Big Ten Tourney Thoughts

I

imported_1979nicl

Active Member
We are probably the most spoiled sports fan in collegiate sports, so be it, we want perfection we didn't get it. No apologies. With Iowa wrestling; coaches, wrestlers and fans have the same expectation, perfection! One match here or there and it's different. No blame on any one guy either! If any of the 10, wins one more match, (except McD and Raising) we are Big Ten Champs...we are not.
I'd think by now Brands is already talking about Nationals. When we win Nationals, this be in the rear view mirror, so let's put it there now. Brands and Company WILL have them ready to go in Philly...see you there! Go Hawks!
 
Even more impressive was that PSU had to have 5 championships, 2 from underdogs... one from a HUGE underdog to win by ONE point. We wrestled below par and they wrestled above and won by ONE.

Not feeling good about it - i'm ****** as hell tonight. I hate losing BTs... especially to Cale Sanderson who is a d-bag. However, this is what it takes to beat a "down" Hawkeye team... think about that for a moment.

If Quentin Wright doesn't wrestle like he did or wrestles his seed, that tourney isn't even close and that's with PSU having FOUR champs.

GO HAWKS
 
it sucks not to win but look at the people we replaced last year and we lost by 1 point. We are a better tourney team than we thought and one of the three to four teams that has a shot at nationals
 
ICAlumni said:
Even more impressive was that PSU had to have 5 championships, 2 from underdogs... one from a HUGE underdog to win by ONE point. We wrestled below par and they wrestled above and won by ONE.

Not feeling good about it - i'm ****** as hell tonight. I hate losing BTs... especially to Cale Sanderson who is a d-bag. However, this is what it takes to beat a "down" Hawkeye team... think about that for a moment.

If Quentin Wright doesn't wrestle like he did or wrestles his seed, that tourney isn't even close and that's with PSU having FOUR champs.

GO HAWKS
Click to expand...

All very true... also Wright was pinned in the finals.

I want to blame someone I guess thats human nature, Maybe marion for taking his foot off the gas (again). But his match with Alton was huge and he had a terrible big tens last year and still came back strong. I'd also like to blame gambrall for his two losses, but he got big bonus when the pressure was on.

So I am gonna blame Tyler Graff... I mean atleast sell it like your trying to fight the takedown.

The truth is the loss is rough but the consi semis showed alot of heart and ability to bounce back, alot of losses from earlier this season were reversed today, and that is huge moving forward.
 
To quote Ralphie from A Christmas Story...FFFFFFFFuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge.

Only I didn't say fudge.
 
ih8olives said:
All very true... also Wright was pinned in the finals.

I want to blame someone I guess thats human nature, Maybe marion for taking his foot off the gas (again). But his match with Alton was huge and he had a terrible big tens last year and still came back strong. I'd also like to blame gambrall for his two losses, but he got big bonus when the pressure was on.

So I am gonna blame Tyler Graff... I mean atleast sell it like your trying to fight the takedown.

The truth is the loss is rough but the consi semis showed alot of heart and ability to bounce back, alot of losses from earlier this season were reversed today, and that is huge moving forward.
Click to expand...

Throw in Steinhaus from MN. WTF was he doing the first 6:30? He didn't do sh!t until the last thirty seconds when he was down by 1. Hardly showed any offense whatsoever. Maddening from an Iowa perspective. Made me hate J Robinson more than I already do. Get that Okie St.-style p-ssy footing out of the B1G.

But, the bottom line is we blew it when we didn't take care of business in the semi-s. Lost too many close matches. Even though there were several matches that we weren't favored in, when you have the chance, you have to close the deal. And we didn't and that came back to bite us in the end.

Well, this fricken sucks. Only thing now is to look forward. Kick their arses as NCAAs and it won't matter. (Well at least not as much.)
 
Not only did Wright look pinned, it wasn't a takedown by him prior to the reversal... it was simply a scramble into a TD by Steinhaus. Watch it again... there is NO control by Wright... not a TD.

Also, that was not a TD at the edge against LL by Brandvold but that one didn't end up mattering.

Yes, Graff went belly up against Long as well.

PSU had a great day today... think about what they did... 5-0 in finals, a pin for 2 bonus in the morning, a tech fall for 1.5 bonus in the morning and a 1 point bonus win to finish the night. All of this adds up to a 1 point win.

The Hawks are a more solid team.
PSU had a more solid tournament.
 
imported_1979nicl said:
We are probably the most spoiled sports fan in collegiate sports, so be it, we want perfection we didn't get it.
Click to expand...

You're correct that Hawk fans are spoiled...as it should be. We've come to expect the same thing from the wrestlers that the coaches and wrestlers expect of themselves--perfection!! OBTW, I balance myself by being a Cubs fan...I'm not spoiled in baseball :eek:
 
I know Howk fans are disappointed. But look back at what Brands and the boys have accomplished this season. In December they were rated in the mid teens with no chance of winning any tournament. Now some of you are mad they didn't win the Big 10's and with 9 going to the nationals. They have a ligitimate chance to win a national championship. This is probably the best coaching job he has done. Let's show up at the nationals and get the big trophy.
 
The turnaround that happenned between Midlands and Big10s is unreal! At Midlands almost no one wrestled to their seed. Big10s Marion and Gambrall are the only two that didn't. Ballweg didn't look good again, but tough draw getting Grajeles right out of the shoot. Everyone else wrestled to or above their seed.

Not only that but we had a lot of guys close the gap on some guys I didn't think we would. EL had a great match with Ruth, St. John is closer to Taylor, Ramos will beat Graff next time, Ramos Beat Futrell, Jansen went right with Howe, Blake Raising won the thing!

AND McD's takedown on Precin was one of the hardest fought, best scrambles I've seen. It amazes me the way McD is still getting better. I don't think we've had a kid with his mindset since Ironside.

PSU did what they had to do, but Brands was coach of the year!
 
hawk44 said:
I know Howk fans are disappointed. But look back at what Brands and the boys have accomplished this season. In December they were rated in the mid teens with no chance of winning any tournament. Now some of you are mad they didn't win the Big 10's and with 9 going to the nationals. They have a ligitimate chance to win a national championship. This is probably the best coaching job he has done. Let's show up at the nationals and get the big trophy.
Click to expand...


It's all about pulling a Green Bay Packers now..

..put Big 10s behind us, and go for the championship.

Penn State with only 7 on to Nationals.. and the guys left out scored some big bonus points in 7th place matches no?
 
I'm not the rabid wrestling fans like some, but I thought the session on Sunday was very boring and not a lot of action.
 
Thanks for your post. The wrestlers are building position looking for opportunites. It's like watching a football game where you are running between the tackles and not getting first down. Then, play action pass or naked bootleg for a big gain and everyone goes crazy.

We have made great improvement as a team! McD was amazing and Raising improvement is huge. A month ago I questioned has ability to be NCAA qualifier, glad to be wrong there! Good thing are in store for Nationals.
 
this team is simply amazing and this will fuel the fire for the next 2 weeks its seriously a blessing in disguise....did you see all those penn state wrestlers?? they are on such a high and you can tell they have never been there before the way they were acting! boy it'll be celebration in 2 weeks the crowd will be rocking like no other time!
 
I want to add my two cents worth. After the long drive home, I had some time to reflect, because I left the arena mad as hell.
I have to agree with hawk44 and CRwrestling- this team did well. Replaceing 8 starters, stink it up at Midlands. The wrestlers and coaching staff did a 180 and got these kids going in the right direction. Kudoos !!

For a re-loading year, this team have over achieved on most accounts. If you look at the raw talent, I think P.St. has a couple more horses than us THIS year. Next season , I dont think so.

The difference in the B10 tourney to me was 2 things. 1-Wright finally wrestling like he used to and going form 8 seed to champion.2- P.St. has more kids that chase bonus points than ours. We seamed to find a way to win late in matches, which is great, but P.St. had kids going for bonus point right from the get go and in consulation.

Someone mentioned about Iowa fans being spoiled- we are. But that's okay- it means alot to us.
Just one behavor I would like to change. When the weight class is over and the kids are on the stand, lets applaud the winners on the podium. They earned it, NOT Boo, just because were NOt on the top step.
 
FromRow10 said:
Just one behavor I would like to change. When the weight class is over and the kids are on the stand, lets applaud the winners on the podium. They earned it, NOT Boo, just because were NOt on the top step.
Click to expand...

totally agree sir good point
 
i also agree with the booing, when the wrestlers on the mat and not wrestling the iowa way, let em have it. when the match is over,be respectful even though they didnt win it the way we want our wrestlers to, they got the job done. that being said, we had agreat time in evanston and chatted with alot of great iowa fans. As for the facilities, i was not very impressed. And why do they start on sunday so late, i think they know everyone wants to get home at a decent hour. i would have liked to see a 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. start time on sunday. go hawks at nationals and looking forward to st. louis next year.
 
storminspank said:
I'm not the rabid wrestling fans like some, but I thought the session on Sunday was very boring and not a lot of action.
Click to expand...

Really? Wow... I couldn't disagree more. The closest BT tourney ever and you think it was boring? It came down to the last match. Maybe wrestling isn't your thing because that was about as good as it gets.
 
I like the hawks chances at nationals better then there chances at big tens. But lets not forget that theres a team in Ithaca who will factor into the team race heavly. But as for the hawks All nine that iowa is bringing are legitimate all american threats. McD, Marion, LL, and Ramos are all legit threats to be in finals.St John, Janssen and Rasing proved they belong on the big stage too. And I predict EL and Gambrall will make it to the round of 12. Thats nine guys all scoring points. I dont think any other team (including cornell and psu) will have everyone they brought left standing on friday night.

Conversely, I don't like PSU's chances, I could very easily see them not having a finalist. Taylor looks beatable and was it me or did he just take his foot off the gas, close team race, wrestling a kid he majored before and in the third when he was on bottom he was just basing and acting like st john was stalling instead of trying to work his way out. I also feel molinaro took advantage of, what I would call the weakest weight in the big ten the last 5 or so years. I mean a 133 lber bumped up to weight classes with nearly a 500 record made finals, Molinaro is going to have a much tougher road at nationals where he wont be able to rack up team points so easily.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top