2010/2011 Big 10 Wrestling Predictions: All Weights & Team Scores Posted

[JensenS]

I did a thread like this during the late part of the summer last year that if I recall correctly wound up spurring some pretty good discussion, so we'll see if we can do it again this year.

I enjoyed doing them because it helped me get a look at how the teams were going to shape up

Not going to be researching these super close so I imagine I'll have some guys at the wrong weights and some guys wrestling or not wrestling that will wind up in line ups.

Will be done in my normal style, meaning these will be predictions more so than they'll be rankings. I'll also try and work superlatives in for most improved, and best freshman.

[r.payton@att.net]

J,

IMO, 125 will be the more interesting weight class-White,(ILL),Sanders,(MINN),Pataky ,(PSU),Precin ,(NW),Steiber,(OSU),McD,(IOWA) could all AA.

[vaisforlovers]

how did white do his RS year? I know he was a big time recruit(number 1 at his weight i believe)

[vaisforlovers]

Found my own answer: Not great. 8-4 2 losses to Morrison(not a bad loss) and a loss to Johnson from UNC-G, and Cook from Clarion. Not looking like an aa to me.

[JensenS]

Lets try and get this going...

125

Illinois
Sam White: As vais points out above White had a solid but very unspectacular redshirt season last year. He's a guy who came in with a good pedigree and there have been plenty of guys who have had average redshirt seasons that have come out like bats out of hell the following season.

Indiana
Justin Brooks: First guy on the list who I've absolutely never heard of. He'll have some big shoes to fill stepping in for Angel Escobedo. Tough spot for a freshman.

Iowa
Matt McDonough: The rightful favorite here coming off his NCAA title as a freshman. Has a style that plays to his strengths very well. Phenomenal and finishing shots from underneath guys by either sucking the leg in or snaking the leg and circling around behind. Underrated from the top position both as a rider and a turner.

Michigan
Sean Boyle: .500 as a true freshman last year for the Wolverines had some decent wins against out of conference opponents but struggled last year in a tough weight class in the Big 10.

Michigan State
Eric Olanowski: Olanowski is another guy like Boyle who spent last season hovering around .500, he wasn't wrestling for Michigan State at the end of the year Brendan Lyon was. Off the top of my head I don't remember if this was because he got hurt or because Lyon beat him out.

Minnesota
Zach Sanders: Came into last season touting Sanders as a guy who was really going to make the leap, while he was still awesome last year he was more or less the same guy as he was when he was a freshman. Super high energy from the feet, very dynamic, solid on top, can be ridden. Beats all the guys that aren't massive for the weight class and then gets beat by the physically overwhelming guys. Finally turned around his results against Brad Pataky last year at the end of the year when he won a wild 13-11 match for 3rd at Big 10's. Tough upset loss to Garnett in the first round at NCAA's last year then guttily picked his way back through the consolations.

Northwestern
Brandon Precin: Comes off of redshirt after finishing 3rd at the weight two years ago. He was also a Big 10 finalist that year. Has always been a guy who is good at everything but not necessarily unreal at anything. Solid offensively and defensively from the feet, has a kelly dump that he hits on pretty much everyone. Active on bottom and it allows him to get away from most everyone. Top is probably his best position where he just grinds on guys.

Ohio State
Logan Stieber: Its going to be a lot of fun watching Logan Stieber wrestle his various opponents in this weight class. While the weight isn't as tough as its been over the last couple of years, once we make it into the Big 10 season we should get an idea pretty quickly of just how good Stieber is going to be in folkstyle. Has had absolutely unreal freestyle results over the last three years. Competed at World Team Trials the last two years where he beat Sam Hazewinkel this year, nearly beat Escobedo at US Nationals.

Penn State
Brad Pataky: A guy who has just been in college forever. He's a guy who almost assuredly would have been an AA last year had Troy Nickerson not gotten upset when he did. Made the quarters after upsetting Patterson and Steintrager, he was absolutely demolished there by Escobedo (who seemed to take particular enjoyment in running scores up perhaps as payback for the time Pataky beat him two years ago) and then wound up in the Round of 12 where Nickerson was his unexpected opponent. Definite AA candidate here again this year.

Purdue
Camden Eppert: This could still obviously be returning All American Cashe Quiroga but I'm still running under the assumption that Quiroga is going to redshirt. Eppert is another guy who I don't really know that well.

Wisconsin
Tom Kelliher: Kelliher is a guy who came out and wrestled for the Badgers two years ago as a true freshman at 133 and unfortunately for him spent most of the season just getting worked. After his redshirt season last year and a drop in weight it'll be interesting to see how much he's able to improve his results. I've got him down pretty low on the list because of his struggles two years ago and just because he's an unknown right now.

Best Freshman
Logan Stieber: Might be the most obvious of these picks in the entire conference.

Most Improved
Brandon Precin: Looking at some of his freestyle scores it'll be interesting to see if the year off has allowed him to refine his neutral offense past his dump that he really relied on a lot as a sophomore and junior.

Conference Final
Matt McDonough v. Brandon Precin

Full
1. Matt McDonough
2. Brandon Precin
3. Zach Sanders
4. Logan Stieber
5. Brad Pataky
6. Sam White
7. Camden Eppert
8. Eric Olanowski
9. Sean Boyle
10. Tom Kelliher
11. Justin Brooks

NCAA Qualifiers: McDonough, Precin, Sanders, Stieber, Pataky

[r.payton@att.net]

J,
Brooks was a 4x place winner in Indiana at 4 different weights -13-4 last year -I really think Zimmer or Wright (2x champ,2x runner up), will be at 125 .

[JensenS]

Fair enough, thanks for the heads up. Whoever Indiana sticks in at the weight will still have a bit of an uphill battle.

133

Illinois
BJ Futrell: Coming into last season I had Futrell predicted as one of my most improved wrestlers in the nation. Coming into this season I'm most interested to see how much he's built his body in order to be competitive at this higher weight class. I picked him as a guy to improve last year because in watching him as a freshman he was a guy who was athletic and had good technique and also a guy who wrestled hard. His problem was he was built like such a bean pole he'd get overwhelmed by the larger and more physical guys at the weight class. With him wrestling even bigger guys this year like I said it'll be interesting to see how he deals with that issue.

Indiana
Matt Ortega: Ortega is a guy who's had a tough go of things since he stepped into the Indiana line up as a true freshman two years ago. He kept a lot of his matches close last year but he just didn't win very many of them. Record wise he actually took a step back last year.

Iowa
Nate Moore: I still haven't bought into the Nate Moore thing (this season will provide ample opportunity for that to change) but I will say I like him more down here at this weight than I would had he bumped up to wrestle at 141. Kind of tough to project based off his results last year because you don't know how much the staph that he was suffering from was affecting him. He had big moments like his win at Midlands over Scott Sentes where he stole a 2-1 win with a TD at the buzzer. He had solid moments where he wrestled guys like Fanthorpe and Hochstrasser tough but lost. Then he had moments that kind of contributed to my whole not getting him like when he struggled with Thane Antczak.

Michigan
Zac Stevens: The possibility is still open that this could be Eric Grajales here but I think Michigan's team is tougher as a whole if they leave Stevens here and send Grajales up. After the dual struggles that they had last year I can't help but wonder if that will be a bit of a priority this year. Stevens is a guy who came out last year and improved a lot from when he jumped into the fire as a true freshman. He's a guy with Michigan's lightweight situation has a good opportunity to continue that improvement this coming season.

Michigan State
Joel Trombley: Trombley is a guy who has been in and out of the Michigan State line up at various weights over the last several years. Like Indiana's guy at 125 he's going to be someone with some major league shoes to fill as he steps into the line up this year.

Minnesota
David Thorn: Should be fun this year for Minnesota to have back to back Thorns in the line up. David came in last year and had a decent year as a redshirt, didn't win everything but had a good record overall. Then he came out and had a nice spring wrestling freestyle at pretty competitive FILA Junior and University 60 kilo weight classes. Lots of tough guys in the room at the lower weight classes for Minnesota (including fellow redshirt freshman Bart Reiter who may push Thorn for this spot if he stays down at 133) so he should have plenty of guys in his room to push him.

Northwestern
Robert Joyce: Joyce filled this spot last year for Northwestern and took his lumps. Coming in this year he's a guy who is facing a little bit of an uphill battle again but with the weight class not being quite as top heavy as it was last year he and pretty much everyone else on this list at least have a shot to move themselves up a little bit.

Ohio State
Ian Paddock: Paddock came out last year and looked kind of iffy early on but in true Ohio State true freshman style really improved as the year moved on en route to a round of 12 finish at NCAA's. Personally I think the better plan for Ohio State would have been to give Paddock a redshirt this year and bump Triggas up to this weight to finish out his career. If Paddock is able to manage what seems to be a pretty decent weight cut I think he's the most improved guy at this weight this season.

Penn State
Sam Sherlock: It seems like its basically predetermined that its going to be a true freshman in the line up here for Penn State, the question just seems to be whether it'll be Sherlock or if it will be Hank Stinson. Sherlock is the guy coming in with the higher pedigree so for now I've got him in this spot. He's coming off a knee injury this past season so we'll see how that effects him.

Purdue
Akif Eren: While I'll always remember him as the guy that we dubbed the Poor Bastard of the Week three years ago I've got to say that Eren did a nice job last year in terms of working his way out from that goofy label. He made it to NCAA's and was solid through out the course of the season.

Wisconsin
Tyler Graff: Like Molinaro at 149 (which we'll get to) coming into the season Graff is set up as the decidedly big fish in the pond. I've mentioned in the Anticipation thread that I'm really excited to see Graff come in this year and see how much he's improved his ability from the top in order to become a more well rounded guy. Watching him last year he did nothing from top for the first month and a half or so. Came out at Midlands and just destroyed Fanthorpe and Bell from top. Then for the rest of the season he was kind of up and down from the position. The super technical singles and the nasty front headlock will be fun to see again but we know that he'll have those. I'll be interested to see him come out and start working that turk series that guys coached by Jared Frayer all seem to eventually pick up on.

Most Improved
Ian Paddock: Like I said above he's a guy who improved a lot over the second half of the season last year so he's got some momentum to build off of. The only thing that could possibly hold him back this year is his weight cut. If he's able to manage that, the spot across the mat from Graff in the finals is wide open for him to take.

Best Freshman
David Thorn: Almost by default given that I've only got two guys listed here who are freshmen. Thorn is a guy who like I said above I think builds off his productive spring and has a very solid year this year.

Conference Final
Tyler Graff v. Ian Paddock

Full
1. Tyler Graff
2. Ian Paddock
3. Nate Moore
4. David Thorn
5. BJ Futrell
6. Sam Sherlock
7. Zac Stevens
8. Akif Eren
9. Matt Ortega
10. Robert Joyce
11. Joel Trombley

NCAA Qualifiers: Tyler Graff, Ian Paddock, Nate Moore, David Thorn, BJ Futrell, Sam Sherlock, Zac Stevens

[jammen]

[QUOTE=JensenS;331054]

133


Iowa
Nate Moore: Then he had moments that kind of contributed to my whole not getting him like when he struggled with Thane Antczak.

Michigan
Zac Stevens: He's a guy with Michigan's lightweight situation has a good opportunity to continue that improvement this coming season. [QUOTE]

Well, I'm not high on Moore either, but that has nothing to do with Antczak who easily beat Stevens 11-5 and made Gomez struggle to a 6-4 win. If the Gophs could figure out if he's a 125 lb backup or a 133 lb contender it would help.

[Gantry]

I'm still in shock that Futrell will be at 133, he was so tiny at 125