The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[mookie]

Four practices to go before Easterns and the NCAA tournament in K.C. Most lineup questions have been answered, so now it's just a matter of fine-tuning.

The Good: 125, 133,141,157 197, 285. Even though Stanich had his cherry popped he still has AA potential. Crookham & Beard could be wrestling Saturday night and Taylor's stock continues to rise. Hines & Brignola are serviceable EIWA high placers. So, 6 qualifiers.

The Bad: 149, 165, 184. Lots of effort at these weights but realistically no NCAA qualifiers.

The Ugly: 174 has no viable options and it's looking like two and barbecue at EIWA.

Should finish top 3 at EIWA and top 20 at NCAA.

All in all, not bad...but not good.

[JAD77]

Barring anything unforeseen - ie, weight issues, injuries - I say 2nd place and top 15. Although I’m a bit more optimistic, I don’t see your post as a negative post.
Where’s Sergio Leone when you need him?

[Oracle]

Honest assessment but i disagree with your conclusion -- it's all good.

Coming into the season, would you have posted 2 of our guys might be wrestling Saturday night? Would you have posted that a true freshman 1X NJ state champ would be ranked top 2? Would you have posted Taylor would leap-frog virtually everyone who beat him last year? So we have a few soft weights; most teams do.

By any measure, this season is rolling along at an extremely positive clip. We have even accommodated FL Guy's wish list of finding NIL money for one of our guys!

We defeated top 10 ranked Cornell in a dual. We stopped Penn's 2-dual winning streak against us. We beat Navy who beat Pitt who beat us. Only other dual losses were to #1 Penn State and #4 Okla State. We had 2 Midlands champs. We have a guy leading the nation in tech falls, and another that's top 5 in falls. We have enjoyed wrestling pub like we haven't seen in years. Recruiting is stepping up. Team GPA is over 3.0.

"All in all, not bad...but not good." Come on now! It's good, very good, extremely good....could end up great!!!

[martinsilvestri]

I've gotta go with good season also. Hard to say otherwise after massive Cornell win - CU just beat Missouri for goodness' sake. Beating Penn and Navy were no small feats too and I didn't think we would have done that at the end of last season. The recruiting situation isn't great but has improved with addition of Rosynski, Van Hoven, and wildcards like Spencer.

With Repos and Schoppe waiting to emerge and better things coming from Griffin, there's a chance to flip some of these bad/ugly categories to good next year. Maybe even Mays breaks out. If Beard sticks around another year I think we could have a really good 2025 and a very interesting "home" NCAA tournament...

[1/2NELSON]

EXCEDING-EXPECTATIONS thus far,..although the middle of the line-up remains "helter-skelter!"

Maybe a bit too optimistic, but barring any INJURIES,.. the following is achievable.

2ND at EIWA
( 4 ) All-Americans
( 2 ) NCAA Finalists
( 1 ) NCAA Champ

[HFO]

Four practices to go before Easterns and the NCAA tournament in K.C. Most lineup questions have been answered, so now it's just a matter of fine-tuning.

The Good: 125, 133,141,157 197, 285. Even though Stanich had his cherry popped he still has AA potential. Crookham & Beard could be wrestling Saturday night and Taylor's stock continues to rise. Hines & Brignola are serviceable EIWA high placers. So, 6 qualifiers.

The Bad: 149, 165, 184. Lots of effort at these weights but realistically no NCAA qualifiers.

The Ugly: 174 has no viable options and it's looking like two and barbecue at EIWA.

Should finish top 3 at EIWA and top 20 at NCAA.

All in all, not bad...but not good.

I'll take any motivated surprises we can get at 149, 165, 174, 184. Griffin can surprise. Logan has been there before. 174/184 go for the Fall. Practice some of those Lehigh Valley rolling cement jobs.

[Justafan]

Ahhh the cement job. Every time I bring it up, I'm told that it doesn't work on the college level. However Rob Rohn won a national championship with it and Mario Stuart used it often to become a 2 X All American.

The cement job and all it's variations don't work well as a go-to move anymore but it remains a great "sucker" move when pulled out of the war chest on occasion. It's done so rarely now, guys don't train for it that much.

Just my opinion.

[JAD77]

I remember Mitch Minotti using it occasionally, too.

[Justafan]

In college, I had a self-imposed philosophy of coming out of each exam, expecting a C. If I got a B, I was elated. Had I anticipated an A and got the same B, that day would suck badly.

Moral I guess is that lofty expectations don't impact results but it can sure lead to disappointment.

Luke Stanich is a very good wrestler but I think we let rating services impact our expectations. He was ranked either 2,3 or 4 depending on the poll by using addition by subtraction. He has 1 win over a top 10 wrestler, Barnett of Wisconsin and has only wrestled 1 other guy currently ranked in the top 20. Cooper Flynn at #14, per wrestlestat.
His rise occurred primarily due to not wrestling and letting those ahead of him beat each other up.

A true freshman, I'm tempering my expectation and hoping for AA. This weight class has no superstars but a lot of quality depth. BTW, keep an eye on Braeden Davis at Penn State, currently 13-0. Penn State knows how to overperform on the big stage.

Ryan Crookham has done nothing but win against everyone he has faced. At his point he deserves the #1 seed but he will very likely be facing Arujau In th EIWA tournament to solidify that #1 seed. If he loses then it will likely be both Arujau and Fix in the big show. That's a tall order but not insurmountable.

I would love to see Michael Beard in the finals but in order to do that , he will probably have to beat either Brooks or Hidlay. Again, a tall order but anything can happen.

Taylor is my choice to surprise people. He seems built for the fight and seems to improve with every match. He may be peaking. AA will not surprise me.

I am only managing expectations. Nothing posted will impact a single moment in any bout.

[FloridaGuy]

>>>>>>>>>This team has exceeded expectations by a wide margin so far. I still recall the gnashing of teeth posts when a pre-season ranking had Lehigh #26. A continuation of this year’s upward trajectory is certainly possible with the coaching focus on continued improvement.

For the EIWAs, cu could have 6-8 finalists and Lehigh 4-6 finalists. No other team will be remotely close to those numbers. Lehigh is a rock solid EIWA tournament #2 finish. If you disagree, please post which team, besides cu, you think has the horsepower to score over 100 points at the EIWAs.

Lehigh has four legitimate AA contenders at the NCAAs and a real chance at a top ten finish. Three high finish AAs will get you top ten in an era where psu captures a huge portion of the available team points.

I anticipate psu’s emerging freshman 125 to take the top ranking as long as he stays undefeated

Lastly, there is nothing ugly about a guy who gives it 100%, earns a starting spot, but doesn’t qualify for the NCAAs.