Eagle26

Good point. What if you made it top 3 or vary based on conferences or by weight class (like a certain percentage of the auto qualifiers)?

Well, IF Yianni wins his 4th, then I suppose you could say he was better than Nolf. 4 is better than 3. However, as others are pointing out, Nolf is clearly the most “Hodge-worthy” wrestler to not win the award since its inception. Ruth would be close behind him.

Just like Bobby Douglas…

Actually not a bad idea… I would modify the neutral proposal to be one wrestler has to be called for stalling and the ref has to decide who earned it. A double stall provides little incentive. Maybe the top/bottom one should be either or too so the bottom guy doesn’t just lay there? I’m afraid they would always call it on the bottom guy though

Imagine if that happened at Carver lol. Haines looked great though. Kids gonna be one of their next big guns

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

I’d pick Cass over Kerk if that counts, but I don’t think it should. Beau over Woods should probably count so that’s probably the best call.

Sounds like we are using a very loose definition of an upset… but then again I don’t think there’s much of a chance of a major upset taking place in this dual

Ah, yes, a lesson on self control and manhood from the guy that can’t control himself and must continue on and on with childish banter and hurling insults from behind a computer screen. I will demonstrate self control by moving on….

For those that weren’t around in the old forum, Vak has a long history of being a very reasonable poster, and is one of the least biased fans on here. It’s quite possible for someone to be both a physically strong “brute” and a very technically skilled wrestler. Nobody achieves the level of success Lee has on strength alone. On an unrelated note, is there an ignore feature on this new forum?

Hey, I didn’t argue the weight cut part with you after you mentioned you saw it. I simply stated we were both going by the eye test. Clearly, you had closer eye on it than I did. Congratulations. I will admit I was wrong about that part. The question is will you ever admit the parts you were wrong about… **insert winky face emoji**

Wow that’s an impressive cut. I wouldn’t have guessed that

Neither of us know exactly how much Lee was cutting, I was going by the eye test and so are you. However, if he was cutting “as bad as anyone you have ever seen”, and still managed to make weight and pin/tech his way through the world championships, isn’t that even more of a testament to how good he really is? You are picking out one stat that 50kg results don’t translate. I don’t have time to look that up so I’ll have to trust you on it. If you’ve got the time, can you check the stats on how well 3x age level champs do at the next level? Or maybe how well guys that pinned/teched their way through twice do? Or maybe how well 4x Ncaa champs do? Getting ahead of myself with that one, but you get my point. They guys talent is undeniable, but I guess you can keep denying if you want. I’m done trying to prove that point.

I agree with that point and I wish Lee had gone more of the Snyder route. I think if he could’ve stayed healthy, he would be on course to be an all time great, but things did not work out that way, and he is clearly not anywhere near an all time great as far as international accolades. However, I think it’s fair to recognize he has that same talent. To discredit his age level world titles because they were at the lightest weight is just not fair. I’m sure 50kg for 15-16 year olds is not nearly as rare as 57kg for full grown men, and we don’t discredit 57kg seniors, do we? He is a small guy dominating other guys his size. He won three age level world titles teching and pinning everyone in all three tournaments except for one finals opponent. Think about that! Also, I believe he wanted to challenge himself and wrestle up to try to grow into a senior weight class when he lost to Fix at 54kg. I would bet Fix cut more to get to 54 than Lee did to get to 50. In other words, Lee totally dominated everyone his own size, and lost a super close best of 3 when he went up 8% of his body weight to face Fix - a world medalist at every age level.

I was a little taken back when Brands compared him to the Russian greats as well. Clearly, he has no where near the accomplishments. However, I guess he was referring to the talent that he sees in him. Lee was dominating international competition too at age level, so he certainly has that capability. He just sacrificed his body for NCAA wrestling, so unfortunately we never got to see it.

He didn’t say everyone at 57 is a punk. He said there isn’t a “big bad” there. Compare the top guys at 57 to the top guys at the other Olympic weights, and I think you will see his point.

Interview is on Flo. He says he is considering his heroes from when he was young, the current crop of our senior guys winning world/Olympic titles, and even the Russian all time greats. He says it isn’t an overstatement, but what are your thoughts? I feel like we still haven’t gotten to see the best version of Spencer Lee yet (or maybe we are just starting to see it). I mean the guy just came off of double knee surgery and is pinning the 2nd and 3rd ranked wrestlers in the country! So maybe it isn’t too much of a stretch, or is Brands just hyping his guy?

Are we allowed to Google what the Sullivan award is?

We started calling it quadpod like ten years ago for that reason. The whole program uses it now and I feel like I hear other people use it too. It definitely rolls off the tongue nicely… even rhymes so it’s easy to remember. Just start using it and you won’t regret it

Yes, I saw Gable Stevenson, Reece Humphries, and Logan Steiber all do this at states. Carl Sanderson saw it too and tried to recruit them.

If he has to default in the NCAA finals, then there is a small chance he could still win the hodge. If he takes a loss before NCAAs then breezes through the tournament, there is a small chance. If he straight up losses at NCAAs there is zero chance

I think you are pretty accurate with what you hear coaches say with one small exception. I think the last line should be “we just wanna see him get to his shots more”. I think this subtle difference makes all the difference in the world. Wrestling more aggressively being more confident, and not being afraid to pull the trigger on a shot is almost always better, but it doesn’t always mean a higher number of shots. It may mean more aggressive hand fighting, more chain wrestling, and zero hesitation when the shot finally opens up. This is what the coaches want to see

Yes I agree. Depending on who PSU sends, one team would be a slight favorite but winnable either way. I guess that’s why I consider it a toss up but maybe “swing match” would be better term. I’m pretty confident we see Haines. If they were sure of keeping his redshirt, they would’ve save one match for Iowa. I think this weekend was part of the evaluation process and Haines showed a clear separation.

There’s basically 4 toss ups in this dual, 149, 157, 165, and 285. Iowa has to win 3 out 4… possible but it’s a tall order. IF PSU does send Haines, I think he is the favorite. So then Iowa would need to win 3 out of 3 tossups or find an upset somewhere. Maybe 197?

Yeah there’s some days I think his schtick gets old, but I have to admit I missed him when he left the old forum.