THE ILLINI WRESTLING BLOG AND FORUM

In this post, we take a deep dive into the characteristics of Zane Richards' major challengers at the World Championships. This is our  Moneyball  look at his opponents. What stances and ties do they favor? What kind of shots do they take? What kind of shots do they convert?  CAVEATS There are a couple of caveats about this project. Most importantly, we looked at only a few matches and only quality opponents. What these elite wrestlers do against an opponent from Guatemala or Spain or Colombia isn't important for this analysis because the elite will wrestle differently against those popsicles. Secondly, for the actual Moneyball look, we're only going to review the top three challengers to Zane, and then only four of each of their matches. That's because we don't know Zane's bracket yet. It is possible that the IRTC athlete could be on a side of the bracket with all three of his top challengers, and it is possible that he can be on a side with none of them.  Fin...

ILLINI Wrestling dropped their nonconference schedule. Fewer tournaments, more duals. This is what it looks like: It is apparent that Coach Poeta has decided to change things up with regard to nonconference tournaments. There's only the Midlands on the schedule compared to three tournaments last season.  We assume that the young-uns will be sent to Lindenwood or the MSU Open and possibly other tournaments. Gotta keep'em busy! A ranking from toughest to easiest on the schedule of nonconference duals would look something like this: Missouri >>> Pitt >>> North Carolina > Navy > SIUe > Central Michigan. A couple things about this: We thought Navy would be tougher than UNC, but that's not what wrestlestat.com says. Also, Central Michigan has fallen on some hard times. Wow! The battle for ILLINOIS is predicted to be a 29-3 slaughter in favor of the ILLINI over SIUe. Given what the transfer portal did to NIU and Northwestern, this will literally be the b...

  In 1761, the first Banzuke  was created in Japan. It was a list of the Sumo wrestlers, by rank, who would be competing in the next tournament. To add some perspective, George Washington had married Martha two years before this.  In Japan, the sumo federation still publishes their Banzuke before each tournament with an illustrated list of all the wresters by rank. Here's a pretty recent example: Here at The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond, we'll go alphabetically and not by rank. In the spirit of the Banzuke, these are your 2023-2024 Fighting ILLINI Wrestlers: For a larger poster-size image, open in a new tab This is a great time of year! There are the new faces, seeing the veterans back, who transferred in, who has the new beard and all of that. So, let's talk first about the unexpected new faces, followed by the transfers, then the new faces we knew about, the returning starters, and finally, the other veterans.  THE UNEXPECTED NEW FACES A new face that...

Waitress Served Wrestler in a Singlet and Then Saw This on the Check….     We need more of this! As a community of Patriotic American Wrestlers, we need a National Singlet Day, a day during which Singlets are worn proudly, all day, in all walks of life.   If you are a doctor in the operating room or a state legislator on the floor of your state house, wear your singlet! If you are an auto mechanic, a student, a panhandler, a stay-at-home dad or a murderer, wear your singlet!   We want everybody to wear singlets!   Mathematics will tell you that there are approximately 40 billion singlets out there. You have 250,000 high school wrestlers every year, 7,300 NCAA wrestlers, another 5,000 NAIA wrestlers and 5,000 who are post-graduates.   Walmart, Casey’s, classrooms and the doctor’s office; police stations, murder scenes, and in and around food trucks—these are places where you can wear your singlet on November 1, 2023. That’s the first day of the college wrest...

Nothing makes the guys and gals at The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond happier than the wrestling team giving back to their community. This is at least the second year the fellas have helped out with the Tom Jones Challenger League.  To learn more about this non-profit, check out their website here . They want to make sure every child gets a chance to play sports, including baseball. Here was the lineup of ILLINI wrestlers helping out: Then, before the football season opener against Toledo, the guys met up to run four miles with the University of ILLINOIS Athletic Director. Another great showing:

It was always a pleasure to watch this fellow wrestle in the Orange and Blue. One of my top three favorite ILLINI dual wins was Sophomore Mario Gonzalez bumping up to heavyweight to wrestle the Senior Cornell wrestler at National Duals. He won.  And he seemed to take that confidence with him a month later to the Big Ten Tournament where he crushed the field and won a conference championship at 197. Although injuries worked their evil magic on his body after that, Gonzalez was still able to do the impossible when called upon as evidenced in the video. With his own whizzer and an Iowa Hawkeye opponent in the seat belt position, he fought out of it in such a way it looks like the video is running backwards! That was impossible. Fast forward to the present: A couple days ago, eleven years removed from that dual-winning match at Cornell and his Big Ten Championship, Mario Gonzalez wrestled in Warsaw for another prize. To win the Grappling World Championship, Gonzalez had to beat the def...

There are great wrestling tips on Twitter and Instagram. From technique to diet to workouts to mindset. Here's mine: At least once a week do something nonsensical — nothing illegal or immoral or dangerous — just something pathologically silly. I believe (but don't know) that you will live a longer and happier life. "Make a Little Byrdhouse in Your Soul" stars Lucas Byrd and a case of villains, accompanied by the incomparable They Might Be Giants. Full credits on YouTube.