Intensity Level

Talk about the champions, or the Top 25 nationally-ranked team!
Oracle
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Intensity Level

Post by Oracle » Mon Jan 10, 2022 8:42 am

There was no question, the Lehigh team, even missing Manzona Bryant, brought their A game on Saturday vs Cornell. The level of intensity was unmatched in recent years. So the issue is not the talent -- because you don't beat highly ranked guys if you aren't talented -- it's maintaining that level of intensity and commitment. That's not always possible with a young team but at least these young guys now know what it takes and how it's done.

Columbia is a balanced team that poses match-up problems for Lehigh. This is a 'trap dual' in every sense of the phrase. Enjoy the big upset win over Cornell (as my friend mookie says "for 24 hours") and then get the Eye of the Tiger back for the next opponent.

The problem with winning is -- you have to keep on winning! Someone famous said that.

The Cornell win should push LU into the top 15. Quite an accomplishment for a team with so many first year starters.


Spladle1989
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Re: Intensity Level

Post by Spladle1989 » Mon Jan 10, 2022 9:00 am

No JT Davis either, not that it was a huge deal this weekend with 197 having to wrestle Deprez and Cardenas but will matter moving forward. So do we just guess ding? Something long term? Covid? Would really be nice if the program just said something along the lines of "JtT Davis will be out for a short period of time or 197 backups need to step it up now because Davis may be out for awhile"....you don't need to specify injury.....this discussion has been had many times, still don't agree with the "vow of secrecy" with this stuff, you can communicate without beiing specific, it's not that hard........

Unfortunately with Hoffman still looking not himself MB4 is hard to replace in lineup without pulling Brignola shirt (or whatever it is these days)......Storm needs more seasoning, in two years he's wrestled a total of 9 college matches.......
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Re: Intensity Level

Post by TMH » Mon Jan 10, 2022 11:49 am

Spot on..don't you wish you can bottle that commodity called intensity and feed it to all athletes prior to a game or match.

To me though, Sunday's match may have also been a matter of Cornell's lack of intensity in addition to our A game.
Although I fully comprehend Grey's strategy of ending the match with their top gun I wonder if it may have backfired.
Josh Humphreys, when he is in his zone (most of the time) is about as intense a wrestler as I've seen at Lehigh in a while. I think Josh set the tone for the match.

Probably the biggest intangible that Darian Cruz brought to the table in 2013 was that he led off most all matches.
His performance set the pace for the rest of the lineup.

BTW: Fair warning. Intensity is a double-edged sword. Do not be surprised if the outcome in many of these bouts are reversed at the EIWA Tournament when it is their home arena with predominately their home fans and Sunday's results since on their mind and of course a lot of tape to remind them and learn from.

Just saying.
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Re: Intensity Level

Post by Oracle » Mon Jan 10, 2022 2:05 pm

TMH: Yes, EIWAs are a long way off and your observation is noteworthy. However, ,the next test is Columbia, That's when this young group will have the opportunity to solidify their collective mindsets.
Vince Lombardi: "Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while... you don't do things right once in a while... you do them right all the time. Winning is habit."

There are 8 more duals....6 EIWA and 2 against #3 and #6 on the road. That's 8 more opportunities to be aggressive, score points and fight for 7 the full minutes. Losing 3-1 by playing it safe or losing 11-5 by going for it is still losing. Might as well go for it. Then by the time the EIWAs roll around, who knows -- maybe those upsets will repeat themselves. One cannot grow as a wrestler unless one decides to press the action. There is nothing to be learned from caution in this sport. And most of these young guys still need to learn. Jordan Wood not so much but most do. Conventional wisdom says Cornell will reverse some of those bouts in Ithaca, but conventional wisdom also said they would win Saturday. Concede nothing. Expect to win again. On their mats.
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Re: Intensity Level

Post by TMH » Mon Jan 10, 2022 3:53 pm

One word

Campbell
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Re: Intensity Level

Post by Oracle » Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:04 pm

You're going to have to use more than 1 word because you lost me -- what does Campbell have to do with what we're talking about??? A superb non-sequitur nonetheless!
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Re: Intensity Level

Post by TMH » Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:16 pm

Oracle wrote: Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:04 pm You're going to have to use more than 1 word because you lost me -- what does Campbell have to do with what we're talking about??? A superb non-sequitur nonetheless!
Simple, I think. Campbell is a team to which we brought little intensity. Like Columbia, it was probably a trap match prior to Oregon St. The result was that we lost badly to a team we should have beaten handily IMO.

Isn't that the whole point of your thread?
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RichH
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Re: Intensity Level

Post by RichH » Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:28 pm

TMH wrote: Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:16 pm
Oracle wrote: Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:04 pm You're going to have to use more than 1 word because you lost me -- what does Campbell have to do with what we're talking about??? A superb non-sequitur nonetheless!
Simple, I think. Campbell is a team to which we brought little intensity. Like Columbia, it was probably a trap match prior to Oregon St. The result was that we lost badly to a team we should have beaten handily IMO.

Isn't that the whole point of your thread?
Yup :!:
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Re: Intensity Level

Post by Oracle » Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:47 pm

Actually, no.

We're way past that 1st dual out in Oregon. There was no baseline at that point in the season. We had no idea what we had. Now we do.
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Re: Intensity Level

Post by TMH » Mon Jan 10, 2022 5:08 pm

OK, this has gotten silly.

We had a pretty veteran lineup going into Campbell. Pat apparently felt too comfortable and used Seymour instead of Lane and Hoffman instead of Bryant. Lehigh took this match lightly and paid for it. Campbell then got trounced by Oregon St. and we trounced Oregon St. We knew what we had. If we didn't, that is on the coaches. What we lacked was intensity. We took the match too lightly. That is the point.

If we do the same thing against Columbia, the result will be the same. I think that was your point.

The EIWA is too far in the future. Campbell is too far in the past to discuss intensity smh
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