ILLINI GOING TO THE BIG PARTY
GOING TO THE BIG DANCE!
We have ILLINI Wrestlers going to the Big Dance. Five
qualified automatically, and we’ll have to hope for a wild card bid for a
sixth. Here are your ILLINOIS NCAA Championship wrestlers:
LUCAS BYRD
The Wyrd led the ILLINI again with a third-place finish. If
it hadn’t been for the “Gopher Choker”—yes I’m going to start calling Aaron Nagao
the Gopher Choker—it would’ve been even better. Also, interesting to me and
perhaps nobody else, Lucas Byrd finished third, while Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez,
the two seed, finished sixth. This isn’t hindsight is 20/20; no, this is
knowing that Lucas Byrd is a proven commodity, a warrior who has been there, done
that.
We still didn’t get the Byrd-RBY match that the universe demands.
Byrd started out with a pinfall in 4:12 over Jackson
Cockrell of Maryland. He then lost to the referee who allowed the Gopher Choker
to avoid contact for seven minutes while employing his choke ride and using a front
headlock for a cumulative 2:00 during the match.
After that, the ILLINI beat former high school teammate Dustin
Norris from Purdue 7-3, beat Rutgers’ Joe Heilmann by major decision 8-0. Next,
he dealt another loss to Michigan’s Dylan Ragusin, this by the score of 6-1.
Finally, Lucas beat old foe Chris Cannon in SV 3-1 to win third. One loss and
some very high-profile wins will equal a nice seed in the Big One.
Against such outstanding wrestlers as Dylan Ragusin and
Chris Cannon, Lucas Byrd has an eye-popping 9-1 career record. Also, the
unassuming-in-person-Lion-on-the-mat won two matches with bonus for the ILLINI.
DANNY BRAUNAGEL
The Brawlnagel got off to a rocky start with an 0-2 loss to Minnesota’s
Andrew Sparks. In his first match on the consolation side of the bracket, Danny
got a huge pinfall (and revenge win) over a very tough Caleb Fish from Michigan
State. Brawny was still wearing a massive wrap on his hand, but he seemed to be
doing well otherwise.
I believe the pin over the Spartan makes him the pinfall
leader for the team so far this season.
Close one-and-two-point losses to Maxx Mayfield of Northwestern
and Alex Facundo of PSU, respectively, resulted in an 8th-place
finish and automatic qualification. He didn’t need the ninth-place bracket.
EDMOND RUTH
It was a first-round 5-1 win for Ruth against Dominic Solis
of Maryland, followed by another close loss to Bailee O’Reilly of Minnesota by
a 2-4 score. He then ruined Ceasar Garza’s day by beating the Spartan 6-2.
His next match was against the mercurial former AA from
Rutgers, Jackson Turley. Ruth won that in TB 4-3. After close losses to Ethan
Smith of Ohio State in the consolation semi-finals and Nelson Brands in the
fifth-place match, Ruth came away with a 6th-place finish, which, in
tandem with his high RPI and Coaches’ Ranking, should be good enough for a nice
seed for the NCAA tournament. He will be a threat to achieve All American status
this season.
DYLAN CONNELL
Like Ruth, Connell is in his first year (of hopefully many
years) in the starting lineup, and like his teammate, Dylan earned an automatic
bid to the Big Party. He started out his tournament with a really tough SV
(2-4) loss to a real good wrestler in Rutgers’ Brian Soldano. I was watching
his match with Lenny Pinto of Nebraska (and even rewound it a couple of times)
and couldn’t tell how he got injured. In any event, at :57 of a scoreless
match, it seemed Dylan’s head might have come into contact with Pinto’s knee.
I was worried for him.
The ILLINOIS schoolboy four-timer could not continue the
match. Surprisingly, he rebounded the next day to trounce Purdue’s Ben Vanadia
and Northwestern’s Evan Bates to earn his bid in the ninth-place bracket. It was
a bit of a shock to see him wrestle so well after such a devastating injury the
day before. Tough kid!
ZAC BRAUNAGEL
Like his teammate Lucas Byrd, Thicc Zac showed why he is a
threat for an NCAA Championship. He started off his tournament with a bonus
point whooping of Purdue’s Hayden Filipovich. He followed that up with a 6-4 SV
revenge win over Jaxon Smith of Maryland. In the semifinals, he gave Nebraska’s
Silas Allred his best match of the tournament, losing 3-4.
On the backside, the Brawlnagel had a revenge match with Cam
Caffey of MSU. Zac was leading the match and seemed to have everything in
control when Caffey suffered an unfortunate injury. (Watching these two battle
has been as exciting as watching Byrd versus Cannon or Ragusin!). In the
third-place match, it was Smith’s turn to win in SV 5-3.
I have to believe that Zac has earned a high seeding for the
Big One, at least higher than his last Coaches’ Ranking of #12.
THE CASE FOR DANNY PUCINO
The ILLINI had four wrestlers go 0-3 in the BTT. I’m sure Coach
Poeta sees that as unacceptable. Unfortunately, one of them was Danny Pucino,
who would’ve almost certainly received a wild card bid if he had stepped on the
mat and medical forfeited his first match. The case for Pucino to receive an at large
bid includes the fact that he entered the tournament with a 13-7 record, was
the #6 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, and had an RPI of #24 and a Coaches’
Ranking of #24.
As you can see, he was well within the benchmarks.
Moreover, he has a number of significant wins over wrestlers who have earned automatic allocation bids to the tournament. These include wins over Maryland’s Kal Miller (9th at BTT), Northwestern’s Frankie Tal-Shahar (5th at BTT), and Purdue’s Parker Filius (4th at BTT).
He
also beat NIU’s Jaivon Jones, who finished third in the MAC conference and is
in the running for an at-large bid. That head-to-head win over a rival for an
at-large bid could be very important. It was by a solid 4-1 score.
Finally, his losses that make up his 13-9 record against D1
competition were to six wrestlers who are currently top twelve on wrestlestat.com,
and he doesn’t have any bad losses. His two worst losses were to fellows who won
automatic bids to the NCAA tournament (Miller, 9th at BTT; Zargo, 7th
at BTT).
Danny looked healthy at the BTT, so he isn’t a potential
liability—somebody who takes a bid but cannot wrestle or wrestle to his potential
under the NCAA lights. Finally, he is likeable in a genuine way, as well as hard
working, the kind of kid wrestling coaches will want to reward.
The latest RPI and Coaches' Rankings are set to come out today, so we should have a very good idea where Danny stacks up.
MIKEY CARR
The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond has to mention Michael Carr. He came back and created a lot of excitement. I know he was injured at one point of the B1G tournament, and he ended up with a medical forfeit in his last match. It was so good to see him again, though, and here’s hoping that we learn when he becomes that doctor that he will become.
BY THE NUMBERS
Equaled seed 5
Better than seed 1
Below seed 4
The ILLINI were 3-7 in the first round of the tournament. Those
numbers are not optimal. After 1.2 rounds of the BTT, the ILLINI had 8
wrestlers already in the consolation bracket. Of course, only 1 ILLINOIS
wrestler made it to the championship semifinals.
LOOKING FORWARD
I don’t think it takes a homer to say that Lucas Byrd and Zac
Braunagel are national title threats, or that Edmond Ruth is a serious contender
for AA honors. Like his brother, Danny Braunagel was an honorable mention AA during
the Covid year. Dylan Connell, and if he makes it, Danny Pucino, can get great
experience as first-year starters, and, who knows, they have the ability to
upset some very good wrestlers.
They’ve done it before.
There was much to celebrate at the BTT, but one thing that
the ILLINI staff may want to address is size. Mass. Strength. Okay, that’s more
like three things, but they all can be alleviated in one place: The weight
room. Almost to a man, the ILLINI wrestlers were dwarfed by their opponents.
That might make the cut harder, but it will likely make the fruits of one’s
efforts more enjoyable.
ILLINOIS was pretty young this year and will lose only Mikey Carr, Matt
Wroblewski, Jake Reicin and Michael Gunther to graduation. So, maybe they can
grow into their weights? That will certainly help a guy like Jake Harrier, who
wrestled so hard but gave up too much weight.
Next year, the Orange and Blue will get back Luke Luffman,
Justin Cardani and Joe Roberts. This past year’s recruiting class, kids like
Kole Brower, can start challenging for spots in the lineup, and next year’s
true freshmen will be nuts. I can see them taking lots of those don’t-lose-your-redshirt
free spots in dual lineups to help the ILLINI win.
You can look forward to NCAA hype videos
for each of the qualifiers done in the cool Thug Life style. These will be the last videos with the hype Marvel intro. Time to retire it.
SUMMER CAMPS
Finally, my friends, don't forget about ILLINI Summer camps. Learn from all those great coaches and maybe see some ILLINI wrestlers as well!
GO ILLINI!!!
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Photo credit to University of ILLINOIS Athletic Department and Disney Studios/Marvel
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