Is he really getting the benefit of a three seed by not wrestling anyone? Didn't wrestle Haines, blockhus, Franek, or Robb and we hand him the 3 seed? Come on.
Brayton Lee
- Thread starter relishingwinning18
- Start date
Man.. you're not wrong. But at the same time. He didn't have 3 of the 4 on his schedule! Even with a loss to Haines, he's probably still the 2 or 3.
This has to be the easiest Big Ten schedule for a possible AA ever.
If Franek would have beat Lewan, he would be the three. Not Lee’s fault.
Most understand how it works, just saying Lee not wrestling the top 4 wrestlers in the conference and basing a seed off of it, is ridiculous. Duck away everyone.
He didn't duck. 3 of the 4 weren't on his schedule.
This, he just had a very, very favorable schedule this year. Sucks because no way he wins more than 2 of those 4 matches and going 2-2 is being generous. Sucks for Franek as Haines is the one guy I don’t think Franek can beat and now he will meet him in the semis instead of the finals, but you get what you earn. If Franek beats Lewan or Blockus he is the 2 or 3.
Agreed. Giving up that late TD with a 2 point lead to Blockhus in Carver was a big mistake.
So what are you going to do, seed them on hypothetical results?
It is what it is under the system. I really DGAF, though. Dude had a horrific injury to end his season last year. Veteran guy deserves benefit of the doubt.
You can only wrestle who is in the schedule, can’t fault him for the rotation the way it was. He may be the 3 but he’s gonna have to wrestle through everyone now anyway.
True. But he skipped duals against Penn St, Michigan St, Northwestern, and Rutgers. So he missed #1 Haines, #20 Saldate, #21 Chumbley and UR Desantis.
How does Desantis even have any eligibilty? Isn't he like 45 or 46?
My sentiments exactly my friend. Where we land in the preseeds is based on our body of work, period. Franek clearly has the goods but failed to get to his offense quite frequently this season. He can't wrestle that way during the NCAAs or he'll be the best 2-2 or R12 guy at this year's NCAAs. We'll see which Haines shows up when they meet at BTNs. Will it be the guy who keeps matches close like he did against Lewan, Saldate and Crosby or will it be the guy who keeps pulling the trigger like he did against Franek? Franek and Caliendo cannot let Haines and Mesenbrink completely dictate the matches the way they did during this year's dual. Neither were close to being prepared and the Penn State fellas handed it to them. I'm sure both were pretty fricking embarrased with the show they put on for the home crowd and I'm hoping they can at least be competitive this time around. Personally, I think Franek can beat Haines. Clearly won't be easy or likely but I think it's possible. As for Caliendo, a close match with Mes would be impressive.
So you prefer that he be rewarded for wrestling a soft schedule?
Basically there are two options:
1. Reward tougher schedules/penalize weaker ones
Or
2. Treat all schedules equally, which essentially rewards weaker scheduling.
Sorry, give me option 1.
I get what you’re saying. Just looking at it like he may have got a better seed but he’s still got to win when it counts. If you’re good enough you’ll win in March.
But in this instance, Franek especially, now has a peak of 3rd instead of 2nd. It does affect seeding moving forward. I understand he had a weaker schedule, but yes, you need to penalize guys for not wrestling others a bit. There has to be a formula.
Exactly!
Braxton Lee missed matches from 12-3-23 to 1-21-24, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for missing Penn States and Rutgers.
When he missed Michigan State (Saladate) and Northwestern (Chumbley), that raises some suspicion as he didn’t miss any other
matches from 1-21 on. Especially Northwestern on 2-18, after he beats Lewan on 2-16 and wrestles Chattanooga on 2-23, and two more matches in the always tough Patriot Last Chance Open on 2-25.
He’s wrestled 8 matches which gave him the criteria for a coaches ranking (14) and be able to use his winning percentage (100%) to get a pre-allocated spot for the conference. He doesn’t have an RPI.
The only reason he’s seeded above Franek is his win over Lewan. It doesn’t make any sense how the coaches came up with a 3 seed.
How do the coaches come up with a ranking of 14? Of his 8 wins, Heck of Chattanooga is the only guy with a winning percentage over 70%.
He’ll have to win at least 2 matches to qualify. Time will tell.
Outside of this being a bad deal for Franek, I don’t carry any ill-will towards Lee.
He had a season ending injury in 2022. As mentioned, he had a devastating injury in 2023 as well. In ‘23 he was a shell of himself and probably never fully recovered from 2022.
If he happens to AA this year, it would be a helluva an accomplishment.
