BAC

Just wanted to give a shout out to this guy. One of the best redemption stories around. Those of us who've been around the forums for a while will know the guy's history. I remember him as a young phenom, wrestling in Cadets at Salulaev's weight, getting injured in the semis. Comes back, parlays that into undefeated high school career, goes to OSU. Gets regularly whupped by Dieringer, which necessitates a huge cut to 157.... things go haywire, off the team as he turns to drugs/alcohol, transfers, gets arrested after a bender... rock bottom. Then surrounds himself with good people, picks himself up, gets sober, comes back to take 4th and 3rd at NCAAs at Lock Haven. Becomes very, very open about his sobriety network as he gets his feet firmly planted, raises his kids, trains hard, starts a club, many of them in Vegas. Made Final X last year and does it again this year, finally overcoming the Dieringer hurdle. Very open in his interview: Chance Marsteller Gets Final X Rematch With Jordan Burroughs (flowrestling.org) Love JB but you won't catch me rooting against Marsteller either.

I dunno. Compare PSU and Iowa's handling of Suriano and Lee, respectively. Suriano wanted to wrestle in the postseason. PSU would have loved him to, but thought he was too injured. Suriano disagreed, strongly. PSU held its ground, and in the resulting dust-up, Suriano transferred. PSU showed it'd rather lose one of their top guys than let him wrestle with too much of an injury. Lee? Just the opposite. Lee gets injured right before NCAAs, and Iowa throws him out there anyway. In fact, time after time, Iowa let Lee wrestle while badly injured. How much did Lee exacerbate his injuries by wrestling in these situations? I have no doubt that Lee, like Suriano, wanted to go. That's what thoroughbreds do. But Iowa didn't say no. Its the job of coaches to put the wrestler before the program, and hold them back if that's what the trainers/doctors recommend -- to the team's detriment if necessary. I thought it was sort of poetic that the most recent withdrawal happened just before a match between Suriano and Lee. Not that we'll ever know for sure if Surano would've exacerbated his injuries if PSU threw him out there when they shouldn't have, or if Lee would be healthier today if Iowa prioritized Lee's long-term health over their short-term lusting for a title. I have my suspicions. But the bottom line is that on the eve of Worlds, and just a year before the Olympics, Surano can go, and Lee can't. But hey, at least Iowa got its team title. That's all that matters right?

If the scoreboard says 10-10, and the losing guy's hand gets raised, then viewers DO NOT know who won. Pretty simple.

Yeah, its kind of weird -- I would have thought that after a year of WWE under his belt, Gable would be all about the trash talk. Instead he's Mr. Nice Guy. Super positive, wanting to grow the sport, put on a show, mad props to Mason, and so on. Maybe he's trying to position himself to be a "good guy" in the next WWE draft and wants to show he's a fan favorite? Whatever it is, I hope the WWE lets him stick around. What a force.

Not many rule changes I'd make in freestyle, but one I'd definitely make is to add OT. If you can have a situation where the people who are closest to the sport -- the scorekeepers, coaches, refs and competitors -- don't know who won a given match, that's a problem with the rules. At MINIMUM, if there's no OT, change it to simply "last score wins" in the case of a tie, without all this weighting/ranking BS. UWW needs to fix this. We're nearing an Olympic cycle, we've already been dropped once, and the IOC has made it clear that whatchability is a central factor. If viewers can't tell who is winning or who won, they tune out.

In case anyone needed a reminder why Gable is the GOAT of Heavyweights, they just got it. As an aside, if anyone thought there was trash-talking between Gable and Parris after their match, this interview indicates it was exactly the opposite: https://www.flowrestling.org/events/10272040-brady-koontz-a-step-away-from-making-2023-world-team/videos?playing=10921589 I think the 2020 tweet is ancient history between these two.

DeAugustino is a sleeper in the portal. Majored Ramos at B1Gs, and 4th at NCAAs two years ago. Put him in the right program and he's as much of a contender at 125 next year as anyone.

Iowa fans don't want to hear it, but I think quality of coaching is one of the biggest reasons PSU is getting all these guys that Iowa isn't. Coaching in all its forms: how they develop guys, teaching them to win, and the attitude they foster. PSU is legendary for getting its guys on the top of the podium. Iowa, not so much. They've had 8 #1 seeds in the last decade or so, and only one has won. Same on the team front: one title vs. a stack of them. PSU recruits know they'll almost certianly know the joy of hoisting a team trophy. There's also head-to-head evidence, as lots of PSU guys who started out losing to their Iowa counterpart, ended up surpassing them. Think RBY (started 0-2 vs DeSanto) and Kerkvliet (started 0-2 vs Cass). Even SVN, who lost a couple times to Murin but outplaced him. Many older examples too. A lot of these top recruits are eyeing freestyle success too, and Iowa's HWC has basically collapsed in the last decade, while PSU's is now the top destination. The resulting difference in practice partners is also dramatic, and the developmental benefits of that is incalculable. I don't think its lost on recruits that PSU takes care of their guys physically too. Time after time, Iowa threw an injured Lee out on the mat. Lee is a warrior who will always go, but Iowa never said no. Contrast that to PSU's biggest "scandal," if you can call it that, with Nick Suriano, where he was mad because he *wanted* to wrestle in the post-season while the coaches/trainers thought he wasn't healed enough and said no. Recruits see that, as do parents, who know their kid will be well cared for. Much more creativity in PSU's wrestling too. PSU's coaching seems able to cultivate many different styles, with new variations on moves, whereas Iowa clings to its '80s philosophy of shove-em-out-of-bounds-and-demand-a-stall-call. There's exceptions on both sides, but overall the difference in the dynamism and originality of PSU and Iowa wrestlers is hard to miss. And attitude. Make fun of PSU's "have fun" philosophy if you want, but recruits see these guys actually having fun, and it makes an impression. Contrast that to Iowa's sneering every-hates-us-and-we-love-it philosophy, and that'll attract certain guys, but most guys prefer to have fun than bathe in hate. I'm not going full-on Jimmy here and saying Iowa needs to clean house. Iowa pulls in enough good recruits to do fine most years. But as against PSU, face it, the difference is dramatic. Its easy to see how top recruits who do their homework would turn their nose up at big money from Iowa given what PSU has.

While it is true that PSU is putting together a monster team for next year, one of the biggest myths going around is that PSU has this massive depth. In another thread, some are claiming that their JV team could place top 5. Its just not true. If anything, it is one of PSU's biggest weaknesses: they LACK depth, badly. At most weights, if their guy gets hurt, its a really big drop to the next guy. Last year, their best backup was Nevills, but he's transferring. They had some serviceable backups in Barraclaugh, Lee and Ball, who could probably start for a lot of teams, but none of those guys were apt to put up any points at NCAAs. So what's changed this year? Nagao and Truax are great additions but they don't add depth as they swap in for departing RBY and Dean. The only real depth addition (besides incoming freshmen) is Mesenbrink, since he fits in with Haines/Facundo. With Nevills leaving that's a wash, or close to it. Factor in possible Olympic redshirts, and it gets even thinner. A team of PSU backups would be lucky to score 5 points at NCAAs.

There's talk of mutual suicide pacts over on the Iowa Rivals forum. They're taking it pretty hard. Any hesitation they had about going after the other Ferraris seems to be in the rear-view mirror. Maybe they can repackage their NIL offer to Nagao as a Legal Defense Fund for AJ & co?

I'll add this, and it is obviously just my opinion -- which, along with $7, will get you a gallon of gas in California. But I think Tom and Terry, who've always thrived on being ornery, have convinced themselves that their guys wrestle better when they have a chip on their shoulder. So they've baked it into their coaching. They preach this "everyone hates us" and "its the world vs. the Hawkeyes" stuff, thinking it is motivational. For many it is. But I don't think it is for everyone, all the time. For some -- especially those already prone to negative thinking -- I think it can eat at them, like a cancer. It motivates in the right dosage, but taken too far, it festers, distracts, and manifests in their wrestling, like a personal demon they need to overcome (along with their actual opponent) whenever they take the mat. That's my perception of how it has affected Spencer. He was always heavily self-critical and motivated himself with it, and it made him great. But to hear him talk now, he feels so put-upon -- for the thinnest of reasons -- that he sounds overcome with resentment. And it seems that no one in Iowa City is disabusing him of these thoughts. It isn't sustainable. He is very clearly NOT having fun. I'll be rooting for him at the US Open and I hope he is healthy, but I fear his personal challenges aren't solely physical.

Only took you three weeks to find an example, eh Vak? And come on, this is pretty weak sauce. Saying someone is "not the greatest of all time" (faux GOAT) isn't exactly the most cutting insult I've heard in my life. And the gripes about Spencer not training with young teammates originated within Hawk Nation; I take that comment as a joking reference to mama Ayala. I'll grant you these qualify as insults, albeit mild ones. But the fact that these are the worst that you or anyone could come up with, after three weeks, reinforces my point that Spencer is, overall, one of the most well-liked wrestlers of all time. In the time it took you to find two modest examples, I'm sure I could find thousands of social media posts of fans fawning all over him. And the bigger point is that, even if there's a hater or two out there, Spencer massively overreacted, to a very alarming extent. It can't possibly be healthy to have such a misplaced, poisonous perception of how others see you. Who's on Team Spencer who is talking him off this ledge? Is anyone? I thought Askren was on the money in his take on Spencer's interview: https://www.flowrestling.org/events/5011126-flowrestling-radio-live/videos?playing=10869394&limit=60

I miss the days where guys transferred to ASU because the girls were hotter.

Meant to say Pyles, not pulse. Said it on his Flo show a few episodes ago like it was a known fact. Was news to me. Agree that Gilman is a tall order for Lee now.

Pulse claims the impetus of Gilman leaving Iowa was Lee beating Gilman real bad in a live go. Any truth to that?

Based on that video I don't think it was intended that way.

Public service announcement: 1. Periods exist. 2. Capital letters exist. 3. Paragraphs exist. Kindly, BAC

I am not a fan of this trend either, but if you are in a coaching position, you and others would be wise to take 98lber’s admonition to heart. Just last month, a Texas Tech year BB coach was suspended for a “master and servant” biblical reference to an athlete, given its slavery connotations: https://www.deseret.com/2023/3/9/23632016/texas-tech-coach-mark-adams-resigns-bible If one of the ESPN announcers had used that term in reference to Arujau’s win over RBY, it would have taken about 5 minutes for him to suspended and forced to apologize. Do I agree with it? No, I think it is hypersensitive at best, and the assumption of racist motives is often more offensive than the comment itself. But it is foolish to close your eyes to the reality. No one really cares what anyone says on this forum, but you might want to pick your battles more wisely in a coaching or employment context.

My point was that there was isn’t some double standard where everyone is crapping in Lee while everyone else gets a pass. To the contrary Lee is one of the most well liked wrestlers of this generation. It’s like Mary Lou Retton giving an interview and being like “omg everyone hates me it’s so unfair.” Give me a freaking break. I don’t know Agave but… hater? He is the same guy who was starting a bunch of excuse threads for Lee during NCAAs, saying naw man he is clearly hurt, he’s gotta MFF: https://intermatforums.com/topic/1525-lee-is-injured/#comment-38790 His tune only changed when it started to look like he wasn’t newly injured after all. That’s fair game — following the facts — not being a hater. My challenge was to find anti-Lee threads/posts *besides* the MFF issue. But whatever. I’m not saying there are none as I’m sure there are people out there who don’t like the kid, because no one has 100% likability. That doesn’t change the fact that he is one of the most popular wrestlers of his generation, and the idea that the whole world outside of Iowa is against him is absurd.

LOL yeah but those are MFF threads. That’s my point. Anyone who bails on wrestlebacks at NCAAs, especially in a podium race, is gonna catch some heat unless they are clearly hurt. Thats not anti-Spencer, it’s despite it being Spencer. Have any non-MFF examples?

Not based on reality? Based on what? I’m being serious. Show me all the threads and posts where people are tagging on him just because they don’t like him. Give me an example. I trust the ESPN reporting is not such an example, as you can’t possibly think that they made up a negative story about him. Heck a big chunk of their broadcast was built around him and his run for 4. He took some heat for MFF’ing out, but big-name guys will always get ragged on for doing that. That’s not a Spencer thing, that’s an if-you-ain’t-injured-you-should-suck-it-up-and-go-for-third thing. If it was more heated than usual, it’s only because it was misreported that he left the arena entirely, which is objectively critique-worthy. (I wasn’t among them but I get it.) Iowa wrestlers regularly have their contingent of haters since so many dislike Iowa, but Spencer always defied that mold. He was very in-Iowa-like: having fun, likable, didn’t just push, didn’t whine about stalling, laughed and didn’t seem bitter. Has there EVER been a more universally liked Iowa wrestler? I don’t think so. Prove me wrong if you can, but I think the “everyone hates Spencer” narrative is totally made up. He is no Metcalf or Mocco. He is as beloved as they get.

Yes of course he can, but he didn't stop there. The issue is in the 5-10 minutes of the interview Spencer spent berating those who point to or inquire about his injury, as though it is some sort of massive personal attack on him and double-standard. That's the part that struck me as weird. The truth is that those hypothesizing injury after the Ramos loss or less-than-dominant wins weren't critics, they were a mix of Iowa apologists making excuses and regular wrestling fans who were just trying to explain what they'd seen. So why so defensive? The critics would be the ones who say "Aw Spencer's not hurt, he just lost because he sucks" (which would be a pretty rare comment), not the ones saying hey, Spencer only got a major, maybe he's still recovering or getting his lungs back or whatever. I dunno. Part of me thinks its just that Spencer's a guy who feeds on negativity to make himself better. I'm not sure how healthy that is, but he's said in other interviews that he's highly self-critical and beats himself up, which is part of what pushes him to excel. Maybe the same is true of comments from others -- i.e. even innocuous comments are recast as criticism to feed his World vs Spencer mindset that motivates him. Far be it for me to question what works for him, but I worry about the long-term effect of that motivational strategy. I sensed a touch of jealousy when he spoke of Jesuroga's HEW-induced ditching of wrestling to go join the Navy at the end of the interview.

I dunno, I kind of had mixed feelings about what I heard. On the plus side, he went out of his way to throw kudos to Ramos. Its in line with how he reacted when he lost to DeSanto in high school, and one of the reasons I've long been a fan. He gives credit where it is due and respects his opponents, and seems sincere about it. He also goes out of his way to praise his teammates, coaches and school -- all likable qualities. But it was a bit tougher to hear his defensiveness and grievances. Most I felt were misplaced and some a bit hypocritical. He went out of his way to criticize those who attribute his loss to Ramos to injury, but at the same time, he goes out of his way to say he was in fact injured -- not more so for that match, but injured generally. You can't have it both ways. If you're going to announce you were injured in a given match, you invite speculation as to whether you would have won absent the injury. You can give credit to Ramos while still wondering if the injury played a role. He also acts as though everyone's against him for saying "there's something wrong with Spencer" anytime he doesn't get a pin or tech. But these aren't really criticisms. This is just what happens when everyone knows you're wrestling injured: people speculate whether injury played a role if you falter. And ironically, the ones speculating injury or offering it as an excuse usually aren't his critics, but his fans at Iowa, seeking to delegitimize his losses. He never really explains the MFFs at NCAAs, but clearly the criticisms stung. I feel for him. That said, I just don't agree that he is the subject of some sort of double-standard. To the contrary he is one of the most well-liked wrestlers of recent years. Its just that the higher the pedestal people put you on, the more puzzled people are when you lose or aren't as dominant. Glad to hear he's planning to go to the U.S. Open and I hope he can be healthy enough to be competitive.

In 1936, before they had invaded anyone. (There were discussions of boycotts over persecution of Jews, which didn't pan out.) Games were cancelled in '40 and '44. Germany (and Japan) were banned from the '48 games due to their prior aggression.

So… if instead Ukraine has invaded Russia for the sole purpose of increasing Ukrainian territory, you would be fine with banning Ukraine to avoid a Russian boycott? Do whatever is necessary to appease Russia to ensure they attend. Sounds principled to me.