ILLINI/Stupid Northwestern Dual Recap (part two)
(cont.)
I'm still trying to get over that Shannon/Fisher match. If DJ would commit wholeheartedly to his exquisitely beautiful takedowns, he would win a lot more matches. He can't commit with only half his body; he needs to commit with his whole body and mind.
ZAC BRAUNAGEL vs. JON HALVORSEN. A little over a minute has gone by and Big Brawny works a 2-on-1 for some magic:
Haha! Gibbons was complaining that there should've been more action from Braunagel--who majored Halvorsen at the BTT last year--right as Brawny scores the two. Halvorsen escapes.
Halvorsen escapes to start the second, but then gives up his second stall warning, backing off the mat. Then, the crowd oohs and aahs at this:
It quickly becomes a takedown fest for Brawny and a stallfest for Halvorsen. We even have our first foot sweep!
It ends 14-8.
NIKITA NEPOMNYASHCHIY vs. ANDREW DAVISON. The Mildcat isn't a very big 197er, but he's much bigger than Nepo. The bad guys get a first-period pinfall. I don't know how you give up a pin off a tilt.
LUUUKE LUFFMAN vs. LUCAS DAVISON. There's a quick start to this one. Luke is not playing around. Look at the clock in the image below:
Luke gets the takedown with a trip. Davison with the quickish escape. Davison up and out in the second. No other scoring. In the third the Mildcat rides out Luke with some help from the ref, who repeatedly starts the count for riding legs but doesn't warn NW. Moreover, the ref tells Davison to improve while riding the legs multiple times in a row. Davison doesn't. What does the ref do? Nothing. Doesn't call stalling on top. Doesn't call a stalemate.
JUSTIN CARDANI vs. MICHAEL DEAUGUSTINO. My goodness these refs ******* suck! Mildcat throws Cardani off the mat, and it is a stalling call against the home team. **** you, ref!
Scoreless in the first period. DeAugustino 0 shots; Cardani 4+ shots; DeAugustino 0 stall warnings; Cardani 1 stall warning.
Stupid Northwestern is down in the second and escapes. Cardani chooses neutral in the third as DeAugustino will ride the legs. The ILLINI has his chances to get the takedown but somehow manages to not get one:
CONCLUSION. The final is 26-13 for the bad guys. Congratulations to Storny for beating the ILLINI in his sixth year as head coach. Give Mike Poeta some time, and that will be a fond memory and then, soon, another long ILLINI win streak against Stupid Northwestern.
Four ILLINI won their matches: Lucas Byrd, Dylan Duncan and the Brawlnagels. The latter were gritty but also technical. Byrd and Duncan were poetry. Amazing technicians, fluid in their movements with total commitment to their holds. DJ Shannon and Luke Luffman gave great effort in their losses. Cardani always gives a better effort than anybody in the world, so it is frustrating to see him lose.
The row to hoe gets even harder next Friday, as the ILLINI get Minnesota.
Great to see Duncan back but this team is dreadful. Other than Byrd (and now Duncan) the lineup is mired in mid tier wrestlers. Cardani couldn't score in a whorehouse with a fist full of fifty's, Luffman, come on man get off the bottom. To bad about Carr. Giving Poeta a pass but we really need to start recruiting over the Braunagels and Cardani and the likes. Just not the progression I was hoping to see in year 3 from these local guys
ReplyDeleteHi Huff! First of all, apologies to everyone for not getting a post up sooner. I really don't have BTN down here, and I avoided Twitter and ILLINOISMatmen to not spoil the result.
ReplyDeleteAlso, apologies to you for not responding to your comment sooner. That one's on me.
I was very disappointed in the result as well. However, there were quite a lot of bright spots, starting with the two All Americans. Also, the two Brawlnagels wrestled very hard and very well. 165 and 184 have been the top two weights in the Big Ten for some time. If uninjured, the Brawnys can be All Americans again.
DJ Shannon is also on the cusp. He was very, very deep in on a beautiful duckunder and just stopped, unsure of himself. I think he could've fallen down and scored the takedown, or run completely around a paralyzed Troy Fisher (for comedic effect) but he just stopped.
He has to use the offense he's got.
I'll never challenge Luffman's effort or commitment. He SERIOUSLY narrowed the gap on Davison. That stall ride from the Stupid Wildcat was allowed by the ref.
The ref continually said "keep working" and "use it" to Davison and gave a number of verbal warnings for leg wrestling, then did nothing about it. That reminded me of parents who say, halfheartedly, "Stop it", or "Quiet down", continuously to their child, but do nothing to stop the bad behavior.
That child is just going to continue to kick the back of my airplane seat and scream in my ear.
Appreciate the write-up Chief.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that I do not share your optimism, although I do hope to be proven wrong. My pessimism (I'd like to think of it as realism) which really began in the latter half of the 2019-2020 season continues to be reinforced as I continue to see very little improvement from wrestlers who showed some promise as freshman. In particular, I am referring to Cardani, Luffman and the Braunagels. Their improvement or lack thereof has not matched that of their competition. Each of their respective weights continue to add talent and none have showed much improvement against the incumbent talent. I was happy to see Danny thump Ferrante after losing the last two matches to him, but Ferrante isn't exactly the kind of wrestler that you should be measuring yourself against. I still love watching both of the Braunagels because of their hard nosed style, but I really don't see them being anything but at best maybe on the periphery of the top 15-20 at their weight classes. I find that to be disappointing based on how they started their careers. Luffman and Cardani on the other hand....I'm to the point where I'm about to start leaving the room when they wrestle. They're ability to finish moves consistently is abysmal and their opponents certainly know it. While they do have the ability to occasionally pick up an early takedown, they just don't have the fight and scoring potential to beat any of the wrestlers they need to beat in this conference.
Obviously, I'm nothing but thrilled with how Byrd has competed this year and fully expect him to finish on the podium again in March. I also loved seeing Duncan get off to the start that he did in a season that will hopefully live up to his strong NCAA tournament in 2021. The other 4 weight classes in this lineup are Terrapin-esque at best. So frustrating that our Illini have missed so badly in recruiting 149, 157, 174 and 197. Of course it's a bummer that Mikey Carr finished his career being injured his final 3 years of eligibility, but the fact that no one could even step in and post close to a .500 record in the Big Ten is a crime.
If we believe in Poeta as a coach, then we have to expect that he is going to get something MORE out of the existing talent. We have to believe/expect that we will start to see improvement. That improvement should be visible by watching not only your regular starters, but also the guys who step in when needed. If we don't see that, than either Poeta is not the coach we hope he is OR the talent in the lineup is just that mediocre. It's too early in his tenure for me to form a solid opinion one way or another. I just know the orange and blue faithful are anxious and starving to support a winning wrestling team. And, we're also tired of seeing a team that is closer to the bottom feeders of the Big Ten than the top 5.
Someone please convince me that it's going to get better. Don't try to convince me that what I'm seeing is better than what it is. Convince me that we've hit a valley that we need to hit before we start to ascend again.
BTW, the above was posted by none other than Nelson*0.5...... Not unknown.
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DeleteRealism sucks, Nelson. Lighten up!
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