Minnesota on Friday

[wrastle63]

Here is a recent match. Think this could be a rough dual for the Badgers potentially. We will probably only be favored at 184. Quite a few toss ups though.
#10 Minnesota 25, #13 Illinois 13                                                           
125: #7 Patrick McKee (UM) dec. #13 Justin Carani (ILL), 4-2 (UM 3, ILL 0)       
133: #20 Lucas Byrd (ILL) maj. dec. #19 Boo Dryden (UM), 11-3 (ILL 4, UM 3)
141: #13 Dylan Duncan (ILL) dec. Marcos Polanco (UM), 4-2 (ILL 7, UM 3)     
149: #8 Mike Carr (ILL) dec. Michael Blockhus (UM), 5-3 (ILL 10, UM 3)
157: #6 Brayton Lee (UM) tech. fall Johnny Mologousis (ILL), 26-8 6:03 (ILL 10, UM
165: #15 Andrew Sparks (UM) tech. fall Luke Odom (ILL), 22-7 (UM 13, ILL 10)     
174: #16 Jake Allar (UM) dec. DJ Shannon (ILL), 8-3 (UM 16, ILL 10)
184: #15 Owen Webster (UM) dec. #7 Zac Braunagel (ILL), 3-2 (UM 19, ILL 10)     
197: Matt Wroblewski (ILL) dec. Garrett Joles (UM), 6-4 SV1 (UM 19, ILL 13)   
HWT: #1 Gable Steveson (UM) pinned #6 Luke Luffman (ILL), 0:34 (UM 25, ILL 13)   

[mkm13]

Appears it would take a lot of uspets to win.  Burwick beat Dryden 15-0 last year.  Not sure if it was just a weird match or bad weight cut for Dryden, but be curious how it goes this time around.

[dad 2 5]

Appears it would take a lot of uspets to win.  Burwick beat Dryden 15-0 last year.  Not sure if it was just a weird match or bad weight cut for Dryden, but be curious how it goes this time around.

You are right mkm13. It appears the Badgers have slipped backward this year. Hope thy can change direction and get some gains next year. Realistically it looks like Big Ten finish of 11th and maybe we can crack to top 30 at the NCAA. Tough year!

[TomM]

The Minnesota meet is at 10:00am

[wrastle63]

Appears it would take a lot of uspets to win.  Burwick beat Dryden 15-0 last year.  Not sure if it was just a weird match or bad weight cut for Dryden, but be curious how it goes this time around.

You are right mkm13. It appears the Badgers have slipped backward this year. Hope thy can change direction and get some gains next year. Realistically it looks like Big Ten finish of 11th and maybe we can crack to top 30 at the NCAA. Tough year!

Have you watched at all this year? Honest question....

[BuckyMatt]

Appears it would take a lot of uspets to win.  Burwick beat Dryden 15-0 last year.  Not sure if it was just a weird match or bad weight cut for Dryden, but be curious how it goes this time around.

You are right mkm13. It appears the Badgers have slipped backward this year. Hope thy can change direction and get some gains next year. Realistically it looks like Big Ten finish of 11th and maybe we can crack to top 30 at the NCAA. Tough year!

Have you watched at all this year? Honest question....

Right!?!?!

[mkm13]

Just so I understand, where do you disagree?  We are not wrestling our best wrestler (Wick) and have arguably our next best wrestler (Amos) taking a gap year.  A lot of other teams do not have this.  Because we have guys taking the year off, where many other teams do not, I think it is reasonable to say our results will take a step back this year.

Hard to argue with saying 11th in the big 10, but anywhere from 8th to 12th is likely.  In 2019 the 30th place team at NCAA's scored 11.5 points.  The 25th place team scored 18.5.  Based on that, the comment of maybe cracking the top 30 seems reasonable.  I think there is a chance we do, assuming Hillger starts wrestling better and Weiler can AA.  Hillger for example scored 5.5 points in 2019 while taking 8th.  At this point, it is hard to see any other wrestler scoring more than a few at NCAAs, but hope that changes.  Really need guys like Burwick, Barnett, or Krattiger to turn into top 10 wrestlers to expect much more.

[dad 2 5]

Appears it would take a lot of uspets to win.  Burwick beat Dryden 15-0 last year.  Not sure if it was just a weird match or bad weight cut for Dryden, but be curious how it goes this time around.

You are right mkm13. It appears the Badgers have slipped backward this year. Hope thy can change direction and get some gains next year. Realistically it looks like Big Ten finish of 11th and maybe we can crack to top 30 at the NCAA. Tough year!

Have you watched at all this year? Honest question....

I have and I have watched other Big Ten match and I think individuals on the team are developing but we are on a different tier then other teams right now in my opinion. Am I missing something?

[dad 2 5]

Just so I understand, where do you disagree?  We are not wrestling our best wrestler (Wick) and have arguably our next best wrestler (Amos) taking a gap year.  A lot of other teams do not have this.  Because we have guys taking the year off, where many other teams do not, I think it is reasonable to say our results will take a step back this year.

Hard to argue with saying 11th in the big 10, but anywhere from 8th to 12th is likely.  In 2019 the 30th place team at NCAA's scored 11.5 points.  The 25th place team scored 18.5.  Based on that, the comment of maybe cracking the top 30 seems reasonable.  I think there is a chance we do, assuming Hillger starts wrestling better and Weiler can AA.  Hillger for example scored 5.5 points in 2019 while taking 8th.  At this point, it is hard to see any other wrestler scoring more than a few at NCAAs, but hope that changes.  Really need guys like Burwick, Barnett, or Krattiger to turn into top 10 wrestlers to expect much more.

I agree with all of that. and especially the last part, big hope, really need it to happen. It will be a great mark, proof, of great coaching and the guys on the mat.

[wrastle63]

Appears it would take a lot of uspets to win.  Burwick beat Dryden 15-0 last year.  Not sure if it was just a weird match or bad weight cut for Dryden, but be curious how it goes this time around.

You are right mkm13. It appears the Badgers have slipped backward this year. Hope thy can change direction and get some gains next year. Realistically it looks like Big Ten finish of 11th and maybe we can crack to top 30 at the NCAA. Tough year!

Barnett wasn't even an NCAA qualifier and now he is ranked top 20. Sharenbrock had some spot starts at 157 and is now ranked at 149. Model was 9-15 and is now ranked. Krattiger went from 9-17 last year to 2-3 so far with his only losses to 3, 4, and 7 by a combined 12 points so very competitive. Hillger has lost a couple tough ones this year but also has wrestled some tough competition. So every wrestler who was varsity for at least a couple matches has greatly improved, but yet we need gains and a change in direction? LOL ok.... Throw in Wick and Amos next year and see what happens.

[Handles II]

Appears it would take a lot of uspets to win.  Burwick beat Dryden 15-0 last year.  Not sure if it was just a weird match or bad weight cut for Dryden, but be curious how it goes this time around.

You are right mkm13. It appears the Badgers have slipped backward this year. Hope thy can change direction and get some gains next year. Realistically it looks like Big Ten finish of 11th and maybe we can crack to top 30 at the NCAA. Tough year!

Barnett wasn't even an NCAA qualifier and now he is ranked top 20. Sharenbrock had some spot starts at 157 and is now ranked at 149. Model was 9-15 and is now ranked. Krattiger went from 9-17 last year to 2-3 so far with his only losses to 3, 4, and 7 by a combined 12 points so very competitive. Hillger has lost a couple tough ones this year but also has wrestled some tough competition. So every wrestler who was varsity for at least a couple matches has greatly improved, but yet we need gains and a change in direction? LOL ok.... Throw in Wick and Amos next year and see what happens.

Being ranked and beating your conference rivals don't always equate.  The reality is we've had improvements. So have other teams and wrestlers, they aren't just standing still. Therefore we are often still losing the close matches, either individually or in total team score.  The prediction of being about 10th in the B1G is quite realistic. We would all be thrilled if they placed in the top 5, but honestly we aren't currently performing at a top 5 level in any respect.  MN is ranked 10th nationally. Tear them apart and then we can re-evaluate.

[mkm13]

Appears it would take a lot of uspets to win.  Burwick beat Dryden 15-0 last year.  Not sure if it was just a weird match or bad weight cut for Dryden, but be curious how it goes this time around.

You are right mkm13. It appears the Badgers have slipped backward this year. Hope thy can change direction and get some gains next year. Realistically it looks like Big Ten finish of 11th and maybe we can crack to top 30 at the NCAA. Tough year!

Barnett wasn't even an NCAA qualifier and now he is ranked top 20. Sharenbrock had some spot starts at 157 and is now ranked at 149. Model was 9-15 and is now ranked. Krattiger went from 9-17 last year to 2-3 so far with his only losses to 3, 4, and 7 by a combined 12 points so very competitive. Hillger has lost a couple tough ones this year but also has wrestled some tough competition. So every wrestler who was varsity for at least a couple matches has greatly improved, but yet we need gains and a change in direction? LOL ok.... Throw in Wick and Amos next year and see what happens.

To be clear, he said the badgers slipped backwards this year.  As a team relative to other big 10 and NCAA teams, that is hard to argue.  It is good to see some of the improvements you mentioned, but they still appear to have a long ways to go to expect more than a couple points at NCAAs.  Hopefully the improvement is enough to to impact the badgers placements at big 10's and NCAA's.  I feel his projections were reasonable, but hope you are correct.