Recap of ILLINOIS versus Purdue

Another great night for the ILLINI! 

This was again a total team effort, as the Orange and Blue fought hard in every match even when they were, on paper, over-matched. I was not shocked by anything last night, even the upset of #12 Parker Filius by the ILLINI's #32 Danny Pucino. 

I was pleasantly surprised that he got the pinfall against the B1G veteran. 

Other nice surprises included Maximo Renteria sticking to a shifty Matt Ramos (Lockport), although it was a loss, Jake Harrier with a major in his first B1G dual win at 149, Anthony Federico keeping the #3 wrestler in the country at 157 to a comfortable regular decision. 

Here is a highlight video, which is rather long because of the abundance of highlights:

A couple of things were on the verge of shocking, and the first was Lucas Byrd savagely manhandling his old high school teammate Dustin Norris for a pretty brutal major decision. But, then again, when Lucas enters the squared circle, he's all business. It is evolution on a micro scale. 

The second mild shocker was Edmond Ruth giving up a first period takedown basically off the whistle. It would've been a real shock if his opponent, Cooper Noehre had converted on his second shot, which he almost did. The ILLINI were caught off guard a couple of times at the whistle, but all-in-all the team was extremely well prepared for their opponents, especially Renteria and Federico. 

Here's the official box score:

FULL RESULTS

Weight	Matchup	Score
125:	#8 Matt Ramos dec. Maximo Renteria, 3-2	ILL 0 | PUR 3
133:	#10 Lucas Byrd major dec. Dustin Norris, 13-4	ILL 4 | PUR 3
141:	#32 Danny Pucino pins #12 Parker Filius, 3:35	ILL 10 | PUR 3
149:	Jake Harrier major dec. Jaden Reynolds, 10-2	ILL 14 | PUR 3
157:	#3 Kendall Coleman dec. Anthony Federico, 8-2	ILL 14 | PUR 6
165:	#11 Danny Braunagel pins Stoney Buell, 4:02	ILL 20 | PUR 6
174:	#10 Edmond Ruth major dec. Cooper Noehre, 12-4	ILL 24 | PUR 6
184:	#29 Dylan Connell dec. Ben Vanadia, 9-2	ILL 27 | PUR 6
187:	#12 Zac Braunagel major dec. Hayden Filipovich, 19-6	ILL 31 | PUR 6
HWT:	Hayden Copass dec. Matt Wroblewski, 1-0	ILL 31 | PUR 9

You can see the article at FightingILLINI.com here. I did want to quote one important statistic noted by our administrative friends: "In addition to the two pins, the Illini were tough on top up and down the lineup tonight, tallying 12 minutes, 26 seconds of combined ride time across the five victories that didn't end in a fall. 174-pounder Dylan Connell led the team with 3:44 of ride time, besting Zac Braunagel's 3:23 at 184 pounds."

That is really good stuff. That wins matches. 

THE CALL

We had Jake Reicin and Caden Ernd on the call, and they made a great job of it. Reicin got excited about the Pucino pin, "DANNY PUCINO PINS PARKER FILIUS! And there’s the flex for the crowd." While Ernd gave credit where it was due, "Valiant fight from Federico." 

SOME MENTAL NOTES

A couple of the mental notes I took during the dual included these: Don't try to ride Lucas Byrd. You may as well send him two points by PayPal. Jake Harrier had two special takedowns with the Fireman's to a dump, and off his three-quarter nelson. Danny, Edmond and WroboCop need to be ready off the whistle because you can bet other coaches are going to watch this tape. 

My final mental note--which shows I have the capacity for memory of a squid or a crow--was that Dylan Connell's opponents might want to think again before trying to ride him. Same as Byrd. That switch of his works more often than not. 

CAMERA PLACEMENT

One nitpick for BTN on an otherwise flawless production. Please point your cameras at the crowd and not over them. The tape began rolling with a shot of a good-sized crowd, then it panned over them to the mat and stayed there. There was no crowd on the other side of that mat. 

I could hear kids having a jolly old time at the dual, but danged if I couldn't see any of them. On another note, I understand the pre-match kid's dual was shown on Rokfin, and that's some excellent cross-promotion from the staff. Smart stuff that. 

Finally, what I've been seeing is belief growing among the wrestlers as the season has ticked by. That belief culminated in what was basically a team flex for the crowd tonight. WELL DONE!