Ranking our Wrestling/weight

by David Starbuck Petersen on Feb 13, 2012 12:41 AM CST

So I debated waiting to post this until after next weekend and maybe we can ask ourselves this question again, but here it is. Where do we rank our classes/wrestlers so far this year? My rankings are not just 1-10 who is the best on the team but also reflective of how these guys are doing in comparison to how they were predicted to do.

So here is mine—I didn’t put an overwhelming amount of thought into it or look at any match ups or stats. I just kind of went with my gut said, mostly cause its 12:30 and I want to get to bed….But I really thought this was a good idea guys!! J

1. 133

2. 125

3. 165

4. 141

5. 174

6. HWT

7. 149

8. 184

9. 197

Leaving 157 out…If I had to put it somewhere it would be near the bottom. Mostly because it would not have been unreasonable for us to think we had a chance at making it to the finals in March at the beginning of the season. Regardless of if DSK returns to action again, that will not be the case this year. I would probably rank it near the bottom, but ultimately don’t think that is very fair.

Unless otherwise expressly indicated by BHGP editors, this FanPost is strictly the viewpoint of the author and is not endorsed by BHGP in any way.

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I guess that 197 should be higher

because it is performing about as well as we predicted it would.

It is like climbing a high mountain and finding nothing at the top except a restaurant where they sell ginger beer, surrounded by fog but equipped with wireless.

by Lycurgus on Feb 13, 2012 5:38 AM CST reply actions

I would move the heavies lower

we have a talented freshman who beat out the reigning B1G champion. Iowa has gotten the production out of heavy that they did even last season.

It is like climbing a high mountain and finding nothing at the top except a restaurant where they sell ginger beer, surrounded by fog but equipped with wireless.

by Lycurgus on Feb 13, 2012 5:40 AM CST reply actions

Hmm...

This is difficult because some of those predictions were based on things that we haven’t seen this year — like a healthy Gambrall at 184, a health Carew at 149, a health DSJ at 157, etc. If you’d told me before the season that Wagner, Mike Kelly, and Nick Moore were going to be manning those spots, I would have adjusted my expectations.

OUTPERFORMING EXPECTATIONS
133: Thought Tony would be good, but he’s been better than I expected. Beating Oliver was huge. Disappointing losses to Stieber and Carter, but he avenged the latter and should get a chance to avenge the former at Big Tens. Has been one of our most reliable bonus point scorers, too.

MEETING EXPECTATIONS
125: High expectations, but he’s right on pace to meet them. Had the hiccup against Delgado and has struggled to get bonus points at times, but mostly looks just fine, especially lately.

165: Had pretty high expectations for him but he’s meeting them, especially with some nice wins of late. Three straight bonus point wins over ranked wrestlers is nice.

141: His style is frustrating, but the record speaks for itself, his only losses have been to elite guys, and he just grabbed a nice win over a top-ranked guy and looked aggressive. Can’t really complain TOO much about him.

174: Frustrating at times, but mostly what we expected: pretty dominant against lesser foes, struggles against guys better than him. Can’t quite seem to get over the hump to be as good as the top guys yet.

184: Once we found out GG wasn’t going to be here for most of the year, it was reasonable to adjust expectations downward. Wagner’s done alright as the fill-in — great effort and able to beat lesser guys, but just not enough skill to beat better guys.

197: Had zero expectations for this weight once we lost Byers and, sure enough, it’s been a black hole for us. Gambrall could at least keep most of the losses to decisions. Really need a better solution for this weight next year.

UNDERPERFORMING EXPECTATIONS
HWT: Most of the losses have been to higher-ranked foes, so there’s not a lot of shame there… but we’ve seen the same passive style out of both Telford and Rasing, which is frustrating. HWT doesn’t seem any better than it did a year ago.

157: DSJ’s knee injury really hurt here, and props to Moore for cutting weight and filling in, but he’s been pretty up and down. Maybe it’s not fair to judge him by his HS accomplishments, but when you’re a 4x state champ you do come to Iowa with some higher expectations. He just hasn’t looked that sharp at times and has been caught by fairly simple stuff way too often.

149: Another weight snakebit by injuries and underperformance, but it’s really disappointing that for two years in a row this weight has been a black hole for Iowa. It wouldn’t have taken much to get better results out of this weight than we saw a year ago… but I don’t really think they have been appreciably better.

??? EXPECTATIONS

"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"

by RossWB on Feb 13, 2012 11:05 AM CST reply actions

Yeah

I tried to take into account expectations. I disagree with you on the 197 question, at least after the point at which rumors of Grant at 197, from the very start of the season (wrestle offs) yes maybe we are meeting are near zero expectations for 197. Those expectations should have been adjusted when GG moved up. I also am not looking at a snap-shot of where we are now, but the body of work throughout the season. My defense of 197 at dead last is based mostly on the fact that we had a returning All-American moving up one class and it turned out to be an utter failure. If Lira was wrestling at 197 all year, maybe expectations would play a larger role and it wouldn’t last, but not with Grant there. The idea that 197 is meeting expectations (expectations that were me set when GG was announced to wrestle there) is just wrong…Maybe if it was Lira of Fahler all year that would be different….HWT I could understand putting lower…My defense would be Telford started off hot and just lost something as the season went on. It is there…But I agree with the expectations here, HWT has not been up to par. I could see HWT moving down and 184 up…I can’t split the GG deal both ways and claim expectations should have been high for both….184 and 197 sorta just depends on where you place the Grant expectation question…

I could also see myself now putting Evans over McD…

"Florida! You don't go to Florida in the winter, you go in the summer!" -Tom Brands

by David Starbuck Petersen on Feb 13, 2012 2:59 PM CST up reply actions