Wrestling 2025 NCAA Tourney thread
- Thread starter Leonard23
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These problems go beyond Goodale though. We have the resources for football and basketball as well and while those programs have been better recently, they’re not the powers they could be. Rutgers as an athletics department has an image problem.
There's only 75 division 1 wrestling programs, and many are tiny programs with no funding. As a member of B1G, being ranked is table stakes.
The image problem is because Rutgers wasn't invested in winning for many decades and was going through the motions. NJ likes to eat its own, so there's always a double standard when it comes to Rutgers. It's pretty hard to build a consistent top 5-10 team when many of the NJ private school parents and coaches (and club coaches) push the elite local NJ recruits elsewhere, because they think they're too good for Rutgers. That's why we've had to look out of state more.
Until recruiting picks up big time and we consistently land multiple (3-5) elite recruits each year, don't expect better results or top 10 finishes.
Rutgers University has an Image problem, top students and athletes don’t want to attend the school. The rich demographic in NJ looks down on RU.
In order to place high as a team at the NCAAs you need several studs like Purdue for example with Ramos and Blaze. The only time we had that was with Suriano and Ash. We have been trying to get that caliber of recruit since but have not succeeded. Fault us for that. We have upped our sights but have not been victorious. Am I satisfied with 33 points no. Am I happy with being ranked 11 in the country dual meet wise, yes. Losing all 3 blood round matches hurts.
Wrestling is all about coaching staffs, wrestlers are not football or basketball players, they march to their own beat. Yes, great facilities are nice, and NIL money always helps, but great wrestlers will put up with what we would consider disgusting and gross facilities if it means working with a coaching staff they think can help them get to AA status and win national championships. I don't think there is another sport where coaching perceived excellence itself, apart from resources, makes such a profound difference in the level of recruiting.
I'm replying to your post, but this entire message is not directed to you:
You make excellent points. Though, I do think our recruiting has picked up already. We did lose on a few guys that we really needed though.
With last year's class and the incoming studs we have coming, we're definitely going to improve. That said, we have serious questions at 197 and Heavyweight. We really need some big time upper weight recruits. And we've really struggled with that.
My observations with the team is that they're just not as strong as other squads. We always look undersized. Our top and bottom game needs improvement against the top schools. Conditioning for some guys needs improvement too. A lot easier said than done...
If there ever was a change in coaches, I'd really hate to dissolve some of the good things that we've been building. The PA pipeline is for real now. I wouldn't want a complete tare down.
Next year's squad is going to have a lot more energy at 65 and 75 and 97, maybe even 49 (depending if Clark is done or not). I also do think that Dean, Shawver and SCW come back much stronger (even Joey).
Everyone from coaches, athletes to fans is disappointed with this outcome. It's going to hurt for a bit. I just don't think it's all doom and gloom though.
Shit, not to take anything away from PSU (because I can't) but even this tournament falls as a slight (notice I say slight) disappointment. This was supposed to be their best team ever with 8 potential champs. Now only 3 are in the finals, and it is very well possible they lose those 3 matches. Imagine that?
There were two national champs and a finalist that didn't even AA. Bottom line is anything can happen. Our guys fought hard. We came into the tournament limping and had really tough draws. I think that any other year we'd have 2-3 AAs with the guys that wrestled for us. I think our guys will be more confident, hungrier and more focused going into next season.
I've called for the coaches heads a few times in the past, but there's only a few select people that can shock the program and change the game. I once thought Hahn could be a good choice, but not sold on him anymore.
It would have to be a JB, Dake, or Snyder caliber, maybe Colat.
Rutgers isnt the pride of NJ. That's true. Yet recruiting rankngs have been decent. While generational talent may go elsewhere, there is still talent to place inside top 20. Rutgers is about to finish quite a bit below that.
On a positive note, I think the Labriola hire paid dividends st 184. The influx of young credentialed assistants might really help with development.
Yes and no. They will still apply the same double standard to Rutgers, and make up other excuses, just like they did when we had Pritzlaff, a 2x national champ, 4x AA and world bronze medalist. NJ coaches wanted Buxton on staff, yet they didn't send us their elite recruits anyway. There are always more excuses they can throw out. Short of hiring JB, Dake or Snyder, which isn't happening, we'd have to pay considerably more in NIL than the next school to even get those elite recruits to possibly pick us over say a VT, and they aren't picking us over an Ivy or blue blood.
It's definitely not doom and gloom, and I'll continue to support the program. We have some good things going, like making inroads in PA, great facilities and match attendance/atmosphere, but the reality is we aren't landing the elite recruits or enough of them, and I don't have an answer how we can. JB, Dake or Snyder would obviously move the needle but that's not happening. Hahn and Kolat wouldn't.
The crazy part is this was not considered a down year preseason, quite the opposite, some on here touted this as our best team ever projecting 3-5AA w no holes in the lineup…. Lol
We might be better off just playing the portal game (Suriano/Rivera/Bulsak).. of all the elite recruits we have ever recruited, besides Ashnault, literally almost none has ever panned out…
Aragona, Soldano, Winston, Glasgow, Hamilton.. what’s ur definition of “elite recruits” top 20 p4p? We have landed a whole bunch of guys around top 50 p4p class recruits.
Hey man it’s the truth, we don’t have the best track record of producing with elite recruits.. of the next tier of recruits, some have been qualifiers some have not.. we have done best with finding the “diamond in the rough” type of recruits.. the Perroti, Theobold, Zaneetti, hopefully SCW.
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Sammy Alvarez 7th Place!
Donnie was waiting in the tunnel waiting to congratulate him. True class and leadership!!!
Donnie was waiting in the tunnel waiting to congratulate him. True class and leadership!!!
Down to 35th and there's only 66 schools represented. However, don't fret we could only fall one or two more spots if everything goes right.
Absolutely pathetic. But all is good. Could it really be much worse? Oh but we finished 11th in duals and beat Maryland. Lol. we are 13 of 14 B10 teams with only MSU behind us.
Thats how far we have fallen.
But many will tell you NCAA scoring is stupid but same people last year say its all about March. Everyone to change the narrative that fits.
Bottom line, this was a horrendous season and major changes are needed.
But dont worry, there is always next year. Lol
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Aragona flopped but was probably overrated coming in. A year prior to his #6 overall ranking, he was losing to Jake Benner in the state tournament. I thought he’d be good but always felt his p4p ranking was inflated
Soldano looks like a style problem. He’s still talented but his style hasn’t translated.
Winston had injury problem. Glasgow had off the mat problem. Hamilton found a successful career in a different sport. Not the best examples.
I don’t feel the coaches are to blame. I do think we need more high end recruits. I don’t know how we’re ever going to get them here.
You have to really look at rankings and what other schools are recruiting them. Aragona and Glasgow weren't recruited by those better schools, like Ashnault was, and they also had academic issues. Both were risks that other schools shied away from due to the academic issues and some other things. Glasgow got hurt senior year of HS, couldn't get in and didn't wrestle for a yr, then got hurt again here.
Soldano hasn't worked out because he has always relied on the elevator/cement mixer at every level, but that doesn't work consistently in college, and he's had to deal with concussions/injuries now too.
Every school has similar issues with recruits not meeting expectations, but we've taken more risks, since we can't get the more elite NJ recruits.
At least have the decency to post where you saw it instead of just claiming lots of noise...
Didn’t see the match
Soooooooo we have coaches not challenging something that very clearly should have been challenged? Yikes
Goodale isn't going anywhere for at least a year. Rutgers doesn't have a President or AD right now which basically gives the whole athletic department a reprieve for a year.
We challenged after UNCO challenged, so I'm not sure what they mean. Maybe they wanted us to challenge first?
It was during the second period when Dean got ridden out. Somewhere around the middle of the 2nd with Dean in bottom position, Dean wound up getting Poulin's leg and working to where he was on top of Poulin with Poulin's back exposed to the mat. Poulin still had one of Dean's legs while Dean was sitting on him with Poulin's back towards the mat and ref for some reason called a stalemate. Dean was emphatic for them to throw a brick to review the sequence. The corner of Pollard and Mytych refused and told him to wrestle.
No idea why Dean wanted the brick but he wanted one bad. IMO at that point Dean's head was a mess as he was more concerned with the brick, so I would have just whipped one at him as we had plenty and talked to him in the corner during the challenge to get his head right.
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Losing Dean would really really suck….Id bet money he’ll AA next year
To be fair, there's a plethora of micro moments that could have changed the outcome of his tournament. These are the moments in life when we must learn to take ownership of our faults, instead of blaming others. Bottom line is that Stevo rode Dean the entire match and Dean had zero response to it.
The coaches probably saw something that we didn't see from the angle that we were all watching. If they lost (which is probably what they were thinking), then we wouldn't have had the ability to throw the brick when they gave Stevo 3 in the last 30 seconds. Dean was up at the time and had the momentum. His body language changed after that.
Losing Dean would certainly suck. But if it's any consolation, Dean did share an RU post after he re-tweeted (or whatever they call it now) that persons comment.
Also, these are the times we live in now with NIL. He may very well go, or it might be a powerplay move to get some money. That said, the going-rate for someone who hasn't AA'd can't be as high as someone who has, even though I think he's right there with most of the guys.
The coaches probably saw something that we didn't see from the angle that we were all watching. If they lost (which is probably what they were thinking), then we wouldn't have had the ability to throw the brick when they gave Stevo 3 in the last 30 seconds. Dean was up at the time and had the momentum. His body language changed after that.
Losing Dean would certainly suck. But if it's any consolation, Dean did share an RU post after he re-tweeted (or whatever they call it now) that persons comment.
Also, these are the times we live in now with NIL. He may very well go, or it might be a powerplay move to get some money. That said, the going-rate for someone who hasn't AA'd can't be as high as someone who has, even though I think he's right there with most of the guys.
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I don’t blame the coaches for not being able to coach them up.. bc quite frankly wherever Aragona went, including Cambell, he woulda flopped.
I blame the coaches for not being able to identify which elite recruits are overrated or not worth the resources, and apparently we blew a good deal of resources on Aragona/Glasgow that set as back…. Besides Ash, we haven’t gotten the guys with strong mentality, loves the sport, and rdy to be a student of the game…
Same goes with Soldano why are we spending resources on a style that might not translate same with Hamilton 2 sport athletes are risky… unless they were worth the price to gamble on…
Even when Winston was healthy he was never on the lvl of the #1 recruit who was his rival at the time.
Not best examples? What other examples you want me to give we only gotten a handful of truly elite recruits…. And sadly the majority of them haven’t panned out that’s just facts. Which is why I suggested maybe going portal route to get the gtd production guys could be better option.
Good, I like Clark, he’s one of the guys that’s shown steady improvement year over year.. and that is a lot more rare then ppl think
I know this Leonard, I pay attention to which elite recruits work/dont work for other teams.. and I’m telling you all these elite recruits all have impressive resume… but it all mostly comes down to the mindset.. who’s ready to truly become a student of the game or who’s ready to just be w.e. We don’t have a great record when it comes to identifying the “right guys” when it comes to elite recruits.
You might have made a good point of us taking more risk on the elite recruits that no big schools want tho for the price.
