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Articles for Friday ...

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Go Iowa Awesome: Road to the Top: How Iowa, Oklahoma State, Penn State and Others will try to win a National Title this year
(good article -- I think the author use to be with Black Heart Gold Pants)

Can confirm. Love me some RossWB!

My favorite points of his on each of the Top-4:
On OkSt:
"Also, while they're on pace to have eight All Americans, Heil currently looks like their only finalist -- and it's really hard to win a national title without multiple finalists."
and
"Right now, Okie State's path to a national title involves a lot of their guys doing work in the consolation bracket, which can be a dicey proposition. "

On tOSU:
"Ohio State's utilizing basically the same approach as Penn State, with the difference being that their stars aren't quite as superstar-y and their holes are a bit more hole-y."

On VaTech:
"VIRGINIA TECH: THE STARS AND SCRUBS APPROACH"
I think I'll go update him on the likely Va Tech lineup changes that are sure to improve their prospects: McFadden's healed & has won the Cleveland State & F&M Opens; I'd expect Dresser to pull his shirt here soon. And Zadick apparently convinced Dresser to let Kevin Norstrem come back out of retirement, so he's in and Gustavson has moved down to 33.

On Iowa:
"And then there's our own Hawkeyes, who are sort of trying to merge the best of both worlds, with stars and a push for a host of All Americans. If it all comes together, they could nip the other teams to a title. But it could depend on a lot of things going right, too, and the more variables you have to factor in, the greater the likelihood of things going wrong."

On PSU:
Actually, I don't have any favorite Ross points here. He's exceedingly bearish on the Lions and leans heavily on the 'well, they *are* young' tripes.

- On Suriano, only: "who looks like a solid bet to be an All American, but isn't quite the sure thing or bonus point threat that Megaludis was." I'll maybe concede on the Nico-bonus comparision, although he mauled Cruz pretty handily and for awhile there was taking Lizak down at will. Lambert slowed his TD roll, but the W was never in doubt. That's 3 of the 5 guys behind him on the current Intermat podium. PSU fans have seen enough of Suriano to know that he's pretty clearly *at least* Top-3, when giving the returning finalist & Joey Dance the benefit of the doubts. Big pts diff between 8th & 3rd. There's also the impending matter of Suriano v Gilman, which looks like there will be prob be two bouts before Nationals.

- On Nevills: "is a potential solid All-American at heavyweight, but injuries have hampered his college career so far and he's never really been through the meat grinder of the NCAA Tournament."

- On Vincenzo: "Joseph looks like a Top 5 guy at 165, but he's had a few close matches and he too doesn't have any NCAA Tournament experience. They're (Nevills & Vincenzo) not sure things." Not sure what? AA's? Nevills won't see Sasquatch (3 of his 4 L's are to Snyder, Medberry & Walz, but one is to the Kroells that Nevills just dominated) or Walz, but we'll get to see how he can hang with Snyder & Medberry, and there's another opportunity to impress Ross against Stoll in the dual. Vincenzo still has oppties to impress vs Ike & Imar.

- On Nickal: "Nickal, is in a more interesting position. He's moved up to 184 from 174 and while he's currently 10-0 with bonus points in nine of those wins, he's still in an incredibly difficult weight, so it doesn't feel like a sure thing that he'll be back in the finals or scoring bushels of bonus points throughout the NCAA Tournament." I think Ross just hasn't seen Nickal enough yet this year. Woulda helped if he'd gotten that last TD against a visibly-broken Dudley. PSU fans are pretty comfortable at this point with Tier 1 = Dean; Tier 2 = Nickal; Tier 3 = rest of the podium.

- On Mouse: "who looks like a fringe All-American at this point; his case is helped by the fact that 197 is a very weak weight, but it seems exceedingly unlikely that he'll match McIntosh's runner-up finish." This is a little straw-mannish, but I understand the argumentative structure (comparison against last year's wholly dominant 5-finalist team finish). Getting caught in that ugly spladle by Studebaker didn't help Mouse's national resume, but PSU fans can focus in on the '197 is a very weak weight' and use their own eye test to bump him from 'fringe All-American' to 'solid AA.'

On zPain, Nolf, Morelli, Gulibon & Cortez: all 100% accurate imo. Zain & Nolf = sure things, and the other 3 have legit questions about AA. Overall, though, I do get it. For fans of other contenders, if there's any year here in the Cael Era where PSU is a contender, but *could* be vulnerable, you've got to latch a fair bit of hope onto this year being it.
 
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The Black Shoes Diaries article states that Anthony Ashnault is a Midlands winner. When did this happen?
 
Added two more articles (they're at the bottom of the OP) -- one from PennLive, and one from Roar Lions Roar

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Can confirm. Love me some RossWB!

My favorite points of his on each of the Top-4:
On OkSt:
"Also, while they're on pace to have eight All Americans, Heil currently looks like their only finalist -- and it's really hard to win a national title without multiple finalists."
and
"Right now, Okie State's path to a national title involves a lot of their guys doing work in the consolation bracket, which can be a dicey proposition. "

On tOSU:
"Ohio State's utilizing basically the same approach as Penn State, with the difference being that their stars aren't quite as superstar-y and their holes are a bit more hole-y."

On VaTech:
"VIRGINIA TECH: THE STARS AND SCRUBS APPROACH"
I think I'll go update him on the likely Va Tech lineup changes that are sure to improve their prospects: McFadden's healed & has won the Cleveland State & F&M Opens; I'd expect Dresser to pull his shirt here soon. And Zadick apparently convinced Dresser to let Kevin Norstrem come back out of retirement, so he's in and Gustavson has moved down to 33.

On Iowa:
"And then there's our own Hawkeyes, who are sort of trying to merge the best of both worlds, with stars and a push for a host of All Americans. If it all comes together, they could nip the other teams to a title. But it could depend on a lot of things going right, too, and the more variables you have to factor in, the greater the likelihood of things going wrong."

On PSU:
Actually, I don't have any favorite Ross points here. He's exceedingly bearish on the Lions and leans heavily on the 'well, they *are* young' tripes.

- On Suriano, only: "who looks like a solid bet to be an All American, but isn't quite the sure thing or bonus point threat that Megaludis was." I'll maybe concede on the Nico-bonus comparision, although he mauled Cruz pretty handily and for awhile there was taking Lizak down at will. Lambert slowed his TD roll, but the W was never in doubt. That's 3 of the 5 guys behind him on the current Intermat podium. PSU fans have seen enough of Suriano to know that he's pretty clearly *at least* Top-3, when giving the returning finalist & Joey Dance the benefit of the doubts. Big pts diff between 8th & 3rd. There's also the impending matter of Suriano v Gilman, which looks like there will be prob be two bouts before Nationals.

- On Nevills: "is a potential solid All-American at heavyweight, but injuries have hampered his college career so far and he's never really been through the meat grinder of the NCAA Tournament."

- On Vincenzo: "Joseph looks like a Top 5 guy at 165, but he's had a few close matches and he too doesn't have any NCAA Tournament experience. They're (Nevills & Vincenzo) not sure things." Not sure what? AA's? Nevills won't see Sasquatch (3 of his 4 L's are to Snyder, Medberry & Walz, but one is to the Kroells that Nevills just dominated) or Walz, but we'll get to see how he can hang with Snyder & Medberry, and there's another opportunity to impress Ross against Stoll in the dual. Vincenzo still has oppties to impress vs Ike & Imar.

- On Nickal: "Nickal, is in a more interesting position. He's moved up to 184 from 174 and while he's currently 10-0 with bonus points in nine of those wins, he's still in an incredibly difficult weight, so it doesn't feel like a sure thing that he'll be back in the finals or scoring bushels of bonus points throughout the NCAA Tournament." I think Ross just hasn't seen Nickal enough yet this year. Woulda helped if he'd gotten that last TD against a visibly-broken Dudley. PSU fans are pretty comfortable at this point with Tier 1 = Dean; Tier 2 = Nickal; Tier 3 = rest of the podium.

- On Mouse: "who looks like a fringe All-American at this point; his case is helped by the fact that 197 is a very weak weight, but it seems exceedingly unlikely that he'll match McIntosh's runner-up finish." This is a little straw-mannish, but I understand the argumentative structure (comparison against last year's wholly dominant 5-finalist team finish). Getting caught in that ugly spladle by Studebaker didn't help Mouse's national resume, but PSU fans can focus in on the '197 is a very weak weight' and use their own eye test to bump him from 'fringe All-American' to 'solid AA.'

On zPain, Nolf, Morelli, Gulibon & Cortez: all 100% accurate imo. Zain & Nolf = sure things, and the other 3 have legit questions about AA. Overall, though, I do get it. For fans of other contenders, if there's any year here in the Cael Era where PSU is a contender, but *could* be vulnerable, you've got to latch a fair bit of hope onto this year being it.
I agree Jto

That article was rather interesting.

You are right. He clearly has not been watching Bo.

As to Suriano. I think we are comfortable, while others remain skeptic. That's fine. Those two matches vs Gilman will be whatever they are. What they will not do is knock Nick into the top half of the bracket at nationals unless he WINS the second one. That's good news all the way around. As long as he's opposite, he's scoring big AA placing points. He on track for that right now.
 
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