Final Thoughts About the Matmen Open, the ILLINI Past, the ILLINI Future and Darts

DARTS

The Youtube algorithm recently put a darts championship video in my queue, and I watched it. The match was so ******* hilarious that I watched another. These chubby dudes are preening and prancing around in front of a ballroom filled with thousands of screaming drunks dressed up like they're on Let's Make a Deal. 

That place must be covered in vomit. 

I never realized the board was so close to the thrower. I could reach over and place a dart on the right spot. Don't they have anybody taller than 6-4 in England? 

But the point I want to make is about the announcing. They have an announcer who yells into his microphone whenever a player hits the optimum score--three consecutive treble twenties. 

He screams, "ONE HUUUUUUNDRED AND EIGGGGHHHTYYY!" 

We need that in wrestling. We need that soccer announcer who shouts "GOOOOOAAAL" for thirty seconds. We need our Michael Buffer to tell us when it has become the ideal time to Rumble. We need a catchphrase as well. 

Suggestions are welcome in the comments. 

THE ILLINOIS MATMEN OPEN

Considering the ILLINI wrestled without Dylan Duncan, Mikey Carr and Matt Wroblewski, and considering that everybody else in the lineup from 149 to 184, save Zac Braunagel, got seriously injured at the tournament, this was a fantastic showing by the ILLINI. 

Of course, the very dark side of that is the fact that the injuries happened. At one point in time, early in the tournament, the TournaFlex software showed five wrestlers who had to withdraw from the open because of injury.

Three of those were ILLINI. 

Not optimum. Eventually, the Orange and Blue lost Christian Kanzler at 149, Joe Roberts at 157, Danny Braunagel at 165, both Trey Sizemore and DJ Shannon at 174 and Nikita Nepomnyashchiy at 184. The ILLINI lost most of a team of wrestlers at this event. 

We can only hope that they recover quickly and completely. 

CRADLES

About half-way through the tournament, I noted that I have seen more ILLINI cradles at this point in the season than in the last two seasons combined. Then, Zac Braunagel and We Rachal cradle up some unlucky fellows. Ed Ruth is making his presence known in the ILLINI room. 

Nobody wants to look stupid, but I have to admit to it when I have a blind spot. During the Rachal match, We was riding with both legs in, then he pulled out one leg, giving himself room to insert an arm and wrap up a cradle. I've never seen that before! Is that just because I have a blind spot? Or, am I stupid? Have I been missing those my entire life? 

WHAT LUCAS BYRD SAID IN HIS POST-MATCH INTERVIEW

You could see that Lucas Byrd was a team guy the way he celebrated with the ILLINI team after the Midlands tournament during his redshirt year. During his post-finals interview at the Matmen Open, Byrd went out of his way to say that the team was filled with great wrestlers, and that the ILLINI will be a really good dual team. I think he's right. 

Also, I think that's what a team guy says. Good show, Lucas! 

On a related topic, it was great to see ILLINI legend Jordan Blanton conducting those post-match interviews for the ILLINOIS Matmen site. He's a really good talker, and you can see this tomorrow when this site releases "ILLINI LEGEND: The Jordan Blanton Story" on youtube. 

THE AUDIO/VISUAL EXPERIENCE

I was harsh on Willie and Izzy and ILLINOISMatmen after the first hour of the broadcast. There were multiple cameras not working for me, or that would start at the beginning and never go live. For a long time, I had two functioning cameras. 

I might have sent some rude tweets about that. 

But then, suddenly, everything was working. Brilliantly. All of the cameras were on and focused on the matches, and the TournaFlex software was up and running providing an awesome dashboard. 

The Final session of the ILLINOIS Matmen Open was the best streaming experience in my life. The camera operators were moving their cameras to follow the action, and there were multiple cameras and thus multiple camera angles! The sound quality was top notch. 

As for the TournaFlex dashboard, I've seen criticisms of it on themat.com, and, for sure, the color scheme looks like a McDonald's restaurant in Costa Rica, but, for me, I don't give a **** about that. I care about finding out as quickly as possible what is going on, who is wrestling, and what mats they are wrestling on or will be wrestling on. 

TournaFlex has the best dashboard to get that information quickly. I appreciate that greatly. Their brackets, on the other hand, belong on the wall of a cockfight in Costa Rica. Even Flo's brackets, which I thought were the suckiest and hardest to use brackets in the world--outside of the South American cockfighting industry--are better. And given the hoops you have to jump through at Track, I still like their brackets better. 

Fix those brackets, and you have a perfect system. The perfect experience. 

EDMOND RUTH

During the broadcast of Cardani's Matmen Open Final, Willie and Izzy started talking about Edmond Ruth and how he might be looking to transfer to ILLINOIS. That was news to me! On other boards, it was mentioned that Zac Braunagel was in his corner during the tournament. 

Why not? Zac is a stand-up guy, and he knows wrestling. Moreover, he did a fantastic job coaching the ILLINI Freshmen at the Lindenwood Open, and by fantastic, I mean he altered at least one match in the favor of his wrestler.  

This comes at a crazy time at the weight for the ILLINI. A couple weeks ago, redshirt Freshman 174lber Caden Ernd underwent surgery on his ankle. Both of the starters at 174, Trey Sizemore and DJ Shannon, were injured at the Matmen Open. How severe are their injuries? Will there be some epic battles in the room for that starting spot? 

BROADCASTING SIDENOTE:  If Trey Sizemore isn't the starter or the "or" wrestler against Iowa, I hope he gets a chance to broadcast the dual on BTN. I know that for a dual of this magnitude, they usually bring in the big guns, but I think Trey could offer some great sideline reporting. Show him the ropes, Shane Sparks! 

Back to Edmond Ruth: For those living in Costa Rica, Edmond is the brother of ILLINI Assistant Coach Ed Ruth, a former three-time NCAA Champion, World-team member and MMA fighter. The move makes a lot of sense in that respect. 

According to a report from Penn Live (behind a paywall), Edmond Ruth is looking to enroll immediately, begin training with the ILLINI and be ready to wrestle this second semester. There has even been an announcement on Instagram:

The two-time PA Champ and three-time finalist will add to a stacked room at the weight. Ruth was a not-to-shabby105-1 over his last three years in high school. He finished on the podium as well as a high school Freshman. This year, he's already won two Opens, the Clarion Open at 184 lbs, and the ILLINOIS Matmen Open at 174.

Note that the guy who won the Southern Scuffle at 184 finished fourth or fifth at the Clarion Open.  

JUSTIN CARDANI

"Cardini," as he's sometimes called, is 9-2 on the year with a championship at the Matmen Open and a third-place finish at the MSU Open. He's lost to Joey Prata of Oklahoma and Fabian Gutierrez of Chattanooga. Yet, he beat the higher-ranked Ryan Miller of Penn in the Matmen Open finals. Based on his post-match interview, Justin is gaining confidence in his finishes. 

That is key for Justin Cardani. 

Right now, the ILLINI looks to be a lock for the NCAA tournament. He still has to run the Big Ten dual season gauntlet and then the BTT, though. He's likely to see the following dual opponents: Dylan Shawver of Rutgers, Drake Ayala of Iowa, Devin Schroder of Purdue, Matt Vinci of Northwestern (or will it be DeAugustino?), Patrick McKee of Minnesota, Jacob Moran of Indiana, Eric Barnett of Wisconsin and Jeremiah Reno of Nebraska. He won't be a favorite in some of those matches, but he can will all of them.

LUCAS BYRD

The ILLINI 133lber is at 10-1 on the season with the lone loss to Alex Madrigal of Oklahoma. The returning All American has three marque wins on the season already, having beaten Micky Phillipi, Drew Mattin and Dylan Ragusin. 

He will look to build on this great start and work on his seed during a tough dual season against top ten Sammy Alvarez of Rutgers, #2 Austin DeSanto of Iowa, Matt Ramos of Purdue, returning AA Chris Cannon of Northwestern, surprising Aaron Nagao of Minnesota, Brock Hudkins of Indiana (Lucas doesn't even get a break against Indiana. Not fair!), Kyle Burwick of Wisconsin and Alex Thomsen of Nebraska.

WE RACHAL/MIKEY CARR/DYLAN DUNCAN/DANNY PUCINO

I still don't know who'll man this spot during the Big Ten dual season. We Rachal has been the starter of late, and he finished on the podium at the Matmen Open. Rachal has been on the cusp of something lately, having just beaten an NCAA qualifier convincingly, and before that, losing close matches to NCAA qualifiers like Saul Ervin, Dylan D'Emilio and Parker Filius. His record on the season is 8-8. Of course, both Carr and Duncan sport 0-0 records. 

There will be no easy matches during the dual season at this weight. In fact, the going starts out very hard with Sebastian Rivera of Rutgers, Jaydin Eierman of Iowa, Parker Filius of Purdue, Frankie Tal-Shahar of Northwestern, Jake Bergeland of Minnesota, Cayden Rooks of Indiana (the worst wrestler is still Top 50), Joseph Zargo of Wisconsin and good old Chad Red of Nebraska.

CHRISTIAN KANZLER/DYLAN DUCAN/MIKEY CARR/DANNY PUCINO

Now with Kanzler also injured, this spot in the lineup is especially hard to figure out. Of course, there's also the uninjured Danny Pucino, who has a 5-2 record at 141. He wrestled up a weight in the dual against Nebraska last year, so this would not be completely new to him. Kanzler is at 9-4 this season with a podium finish at the Matmen Open. 

With the new semester, we could see Duncan and Carr starting to stretch their legs, or as Izzy Martinez said, "get off the couch." It would certainly be something if they started off their season with Sebastian Rivera and Jaydin Eierman at 141 or at 149, Mike Van Brill of Rutgers, Max Murin of Iowa, Trey Kruse of Purdue (at a softer #141 on wrestlestat.com), Yahya Thomas of Stupid Northwestern, Michael Blockhus of Minnesota, Graham Rooks of Indiana, Austin Gomez of Wisconsin and Ridge Lovett of Nebraska. 

JOE ROBERTS/JAKE REICIN

The ILLINI at 157 is Joe Roberts, and he was one of the casualties at the Matmen Open. Will he be recovered in time to take on his first dual opponent in ten days? Roberts has a 9-7 record this season with some nice wins and some close losses. If he can't go, Jake Reicin has seen action at this weight for the ILLINI. 

The Big Ten schedule for the starter at this weight will be ridiculously hard with only one easy match. It starts out with a pick-em against Robert Kanniard of Rutgers, then goes hard for four matches with Kaleb Young of Iowa, Kendall Coleman of Purdue, Ryan Deakin of Northwestern and Brayton Lee of Minnesota. The ILLINI will get a breather against #138 Kasper McIntosh of Indiana before closing out the dual season against Garrett Model of Wisconsin, another winnable match, and finally, #5 Peyton Robb of Nebraska.

To secure a place in the NCAA tournament, Roberts or Reicin will need a lot of upsets during the dual season or in the Big Ten Tournament. 

TO BE CONTINUED ...