MEAT..........covered with more meat
NCAA's - pre-tournament discussions
- Thread starter wrestlingfan22
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That was a bad joke no matter how you slice it.
Agree with this up to the last part. Cornell is like Black Death on PSU in the finals. Probably why I agree with the first part of your second sentence so much.
See post #574 above, which had the link below to an interactive bracket on Dropbox.
FWIW, it kept trying to open in protected mode in Excel for me after downloading the file. The workaround for me was to highlight the file, right click, choose properties, then select "unblock."
Dropbox
Gabe Dean would like a word.
You will have to proof that to me.Not fair. Put it in the oven. It's ranking will rise before your eyes
This one isn't automatically updating team scores for me like the ones in the past. Is anyone else seeing that too? And if so, what did you do to get team scores to tabulate?See post #574 above, which had the link below to an interactive bracket on Dropbox.
FWIW, it kept trying to open in protected mode in Excel for me after downloading the file. The workaround for me was to highlight the file, right click, choose properties, then select "unblock."
Dropbox
www.dropbox.com
I was on vacation all last week and just started looking at the brackets this morning. Holy cow is 133 full of land mines, and Davis's draw is one of the worst. Braxton Brown in the second round is tough. The loser of that that gets a backside draw of the Bouzakis/Orine loser then Van Dee then Frost (or Nasir if Frost upsets him) then Shawver/Knox/Romney in the R12. That's a long road to AA. If Davis beats Brown, then it's Byrd next, although the back side doesn't look as tough from there. It's going to be a real long shot for him to AA, and I think he really has to be Brown to have any shot at all.
Not fair. Put it in the oven. It's ranking will rise before your eyes
Josh was bread to be a champion!
He will beat Brown. I feel good about that match-up. And you're right, the skies clear a bit after that.
Shapiro didn't exactly get any favors with that seed. Teemer in Rd 2 (I know he's not 100%, but that's as bad of a Rd 2 draw as a 2 seed can possibly get...) then Ethen Miller just to get to the matchup with Taylor. That's the returning finalist and #1 ranked wrestler for a good part of the season then the #1 seed at B1Gs. Taylor has Swisher then Downey/Bianchi from the 3 seed. I'd much rather have Taylor's draw, TBH.
Seems like someone is getting a little crusty in his old age.
tell us the records for both teams in the tourney the last 10 yrs?a few losses who cares!its not like those guys weren't good!
Good post.
Really going to test whether Meyer can wrestle a 3-2, 4-2 type match in rounds 2-3. Tournament is such a gauntlet.
Shapiro has never scored less than six points (twice) in any match in which he wasn't injured. A quick look through wrestlestate shows his career bonus rate of 75% is better than everyone except MM, Gable (at 75.55%), and Hendrickson (at 78%). That, and he scored as many bonus points (7.5) as anyone else at NCAAs last year. It's really hard to stop his offense from neutral.
From Todd Conner over at GIA:
"At Big Tens Caliendo placed second at 165 and really closed the gap with #1 seed and #1 ranked Mitchell Mesenbrink of Penn State with a 4-1 decision in the finals.
I believe everyone is predicting a Caliendo-Mesenbrink finals at 165. Calinedo is now a takedown away from being a national champion."
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I just ran through the brackets for the first. This is what I have for PSU:
125 Lilledahl 1st
133 Davis DNP
141 Bartlett 5th
149 SVN 3rd
157 Kasak 1st
165 Mesenbrink 1st
174 Haines 1st (Levi-KOT rematch is the one I'm most looking forward to)
184 Starocci 1st
197 Barr 3rd
HWT Kerk 2nd
5 champs, 6 finalists, 9 AAs.
I'll review this again at home tonight and then post to KYPSW.
125 Lilledahl 1st
133 Davis DNP
141 Bartlett 5th
149 SVN 3rd
157 Kasak 1st
165 Mesenbrink 1st
174 Haines 1st (Levi-KOT rematch is the one I'm most looking forward to)
184 Starocci 1st
197 Barr 3rd
HWT Kerk 2nd
5 champs, 6 finalists, 9 AAs.
| Champions | |
125 | (1) Luke Lilledahl (PSU) 19-2 |
133 | (1) Lucas Byrd (ILL) 18-1 |
141 | (8) Andrew Alirez (UNCO) 16-1 |
149 | (2) Ridge Lovett (NEB) 20-2 |
157 | (1) Tyler Kasak (PSU) 17-1 |
165 | (1) Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) 22-0 |
174 | (2) Levi Haines (PSU) 20-1 |
184 | (1) Carter Starocci (PSU) 21-0 |
197 | (2) Stephen Buchanan (IOWA) 21-1 |
285 | (1) Gable Steveson (MINN) 14-0 |
1 | Penn State | 194 |
2 | Nebraska | 114 |
3 | Minnesota | 99.5 |
4 | Iowa | 92.5 |
5 | Ohio State | 74 |
6 | Oklahoma State | 71 |
7 | Illinois | 61.5 |
8 | Michigan | 49.5 |
9 | Cornell | 48 |
10 | Northern Iowa | 48 |
I'll review this again at home tonight and then post to KYPSW.
No doubt, but I wonder how many guys have been good enough/determined enough to play the one takedown wins game.
I don't know the answer to that, but I doubt he's wrestled guys yet this year that have shown to be as willing to swim in those waters like he will this week.
I currently have Caliendo losing to Mantanona in the quarters (that's a tough matchup, Mantanona has looked good, and they've somehow avoided each other this year - Caliendo only beat him 9-4 when he was redshirting last year and he's clearly improved this year). On the back side, Caliendo runs into Barraclough in the Consi semis and gets pushed into the 5-6 match. This is one I'll re-look at.
Actually, Swisher (Penn) tried to do that in their dual. He basically held onto Shapiro's head the whole time, trying to keep him from being able to shoot his nineteen different takedowns. Frustrated him. He adjusted in the Ivy tournament and TFed him 19-2 with four different takedowns.
I think Caliendo has improved also, and is a pretty clear #2. It seems unlikely that he's not a finalist, but hey, anything could happen in the tournament.
Actually, he was a TD and ride-out from OT. But who am I to correct Todd Conner?
Yeah, it will be interesting like I said.
I think Shapiro will likely have to beat the 4 best guys he will have seen this year to win, and that doesn't mean he can't do just that. Just means that we haven't seen it yet.
I know and accept that I am in the minority here, but I don't think we can assume anything with him after round 1. This is especially true because he's wrestled twice in 6 weeks by the time the tournament rolls around, and I never think that things just happen randomly. He was either injured, or they were limiting weigh ins, or they were afraid of the concussions coming back in "meaningless" matches. But those things are still things, and they get entered into my thinking when playing out what can happen in matches this week.
Phipps is also a brutal round 1 matchup, 5th year guy who made R12 last season
Yeah, that too, and the backside from there is absolutely brutal. The first match is Burwick, who is a 6th year 3-time NQ who transferred from the B1G, then one of Bouzakis/Orine/Shawver. It really is absolutely imperative that Davis gets past Phipps and Brown to have any realistic shot at AA.
Except for 3 losses last year, 6-5 and 8-5 to Cardenas, and 2-1 to Chumbley.
Are you saying he was hurt at both CKLV and NCAAs (where he placed 3rd after the Cardenas loss)?
Yes, especially the Chumbley loss. Not going to try to re-litigate those matches, as I'm not a Cornell lawyer.
I don't see Caliendo losing to Mantanona. Mantanona may keep it close for the first 3-4 minutes, then Caliendo will wear him down and win going away.
If Josh gets hot whomever he faces will be toast.
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It's possible. That's a tough call. I just really like what I've seen from Mantanona. I'll think about that some more tonight before I finalize things.
Well if he doesn't get past the first two, there will be a symphony of Negao/Ono talk from here until next fall.
I have him getting past both then falling to Byrd. The backside is tough where I have him beathing Frost then Noto, losing to Bailey then beating Serrano for 5th. That is a lot of work and if he loses to Noto he still has a shot at 7th, which sounds s little more realistic. I just can't seem to bring myself to pencil that in though being a March glass half full kind of guy
The kid is a bit of an enigma. 4x State champ, obviously very talented, but his mat sense and positioning, especially in scrambles, is all over the place. He gets lost in the motion. If he could master the 9th grade wrestling instruction of when in a scramble ' he who's head is highest wins most of the time' he would be much better. He inexplicably keeps his head low and rolls to his back too often. I think we all think he has top 4 potential, but in matches the wheels will fall off somewhere short of that goal. I think the collective would be no less surprised with a top 4 than with a 1-2 early exit.
My spider sense is telling me McEnelly takes out Keckheisen. The learning curve for freshmen is steep but so too is their development when they are elite. The kid is the real deal no doubt.
I also think that McEnelly takes the luster off of Ferrari next year. He does look awful big to me so maybe 197 is in his future, but head to head, I am going McE.
I think Carter will be tested again by him, but he learned his feel, and never bet against Carter the second time around.
I also think that McEnelly takes the luster off of Ferrari next year. He does look awful big to me so maybe 197 is in his future, but head to head, I am going McE.
I think Carter will be tested again by him, but he learned his feel, and never bet against Carter the second time around.
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