BLOG: Thoughts on yesterday's CyHawk dual
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
- Start date
Lost in all this made up drama is the fact that there is a very high probability that Wilcke beats Colbray. Not even sure who the Iowa backup is... he may have beat Sam too! ISU wasn’t favored to win 197. Sam has gotten a little better but come on!! Time and time again over the decades the Iowa wrestlers step up big during matches that are considered “swing”. I think Dresser was just mad as hell and latched onto something to rant about;’something to hold the team together after that drubbing. This ISU squad needs a reboot. KD needs to upgrade at every weight!! Small improvements over the season- you bet. Not a single wrestler inside the top 20. Nationals allocations are going to be sparse. Keep recruiting KD!!
Wilcke ducked Colbray because he's been awful lately and doesn't want to hurt his seed in case he would have lost
I agree Boxer007.....That this Wrestling program is a MESS....as I look at my Cardinal Cap which Sez: "Iowa State 1987 Wrestling National Champions". Boys we are a long ways downhill from our last Natl Championship that Jim Gibbons and Eddie Banach brought us.....NO where to go except UP....Unless we want to continue to be the doormat for the other Wrestling Schools....
I don't agree with this for the simple fact that I wanted to see the match regardless of the outcome. If you came to watch an ISU dual victory you came to the wrong one. If you wanted to see some high caliber wrestling this was where it was in Iowa. I feel brands cheated me out of an opportunity to watch a contested bout. That's why he is an orange. Not because he would lose, but because there was the possibility of it.
Lost in all this is the fact that a win over Wilcke would've helped Sam's case at getting an allocation, or a better chance at an at-large if he didn't get the allocation. Sam has been wrestling better than Wilcke of late, and if you are an athlete you always want to compete. Taking a forfeit is no fun, especially when you spend all week training and working to make weight only to not wrestle. Would Colbray beat Wilcke? I don't know, but it would've been great for Sammy to at least get a match
Have Colbray and Wilcke ever wrestled before earlier on in their careers or anything?
I don't believe so, unless they met in high school at some national tournament. I know they haven't in college as Sam sat out all last year and they haven't faced this year.
I have no idea if Wilcke or Colbray would win; either outcome seems plausible. But if you think a Wilcke-Colbray match could have elevated this turd of a dual to “high caliber wrestling,” then you are far more bullish on either of those two wrestlers’ abilities than I.
If Brands cheated you out of the chance to watch a contested bout by withholding Wilcke, Holloway, et al, would you also agree that Dresser cheated you out of seven other contested bouts by failing to field any legitimate competition at 125, 141, 157, 165, 174, 184, and 285? Those wrestlers gave it their best effort, but they weren’t contesting those bouts beyond simply prolonging them.
It's pretty apparent Brands didn't like WIlcke's chances. It was a chicken blank move, you can't deny that. If you want to blame Dresser for the other 9 matches that's a whole different story but Brands ducked at 197 and got called out on it
If you say so; Colbray certainly had more to gain from the match regardless of outcome. I just have a hard time getting bent out of shape about it, a la the head coach, when the team was so thoroughly overmatched. One way ISU could have forced Brands to send someone out there at 197 was to make that match meaningful in the context of the dual by, you know, being remotely competitive. Brands had the luxury of being able to forfeit the last four matches without changing the outcome of the dual - a situation that ISU failed to prevent. Frankly, had Iowa forfeited at 174, 184, and 285, I would have been grateful to be home 21 minutes earlier so I could get a head start on listening to Dresser cry about ‘respect.’
Brands was never going to send anyone out at 197 this year. Just another example of him being an orange. No one is asking you to get bent out of shape about it but the fact is they ducked against Colbray and Dresser called him out about it. He calls out his own wrestlers all the time too and did it with Simmons. If you don't like that Dresser did that you're probably not going to be a fan of Dresser because he speaks what's on his mind
Does anyone if JP had a reaction to the chicken blank comment? I have to believe he loved it.
Again, if Dresser really cared that much, he could have put Brands in a situation were forfeiting would have had an actual consequence for Iowa. Heck, did Dresser offer to draw the starting weight? Maybe the dual could have started at 197 or at least at a weight class where the dual wasn’t a foregone conclusion by the time 197 was up. If he acceded to Brands’ wish to start at 125 and still thought the 197 match would actually matter by the time we were nine matches in, he’s delusional.
I like that Dresser wants to inject some excitement into an utterly moribund program, but whining about how Brands must be afraid of an unranked wrestler on a team that produced one takedown in nine matches is simply an attempt to distract diehard knuckleheads like you and me from the fact that ISU wrestling is hopelessly out of its depth against any team of consequence. Iowa has zero chance of winning a B1G or NCAA title this year, but had no problem beating ISU in Ames with multiple sub-.500 wrestlers. Even if Dresser sincerely believes he has been somehow wronged, it comes across as sour grapes in the wake of ISU’s total failure to compete. As I said above, if Dresser wants to make it impossible for Brands (or anyone) to forfeit to him, he can do so by fielding a team capable of scoring points.
I'm guessing he gave Brands too much credit and didn't expect him to duck at 197
I don't think I'm going to be a fan of Dresser. That's okay though, if he ends up winning here that is enough.
To be fair, Wilcke didn't travel to Ames from what I've heard due to "illness". Holloway did and weighed in. The point still stands that Brands was chicken **** for the forfeit though.
Wilcke was in Ames. I saw him and others saw him too taking pics after the meet. You don't travel and surround yourself around a team if you are "sick"
I caveated that with saying in Iowa, but then again, I don't know what was happening at UNI or GV.
