CHROMEBIRD

I think he wanted to get on the mat right away and compete as a true freshman. IIRC Iowa already had some pretty big holes in the lineup that year and weren't expected to seriously compete for a team championship, so he wasn't going to make or break their season. Imo Spencer felt that he needed to bounce back from his PIAA finals match and wanted to mix it up with NaTo, Suriano, Picc, etc. He would have wanted to go his freshman year no matter which school he was at.

Look up Patricia Miranda

That's right, Larry took a job at a small college about half an hour away from the University of Iowa and his twin sister ended up going to that college where her dad worked. I agree that the media should leave the Lee family alone (and also Larry should mind his own business). Spencer's a big boy and can speak for himself.

Kinda sounded like the UWW scrapped this year's World Cups because of possible ducking? I thought that was just a college thing.

Don't even go there. Spencer would be dropped by his sponsors and the Iowa fanbase would lose their sh!t if he competed for another country. Not an option.

This. Former Hawkeye wrestlers have mentioned how different practices are in the Iowa room than elsewhere. The majority of practice time is conditioning and live wrestling. Not very much drilling or technique, you work on those things with coaches offline. It's a product of Gable. He believed that live wrestling makes you tougher and more comfortable with the "Iowa Style", and the live goes helps you to learn how to wrestle through all positions and situations. Spencer Lee was banged up in high school so it's debatable whether he would have done better in a different room. Thing that really screwed him was the Covid year. If he just wrestled four straight years and graduated in 2021 he would have had plenty of time to properly rehab. But he really wanted to be a 4xer in college (understandable) and now he's rushing to get his international career back on track. 5 years ago we thought Spencer would be our guy at 57kg at the 2024 Olympics. Now it's starting to look like he'll have to wait until at least 2028 to achieve his dream.

Looks like they've updated the numbers

Does CarStar still not forgive like God does? Did he tell Ringer that he should have killed him when he had a chance?

Under the current rules, someone would have to be out of their mind to drag things out to OT. The pacing of tournaments are fast so wrestlers will want to take care of business as soon as possible. Shot clock, etc. also forces scoring and keeps OT from dragging on for long.

I give Spencer credit for testing himself and giving the US Open a shot. I don't think many people actually believed he'd be fully ready to go after the college postseason. Was really looking forward to his semifinal match it's probably for the best that he bowed out. He could've gotten seriously hurt against someone like Suriano.

This is why freestyle needs OT. When knowledgeable fans don't understand which way a match went on criteria, it's a problem. Wrestle OT so there's a clear winner.

Not to look ahead, but I'm excited for the Lee-Suriano-Richards matchups if things keep going chalk

It would be nice if the sport had incentives and processes to make the dual season more exciting. For example: 1. Incentivize athletes and programs: - Teams wrestle a regular (condensed?) conference schedule - At end of regular season, x teams get selected for a dual championship series, similar to the bowl system in football - Like bowl games, championship duals have sponsors and can give out swag bags with gift items (gear, watches, video game consoles, giftcards, etc. up to $1000 total value or whatever the NCAA will allow) to incentivize athletes. Higher prestige championships have better swag items. - MOWs of each championship dual are eligible for a bonus gift ... This mitigates "duals don't matter" mentality by giving wrestlers and teams a material reason to want to win duals. It also spreads the wealth so there are multiple postseason team champions. For example, PSU might win the National Dual Championship but team X can hang their hat on being the Asics Glen Brand Dual Champion or the US Marines Few & Proud Dual Champion (or whatever) which could be the equivalant of winning the Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl. 2. Create processes for coaches and teams: - At start of dual, coin is flipped. Winning team picks weight class X to wrestle. - Each team picks their wrestler at weight class X to send out - At end of the match, choice of weight class alternates between teams (the other team picks the next weight class Y to wrestle) - Repeat until all weights are wrestled - In the case of a tied team score at end of dual, official randomly picks a weight class out of a hat. Both teams send out a guy, even if they already wrestled, and the dual is settled by the winner of the match. ... This forces coaches to think more strategically about their lineup and make real time adjustments about who they send out. Increases likelihood of bumping wrestlers up or down if it gives the team a better chance of winning the dual. Makes duals more dynamic, creates more drama, and doesn't leave it to a boring Hwt match deciding an exciting dual. I'm just spitballing, and some of these are ideas from the former board, but I'm using them to point out that there are things the sport can do to make the team aspect or wrestling actually matter.

Wasn't he the backup who believed he was going to wrestle in his first college dual so his family all traveled to CHA? I think he shook it off but his brother posted on the former board about being deceived by the coaches or something. Man, he was angry.

Good stuff. Thanks for keeping us sane in the offseason, lol. That reminds me: @Wrestling Arena do you have plans to put your video collection up on Youtube? I imagine it would be a very popular channel.

Agree with both of this. The Hawks will be fine with Brands but it could do a lot better. I like TnT but honestly don't think they have the creativity or smarts to be really great coaches. They seem happy enough to ride Iowa's legacy and try to emulate Gable without adding much value. I'd like to see Lee get into coaching but I'm more excited to see how far Tony Ramos goes in his coaching career. He'll be ready for something bigger soon.

Let Clarissa run the show.

Nagao won't win an individual title.

It'll be interesting to see what happens. It's not an issue right now because a kid would lose eligibility and have to stay at a school for the year if they back out of their NLI and they don't get a release waiver. I guess an NIL could be so lucrative that someone with an NLI is poached, but I don't see that happening in wrestling and I don't see a sponsor buying a year of "nothing"

Help us all when TMZ is sharing Minnow's social media posts

I believe NILs are contracts, so it depends on the language of the agreement.

Exactly, the potential new rules will be trouble for Nagao. I have faith in Teskee and think he cashes in on the year he's banked in the Hawkeye room and finally settles into the weight. He's a lot better on his feet than we've seen, and better than Nagao from neutral. Just my 2 cents.

No respect for Shunk

I don't think it's a great buy, either. Will Nagao even win Big Tens? Mendez has more upside, imo.

Teskee this summer working for that grad transfer: I'm only slightly kidding, as I think he and Ayala beats Nagao in a wrestle-off.