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More frivolity from the Buckeye board (Zain/Micah)

Haha...complete with references to the Roman Empire. If I had it to do over again, it would be the Gable Statue with my wife. She has had her two ceremonies in the Church, she damn well owes me.
I don't know if you want a picture with your wife in front of the Gable statue. Someone might wonder what he is calling you for stalling on, chores or duties.;)
 
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I agree that 149 is micah's weight. I know everyone is riding the Zain train but Micah will not go easy into that good night. It will be a battle that will come down to whether or not Micah can get out from bottom.

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Ain't gonna be a battle and he won't
The funniest part of that assessment is if they passed a rule stipulating Zain was not allowed to ride, Zain would still major Jordan.
 
Yea, Zain may have been a bit one dimensional his freshman year but he took Sorensen down with ease...that's not an easy task because BS is one of the tougher guys to score on in the country. He was able to create angles in Brandon's head hands defense. BS has to solve it...he can but he's gonna have to open up and put Zain on the defensive...also not an easy thing to do.

Oh yea, freestyle doesn't have riding the last time I checked and Zain fared pretty well in the trials.
 
Just a guess but with Kem going 70kg at Junior Nationals and not cutting to 66 kg for Junior Trials leads me to believe they're bulking him up to 157 for the season.

You're probably correct, he needs to add some size over the summer to be ready to go at 157. Based on his frame and age, I wouldn't expect it to be a problem. Should be an AA candidate right out of the gate.
 
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BS couldn't really have done a better job defending Zain's shots in the finals. His sprawl was great and Zain powered through it. Nobody else at that weight is going to power through those like Zain did. It's a testament to both BS and Zain. Sorenson is a fantastic wrestler who happens to be in a weight class with a guy who's on an entirely different level. As far as Micah goes, he's going to have his hands full with BS. He won't fare any better against Zain than anybody else at 149.

As far as 157 goes, I'm sure Kemerer is going to be good. I don't think he'll do any better at 157 against Nolf than anybody else left at the weight, though. With IMar moving up I don't see anybody else at 157 competing with Jason. I expect Jason to be even better than he was last year. After all he was only a RSFR last year.

149 and 157 will be PSU titles this next year. I would be shocked to see either Zain or Nolf lose.
 
After Zain's performance last year, I'd expect to see a healthy dose of "149: Zain Retherford." quips throughout the year. He is the clear favorite, head and shoulders above the rest. As far as Micah Jordan goes, I do think he'll be a high AA threat out of the gate. I'm not ready to say he will beat Sorenson, but I certainly think he can.
 
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I keep reading different posts that kind of surprise me. At 149 last year Zain was just flat out miles ahead of the field. The thing is, other than not being able to deal with Zain Sorenson was as far ahead of everybody else as Zain was of the Hawkeye. Sorenson isn't known for his high octane offense, but he is always perfectly positioned, always wins the hand-fighting, always escapes quickly, can ride brutally and when he does shoot he has a very high percentage of takedown finishes.

Putting Zain in a class by himself, and then considering serious challengers in the next tier down. I have seen nothing that lets me believe a healthy Brandon Sorenson is going to be seriously challenged by anybody other than maybe a healthy Tsirtsis (and I even doubt that).
 
I keep reading different posts that kind of surprise me. At 149 last year Zain was just flat out miles ahead of the field. The thing is, other than not being able to deal with Zain Sorenson was as far ahead of everybody else as Zain was of the Hawkeye. Sorenson isn't known for his high octane offense, but he is always perfectly positioned, always wins the hand-fighting, always escapes quickly, can ride brutally and when he does shoot he has a very high percentage of takedown finishes.

Putting Zain in a class by himself, and then considering serious challengers in the next tier down. I have seen nothing that lets me believe a healthy Brandon Sorenson is going to be seriously challenged by anybody other than maybe a healthy Tsirtsis (and I even doubt that).

I have to agree. Brandon is going to have to change his frame of mind because I don't think he can get better defensively but he cannot wait around for Zain to pick him apart. I think a TShirt, well rested physically, mentally, and emotionally can beat Brandon but 149 pretty much worked out exactly how most figured it would.
 
Yeah. Zain and Sorenson were so far ahead of the field if it were possible to wrestle the bracket 10 times those 2 would be in the finals 10 times.
Can't really say that about 125, 133, 141, even 157, 165, 174 or 184.
197 maybe and heavy probably.
 
I keep reading different posts that kind of surprise me. At 149 last year Zain was just flat out miles ahead of the field. The thing is, other than not being able to deal with Zain Sorenson was as far ahead of everybody else as Zain was of the Hawkeye. Sorenson isn't known for his high octane offense, but he is always perfectly positioned, always wins the hand-fighting, always escapes quickly, can ride brutally and when he does shoot he has a very high percentage of takedown finishes.

Putting Zain in a class by himself, and then considering serious challengers in the next tier down. I have seen nothing that lets me believe a healthy Brandon Sorenson is going to be seriously challenged by anybody other than maybe a healthy Tsirtsis (and I even doubt that).

Totally agree. I really dig the 'tier structure' of ranking wrestlers in a weight class, but it does seem really common to see fans fail to draw the distinction line between Tiers 2 & 3 as accurately as we do between Tier 1 & Tier 2. I think Tier 2 guys who are in Tier 2 by themselves are totally fascinating--they're head & shoulders above everybody in their weight class except one.

I get that drawing a bold distinction line behind Sorensen is made more difficult by so many tight scores, but Pantaleo, Sueflohn & Collica are stud wrestlers and they're a combined 0-9 against him. In fact, Sueflohn's 4th loss to him last year may have been the breaking point, as he lost again in the R12 and finished his stellar career never having earned All-American. I like Lavion, but think his split with Collica at MSG is indicative of his place in the Tier Hierarchy.

But I also give wide berth to injury excuses--made by fans, b/c we know the wrestlers can't even. And given Tshirt's 1st & 3rd finishes (including over Sorensen in that 3rd place bout) prior to this past injury-filled one, I don't have a problem putting a [air quotes] healthy Tsirtis into Tier 2 with Sorensen. For now.

But yeah, everybody else? They in Tier 3.
 
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I agree that 149 is micah's weight. I know everyone is riding the Zain train but Micah will not go easy into that good night. It will be a battle that will come down to whether or not Micah can get out from bottom.

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Ain't gonna be a battle and he won't

Chickenman (or others)....for the sake of further discussion is there any additional context to the scarlet and grey homer's comment? For example was MJ cutting a lot of weight, had a bad season this year (I didn't think it was bad but he did stumble at BIGS and Nationals) or a stud recruit coming in that would really lead the Tanning Bed U poster to believe that MJ has a snowballs chance in h... to beat Zain. I find his comment rather unrealistic but I also understand having high hopes/expectations....some of us here sometimes become overzealous. Thoughts?
 
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I keep reading different posts that kind of surprise me. At 149 last year Zain was just flat out miles ahead of the field. The thing is, other than not being able to deal with Zain Sorenson was as far ahead of everybody else as Zain was of the Hawkeye. Sorenson isn't known for his high octane offense, but he is always perfectly positioned, always wins the hand-fighting, always escapes quickly, can ride brutally and when he does shoot he has a very high percentage of takedown finishes.

Putting Zain in a class by himself, and then considering serious challengers in the next tier down. I have seen nothing that lets me believe a healthy Brandon Sorenson is going to be seriously challenged by anybody other than maybe a healthy Tsirtsis (and I even doubt that).

Taylor to DSJ as an analogy comes to mind when comparing Zain to Sorenson. Not one-to-one but pretty similar.

Sorenson is really good. I can see him dropping to a guy like Mayes just due to style, but that's probably a 2 (1?) out of every 10 times scenario.

If he can figure out a way to beat Zain on the big stage he'll be a Hawkeye hero forever. I don't see it ever happening though, especially after watching Z put that hammer down in March.
 
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