dragit

I think people are critical of bad announcers and appreciative of good announcers. Bad announcers badly blemish the viewing experience, which is why people make a big deal out of it. I've gotten to the point where I can't watch the World Series with the sound on because of John Smoltz. It's a problem. It's like an idiot has come into your living room and has spent three hours in your home staying stupid things while you're trying to enjoy a rare opportunity to do something for yourself.

A terrible terrible shame. Hard to even process. Could you imagine if that happened to you?

I'll counter with Burroughs, Gibbons, and Harrison.

In other words he basically doesn't do his job and sucks to the extent he does. Burroughs is excellent. And they already have an enthusiastic caffeinated yeller, Harrison, who unlike Cormier actually contributes helpful commentary in addition to his energy.

I thought that was pretty typical, didn't seem like he was near crying. Best part was his awesome understatement that, "A lot of times you don't open that curtain for everybody to see." As opposed to the times that you do?

I can't remember the match last year because during the 46 minutes between the beginning of 125 and the end of 133 I made a hypnotist's appointment, drove across town to see him, had him erase all my memories of replays which ruined watching wrestling. Then I went out to get a bite to eat, drove home, went out to walk the dog, then came home again, then settled back in as they were coming out of commercial to start the 141 final.

There need to be no reviews. The costs outweigh the benefits. It's literally not the same sport anymore. A big part of what made wrestling the purest sport was the continuous action. The 46 minutes between the beginning of 125 and end of 133 were a new low during a long, slow slide.

Brooks is absolutely awesome, but this one was earned by and should go to the Panther Train. (How does an animal mascot get tied into a mechanical object? Does the big cat pull the cars behind him? Shouldn't it be the Boilermaker Train?)

It definitely is a difficult job but he does it poorly. His whole approach is bad. The questions are labored and don't set the athletes up well for specific answers. The sideline reporters at basketball and football games have the same challenges and they are generally much more effective. Tracy Wolfson for example, she's poised, direct, and focused and she locks them in. She makes it about the interviewee, not herself. Erin Andrews, Pam Oliver. The only charitable thing I could offer is that maybe he is in awe of them based on what he's dlseen them do for three days and as a result is too deferential. Just a guess.

Some random thoughts after watching on a delay and therefore not following the posts here live. 1. Penn State won by A HUNDRED POINTS?!?! 2. Great appreciation to Caleb Henson for saving the night if not the sport after that absolute brutality from 125-141. I checked and from the beginning of 125 to the end of 133 it was 46 minutes. For the umpteenth time on here, I renew my statement that replay should be eliminated. It does far more harm than good. 3. Speaking of saving the sport, if they could make a bunch more Messenbrinks, this would be the most popular sport around. He is so fun to watch. But oh no did the PSU evening get blemished by him not knowing the score? If so, truly a bummer after he had come almost all the way back. 4. Cormier, Q, terrible directing - ESPN sucked, as I went off at length about in the other thread. 5. Not sure what is more impressive -- Brooks's stupendous wrestling or is ability to answer literally any and every question by directing it back to his faith. Now THAT'S wrestling discipline. 6. Props to the coaches from Cornell, Michigan, Virginia Tech, and I think one or two others for wearing a coat and tie to coach a national championship match. 7. Impressive work by Mike Grey. Legendary coach leaves and you hold the program together, keep the recruits coming in, and take second. 8. Uh-oh. No team trophy is one thing. Losing to Iowa State is another. 9. Quite the two weeks for Carter Starocci. Goes from looking like he was topping off a career of being kind of a bully with a historic shameless snit to throwing three shutouts, including two over national champs, topped off by the classiest post-match work of the night. 10. The Panther Train deserves a Hodge, right?

Truly terrible work by ESPN. Kessenich somehow gets worse every year. How is that possible? Constant poor directing. The other day they made this big deal out of Starocci the whole broadcast and then they didn't show the beginning of his match -- and the takedown against him -- live. And they constantly missed the shots they should have had, all the way through after the end of the Brooks match when they cut away from him for a meaningless shot of Hidlay before (I assume, will never know for sure since they didn't show it) he was going to hug Cael, who you knew was going to blow out of there as fast as he could after that to otherwise avoid the cameras. That wouldn't have been something to top off the telecast -- the biggest current name in wrestling, his 11th title, breaks the scoring record, hugs his 4x champ who he has been rolling around in the room with for four years. Let's instead show Hidlay and coaches literally doing nothing. Well done. Cormier was so bad it's hard to describe. I think he literally didn't say one thing the whole weekend that added anything to the broadcast. Why anyone would have thought he'd be good is hard to understand. And the shame of it is that Burroughs is terrific. Classy, knowledgeable, smart, good sense of how much to speak and when. And even worse is the fact that he and Gibbons were fantastic together on the same network this year for the Iowa-Iowa State dual. Great chemistry, charming byplay, calling each other Coach and Champ, super enjoyable on top of delivering a solid informative broadast. So let's not learn anything from that and instead pair Burroughs with a blowhard who hasn't done any homework about what he's covering. Great job guys. You suck.

? Are you saying that anything about today's nothingburger win suggests he will beat The Force That Is Vito?

I can't remember. Wouldn't they have stopped the clock and restarted after the 5 second call, so it shouldn't have been stall plus escape anyway?

Worse than that. He totally lost me when he did the Matt Brown Special and repeatedly attempted to quickly go to his knees when his opponent locked hands when Davis was on his feet (in order to manufacture a penalty point).

It's Cormier for all those who hadn't seen the press release and didn't feel like trying to do a mental inventory of every DC wrestler they could think of.

Thanks emoji

Would a knownothing who knowseverything know many times, if ever, has an ACC team finished in the top two team scores? N.C. State could be the biggest story of the tournament if PSU doesn't break the points record?

L'tle bit, yeah

Wrong. Next stupid question.

I don't have any knowledge, but for arguments sake will stipulate he's a good kid, but it still seems you need good faith from the family to let him live his separate life--and "good faith" and "Ferrari family" don't seem like a good fit in the same sentence.

I think we can be pretty sure the scrambling deficiencies won't get addressed with this coaching staff, and I think it's a fair point that has been raised in this and/or other threads that Tom wouldn't hire someone who thinks that far out of his box. That's a pretty hopeful take on the Ferrari situation to believe that you can have only the good and none of the bad.

They are probably still the second best program but not consistently. Penn State is consistently the best. Iowa is the best of the rest over the last decade on the whole but you can't count on it the way you can with Penn State as the best. 2013 - 4th 2014 - 4th 2015 - 2nd 2016 - 5th 2017 - 4th 2018 - 3rd 2019 - 4th 2020 - no tournament 2021 - 1st 2022 - 3rd 2023 - 2nd So they were first or second 3 out of 10 years, third or worse 7 out of 10. And it will probably be 8 out of 11 years as third or worse after next week. This is a consistent top 4 team which has been the second best on average but even that should probably be seen as in jeopardy. And with no indications of improvement. For a little bit there it looked like Brands had turned a corner, but it was really just a blip with the PA recruits. It's hard to unsee so many top talents ending their careers broken down physically and mentally.

Agree with these posts above. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't change his mind. If he doesn't wrestle it would be a singular and disastrous act of petulance with no comparable anywhere in sports that I can think of. A national champion quitting on his team before the championship because of a disagreement over playing time when the coach's decision was based on protecting his health. This would follow him his entire life and could even affect his job prospects in some areas. He'd be completely nuts to follow through on the tweet and he should feel fortunate if his coaches and teammates forgive him and allow him to compete. For his sake I hope he already understands he owes a sincere apology or that someone (Taylor or Brooks, preferably, Cael or Casey if necessary) has a heart to heart with him and gets through to him.

Since I want Lewis to win I agree with eveything there except I'd substitute "80 or less" for "100."

No. And I also failed to research which style prevails in the Prison Yard Conference.