Minni Grades….

[Spoons]

Bull: C- 1 hour weigh in definitely slowed him down.
Kemerer: B+ 1st time back place went nuts and rightfully so. Feel a bit for Swaff but maybe he gets a match on Sunday.
Assad: B+ solid win and looked good
Warner: C+ nice win but could have done more
Cass: C Gable might be the best Hwt I have ever seen. Gained a lot of respect for him tonight.
Ayala: B was so close. Love watching him! He is going to be REALLY Good guys!! Sat next to his Aunt nice family for sure!
Desanto: B- probably the worst match he wrestled all year but he still was never in danger of losing.
Eierman: B- never in danger of losing but would like to see a bit more of his offense.
Murin: B that’s a rd of 12 type match and he got it done. Similar to Sorensen used to do ugly at times but wins
Young: B- probably the best he looked all year. He doesn’t get a break with another ranked kid on Sunday.
Minnesota is pretty bad guys wrestling to keep matches close as possible and happy about keeping it close.
A+ for me getting kicked off of Mineo’s Facebook page for calling him out on Kem wrestling. 😂😂😂

 

[MitchLL]

As it pertains to team strength...tonite we saw the huge drop-off once you get beyond the top 8-9 teams.

Minnesota is horrible and pretty much wrestled to keep it close outside of Hwt.

How Eggum still has a job after 4-5 years is a mystery to me.

They don't have much.

 

[LIV4GOD]

Marinelli - C. I think he has a hitch in his giddyup. In lower positions it appeared to me to be hurting / slowed. He also seems just drained.
Kemerer - B. I sure hope he didn't retear his labrum in his left shoulder. That ended up having it out of joint. My heart sank when I saw walk out with that brace on.
Assad - A. He did what it took to get bonus. Looked sharp in certain positions. I'm hoping he gains more confidence as the season rolls along. I don't think we've seen his best.
Warner - C. He looks softer than any year he has been here. But is very good at countering. It bothers me he was almost taken down at the very end.
Cassioppi - D. I suspected the lighter weight would play right into Stevesons's hands. It did. The U23 world champion was just toyed with. Took no risks. Sad. I hope this doesn't get him down.
Ayala - B-. I was amazed he got another shuck, after starting out the last match the same way with him. He just needs power. It will be very important he does well against Schroeder.
DeSanto - C-. He decided if the other guy is just going to block, then he'll take a narrow win. 2nd time this year he's done that.
Murin - C+. I gave him an average grade because he did the most average Murin type of match. Close win, and also barely barely doesn't surrender the earlier takedown. That was impressive.
Eireman - C+. Typical Eireman style of match for this season. I think this is the new normal. But he does keep winning. If it works, it works. Just win baby.
Young - C. I still have that hope he improves as the season progresses. He looked better than his last match. But, goodness, don't give up the late TD.

Minnesota is a horrible team to watch outside of Gable. Tonight they just wanted to block off, and wrestle not to lose. Then try to eek it out. What a horrific strategy for long term success. They just won't let it fly, and their goal is to not let their opponents let it fly.

 

[pumpdog20]

If the hour weighin is bad for Marinelli, what was it for the Minnesota guy. He looked way bigger.

AM hasn't looked right all year. I either think he battled a bad case of covid earlier, or he's simply burnt out. I think we're seeing a lot of that over the lineup.

 

[AFHawk86]

I give the team a Passing score since they came away with 7 of 10 matches and the team victory.

 

[eb05]

i don’t do grades but i will just say i have never watched a team wrestle so contently to lose as Minnesota did today.

 

[MVPFAN]

Drake- B. He is very talented but strength and savy too much from McKee.

Austin B-, seemed a bit flat.

Jaydin B, solid win vs ok guy. Pretty ho hum. I liked that he was not giving up the legs and put on a ride.

Max B, solid win vs good opponent. Needs to find a bit more scoring.

Bull B-, a bit sloppy but got it done. Carlson is pretty tough.

Kem B, shoulder is definitely hosed. Still looked pretty good but could tell is hampered him.

Abe B+, nice job getting bonus. Abe has a lot of tools. I honestly think belief between the ears is his biggest obstacle.

Jake B-, got a bit sloppy late.

Tony C+, he got majored but by best in the world. I miss heavy Cass. Can someone get him some pizza and cheeseburgers?

 

[Nashville_Hawkeye]

Bull: C- 1 hour weigh in definitely slowed him down.
Kemerer: B+ 1st time back place went nuts and rightfully so. Feel a bit for Swaff but maybe he gets a match on Sunday.
Assad: B+ solid win and looked good
Warner: C+ nice win but could have done more
Cass: C Gable might be the best Hwt I have ever seen. Gained a lot of respect for him tonight.
Ayala: B was so close. Love watching him! He is going to be REALLY Good guys!! Sat next to his Aunt nice family for sure!
Desanto: B- probably the worst match he wrestled all year but he still was never in danger of losing.
Eierman: B- never in danger of losing but would like to see a bit more of his offense.
Murin: B that’s a rd of 12 type match and he got it done. Similar to Sorensen used to do ugly at times but wins
Young: B- probably the best he looked all year. He doesn’t get a break with another ranked kid on Sunday.
Minnesota is pretty bad guys wrestling to keep matches close as possible and happy about keeping it close.
A+ for me getting kicked off of Mineo’s Facebook page for calling him out on Kem wrestling. 😂😂😂

Marinelli - (A). Got the W. VERY uninspired effort against a much weaker opponent. Where's the Bull?
Kemerer - (A). First time this year and looked as good or better than everyone else. Glad he's back!!
Assad - (A). Great job! Showed a sense of urgency, which I hope is contagious!!
Warner - (A). Got the W. Very uninspired effort against a much weaker opponent.
Cassioppi - (A). Didn't expect much against Gable. Prefer Big Tony over Chiseled Tony.
Ayala - (A). He just needs more time/experience. Outstanding effort.
DeSanto - (D). I have no idea what that was. Felt like I was watching a Murin/Young/Warner match.
Murin - (A). Got the W. This style (wait till end to get my TD) could keep him from R12, let alone AA.
Eireman - (A). Got the W. He's gotta let loose.
Young - (A). Good match against the 4th ranked wrestler.

Depending on the source we have 6 wrestlers ranked in the top 5/6 (4 of them in the top 3), and from those 6 wrestlers we got a grand total of zero bonus points. What is going on with our team? No sense of urgency and seemingly no need/desire to win by more than one point. Do you think we're laying back to prevent injuries (i.e., can't get injured if we don't engage) or are we still a bit sluggish and still working off the rust?

 

[CurtisLoew40]

The weight has nothing to do with Cass getting destroyed and it definitely hasn’t made him worse. You can only improve your athletic ability so much. Gable was born with better genes lol. Plus he works his ass off too and he’s just as technical and skilled.
Cass cannot outwrestle Gable as long as both are healthy. The only chance would be a flukey type pin like what happened to Cass earlier in the year. So unless that happens he’s never going to look good against Gable. Doesn’t matter if he’s 300lbs or 200lbs. He was facing the Olympic champ after all.
i’m a big fan of Cass. He’s clearly the third best guy. In a different era he’d be a dominant champ.

 

[Nashville_Hawkeye]

As it pertains to team strength...tonite we saw the huge drop-off once you get beyond the top 8-9 teams.

Minnesota is horrible and pretty much wrestled to keep it close outside of Hwt.

How Eggum still has a job after 4-5 years is a mystery to me.

They don't have much.

I don't know what drop off you're referring to. We had one bonus points win and they had one bonus points win. Looking at the scores from each individual match, I didn't see the "huge" drop off. I thought we wrestled to keep it close every bit as much as Minn wrestled to keep it close. We have six wrestlers in the top 5/6 and they produced a grand total of zero bonus points, so I didn't see the huge drop off there either, though I sure wish I would have. Couldn't believe how many bored fans I saw in the stands when the B10 network camera men/women showed the crowd.

 

[Nashville_Hawkeye]

The weight has nothing to do with Cass getting destroyed and it definitely hasn’t made him worse. You can only improve your athletic ability so much. Gable was born with better genes lol. Plus he works his ass off too and he’s just as technical and skilled.
Cass cannot outwrestle Gable as long as both are healthy. The only chance would be a flukey type pin like what happened to Cass earlier in the year. So unless that happens he’s never going to look good against Gable. Doesn’t matter if he’s 300lbs or 200lbs. He was facing the Olympic champ after all.
i’m a big fan of Cass. He’s clearly the third best guy. In a different era he’d be a dominant champ.

I agree, Gable and Cass are miles apart. Gable is a fricking beast. And while I know the Big Tony from last year and the Cut Tony from this year wouldn't make a difference where Steveson is concerned, I fear that the smaller version of Cass will hurt him this year at NCAAs. I like Big Tony better as far as wrestling is concerned; however, the guy clearly worked his ass off in the gym to make that kind of transformation in the off-season. Very impressive!

 

[Nashville_Hawkeye]

Drake- B. He is very talented but strength and savy too much from McKee.

Austin B-, seemed a bit flat.

Jaydin B, solid win vs ok guy. Pretty ho hum. I liked that he was not giving up the legs and put on a ride.

Max B, solid win vs good opponent. Needs to find a bit more scoring.

Bull B-, a bit sloppy but got it done. Carlson is pretty tough.

Kem B, shoulder is definitely hosed. Still looked pretty good but could tell is hampered him.

Abe B+, nice job getting bonus. Abe has a lot of tools. I honestly think belief between the ears is his biggest obstacle.

Jake B-, got a bit sloppy late.

Tony C+, he got majored but by best in the world. I miss heavy Cass. Can someone get him some pizza and cheeseburgers?

Amen to your "heavy Cass" comments. Definitely needs some pizza and burgers!!

 

[Kidwicked]

I think Iowa looked pretty good as team. Won a bunch of close matches, and held serve. No shame in anything I saw. Ayala is gonna be insanely good, man is that kid quick.

 

[Lambertt]

If the hour weighin is bad for Marinelli, what was it for the Minnesota guy. He looked way bigger.

AM hasn't looked right all year. I either think he battled a bad case of covid earlier, or he's simply burnt out. I think we're seeing a lot of that over the lineup.

I'd agree with burnt out.

 

[Kale_yeah]

A lot of your guys look old and slow, maybe saving it for March or may that have to many miles on those treads.

 

[MitchLL]

I don't know what drop off you're referring to. We had one bonus points win and they had one bonus points win. Looking at the scores from each individual match, I didn't see the "huge" drop off. I thought we wrestled to keep it close every bit as much as Minn wrestled to keep it close. We have six wrestlers in the top 5/6 and they produced a grand total of zero bonus points, so I didn't see the huge drop off there either, though I sure wish I would have. Couldn't believe how many bored fans I saw in the stands when the B10 network camera men/women showed the crowd.

The five matches where we were heavy favorites...Gophers pretty much blocked off for 7 minutes. They made no attempt to win those matches. None.

Pretty hard to get bonus in that scenario.

Not sure which dual you watched.

Gopher wrestling has fallen so far since the heydeys of Robinson.

 

[JEDN]

I’ve never seen a HWY with the combination of speed, power, and great technique that Stevenson has. The best ever?

 

[poorwrestler]

From a gopher perspective, some of y’all don’t wanna hear it if you tell me to F off I get that lol.
Carlson - B. I’ve seen Marinelli stall a lot of guys out in his long and storied career but Carlson got the first takedown and kept forward pressure all night. Good for his first start ever.

O’Reilly - C. Clearly outgunned, just had nothing for Kemerer. Good to keep it to a decision but he gets tech’d against a full strength Kem. Hope Sparks gets a medical shirt this year and bumps to 174 next.

Skillings - F. This is the first time I’ve ever seen Skillings wrestle for the gophers and it was totally uninspiring. Would have loved to see Salazar there but obviously was hurt.

Foy - D. He could have taken Warner down 4 times in the third if he would just take shots. Why do you not shoot? Warner gasses more than any big ten wrestler on earth? SHOOT.

Gable - A.

Mckee - A. I was convinced in my head that if Ayala came out McKee was losing. Everything was pointing to that. Ayala had closed the gap, he had the crowd on his side, etc. I honestly think the crowd had something to do with Ayala losing. All the stalling chants made him push and push right into Mckees doubles which lost him the match.

Gliva - C. Wrestled close but never took shots. Kind of like all his matches. He’s much improved but what’s the point if you don’t attack. Desanto looked weird though. What’s up with that?

Bergeland - C. Kept it close against a top 3 guy but needs to ATTACK. It’s been proven that this year for some reason, lesser guys can score on Eierman. Take advantage of that.

Blockhus - C. I feel like I’m repeating myself. Take some F&;!/&?g shots and you win. Blockhus and Murin are neck and neck.

Brayton - C. See above and above and above. Brayton scores off re-shots and capitalizes off guys getting out of position. Kaleb Young NEVER gets out of position. Bad match up for us.

my board is boring and our posts get no interaction so I am posting these here. Do with it what you will.

 

[IRONBIRD]

WOW! I believe i am about the biggest homer on this board and I am kinda shocked at how everyone saw this match? Team looked very flat up and down the line up. Every year we seem to go through this and it is always passed off as "training thru" the match????

Whatever it is? It has not been corrected and in my opinion, needs to be! The team as a whole, looked small in just about every weight class. Maybe this is their philosophy for the end of the year? Have guys who are not cutting too much and at nationals with 3 weigh in they will benefit? Only thing I can think of.

125- Kid needs more HP. True Freshman, will be very good. Looks to be a boarder line AA

133- Have no idea what I watched??? The Tasmanian devil opened up the show and then disappeared uncommonly? I also have to take issue with not seeing better finishes to his off side!!! I believe a monkey could have shown him a few things by now!

141- Jayden in my opinion is a victim of being at IOWA. What I mean is now he is in the lime light, everyone knows him, sees him, and has a game plan for him. His counter Wrestling from his feet is so good, it appears no one will shoot on him any more. He too should have developed a better go to shot by now!

149- BIG TD at end, but way too close for comfort

157- finding ways to lose now. Winning the match, wrestling well. Then takes a stall call from top on a standing position!?!?! What??? why??? Without that stall call he could have played a little defense.

165- As was said already, where was the BULL?

174- First match back, not the complete KemDawg I am use to, but give him a pass.

184- Snap and Blast may have been the best series of the night. Looked the best out of everyone to me

197- seems to be getting worse to me. Will be in HIGE trouble against Dean who I though he could/should beat.

Heavy- out gunned, trimming down is not the same as bulking up! Give Stevenson credit for being as good as he is!

We appear to be in trouble in a dual against the F*** guys. their NY Yankees of wrestling program with all its new imports and without our Lee, is going to be a rough road. We will need an upset or 2 from 33, 41, 74. I do not believe we can get one at 84? Big Cass has to win as does 49, 57, 65. I think their new 25 is too strong for Ayla? Hope to be wrong here. I can nots see Warner beating dean, also hope I am wrong.

For NCAAs, we still have a chance but B1Gs and seeding is going to be HUGE!!!!

 

[johnyt9]

Drake- B. He is very talented but strength and savy too much from McKee.

Austin B-, seemed a bit flat.

Jaydin B, solid win vs ok guy. Pretty ho hum. I liked that he was not giving up the legs and put on a ride.

Max B, solid win vs good opponent. Needs to find a bit more scoring.

Bull B-, a bit sloppy but got it done. Carlson is pretty tough.

Kem B, shoulder is definitely hosed. Still looked pretty good but could tell is hampered him.

Abe B+, nice job getting bonus. Abe has a lot of tools. I honestly think belief between the ears is his biggest obstacle.

Jake B-, got a bit sloppy late.

Tony C+, he got majored but by best in the world. I miss heavy Cass. Can someone get him some pizza and cheeseburgers?

Maybe Riley Moss can hook him up with a Casey's NIL deal

 

[bluroptimo]

Iowa fans A
CHA is the best place to wrestle in the country. Gave Steveson a standing ovation after his match. This doesn’t happen with newbie fans this happens with fans loyal to the sport for decades. Some of you with a gripe against Steveson going to want to flunk the Iowa fans for that. But it speaks volumes for the knowledge and quality of the Iowa fan base, IMO.

 

[UndercoverHawk]

Eggum was more concerned with a guy behind their bench than actually watching and coaching.

 

[hwkwrestlingaddiction]

Minnesota is pretty bad guys wrestling to keep matches close as possible and happy about keeping it close.
A+ for me getting kicked off of Mineo’s Facebook page for calling him out on Kem wrestling. 😂😂😂

Nice work here, Spoons. I’ve been working to get the slimeball to block me as well (on Twitter), but have come up short in my efforts. Any pointers are appreciated 😁

 

[artradley]

I think Iowa looked pretty good as team. Won a bunch of close matches, and held serve. No shame in anything I saw. Ayala is gonna be insanely good, man is that kid quick.

Iowa looked like a team with fewer finalists at Nats than PSU has champions.

 

[bdcolt45er]

IMO team wide they look a little sluggish and tired. I wouldn't say they look bad but it just seems to be lower energy up and down the line up. It's very business like in terms of completing the task but not much conviction.

One stray moment that stood out to me was Assad's 3rd TD. Skillings kept pulling that right leg back and putting weight on his left and Assad saw that and was able to hit a shot on that leg. Honestly a lot of guys aren't able to make in match adjustments like that. It's the sign of some potential.

 

[Gobblin]

IMO team wide they look a little sluggish and tired. I wouldn't say they look bad but it just seems to be lower energy up and down the line up. It's very business like in terms of completing the task but not much conviction.

One stray moment that stood out to me was Assad's 3rd TD. Skillings kept pulling that right leg back and putting weight on his left and Assad saw that and was able to hit a shot on that leg. Honestly a lot of guys aren't able to make in match adjustments like that. It's the sign of some potential.

Abe is just hitting his stride. I expect him to have his breakout post season this year. He doesn’t get enough credit. Kid is an animal and only getting better each day.

 

[HIWILLE]

The five matches where we were heavy favorites...Gophers pretty much blocked off for 7 minutes. They made no attempt to win those matches. None.

Pretty hard to get bonus in that scenario.

Not sure which dual you watched.

Gopher wrestling has fallen so far since the heydeys of Robinson.

Exactly. Who the hell would wanna wrestle for Minnesota coming out like that. Boring

 

[HIWILLE]

Abe is just hitting his stride. I expect him to have his breakout post season this year. He doesn’t get enough credit. Kid is an animal and only getting better each day.

Agree! Like what I see out of him

 

[HIWILLE]

Watched AD as he walked off the mat to the tunnel in slow motion and the kid looked sick as if he was ready to throw up clearly. He didn’t look well in his match as it went on either. Me thinks fighting the bug. Not worried he’ll come back stronger..

 

[Gobblin]

I think Iowa looked pretty good as team. Won a bunch of close matches, and held serve. No shame in anything I saw. Ayala is gonna be insanely good, man is that kid quick.

What are you and your hunting partners coming to Iowa to hunt the last week of January? And where are your farms in southern Iowa?

 

[HIWILLE]

What are you and your hunting partners coming to Iowa to hunt the last week of January? And where are your farms in southern Iowa?

Ha! I see what you’re doing there. You probably aren’t going to get an answer

 

[GoHawks1996]

Iowa fans A
CHA is the best place to wrestle in the country. Gave Steveson a standing ovation after his match. This doesn’t happen with newbie fans this happens with fans loyal to the sport for decades. Some of you with a gripe against Steveson going to want to flunk the Iowa fans for that. But it speaks volumes for the knowledge and quality of the Iowa fan base, IMO.

Crazy the knowledge of our fan base as a whole. When Drake was announced at the introductions all of Carver went insane. Where else in the country would 13k people know the importance of him walking out there?

 

[93hawkeye]

Haven't watched the whole meet yet, but regarding Cass:
Heavy hips, both in technique and power, are important at every weight class, but doubly so at HWT. Everybody in the Iowa program from Tom on down to the student trainers know this better than I, so I hope there is a plan to adjust for the loss of mass in Cass's hips.

 

[Steevo36]

Believe in these guys. Team just lost their pace setter, the spark that lights the dynamite that is this lineup. This is a different team without spencer lee. I'm sure they're feeling enormous pressure to repeat but they just need to forget about that, loosen up, and enjoy the ride. I think this ncaas is wide open and if they manage to repeat it'll be one to remember.

 

[js8793]

125 B- wrestled tough, but this was the most one-sided match of the series. a lot of work to do, but love this kid.
133 D not great
141 C not great. not getting to his positions the same way this year. not getting to his cradles. not scoring bonus. still a pain to wrestle for anybody.
149 B+ think he could have opened up a bit, but a very solid murin performance. got the job done.
157 B best he's looked all year. should have won this match. reasons to be encouraged moving forward, but needs to right the ship soon.
165 C carlson quietly having a nice season. marinelli - finishing issues and got scored on off his own shot again. so many of the top 165's are great scramblers. this is a problem. he's a sixth year guy. i don't think it's getting fixed.
174 B+ i thought he looked smooth as usual. lungs aren't there yet. needs the mat time. he looked much worse in his first match back in 2020 against IU and beat Mark Hall a month later. obviously worried about the shoulder. it will be a delicate balance getting him enough matches to get in shape and tighten things up, but keep him healthy.
184 A- good. gaining steam. a historically slow starter. not the same abe who lost to whiting. like where he's at.
197 C+ is what he is. win and advance.
285 N/A overmatched, but i'm officially in the "i miss big tony camp." i think my fear coming into the year has played out. part of what made him so great is that he was a great athlete at 270. the combination of his athleticism, skill, and size made him very difficult to deal with. he's not an elite athlete at 250 and no longer presents size issues for his opponents. i fear instead of being the best version of big tony, he's made himself an inferior version of parris or kerk.

not a great performance. no point in pretending otherwise. right now, this team would lose, probably handily, to psu. i'd favor them at 133, 141, 149, 174, 184, 197, and 285. 285 a toss up, but kerk has looked better this year and i would pick him. need to see more of kem before i pick him to beat starocci. toss up at 125 because we haven't seen hildebrandt yet, but that's a tough style match up for ayala. scrambling, length, and leg riding will probably give him some issues. love ayala. toss up at 157, but berge won the last meeting. just don't know where he's at yet either. iowa only a solid favorite at 165.

there's a lot of wrestling left. this team is not performing anywhere near their capabilities. it's an older team and a slow and steady approach would make sense. but right now, this is not a title team. there's no guarantee that things will stay that way, but there's also no guarantee that they'll turn around either. here's to a healthier 2022.

 

[Hawkalumni7]

Agree on most of the grades. But this team will climb as they go!

 

[MVPFAN]

Might be good to get Kaleb to an open with lower level D1 guys to get some additional D1 wins. For him qualifying his own spot is of more importance than say Kem.

 

[sdvike]

Angel Rivera gets a B. He had good control of the matches all night. Minimal stalling calls, didnt care for the one against ADS but only because he could have called many times earler against Gliva. If your going to wait til the end of the match, just forget it. Angel seemed really concerned about hands to face last night.

 

[artradley]

Angel Rivera gets a B. He had good control of the matches all night. Minimal stalling calls, didnt care for the one against ADS but only because he could have called many times earler against Gliva. If your going to wait til the end of the match, just forget it. Angel seemed really concerned about hands to face last night.

There were a lot of hands to the face last night.

 

[artradley]

The five matches where we were heavy favorites...Gophers pretty much blocked off for 7 minutes. They made no attempt to win those matches. None.

Pretty hard to get bonus in that scenario.

Not sure which dual you watched.

Gopher wrestling has fallen so far since the heydeys of Robinson.

Well, top four guy against an unranked guy, stalling or not you should be able to engage enough to create scoring opportunities. ADS gets a pass because this was a huge one-off. The others have way too many matches like that to blame it on stalling by the opponent.