First things first:
IMO PPG did an awesome job hosting. Couldn’t make the morning session Thursday and heard getting into the arena was a nightmare. Adjustments were made for Friday and everything went smoothly.
Didn’t hear one complaint of bad seats. Seen people in the upper level with binoculars, but also talked to some who said their seats were “pretty far up” but “enjoyed their seats and atmosphere and had no issues seeing.
Heard rumblings of Pittsburgh putting in the bid for 2023, hopefully that happens.
Short negative section:
Refs: as a whole the ncaa has to figure out some situations. Hands to the face, scramble/takedown situations, stalling. All need extreme clarification and make sure all refs are on the same page. I don’t care how certain situations are called as long as its consistent through out. Would be nice for a referee convention to take place with refs of all levels going. Then you could have wrestlers there and go through certain situations to be discussed and clarified.
It seemed like Penn State turned it down a notch once the title was locked up. Hall and Joseph both down in the third and seemed like the sense of urgency just wasn’t there. I give the wrestlers overall a C- grade for the finals. Cassar looked good, Nolf looked good for a period. Other than that prettt lackluster. Probably just spoiled seeing them rack up the points but regardless, didn’t seem like they were ready to go.
Next year:
A lot of factors are gonna go into next year. Who gets a 6th year? Does anyone transfer in? Here’s my way far out prediction,
125: Teske, a year in the room to get stronger, healthy, and in a good diet will pu dividends and an upgrade over Schnupp. Although I admire Schnupps grit and heart, I don’t think we see him start barring an injury or weight issue.
133: RBY, coming off his true frosh campaign as an All American. I think he makes great strides and really starts to use his quickness by finding and creating more offense.
141: Nick Lee, not much to say here. Great motor and work ethic will take him a long way, he continues to improve and a NC wouldn’t surprise me at all
149: Verk, could have made some noise this year at the tournament. But those things happen. With Nolf leaving and Berge going up, he slides and I think actually outscores Berges points this year.
157: Berge, I don’t think we’ve seen what he has to offer. I think the weight cut was extremely tough and left him with little energy. I think he’s an AA next year and most people will be generally surprised with how different he looks a weight class up.
165: Cenzo, coming off a tough loss but sometimes that’s a good thing to get refocused and rededicated. Going for 4x finals and 3x NC.
Here’s where it gets interesting;
174: Brooks, I think Hall redshirts. Everyone knows Aaron is good I think he competes for a NC right out of the gate
184: Shak, I think he gets his 6th year, has his ACL surgery which also eases his mind a little bit.
197: Hard to make a difinitive guess with Conel’s 6th year so unknown, but it’ll either be him or Beard. Conel can obviously win a NC and only gets better in our room, and I believe Beard has placed high in every tournament entered and don’t see any reason why a high AA at the least isn’t possible
285: Cassar, I think he gets another year ( actually two if he wanted ) which allows Nevills to RS. And man is heavyweight going to be a grind next year. A lot of young talent coming in, and I think it’ll be one of the, if not the funnest weights to play out over the course of the year.
In closing, great job to the entire team for yet another title. It speaks volumes when you can lock up a three day tournament in 2 days. Awesome experience getting to witness one of their championships, and look forward to them trying to defend the title yet again.
WE ARE!
