Jumping the gun for next year.
- Thread starter Sighhawk
- Start date
Fryowa
Administrator
I’m betting the farm Arnold and Ferrari will not be here next year.
Ludington is showing promise and will likely get an offer somewhere else as well, and he has zero ties to Iowa.
Iowa will not be a top ten ranked team at the end of next season, unfortunately. This is not an attractive program to be on anymore unless you put up some ungodly money, and Iowa does not have that kind of money. OK State is the new Iowa, and Iowa is the new Cornell.
Ludington is showing promise and will likely get an offer somewhere else as well, and he has zero ties to Iowa.
Iowa will not be a top ten ranked team at the end of next season, unfortunately. This is not an attractive program to be on anymore unless you put up some ungodly money, and Iowa does not have that kind of money. OK State is the new Iowa, and Iowa is the new Cornell.
Fryowa
Administrator
Mocco if he stays committed will be the next Iowa HWT. Kueter is a failed project.
Not saying Mocco is going to be any better because he's not a real HWT, but he'll be the next guy.
Kueter has brain freeze every time he gets on the mat and Mocco might not, but there's zero chance he competes with the top 10 HWTs nationally. After seeing how this has all panned out, I don't think Kueter would've been any better on the football field had he focused on that. He turtles under pressure and hopefully it's a cautionary tale everyone learns from that big fish/small pond isn't a factor. You have to ignore it. Kueter beat everyone in high school because he was an athletic freak in a sea of kids who'd never sniff even a JUCO room. He never once had to rely on mental toughness because he could brute force his way through things. That dog don't hunt in D1.
Not saying Mocco is going to be any better because he's not a real HWT, but he'll be the next guy.
Kueter has brain freeze every time he gets on the mat and Mocco might not, but there's zero chance he competes with the top 10 HWTs nationally. After seeing how this has all panned out, I don't think Kueter would've been any better on the football field had he focused on that. He turtles under pressure and hopefully it's a cautionary tale everyone learns from that big fish/small pond isn't a factor. You have to ignore it. Kueter beat everyone in high school because he was an athletic freak in a sea of kids who'd never sniff even a JUCO room. He never once had to rely on mental toughness because he could brute force his way through things. That dog don't hunt in D1.
Fryowa
Administrator
Kueter is 5-5 this year, has been outscored 56-18 so far, and has been benched behind two guys who are guaranteed losses because he can't pull the trigger and wrestle offensively. It still doesn't hunt.
Doesn't matter what he did in prior seasons, it matters what he does in the current season.
You made the broad, general comment that the physical traits that Kueter possesses "don't hunt in D1."
That's just a factually false statement, as proven when he achieved All American status in his Fr year. Neither you or anyone else can deny that fact...you can't unring the bell and say his physical tools don't translate to the next level, when he already proved they DID.
Now, if you had said "That dog won't hunt over the long-term in D1" -- well, that's a defendable, debatable, open question. He has shit the bed more often than not this year, for sure.
Fryowa
Administrator
Our definitions of success at this level are different. If you said he can go wrestle at Appalachian State and succeed in their conference which is D1 you’d probably be correct. But we both know the level we’re talking about and he’s not even close to being competitive at this level. Competitive at the level Iowa wrestles at is not what he’s done this year. He’s a humongous recruiting miss.
#1DieHardHawk
Well-Known Member
The B1G Championships are going about as expected for us.
It hasn't been quite as bad a showing as it looks on paper. We lost several matches that were razor-thin, including one by criteria due to a RT differential of 4 seconds.
The most perplexing match that I watched was Block and Van Ness. Block completely had him beat. All he had to do was keep circling back the last 30 seconds or so and the major upset was his, but inexplicably he kept backing up and was done in by a 2-point stall call.
On top of that, there was a sequence with about a minute to go where he was firing off one desperation shot after another, even though he was ahead. I understand the need to show some offense to avoid more stall calls, but his shots went way beyond the usual "feign shots" to appease the official.
He also was completely gassed during the third. Unless he was sick or not managing his weight properly, that shouldn't happen at this stage of the season. Very frustrating and odd match.
It hasn't been quite as bad a showing as it looks on paper. We lost several matches that were razor-thin, including one by criteria due to a RT differential of 4 seconds.
The most perplexing match that I watched was Block and Van Ness. Block completely had him beat. All he had to do was keep circling back the last 30 seconds or so and the major upset was his, but inexplicably he kept backing up and was done in by a 2-point stall call.
On top of that, there was a sequence with about a minute to go where he was firing off one desperation shot after another, even though he was ahead. I understand the need to show some offense to avoid more stall calls, but his shots went way beyond the usual "feign shots" to appease the official.
He also was completely gassed during the third. Unless he was sick or not managing his weight properly, that shouldn't happen at this stage of the season. Very frustrating and odd match.
Yeah, that was a painful ending to watch. Up 2 pts with 1 min remaining, and Van Ness looked completely out of sorts and hadn't come close to taking Block down. In the last minute Block got called for stalling (1 pt), stalling again (1 pt), and stalling for the 3rd time (2 pts) with 4 seconds remaining in the match -- to lose 5-4. Now, Block has run out of gas during most of his matches this season, so that was not a surprise. But as you say, he needed some hard coaching from his corner instructing him to simply circle -- if he does that, he wins, flat out. His mind had clearly shut down, which happens, but I put that on the coaches...they should have been visually showing him what to do after the 1st 2 stalling calls. But as you said, he just kept backing straight up. Bummer. Bigger bummer is that he ended up in 9th place....I think the BTen gets 9 qualifiers at 149, so I hope he squeaks thru to nationals. If not, that would be a shame.
No doubt the biggest surprise has been Keuter. Seeded 10th, he's won 3 matches after winning just 5 all season, two in a row in the wrestlebacks -- including vs the Penn St. HWT -- and will end up no lower than 4th, and could get 3rd. Ayala also looked solid and hungry again, losing to the #1 seed in SV, and then beating #2 Byrd, who has been his nemesis.
