Huskers Stunned by Badgers

[jaguarwrestler]

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the schedule and this team with the
guys in the right weights is clearly better now.  Nobody is suggesting
the Badgers can beat Iowa or Minnesota this year, but with the Badgers Big Ten
schedule it would not shock me if the Badgers ran the table and finished unbeaten
in the Big Ten. Medbery and Jordan are having great seasons.

Minnesota, Iowa, Pen State, Ohio State... the scheduling Gods skipped all 4 for us.

[jaguarwrestler]

Jordan used the same near cradle as he did with Indiana.   Donar did wrestle well however it was more of a one sided match than the score shows.  Pretty much a catch and release match by Green blowing through him with doubles.  Donar getting dinged with  stalling calls against him in 1st and 2nd period.   It looked like Green may have let off the gas after he knew he would not get any bonus  points, but a great confidence builder for Donar.

I saw Jesse wrestle in the Indiana Dual.  He looked robotic on his feet.  I had a feeling he'd have trouble with this guy.  Donar must have really wrestled well against Green.  I wish I could have seen that match.  Nice win by Lubeck over a ranked guy.  Robertson is a stud.  He'll be moving up the ladder quickly with that win.  Great job Badgers!  We had a lot of bad predictions at the beginning of this thread.  How did Jordan pin his guy in 32 seconds?  

Thielke loses 11-2. UW 14 Neb 11

[/quote

in a tournament the outcome is likely way different as both sides are trying to win the match... when your goal is to keep the score close it changes everything. It is still impressive he only lost by 2. By the way is Donar the man for the rest of the year or is SL just dinged up a bit?

[WW_1995]

Honestly the badgers matchup pretty favorably with Penn State this year and I for one would like to see that dual. I think they matchup pretty well with Minnesota to be honest.  

PSU vs WISCONSIN

125 Conaway dec. Jimenez
133 Gulibon dec Taylor -
141 Thielke dec Moss - Moss has not impressed me, he won Greco University Nationals, but obviously not as good at greco as thielke. Thielke would overwhelm a lesser opponent
149 Lubeck dec Beitz - Tossup, Both tough kids.
157 Donar/Liegel dec Law - Tossup, but am impressed by Donars performance lately and against Green.
165 Jordan Mdec Hammond - Might we see another stick from Jordan here? Hammond isn't ranked, but i thought i'd give PSU coaching the benefit of the doubt.
174 Brown Mdec Cousins
184 Robertson dec McCutcheon - Tossup
197 McIntosh dec McCall
285 Medberry dec Lawson

6-4 Wisc.  Thats on a good night for Wisconsin. Could see it being 5-5 or 6-4 PSU as well, but just saying think Wisconsin in a dual is right there with them.

Against Minnesota

125 Jimenez dec Brancale - if he doesn't get pancaked he can beat brancale, he has wrestled much tougher opponents than brancale thus far as a true freshman and wrestled them tough.
133 Dardanes dec Taylor - Taylor will keep it close but Dardanes is huge at this weight.
141 Dardanes Mdec Thielke - Think Nick will overwhelm Thielke with his size as well.
149 Lubeck dec Short - Will be a good match, short is very good defensively, but lubeck is so explosive.
157 Ness fall donar - giving minny the benefit of the doubt here, ness is a pinning machine, much more so than Green, who has been stuck by him.
165 Jordan dec Wanzek - Wanzek can keep it close i think but Zeke is so dangerous, could open it up big, but i'll stay conservative here.
174 Storley dec Cousins - Can cousins keep it to a decision here?
184 Robertsen dec Pfarr - Two very evenly matched wrestlers in my mind, all lumped in a big group of talented 184 lbers in a wide open weight class.
197 Schiller dec McCall - I think McCall can keep it close here, Schiller still wrestler with wrap on knee after injuring it in Bison Open.
285 Medberry dec Kroells - Medberry will be an All american this year, Kroells will not.

That makes it 5 matches a piece, with the difference being Minnesotas bonus points. Still would be a good dual if you ask me, Wisconsin is much improved from the past few years.

Again this is all just for a little fun speculation by me, i love talking wrestling and predicting and analyzing college wrestling especially.

[billymurphy]

Put up your prediction for the Badgers vs. Iowa.
They are the one team that has both a good 165 and Heavyweight
that could give Medbery and Jordan a challenge.

If Minnesota stays healthy I think they win the national title.
Last year one of the Dardanes brothers was living in a cold
room in the basement and was sick half the time.  Hopefully he moved out
of that room and let some freshman freeze his butt off all winter.

[WW_1995]

Well just for the fun of it here are my predictions for Badgers vs Iowa and tOSU

vs IOWA
125 Gilman mdec Jimenez - Gilman will challenge for a title this year and the next 2 years afterward.
133 Clark dec Taylor - Clark had a bad Big ten last year and while Taylor had an awesome win, i still think Clark to be the better wrestler.
141 Dziewa dec Thielke - Dziewa doesn't blow people out but he's solid, and will likely AA this year.
149 Sorensen dec Lubeck - Sorensen will be a legitimate AA threat as a FR.
157 Donar/Liegel dec Kelly - The one hole on the Hawkeye lineup that i see this year.
165 Jordan dec Moore - Moore is good, obviously as he had a win over Caldwell and multiple AA's last year, I just think Jordan is better and he came prepared to march last year as a FR and AA'd, something Moore has yet to do, go to NCAA's mentally prepared. Moore will likely AA this year, but I think the Jordans are better.
174 Mike Evans Mdec Cousins - Evans is a hammer and has a good shot at making the finals and being a champ, like anybody in that top 4 at 174.
184 Brooks dec Robertsen - Brooks has one of the best motors on the whole team and will likely overwhelm Robertsen
197 A healthy Burak = dec over McCall , but if the backup is in, go with McCall for the W.
285 Telford dec Medberry - Will be a close match, but telford has a shot as well to make the finals and even win it this year.

Vs tOSU
125 Tomasello Mdec Jimenez - Tomasello has such good offense, just can't crack those top 5 or 6 guys right now, might be a different story come march
133 Taylor dec DiJulius - This is my upset special, DiJulius is rated to AA right now, but don't think that will happen.
141 Stieber Tech fall Thielke - Stieber ... enough said.
149 Hunter Stieber dec Lubeck - This stieber is clearly not healthy yet as he just got stuck by houdashelt in dominating fashion. Lubeck could keep it close.
157 Demas dec Donar - Demas will win a frustrating 1 point match, he's talented but wrestles close, could be an upset here.
165 Zeke Dec Bo - I think Zeke would win, especially since Bo has been injured for a while. I think the stafford loss helped Zeke adjust to 165 even more and he's been solid ever since.
174 Martin dec Cousins - This is a tossup as Martin is not really the most solid guy for tOSU, but still has talent, Cousins could win this match.
184 Robertsen dec Courts - Courts just doesnt impress me, he has the physical tools to be great, just not the mental tools.
197 Snyder dec McCall - I think this would be like an 11-4 type match, hopefully able to keep it to a regular dec.
285 Medberry dec Tavanello - Classic hwt match, tav does a whole lot of nothing.

So i have Iowa beating Wisc 8 matches to 2, and tOSU beating Wisconsin 6 matches to 4, but could be a little worse.

[Musky Hunter]

WW I enjoy reading your posts. 

I think our 33 pounder could do some damage this year after he gets adjusted to the new weight.  Your thoughts?

[WW_1995]

Ryan Taylor is very solid and I definitely think certifying for 125, wrestling 125 early, and then moving up for Rider hindered him a little bit, hence the few losses.  He seems to be adjusting more and more each match and thats the great thing about wrestling, guys have off and on regular seasons all the time, and it will depend who shows up in March.  I think RT will have a much better time AAing at 133 than the loaded 125 field this year.  If i'm being honest I see him right in that R12/ 7-8th place match, I think Schopp, Dardanes, Brewer, Clark, And Gulibon will be challenging for the title, but who knows, in a month or two Could very easily be Taylors name added into that Group, but the only thing is he won't see many of the top guys until Big Tens and NCAA's, might not have enough time to figure some of them out by then.  It will be a very interesting weight class to watch develop over the course of the season.  

Also looking forward to 149, 165 and 184, all pretty wide open weights, with a lot of talented guys who could all make a run to the podium, with no champs set in stone at any of these weights IMO.

Also appreciate the kind words, a good chunk of all of my free time since I started wrestling (and fell in love with the sport) about 5 years ago has been spent analyzing old brackets, current brackets, rankings, and watching tons of college wrestling matches as well as frequenting nearly every major wrestling forum out there, so in a nutshell, I love my wrestling.

[brotherofagoodwrestler]

Minny  wins 8of 10 from Badgers

[jaguarwrestler]

WW - I see 4 toss ups against Penn St and you have WI winning all 4...

[hammen]

Thank you for your analysis WW - it's very much appreciated. Really enjoy people like you. Keep the posts coming!

[jaguarwrestler]

Minny  wins 8of 10 from Badgers

well on a very good day

on a good day 7

on a good day for WI I think Minn gets 6 wins... I see no way WI takes 5 from them. Minn just put 7 in the top 4 at Cliff Keen.

[bigG]

Way to step up and compete Jarod! Typical performance by Zeke - Go Badgers!

Hate to call it a "big" loss for Jarod, but it was a great loss, in a positive way. Hope this gives him that tiny it more confidence in his abilities. He has great stuff.

[jaguarwrestler]

Way to step up and compete Jarod! Typical performance by Zeke - Go Badgers!

Hate to call it a "big" loss for Jarod, but it was a great loss, in a positive way. Hope this gives him that tiny it more confidence in his abilities. He has great stuff.

There's no reason he couldn't be on the podium at the end of the year if he wrestles like that from now on.

how did he score his points? 5 escapes and a TD? Green had 4 TD's? He did his job but I'm not sure he was ever in danger of winning the match. Holding a 2 point match was impressive, had this been a tournament I wonder the outcome.

[WW_1995]

Way to step up and compete Jarod! Typical performance by Zeke - Go Badgers!

Hate to call it a "big" loss for Jarod, but it was a great loss, in a positive way. Hope this gives him that tiny it more confidence in his abilities. He has great stuff.

There's no reason he couldn't be on the podium at the end of the year if he wrestles like that from now on.

how did he score his points? 5 escapes and a TD? Green had 4 TD's? He did his job but I'm not sure he was ever in danger of winning the match. Holding a 2 point match was impressive, had this been a tournament I wonder the outcome.

That is where mat wrestling is crucial in big matches. You take a kid down four times and let him up four times in the first period and its 8-4. Then he gets a TD maybe and suddenly its a 2 pt match.  You only add 1 pt of separation for every TD assuming they get an escape, he may not have been in 'danger' of winning that match, but surely anytime the score is within a TD you are in a position to win.

[jaguarwrestler]

Way to step up and compete Jarod! Typical performance by Zeke - Go Badgers!

Hate to call it a "big" loss for Jarod, but it was a great loss, in a positive way. Hope this gives him that tiny it more confidence in his abilities. He has great stuff.

There's no reason he couldn't be on the podium at the end of the year if he wrestles like that from now on.

how did he score his points? 5 escapes and a TD? Green had 4 TD's? He did his job but I'm not sure he was ever in danger of winning the match. Holding a 2 point match was impressive, had this been a tournament I wonder the outcome.

That is where mat wrestling is crucial in big matches. You take a kid down four times and let him up four times in the first period and its 8-4. Then he gets a TD maybe and suddenly its a 2 pt match.  You only add 1 pt of separation for every TD assuming they get an escape, he may not have been in 'danger' of winning that match, but surely anytime the score is within a TD you are in a position to win.

a td in regulation and another in OT is highly unlikely and what was needed to win.