CHROMEBIRD

I'll root for Starocci to win #4 only if he can commit to going for #5 next year.

How do you see a potential Teemer-Shapiro match playing out in the semis? Idk if Teemer has the gas tank for Shapiro or Haines. Esp a totally fueled-up Saturday night Haines. Haines-Andonian in the quarters might be kind of fun, if it happens. EDIT: Just looked it up, Haines and Andonian would actually run into each other in the semis

My usual bracket complaint: I wish the committee could seed the brackets a little more creatively without sacrificing fairness, so that we don't get so many repeat conference and conference tournament matchups... or guys from the same conference jammed on the same side. Would also be great if the criteria were adjusted so that instead of a minimum # of matches for RPI, wrestlers got a progressively better score or weighting, the more matches they wrestled. Also an adjustment to Quality Wins with a deduction based on "Quality Win Opportunities Missed"... This discourages wrestlers from earning a quality win and then ducking thereafter to preserve seed placement.

Pretty nice draw for Kerk, but I'll take Bastida. Hendrickson won't make the finals, but will win the Gorriaran Award.

I mentioned on another thread, Hidlay's been wrestling in another gear this season and can beat Aaron Brooks if he doesn't over-respect him and regress to his old style. Glaze/Allred will be a good early test. Also: BrooksBeard should be FUN

P-Keck is gonna run through this bracket

It seems a little too convenient that CarStar gets a revenge match in the first round of his murder tour. But I'll take a feisty PK over a banged up Griffith and Starocci, if Starocci can get past Mekhi.

Yeah, rough draw. I hope we get to see him and Carr (again) in the quarters. I like Carr, but will be pulling for Hamiti because I really wanna see him and KOT in the semis. I've got Mes even though KOT will be basically wrestling at home and in front of a home crowd

Shapiro-Chittum on the first day should be good, too. Didn't one duck the other during the season? Finally, the duck gods make things right!

Hope we get to see Lovett and Watters go

Give me Woods over Bartlett in the semis. I wonder how much Mendez will weigh on Sat night, if he makes it to the finals

Looking forward a possible Teskee-Crooham matchup. Hopefully Brody isn't a headcase and can string together a nice AA run. I also hope we get Rags-Fix in the semis, but them's long odds, probably

Top half looks rough. I like Ayala's draw but this feeling of "wow, looks like a nice path for this Iowa wrestler" gets me every damn year.

9 seed, hah

I was hoping to see Vito on the other side of the bracket

Sucks that the NCAA couldn't be bothered to put the wrestling selection show on its live video schedule. WBB and swimming/diving, however...

Do you ever consider it on bottom tho? EDIT: actually, don't answer that

Or it could take him out of his own game. The PSU staff will need to keep him focused on business. Starocci can be his own worst enemy, letting ego and emotion get in the way.

What a shocker, Jimmy refusing to honor yet another bet. @PortaJohn

All we need now is Andrew Sparks trolling Starocci to high hell on social media, talking about being the one to snap his 64-match streak

It was at Welsh-Ryan Arena (the old arena, too) the last times NU hosted in 2011, 2001, 1990

Dat transfer portal tho

Thing that cracks me up about MM is how he's so vicious when he wrestles, just demolishing everyone, then you hear him talk and he's this really nice kid, pretty much the opposite of intense, who's just happy to be there and literally out there having fun. Like if you saw him on the street not knowing who he was, you'd never guess that the dude with the goofy hair and old man glasses is a stone cold killer. Same when he wrestles. His head movement and the way he circles looks weird and clunky, not really graceful at all, yet he's totally slick and a destroyer of worlds. If he wasn't winning all the time, Rock Harrison would probably ridicule his style for being so "herky jerky". Hard not to love this kid.

Cornell's still looking good!

What? I've wrestled with my own version of MM (although really, no one else is MM) and I assume you have too, but even then I'd know when it's time to go. Esp when there's a title on the line. Hamiti also has a gas tank and he wasn't gasping for air or anything, so it's crazy that he hit the wall so suddenly. On the BTN broadcast, there was a little bit of a delay in updating the score to reflect the TD + NF, no idea if the matside scoreboard was also late, so I figured maybe he or Bono thought they were still ahead with RT. Someone on social media said Hamiti was limping off the mat and back to the locker room though, so maybe it was an injury. Great match either way, best of the postseason so far imo.