Some Quick Thoughts About the First Session of the Matmen Open

We Rachal had Chris Rivera of the Campbell Camels orbiting him. It was a magnificent supplay. This exposed the Camels' scouting report on Rachal as lacking any depth whatsoever. DO NOT GRECO A RACHAL!

Roberts versus Reicin was brother versus brother. Jake banged his head and needed a concussion protocol. Roberts rolled after that.

Princeton hates Rutgers like I hate Iowa.

From the Tournaflex dashboard "notes":

 02:09PM Dj Shannon out at 174 

 02:08PM Anthony Pedro out at 174 

 02:06PM Pat Phillips out at 133 

 01:44PM N Nepomnyashchiy out at 184 

 01:43PM Trey Sizemore out at 174 

Five wrestlers out of the tournament with injuries, and three of them are ILLINI. Not optimum. 

Lucas Byrd is smiling out there. That's good to see. I didn't see any Cardani matches. 

I think the Covid hurt a lot of ILLINI wrestlers. A lot of belly wrestling today. 

BTN announcers love the mat returns. The highest mat returns in the NCAA belong to Luke Luffman. Prove me wrong. 

The video and the dashboard started out really rough. I let Willie and ILLINOISMatmen hear it. Then, all of a sudden, it became nearly fantastic. I like the TournaFlex dashboard better than anything Flo or Track has. The first people in any arena in the future must be the video and dashboard people. No more countdowns. Go live a couple of hours before the event so you can work out the bugs. Don't cheap out on that!

For quite a time, I had only two cameras operational for me. That is unacceptable. 

After the first session, the ILLINI appear to be in sixth place. Not unexpected with no Duncan, Carr or Wroblewski, and with both wrestlers injured at 174. Still, they cannot allow Bucknell to be ahead of them in any wrestling tournament at any time. Bucknell is in fifth place.

Looking at the brackets, Justin Cardani has a real shot to make it to the finals. He should beat .500 wrestler Sheldon Seymour (Lehigh) in the quarters, then he would face Gage Curry (Pitt). That's a tough match, but one that Cardani can win. 

Lucas Byrd breezes into the semis.

Danny Braunagel has Dean Hamiti in the quarters. 165 is a tough bracket. Beat him, and he's got Zach Hartman. 

Big Brawny has Bernie Truax in his quarter. 184 is an even tougher bracket than 165! Beat that returning AA, and he gets Mark Hall. 

Luuuuke Luffman has Ben Goldin of Penn in the quarters. Goldin is 9-1 on the year, but he hasn't faced too many good wrestlers. He was 19-11 last year, is a specimen, and this is his third year as a starter. Luke is 4-3 against common opponents; Goldin is 2-5. Luke beat him in overtime in 2019. Wrestlestat.com picks Goldin to win, which means that Luffman will.