BAC

This is a good example of why you need to have a year cutoff, whether its the past 20, 30 or even 50 years. Because you have all these old-timers who were great in their day, but who don't belong in a present-day conversation at all. The sport was just so different then, with dissimilar rules and techniques. There was no weight training, and the college athletics experience was so different too. Take Hodge: he wrestled a *total* of 46 bouts in his whole college career, and didn't even *start* at Oklahoma until he was 22 or 23, after a Navy stint and after he'd already wrestled in an Olympics. Can you name who his best opponent was? No, you can't. And every era had a Hodge. Stories about about how diminutive Robin Reed could pin everyone on the Olympic Team, including the heavyweight. Bill Koll, another undefeated-and-never-taken-down guy. JB will come here and wax about Gray Simons. It goes without saying that if you teleport of these old-timers when they were at their peak to the present day, they'd get eaten alive. But should that take away from the fact that, in their day, they were the best around? I don't think so, but how are you going to compare Koll to Zain, Simons to Spencer, Hodge to Starocci, Reed to Stieber? You can't. So just leave them out. If it isn't apples to apples, don't compare.

Well said Truz. Earned you a Bob.

Throw in Matt Ramos and Nico Megaludis for Blaze. Its an amazing resume. Duke is the toughest to judge. His wins aren't as impressive as Lockett/Blaze, but he doesn't have any recent losses either. Since we're talking folk, and who you want for your program, I'd probably put them Duke, Blaze, Lockett. Lockett has excelled in freestyle but has his share of losses in folk. He'll be a beast though. Similarly, Blaze is going to be a 4x AA, but I don't think the wins will come as easy in folk as they do in free. He wrestles guys really close and his offensive output is limited. His airtight defense will secure more wins in free than it will in folk, where guys can beat you on escapes and riding time. His weight class is also apt to be deeper. Duke's style is great for folk though. High offensive output, varied attacks, strong as an ox, won't be bullied on top/bottom. Will score a ton of bonus at NCAAs and very few who can go with him. Granted, I'm relying more on an "eye test" for this assessment than results, but I don't think I'm making much of a leap. Or to put it differently, if you put a gun to my head and said "who would score the most points at NCAAs over 4 years of these three guys," I'd have it Duke-Blaze-Lockett.

I'd definitely watch Olympic breakdancing if it were on the tube. I don't see why the hand-wringing. Meanwhile, the sports that should be eliminated are the ones that wouldn't exist at all, but for the Olympics. I'm looking at you, synchronized swimming and modern pentathalon.

I don't really disagree... I watched the match yesterday, and didn't think it was too predictive for folk. Pinto was doing a lot of summer-wrestling Pinto things, e.g. lots of upper-body stuff, which Cochran effectively countered. But I don't think that should take away from Cochran's performance either. Fishback, Brayden Thompson and Reece Heller were also in the bracket and he finished ahead of all of them, including beating Heller in the semis who took 3rd. Fold in his win over Slavikouski this past season up at HWT, and Cochran looks legit.

Was surprised and impressed to see he teched Pento and beat DJ Washington this weekend. Agree this could be a tight one.

The fact that Sanderson is so opposite from this is one of the reasons I appreciate and respect him so much. He already lost one top-tier wrestler (Suriano) for holding him back from wrestling, when the wrestler wanted to compete. Then he did it AGAIN with Starocci, leading him to rage quit (before reconsidering). PSU wrestling will always have its detractors, but you're a parent of a top recruit, you're always going to know that in a world (and, apparently, in a university) that too often puts the will to win over the health and well-being of the wrestlers, Sanderson is the dead-eye opposite.

I think any of the top 8 57kgs at U20s would be favored to win U23.

Pretty sure I saw someone say that on the Iranian forum In Persian Come think of it he probably wasn’t an American citizen Might’ve said something about being related to Yaz too But still, that’s such f’n BS! Traitors

Probably not to Cael...

Not sure who you are talking about, but maybe they think that if Yazdani wins, then Brooks will realize that Mohammed is the one true prophet after all, and finally convert to Islam.

Maybe I missed it but I haven't heard much talk about Spencer Lee potentially squaring off against Roman Bravo-Young at the Olympics this summer. Who do you got? And, who are you rooting for? Thinking back to two years ago, there was a lot of talk about possibly Lee bumping up (or RBY dropping down) for the epic 2xer v 3xer matchup. No one really thought it would happen and it didn't, but it was still a bummer. RBY later talked about it in an interview, and we all figured we'd have to wait for WTTs or OTTs. Well, that didn't happen either when RBY went to represent Mexico, but... whaddaya know, both guys qualified at 57kg (along with Micic/Cruz). Granted, it feels a little anti-climactic after both guys' NCAA careers ended on a down note, but... who's your pick? I'm thinking RBY is better on his feet, but I still favor Spencer since I suspect he's the slightly better freestyler overall. He only needs one TD to lace RBY to a tech. And who are the PSU faithful rooting for? Anyone going to find it hard to root for an Iowa guy over a PSU guy? Or does country loyalty trump all? I've never been an Iowa fan but being a PA guy I've always had an easy time rooting for Spencer, and I always get so totally consumed rooting for the red white and blue in Olympic years that the last thing I'm thinking about is where they went to college. I'm guessing that's how most if not everyone feels, but every school has its extreme partisans, so I'm curious.

I actually think Spencer is more likely to continue competing if he gets Olympic gold, not less. Or to put it in reverse, if he flames out early at the Olympics, I could see him hanging up the shoes. Spencer, by most accounts (particularly his coaches) is a guy with confidence issues. When he is winning and wrestling well, he feels confident and looks even better the next match. When he struggles, the doubts creep in, he gets self-critical and down on himself, and it becomes self-fulfilling on the mat, even to the point he doesn’t even want to compete at all (see 2023 NCAAs). His first interview after losing at NCAAs was telling. He seemed SO put upon, SO sick of it all, that he seemed outright jealous of the one Iowa recruit who quit wrestling altogether to become a Navy Seal. He looked/sounded DONE, as if he was grinding forward only to fulfill others’ expectations of him. Contrast that to Spencer circa 2022 NCAAs, aka the “excuses are for wusses” version, who looked ready to rumble even after winning. So yeah. A lot of psychobabble about a kid I don’t know personally (sorry), but my take is if he wins gold he is training the next day for 2025 Worlds and LA 2028, if he loses he goes dark for nine months as “Is Spencer done?” threads swirl here and on social media. So let’s hope he wins.

But does he though? Nothing wrong with having Christian beliefs. Everyone has beliefs. Nothing wrong with strong beliefs either, religious or otherwise. The issue, from an employment standpoint, is when your religious beliefs impact your ability to be even handed and fair to the kids you are responsible for — some of whom may share your beliefs and some not. I don’t question Ryan’s ability to do that. Listen to Brooks’ interview, and tell me if you can say the same for him. Again, I like Brooks a LOT, and will cheer him on like crazy this summer, but he is going to need to fix this before going into a diverse workforce.

LOL I dunno, what kind of Christian is he... Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic...? For the uber religious, those distinctions can be the difference between heaven and hell. Pretty sure Cael's Mormon. I wonder how Aaron feels about the "third testament," the Book of Mormon?

Finally watched this video. Oh man. I've always liked Brooks but that wasn't a good look at all. First he says/implies Taylor and others were somehow trying to structure PSU practices in a way that was harmful to him. Like... huh? Then he basically says that his win over Taylor should prove beyond a doubt that his religion is the correct one and Taylor's beliefs are wrong. LOL. I dunno Aaron, are you sure Taylor's win last year didn't prove *his* beliefs are right and *yours* are wrong? Crazy. I loathe this "I won therefore my religion is the right one" BS, and to foist that mindset on a longtime teammate is just way out of line. Interviews like this are also pretty much disqualifying for any coaching position in the near future. If you are a school looking for a coach or assistant coach, you have to worry that he's going to give preferential treatment to those who share his Christian beliefs, and discriminate against those who don't, both in how he recruits and how he coaches guys. BTW, whoever said Basch is like CP times 1000 (or something like that) had it right. Man that guy is hard to watch. Could his nose have been any further up Brooks' butt?

Thanks for that brilliant argument. 52 does not equal 50, therefore its totally cool for Israel to deprive its wrestlers of their lifelong dream by forbidding them to visit a European NATO ally where no threats were made. I don't know about everyone else but I'm certainly persuaded by such incisive sophistry. Anyone have Finesilver's number? I'll text him right now. Hey bro, sorry about your dreams going up in smoke despite no actual security threat, but if you just consider the fact that 50 and 52 are different numbers, it'll all make sense to you.

Yup. How many other active coaches out there have both an Olympic medal AND a world title? Not many. Outside of Kevin Jackson and the Brands bros I can't think of any.

That's sweet you want athletes to "live live" but I'd be willing to bet if you left it up to the Israeli athletes, every one would go. Why? Because it isn't North Korea, it isn't Iran, it isn't Gaza, its freaking TURKEY, a NATO ally, and there was no threat AT ALL. Way to side with the dream-ruiners.

Truthfully Iowa should be making that call. At least try to get him on the staff. But they won't, because they're just too arrogant to ever look outside their own alumni base.

Debatable. I know a fair number of coaches want the number of competitions reduced. But the opposing view is you need to compete to get better, as well as to get a feel for the other guys at your weight. And I think the small number of international competitions is more due to lack of events and travel expenses than it is a conscious decision to compete less. So I don't know, but if PSU was, say, the third or fourth best team, do you think they'd still be doing half the number of competitions as everyone else? I don't.

You never know. Cael competed at Worlds one year while head coach at PSU. It didn't exactly detract from his effectiveness as coach. If OSU was smart, they probably told him they're fine with him competing again if he wants, so long as he can balance it with the job.

I'd be willing to bet (1) he talked to Cael, and (2) Cael encouraged him to take the job.

That's a good point. It was that reduced output this year that first made me think about PSU in antitrust terms, as reduction in output is classic monopolistic behavior. They don't compete as much because they don't have to, as even if they're only 90% sharp that's still more than enough to win.

There's dominant, and there's win-by-100-points Dominant. I agree there's no signs of complacency, but it was only 2021 that they lost to Iowa, and 2022 that they lost to Michigan at B1Gs. Its only recently that they've become a foregone conclusion to win. The wrestler motivation at PSU is purely individual now, since everyone knows the team win is all but certain. I dunno, maybe I'm projecting. I'm a PSU fan, and honestly this past year was less exciting than most. There's no chess moves in duals, no hand-wringing about whether to pull a kid out of redshirt for those few extra points, no fretting about whether an injury is going to cost the team a national title, no trying for a big throw at a dual since you need 6 for the team to win. Its just a steamroller. Maybe DT can shake that up.