Some of my thoughts:
I have less concern about RBY after last night than before - not that there was a concern, but DeSanto HAS beaten him before and you always have that "nagging" feeling. DeSanto is clearly a level below RBY IMO - last night seems to be best case for him. I just don't see a situation where DeSanto is scoring from neutral without a clear RBY mistake which rarely, rarely happens.
I feel the same re: 174 - despite Carter looking really good, there is always that element of doubt because let's face it, last year you would have to lean Kemerer in a best of five. But despite the close score, CS has clearly jumped a level and is the superior guy moving forward. Old man Kemerer still is a bit wily, but give me CS all day long as a betting man.
Obviously, last night was great for Dean, but more importantly, that was exactly the match that Warner wants to wrestle - early TD and then sit on the lead, which he is excellent at - and Dean was able to score the win.
Really don't agree with everyone who is putting BB up a few levels when he heads to 141 next year - been thinking this for a while and last night confirms it for me. He's clearly not a threat to AA at 149 - Murin is just better than him at this point. He's had two years up here now. You give one of the top 141s a half a season up a weight and they are not matching up like that with Murin. BB needs a lot of work in more than just getting to the right weight class to be a contender.
Marinelli is probably a bad matchup for Berge, but Berge was completely done in the 3rd. He is what I expected - R16/R12 type with best-case low podium with a great bracket. Needs another month to get his sea-legs but that is not going to give him a huge bump this late in his career.
AB looked like he gassed about 1/2 way through the match. Maybe an adrenaline dump, especially after CS great match and his more active than usual first period.
Not concerned about the two failed upper body attempts by Kerk, but the match brought out two things to me. First, Iowa clearly had a plan after seeing his snatch attempts against Parris and forced Kerk to the opposite side where he is not as comfortable. Secondly, the thigh-pry ride was clearly still a problem for Kerk, it didn't look like he was even attacking it correctly although that could have had something to do with Cassiopi's strength. That is going to be the blueprint against him going forward by the top guys - he's going to need to adjust.
Kind of a brain fart by Nick in the last 20 seconds with the match wrapped, he did the last thing you want to do against Eierman, but managing a match is not really what Nick does - which usually is a good thing for him. Eierman is just a dangerous guy to wrestle - he's always a threat.
Feel really good about us after last night. I was worried about the outcome - really felt that last night was a toss-up given where it was and how that was going to affect some of the close matchups. We could have lost last night and I would have still felt pretty good that we were going to come out on top later in the year. But that was a great performance in a place that throws adversity at you. Stay injury-free and we're in great shape. I don't see any Iowa guys that wrestled last night that I think are top of the podium, and it's not a stretch to see them shut out of the finals. Their 157 is really struggling, 149 is a low podium ceiling, and even their top guys look very vulnerable. On the other hand, I feel really good about our chances of having a bunch of guys wrestle on Saturday night. It shouldn't be surprising given our history, but you should never take it for granted because of how difficult it is.
