I look forward to calling the Big Five the Five Finalists after NCAAs.
Thank you for the great stats!
I was noodling with a few numbers while I watched the football game
and thought I’d share them.
I calculated the team points scored per match by a select group of past and current PSU wrestlers. For example, David Taylor had 53 pins (53 x 6), 42 TFs (42 x 5), 30 MDs (30 x 4), and 9 Ds (9 x 3). I then subtracted 6 points for his two losses by decision to Dake and 6 for his loss to Jenkins. That’s 663 total points, which I then divided by Taylor’s 137 career bouts. That comes to 4.84 points per match. For purposes of this exercise, I treated tournament wins and losses the same as dual wins and losses. That may be the wrong way to do it, but here’s the list:
Nolf 4.91 (60 pins, 27 TFs, 16 MDs, 14 Ds, 3 Ls)
Taylor 4.84 (53 pins, 42 TFs, 30 MDs, 9 Ds, 3 Ls)
Nickal 4.67 (59 pins, 12 TFs, 23 MDs, 26 Ds, 3 Ls)
Retherford 4.57 (53 pins, 22 TFs, 20 MDs, 31 Ds, 3 Ls)
Ruth 4.44 (46 pins, 25 TFs, 33 MDs, 32 Ds, 3 Ls)
Hall 4.11 (34 pins, 13 TFs, 15 MDs, 35 Ds, 5 Ls)
Joseph 3.60 (21 pins, 11 TFs, 16 MDs, 27 Ds, 8 Ls)
Cassar 3.48 (6 pins, 2 TFs, 20 MDs, 19 Ds, 3 Ls)
Lee 3.28 (14 pins, 14 TFs, 25 MDs, 16 Ds, 11 Ls)
Rasheed 3.27 (28 pins, 6 TFs, 16 MDs, 16 Ds, 15 Ls)
For the current wrestlers, data are through the Army tournament. Also, it’s entirely possible, in fact probable, that a few of my calculations are slightly off - I was distracted by the football game.
A few quick observations:
1. By this (admittedly incomplete) measure, Nolf is the GOAT at PSU!
(And that’s with a deduction of 6 points for his “loss” to Van Brill.)
2. On average, Nolf and Nickal were good for 9.6 team points per dual. Crazy good!
3. In comparison, the Taylor-Ruth combo was good for 9.3 points per dual. Crazy good, too!
4. Yesterday, the PSU wrestlers at 157 and 197 scored a combined -6. (That figure is subject to a number of caveats — small sample size, Pipher filling in for Berge at 157, Conel working to regain his form, past performance not necessarily indicative of future performance, etc.) Anyway, that’s a 15.6 point spread relative to the Nolf-Nickal average. Tough, though not impossible, hole to fill, especially if there are injuries elsewhere in the lineup.
