Exactly- Ir would not make Brands look bad at all. It would show he is capable of sacrificing a little pride for the good of the program. Iowa fans care about results.
Endenne - GONE
- Thread starter Zapuj268
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I 100% agree on Lugo and Lee. I also firmly believe Kemerer and Marinelli find a way that Saturday night too. I can easily envision 4 champs in that postseason-that-should-have-been.
What did marinelli ever do that makes you think he would have made the ncaa finals? Did you not watch his other ncaa tournaments?
While I agree with your point, he was what, a 4 time B10 champ? He got brutal draws as the 1 seed twice (2 NCAA champs as the 8 seed that he lost in heartbreaking fashion in the quarters). To think he didn't have a reasonable chance of making the finals that year seems a bit of a stretch to me. We will never know anyway so it is what it is.
With all due respect to Alex, there are a lot of tough draws. Some guys get it done anyway. Can’t expect an easy match when you hit the quarterfinals. Maybe Marinelli’s trajectory is different if 2020 happened. But he also never made the 3rd/4th place match (right?), so I don’t believe he would have gotten it done in 2020 either.
I also think bull was wrestling extremely well before the cancelled NCAA’s. I would have set him as the favorite going into the tourney and given him a 60% chance to wrestle Saturday night. Say what you want about Alex but he was never better than he was that season.
You could be right. We will never know. Alex manhandled everyone all year every year, got it done at B10s every year (so it wasn't just a tournament thing or a March thing), but just couldn't get over the hump at NCAAs. I'm sure nobody was more disappointed in that then Alex. He is one of my favorite Hawks and I yelled my fair share of obscenities when Lewis and Griffith beat him.
1997- 5 champs and a 2nd. Have had 4 or 5 finalists a few times since then, but no more than 3 Champs since Gable left. Closest was 2010, with 3 Champs and 2 2nds.
Personally I think he leveled up that year. Same with Lugo. But we'll never know will we. Damn shame.
We would have had 3 champs that maybe 4
This stuff is gold. The one year Iowa and tOSU (yes they too were headed for 4 champs that year) would have really showed the world how to wrestle at the NCAA tournament in was cancelled. Never mind all of those guys still had the years before and after for the most part. Iowa most likely would have won the title but had 1 champ (Spencer). PSU would have owned Sat night with Lee,Cenzo,Hall. Past results aren't proof of future success but they are the best indicator. What on earth has this coaching staff shown in the years before and after to make you think they would have peaked that team at the NCAA tournament? They would have blown it.
He literally did beat O’connor that year.
This is what I thought would happen years down the line. Fans of opposing teams are having revisionist history when PSU fans had all but submitted that year, and the biggest Iowa hater in wrestling(Askren) gave Iowa the hypothetical championship even though it never occurred. It wouldn’t have been close. In fact the only thing that could’ve stopped Iowa is if the tournament didn’t happen.
There are no guarantees, but Lugo was the best guy at the weight and he showed it all season. Still a looming semi with Mauller or Lewallen was going to be very tough and the Finals would have been out of an undefeated Kolodzik, Sasso or O’Connor.
He definitely would have had to earn it by being at his absolute best.
He definitely would have had to earn it by being at his absolute best.
B1G championships under Brands:
2008, 2009, 2010, 2015(tie with Ohio State), 2020, 2021
NCAA championships under Brands:
2008, 2009, 2010, 2021, 2nd to Ohio State in 2015
Exactly. They just haven't put a big dominant show on Sat. night. 2021 the title was won, but they didn't show up in the finals. Brands has put some really good (even great) teams on the mat multiple years but it has been a true challenge to extend it to Saturday night at the NCAA tournament. I just find it funny that the one year it would have all come together was the one year it never happened. The team title would have happened, but in my opinion it would have looked a lot like 2021. Team title without many guys finishing the deal.
Ah, I guess I read your post wrong. I thought you were talking team title hypothetical, not # of champs hypothetical.
It is very rare for a team to finish lower than Iowa at B1Gs, yet outplace them at NCAAs. Only happened twice in Brands tenure.
*NCAA Champs 2020
Amen- Iowa was safely going to win that team title. That was one hell of a team top to bottom.
Anyone hear anything new on Endene?
You cannot count both 20 and 21…
Had Covid not canceled 20, where Iowa was the huge favorite then none of those guys get the extra year for 21.
they either would have won in 20 and not in 21, or not in 20 but in 21.
Trolls gonna be trolls they have no life so they fester in dark looking for slugs to eat
None of Iowa's main guys except for Lugo got an extra year only for 2021. It would have been the same team in 2020 except Murin would have been at 141 and Lugo at 149.
The Covid BS absolutely cost Iowa a team title. Reasonable fans of any team have to admit this fact. I would only argue that individual champions for Iowa might not have went up too much. It sucks for all of those young men that they didn't even get the chance.
2022 would've been the reprieve year for 2020 because of the extra year, but Spencer ended up medically redshirting that year and that flipped PSU to the sizable favorite. If Spencer wins a title that year and Eierman doesn't get injured at the end of the regular season, Iowa probably does win their back to back, especially if Warner still gets runner-up. Would've been one of the more interesting NCAAs in recent memory because it wasn't a foregone conclusion before they blew the whistle.
If you replace "absolutely" with "likely" then I agree. Nothing in sports is absolute.
It was BS. One of my children was at a field event for nationals to become an All American and they cancelled it during the practice session. Imagine the disappointment. This child, also because of continuing covid BS, missed the next couple national opportunities. Finally, the last try of the senior year it was allowed.
Iowa finished 57.5 points behind PSU. Lee and Eierman were not making up 57.5 points.
It’s an exercise in futility, playing the what if game, but they definitely could have created a ton of momentum and made things very interesting. Lee scores 25ish. Eierman scores 20ish and bumps Lee down, losing PSU 4 points in the process.
After that, they just need that momentum to carry over to 1 guy out of Murin, Young, Marinelli or Cass and get them to win 1 more match. Hell, even Warner may have wrestled better in the Finals not having to carry all that pressure.
In the end, they lost. Nothing is going to change that. But, a healthy Lee and Eierman absolutely could have made that year extremely competitive.
Maybe silence from the insiders is the answer? I’m guessing he is getting ready for next year.
There aren’t any insiders left on this board
Well, it was my attempt to talk about something useful that happened in the past year or so.
