The ILLINI in the Big Dance

ILLINI WRESTLING NCAA 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:

Although Danny Braunagel wasn't selected as a wild card, he will remain in the video, as he deserved to be selected. Also, according to the Geneva Convention, it is a war crime to separate identical twins. 

WHAT:  NCAA Wrestling Tournament

WHERE:  Detroit, Michigan

WHEN:  March 17-19, Starts at 11am (See Coverage below)

TV/STREAMING:  ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN3 (See Coverage below)

WHO:  Justin Cardani, Lucas Byrd, Zac Braunagel, Luke Luffman

WHY:  To Kick Ass Nationally

TIME CAPSULE

It was March 19, 2017. 

Ed Sheeran's Shape of You topped the Billboard charts, while Justin Timberlake was at #13 with Can't Stop the Feeling. If you weren't watching the NCAA Wrestling tournament, you might have been tuned into ABC's Time After Time, as Dr. John Stevenson (Jack the Ripper) met his match in an equally cunning doctor named Brooke.

The hot new video game for PlayStation and XBox was Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands. 

And the ILLINI crowned three All Americans in Isaiah Martinez, Zac Brunson and Zane Richards. Emery Parker scored one of the biggest upsets of the tournament beating defending champion Myles Martin in the second round, but, alas, that year, he would lose in the blood round. 

Interestingly enough, Stevan Micic and Michael Kemerer wrestled in that same 2017 NCAA Wrestling Tournament and won third place. 

Myles Amine finished fourth. 

COVERAGE

It appears that ESPN will provide excellent coverage of the tournament, except for those of us who live under an overpass in Myrtle Beach and don't have cable. I will again have to pretend I'm buying a TV at Walmart for three consecutive days: "Tell me about that two-year warranty again, Tom, it sounds dreamy."

The ESPN/ESPNU schedule above, which is posted on NCAA.com sucks for a couple of reasons: First, it didn't provide the time zone. Second, it didn't mention the best part, which is the ESPN3 coverage of all the individual mats:

To keep track of your favorite ILLINI wrestlers, you can find mat assignments on Trackwrestling.com, which, by the way, already has the brackets up. 

JUSTIN CARDANI

The names to consider right off the bat with regard to Justin Cardani are old friend Eric Barnett, Brandon Kaylor and Ryan Miller. This you can tell by looking at Cardani's bracket:

The ILLINI's first match will be against Wisconsin's Eric Barnett. Because of pig tails and the fact that Justin is on the bottom of the bracket, it will be match #22.

Win against #6 Barnett, and the ILLINI will face the winner of the match between #11 Brandon Kaylor (19-4) and #22 Ryan Miller (20-6). Lose to the Badger, and he'll get the Kaylor/Miller loser. 

Justin Cardani is 1-1 against the sixth-seeded Wisconsin kid in college, with both of those matches taking place last year. Justin won 3-1 in the dual, while Barnett returned the favor with a major decision 12-2 victory at that year's B1G tournament. 

In freestyle, Cardani is 1-0 against the stinking Badger. Here's his 14-14 criteria win over Barnett at the 2019 US Open Juniors wrestling championships:

This will be the twenty-second bout of the tournament, and with eight mats going all at once, it could be that Barnett will still be feeling his cut at that time. The dual match that Cardani won took place very early in the morning after weighins. The loss at the BTT took place later in the day, after the Badger had time to rehydrate. 

Barnett, a returning All American, is 18-15 against common opponents, while Justin is 16-23. 

The kid from Champaign has never faced Brandon Kaylor. The Oregon State Beaver is now a two-time NCAA qualifier. At last year's Big Dance he went 0-2, losing by fall and major decision to Brody Teske and Trevor Mastrogiovanni respectively. 

Cardani has faced the freshman Ryan Miller of Penn once. That was in the championship match of the ILLINOIS Matmen Open, beating him 4-3. The ILLINI is 4-3 against the common opponents he's had with Miller, while the Quaker is 3-2.  

LUCAS BYRD

Everybody knows the Lucas Byrd story, but in case you haven't heard that the Byrd is the wyrd, check this out:

As a returning All American, a seventh seed and sporting a sparkling 21-3 record, we're only going to provide the championship side of the bracket here: 

Lucas will face off against #26 Matt Ramos of Purdue in the first round. As you will recall, the ILLINI won on the road at the dual by the score of 5-0. Against common opposition, Byrd is 10-0, while Ramos is 5-4. 

Ramos wrestled for Lockport in high school and won a Cadet World Championship at 51kg. The dual match between the Boilermaker and the ILLINI is the first one on the video below:

A win in that match, and the ILLINI would face either #10 Chris Cannon (16-5) or #23 Anthony Madrigal (OPRF). Everybody is aware of the Byrd-Cannon rivalry that has now reached 3-0 with 8-2, 4-1 and 7-1 decisions favoring the ILLINI. 

In a matchup with Madrigal, Lucas Byrd is 7-3 against common opponents, while the Sooner is 4-6. That would be even worse if not for a slight misstep at the MSU Open when Madrigal won by keeping his distance for seven-plus minutes, capturing a 3-1 sudden victory. 

Win there, and Lucas will strap them on against Daton Fix for a crazy and wonderful and scintillating quarterfinal match in the NCAA tournament. 

TO BE CONTINUED ...