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IU Wrestling

I don't recall them ever being very good. Also the Big Ten is by far the best wrestling conference in the country.

So....shouldn’t we be good since it’s the “Best” in the country? That’s hardly an excuse.
 
Didnt they used to be pretty decent?

National champions in 1932 and runner-up in 1933 and 1940.

It seems like the recruiting has been better the last year or so, but it didn't matter v. Illinois. Bad thing is, there are 10 BT teams in the top 25, including #s 1-3, and Illinois isn't one of the ten. Could be a long year.
 
Up until the B1G dropped the class, I remember IU dominated the B1G tournament in the Raw Tag Team Championships. I think they eliminated it because a cheerleader got seriously injured when she was hit by a chair that was thrown from the ring.
Cage matches are still officially recognized events in D2 and D3, if you’re interested in high quality sporting. Last year’s Wabash-St. John’s (Annapolis, Md.) was both shocking and outstanding (you can find it in its entirety on YouTube).
 



Go Hoosiers!
 
Didnt they used to be pretty decent?

Not really. Goldman ran the program into the ground and kept it at a D3 level most of the time and the AD couldn't have cared less.

They had a small uptick during Angel's time where they landed a lot of the top in state guys (Angel, Andrea Hernandez, Matt Coughlin) but aside from Angel, too many guys regressed under Goldman.

He also left the cupboard beyond bare. The top HS teams in the nation would have a great shot of beating the roster Goldman left.

Angel just hasn't had enough time to make the recruiting strides needed to turn things around although he has started landing some solid guys and is building better in state relationships. They also just added Jason Tsirtsis as an assistant (4-time HS state champ, NCAA National champ for Northwestern). So, hopefully they'll start developing guys and recruiting will continue to uptick and they'll gain some traction.

For an example of just how big the recruiting misses were under Goldman:

Current D1 Rankings:

3rd at 133: Steven Micic (4-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Mich
3rd at 141: Nick Lee (2-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Penn St.
5th at 141: Chad Red (4-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Neb.
6th at 157: Brayton Lee (3-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Minn.
6th at 197: Lucas Davison (1-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Northwestern
2nd at 285: Mason Parris (3-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Mich.

Those are just the guys ranked top 8. None of them even sniffed IU. I'm not saying Angel would have landed all of them if he'd been in place and established but there would have certainly been a better shot. We missed out on some generational talent.
 
Not really. Goldman ran the program into the ground and kept it at a D3 level most of the time and the AD couldn't have cared less.

They had a small uptick during Angel's time where they landed a lot of the top in state guys (Angel, Andrea Hernandez, Matt Coughlin) but aside from Angel, too many guys regressed under Goldman.

He also left the cupboard beyond bare. The top HS teams in the nation would have a great shot of beating the roster Goldman left.

Angel just hasn't had enough time to make the recruiting strides needed to turn things around although he has started landing some solid guys and is building better in state relationships. They also just added Jason Tsirtsis as an assistant (4-time HS state champ, NCAA National champ for Northwestern). So, hopefully they'll start developing guys and recruiting will continue to uptick and they'll gain some traction.

For an example of just how big the recruiting misses were under Goldman:

Current D1 Rankings:

3rd at 133: Steven Micic (4-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Mich
3rd at 141: Nick Lee (2-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Penn St.
5th at 141: Chad Red (4-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Neb.
6th at 157: Brayton Lee (3-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Minn.
6th at 197: Lucas Davison (1-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Northwestern
2nd at 285: Mason Parris (3-time Indiana HS State Champ) - Mich.

Those are just the guys ranked top 8. None of them even sniffed IU. I'm not saying Angel would have landed all of them if he'd been in place and established but there would have certainly been a better shot. We missed out on some generational talent.

Do you think Angel will turn this around?
 
I don't recall them ever being very good. Also the Big Ten is by far the best wrestling conference in the country.
actually, when Jim Humphrey was IU's coach they were ranked (IIRC) as high as #3 or #4 in the country for a little while

I can live with IU's team being where it is in the B1G 10, but IMO there's no reason why programs like Northern Colorado, App State, Hofstra and Campbell should be able to be ranked ahead of them
 
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Do you think Angel will turn this around?

I think he can. He's assembled a good staff that is respected in-state. They'll need to demonstrate development of some of the recruits they have to git rid of the previous regime's reputation for regression.

After that, its all about recruiting. The misses I listed above are enormous. We'll always lose guys to Iowa, PSU, OSU, etc if their hearts are set there but we can't lose EVERY single stud recruit. We can definitely compete with Neb, Northwestern, MSU, MI, Ill, etc.

Indiana is typically considered a top 12 state for amateur wrestling. We do not have the depth of our neighbors, but our top ranked guys are nationally elite. We have to start landing some of those.

In addition to that, Ohio and Illinois are both top 5 amateur wrestling states. They have great depth and tons of prep talent. OSU will have its picks, but there are legions of guys leftover that we're in a close enough proximity to allure with some success. Same with Illinois and UofI isn't super prestigious. They have their own troubles keeping the studs in state.

So, we have a great proximity to prep talent, a young and talented staff that is known nationally and some enthusiasm around the program. Something that hasn't been there for awhile. It'll come down to development to prove that IU is a place you can go and succeed and then I think you'll start seeing some recruiting successes on the heels of that.
 
I think he can. He's assembled a good staff that is respected in-state. They'll need to demonstrate development of some of the recruits they have to git rid of the previous regime's reputation for regression.

After that, its all about recruiting. The misses I listed above are enormous. We'll always lose guys to Iowa, PSU, OSU, etc if their hearts are set there but we can't lose EVERY single stud recruit. We can definitely compete with Neb, Northwestern, MSU, MI, Ill, etc.

Indiana is typically considered a top 12 state for amateur wrestling. We do not have the depth of our neighbors, but our top ranked guys are nationally elite. We have to start landing some of those.

In addition to that, Ohio and Illinois are both top 5 amateur wrestling states. They have great depth and tons of prep talent. OSU will have its picks, but there are legions of guys leftover that we're in a close enough proximity to allure with some success. Same with Illinois and UofI isn't super prestigious. They have their own troubles keeping the studs in state.

So, we have a great proximity to prep talent, a young and talented staff that is known nationally and some enthusiasm around the program. Something that hasn't been there for awhile. It'll come down to development to prove that IU is a place you can go and succeed and then I think you'll start seeing some recruiting successes on the heels of that.
one place (if the recruiting budget allows for it) they may want to look is California--pretty decent h.s. wrestling and the in-state college programs aren't very enthusiastically supported by their respective administrations (cf. Stanford, Fresno State, etc)
 
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one place (if the recruiting budget allows for it) they may want to look is California--pretty decent h.s. wrestling and the in-state college programs aren't very enthusiastically supported by their respective administrations (cf. Stanford, Fresno State, etc)

A bit tougher due to the distance and luring kids to the cold weather of the Midwest.

Wrestler's tend to also want to stay closer to home for friends and family to watch. Its a bit different than revenue sports with large crowds. Its typically friends and family driving you all across the country as a youth and they're the only ones watching. That carries over to wanting to preserve that on the big stage for the ppl who sacrificed for you all those years. Wrestling is also different in that unless you are an absolute elite, super-talent then you are probably only getting a partial scholarship. Full rides are few and far between except for a handful of kids across the country. That also plays into decisions on where to go and how much financial burden is getting placed on the parents (on top of potentially having to travel large distances to watch you).

Granted, if you have a shot at PSU/Iowa, etc then you take it but in general even those rosters are slam full of local talent.

Being in between Ohio and Illinois is a very fortunate place to be. Indiana also produces good talent as does Mich. Kentucky is way behind, but their very top few kids are legit and IU will almost always have early appeal to those guys due to how close it is and Kentucky having no D1 wrestling programs.

So, in general IU really doesn't have to travel too far to recruit. They just have to land the ppl they target and start keeping in the in-state studs, in-state.
 
A bit tougher due to the distance and luring kids to the cold weather of the Midwest.

Wrestler's tend to also want to stay closer to home for friends and family to watch. Its a bit different than revenue sports with large crowds. Its typically friends and family driving you all across the country as a youth and they're the only ones watching. That carries over to wanting to preserve that on the big stage for the ppl who sacrificed for you all those years. Wrestling is also different in that unless you are an absolute elite, super-talent then you are probably only getting a partial scholarship. Full rides are few and far between except for a handful of kids across the country. That also plays into decisions on where to go and how much financial burden is getting placed on the parents (on top of potentially having to travel large distances to watch you).

Granted, if you have a shot at PSU/Iowa, etc then you take it but in general even those rosters are slam full of local talent.

Being in between Ohio and Illinois is a very fortunate place to be. Indiana also produces good talent as does Mich. Kentucky is way behind, but their very top few kids are legit and IU will almost always have early appeal to those guys due to how close it is and Kentucky having no D1 wrestling programs.

So, in general IU really doesn't have to travel too far to recruit. They just have to land the ppl they target and start keeping in the in-state studs, in-state.
another place worth considering is the South, especially Georgia and Florida--few, if any, collegiate programs any more (I'm old enough to remember when SEC schools like UK and LSU had wrestling programs) and some untapped talent.
 
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Decent rebound for the IU squad this past weekend.

They beat ranked Northwestern (dropping out of the polls, now) and hung with #3 Penn State. Was 18-15 going into the final match. This was PSU's first action of the season so that definitely played a part, but IU also suffered some major rust in their opening couple duals.

It also appears that the blowout loss to Illinois isn't as bad as initially thought since they are close to being ranked in the top 10 now themselves.

Hopefully IU can build on this, pull out some more wins and hopefully get a few of these guys on the podium at season's end.
 
Since this is the Football board, are you wishing for getting guys "on the podium" after the football season or the wrestling season? Or, you could always put this on the OTF board.
 
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Since this is the Football board, are you wishing for getting guys "on the podium" after the football season or the wrestling season? Or, you could always put this on the OTF board.
Yeah, it's a good sport, but I'm not sure I want to consider a sport where the participants wear singlets. Unless it's female wrestling, of course.
 
The AOTF isn’t really for other IU sports. There’s nothing wrong with discussing it here.
Having been on this venue since it was Mike Pegram's board, I'm not so sure I agree with you. Are you saying that it would be welcome on the basketball board?
 
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