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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Freddy Carr added to this discussion on March 18, 2022
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I’m up here with a bunch of TTUN fans and all of us are saying Romero has been fun to watch.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Ben Golden added to this discussion on March 18, 2022
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Funny Freddy, I just came on here to say how pumped I am about the way Romero is wrestling today! Makes me proud as a buckeye fan.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Freddy Carr added to this discussion on March 18, 2022
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Quote from Ben Golden's post:
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"Funny Freddy, I just came on here to say how pumped I am about the way Romero is wrestling today! Makes me proud as a buckeye fan."
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Agree. He’s been fun to watch. Really turned it on tonight.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Hank Kornblut added to this discussion on March 18, 2022
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Romero looked fantastic tonight. Took away some of the sting from Smith losing. And I'm sure that no one feels worse than Smith.
Romero would make a nice freestyler should he choose to continue in the sport.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Jared Ball added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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As we enter day three we find out who really wants it. Sasso has an opportunity to right the ship against Gomez. If I’m being honest, Gomez is wrestling great and appears to be a bad matchup for Sammy (who has lacked any offense all year). I hope I’m wrong. I think he ends up taking 5th over Andonian.
Carson looks thoroughly beat up, but everyone is at this point. He’s better than the WVU kid. I think he ends with a win and out places his seed.
I agree with everyone’s sentiment about Kaleb. He’s wrestling supremely confident and looks great. I think he gets by Truax by keeping the match on his feet. His second match will be a doozy by anything is bound to happen at this point. I think he he finishes fourth.
What a great story Hoffman is. This has to be so validating for him. Elam is a winnable match just like all of his previous matches. The other consi semi has two guys that aren’t great matchups for him. If he beats Elam I think he gets fourth. If he loses I think he takes sixth.
Assuming that everyone returns next year, it’s been a little while since we’ve returned this number of all Americans. 2017-18 would be it, which is also the last year we had a national champ (he who’s name we do not say). To say we return six All Americans is substantial, but that did little for Iowa and defined Michigans season.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Hank Kornblut added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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One point: The term All American has come to mean more than it should. If you finish top 8 at NCAA's, you should feel proud. But typically, there's 8 other guys around the same ability level as the lower placers (and occasionally the higher ones). NCAA's is a wrestling tourney just like any other. It's just a bigger one.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Brian Mathews added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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Quote from Jared Ball's post:
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" Carson looks thoroughly beat up, but everyone is at this point. He’s better than the WVU kid. I think he ends with a win and out places his seed. "
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True, most everyone is beat up by now... but to be fair to Carson, an eye that swollen is pretty limiting. Amine struggled with a similar eye last year.
Beating a determined Marinelli at less than your best is a tough proposition.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Rex Holman added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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Quote from Hank Kornblut's post:
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"One point: The term All American has come to mean more than it should. If you finish top 8 at NCAA's, you should feel proud. But typically, there's 8 other guys around the same ability level as the lower placers (and occasionally the higher ones). NCAA's is a wrestling tourney just like any other. It's just a bigger one."
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I'd really like to explore this topic.
The tournament is about performance and how much emphasis we put on something.
Really just performance. Binary, either you do or you don't advance.
I loved O'Toole's interview where he referenced being superior at the position. It's because he accounted for all the positions that he engaged that he won. You might say well Carson should have been given two. Well, if you watch that same interview he covers that contingency and explains that he would've escaped without hesitation. I just love his mindset and his disciplined approach to wrestling. Dude is the very definition of discipline.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Drew Taylor added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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A few random observations from two excellent days of wrestling.
In an interview after his quarterfinal win, Logan Massa very loudly announced he would win the title and that he was "coming for" Mekhi Lewis, who was nearby conducting his own interview. This type of stuff rarely works out (see that goof from Duke who called out Kyle Snyder). Regardless, Massa's too old to be doing it. Kudos to Mekhi for not just winning but pinning Massa to reach the finals.
I'm afraid Mekhi will lose tonight, as Carter Starocci has, in my mind, become the second or third best wrestler in the country after Gable and maybe Yianni. Best I can tell there are no holes in his game. He destroyed Hidlay, who is undersized at 174 but still formidable. Gotta give credit to PSU assistant Casey Cunningham, who has developed Starocci at a level no one could have anticipated.
It's been said before, but worth repeating: Cunningham is phenomenal. Central Michigan was a juggernaut when he was an assistant under Borrelli and has not had nearly the same success without him. Similarly, there were questions about Cael's coaching acumen when Cael was at Iowa State. He left for PSU, scooped up Cunningham along the way, and we know how that turned out. How long before Cunningham leaves to be a head coach? I'm rooting for it to happen to break up the PSU dynasty. But how many schools can offer something better than he already has? Maybe a handful - and most are in the Big 10, where he'd have to compete against Cael and PSU.
141 finalist Kizhan Clarke has three losses, and nearly had a fourth back in November against OSU's Jordan Decatur. Clarke survived in OT, 3-1. His success has me thinking Decatur was primed for a nice season prior to his injury. Hope he comes back next year and captures some of that late career magic we're seeing this weekend from Gavin Hoffman.
More Daniel Cormier please. His passion made for an excellent broadcast last night. Love how he kept calling Jim Gibbons "coach." Cormier has been out of the game for some time but he's clearly up on the current state of affairs in college wrestling. I hope he's on the call tonight.
Anyone else see Wick turn and look at the clock when Griffith got in on his leg for the match-winning TD? I couldn't believe it. Just a complete mental lapse from a seasoned competitor.
Speaking of mental lapses. Ethan Smith. Ugh. He stopped wrestling.
My eyes tell me OSU has improved on the bottom. That's great and was needed. Now, they need to focus more on the top position. Many of them give very little effort to accumulating riding time, because they don't want to ride or don't know how to do it. Even Sasso has mysteriously stopped riding. This is puzzling as the staff has three excellent top riders in Logan, Bo and J. If you can't or aren't willing to ride, then most takedowns are only gonna be worth one point.
The Bucks return All-Americans at six weights next year, assuming Smith, Romero and Orndorff opt to return. That could put them in the hunt for a trophy, but only if those All-Americans turn into individual title contenders. At nationals, it's all about finalists and semifinalists. Penn State returns RBY, Starocci, Brooks, Dean and Kerkvliet, and you'd have to think Cael will shore up a weaker weight or two in the transfer portal. Yikes.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Rex Holman added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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Drew-
Massa has been reflecting an attitude of disrespect towards his opponents in what I've seen of him this season. He's a very good wrestler but certainly not the best.
Mekhi has the heart of lion. I find myself rooting for him. I wouldn't count him out. Starocci is a terminator like Lee, but Mekhi has an amazing ability to not give up a score. The same quality as Logan Stieber but different.
Kizhan wrestles the same blueprint of a match against every tough opponent. His scores are 4-3, 4-2 SV, 3-0, UTB 2-2. He is getting called for stalling tonight, but I suspect he will take Lee down a couple times. If he can ride on top, there is a chance he wins. He has to slow the Lee train down which is a huge task. Really looking forward to seeing how that plays out.
Wick. Victim of lousy edge wrestling. It strikes again. I'm going to make a new topic discussion for this topic and every time someone loses a match because they stop wrestling on the edge, I'm going to add their name to it. Not out of spite but rather because so many wrestlers fall victim to the overlooked dynamic.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Brian Mathews added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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Quote from Drew Taylor's post:
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" Penn State returns RBY, Starocci, Brooks, Dean and Kerkvliet, and you'd have to think Cael will shore up a weaker weight or two in the transfer portal. Yikes."
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RBY said earlier this year he's not planning to return for a 5th season, so there is that.
They also bring back Howard to fill 125 or 133, and add both Van Ness and Facundo to the lineup. We can hope they don't pan out, but more likely than not they're 4x AA type guys.
Bartlett might drop to a more natural 141, which could make him a factor, but that remains to be seen. Levi Haines (who just beat Paddy while still in high school) also arrives as a true freshman.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Hank Kornblut added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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Rex: Wrestling journalists always talk about which teams have X, Y and Z returning who were AA's last season. Then they rank accordingly. It's really annoying. There's also Big Ten bias. Look at Drake Ayala. The moment he entered the Iowa lineup, everyone assumed he was a high level AA contender when in reality he was just another solid performer at a weight that went 20 deep (at least). I think the wrestling community needs to spend more time allowing results to speak for themselves. Example: Romero will have his hands full with Bernie Truax from Cal Poly. I knew nothing about Truax but assumed he couldn't be as good as he is because, well, Cal Poly. Then I watched him battle Myles Amine dead even in the NCAA semis for 7 minutes. He's outstanding.
Drew: I agree with a lot of what you say. I'm not sure what we might have expected out of a healthy Decatur although there's no doubt he was a stronger competitor up a weight.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Freddy Carr added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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What a moment there with Teemer and Robb. Good stuff. Two warriors battling until neither could stand.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Matt Schein added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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Sasso loses to Gomez again. He has become very frustrating to watch
Wick is destroying the bull.
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Discussion Topic: #DET2022 - D-I NCAA Wrestling Tournament Discussion
Freddy Carr added to this discussion on March 19, 2022
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Quote from Matt Schein's post:
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"Sasso loses to Gomez again. He has become very frustrating to watch
Wick is destroying the bull."
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At one point Wick had “four miles” of RT. Sheesh.
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