Columbia and West Virginia

[TheJimReaper]

If John said he had a slight injury then I believe him but we have been critical of coaches keeping their wrestlers out of matches and in essence this is what we did. He was going against a good but not great wrestler and we kept him out. We are just as guilty as everyone else of doing this. No we did not forfeit but bottom line he could have wrestled and we chose not to let him.

I don’t have a problem with coaches sitting guys because of injuries and such. The thing that annoys me is when they do it to preserve seeds or whatever.

 

[turfpoke]

If John said he had a slight injury then I believe him but we have been critical of coaches keeping their wrestlers out of matches and in essence this is what we did. He was going against a good but not great wrestler and we kept him out. We are just as guilty as everyone else of doing this. No we did not forfeit but bottom line he could have wrestled and we chose not to let him.

I don’t think the country was excited to see this matchup. Wittlake wins it 10 out of 10 times. The complaints are about the highly ranked matchups that don’t wind up happening.

 

[turfpoke]

If Wittlake would have been slightly injured and not wrestled Griffith then wrestled matches and then was slightly injured and didn’t wrestle Marinelli that would be what we are complaining about.

 

[Wrassler17]

Wittlake could have a sprained knee and he would still go 10 for 10 against the Columbia guy. That's not ducking, that's being smart. No reason to aggravate an injury.

 

[skylinepoke]

I don't believe Smith would have anyone duck another at this time of the year. Wittlake would have overpowered the guy from Columbia even though he was cat-quick. It would have been a good resume win for Wittlake.

 

[ionel]

If John said he had a slight injury then I believe him but we have been critical of coaches keeping their wrestlers out of matches and in essence this is what we did. He was going against a good but not great wrestler and we kept him out. We are just as guilty as everyone else of doing this. No we did not forfeit but bottom line he could have wrestled and we chose not to let him.

How many injuries before NCAAs last several years. If a kid is dinged up and its a does not matter match, he needs to rest. This is where Gs problems started, dinged up going into Mizzu and got Mauled thus making it worse.

 

[Wrassler17]

Plott was one who had recently been out with Covid. I’d bet that was part of him appearing to be sluggish.

John said it was the flu and Plott got hit pretty hard. Sounds like a few guys had it recently.

 

[oberebo]

Sounds like we accept it when it is our guy but not when it is someone else's guy. A slight injury to me sound like most wrestlers every day of the week. A "dead horse" I will not beat.

 

[osu2082]

Sounds like we accept it when it is our guy but not when it is someone else's guy. A slight injury to me sound like most wrestlers every day of the week. A "dead horse" I will not beat.

I think you have to look at history here and use that to guide the likelihood that Witlake was dinged up enough where a coach who pushes his guys about as hard as anyone and certainly has the “tape it up” and wrestle mentality decided to hold him out.

There have been plenty other matchups that would make much more sense if John was trying to protect a seed (which he has just never done). There just isn’t any history to fall back on to say we did it here or we as a fanbase are okay with something that didn’t happen.

There are current and recent relevant examples of a few big 10 programs doing exactly what has been discussed here which in no way is comparable to what we saw Sunday.

 

[FourCornersCowboy]

Sounds like we accept it when it is our guy but not when it is someone else's guy. A slight injury to me sound like most wrestlers every day of the week. A "dead horse" I will not beat.

Mind explaining how this was protecting a seed?

 

[turfpoke]

John has time and time again explained why he thinks duals are so important to growing the fan base. There are a lot of people coming to watch Daton Fix, AJ Ferrari, etc. Just think if they don’t wrestle when another highly ranked wrestler comes to town. That is happening regularly in the Big Ten.

 

[Never Say Die]

If John said he had a slight injury then I believe him but we have been critical of coaches keeping their wrestlers out of matches and in essence this is what we did. He was going against a good but not great wrestler and we kept him out. We are just as guilty as everyone else of doing this. No we did not forfeit but bottom line he could have wrestled and we chose not to let him.

Do you know what the injury was?

 

[Never Say Die]

John said it was the flu and Plott got hit pretty hard. Sounds like a few guys had it recently.

Sounds like lots of guys dealing with some illness last couple weeks.