ILLINI in the Big Dance (Part 2: The Big Fellas)

ILLINI NCAA WRESTLING HYPE VIDEO

First of all, you really need to see this four minutes of fun that is the new ILLINI Wrestling NCAA Hype Video, done ala those Thug Life videos you used to love. Why haven't you watched it yet? Geez. Here you go:

PHOTOSHOP BOO BOOS

We've been much too serious in the NCAA Preview so far--I apologize--so let's lighten things up. I like to do photoshop stuff, but sometimes they don't turn out. When that happens, I just abandon the project. But some of that stuff still makes me laugh because it's so stupid. Here was one mistake I made while working on the Preview of the Boilermaker dual, attempting to turn Purdue Pete into Thanos:

TRANSFER PORTAL NEWS!

A big welcome to four-time Michigan state champion and former Cornhusker Kevon Davenport. He was wrestling at 149 for Nebraska, so I assume he will fight for the vacant spot in the starting lineup left by departing Seniors Christian Kanzler and Mike Carr. Davenport was the #22 overall recruit on the big board his Senior year in high school out of Detroit Catholic Central High School. 

Welcome, Kevon, here's your photoshop!

ZAC BRAUNAGEL

Big Brawny is coming off a fantastic B1G Tournament where he won five matches in a row against five guys who will be in the NCAA Tournament. That feat earned him a third-place medal and a #9 seed in the Big Dance. His next challenge is this bracket:

As you can see, his first match is against Campbell's Caleb Hopkins (17-4). Does that name ring a bell? It should. Zac faced him in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament. That would turn into a 6-7 loss. Zac came back and won his next match that year, but we're talking about this year. He'll want to start out with a win against the kid from Alaska. 

This makes the second time the Camel has qualified for the Big Dance. The Brawlnagel has qualified three times now. They both won one match at the NCAAs last year and lost two. This is what I wrote about this opening round match last year, and every bit of it still pertains to this year:

First Round. The NCAA has decided to change Zac's name to Zach. It joins the NWCA, wrestlestat.com, Intermat and a slew of other organizations in this strange disrespect. This has been an ILLINI tradition like no other, considering how they butchered Emery Parker's name for years, but I digress.

Okay, I was gonna let that go and not get pissed, but, you know, I can't. I'm going to hold onto my anger like a wrestler with a one-point lead and ten seconds to go in the third period holds onto a leg. From now on, I will start referring to the leaders of the NWCA as Tomh Brands and Caelt Sanderson. See how they like it.

Now, onto Zac's first-round match.

I'm sorry, I'm not quite done with that anger thing yet. How do all these organizations spend more than half a decade screwing up the names of ILLINI 184-pounders? What kind of random tradition of quackmuggery is this? Okay, back to the first round.

The Brawlnagel will have to show up all guns blazing for his first-round opponent Caleb Hopkins (14 seed). He's 11-1 on the year and the newly crowned SoCon champion. He's ranked at #12 by InterMat and has beaten #26 Matthew Waddell (11-4) of Chattanooga twice during the year, at the dual and again in the finals of his conference tournament. His only loss is to Virgina Tech's #5 seed Hunter Bolen by a 3-4 decision.

Thing is, Caleb Hopkins must've made a huge leap from the year before, as he finished last season with a 15-12 mark (12-11 against D1). That record included a near-major loss to Nelson Brands (9-15) and a loss by major to Billy Janzer (5-18).

Or, it could be that the SoCon sucks, and Hunter Bolen had a bad day. I don't know. My guess would be to prepare for the worst, though. The guy is a pinner, and he likes to rack up points. Keep in good position and take this fellow down! I couldn't find any folkstyle video of him, but there are freestyle ones that show a long, tall drink of water from Alaska. If he's put muscle on since then he could be cutting some serious weight.

Just like the season before, this season Hopkins has whupped up on SoCon opponents, but as soon as he wrestles somebody from Virginia or North Carolina, he loses. 

The change between last season and this season is that Zac has undergone and healed from his surgery, and instead of going 2-2 at the B1G tournament, he went 5-1 and gained a lot of confidence. 

The Brawlnagel's next match, win or lose, will be against either Michael Battista (15-6) of Virginia or Marcus Coleman (17-4) of Iowa State. Battista is seeded #25, even though he was one of the guys to beat Caleb Hopkins last year. Coleman is seeded #8. 

This will be Coleman's fourth NCAA tournament. He made it to the Round of 16 once at 197 pounds. During his first Big Dance, the Cyclone wrestled at 174. He's had a very good season, beating a lot of quality wrestlers, including Taylor Venz and Max Lyon, as well as Tate Samuelson and Dakota Geer. 

Virginia's Michael Battista is going to his first NCAA tournament though this is his third year starting for the Cavaliers. During his first two years as a starter, Battista's combined record was below .500. 

Here are the records versus common opponents:

• Braunagel 7-3; Hopkins 3-4
• Braunagel 12-7; Battista 7-8
• Braunagel 8-8; Coleman 9-1

Wrestlestat.com is predicting a win by the ILLINI against any of the three wrestlers. Healthy and with some super-confidence, he will be favorites against Hopkins and Battista. Coleman could present some complications. 

LUKE LUFFMAN

Also coming off a very good B1G Tournament is the big guy, Luuuuke Luffman. He beat Trent Hilger for a second time and also a very game Christian Lance. This is his second NCAA Tournament, so he's now a veteran. Just as important, he picked up a win there last year, so he has tasted victory at this high level and will want to reach even higher now. 

Here's his bracket:

The ILLINI's first-round opponent is #19-seed Luke Surber (13-8) of Oklahoma State. He was a 197lber last year while wrestling opens as a redshirt. As a heavyweight, he's had some nice wins, including splitting matches with Missouri's #16-seed Zach Elam and beating Iowa State's #24 seed Sam Schuyler. He has also lost to Wrestlestat-ranked wrestlers at #58 and #40. 

I'm afraid that I was completely unfamiliar with this fellow, so I had to look him up on youtube. Here he is losing to that #58 wrestler I was telling you about, a kid from Northern Iowa named Tyrell Gordon:

This is a nice piece of video to have, as it shows two of the opponents that Luke might see in his first two matches. Luke will wrestle Surber in the first round, for sure, and if the ILLINI loses and Gordon loses his pigtail match, the two could meet up. 

The OSU Cowboy will be very quick, so Luffman will need to keep good position. He'll also need to roast this guy when he's on top, and get away quick from the bottom. 

A win over Surber, and Luke would have old nemesis Tony Cassioppi. A loss, and he would face either Josh Heindselman (14-13) of Oklahoma or one of the pigtail wrestlers, Tyrell Gordon (10-15) of UNI or Matt Cover (10-8) of Princeton. 

Here are the records of the wrestlers against common opponents:

• Luffman 0-6; Surber 1-4
• Luffman 17-24; Cassioppi 31-7
• Luffman 6-0; Cover 1-4
• Luffman 5-11; Heindselman 3-11
• Luffman 0-3; Gordon 0-4

Here's to Luuuuke finally beating Tony "the Vegan" Cassioppi!