CHROMEBIRD

Pre-CAESAR and CANVAS era, which ain't a bad thing! (But also pre-themat forums)

I think they're only seeding those who registered before the early deadline. Not 100% sure. Guys who show up and register the day before will just be slotted into the brackets? Idk

Does Nagao want to bump up to 141 next year? I thought making 133 wasn't so easy for him.

People actually believe Taylor saying he was too big for 74kg?

The portal opened in March right before Nationals, so 45 days from that... first week of May or so.

That's awesome. An era that I know little about. Looking forward to hearing your stories!

When were you at NU? Just wondering.

Wow!

Got it. I also forgot that Rags burned his shirt this year so Bormet's got options for the next couple of seasons

That would be a hell of a lineup if Cannon could cut to 125 but he looked pretty big for 133 a couple of years ago. I think we're more likely to see Rags and Cannon at 133 and 141 or vice-versa, and Lemley RS. Does Canon have just 1 year left?

Is he Mexican? My impression is that he's gonna go straight to MMA anyway. I thought Saldate could end up at Indiana with his boy/bro in law Henry Porter and with Brayton Lee out of eligibility. I think his younger brother is also going to be playing football up the road at Notre Dame. Good get for Michigan though.

How do folks in Madison feel about Howe? I can't remember if there were hard feelings when he left.

100%

Fair. Carl mentioned in one of the videos someone posted that Truax wasn't confident in his offense early on and that the coaches were trying to get him to let it fly a little more, rather than wrestling chess matches. I guess the same could be said for Bartlett, though!

I think it might be the opposite and maybe Nagao didn't take advantage of what the PSU room had to offer. It sounded like he didn't interact much RBY or Bartlett, whereas Davis rolled with RBY frequently while he was preparing for the Mexico tournament and Pan Ams. No offense to the PSU bench, but you're not going to improve when you train with Shunk and Vespa. I don't think Nagao beat any wrestlers in the top 10 this year.

Imo, the old "Iowa Style" works well at developing good wrestlers but it will only get you so far, especially with or against elite wrestlers. So, we get exactly the results that we get. Bringing in some technical expertise on staff to work with guys on scrambling, chain wrestling, finishing shots would fix a lot of tactical issues at Iowa right now. Changing the culture of the program would also pay huge dividends, but it's a longer-term issue to be fixed. A huge competitive advantage that Iowa has is the structure and individual attention that Iowa gives its wrestlers. A lot of kids need a solid framework like that in order to thrive. Look at DeSanto, for example. Cael's relaxed and "fun" training style isn't for everyone. Guys like Gavin Teasdale, Nick Suriano, and Andrew Long struggled without guardrails and a lot of rigor in place. It's not too different I think from the way students can sink or swim when they go from the structure of high school to the autonomy of college.

It's Taylor's to lose, but I could see him dropping at least the first match while shaking off some rust. He's only been competing at 1 international event in each of the last couple of years and is also getting a little long in the tooth. Even Burroughs was getting in some reps and competing during the last cycle.

Maybe we'll see Hamiti up at 285 after he discovers Eskimo Joe's

I noticed that under UWW's age rules JB is eligible to wrestle Veterans Worlds now

The price tag still on the sleeve If only AJ understood the difference between people laughing with him vs. people laughing at him

Middle school greyshirt is wild, but RBY is open about it. But I was under the impression that his guardian held him back because he was a scrawny kid from South Tucson with not great social skills and prone to getting beaten up, and his mom was away in rehab. Idk if the year off was just to game high school wrestling.

NIL deals can't compensate an athlete for attending an institution or competing, but I believe agreements could be structured around an athlete residing within a certain geographic locale. I think there are already deals like that in football and basketball. I wouldn't be surprised if some companies finesse the language of NIL deals to try to keep an athlete around, as there are cases where an athlete taking a deal and then bolting at the end of the season could be detrimental to a brand or marketing campaign. NIL laws are per state and school, though, so it's a kitten rodeo right now.

Thing were rough for Northwestern after Pariano left and didnt' get better when Howe and the assistants took off during Covid. The other thing NU has going against it are its academics, compounded by being on a quarter system. The season can span all three quarters. That's two sets of finals, with Big Tens usually around the same time as Winter quarter finals week, and also missing out on spring break. All on top of training, competing, and cutting weight. Similar for Stanford. Mentally, that can be pretty tough compared to equally competitive schools that are on the semester system.

Right, 100% a compliance issue. He can't coach or have a financial interest/incentive in a club or other org where a prospective athlete from the same sport trains or competes. Bizzarely, if Askren spun off a separate AWA women's club (AWAW?) he'd be able to take the Wisconsin job because men's and women's wrestling are considered different sports.

MM said Cal Baptist was the only one who recruited him until he started getting good his senior year. Wanted to go to PSU but chose to honor his commitment to Cal Bap and stuck it out for a year.