My best case, most likely, worst case run through the brackets, with a notably punitive 1 champion view of the worst case illustrated just how strong or team is this year. We still win with a decent cushion. That feeling of calm let's us take a more detailed look at some individual performances.
Two of the most intriguing brackets are 149, 165 for our two less 'band wagon' jumping young guns.
To be honest, in the pre-season the young gun recruit who I had ranked highest (notably with a redshirt to prepare) was SVN. He was the kid who I thought we might be saying "Is SVN the favorite ..." to finish second to Yanni
I knew Levi was a stud, but as a true freshman, he has exceeded all expectations. He went from expected 3rd to 1st in my book, and killed it in so doing
Now back to Shane. His bracket looks pretty tough going. He'll hit #4 Caleb Henson in his second match and #5 Paniro Johnson in his 3rd if he keeps winning, followed by Yanni.
But did you know both #4 and #5 are also freshman? Given Shane's pretigree and resume I would have bet the house that he would be running circles around these dudes by now. Honestly WTF? The Big 10 has a lot to do with it. I really hope something clicks for him and he makes a run right through them to Yanni, where, well Yanni is Gumby damnit!
No matter, a loss to Yanni would toss him into the 5th place match and a solid AA I will be more than satisfied with that.
If however he loses to either freshman he'll likely hit Yahya Thomas or Austin Gomez on the back side eventually and may not make AA.
Call me cruel, but I don't think AA is too much to hope for with Shane, and if he misses that milestone .... while those two other freshmen in the weight do, .... I'll let you fill in the blanks.
As for Alex, 165 is the worst meat grinder I have seen in a while, but I definitely see his path to AA on the back side. I hope he lets it fly a little.
With the team race in the bag, I would really like to come away from this Nationals tourney knowing our future young nucleus is 'on track' rather than a bit of a head scratcher question mark. It's going to be a really exciting tourney and these two weight classes will have more than their fill of drama for us PSU fans.