Heres the Hokiesports Announcement
Like VT Michigan is a very different team depending on health of its wrestlers. This matchup presents an excellent upset opportunity for Gus, but a brutal matchup for Sal. I'll chop it up below:
EDIT: Just added Coaches rank
- 125 #3 Joey Dance vs. #24 Conor Youtsey
- 133 Dennis Gustafson vs #21 Rossi Bruno
- 141 #7 Solomon chishko vs. Zac Hall Or George Fisher
- 149 Sal Mastriani vs. #4 Alec Pantaleo
- 157 #7 Nick Brascetta vs. Jordan Amine or #15 Brian Murphy
- 165 #12 David McFadden vs. Garrett Sutton
- 174 #11 Zach Epperly vs Aaron Calderon or #16 Davonte Mahommes
- 184 #6 Zack Zavatsky vs. #3 Dominic Abounader
- 197 #9 Jared Haught vs. #6 Max Huntley
- 285 #2 Ty Walz vs. #3 Adam Coon
A chance for dance to get the proverbial monkey off his back from March a year ago. Dance is worlds better than youtsey and this match should show it. Youtseys in a huge slump this year, freefalling from his top 8 position to edge of 20 rank. Lots of speculation he's mentally struggling with 2 dominant partners in the room on redshirt. I like Dance in this one to the tune of 6-1 or 7-2.
Tech 3-0
Really like the upset potential here. Bruno has had an overinflated ranking all year long and is finally starting to get down to where he should be. Bruno comes from Brandon Florida, same school that produced the norstrems. What I've noticed about bruno is that he just cant figured it out on bottom some days (Dijulius and conaway have give him fits in the past, though he finally may have figure out dijulius's wrist ride). He'll crush you on top, but he needs to get there first. Dennis should be rounding into conditioning form this weekend or next, right in time for tourney season. He continues to get more steady, and his match with Morris is super encouraging, especially coming from behind. Still concerned he may not have full trust in that knee, as hes bailed out what i might call "early" a few times when it gets torqued outside, but hopefully trust and flexibility follows. I'm gonna call Bruno here, but wouldnt be shocked to see Gus ride him like a mule for a period and take the upset 4-2.
Tech 3-3
So Fisher is the old man while hall is the young gun, and theyve rotated throughout the year. Both have about a 0.500 record, and little seperates the two. I think Fisher is the better of the two wrestlers, especially in the top position, but Hall just had a very solid majr decision over sabatello of purdue in their last home match. Either Way Solomon is better here. If Fisher goes, i expect this contest to be closer than if hall goes. Tech by decision here.
Tech 6-3
About 3 or 4 matches into the season pantaleo really started to elevate his wrestling to another level and he's an awful style matchup for mastriani. Like mastriani, he relies on pace to break opponents, with lots of movement and snaps. The problem is Pantaleo probably wrestles with better technique than Sal (though sal is worlds better than a year ago). There will be moments of pure athleticism in this match where both guys just let it fly (Pantaleo Jefferies in UM vs. OU was stunning). Pantaleo's probably about 4 pts better and as long as sal stays out of bad positions, this one is only a decision for UM.
Tech 6-6
Huge swing depending on who goes here. Murphy is a lot like brascetta in many ways, old grizzled vet trying to keep things held together with duct tape. An excellent top wrestler with good single leg attacks that he often elevates and trips. Murphy gave IMAR a scare a weekend prior to Nolf pinning IMAR and that should have been a sign of things to come. If Murphy isnt healthy, or gets rested by the michigan coaches, Brascetta rolls Amine. I'm gonna guess Murphy goes and nick wins a tight decision, that will help him potentially earn a seed in march.
Tech 9-6
This is the match where David McFadden lights his fire for march. Sutton is that starter who is solid in all 3 phases of the match, but doesnt jump off paper at yoou. Super recruit Logan Massa is redshirting behind Sutton and this has been one of the weak points of UM's lineup. If David wants to make some noise at ACCs and NCAAs, he needs to start building momentum here. Currently i see him as the 5th seed for ACCs, so hes got some work to do. Ultimately i think he gets it done by decision.
Tech 12-6
So heres an intermission from the preview to set the scene. Often during the year Michigan trails their opponent after this match. They then have a murderer's row at the final 4 classes, getting steadily better leading to their stud in Coon. At the same time tech has followed the same trend, icing their matches with our 4 studs. If you only watch part of the match, this is the portion to catch because all 4 are potential podium matchups in a month:
Mahommes is eeriely similar to zavatsky in terms of career trajectory thus far. He's a RSFr still figuring out the college level and shows massive potential. His number one strength is he's one of the most athletic wrestlers ive ever seen, which lines up with epp too. This is gonna be wild and we are going to see at least 1 crazy scramble here. Epp would do well to be very deliberate in his attacks, as mahomes loves the action and re-attack/counter offense part of the neutral position (a trait i think comes from his OPRF school days). Epperly is the better wrestler but he has to be mistake free. Ill take tech by decision
Tech 15-6
Do not like this matchup at all, Abounader is riding like an NCAA champ right now, and is just a different wrestler than CKLV. Since Mid January (so the heart of B1G dual season) his results are TF FALL FALL DEC(9-2) MD TF MD. He hasnt given up more than 2 points in a match since Jan 7th. Zavatsky cannot be forced under abounader. I know ZZ should have won the vegas match, but its just a different situation now. Ill pick UM by decision, but i have a bad feeling about a MD here.
Tech 15-9
Huntley is basically your dad in the driveway playing pickup basketball. He's old (6th year grad student), he doesnt have many flashy moves, but he knows every trick in the book to exploit your youthful enthusiasm. Whenevr theres a scramble or the wrestlers roll around Huntley improves his position. He loves to hit 6 pt moves transitioning well from feet to back. Now thats not to say Haught cant beat him. In fact Jared actually matches up pretty well, flexible and loose for a 197, and strong enough to avoid being bullied. I see huntley by decision here though.
Tech 15-12
So if all has gone right, we've got Coon walz to decide the dual. This is a scenario michigan fans are very familiar with and they have come to expect bonus points from Coon (The arena gets scary loud, its built for wrestling and volleyball). Ty is the perfect matchup for Coon, and he's beat him twice in the last 2 years using that HiC lift to launch the Greco monster. Coon does a very poor job of sprawling his hips when attacked (possibly due to greco background, where he doesnt have to defend leg attacks). The one thing that ty must avoid is the over under position coon looks for (specifically right over left under). Since coon is so long he can almost lock that hold up from space. And once its in, he's going chest to chest for a monster Greco Throw. Against lesser opponents, you can set your watch to it, and the best guys simply run out of bounds and take the stalling point rather than get thrown. Ty's avoided it thus far and i know the coaching staff will mention it, so i'm not really concerned. Ultimately Walz is a better wrestler and holds a matchup advantage. Tech by decision here, which is good to preserve Ty's #2 seeding (I dont think snyder will get a seed due to the matrix rules. It will cause an uproar and some poor HWT will end up with him 1st round).
Tech 18-12
The dual will be broadcast live on BTN+ (The B1G's subscription side):
http://www.btn2go.com/game/virginia-tech-at-michigan-on-02212016
Comments
What do you think about Calderon going for Mahomes?
Epp steamrolls calderon if he goes, MD likely.
What does a win here mean in terms of our chances at a national title? I would think a win over two top 10 opponents in less than two weeks would have to push us up the rankings. I have been reading your posts and know that this is some Big10-heavy wannabe national title tourney, but in terms of the NCAA, would we only have the chance at individuals or could we challenge for team?
We don't have a shot at the team title this year. That being said we should contend for a trophy which goes to the top 4 teams, but Penn State should win the team title by a rather considerable margin. As for individual titles Joey Dance, Zach Epperly, and Ty Walz are our best shots with Walz looking to lock up the 2 seed this weekend.
Title scoring is such that we likely will be about 30 pts short of PSU. We are however close to overtaking Iowa for 3rd, and if Oklahoma state stumbles, its not out of the question we could take 2nd.
Again before the season i saw this teams finish as 4-7, so we are performing well right now
It was a catch.
McFadden had a rough weekend. Hopefully he gets back on track in this match.
I think a lot of what happened was due to his relative youth. It's hard to maintain composure when you're looking at a 5+ deficit, and he started wrestling wildly in the second and third periods. I think once he learns to temper that aggressiveness and employs a more methodical tempo, he should produce quality results.
I think you are right. He looked like he got flustered early and it affected his entire match.
I like this analogy. So we can expect a knee to the bean bags followed to set up a steal and an easy layup?
Nothing that devious (huntley's a great dude), but he's got those tricksy moves for sure
Yeah, let's DO IT!
At least show us the payoff!
Granted!
Anyone have a login to watch? Is there some type of per event/daily subscription as I have zero interest in joining a Big Ten streaming network.
Speaking of which, I thought one of the main points of this event was to help promote wrestling and yet they couldn't secure a better TV contract? Is BTN that booked up?
EDIT: It doesn't look like there is a daily or per event price. Best bet is $10 to get all Michigan games for the month. :/
I agree 100%. We just need one person to buy it for a month and provide the login
Edit: I bought a month of BTN Plus but you can only access it on one device at a time. Sorry guys
Edit #2: So I did some chatting with them and apparently you can watch it on 2 devices. Anyone wanting to watch it?
Keeping an eye on the matches here: http://s400.trackwrestling.com/tw/seasons/MainFrame.jsp?TIM=1456082007209&twSessionId=qedvacldpjdpstk&loadBalanced=true
It seems to be a little ahead of twitter.
Edit: I got the link from this tweet. The whole system is pretty sketchy.
Cannot get that to work. Any updates?
We are up 18-8. Zavatsky is in overtime right now. Could have won already but has been hit twice with stall points.
Awesome. Thank you.
That's the match. Hokies win 24-11!
From the feed it sounded like we showed well today outside of Dance who still pulled it out, but didn't seem to be too sharp and Sal who got worked again. Great job all around though, and hope they are ready for the tourney in a couple of weeks.
That is what she said.
Hokies won fairly big, showing they shouldn't have been robbed of the chance to face Iowa.
New to college wrestling here. How do they decided the team national title, seems like there isn't a tournament from what I can see, or am I way off
The National Dual Meet title will be awarded to the winner of the #1Penn State vs #3Oklahoma State meet. The matchup was decided based off of coaches poll rankings and the format didn't allow for teams of the same conference to compete against each other, preventing Iowa from having a shot. A tournament is very impractical for a dual meet title.
What makes a tournament impractical? You could have easily sent 2 (or even 6) more teams to Penn State this weekend and done a tournament format.
Not only would it require multiple days but you would be going against top of the line competition multiple days in a row which opens up the wrestlers to injury before they have even competed in conference championships not to mention NCAAs. It would be comparable to football's conference title game and then college football playoffs all in the same weekend which no one would argue is a good idea.
So essentially it's a token title that is similar to the pre-BCS days?
Bingo! As I understand it, it's not a 'real' national title. It's a series of exhibitions meant to get some additional exposure and squeeze in a little extra wrestling against good competition before the tournaments start. Basically the top Big Ten team and the top non-Big Ten team wrestle for the event title. The other seven matches are purely exhibitions.
I would say it is similar to the BCS and I wouldn't call it token. I think this year, because of the restrictions of how it was set up, it is a little devalued but I wouldn't go as far to call it token. It is still top notch competition competing in dual meets with the best of the best being crowned the National Duals champion.
I dunno. Iowa and Penn State both seem to have a pretty good claim on the title right now.
Having spent over a decade on the administrative side of the PA high school wrestling tournaments (at the level just before state championships), it's always controversial when two teams don't actually meet and decide it on the mat. Even seeding between two wrestlers who haven't faced off is enough to make your head spin.
Considering that Penn State vs Oklahoma State was slated as the National Title dual that means that Iowa doesn't have a claim to it. It is no different than when Auburn went undefeated and didn't play in the title game. They didn't get to make a claim for the title, just that they should have been in the game which is debatable.
Can you elaborate on why Iowa doesn't have a claim? Seems like the only thing that kept them out is that they're in the B1G.
Long story short, coaches rank shows iowa is worse than PSU through Strength of Schedule and Common opponents. Iowa wrestled some cupcakes this year outside of OSU. They wrestled NAIA program Montana State while PSU wrestled top 10 lehigh.
Would be ideal to have a true B1G champion, and it sounds like the conference is working towards that with east and west divisions, but for now, Iowa needs to schedule better or pipe down
"Token" may be a bit of a stretch, but not by much. My biggest issue with the structure is that it precluded the possibility of Iowa and Penn State meeting on the mat. Both are undefeated and ranked #1 and #2. They missed each other in conference play this year because there are too many teams for full round-robin competition in the conference. Yet the format is structured such that the winner of the meet between the B1G #1 and non-B1G #1 is crowned champ. It doesn't allow for the possibility that the top 2 teams could both come from the B1G or that that the top 2 teams could both come from different conferences. If Okie State had beaten PSU, then Iowa would have a legitimate gripe about not being considered the "champion".
That is just the format for this year. Don't expect it to continue this way. It only occurred because Big Ten schools had to host matches.
I'm sure that nothing is finalized, but I read somewhere that the format is expected to remain the same next year. The only planned difference is that the B1G teams will have to go on the road.
At least they are sending the B1G schools on the road. They could probably force home matches again if they wanted to
I would expect that they would allow for a title dual with the top two in the same conference and just avoid that for the rest of the duals. I would prefer that over allowing for a repeat scenario of this year.
I did not know this was on BTN, totally would have watched it. Upset I wasn't paying enough attention. Great win though and when I tuned to BTN during the PSU and OkSt matchup it showed Tech as #3 in the team Rankings (maybe they assumed OkSt would lose?)
I guess my next question is what does dominating Mich in this dual meet do for us? Anything? Warm fuzzies?
Basically. We get a little more respect nationally as a program I suppose. Haught helped is NCAA seeding. Gus and sal could have helped themselves get an NCAA bad but that didn't really work out. Mcfaddan saved himself.
Virginia Tech is ranked #3 on Intermat but the National Duals used the coaches poll for seeding. The main takeaway from winning is the hope that some of our wrestlers improved their seeding for NCAAs.
Hey jerseyhokie, am I missing any information about all this? I've seen a couple jabs to Dresser on Twitter. The only thing I'm getting is that we got screwed by being ranked behind NC State and Dresser might have said he felt that way.
Yeah there was a huge controversy this week, happened just after i published the preview. The cliff notes:
Dresser went on his radio show with jason bryant, Inside Virginia Tech Wrestling, and called iowa coaches Tom and Terry Brands oranges(is substitute for an inapproptiate non PC term beginning with p) as he had heard through coaching contacts that Iowa specifically tried to avoid vt.
Iowa issued a well polished PR dept statement, and Dresser fired back on a popular wrestling podcast. Really its a lot of posturing by dresser, but it created quite the controversy in the wrestling world.
Ohh. Thanks. It all makes sense now. I found this article that mentions it.
http://m.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/va_tech/virginia-tech-notes-wrestli...
Still boiling too, Flowrestling releasing another article on the shady business. Dresser looks like a genius now, already with the W over UM and watchin iowa sweat tonite.
Does NCSU have a shot against Iowa? After this whole fiasco, I would love to see them win.
For sure, have to think NCSU will take 141, 157, 165 and HWT with bonus in a few, just need to win one of the remaining 6. Think Renda at 184 could do it.
Theyre underdogs no doubt, and will probably lose by 2-5 pts, but they have a shot
Blows my mind the success that Jason Bryant has found In the wrestling world. Went to high school with him and I never would have guessed that it would have taken off like this. Definitely awesome to see... On a completely separate note from anything VT related.
Dresser also went on Kyle Bailey's show here in the NRV (101.7 FM) on Thursday and apologized (sort of) for his comments, then pretty much doubled down on them. It was a pretty entertaining interview.
I hope that NC State beats Iowa tonight. It would make this whole situation even sweeter.
If you're interested in reading more about the situation, Black Shoe Diaries (Penn State blog on SB Nation) covered it pretty well. It's worth noting that they've got a definite pro-VT bias in this one. They (Penn State fans) also believe that Iowa's coach is an "Orange" because he wouldn't schedule a meet with PSU this year when they didn't meet in conference play. Apparently, PSU went to Iowa to wrestle them last time they weren't matched up in-conference and Iowa did not return the favor this year, which got many panties in a wad.
Shots Fired (link)
SHOTS FIRED!
Anybody know if there is a recording of this online anywhere? The BTN network on TV only showed the Penn St. match and I'd like to watch the match.
Only the PSU OSU match is on BTN, the rest are on BTN+ which is subscription. If they move it onto BTN in the future and i catch it ill let you know
NC State just beat Iowa... This is going to be a rough couple of weeks for the Hawkeyes. To me it sounds like the Brands brothers have some explaining to do to their fans.
What a pity...
So the ACC is 2-0 vs the B16 in B16 vs everybody else meets?
Photos from the match:
http://www.sjanickiphoto.com/2015-2016-College-Wrestling/Michigan-Vs-Vir...
New rankings out. The good, now #3. The bad, we already beat #2, NCState. GOACC#
Just to compare.
Tech:
Lost #1 PSU (we were the closest at 6 points, next closest was #7 Ohio St at 10), Lost #17 Iowa St
Beat #2 NC State, #8 Michigan, #17 Iowa St, #21 South Dakota St, #24 Arizona St
NC State:
Lost #3 Tech
Beat #4 Iowa, #5 Okla St, #6 Mizz, #12 Nebraska, #16 Minn, #23 App St
Both schools swept the ACC: #14 UNC, #30 Duke, #27 UVA, #26 Pitt and also beat Edinboro and WVU.
Yeah their resume is better than techs and I remember seeing a stat that they are the only team to Beat Iowa and Ok St on the road in the same year which is impressive given their long pedigree of great programs. I honestly think they will probably show very well and win the ACC tourney and place higher than us in the NCAAs as they have 4 really good wrestlers. I think if we have a very good showing unlike last year we could really be a top 5 finish, but we have to do better on the Friday morning unlike last year where we were winless IIRC and place some people in the finals as that's were the real points come in. Still think Dance has the best chance overall as I don't see Waltz solving the 2 time champ.
What's Waltz's projected seed for the national tourney, though? I know he was #3 prior to the Michigan meet. Did beating Coon help him get to #2? That #2 seeding could be very helpful in the NCAA's since it would mean that he won't have to face NCSU's Gwiz (the only guy in the country who I think would beat him right now) until the championship match.
So walz is seeded nationally at #3 due to World Champion Kyle Snyder bumping up to HWT. Snyders has only wrestled 3 matches at the weight class, and he wont be seeded that high for NCAAs. Barring a loss in the semis at ACCs, Ty has the#2 seed locked up in my opinion.
So who is going to have to wrestle a low seeded or unseeded Snyder?
Walz probably will still be ranked #3 because most people are slotting world champ Kyle Snyder but there are some requirements that I don't know that he has to get first to be a seeded wrestler instead of unseeded (see Brascetta last year). Being either the 2 or 3 seed means that Walz will not face Gwiz until the finals, and as long as he doesn't get upset at the ACC tournament he will be either the 2 or 3 seed.
Still, NC StAte lost to Vt.
To add to your point, it isn't like they wrestled a month ago. Virginia Tech beat them a week ago.