NCAA'S

[neutral]

Seems like guys were getting in on his legs all day.

[DocWrestling]

16th place now.  3 All Americans

133 #2 Taylor wrestles Bruno from Michigan for 7th

165 #3 Jordan wrestles #10 Wilson from Stanford for 7th

285  #5 Medbery wrestles #3 Telford with win getting him to wrestle for 3rd.  Other guys lefts in consolations are #2 McMullan from Northwestern and #8 Lawson from Penn St so all Big Ten guys.  Coon of Michigan made the finals

[sudden_victory]

All three of our all Americans won by sudden victory, for which I brought them luck.

[Wisconsin Wrestling Fan]

Thank you Sudden Victory !! 

[stbird]

After looking at the bracket this morning, if Ricky is on the other side of the bracket he is probably an all-american this morning like Dudley who he beat a couple times.  That side of the bracket was just easier.  Luck can have a lot to do with who is an all american and who isn't.   

Agreed!  He was so tough I kind of just assumed he'd be an all american this year. 

Ricky Robertson had a great season also...  In fact, an awesome year for the redshirt freshman...  Top 16 as well...

After awhile, it was easy to take for granted how good he was ... he was solid and consistent all year long !!

Not trying to be a jerk but might I ask why?

Did he beat any wrestler ranked in the top 8 or 9 this season?

Since you aren't being a jerk I'll give you a non-sarcastic answer.

I think RR's final record was 27-10. Winning 27 matches is huge.  He had several wins over Bernstein, who is a former AA.  He knocked off Dudley several times, who can be very dangerous and is currently just 1 win away from becoming an AA.  He also beat Niko Reyes, who is no slouch.  He lost a SV victory to Avery, who has secured AA status this year, and he lost a 8-7 match to Zillmer, who also is just 1 win away from being a '15 AA.

And, even though it's not part of the college season, RR is the reigning National JR Fila champion.  He won that with a bracket that included Brooks and Pfarr.

So, by any  measure, RR had a great season.   I think once he adds a little more muscle, he'll be a beast.

I wasn't saying he didn't have a very good year, I wouldn't say great as a great season for a fresh is an AA or better in my book. He did have a very good year, but to be an AA you generally need to beat the top guys and he hasn't really done that so far this year he is beating the 12-20 ranked guys on a somewhat regular basis and that is very good but that doesn't make you an AA. So many thought he had a real shot this season and I really though he was at least a year out unless he really turned it up big time this weekend. He has a very bright future but is still a step behind but being a step behind as a freshman is very good because many are 3-4 steps behind. iMart is having a great year for a freshman... that is great in my book. I guess it just seems to be a term that is tossed around a little to easy. Funny thing, JT had a similar record last year and people cracked him for not being able to adjust to the college style. He was like 21-13 but he wrestled pretty much every top 10 guy along the way, I think RR has wrestled 2 or 3 of them.

[neutral]

Some general comments ... not (necessarily) specific to the Badgers.

I'm getting tired of watching so many matches going into the 2nd period 0-0, 2-0, 2-1.

They give the guys 3 minutes on their feet ... during which (in many cases ... nothing much happens) - then they exchange escapes ... and head to overtime.  

Unless they are going to be more aggresive with warning/calling stalling in the first period ... I see no reason for it being 3 minutes.  Go 2-2-2 and get on with overtime.

I'd also like to see more aggressive warning/calling stalling on the top guy.  I see much more of guys working to get out ... than guys working to turn.  I know some of the refs do a good job of calling stalemates - but a good rider will take that all day long ... it still amounts to riding time.  Maybe getting rid of riding time would help.  You want to score from the top ... turn the guy.

Also, also - the way to grow interest in the sport is to make it (well) more interesting.  Nobody who is not a wrestler can comprehend our interest in NCAA championship caliber wrestling.  Anybody can sit down to any NCAA basketball game understand the attraction.  

Lastlly - I wish they'd cut out the hand to the head poking - it serves no purpose other than distraction ... and possible eye injuries.  It is not an offensive, defensive, or neutral activity.  Otherwise - why not allow spitting an well ... it has no less relavance to wrestling than the head poke.

[DocWrestling]

I said it last year and I will say it again.  They need to reward offensive action.  If you initiate a shot that ends in a stalemate you should be awarded a point.  This would push the defensive wrestler to try harder to get out of stalemate situation rather than just hanging and would likely lead to some exciting scrambles and taking chances.

Rather than only looking at penalizing the inactive wrestler with stalling, reward the active offensive wrestler.

One other crazy idea is to reward action at end of periods rather than just wasting the last 15-20 seconds of every period watching the clock.  Maybe you get a bonus point for finishing a takedown in the last 15 seconds!

[1Iota]

It seems as though the overwhelming majority of wrestling fans agree that rules need to be changed to reward offense.  I can only speculate that the powers that be are simply traditionalist who don't want to consider change.  I am not even sure that those with the power to enact rule changes are even having these discussions.  What I do know is our sport has never had a better opportunity to attract new fans as wrestling is more available than ever before.  ESPN is now covering every single match via the Internet, & every session of action on their actual channels.  I was at a BW3s last night & wrestling was on multiple TVs.  Granted it was most likely due to the fact they simply left ESPN on & no one asked them to change it, but it was still available to all of the eyes in the place.  If the casual fan saw more throws, shots, scrambles I am sure it would appear as a more exciting competition to an outsider.  The reality is, even wrestling fans are bored by many college matches which have more in common with slow dancing than freestyle wrestling.

[Huckfinn]

Freestyle has already solved the problem of stalling on feet: award 1 point for a pushout.    It works.  It forces the wrestling action to center of mat, rewards aggression.   Why not just adopt that freestyle rule?  Maybe there is a good reason, but I tend to think it is clinging to the old ways.

So much of this tournament was guys playing the edge of the mat when they got ahead.

Telling refs to just call stalling more hasn't work.   This year was supposed to be different, with more points awarded with guys backing out.  The stalling rule places too much burden on refs to decide matches in ambiguous situations.   You need a more fundamental and objective change to the rules.

[DocWrestling]

Looks like a 17th place finish for the Badgers assuming NC State HWT will win title tonight.  There certainly was not much talk on here prior to the tournament in regards to the possibility of finishing that low. 

17th may not seem that disappointing to some when they try to compare to other sports but I certainly do not like too look at the names of some of the programs finishing higher than the Badgers.  They really should not be able to compete at the level of Wisconsin.  I am not smart enough to figure out whether the people inside the program need adjustment or whether the university itself needs to invest more into the program.

[Handles II]

Doc, if you go back to the beginning of the season you would have seen several predictions for a 16-20 finish. Some people got a bit over excited based on dual meet record, and some quality wrestling at B1G. So we probably finished about where we belong.

[Huckfinn]

After watching the tournament, I think you can throw out seeds, you have a good idea how each individual wrestler compared to the competition.

Can't be disappointed about Medberry's finish.    Sure, he coulda finished as high as 2, but he is not significantly better than a couple guys behind him either.

Zeke and Taylor slightly underperformed, they coulda shoulda been a couple notches higher.

Ricky Robertson could have all-Americaned if had gotten better draws, he's better than a couple of the AAs.

So .... not a great performance.   But also not that far from their ceiling.    A lot of good wrestling from the Badgers, not a flop at all.    I'm impressed with the talent level across the final 16, some wrestlers are far better than their record, they are peaking.   Zeke losing to Taylor Walsh sucked, but it's not like Walsh isn't a top tier guy.

Badgers have only 1 senior qualifier, right?  Cousins.   So should be more progress next year.
edit: forgot about McCall

[jaguarwrestler]

So we are all good with 16th? When our seeds said 8th?

[Brett Favre - R.I.P.]

Really looking forward to next year with the great recruiting class we have.

[billymurphy]

I do not think the Badgers finish in 16th place.
I will predict 17th place.