TylerDurden

Correct. How else are we going to know the final team score margin?

I think you might be mistaking keeping the score close with the ability to beat Bartlett. Even if we assume you're saying Woods, Mendez, Hardy and Lemley could beat him...who's the fifth guy? I do think there are guys in the B1G who can beat him, but there aren't five.

Adding a few whose names I haven't seen for Indiana, in recognition of their HS careers: Chad Red Blake Mauer Reece Humphrey Lance Ellis - a somewhat mythical wrestler in-state. Was 177-0 with an insane pin rate and would throw you from anywhere. Was a bit small/injured for college wrestling, but was as entertaining as they came. And even though he's still active, Jesse Mendez has the potential to top Indiana's best list when he's finished.

He's in the conversation. I'm not sure why you keep acting like he's not.

If this is simply about awarding the Hodge to the best wrestler, then this thread is pointless. Hendrickson isn't the best NCAA wrestler.

After said balls are found, then what? Does the back of the shirt provide additional guidance?

Where is the block feature?

Absolutely not.

There are 46 years worth of results in this comparison, which means it's hardly a comparison at all. The landscape is drastically different from when Gable was the head coach. It's much harder to build and sustain a program now. Much harder. Even so, the Brands/Zalesky comparison presents a pretty skewed version of reality, lacking any context. Sure the average NCAA finish is similar - even with Brands having seven more seasons, which is an advantage to Brands - but Zalesky's last five NCAA finishes were: 4-8-2-7-4 and finished 4 and 6th place in the B1G his last two years. We also should remember that Zalesky took over a program that had won six of the previous seven national titles. Brands took over for Zalesky and, after one season, won three straight nattys. The Cael factor is real as well. Neither Gable or Zalesky faced an opponent as formidable as Penn State has been over the past dozen years or so. He's been at PSU for all but three years that Brands has been at Iowa. Brands isn't as good as Cael, but his results are better than everyone else coaching right now. But he's also not Zalesky and it's not that close. I get that Iowa fans feel like they have some sort of birthright to win the NCAA title, but this stuff is silly. If anyone on this board is riding the Fire Brands train, who are you suggesting replace him that can do better?

I like the direction IU is heading, but they have no chance in this dual. O/U on match wins for IU is 1.5

This dual seem ripe for sig bets.

I realize this post likely came a burner account for one of the trolls, but GTFO with nonsense. This sounds like the type of stuff you hear from that one dad who sucked as an athlete, almost earning a high school varsity letter, but surely knows what it takes to be a champion because he watched a lot of self-help videos on YouTube and once spent $500 on a leadership conference.

Good lord. Reading through this thread makes me realize how much the internet has skewed our views of everything, glamorizing hot take, knee-jerk reactions to anything that doesn't result in the perfect outcome. You aren't a serious person if you're calling for Brands' job. You just aren't. He's been at Iowa 17 years and has never finished lower than 8th at the NCAA tournament and that happened in his first year. Since then, he's never finished lower than 5th (and that was only once) and has four national titles - and probably missed out on a fifth during the COVID season. I think he behaves like a complete idiot and has the reasoning skills of a 7-year-old, but you're out of your damn mind if you're trying to run him off.

Troll rating: 2/10

You have to say which four weights. That's how this works.

125: Ayala dec Davis 3-0 Iowa 133: Nagao dec Schriever 3-3 141: Woods dec Bartlett 6-3 Iowa 149: Kasak dec Rathjen 6-6 157: Franek dec Haines 9-6 Iowa 165: Mesenbrink major Caliendo 10-9 PSU 174: Starocci dec Kennedy 13-9 PSU 184: Truax major Riggins 17-9 PSU 197: Brooks major Glazier 21-9 PSU 285: Kerkvliet tech Hill 26-9 PSU I gave three to Iowa, but I can see any or all of those results go the other way. Iowa is almost assured to show better than they did against Michigan, but it won't be close to enough. I'll agree with others who suggest that we see back-ups in this dual. I think a lot of us would love to see Arnold out there, but I don't think T&T will put him out against Starocci

Back-to-back matches where Mendez has been limited by guys effectively using collar ties to slow him down. He wasn't in danger of losing this one, but he needs to make an adjustment to either beat the ties or draw more attention from the referees. I'm assuming the end-of-match exchange had something to do with Moore hanging on for the entire match trying not to get bonused, Mendez riding him like a rented mule and then telling him about it.

It feels like a duck, but also Lee hasn't really been 100% physically for a long time so they may not care if he misses/ducks a few in an attempt to be healthy for the B1G and NCAA tournament. Was a good effort by Indiana to rally for the win.

You can say it was a bad call.

He just destroyed the returning national runner up and took the 3rd place finisher to the wire. He's a contender.

I underestimated him after the close match with Bartlett. Never again. He's a title contender. Discuss.

Lewan wishes he was as offensive as J. Tsirtsis

Finally got to watch the replay and I thought Ohio State was better than expected. They certainly deserved more than 9 team points. They were never going to win the dual, but they should feel pretty good about their effort. Kilkeary was robbed. That's three (at least) all day. Bouzakis came out swinging and held on. It's a good win for a guy who looked lost earlier this year. Credit to Bartlett for blocking his way to a win. Mendez (or Menendez) couldn't get through that collar tie. The neutral danger was close, but it looked like Bartlett had the better position on that exchange via his counter and likely would have scored either way. Rogotzke is one of those guys you want to watch. Truax was having his way with him, until he was counting lights. Mesenbrink and Brooks are unreal. Kerk is stomping everyone across from him. The officiating left many things to be desired.

I see versions of this take across the sporting world and it's simply not true. It takes a ton of work to get to the top and even more to stay there.

Agreed. Great work and amazing first-hand memories. Dogbone's mention of the takedown scoring brought another thought to my mind about what could (would) be argued: how Division I has condensed since 1997. We've lost, give or take and by rough count, 25 Division I programs since Iowa won the 1997 title.