Five Penn State Wrestling takeaways from the Big Ten Tournament
Penn State had an up and down showing at this past weekend's Big Ten Wrestling Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska.
On one hand, the Nittany Lions claimed four individual titles, put another in the finals, and automatically qualified nine of their 10 wrestlers for the NCAA Tournament in Detroit.
On the other, Penn State came into the tournament considered the favorite to win the team title but came away with a second-place finish, 1.5 points behind a strong Michigan squad.
With that said, here are my top five takeaways from the Nittany Lions' showing.
YOU HAVE TO WRESTLE UNTIL IT HITS 0:00
Penn State wrestling under Cael Sanderson has been fantastic in a number of areas, but one that often goes overlooked is how good the Nittany Lions are in short time and overtime scenarios. When the rubber hits the road, it's almost always a Penn State wrestler scoring late and getting their hand raised.
In Lincoln, that wasn't the case.
The issues started off early, with second-seeded Drew Hildebrandt getting knocked off in sudden victory by seventh-seeded Michael DeAugustino. But Hildebrandt wouldn't be the only one guilty of this.
At 149, Beau Bartlett dropped his first consolation match of the weekend to Rutgers' Mike Van Brill in tiebreakers and never even threatened to score in the two-minute sudden victory.
Brady Berge, who by all accounts had a fantastic weekend, missed an opportunity to reach the Big Ten finals when he was caught flat-footed in his sudden victory loss to Michigan's Will Lewan in the semis.
The most notable and perhaps most egregious lack of awareness late in a match came in Greg Kerkvliet's semifinal loss to Iowa's Anthony Cassioppi at heavyweight. Kerkvliet dictated most of the match and led 4-2 late in the third period with riding time about to tick over a minute. The two then got in a scramble situation on the edge with under 10 seconds to go. Rather than tie up Cassioppi's ankles and either let the clock run out or force the referee to call a meaningless stall, Kerkvliet let go of Cassioppi's legs and looked to turn away out of bounds, giving up a reversal to send the match to sudden victory. Once there, Kerkvliet appeared totally disinterested and unable to regroup as Cassioppi quickly notched the winning takedown.
The issues even affected defending national title winner Aaron Brooks, who gave up a takedown late in his finals match to Michigan's Myles Amine that helped send it to overtime. Once there, Amine struck again almost immediately to take the 184-pound title and, in essence, the team title as well.
Penn State will have to be sharper in Detroit.
BRADY BERGE IS ON THE PATH TO BECOMING AN ALL-AMERICAN
So, about that Berge fellow.
Brady Berge's career at Penn State has been up and down to say the least, and that's mostly the case due to things beyond his control. But after returning to Penn State in January and then dropping down to 157 just a month ago, the graduate senior has looked fantastic.
Despite his brief lapse against Lewan, Berge was awesome in Lincoln. He scored the 15th-most team points of any wrestler in the conference despite not making the finals and picked up three ranked wins, including two over Iowa's Kaleb Young and a first-period pin of Purdue's Kendall Coleman.
It's a bit strange to thing that Berge hasn't been an All-American yet in his career, but if he wrestles the way he did in Lincoln at the national tournament, that won't be true for very long.
MAX DEAN IS THE FAVORITE AT 197-POUNDS
Going into the Big Ten Tournament in Lincoln, Max Dean was the top-ranked wrestler in the country. But he wasn't the top-seeded wrestler in the tournament. That distinction went to Nebraska's Eric Schultz.'
After Dean avenged his only loss of the year with a controlling 5-2 win over Michigan State's Cam Caffey in the semis and Schultz topped Michigan's Patrick Brucki, the two were set for a finals showdown.
In that match, Dean used a first-period takedown and over one minute of riding time to claim a 4-2 victory, grabbing a Big Ten Title and cementing his spot as the favorite in Detroit.
But his path to a potential title is fraught with landmines. The 197-pound weight class is one of if not the deepest in the country with plenty of parity. Names that stand out as guys who could stand atop the podium rather than Dean are Wyoming's Stephen Buchanan, Pitt's Nino Bonaccorsi, Schultz, Caffey and a slew of others. But for now, Dean is the top dog.
THE BEST ABILITY IS RELIABILITY
Nick Lee won his first Big Ten title on Sunday. Yes, you read that right. Lee, a returning national champion who has been a title contender now for seemingly a decade, had never won an individual Big Ten championship. A pair of third and second-place finishes adorned his mantle, but not he's claimed his spot on the top step.
He did so, in part, by being durable. Now, Lee may certainly have won the tournament regardless. In fact, I think many expected him to win the tournament regardless. But he won in part because neither Sebastian Rivera of Rutgers nor Jaydin Eierman of Iowa were able (willing?) to take the mat for big-time matchups
Rivera, who admittedly is coming off a minor knee surgery, wrestled a pair of matches before medically forfeiting out of his semifinal contest with Eierman. While Eierman wrestled one match before receiving the forfeit from Rivera and forfeiting out himself in the finals against Nick Lee.
Good work if you can get it for Lee.
The results all-but ensure Eierman and Rivera will be on the same side of the bracket in Detroit while Lee will be the top seed, likely opposite Pitt's Cole Matthews and potentially Stanford's Real Woods on the other side, both of whom won their respective conference tournaments over the weekend.
PENN STATE IS STILL THE FAVORITE HEADING TO DETROIT
Don't get it twisted, the Nittany Lions still head into the NCAA Tournament as the title favorites. Perhaps significantly so.
That's not a knock on the Wolverines, who wrestled a fantastic tournament and will have the benefit of a home-state crowd in two weeks. But the smaller fields and six first-round byes limited the chances for Penn State to rack up bonus points and aided some Michigan wrestlers like Lewan who otherwise wouldn't be expected to make the finals.
Those factors, coupled with the fact that the Nittany Lions left a good bit of a meat on the bone in Lincoln, make it so that Penn State walks into Detroit as hunted, rather than the hunter.
If you don't trust me, ask 174-pound champion Carter Starocci, who said in his post-match interview, "we're a lot better than Michigan."
I'm sure Cael Sanderson will appreciate that comment.
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