So what top 5 Junior did we land (if not Spencer)
- Thread starter Chickenman Testa
- Start date
This is a nice pick me up after the calamity at the Linc.
Nick Lee would likely mean Chad Red is going elsewhere, no?
Gotta believe the hashtag means the other Lee. If so, I think we can officially say Cael and co have gone into beast mode with recruiting. Lol
Wow, this came out of nowhere! Welcome aboard Nick and Joe.
Now if we can just land Hall, Red and that other Lee we can say we had a decent recruiting season.
Now if we can just land Hall, Red and that other Lee we can say we had a decent recruiting season.
Giving up on Red, but I'm completely okay with that as I'm ecstatic about Nick Lee and intrigued by Joe
Joe was extremely impressive as a freshman last year. He finished 2nd at states. He was beating Tommy Cash (nationality ranked in his weight and Indiana recruit last year) and got caught late in the match. They are both great additions!
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I await el jeffe's update of dominate the world with the landing of these two nuggets. One, I suspect, takes the place of Cortez and the other Zain when both graduate. Disappointed about Red, but it was going to hard to fit them all 3 at the lower weights. Now, we await the Hall verdict.
what a crazy time we've had in recruiting since July 1:
- the guys we've landed
- the timing of the announcements
- verbals from a junior and a soph
- no word on Chad Red, who many thought was the most likely to verbal to PSU
- not a single verbal from a PA prospect
- a transfer from a B1G school
- etc., etc., etc.
I was not aware that CS and coaches were recruiting the Lee brothers.
Nick Lee is ranked #3 by Willie at 132 (behind Chad Red and Luke Pletcher). He's the top rated underclassmen at 132 (he's a junior).
Joe Lee is ranked #9 by Willie at 138. The only underclassmen ahead of him are #1 Cameron Coy and #8 Dom Demas. Others rated ahead of him are #2 Mickey Phillippi, #4 Carter Happel, and #7 Kanen Storr. Joe is a soph.
A note that with all his traveling to Junior, Cadet, and Senior Worlds, Willie hasn't updated his rankings since August 5th.
Will take some time to figure out how this impacts current and future recruiting (though our track record of late has not been all that good).
Welcome to PSU, Nick and Joe!
- the guys we've landed
- the timing of the announcements
- verbals from a junior and a soph
- no word on Chad Red, who many thought was the most likely to verbal to PSU
- not a single verbal from a PA prospect
- a transfer from a B1G school
- etc., etc., etc.
I was not aware that CS and coaches were recruiting the Lee brothers.
Nick Lee is ranked #3 by Willie at 132 (behind Chad Red and Luke Pletcher). He's the top rated underclassmen at 132 (he's a junior).
Joe Lee is ranked #9 by Willie at 138. The only underclassmen ahead of him are #1 Cameron Coy and #8 Dom Demas. Others rated ahead of him are #2 Mickey Phillippi, #4 Carter Happel, and #7 Kanen Storr. Joe is a soph.
A note that with all his traveling to Junior, Cadet, and Senior Worlds, Willie hasn't updated his rankings since August 5th.
Will take some time to figure out how this impacts current and future recruiting (though our track record of late has not been all that good).
Welcome to PSU, Nick and Joe!
They're both really good. Check out the videos at the Flo article linked here -- they both fit the PSU mentality and attack, attack, attack. Nick even more so, though he is a year older, so I suspect Joe will grow into that as he gets stronger.
I've only seen them in freestyle, so I don't have a good feel for their mat wrestling.
I'm not sure how they fit in the lineup yet. They look like they will grow when they hit the college weight room. Guessing 141 and 149, or maybe 149 and 157. We're probably now out for Phillippi, Storr, Trampe, and Solomon. Red is less obvious, since I think he's capped at 141, but he's probably also out.
Will also be interesting to see what this means for Verkleeren and Sasso.
I've only seen them in freestyle, so I don't have a good feel for their mat wrestling.
I'm not sure how they fit in the lineup yet. They look like they will grow when they hit the college weight room. Guessing 141 and 149, or maybe 149 and 157. We're probably now out for Phillippi, Storr, Trampe, and Solomon. Red is less obvious, since I think he's capped at 141, but he's probably also out.
Will also be interesting to see what this means for Verkleeren and Sasso.
I guess it is a reflection of where the program is that this feels almost like a "oh, nice surprise, ho hum" reaction from the board. I guess because they are young.
These kids are tremendous gets. To put it in perspective of names that are thrown out here - it's like getting a Chad Red or a Verkleeren, AND getting his younger brother. Who just may turn out to be better. And the older one is AT LEAST as good a prospect as Red.
These kids are tremendous gets. To put it in perspective of names that are thrown out here - it's like getting a Chad Red or a Verkleeren, AND getting his younger brother. Who just may turn out to be better. And the older one is AT LEAST as good a prospect as Red.
I know - I was at a back to school event yesterday and missed when this broke. Came here and crickets, so I started the thread.
I love the way Cael and crew are stacking and layering the lineup - like Nachos to quote Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad
InterMat rated their top prospects by class in August.
Nick Lee was the #5 rated junior, behind 1) Daton Fix, 2) Spencer Lee, 3) Brady Berge, and 4) Yianni. He was rated 1 spot in front of Jared Verkleeren. All of them are super elite prospects. Before Lee's verbal to PSU, I believe Yianni was the only one to have verballed (to Cornell).
Joe Lee was not in the top 5 of InterMat's rankings of sophomores. He's #16 in InterMat's soph rankings.
I think it's also because they've flown under the radar with Spencer Lee and Daton Fix in the same class. Their weights contain a number of strong PA prospects and aren't as urgent to the fans. And a lot of us (myself included) don't know much about Indiana beyond Howe, Tsirtsis, Micic, and Red.
Indiana has got a lot better over the past 10-15 years. There are several great clubs including Humphrey WC (run by Jordin, Reece's brother), Dragon WC (run by Chad Red's father), CIA, etc... These clubs are bringing in top names to instruct and work with our kids.
The better HS teams are starting to travel to wrestle top team such as Oak Park River Forest. I'm not saying Indiana will ever be close to PA but we are developing many elite wrestlers.
The better HS teams are starting to travel to wrestle top team such as Oak Park River Forest. I'm not saying Indiana will ever be close to PA but we are developing many elite wrestlers.
I'm a big fan of Nick Lee's game. Relentless attacker and motor that is just fun to watch wrestle. The top 6 in this years junior class are absolutely outstanding. The top 2 speak for themselves but Berge, Yianni, Lee and Verkleeren are all studs. I personally think Yianni and Lee have a chance to be as good in college as the top 2 guys, and don't think Berge is far behind.
Breaking Bad, huh? Bald evil mastermind ... I'm really shocked this hasn't been photoshopped by the fans of other teams.
Cael to every other coach on the recruiting trail:
Breaking Bad, huh? Bald evil mastermind ... I'm really shocked this hasn't been photoshopped by the fans of other teams.
Cael to every other coach on the recruiting trail:
Yes, Cael's ability to recruit is masterful. We should also note that the newspaper interviews for both Suriano and the Lees mentioned academics first thing. Penn State's academics are Cael's wingman.
A nice write-up on Nick Lee from a year ago, at the end of his freshman year in HS, can be viewed at THIS LINK. It's an article from Indiana Wrestling News.
Some quick highlights:
- he was undefeated in folk until he faced Micic in the state tournament
- after losing to Micic, he finished 3rd at 126
- he finished 2nd at Cadets at 58 kg
- he finished 1st in FS and Greco at 58 kg at the Pam Am games
- he went to Fargo and TFed all of his opponents (including in the finals) to win OW at Fargo FS Nationals
All that as a true freshman. Wow!
I knew of him, but put me in the boat of those like El-Jefe was mentioning that don't really focus on out-of-state guys until their junior year.
dice mentioned that the reaction was kind of ho-hum. I think the combo of Nick being from out-of-state, him only entering his junior year, and there being no hints that PSU was involved with him, combined to bring this about.
Nick & Joe appear to be fantastic additions to the roster, and also provide some ability to analyze future recruiting.
lastly, I continue to be amazed that while PSU is located in the center of the top state for HS wrestling, CS seems to be making the roster more of a blend of elite guys from outside of PA and absolute studs from PA. That, and elite coaching, is a recipe for continued excellence at Nationals.
Some quick highlights:
- he was undefeated in folk until he faced Micic in the state tournament
- after losing to Micic, he finished 3rd at 126
- he finished 2nd at Cadets at 58 kg
- he finished 1st in FS and Greco at 58 kg at the Pam Am games
- he went to Fargo and TFed all of his opponents (including in the finals) to win OW at Fargo FS Nationals
All that as a true freshman. Wow!
I knew of him, but put me in the boat of those like El-Jefe was mentioning that don't really focus on out-of-state guys until their junior year.
dice mentioned that the reaction was kind of ho-hum. I think the combo of Nick being from out-of-state, him only entering his junior year, and there being no hints that PSU was involved with him, combined to bring this about.
Nick & Joe appear to be fantastic additions to the roster, and also provide some ability to analyze future recruiting.
lastly, I continue to be amazed that while PSU is located in the center of the top state for HS wrestling, CS seems to be making the roster more of a blend of elite guys from outside of PA and absolute studs from PA. That, and elite coaching, is a recipe for continued excellence at Nationals.
Wonder if there's an ounce of complacency too? Hope not. For those of us passionately following PSU Wrestling for over 4 decades, give or take a decade!!, these are magical times.
Hey fellas, I completely missed this one yesterday and I'm sorry for that. Tuesdays during football season aren't always the best days for wrestling news to break, ha, I've reached out to Nick and hope to have an interview for you within the next few days. They do appear to be very solid pickups, tho, and it sounds like they both project to be middle weights by the time they're in college. Again, sorry I haven't had more on this yet. I'm currently in the process of setting up an interview.
I don't think the reaction here to the verbals by Nick and Joe Lee can be fairly stated as ho-hum. I think it is more in line with the fact that no one here even hinted that these two quality gets were in the mix. So after taking some time to see the caliber of both Lees, they look great.
The letter they wrote was very impressive; was also very glad to see an emphasis on PSU academics.
Cael has sure put out the word nationally - if you're a quality wrestler - you'll be hearing from me.
The letter they wrote was very impressive; was also very glad to see an emphasis on PSU academics.
Cael has sure put out the word nationally - if you're a quality wrestler - you'll be hearing from me.
This is great news!! I don't know a lot about them but if Cael recruited them I am on board They seem like top notch wrestlers and students...very excited to welcome them to the Penn State family:
They seem like top notch wrestlers and students...very excited to welcome them to the Penn State family:
