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Ohio State Wrestling (2015/2017/2018 B1G Champs, 2015 National Champs, 2019 National Runners-up)

Finally got to watch it. We wrestled lights out, nothing was handed to us and our guys beat some absolute hammers to pull this off.

Just some random thoughts after watching. Bouzakis is going to be worse before he gets better at 125, that weight cut will be hard at first. Davino is going to be a hell of a wrestler here and we get 4 years of enjoying him. Fishback is a really nice pickup for us, he'll contend for a spot on the podium at NCAAs. Mendez is just Mendez, relentless and full of piss and vinegar with opponents that try to stall or downright flee him. Cannon looks like a big shot in the arm at 157, I love his pace and aggressive style of wrestling everywhere on the mat. Kharchla looks much better and really active on his feet, I think you'll only see him get better as the season goes on if he avoids injury. Feldman is going to be a tough match for anyone at heavy, he's put on some good weight and hasn't lost a step. Shumate is showing some real promise as well, interested to see how he progresses at a new weight.
 
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Can any of the wrestling fanatics here explain what Nebraska's deal was? They got smoked by Oklahoma State almost as badly as they got smoked by OSU. Their guys were generally higher ranked than the Bucks but got beaten handily. Were their guys just over-ranked? Bad day? Injuries? A little of this, a little of that? I know upsets happen, but complete domination of a higher ranked team seems pretty unusual. I took a peek at the huskerboard thread but there wasn't much insight there other than they got their asses kicked.
 
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Can any of the wrestling fanatics here explain what Nebraska's deal was? They got smoked by Oklahoma State almost as badly as they got smoked by OSU. Their guys were generally higher ranked than the Bucks but got beaten handily. Were their guys just over-ranked? Bad day? Injuries? A little of this, a little of that? I know upsets happen, but complete domination of a higher ranked team seems pretty unusual. I took a peek at the huskerboard thread but there wasn't much insight there other than they got their asses kicked.
It could be a lot of things....they could have been a bit over-ranked but there's a system behind how guys are ranked and seeded.

It could be - totally a theory - that a lot of their guys are having to do significant weight cuts to get to their weight classes and they ran out of gas. That's happened a few times to me with my middle school and high school wrestlers. I was never a huge fan of big time cuts but from time to time it was the only way to get a super talented kid on the mat and so long as it was within their Alpha, we're good. But it still takes its toll.
 
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It could be a lot of things....they could have been a bit over-ranked but there's a system behind how guys are ranked and seeded.

It could be - totally a theory - that a lot of their guys are having to do significant weight cuts to get to their weight classes and they ran out of gas. That's happened a few times to me with my middle school and high school wrestlers. I was never a huge fan of big time cuts but from time to time it was the only way to get a super talented kid on the mat and so long as it was within their Alpha, we're good. But it still takes its toll.
I think there is a lot of truth there. Anecdotally, how often did we see Sasso struggle at times at the start of the season only to round into form come January? By March, he was almost unbeatable.

I think there are also matchup problems too. Not saying it’s the case here, but some dudes just have a tough time against others. Could be strength, length, unorthodox styles, etc. Feldman’s matches last year against Ben Kueter for example. I thought Feldman was the better wrestler, but something wasn’t clicking with his matchups.

THis obviously isn’t earth shattering, but conditioning is critical when it’s a game of evenly matched talent. At some point, someone is going to make a mistake, and more often than not, it’s because someone was less sharp physically or mentally or both. Everybody gets tired, it’s just a matter of how fast. I look at Mendez’s matchups against Bartlett.
 
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Can any of the wrestling fanatics here explain what Nebraska's deal was? They got smoked by Oklahoma State almost as badly as they got smoked by OSU. Their guys were generally higher ranked than the Bucks but got beaten handily. Were their guys just over-ranked? Bad day? Injuries? A little of this, a little of that? I know upsets happen, but complete domination of a higher ranked team seems pretty unusual. I took a peek at the huskerboard thread but there wasn't much insight there other than they got their asses kicked.
I'll try not to repeat the others above that responded because they make great points. Sometimes you just chalk it up to a bad day and say they caved after the first ass kicking, but Manning is a fantastic coach and I doubt he ever puts up with less than 100% effort. But if you're sucking wind during a brutal weight cut, it matters and anyone who says it doesn't has never wrestled. Often times weight cuts aren't really dialed in until mid-late December. We showed zero signs of fatigue there that I saw whereas Nebraska looked gassed and confused.

Not saying we wouldn't do the same thing again in January, but I doubt the gap would be quite as big then. But all that's just aside chat for now and Ryan has the team primed right out of the gate more than I can ever remember.
 
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Imagine explaining to someone who time traveled from just a few years back how the winning team in a NCAA tournament comes home with a $200k bounty to share.
You'd just laugh. But man am I glad to see that, it's absolutely huge for the sport and the individual wrestlers. Might not be the NIL cash from football and nobody expects it to be, but it's wayyyy more incentive than any college wrestler has had aside from Olympic redshirt deals.
 
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