Preview of ILLINI/Stupid Hoosier Dual

WHAT:  ILLINI/Indiana Dual

WHEN: Sunday, February 6, at 1pm (Central)

WHERE:  Assembly Hall (State Farm Center)

TV/STREAMING:  BTN+

LAST YEAR'S DUAL

The dual last season was a bit of a massacre. Justin Cardani had a big upset of #8 Brock Hudkins. The ILLINI had seven wrestlers earn bonus points, including two pins, a tech fall and four majors. The Orange and Blue walked out of Bloomington, Indiana as the 39-3 winners. Here's the box score:

HWT: Luke Huffman (ILL) def. Jacob Bullock (IU) 11-3 major decision (IU 0, ILL 4)

125: #22 Justin Cardani (ILL) def. #8 Brock Hudkins (IU) 3-1 decision (IU 0, ILL 7)

133: Lucas Byrd (ILL) def. Cayden Rooks (IU) 14-5 major decision (IU 0, ILL 11)

141: #13 Dylan Duncan (ILL) fall Paul Konrath (IU) 6:18 (IU 0, ILL 17)  

149: #7 Mike Carr (ILL) def. Luke Baughman (IU) major decision 16-5 (IU, ILL 21)

157: Johnny Mologousis (ILL) def. Jonathan Kervin (IU) major decision 10-0 (IU 0, ILL 25)

165: #11 Danny Braunagel (ILL) def. #24 Nick South (IU) technical fall 19-4, 6:48 (IU 0, ILL 30)

174: #25 Donnell Washington (IU) def.  Trey Sizemore (ILL) 6-3 decision (IU 3, ILL 30)

184: #10 Zac Braunagel (ILL) fall Drayton Harris (IU) 6:02 (IU 3, ILL 36)

197: Matt Wroblewski (ILL) def. Nick Willham (IU) 5-4 decision (IU 3, ILL 39)

INTERESTING MATCHUPS

133: LUCAS BYRD (14-1) vs. BROCK HUDKINS (9-0).  On the Intermat rankings, the ILLINI is at #6, while the Hoosier checks in at #10. You can see above that he wrestled at 125 last year. Cardani beat him in the dual with a last-second third-period takedown. 

That was one of only two matches that Hudkins wrestled last year. He had been injured before that match, and he was injured and out for the season one match after the ILLINOIS dual. 

This year, Hudkins has a perfect record and has a couple of big time wins. He beat #9 Rayvon Foley of Michigan State 5-3 and #33 Matt Ramos of Purdue 7-1. 

Hudkins seemed to be too big for 125 last year. I expect he'll be a very strong 133, a kind of Chris Cannon without the slickness. Wrestlestat.com is projecting a 9-4 win for Byrd. 

141: DYLAN DUNCAN (1-0) vs. CADEN ROOKS (12-5).  I don't expect this match to present too many problems for Dylan Duncan, but the Rooks brothers are pretty good wrestlers, and Caden was a national qualifier and now a three-year starter. 

His one big win this season was over another national qualifier, Saul Ervin of SIUE by the score of 3-2. In his last match, Rooks gave up a major decision to Purdue's Parker Filius. I expect the same or better from the ILLINI. Wrestlestat.com predicts a 9-4 win for the good guy. 

184:  ZAC BRAUNAGEL (8-4) vs. DONNELL WASHINGTON (12-3).  It was Trey Sizemore who drew the short straw in last year's dual and had to face the Hoosier's best wrestler in Washington. The ILLINI lost 3-6. 

Donnell Washington has moved up in weight this year--perhaps to help him with gassing issues--and was a national qualifier last season. 

Both of these grapplers have beaten Purdue's Max Lyon this year. Washington did have another good win over Michigan State's Layne Malczewski by the score of 8-5. Intermat has the Hoosier ranked #14; Big Brawny is at #18. Wrestlestat.com sees this as a one-point match in the ILLINI's favor.   

Washington likes to start fast and finish slow. The Brawlnagel is go-go at all times, and that will hopefully present problems for the Hoosier, especially in the third period.

CONCLUSION

The other matches will be interesting as well, of course, but those three above are the ones that look to be the most interesting. In fact, wrestlestat.com's algorithm picks the ILLINI to win 21-9, but finds three wins for IU at 149, 157 and 174. I doubt that'll happen, but Rooks versus Kanzler at 149 will be another nice match.