Nitlion6 - this whole narrative of ducking Glory is BS. The whole story of whenever a guy misses a match as automatically ducking is also BS. I was pissed when some accused Cenzo of ducking last year... I know Cenzo, I knew the comments were unfair. We don't know the whole story, so why make such a negative assertion. Lee, are you kidding me. Lee is 2-0 against Glory and neither match was close. Had Glory wanted a 3rd match he needed to wrestle well enough to earn the right to face him at the NCAA Tournament last year--and he didn't get the job done. He was beaten and didn't get to wrestle Lee. This year, Glory barely defeated the Columbia University wrestler 3-0 and needed OT against Lehigh. Lee had one decision this year which was a 7 point win and he later beat that same opponent 19-3 in two periods. Has Glory improved, yes, he's a great wrestler, but Lee was also wrestling better this year than in either of the prior two years. In the only head-to-head match up, Lee dominated Oklahoma State by a major decision and it was a dominant win with about 5-minutes of riding time and if you watch the Glory match against the same opponent, it was much closer and a scramble away from being a toss-up match and he ended up winning by a decision.
The match at Princeton that you reference was the week prior to US Senior Nationals and they didn't want to travel that week and compete, when he was tapering for the US Senior Nationals. Traveling and competing prior to the most important and most difficult tournament of the year would have been stupid. If he gets hurt or tweaks something at Princeton then the US Senior Nationals was at risk.
He could have ducked the entire NCAA season like Fix did and Suriano did...yet, he chose to balance both to give his team the best chance of an NCAA title. He took an unselfish approach and guys want to be critical of his missing a few matches. If you remember, PSU was still the favorite going into the season this year, but it was close. Tom Brands announced at the beginning of the season that Lee would not wrestle a full schedule and he also said he would not be at Midlands. They changed plans when they realized that Lee needed a few more matches to get an RPI. Without the RPI, if he got hurt and couldn't compete or finish the Big 10 he wouldn't get an at large bid and he also couldn't get RPI ranking for seeding, so they chose to wrestle the first day only. This was all discussed publicly, so I'm not making any of this up. It sounds like they had a long view of getting him through the season and the matches he missed was the week prior to the US Senior Nationals and the week after. The narrative of Lee ducking anyone is absurd. He skipped a single match at Princeton to wrestle in a bracket that featured 6 former NCAA Champions the following week. I assure you that several of those in that bracket on that day would be favored in matches against Glory as well as Lee would be a heavy favorite.
This whole narrative is wrong. What is also wrong are posters that want to tear these young men down. I read on another board, and I agree, that it is unfair to call these guys out by name, painting a negative perception and yet we hide behind fake screen names and take shots at their character. Easy to do when no one knows who we are, but we call them out by name. Seems inconsistent doesn't it? Nothing wrong with debating points, advocating for stances, but when you make accusations that speak to who someone is or their character then that is not what these boards are for. I think its BS. You're accusing a kid of ducking when he's trying to make the US Olympic Team "the hard way." Any narrative like this is self serving and vindictive, because it is such a reach there must be another motive.
The match at Princeton that you reference was the week prior to US Senior Nationals and they didn't want to travel that week and compete, when he was tapering for the US Senior Nationals. Traveling and competing prior to the most important and most difficult tournament of the year would have been stupid. If he gets hurt or tweaks something at Princeton then the US Senior Nationals was at risk.
He could have ducked the entire NCAA season like Fix did and Suriano did...yet, he chose to balance both to give his team the best chance of an NCAA title. He took an unselfish approach and guys want to be critical of his missing a few matches. If you remember, PSU was still the favorite going into the season this year, but it was close. Tom Brands announced at the beginning of the season that Lee would not wrestle a full schedule and he also said he would not be at Midlands. They changed plans when they realized that Lee needed a few more matches to get an RPI. Without the RPI, if he got hurt and couldn't compete or finish the Big 10 he wouldn't get an at large bid and he also couldn't get RPI ranking for seeding, so they chose to wrestle the first day only. This was all discussed publicly, so I'm not making any of this up. It sounds like they had a long view of getting him through the season and the matches he missed was the week prior to the US Senior Nationals and the week after. The narrative of Lee ducking anyone is absurd. He skipped a single match at Princeton to wrestle in a bracket that featured 6 former NCAA Champions the following week. I assure you that several of those in that bracket on that day would be favored in matches against Glory as well as Lee would be a heavy favorite.
This whole narrative is wrong. What is also wrong are posters that want to tear these young men down. I read on another board, and I agree, that it is unfair to call these guys out by name, painting a negative perception and yet we hide behind fake screen names and take shots at their character. Easy to do when no one knows who we are, but we call them out by name. Seems inconsistent doesn't it? Nothing wrong with debating points, advocating for stances, but when you make accusations that speak to who someone is or their character then that is not what these boards are for. I think its BS. You're accusing a kid of ducking when he's trying to make the US Olympic Team "the hard way." Any narrative like this is self serving and vindictive, because it is such a reach there must be another motive.
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