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Iowa Grades 2025 B1G Tournament

MSU158

HB Heisman
Nov 20, 2014
6,033
12,416
113
If your measure is 1st or fail, then yep, they failed. However, I like to actually look at each wrestler and who they lost to before unilaterally saying anything like that…

So, here goes:

125: Cruz is simply too small. In a dual where the weigh ins are so close and the dual starts at 125, a lot of that is negated. In a tournament format he simply gets exposed. 5th seed was incredibly generous and there was no way he was meeting that expectation. Still, I would give him a D for the MSU loss.

133: Ayala wrestled very well until he got into a bad position against simply a stronger wrestler. The match was #1 vs #2 in the country and was the true definition of a toss up match. Would rather the loss b now instead of in 2 weeks. Still, easily making the Finals after moving up a weight earns him B.

141: Schriever actually wrestled tougher than I expected. His losses were at least competitive. C.

149: Parco lost to the 2 best guys in the country at the weight. Sadly, HOW he lost was not the encouraging. Hard for me to grade this because a competitive 4th would have been fine with me. I guess a C, but he definitely didn’t lose to someone he shouldn’t have.

157: Teemer is OBVIOUSLY very far from 100%. Just the time he missed alone is enough to justify the performance, but a hamstring injury followed by an obvious injury is a LOT to overcome to still take 7th. Considering that, the performance alone gets him a B-

165: Caliendo deserves an A and I normally wouldn’t give that for 2nd place. But, the guy wrestled as well as anyone could possibly imagine short of maybe his mom…

174: Kennedy did all that could be expected from the 4 seed he got to the semis and then lost to the 2 seed in the consis. 5th gets in a B

184: Arnold at 5th losing 2 super tight matches wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad either. Ruth is a B1G champ and Smith was a50/50 matchup. Avenging his loss to Alred helped redeem his performance. B-

197: Buchanan deserves a very similar analysis to Ayala. He looked great until the Finals, where he wrestled a very tough matchup. To be honest, I hope he doesn’t see him again at NCAA’s. He keeps super low in neutral and is very good on bottom. Styles make matchup and that style, as skilled as Cardenas is, makes for a match I would rather not see again. Still, Finals gets a B.

285: Kueter deserves apologies from a LOT of people on here. The top 3 guys at this weight are WAY ahead of everyone else, but he showed today that he can be the best of the best of the rest. He did a great job towards quieting the haters. B+

As far as the team goes, I would give them a C+. The only bad overall performance was Cruz and I think I did a pretty good job of explaining why Cruz would struggle mightily at this type of tournament. Overall, the rest of the placements I have no issue with whatsoever. But, how Parco and Ayala lost hurts that a bit.

Feel free to come at me hard if you want, but please use facts instead of feelings. Who lost a true upset match? Cruz was massively overseeded, in my opinion, so please don’t use him as the basis of your argument.

Now, fire away…
 
If your measure is 1st or fail, then yep, they failed. However, I like to actually look at each wrestler and who they lost to before unilaterally saying anything like that…

So, here goes:

125: Cruz is simply too small. In a dual where the weigh ins are so close and the dual starts at 125, a lot of that is negated. In a tournament format he simply gets exposed. 5th seed was incredibly generous and there was no way he was meeting that expectation. Still, I would give him a D for the MSU loss.

133: Ayala wrestled very well until he got into a bad position against simply a stronger wrestler. The match was #1 vs #2 in the country and was the true definition of a toss up match. Would rather the loss b now instead of in 2 weeks. Still, easily making the Finals after moving up a weight earns him B.

141: Schriever actually wrestled tougher than I expected. His losses were at least competitive. C.

149: Parco lost to the 2 best guys in the country at the weight. Sadly, HOW he lost was not the encouraging. Hard for me to grade this because a competitive 4th would have been fine with me. I guess a C, but he definitely didn’t lose to someone he shouldn’t have.

157: Teemer is OBVIOUSLY very far from 100%. Just the time he missed alone is enough to justify the performance, but a hamstring injury followed by an obvious injury is a LOT to overcome to still take 7th. Considering that, the performance alone gets him a B-

165: Caliendo deserves an A and I normally wouldn’t give that for 2nd place. But, the guy wrestled as well as anyone could possibly imagine short of maybe his mom…

174: Kennedy did all that could be expected from the 4 seed he got to the semis and then lost to the 2 seed in the consis. 5th gets in a B

184: Arnold at 5th losing 2 super tight matches wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad either. Ruth is a B1G champ and Smith was a50/50 matchup. Avenging his loss to Alred helped redeem his performance. B-

197: Buchanan deserves a very similar analysis to Ayala. He looked great until the Finals, where he wrestled a very tough matchup. To be honest, I hope he doesn’t see him again at NCAA’s. He keeps super low in neutral and is very good on bottom. Styles make matchup and that style, as skilled as Cardenas is, makes for a match I would rather not see again. Still, Finals gets a B.

285: Kueter deserves apologies from a LOT of people on here. The top 3 guys at this weight are WAY ahead of everyone else, but he showed today that he can be the best of the best of the rest. He did a great job towards quieting the haters. B+

As far as the team goes, I would give them a C+. The only bad overall performance was Cruz and I think I did a pretty good job of explaining why Cruz would struggle mightily at this type of tournament. Overall, the rest of the placements I have no issue with whatsoever. But, how Parco and Ayala lost hurts that a bit.

Feel free to come at me hard if you want, but please use facts instead of feelings. Who lost a true upset match? Cruz was massively overseeded, in my opinion, so please don’t use him as the basis of your argument.

Now, fire away…
If you want to peak at the end of the season then C+ is not the answer. This is by your own account.
 
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Oh, and here are the placements relative to seeds since I now see that is the main basis for those calling me out.

Cruz- -5. Still, like I said above, if you are using him as the basis of your argument, you lose nearly all credibility with me.

Ayala -1. The best he could possibly do is even and making the Finals is in no way a “dud” performance.

Schriever. EVEN. Went 1-2 from 11 seed

Parco -2. Had the misfortune of hitting his worst matchup possible for 3rd…

Teemer -3. Injuries negate that for me.

Caliendo EVEN. Great performance. PERIOD

Kennedy. -1. 5th from 4th is about were he should be seeing the draw.

Arnold -1. 5th from 4th where 3rd was the absolute best possible result.

197 -1. See 133.

285. +4. Great performance.
 
If you want to peak at the end of the season then C+ is not the answer. This is by your own account.
Again, I said right away that it was NOT a good performance. I just made it clear it also wasn’t a dud. A dud is NOT 4 guys missing their seed by 1. 1 guy missing by 2 and the super injured guy missing it by 3, but still placing. Add in that 2 more matched it and 1 exceeded by 4.

As I kept saying the ONLY one that truly faltered was Cruz and anyone that was laying their hopes on him knows little to nothing about wrestling…

But, I get diehard Iowa fans not liking the result. No one should like a C+. But, they still took 3rd in by far the hardest conference there is and even at peak performance Nebraska wrestled so well that Iowa may still not have beat them.

Iowa losing to Nebraska was more about Nebraska wrestling great than Iowa wrestling poorly. I am by no means a Nebraska fan, but they deserve a TON of credit for their performance.
 
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Too long, didn’t read, but the 5 seed for Cruz wasn’t generous. He earned that seed by beating everyone he did, that doesn’t mean he was the 5th best wrestler but he earned the seed.
Fine. My wording doesn’t change the premise. In a tournament format, Cruz was nowhere near the 5th best guy at the weight.

Also, how do you fairly grade and explain the grade and do it any shorter than I did. I actually tried to make it as short as possible…
 
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If your measure is 1st or fail, then yep, they failed. However, I like to actually look at each wrestler and who they lost to before unilaterally saying anything like that…

So, here goes:

125: Cruz is simply too small. In a dual where the weigh ins are so close and the dual starts at 125, a lot of that is negated. In a tournament format he simply gets exposed. 5th seed was incredibly generous and there was no way he was meeting that expectation. Still, I would give him a D for the MSU loss.

133: Ayala wrestled very well until he got into a bad position against simply a stronger wrestler. The match was #1 vs #2 in the country and was the true definition of a toss up match. Would rather the loss b now instead of in 2 weeks. Still, easily making the Finals after moving up a weight earns him B.

141: Schriever actually wrestled tougher than I expected. His losses were at least competitive. C.

149: Parco lost to the 2 best guys in the country at the weight. Sadly, HOW he lost was not the encouraging. Hard for me to grade this because a competitive 4th would have been fine with me. I guess a C, but he definitely didn’t lose to someone he shouldn’t have.

157: Teemer is OBVIOUSLY very far from 100%. Just the time he missed alone is enough to justify the performance, but a hamstring injury followed by an obvious injury is a LOT to overcome to still take 7th. Considering that, the performance alone gets him a B-

165: Caliendo deserves an A and I normally wouldn’t give that for 2nd place. But, the guy wrestled as well as anyone could possibly imagine short of maybe his mom…

174: Kennedy did all that could be expected from the 4 seed he got to the semis and then lost to the 2 seed in the consis. 5th gets in a B

184: Arnold at 5th losing 2 super tight matches wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad either. Ruth is a B1G champ and Smith was a50/50 matchup. Avenging his loss to Alred helped redeem his performance. B-

197: Buchanan deserves a very similar analysis to Ayala. He looked great until the Finals, where he wrestled a very tough matchup. To be honest, I hope he doesn’t see him again at NCAA’s. He keeps super low in neutral and is very good on bottom. Styles make matchup and that style, as skilled as Cardenas is, makes for a match I would rather not see again. Still, Finals gets a B.

285: Kueter deserves apologies from a LOT of people on here. The top 3 guys at this weight are WAY ahead of everyone else, but he showed today that he can be the best of the best of the rest. He did a great job towards quieting the haters. B+

As far as the team goes, I would give them a C+. The only bad overall performance was Cruz and I think I did a pretty good job of explaining why Cruz would struggle mightily at this type of tournament. Overall, the rest of the placements I have no issue with whatsoever. But, how Parco and Ayala lost hurts that a bit.

Feel free to come at me hard if you want, but please use facts instead of feelings. Who lost a true upset match? Cruz was massively overseeded, in my opinion, so please don’t use him as the basis of your argument.

Now, fire away…
I agree with your grades 100%. The fact that only one guy out of ten earned an A in the second most important tournament of the season is why it was a disaster.

Wrestling is tough. You have to bring your A game to B1Gs and NCAAs. We did not.
 
I have kudos to give for 3 people.

1. Caliendo for moving and working his ass off to not get steamrolled by Messenbrinck.

2. Ben Kueter for improving as the season has gone on. He has learned to use his length to become an effective rider., he has gotten in better shape and he has improved moving his feet. If he can add some offensive confidence he can do well.

3. Gabe Arnold getting the win vs Nebby after a couple tough losses. He almost gave it up but managed to hang on. Keep your feet moving Gabe, light on your feet.
 
I agree with your grades 100%. The fact that only one guy out of ten earned an A in the second most important tournament of the season is why it was a disaster.

Wrestling is tough. You have to bring your A game to B1Gs and NCAAs. We did not.
I guess we have different definitions of disaster. Look, I love how diehard you are. You spent enough time in the hardest room in the country to earn your perspective.

Still. A disaster is when guys seeded to make the finals lose a couple matches. All 3 made the finals.

A disaster is guys seeded to place, not placing. The only one that did that was Cruz and I made it very clear where I stand on him.

As I said before, I feel many look at the result poorly more from feelings than facts. Just because it is Iowa, that performance was a “disaster”, but that doesn’t account for the actual guys wrestling the matches for Iowa.

Other than Cruz, NONE of the individual performance were “disasters” relative to ANY realistic expectation metric….
 
I find this team struggling to get even 3rd at nattys. There it's all about bonus and advancement. Not a lot of tilts and almost no pinners in this lineup. After the 1st round Caliendo is the only bonus guy left healthy. We made it tougher for ourselves with too many key losses. Pray for some good draws or this is the low point of the Brands era.
 
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I guess we have different definitions of disaster. Look, I love how diehard you are. You spent enough time in the hardest room in the country to earn your perspective.

Still. A disaster is when guys seeded to make the finals lose a couple matches. All 3 made the finals.

A disaster is guys seeded to place, not placing. The only one that did that was Cruz and I made it very clear where I stand on him.

As I said before, I feel many look at the result poorly more from feelings than facts. Just because it is Iowa, that performance was a “disaster”, but that doesn’t account for the actual guys wrestling the matches for Iowa.

Other than Cruz, NONE of the individual performance were “disasters” relative to ANY realistic expectation metric….
The disaster is that this happens every year.

That’s what you won’t understand. They are stuck in a never ending cycle of underperformance and people like you want us to pretend it’s not happening.

I could have told you exactly what was going to happen this weekend 6 months ago. The same thing is going to happen in 2 weeks. And again next year.
 
I guess we have different definitions of disaster. Look, I love how diehard you are. You spent enough time in the hardest room in the country to earn your perspective.

Still. A disaster is when guys seeded to make the finals lose a couple matches. All 3 made the finals.

A disaster is guys seeded to place, not placing. The only one that did that was Cruz and I made it very clear where I stand on him.

As I said before, I feel many look at the result poorly more from feelings than facts. Just because it is Iowa, that performance was a “disaster”, but that doesn’t account for the actual guys wrestling the matches for Iowa.

Other than Cruz, NONE of the individual performance were “disasters” relative to ANY realistic expectation metric….
I agree with Tarp. When 7/10 wrestlers fail to wrestle to seed, that’s a disaster. When Iowa wrestling is just barely eeking out 3rd place team finish in conference tournament, that’s a disaster. When Nebraska beats us by 20 points or whatever it was, I can’t fathom how far your expectations have to fall before calling that anything other than a disaster for Iowa wrestling.
 
Again, I said right away that it was NOT a good performance. I just made it clear it also wasn’t a dud. A dud is NOT 4 guys missing their seed by 1. 1 guy missing by 2 and the super injured guy missing it by 3, but still placing. Add in that 2 more matched it and 1 exceeded by 4.

As I kept saying the ONLY one that truly faltered was Cruz and anyone that was laying their hopes on him knows little to nothing about wrestling…

But, I get diehard Iowa fans not liking the result. No one should like a C+. But, they still took 3rd in by far the hardest conference there is and even at peak performance Nebraska wrestled so well that Iowa may still not have beat them.

Iowa losing to Nebraska was more about Nebraska wrestling great than Iowa wrestling poorly. I am by no means a Nebraska fan, but they deserve a TON of credit for their performance.
With all due respect, Iowa had 7 guys finish UNDER their seed.
And that's not wrestling poorly???
You are then implying they were overseeded?

I wish you had been my college professor!
 
Not all failed, but enough that they deserve detention, and write "ambition" & "March is not my enemy" 83 times on the white board.

I don't even want to dissect it. In all seriousness
 
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I find this team struggling to get even 3rd at nattys. There it's all about bonus and advancement. Not a lot of tilts and almost no pinners in this lineup. After the 1st round Caliendo is the only bonus guy left healthy. We made it tougher for ourselves with too many key losses. Pray for some good draws or this is the low point of the Brands era.
Agree...and we all know that no changes will be made to the staff.

Bo Bassett commitment and family members following enough to salvage things?
 
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I agree with your grades 100%. The fact that only one guy out of ten earned an A in the second most important tournament of the season is why it was a disaster.

Wrestling is tough. You have to bring your A game to B1Gs and NCAAs. We did not.
I would say Ben deserves an A. Did anyone think he was beating Kerk or Gable had he faced him? He exceeded expectations from the #7 seed and beat everyone available not named Kerk or Gable.
Not sure what more could be asked of him in this tournament.
14 wrestlers, Ben was the youngest wrestler in the bracket.
14 wrestlers, the only 2 he finished beneath are multi time NCAA champions and 1 is an olympic gold medalist.
Pretty fine job young man!
 
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honest question @MSU158 : what would have to happen for you to change your mind?
Again, I didn’t say they had a good tournament. I gave them a C+. You act like I gave them a good grade. But, they were FAR from failing.

As far as “underperformance” goes that is super relative. Who lost by upset? Seriously, who lost a match they truly should not have? To me, THAT is an absolute prerequisite for failure. 1sts taking 2nd wrestling against guys that can easily beat them isn’t underperformance to me. A 2 seed losing to an NCAA Finalist and a 3rd place finisher isn’t underperformance. 4th seeds taking 5th isn’t underperformance to me. Finally, a super injured guy still placing was actually a plus in my book.

I get wanting more. I even said I have zero issue if that was the argument. But, no one lost a match they flat out shouldn’t have expect Cruz and I have said ad nauseam how I feel about him at that tournament…
 
The disaster is that this happens every year.

That’s what you won’t understand. They are stuck in a never ending cycle of underperformance and people like you want us to pretend it’s not happening.

I could have told you exactly what was going to happen this weekend 6 months ago. The same thing is going to happen in 2 weeks. And again next year.
Until something fundamental changes it will be the same. Even your best squad saw Marinelli default, Kem, Eierman, lose to guys they previously beat.
 
I find this team struggling to get even 3rd at nattys. There it's all about bonus and advancement. Not a lot of tilts and almost no pinners in this lineup. After the 1st round Caliendo is the only bonus guy left healthy. We made it tougher for ourselves with too many key losses. Pray for some good draws or this is the low point of the Brands era.
I hope you’re wrong, however I am not convinced you are.

This year we’ve lived with the pre-conceived notion we are in a battle with Okie State for 2nd. The problem is no one did themselves any favors, except for Keuter, for seeding at NCAA’s. Nobody will convince me this doesn’t make a difference. Cory Clark might disagree with my assertion, there are exceptions.

The majority of this team on paper was good enough to not have any serious challengers in the first round and half of them until the quarterfinals. This is why it’s imperative to wrestle at or above seed in this tournament. We’ll need some Cory Clark like performances to get 2nd, that is, wrestle above your seed damn it.
 
Again, I didn’t say they had a good tournament. I gave them a C+. You act like I gave them a good grade. But, they were FAR from failing.

As far as “underperformance” goes that is super relative. Who lost by upset? Seriously, who lost a match they truly should not have? To me, THAT is an absolute prerequisite for failure. 1sts taking 2nd wrestling against guys that can easily beat them isn’t underperformance to me. A 2 seed losing to an NCAA Finalist and a 3rd place finisher isn’t underperformance. 4th seeds taking 5th isn’t underperformance to me. Finally, a super injured guy still placing was actually a plus in my book.

I get wanting more. I even said I have zero issue if that was the argument. But, no one lost a match they flat out shouldn’t have expect Cruz and I have said ad nauseam how I feel about him at that tournament…
Cruz, Ayala, Parco, Teemer, and Arnold all were upset by wrestlers they beat this year.

On top of that, no Iowa wrestlers beat a wrestler seeded higher than them or who they had not beaten already this season except for Gabe and Kueter in their 5th and 3rd place matches.

So, to summarize:

8/10 wrestled below seed

5/10 lost to opponents they'd previously beaten this season

2/10 beat a higher seeded opponent / opponent who had beaten them previously

1/10 out wrestled his seed
 
Cruz, Ayala, Parco, Teemer, and Arnold all were upset by wrestlers they beat this year.

On top of that, no Iowa wrestlers beat a wrestler seeded higher than them or who they had not beaten already this season except for Gabe and Kueter in their 5th and 3rd place matches.

So, to summarize:

8/10 wrestled below seed

5/10 lost to opponents they'd previously beaten this season

2/10 beat a higher seeded opponent / opponent who had beaten them previously

1/10 out wrestled his seed
Lmfao, way to completely ignore context. And you respond to me using the word “disingenuous”.

I will not even entertain the part of the argument that uses Cruz. After that NONE of what you listed qualify as upsets. An upset is losing to someone you SHOULD NOT lose to. That is vastly different than losing to someone you have beaten before in VERY CLOSE fashion.

But, I will disqualify “upset” so that we don’t quibble. Other than Cruz, who lost to a guy they SHOULD NOT have lost to? If you actually list someone, please explain why…
 
Cruz, Ayala, Parco, Teemer, and Arnold all were upset by wrestlers they beat this year.

On top of that, no Iowa wrestlers beat a wrestler seeded higher than them or who they had not beaten already this season except for Gabe and Kueter in their 5th and 3rd place matches.

So, to summarize:

8/10 wrestled below seed

5/10 lost to opponents they'd previously beaten this season

2/10 beat a higher seeded opponent / opponent who had beaten them previously

1/10 out wrestled his seed
No matter how far below expectations (to some of you) some of our fellas were I'm still liking this team. Take out Parco, MC, Teemer and SB and we have a very very bad team by many standards let alone Iowa standards, so I'm grateful for whatever TnT did to bring those boys to Iowa City. I wish we would have done better recruiting so we didn't/don't have to dig that deep, but it was definitely necessary. Also, nothing Ayala, MC, Parco, Teemer or SB did today made me think any less of them. Their competition today was brutal and some of those matches just won't go our way...and Teemer looks like he should be in a physcial rehab center vice on a mat. And big kudos to BK for bringing some badass defense to the mat this weekend. His performance should go a long way in getting him a 7 seed and hopefully on the podium this year!! :)

Finally, SB is my wrestler of the year. I wish we could've enjoyed him in a Hawks singlet for an entire college career. He always stepped up big time, despite the loss today. Close second and third was Mikey Caliendo and Drake Ayala. Despite placing second today, both had a hell of a season and MC really brought the bonus points. I love watching that guy wrestle! I hear some people talk about MC possible going down to 57 so we can fit in PK, Gabe, etc., etc., next year, and to that I say "fu*k no." I want MC to wrestle wherever he feels he can be his best. What a machine!

WRT Tom Brands, I just don't think there's a better college coach out there other than perhaps Cael and DT, and we're not getting one of those guys...so I can't imagine who we would want to replace Tom. Yeah, I've heard Dake and JB, but who knows if they're going to be good coaches. I want Spencer, but I know that's at least a few years down the road, probably after at least one more Olympic run barring injuries. Aside from Tom I'm open to changes. I know Terry's a badass and a great coach but we already have a great coach. Perhaps take over the HWC and actually get us some quality USA wrestlers in Iowa City so we can draw more recruiting talent and make our wrestling club something special. To me it seems like our wrestling club is made up of Iowa guys and maybe a couple outsiders, but I don't see the special non-Iowa guys wanting to come to Iowa City to pursue their international or Olympic dreams. I don't know what Ryan and Bobby do because I'm not in Iowa City, and as impressive as they were in their very stellar college careers (I think 5 AAs between them), I want new blood. If they recruit, well our recruiting is bigtime subpar so they likely won't be missed. And if they work with our guys on the mat; that's been somewhat subpar over the years as well. Like many - not named Gobblin - have said countless times, we need to mix it up somehow; this recipe for success isn't working, regardless of what happened this weekend. And FWIW, I think we will do better at NCAAs than we did this weekend. :)

I know that's a lot of shit, but I'm trapped in WV with nothing to do but wait for my wife to tell me when we can pack up and head back to Nashville. And yes, I'd love to tell you I'm in charge of the household, but that would be total bullshit. 😂 😂

Go Hawks!! :)
 
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