nebraska did what it had never done before and ran the table, was ridiculous, because math. This is a different type of 170+ point PSU team. Different from the past such teams, not a 4+ dominant guys team. But ALSO different from the past, no holes in the lineup, a 10 AA team. So hail to the Happy Valley Winners again. But, also, sincere props to Nebraska, they've taken the step up that they hadn't before, they'll be third which is their best in the Manning years. And maybe tomorrow they'll solidify that with another step by being the runner up and having multiple champs. They're an impressive group.

Anyone wrestling against someone that strong on one leg would look weak.

Nothing normal about Happy Valley Excellence Central.

The predictions have 165 at 3-3 so far - interesting and a tribute to how good Caliendo is. That being said, I don't see it. MM doesn't look like he's one iota complacent and he is a bad bad man.

I think you're right that Dechow might have been a more blue chip football recruit. Regarding his build I mainly meant muscle definition, such as compared to the two finalists.

171.5 - what a total and catastrophic collaps. We need to make amends to the other threads' OPs right quick.

Cut ties with Bakersfield or with his lord and savior? One of the many reasons I was bummed about not going in person this year was it looked on TV like Buchanan got the biggest ovation in history for an Iowa wrestler from the fans not wearing black and gold.

Mesenbrink probably all by himself. But shouldn't they clear 140 in the morning even if Kerk can't go?

Speaking of McEneley and speaking of my often faulty memory, is it just me or does he remind anyone of Jack Dechow?? High school football star, awesome athlete, not a classic wrestler build, great competitor, took people by storm as a freshman, think he lost a tough match in the semis and finished third or fourth. Here's hoping Mceneley progresses the way I always thought dechow would but didn't.

Nice thread. The Keck match was such high level fabulous wrestling. Match of a great night. I'd probably put 2016 higher based on my growing fogger memory. Some personal bias there, I was in a great seat near the semis matches and they went off with an absolute bang. Gilman beats defending champ NaTo with an OT pin and then, boom, Garrett jumps all over defending champ Breuer, puts him on his back twice and pins him, speed I've never seen before in any sport, and then lights up MSG with his smile. Trying to remember the other good matches. I think the Cousins Jordan. And wasn't there a lot of action IMar vs Ian Miller, tons of flurries including Miller putting Martinez on his back with a throw without control and Jason Bryant saying something on the PA about it not being freestyle, no points, and lots of people booing and then everyone laughing. I could be making this all up but it's probably mostly accurate.

Yeah what's with him. Shows up on campus a few months before the season and moves them up from 10th to no worse than third in the first time he's coached anything. Hamiti and Hendricksen finally break through to the finals against great opponents. He's bad news.

So close!

Fingers crossed that we get to test that theory. If I had to bet, if Gable is healthy and does the whole quad, he wins at least two of the four, probably three, maybe four.

By comparison to their upper weights which are the absolute Mt. Rushmore of wrestlers and coaches. Nico/RBY/Nick Lee/Zain/Molinaro/Nolf etc. probably still better than any other program. And I note that Haines, who won last year as a lower weight, had Cody, following him up, in his corner yesterday at 174. Even if you quibble with Nolf and Haines as "middle weights" not "light weights" PSU is still top tier at the lower weights.

As was covered a week or two ago, we're talking about the reliably best tournament team having everything go totally wrong and a generally underachieving tournament team having everything go totally right, and then PSU probably still wins by more than a few points. The team races for 2nd and 4th are where the action is at and are pretty interesting. I lean toward OSU beating Nebraska in a statement weekend for the Cowboys, but I wouldn't bet much on it.

And it's a total mismatch, so how amazing is Steveson? The only suspense I see here is maybe Gable has choice in the second period, Gavin or Molinaro shout at him from the stands to take take down, and being such an agreeable guy he does; and then Hendrickson takes top in the third, so he has two shots at turning him and ends up catching him with one of them.

Looked/sounded like Gavin's instructions. If so, that's really frustrating. Borderline indefensible decision. How complicated is this? He needs a takedown to win. Period. He's not going to win the rideouts in overtime. So he needs a TD in the third period or SV. And everyone knew he was very likely to give up at least a riding point, and probably get ridden out if he took down. So you take neutral and have a full two minutes to get a TD and win the match. Hard to watch the wrestler pay the price for such a bad call, particularly given that it subjected us to another splits/horrifying interview.

100%. I think he saw the way Steveson threw both Keuter in the dual meet and Feldman at Big Tens and treated this as a safety issue.

Recognizing upfront the extreme troll job and/or insanity of the topic heading, basically this was a wash round. Davis had very little chance. Lilledahl is a true freshman dealing with the quick turn off the scale Friday morning for the first time who ran into an inspired tough good wrestler. Nothing notable there. Kasak was a pretty big surprise but that's offset by the fantastic performance by Barr, whom many had counted out. Everyone else took care of business.

ESPN has Kerkvliet losing on the score bug. Can't tell diff between green and red.

What a very strange person.

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