IT IS TIME! – Badgers Ready for Big Ten Championships by Kirk Nelson

[wrestlemania]

A little context and perspective on the Badgers' 2021-22 season

No one should celebrate eighth place in the B1G meet but one should consider it a big improvement on 12th place from a year ago. One should also consider that UW finished in eighth in the conference meet three straight seasons in a row from 2015-2017 in the twilight of the Davis regime. This time around UW not only had a conference champion (the first since Isaac Jordan won back-to-backs in 2015-16) but also the meet's Most Outstanding Wrestler in Austin Gomez and the Freshman of the Year as well in D.J. Hamiti. The team was also 12-2 in dual meets and beat some tough competition in doing so while the dual meet records from 2016-18 were so-so.

Obviously the difference is the context between a coaching staff trying to build a program in its fourth season and coach who had been in charge since 1994. While that coach, Barry Davis, is the winningest all-time in UW history, coached his fair share of All-Americans and B1G champions and deserves of a lot more respect around here than he gets, it shows the big difference between being old and being new.

Wisconsin has never won an NCAA or B1G title as a team in wrestling and even with a new coach it should plainly obvious its darn difficult to do especially when your outside the top four group right now of Michigan, Penn State, Iowa and Ohio State. Northwestern had a heck of a tournament, as good as they could probably do given their limited resources, but UW beat Northwestern in dual. They also beat Minnesota and lost to Nebraska. They finished fourth in the league's dual meet standings at 6-2 ahead of Northwestern, Ohio State, Minnesota and Nebraska. That means it's basically a wash. Wrestling can be a funny sport given the difference between dual meet success and team success but it is what it is and for Wisconsin, this season at least, they were set-up more for duals success.

Of course, that doesn't excuse the fact the program is still vulnerable to having bad outings as a team during meets like the B1G or NCAA's. I remember in Coach Bono's first season they had a horrible Sunday at the B1G meet that year and it basically cost them a potential fourth place finish. Instead they finished seventh. Better showings by our upper weight wrestlers in 2022 could have meant fifth place but once a again a bad round kills that. The good programs, maybe one wrestler has a bad day or a bad session, okay, but not the whole fricken team! That's what UW still has to fix.  Bottom line is, when you have more wrestlers competing for ninth place than first through eighth place, you're not going to score that many points. To get 68 was probably a miracle.

And yet, what are we arguing about here, the difference between fifth and eighth place? Yeah, well it just goes to show UW is still a middle of the pack program, different coaches notwithstanding. But what gives me hope is that a program like Michigan, which was also in the middle pack a few years ago, rose to the top for the first time in 50 years. Ohio State was no great shakes for many seasons until Tom Ryan got there and cranked things up.  We know Coach Bono is a very good recruiter and he what he needs to do is continue to get that talent into the room and hope they stay eligible, healthy and motivated to continue to get better and not burned out after 4-5 years. I wondered about that, especially after 2019 given the talent they had on paper and then finishing ninth in the B1G meet. But given the young talent they have now and how they've wrestled the past month and just the exciting things they're doing as a program, hopefully a Top 15 finish nationally and a few All-Americans at nationals is in store and it will be a great way to cap the season.

[mkm13]

Barnett, Gomez, and Hamiti are all studs who have several more years here.  Huge pieces to build around.  Zargo and Amos habe shown good promise and hopefilly they will surprise at NCAAs.  For ehatever reason. Amos has lost every close match against top guys in folkstyle.  Hopefully he can figure that out. Surprisingly, since he is so good at greco and freestyle, he has really struggled to get a taketown in folkstyle against top 15 guys.  I think he will figure it out eventually, just a matter of when.

174-hwt have not gone as planned, but they still have a chance to finish strong.

[Vir Fortis]

A little context and perspective on the Badgers' 2021-22 season

No one should celebrate eighth place in the B1G meet but one should consider it a big improvement on 12th place from a year ago. One should also consider that UW finished in eighth in the conference meet three straight seasons in a row from 2015-2017 in the twilight of the Davis regime. This time around UW not only had a conference champion (the first since Isaac Jordan won back-to-backs in 2015-16) but also the meet's Most Outstanding Wrestler in Austin Gomez and the Freshman of the Year as well in D.J. Hamiti. The team was also 12-2 in dual meets and beat some tough competition in doing so while the dual meet records from 2016-18 were so-so.

Obviously the difference is the context between a coaching staff trying to build a program in its fourth season and coach who had been in charge since 1994. While that coach, Barry Davis, is the winningest all-time in UW history, coached his fair share of All-Americans and B1G champions a deserves a inappropriate term3 of a lot more respect around here than he gets, it shows the big difference between being old and being new.

Wisconsin has never won an NCAA or B1G title as a team in wrestling and even with a new coach it should plainly obvious its darn difficult to do especially when your outside the top four group right now of Michigan, Penn State, Iowa and Ohio State. Northwestern had a inappropriate term3 of a tournament, as good as they could probably do given their limited resources but UW beat Northwestern in dual. They also beat Minnesota and lost to Nebraska. They finished fourth in the league's dual meet standings at 6-2 ahead of Northwestern, Ohio State, Minnesota and Nebraska. That means its basically a wash. Wrestling can be a funny sport given the difference between dual meet success and team success but it is what it is and for Wisconsin, this season at least, they were set-up more for duals success.

Of course, that doesn't excuse the fact the program is still vulnerable to having bad outings as a team during meets like the B1G or NCAA's. I remember in Coach Bono's first season they had a horrible Sunday at the B1G meet that year and basically cost them a potential fourth place finish. Instead they finished seventh. Better showings by our upper weight wrestlers in 2022 could have meant fifth place but once a again a bad round kills that. The good programs, maybe one wrestler has a bad day or a bad session, okay but not the whole fricken team! That's what UW still has to fix.  Bottom line is, when you have more wrestlers competing for ninth place than first through seventh place, you're not going to score many points. To get 68 was probably a miracle.

And yet, what are we arguing about here, the difference between fifth and eighth place? Yeah, well it just goes to show UW is still a middle of the pack program, different coaches notwithstanding. But what gives me hope is that a program like Michigan, which was also in the middle pack a few years ago, rose to the top for the first time in 50 years. Ohio State was no great shakes for many seasons until Tom Ryan got there and cranked things up.  We know Coach Bono is a very good recruiter and he what he needs to do is continue to get that talent into the room and hope they stay eligible, healthy and motivated to continue to get better and not burned out after 4-5 years. I wondered about that, especially after 2019 given the talent they had on paper and then finishing ninth in the B1G meet. But given the young talent they have and how they've wrestled the past month and just the exciting things they're doing as a program, hopefully a Top 15 finish and a few All-Americans at nationals is in store and it will be a great way to cap the season.

I'm excited about the Badgers for two reasons. They've got the type of guys on this team who will still be around for a few years who have the right type of mentality, who are attacking, looking to score. That often rubs off on other guys. Hamiti obviously, but also Gomez and EB who can grind out the tough matches.

Zarago has a lot of upside as far as I can tell, Amos certainly does. We've got a couple of blue chippers coming in this year in Rivera and Rowley(that Coy could be a big dark horse). Certainly a couple other very good recruits and Clark is in the '23 class, so already that's a big win.

But the Badgers potential to elevate this program to the level Michigan was able to reach, it's going to need them to create a wall around the state and...it doesn't have to be waterproof, but you can't let guys like Sinclair, Hopke, Milard, those Mirasola brothers(I could see them being really dangerous 84/97 combo assuming they want to Wrestle in college). The Arrowhead kids Duchateau, Mulvaney, who...despite a pretty convincing defeat at the hands of Sinclair, he looked Dang impressive to me. And looks like he's going to grind and those two are So and Jr respectively.

I'm missing a lot of kids, I know that, I didn't even want to go down the list because there are probably a dozen kids out here or parents who'd complain and they'd be justified. The kid at 132, Aure...what I saw from him, he looked like he ran out of gas a little, but when you're down and you've gotta go all out the final 30 and take shot after shot and then you manage to pull it out with incredible feel and quickness...I get he lost it in OT, but that's a kid who looks like there's a LOT to work with. Empey. He lost to a little guy. So what. Vitto had an incredible game plan, but Empey has better feet than most HWTs, I can only imagine this loss is going to just light a fire and he's already a solid 260-270 and doesn't look like there's much fat on there. He's well put together.


But...don't wanna get off topic too much. I like what Bono is doing...I would assume he'd be active in the transfer portal again. But what we're pumping out in state should make the Transfer Portal utilized for specific needs after you build that lineup with your 4-5 year guys who are going to grow, develop, and should have at least one crossover year with the three studs we have at the moment who look like they're headed to high AA finishes. I'm drooling of a EB/Rivera/Clark/Duchateau/Milard/Hamiti/Sinclair/Rowley/Kopkey/Amos/Empey...core.

I know it won't work out like that, those kids weights are going to change and they'll get bigger in most cases, but there's a LOT of talent right there.


So, bottom line, I gave Barry Davis a lot of passes as we just didn't turn out a lot of D1 talent. That is no longer the case as we're cranking out studs pretty regularly. So for all the good Bono is doing, and again, there's a lot. The difference between middle of the B1G and trophies...will be building a NON-LITERAL wall around this state.

[kabrvi]

It was 2016 or 2017 and my family and I decided to go watch the Purdue/Wisconsin dual.  We had never attended a collegiate dual and my expectations were that it would be raucous and energetic.

It was almost silent and sadly--boring.  There may have been 100 people there.  As a wrestling fan, my disappointment was high.  Who would want to wrestle in this environment?

Fast forward to Bono's first year.   He had the fieldhouse booming (I believe there were 4,000 plus there) for the last dual of the year against Iowa.  Before the dual there was an awesome tribute on the career of Eli Stickley. Unfortunately, the team got creamed.  Hilger scored our only team points with a ride out of the Iowa HWT to win 1-0 and a final team score of something like 31-3.

And then the question came to me again, "Who would want wrestle in this environment?".  The reflection and hope on this question was starkly different from the first time I asked myself it after the Purdue dual.

Anybody that has been to the Feildhouse now should believe that a recruit is going to look at WI as an opportunity to wrestle in an exciting and growing program.  Success breeds success.  And IMHO, this last year was a success.

[wrestlemania]

Excellent post kabrvi! And that's the difference right now. More people are excited and enthused about UW wrestling right now than and that's a credit to Bono and his salesmanship abilities. In time, hopefully talent translate into more success and thus more excitement and the train will keep on rolling!

[dad 2 5]

context of '22
21 vs 22 Big Ten:
25 10th to 2nd
33 5th to 11th
57 10th to 7th
84 7th to 9th
H 5th to 12th
one great job, not so good on three

Different wrestlers at
41 14th to 9th
49 12th to 1st
65 14th to 3rd
74 12th to 10th
97 14th to 10th
Headed in the right direction with all five here

As a team went from 12th to 8th, from 30.5 points to 68 points, big improvement as a team.

So the bottom line is? The guys added helped elevate but the development does not look to be there. Something is still missing but the three freshmen looked good.
Lets see what the measurements look like after this weekend.

[bigoil]

How can you say that there isn't improvement.

Returning guys Barnett and Model didn't improve?

New guys:
Zargo was a grey shirt last year: he was no where close to this last year.
Hamiti was a SR in HS, now an AA.

There are a lot of guys wrestling this year that did not last year, all of the IVY plus individuals like Wick.

[dad 2 5]

Big Oil did I say there was no improvement? I looked at it as big improvement as a team but opportunity to improve. Sounds like most the coaches I had.

I think we can measure now, three AA is an improvement. Not qualifiers is an improvement. The upper weights and 33 are the ones I would like to see improve next year and I think we will. Wonder how many of the seniors will return for their extra year?

[bigoil]

[[/b]quote author=dad 2 5 link=topic=58615.msg670167#msg670167 date=1647549135]

So the bottom line is? The guys added helped elevate but the development does not look to be there. Something is still missing but the three freshmen looked good.
Lets see what the measurements look like after this weekend.
[/quote]

I don't think I misconstrued your words, you said the development does not look to be there.

[Vir Fortis]

[[/b]quote author=dad 2 5 link=topic=58615.msg670167#msg670167 date=1647549135]

So the bottom line is? The guys added helped elevate but the development does not look to be there. Something is still missing but the three freshmen looked good.
Lets see what the measurements look like after this weekend.

I don't think I misconstrued your words, you said the development does not look to be there.
[/quote]

Seems to me you guys are stuck on "improvement," vs the "development," of the Wrestlers. I see what he was saying...but also it's a little unfair when you look at someone like Hillger, and he's the guy who "regressed" the most when the HWT division this year was just insane.

But this team clearly improved. Are they developing the Wrestlers in the room as well as they could/should be? I have no idea and I think this is a bad year to judge that.

But the improvement this year came primarily from guys who weren't' here last year in Gomez and Hamiti...and to a lesser degree Amos.

[vsmf2010]

[[/b]quote author=dad 2 5 link=topic=58615.msg670167#msg670167 date=1647549135]

So the bottom line is? The guys added helped elevate but the development does not look to be there. Something is still missing but the three freshmen looked good.
Lets see what the measurements look like after this weekend.

I don't think I misconstrued your words, you said the development does not look to be there.

Seems to me you guys are stuck on "improvement," vs the "development," of the Wrestlers. I see what he was saying...but also it's a little unfair when you look at someone like Hillger, and he's the guy who "regressed" the most when the HWT division this year was just insane.

But this team clearly improved. Are they developing the Wrestlers in the room as well as they could/should be? I have no idea and I think this is a bad year to judge that.

But the improvement this year came primarily from guys who weren't' here last year in Gomez and Hamiti...and to a lesser degree Amos.
[/quote]

I would add Zargo to that list. I think he may have improved more than anyone. I also think Barnett is a much better wrestler this year than he was last year.