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Fix vs Lizak

minnhawkeye

HR All-American
Oct 20, 2006
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Anyone surprised how this match played out? As for me no.
Only thing that surprised me was how Fix got away in 3rd period and with the
reversal..Fix is fast,quick and strong on his feet. He is going to maker a lot of 133# studs move
up to 141 in future years.
 
I was not surprised Fix won. Lizak was just a little off on his backpack move, so it wouldn't have surprised me if he would have gotten some back points in this match or might in a future match. But even if he got the 2 or 4, it would have been closer but I think Fix still wins.
Lizak is going to need backs and a significant riding time advantage to be able to have a chance.
 
Anyone surprised how this match played out? As for me no.
Only thing that surprised me was how Fix got away in 3rd period and with the
reversal..Fix is fast,quick and strong on his feet. He is going to maker a lot of 133# studs move
up to 141 in future years.

I will be stunned if Lizak places top 6 at nationals. 133 is a crowded field this year and he has some glaring weaknesses.
 
Lizak was gassed by the third. That being said, he was very close to getting backs! Everyone knows his game is on top and if he can't pull it off(ride/score points) he is going to have trouble beating the high ranking Wrestlers.
 
Everyone knows the key to beating Lizak. He's only got one bullet in his arsenal. Beat him at neutral and ride him hard.

His legacy will be the Xanax involvement and how he helped end J Robinson's coaching career.
 
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Anyone surprised how this match played out? As for me no.
Only thing that surprised me was how Fix got away in 3rd period and with the
reversal..Fix is fast,quick and strong on his feet. He is going to maker a lot of 133# studs move
up to 141 in future years.
If nothing else, Lizak now knows that choosing top against Fix is no gimme. Although Lizak seems to find another gear in March, he's gonna have his hands full at that weight this year.
 
Everyone knows the key to beating Lizak. He's only got one bullet in his arsenal. Beat him at neutral and ride him hard.

His legacy will be the Xanax involvement and how he helped end J Robinson's coaching career.
You will always be MN's Bitch.
 
The only time Lizak impressed me was his match against Gilman 2 yrs ago, and he got pinned in that match, so not all that impressive overall.

His finals run was aided by Suriano getting the #1 seed and never wrestling, throwing the brackets out of whack. No way he ever beats Fix.

I would also like to point out that in their first meeting, Lee tech'd Lizak, much more impressive result than what fix walked away with and a much more dominant performance. But I'm a homer so I have to throw that in there.
 
Everyone knows the key to beating Lizak. He's only got one bullet in his arsenal. Beat him at neutral and ride him hard.

His legacy will be the Xanax involvement and how he helped end J Robinson's coaching career.


That’s a sad sad thing to say. I am a volunteer coach and Ethan is my go to example of what guys with his body type are capable of with a solid leg ride. There are a couple of scrawny tall kids on my team who think Ethan is much more.

He is a student athlete. Don’t be a dick.
 
The only time Lizak impressed me was his match against Gilman 2 yrs ago, and he got pinned in that match, so not all that impressive overall.

His finals run was aided by Suriano getting the #1 seed and never wrestling, throwing the brackets out of whack. No way he ever beats Fix.

I would also like to point out that in their first meeting, Lee tech'd Lizak, much more impressive result than what fix walked away with and a much more dominant performance. But I'm a homer so I have to throw that in there.
You should watch his 3/4 match with NATO last year, or his win over defending champ Cruz.
 
That’s a sad sad thing to say. I am a volunteer coach and Ethan is my go to example of what guys with his body type are capable of with a solid leg ride. There are a couple of scrawny tall kids on my team who think Ethan is much more.

He is a student athlete. Don’t be a dick.
Lizak wasn't some naive kid when he and Thorn and others got involved in the drug scandal a few years ago. Stop making excuses for athletes just because they entertain you with their talents.

Regarding his leg ride...he's a one dimensional wrestler. It's that simple. Good coaches will have their kids ready for that style. He will be VERY lucky to AA.
 
Everyone knows the key to beating Lizak. He's only got one bullet in his arsenal. Beat him at neutral and ride him hard.

His legacy will be the Xanax involvement and how he helped end J Robinson's coaching career.
I see Lizak placing top five. He is one of the two best mat wrestlers at 33! Likely one of the best ( top five all weights) mat wrestlers in the country, not including Spencer Lee. Lee is the best and on another level.
 
Lizak was gassed by the third. That being said, he was very close to getting backs! Everyone knows his game is on top and if he can't pull it off(ride/score points) he is going to have trouble beating the high ranking Wrestlers.

Why he deferred his choice in the 2nd period is beyond me. I put that on Eggum. Poor scouting/coaching.
 
I see Lizak placing top five. He is one of the two best mat wrestlers at 33! Likely one of the best ( top five all weights) mat wrestlers in the country, not including Spencer Lee. Lee is the best and on another level.

If brackets play out, which two is he going to bump? I think he can absolutely finish top 5, however, I think he is going to need the bracket to get blown up by an upset or two for it to happen. All of thee guys are better on their feet and pretty tough to ride.

1 SR Seth Gross
2 JR Nick Suriano
3 JR Stevan Micic
4 SO Tariq Wilson
5 JR Luke Pletcher
6 FR Daton Fix
 
Lizak wasn't some naive kid when he and Thorn and others got involved in the drug scandal a few years ago. Stop making excuses for athletes just because they entertain you with their talents.

Regarding his leg ride...he's a one dimensional wrestler. It's that simple. Good coaches will have their kids ready for that style. He will be VERY lucky to AA.
Last year the good coaches like Pat Santoro, Sean Bormet, and John Smith must have missed the memo.
 
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If brackets play out, which two is he going to bump? I think he can absolutely finish top 5, however, I think he is going to need the bracket to get blown up by an upset or two for it to happen. All of thee guys are better on their feet and pretty tough to ride.

1 SR Seth Gross
2 JR Nick Suriano
3 JR Stevan Micic
4 SO Tariq Wilson
5 JR Luke Pletcher
6 FR Daton Fix
I don’t think Lizak is top 5 this year. My picks are
1- Suriano
2- Micic
3- Wilson
4- Fix
5- Pletcher
That’s what got but I could easily swap Fix and Micic I think Suriano gets his title and again reinforces how good Spencer really is. I think Wilson Micic and Suriano can go with Fix this year. DeSanto could be right in the mix for 3-6 if he really has a great tournament with little let down.
Yes I have Gross with a down season at the end call it a hunch.
 
If brackets play out, which two is he going to bump? I think he can absolutely finish top 5, however, I think he is going to need the bracket to get blown up by an upset or two for it to happen. All of thee guys are better on their feet and pretty tough to ride.

1 SR Seth Gross
2 JR Nick Suriano
3 JR Stevan Micic
4 SO Tariq Wilson
5 JR Luke Pletcher
6 FR Daton Fix

Isn’t Fix certified for 125? That would bump him up one.
 
You should watch his 3/4 match with NATO last year, or his win over defending champ Cruz.
Last year vs NATO? Maybe I missed it, but I did see him get beat by NATO last year 18 to 3 in their dual and 10 to 6 in the Big Tens.

As for Cruz, in his title run he was a defensive machine. He shut down Gilman and finally made a counter and capitalized on Gilman's mistake to win. I don't consider any close score against him a result to judge, even when he won his title, because I haven't seen him wrestle enough to know if he has any offense or not. He certainly does not stack up against the top 4 or 5 guys at 133 this year, based on skill, from what I've seen.

I'm not knocking Lizak, he's a D1 starter and put up solid results, just don't believe he is or ever has been a top tier guy. He's been extremely lucky from time to time, but if all you have is a ride, that's just not enough to stay with the top guys. I stand by the fact that I have not been impressed with his results at any point except his ride on Gilman that turned in to a fall.
 
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Last year the good coaches like Pat Santoro, Sean Bormet, and John Smith must have missed the memo.
You're completely missing the point. He overpowered guys at 125. That's not happening at 133.

I'll be more than willing to admit if I was wrong in March, but I still think he'll be lucky to AA this year.
 
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I don’t think Lizak is top 5 this year. My picks are
1- Suriano
2- Micic
3- Wilson
4- Fix
5- Pletcher
That’s what got but I could easily swap Fix and Micic I think Suriano gets his title and again reinforces how good Spencer really is. I think Wilson Micic and Suriano can go with Fix this year. DeSanto could be right in the mix for 3-6 if he really has a great tournament with little let down.
Yes I have Gross with a down season at the end call it a hunch.
I’ll go:
1. Micic
2. Fix
3. Suriano
4. Gross
5. Lizak

Damn tough weight. Getting 5/6 is like wrestling in the 125 finals.
 
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You're completely missing the point. He overpowered guys at 125. That's not happening at 133.

I'll be more than willing to admit if I was wrong in March, but I sttil think he'll be lucky to AA this year.
If that is the point, why did you bring up the coaches? I didn’t start that idea.
 
Is a DeSanto Lizak match in the schedule before B10’s? I’m thinking that one sways to IA’s favor.
I haven't seen enough of DeSanto yet, but hopefully he is working on his bottom game. I think Austin has more offense, but I can see Lizak riding him for an entire period. Not sure if that will be enough to win it, but we'll see when they wrestling at Minny on January 13th.
 
The only time Lizak impressed me was his match against Gilman 2 yrs ago, and he got pinned in that match, so not all that impressive overall.

His finals run was aided by Suriano getting the #1 seed and never wrestling, throwing the brackets out of whack. No way he ever beats Fix.

I would also like to point out that in their first meeting, Lee tech'd Lizak, much more impressive result than what fix walked away with and a much more dominant performance. But I'm a homer so I have to throw that in there.
Gilman was 1 seed. Suriano was 3 and on Lizaks half, so it did help him to finals.
 
Everyone knows the key to beating Lizak. He's only got one bullet in his arsenal. Beat him at neutral and ride him hard.

His legacy will be the Xanax involvement and how he helped end J Robinson's coaching career.

That’s stupid as hell. No it won’t. Nobody is even thinking about that except maybe you. OMG, the Xanax controversy of 2016/17 and nobody is even thinking about J Rob.

They’ll remember him as riding SOB that didn’t have the total package and getting gassed from bottom from Gilman.
 
That’s stupid as hell. No it won’t. Nobody is even thinking about that except maybe you. OMG, the Xanax controversy of 2016/17 and nobody is even thinking about J Rob.

They’ll remember him as riding SOB that didn’t have the total package and getting gassed from bottom from Gilman.
If the Gophers continue to be a middle of the pack program... I will guarantee you that Minnesota fans will forever remember the Xanax scandal. The demise of Robinson has led to their present situation.

Eggum hasn't shown himself to be up to the challenges of being a HC. Thorn/Bass/Lizak were apparently the ringleaders of the drug dealings. Lizak and Thorn were starters and were given "slaps on the wrist". Bass was sent packing.
 
I guess I saw the match a bit closer than some.
With fix up 2-1 early, I thought Lizak had fix dead to rights for a td but Fix did an amazing job scrambling out. Most anyone else, that’s a TD and plenty of time for a fresh Lizak to do his thing on top.
Lizak obviously has gas tank issues right now but if he takes fix down early with plenty of fuel in the tank, that could lead to a pretty big lead via turns.
I know fix reversed him but that was in the third period.
Fix is better but still wouldnt surprise me if Lizak took him out in March when his conditioning is peaked.
 
Nice narrative Mitch, but you have a major fact wrong: Jack Bass was gone from the team before this went down. It is implied in documents that he was the one shipping pills from Virginia.

As for why the Gophers are in the position they have been the past few years, one could argue it is partly because J Rob hung around too long.
 
I guess I saw the match a bit closer than some.
With fix up 2-1 early, I thought Lizak had fix dead to rights for a td but Fix did an amazing job scrambling out. Most anyone else, that’s a TD and plenty of time for a fresh Lizak to do his thing on top.
Lizak obviously has gas tank issues right now but if he takes fix down early with plenty of fuel in the tank, that could lead to a pretty big lead via turns.
I know fix reversed him but that was in the third period.
Fix is better but still wouldnt surprise me if Lizak took him out in March when his conditioning is peaked.

Lots of "ifs" and "buts" in there...
 
When Lizak went 33, I thought his riding would be minimized since he no longer had the size advantage, but I also thought his gas tank would be much improved. Lizak is a gamer in March, but I wouldn't bet on him to AA unless I was getting some pretty good odds.

I think Lizak will gas HARD when he wrestles DeSanto.
 
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Nice narrative Mitch, but you have a major fact wrong: Jack Bass was gone from the team before this went down. It is implied in documents that he was the one shipping pills from Virginia.

As for why the Gophers are in the position they have been the past few years, one could argue it is partly because J Rob hung around too long.
Maybe you mean Bass was gone before the story became public?

Your implication that Minnesota's plunge from relevance began while J was still there may have merit. However... every Gopher fan that has ever posted on this site has stated J was the CEO and Eggum ran the wrestling room. The mere fact that Eggum pleaded ignorance to what happened isn't believable. His appointment to HC likely came because the football team and MBB programs were also having problems and the AD was simply too lazy to conduct a coaching search. Using Early and Stroker as scapegoats also likely helped him land the gig.

Regardless... I would argue BE's results to date won't convince the casual observer that he's the right guy to lead Gopher wrestling.
 
I will be interested to see the growth in Wilson, he had an impressive tourney last spring on pure athleticism.
 
Maybe you mean Bass was gone before the story became public?

Your implication that Minnesota's plunge from relevance began while J was still there may have merit. However... every Gopher fan that has ever posted on this site has stated J was the CEO and Eggum ran the wrestling room. The mere fact that Eggum pleaded ignorance to what happened isn't believable. His appointment to HC likely came because the football team and MBB programs were also having problems and the AD was simply too lazy to conduct a coaching search. Using Early and Stroker as scapegoats also likely helped him land the gig.

Regardless... I would argue BE's results to date won't convince the casual observer that he's the right guy to lead Gopher wrestling.
A lot of what you said seems to be spot on. I wouldn't say Early and Stroker were scapegoats though. They were part of the Xanax scandal and were given the same options as everyone else and they didn't want to follow the rules. I haven't thought Eggum should have got the job from day 1. I also don't think this AD cares enough about wrestling to make the switch in the future.
 
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Mitch back on his soap box.

Eggum is rebuilding the program from the base up. MN was passed by and we are now playing catch-up. Got the administration to add a director of operations position to the program and also update the lighting system to the arena which greatly increases the atmosphere IMO. He has increased donor funding, which has lead to a full time RTC coach being added. Brought in Zillmer and Nazar to train full time,along with the existing MN alum, both are national team members(Nelson is as well). Brought in the #1 overall recruit and top 3 class that will hopefully lead the charge moving forward. Raised $2.6 million to get a new wrestling facility completed. Now is raising funds to renovate their locker room/lounge. From a head coach CEO standpoint that is a lot to get done in a short amount of time. Now hopefully this infrastructure built by Eggum and co. will lead to more on the mat success as we move forward and he will be given time to show this.
 
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