Ncaa championships

[Bearhugger]

WVU finishes 32 which isn't terrible. If we had Sullivan and Adams we are probably a top 25 team.

But WVU didn't have them. Although I do not know, I would guess Adams moved on because he didn't want to continue wasting his time. Again, this is simply my guess. I am probably wrong.

[Bearhugger]

There’s no sugar coating it. The WVU dual meet record was poor and the Big 12 and NCAA team tournament results were no better. Very, very happy that Peyton Hall stepped up, but one 8th place AA is not nearly enough team success at this point. It’s very disappointing.

Coach Flynn will be entering his 5th year at WVU and the bloom is off the rose. He was a solid hire and had an incredible record at Edinboro at the NCAA tournament. Not sure why the PA recruiting pipeline he had at Edinboro has not translated into WVU recruiting success. WVU has better facilities than schools like Pitt that are out-recruiting us every year.

I like Coach Flynn and certainly am not bashing him, but I doubt even he is satisfied with the program results so far (at least I hope he isn’t). If this was WVU football, I’m sure the fans would be restless. Hiring Parkersburg native Kyle Bratke from FloWrestling as the new director of operations was brilliant and gave me hope that Coach Flynn is thinking out of the box to right the ship. But as the football saying goes, Coach Flynn might have the X’s and the O’s in place, but now he has to improve on the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s.

Penn State is the gold standard. Team title and FIVE NCAA Champions. 50% of the individual champions are from WVU. Thanks to Peyton Hall, WVU had one wrestler place 8th in the NCAA. Five Individual NCAA Champions vs an 8th place finisher. That is the gap.

[Bearhugger]

I can't disagree with too much that is being said here except for the part that 1 All American and a 32nd place finish is "fairly terrible", that was just a dumb comment. Is it great, no but it is the second year in a row WVU has had an All American and a second wrestler in the Round of 12 and it is the third year in row of having an All American. That is definitely progression in my opinion. The progress has been slow and some results just aren't good but it is hard to win dual meets when you only have 2 guys that wrestle with consistency like Peyton and Killian. The team is coming along slowly but surely.

As far as recruiting goes, I have said it on here before and I stand by the assertion that Morgantown is a hard place to recruit because it just is not a very desirable city and it has a toxic party environment that a lot a top level athletes would want to avoid.

I also believe one of the biggest reasons for the slow progression is the lack of practice partners. A good RTC can absolutely provide the desire for higher level athletes and provide the ability for a team to have high level training partners. However, I think the problem is deeper than that and it is not the only answer to the problem. All D1 programs want to recruit as much Tier 1 talent as they can because these are the guys that will consistently qualify for the national tournament and typically place. But everyone on the roster can't be a Tier 1 athlete, the training partners more often than not are Tier 2 athletes that are a step behind talent wise. These are the guys that don't wrestle with as much consistency and if they would qualify for the national tournament probably won't gain you too many points. The Tier 1 athletes are naturally recruited from all over the country which costs a lot more money than recruiting someone from in state. So, if you can recruit the Tier 2 athletes from in state at a lesser cost, you can naturally have more training partners than what you can if you have to recruit the majority of your athletes from out of state at a higher cost. This is where WVU is as opposed to say Oklahoma, Northen Iowa, and even Pitt. Those teams save a lot money because they can recruit a lot of in state talent and they have more money left over to go grab more Tier 1 individuals.

So after all that crap here is my theory: if you want to vastly improve the state of WVU's wrestling team then we must vastly improve the state of high school wrestling first. This will provide for larger recruiting classes that can compete at a D1 level giving WVU a lot more bang for its buck and more chances to grab those Tier 1 and Tier 2 athletes from right in here in WV. Which in turn will lead to more support because the fans will know more of the athletes competing. And before long with the added support from the larger fan base the RTC will begin to get bigger and stronger.

I agree that major development of WV's born and raised wrestlers is key to WVU's improvement. If Hall was born and raised in Kentucky or Tennessee, would he have chose WVU?????

[Bearhugger]

To use the false stereotype that Morgantown is party central as a reason for lackluster wrestling recruiting is beyond ridiculous. Every college town has its temptations and quality athletes know how to avoid them. Morgantown has undergone a tremendous facelift and seen extraordinary growth since I was a student at WVU in the late 1970s. Compared to the Oakland neighborhood where Pitt is located, housing in Morgantown is like the Ritz. Unfortunately there are no medals for making it to the Round of 12. West Virginia wrestling fans have a right to expect more.

I attended the OVAC v. MAC (PA) conference all-star match tonight at West Liberty. An unheralded wrestler from Chartiers Valley high school in the WPIAL beat last week’s Ohio D-II state champion. Yes, you read that correctly. In another match a WPIAL champ (4th place in PA states) beat a 2X WV state champ. The WPIAL champ is going to Clarion, I believe. Morgantown > Clarion. This Friday night at the big Dapper Dan event, the PA state team will give the USA all star team from the other 49 states a run for its money.

The point is: Pennsylvania wrote the book on wrestling. A few states may have read it, but Pennsylvania wrote it. Period. If you want to win at the D-1 college level in wrestling, fill your roster with Pennsylvania wrestlers. WVU needs to recruit better in the nearby WPIAL if it wants to be competitive.

Many of us are failing to see the evidence that the current WVU staff is doing enough to develop the wrestlers they have. Peyton Hall made a huge impact on day one. If that was due to "coaching magic" at WVU, then why isn't the magic working on the rest of the team????

[Bearhugger]

WVU finishes 32 which isn't terrible. If we had Sullivan and Adams we are probably a top 25 team.

Agreed. Adams could of won this entire thing. As long as he didn’t have to face Buchannon since he obviously has his number lol.

WVU needs to hire Wyoming's staff.

[Bearhugger]

To use the false stereotype that Morgantown is party central as a reason for lackluster wrestling recruiting is beyond ridiculous. Every college town has its temptations and quality athletes know how to avoid them. Morgantown has undergone a tremendous facelift and seen extraordinary growth since I was a student at WVU in the late 1970s. Compared to the Oakland neighborhood where Pitt is located, housing in Morgantown is like the Ritz. Unfortunately there are no medals for making it to the Round of 12. West Virginia wrestling fans have a right to expect more.

I attended the OVAC v. MAC (PA) conference all-star match tonight at West Liberty. An unheralded wrestler from Chartiers Valley high school in the WPIAL beat last week’s Ohio D-II state champion. Yes, you read that correctly. In another match a WPIAL champ (4th place in PA states) beat a 2X WV state champ. The WPIAL champ is going to Clarion, I believe. Morgantown > Clarion. This Friday night at the big Dapper Dan event, the PA state team will give the USA all star team from the other 49 states a run for its money.

The point is: Pennsylvania wrote the book on wrestling. A few states may have read it, but Pennsylvania wrote it. Period. If you want to win at the D-1 college level in wrestling, fill your roster with Pennsylvania wrestlers. WVU needs to recruit better in the nearby WPIAL if it wants to be competitive.

To say that WVU is party central is a false stereotype is crazy, do a quick google search on the top partying universities. And to say that being a reason as to why kids don't want to go there is a stereotype within itself, along with saying that Morgantown is better than Clarion. Some people prefer a smaller atmosphere. I for one think that Glenville, WV is better than Morgantown, because I prefer small towns with minimal stop lights and besides the fact that is where I went to college. Just because you went there and hold the WVU near and dear to your heart does not mean that everyone does and should. Trust me, I am not running the place the down, I am looking at it from someone that has no emotional ties to the town and it is not for everyone.

As far as your comments on the wrestlers from western PA, you are correct, there are a lot good wrestlers that come from that area and many teams try to recruit as many of those kids as possible. And yes I agree that WVU needs to reach out and recruit the best kids they can find, no matter what state they from. The thought behind my idea was why would anyone pay the same price for 3 recruits from PA when they could get 5 recruits with as much talent from right here in WV and makes it better for your brand along with gaining fans and revenue from the local community. The answer to that is because right now in the state WV it is hard to find wrestlers with the talent level as the best kids from PA.

Marshall University had plenty of beer and boobs. I graduated in 4 years. This party talk is a convenient excuse. If a wrestler needs fewer stop lights and fewer bars to succeed, then he isn't D1 material to begin with.

[Bearhugger]

There will be people who celebrate this team performance and remind us that we are going in the right direction. I disagree but it is past time to argue. It is to the point that mentioning the direction of the program is like talking about current national/world events to the people who voted in this administration, some people are blind to the obvious and no amount of facts will wake them up. As a long time donor, I personally hoped for better from WVU. A man who took over and preached accountability and cleaning up the party culture has seemingly backed away from his promises.

For those pointing to WVU's party reputation and somehow linking that to Coach Flynn's recruiting and retention woes, Party School Rankings just came out and I tongue in cheek submit the following
#1 Alabama (they seem to do pretty well on the gridiron, as Jon Perkins says, this place is "a toxic party environment that a lot a top level athletes would want to avoid" and it shows on the football field)
#2 WVU (Clearly the high ranking hurts our wrestling program. Who could possibly land recruits with a party school image?)
#6 Penn State (Five champions and a team title, those guys didn't get the memo about it being "a toxic party environment that a lot a top level athletes would want to avoid" Our facilities are as nice as theirs. Has to be the 4 spot difference in the party rankings, #6 must not be as toxic)
#8 Iowa (Their football and wrestling almost always out perform ours. How are they getting blue chips being a party school?)
#17 Ohio University (They destroyed us this year. Their lower ranked but better prepared wrestlers partied all over our guys)
#23 Wisconsin (Probably why Braxton chose a Badger scholarship over a WVU walkon offer, the Cheeseheads are lower ranked as a party school)
#35 MIzzouri (We are nowhere near Mizzouri. O'Toole chose the Tigers over WVU because of the party school rankings)

How has Peyton Hall escaped the "toxic party atmosphere" that has plagued WVU's team for years??? Is he the Omega Man? Perhaps we need to draw some of his blood and make an antiserum and then inject it into the rest of the team????