ADVERTISEMENT

Spencer Lee forfeiting out the rest of the tourney.

All I'm gonna say about Spencer Lee is this:

- we needed his pin over Tomasello
- sometimes he's said or done a few vaguely controversial things, but he's never been a real jerk
- if you want a Hawkeye recently who was a real jerk at one time, you could look at the kid who beat Lee at PIAAs and then went to Drexel and tried to injure people
- IMO college Dake was way more insufferable than Lee
- How often did Lee stall or screw somebody over?


I guess my point is, I think Spencer Lee is a decent dude, and I wish his last few years could have been managed differently. Forfeiting out is not a great look, but, like, whatever.
 
Yep.

I saw Max Dean’s emotional interview after his 7th place match, and I cannot help but think that, sometimes, Cael’s young men could teach us all a little bit about gratitude and humility.
If anyone can post that interview, I’d love to see it.

Much respect to Dean for wrestling through what had to be a very disappointing post-season to him.
 
All I'm gonna say about Spencer Lee is this:

- we needed his pin over Tomasello
- sometimes he's said or done a few vaguely controversial things, but he's never been a real jerk
- if you want a Hawkeye recently who was a real jerk at one time, you could look at the kid who beat Lee at PIAAs and then went to Drexel and tried to injure people
- IMO college Dake was way more insufferable than Lee
- How often did Lee stall or screw somebody over?


I guess my point is, I think Spencer Lee is a decent dude, and I wish his last few years could have been managed differently. Forfeiting out is not a great look, but, like, whatever.
Unfortunately for Lee, his fanbase treated him like a deity which of course is going to cause folks to look for reasons to bring him down a notch.
 
Agree that Spencer is likely crushed (much like his mother’s eyeglasses), but c'mon man, the “dark, dark place” stuff is over the top silly.

No idea about how injured he may be, but Lee has never been in the consolation bracket at the NCAA tournament. I suspect he didn’t want to start today and really doesn’t care about trying to secure 3rd place. And the 6th place trophy may get thrown in the trash, like a previous Iowa 125 pounder allegedly once did.
If you're right, and I suspect you are, that's why I'm saying "whatever" to Lee. If he's not actually hurt, then he's decided to go out on the worst possible note.

For example, the greatest hero in Iowa history, Gable, still stood on the podium like a man even though he was literally weeping. Lots of guys have come back to wrestle for third - to wrestle for pride.

So if Lee is really not actually badly hurt, at least compared to his past or other wrestlers who wrestle through disappointment and hurt, my reaction is, "whatever." You do you, Spencer. A lot of your youngest fans will be seeing you set a BAD example for our sport. And since I've always kinda liked the kid, for his style of wrestling, it's pretty lame. Orange, you might say.

And if he is actually really badly hurt enough to warrant a forfeit out, well, okay then.
 
Please.

The way to prove another team are a bunch of jerks is to beat their butts, like the 1986 Lions did to Miami, not talk trash on their forums.

I sometimes think Joe Paterno was too good for some of us.
I am pretty sure none of the team members were on HR talking shyt.

In 1986 if they would have had the internet and message boards, there woukd have been 100s of football fans on each others' boards talking shyt. Hell, Penn State message board dick swingers come on this board to talk shyt on Penn State wrestlers.

So please, take the fake outrage and stow it away somewhere else or avail it to an appreciable audience. It's phucking annoying here.
 
This whole thing is a complete mismanagement. They brought him back to win the NCAA team title under clearly negative circumstances with the injuries. Brands publically came out this season and proclaimed he's the greatest ever before the job was done. What good comes from that? Brands hang on by a thread with him.
I feel like Brands cost him this match. Without the timeout the brick throw gave Ramos, Lee probably wins.
 
This is one tournament where I am glad that I got banned from the Iowa boards. It is ironic that part of the reason that I got banned was for throwing shade back at them for their booing of our football players for "faking injuries" and the subsequent crap they spewed on our boards for a week. I guess stuff really does happen for a reason.
Edit: No, I don't know why there are random digits interspersed in this.

You don't have to throw shade at Iowa for football. They do that themselves with their brand of football.

Their defensive scheme is really good for who they are as a program, but neither Kirk nor Iowa fans seem to grasp that the real problem is HOW they run the football on offense. Iowa needs to be a run team. But they still rely on zone blocking and so forth. What Iowa needs to do is run something kind of close to what Michigan, under Bo, was running in the late 1980s; a man-on-man run game with some option thrown in. Bo was actually using the wishbone but never ran the option from it; never seen a coach do that before or since. Iowa needs a slower offense to make that D work, but they have to be way more creative with their run game. Iowa needs defenses to not play an offense like theirs very often. Kind of like having to bat against Mark Eichhorn, for you baseball fans.2 Iowa fans blame Bri2an Ferentz constantly, which is lunacy; he was a great OL coach for them, and Kirk, not Brian, is running what Kirk wants. Hayden Fry was a great coach, and would p5robably figure this stuff out, but neither Kirk nor Iowa's AD nor fans seem to grasp who they really are as a program so their offense is just incredibly ill-suited to them.

Just being an Iowa football fan right now is like self-shade.
 
Sorry. Couldn’t hear you since you were so high up on your soapbox. I guess this is your first time on the internet, fans talk smack to each other constantly. Sandusky comments don’t bother me so busting on their GOAT shouldn’t bother them. If you truly are embarrassed or hurt over what some stranger says on a forum, then you should probably stay off them.
Sandusky comments bother me for the same reason they bother a certain PSU radio play-by-play man: because those comments are false (if generally ignorant).

 
  • Like
Reactions: hlstone and Ski
Losing last night helps those of us who argued with Iowa fans that Nolf was the better wrestler. 4 finals vs 3.
Forget comparisons to Jason ... Lee is now probably the 7th best Hawk ever.

6 others were 3x champs/4x AAs: Lincoln McIlravy, Ed Banach, Tom Brands, Barry Davis, Joe Williams, Jim Zalesky.

McIlravy was a 4x finalist, so definitely above Lee. The others ... I'm too lazy to look up their 4th podium finishes, but probably higher than 6th.

Also, all except Zalesky were Olympic or World medalists (Banach and Brands champs).
 
As supposed "leaders" of a program and "mentors" of young men, much of the drama, injuries, overtraining, mental stress and surprising storylines revolving around Spencer Lee is the direct by-product of terrible management & "leadership" by Tom & Terry.

If it wasn't for wrestling, I doubt Terry Brands could even hold a job as a junior high gym teacher.

Who in their right minds would send their kid to be "developed" by that lunatic?

The off-the-mat skills & life lessons one learns as a college athlete are arguably more important as what happens on the field or the mat. I wouldn't let my son or daughter within 100 feet of Terry Brands.
 
Forget comparisons to Jason ... Lee is now probably the 7th best Hawk ever.

6 others were 3x champs/4x AAs: Lincoln McIlravy, Ed Banach, Tom Brands, Barry Davis, Joe Williams, Jim Zalesky.

McIlravy was a 4x finalist, so definitely above Lee. The others ... I'm too lazy to look up their 4th podium finishes, but probably higher than 6th.

Also, all except Zalesky were Olympic or World medalists (Banach and Brands champs).
Banach was 1-1-2-1 losing to Schultz in one entertaining as hell match. IIRC Schultz tossed Ed twice. One huge freaking human being outmuscling another huge freaking human being.
 
The kid didn’t die, he lost a wrestling match.
This is the reason psu wins. The locker room. Our guys lost and fought like hell for the team. The big difference this year in football was the locker room. The leadership it’s a bad look and speaks to me me me mentality
 
  • Like
Reactions: diggerpup
Without anyone asking for it, here is my opinion. One should not be overjoyed at someone else's set back. Is it ok to cheer for your opponents opposition? Absolutely. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. However, I think some people are being a little hard on Spencer. Roughly 12 hours ago, his lifelong dream came to an abrupt end when he was 2 matches away. Do I think he should have wrestled today if able, yes. But I do not have any inside information on why he's not. He's one of the best college wrestlers ever to date. A 3x Piaa State Champ, a 3x NCAA Champ, age level international champ. It has been a hell of a career so far, and I hope he's healthy enough to make a run on the senior level. If not, regardless of what singlet he decided to wear in college, it was a joy watching such dominance.
This.
 
A friend said hopefully Larry is driving, his wife can’t see and son has no legs!

I know, I know, I am terrible for sharing….
Well if Lee keeps competing in freestyle, we have a pretty good guarantee that he’ll never pull a Yianni and get a court to overturn a ref’s decision.

The judge will rule that he doesn’t have a leg to stand on! 😁
 
I just spent a few minutes on the Iowa board and am ashamed of those PSU fans who danced on the grave. We need to have more class than to pile on to people who, as fans, are really hurting.
In the past I went a few times to HR. I finally left, not because of what Iowa fans wrote, but because of what some obnoxious things PSU fans wrote. It made me ashamed for PSU, and I couldn't read any more of it. PSU fans that post ugly things elsewhere may get a few kicks out of doing it, but it reflects badly on PSU. Don't we have enough to make us happy with not only what our guys do, but the classy way most of them handle themselves. We should do the same!
 
In the past I went a few times to HR. I finally left, not because of what Iowa fans wrote, but because of what some obnoxious things PSU fans wrote. It made me ashamed for PSU, and I couldn't read any more of it. PSU fans that post ugly things elsewhere may get a few kicks out of doing it, but it reflects badly on PSU. Don't we have enough to make us happy with not only what our guys do, but the classy way most of them handle themselves. We should do the same!
It's their house. We expect our non-PSU friends to not relieve themselves on our living room floor. Same for the Iowa boards, even if they want to live in a sty.
 
Dean lost early and was very disappointed but came back and wrestled for 7th place. That is class!
And the other 2 NC’s that lost.

TBH…..everyone loses and fights back thru. That is the very heart of wrestljng, the fight on the back side. I’d tell you to ask Jim Vollrath. Maybe a chat with James English whose injuries are legendary. . Dean was great. I love his interview.

Spencer. Insulted all of them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nitlion6
Rocy Elam with a nice interview after his third place victory. He talked how hard this tournament is especially after being defeated and wrestling for placement. He said the physical side is hard but the mental and emotion side is much more difficult.

I have much respect for all these wrestlers.

Shout out to Will Feldkamp of Clarion for 7th place.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT