Foley's Friday Mailbag: December 13, 2013

Time to get into that New York state of mind.

There is always a feeling of hopelessness when a large bureaucratic body is left to decide to the future of a good-spirited, upwardly mobile organization. Wrestling, a sport with a reputation as a bottom-feeder among college athletic directors, has often taken the brutal end of the Louisville Slugger when it came to fortuitous moments. But this week our sport's fortune, and future, was changed forever.

The NCAA, in a moment of financial brilliance has chosen the media capital of the world to host the 2016 NCAA Wrestling Championships. It's a publicity coup for the sport and in a crowded field of common bid cities. Instead of wallowing in a media no-go zone like Kansas City, wrestling will be on the Madison Square Garden marquee.

There were leaders behind this push who in time will be recognized for their hard work, but in the meantime let's all bask in the glory of the achievement. Our community has shown loyalty and strength over the past year, and it's because of our passion and commitment to the sport we love that this type of accomplishment can be awarded to the sport.

To your questions ...

Wasn't it a disservice to Cael Sanderson for InterMat to drop Penn State from the No. 1 spot in the team rankings? Penn State is delicately managing their roster right now, and nobody better at doing that than Cael. Had the Hawkeyes really shown anything that indicated they will make up the 123.5 - 73 point deficit from last year's NCAAs? No, they hadn't, and after the debacle at Edinboro, InterMat rankings people have to feel a little sheepish, don't they?
-- Cal

Foley: I'm not on the InterMat ranking committee, but I'm sure they always feel sheepish and beaten down. Punks, right?

Anyway, these wimps created an objective measurement for team rankings based on the current individual rankings of a team's wrestlers, and how many points that ranking would earn them at NCAAs. It's just numbers.

On the non-ranking front, Penn State is still my favorite to win the NCAA title, but don't think for a moment that they have sealed the team race in December. Minnesota has three top-ranked wrestlers. Oklahoma looks incredible, and Iowa is Iowa. We are in for another classic NCAA tournament. Bonus points will matter, which makes Penn State a favorite, and every match, every round, meaningful.

Q: What is your assessment of the sites picked for the next few NCAAs (through 2018)? All the buzz seems to be about NYC, but how would you breakdown the positives and negatives of each site?
-- Jeff N.

Foley: As you can tell, I'm pretty excited by the New York City event, however, there are two other cities that have earned bids.

According to the details rumored to be in the package, the NCAA was guaranteed $500k by the state of Missouri for each event. St. Louis is a comfy spot for wrestling fans, and since the money was good the NCAA seemed to prefer it to also-rans like Louisville.

I think St. Louis can be awesome, but there are some major flaws to the city hosting every season -- namely the lack of good late-night dining options. I once ended up at a White Castle, sober, at midnight. Nobody should have to endure that stomach bomb while attending their sport's biggest event.

Cleveland gets a crappy rap for being depressed and awful. I don't LOVE Cleveland, but the food scene is pretty decent, downtown can be active and the hotels are class. The city is drivable from the Midwest, a very short jaunt for western Pennsylvania and the airport has enough flights from major hubs to ensure that we can all make the flight home.

I'm willing, with cautious optimism, to endorse Cleveland, though I acknowledge that the NCAA did butter me up by giving us New York City.

Q: Rob Koll and J Rob are both program builders. They did it with different platforms, one Ivy and one in the Big Ten. My question to you: Who is the next Rob Koll and J Robinson?
-- Ben L.

Foley: I got great news, there are many more than two program-building coaches ascending right now.

My guy Steve Garland is building an army of blunt-faced wrestlers with good grades at the University of Virginia.

Virginia Tech's Kevin Dresser has shown the skill to coach 'em from the crib and create massive publicity for his program.

Mark Cody will have Oklahoma winning an NCAA title in the next five years.

Stanford's Jason Borrelli has another top-ranked wrestler and the team is ranked No. 15 in the country.

Northwestern's Drew Pariano has the top-ranked recruiting class in the country and a handful of wrestlers who could contend for the NCAA championship in 2014.

Doug Schwab has taken Northern Iowa into the top 15.

That's a long list, but the point is that you should consider Coach Robinson and Coach Koll to be visionaries within college coaching. They have changed the idea of what is expected from a Division I wrestling coach. It's no longer good enough to just have hammers in your lineup. You need to be good at promotions and alumni relations. You need to be a priority of the athletic department, not dead weight. These guys are the new class and I expect that with more turnover in the coming years we'll have another few guys to add to the list.

MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME

Link: Wrestling at Sandy Hook

"Imagination is actually a dream." #StopNow



Princeton promotion



Q: Your thoughts on the Ben Askren situation? Why do so many wrestlers get away from wrestling when they enter MMA? Askren does very little but wrestle. I have yet to see anyone stop his takedowns. Scrambling, mat awareness, and the "feel" can never be matched by people outside out sport and no amount of "cross training" will ever neutralize it. To say otherwise is the greatest insult to our sport. When are these guys going to realize that you train to compliment wrestling, not transform into something completely different. See my attached video. King Mo thinks he can box. He attempted no takedown. He was on the World Team. If he wants to plant someone no one in UFC could stop him (other than another wrestler). Tim, you were an All-American, can you honestly say that if a good athlete who cross-trained to do standups could actually get out from you?
-- Frank C.

Foley: You make an excellent point. Askren has realized that with continued improvement in his jiu-jitsu and striking, he can focus on his wrestling, not work to escape it. There are a million ways to win and lose a fight, but Askren minimizes those risks by smothering his opponents on the ground. Sure, he gets knocked around on occasion and has been forced to fight off deep submissions, but his wrestling, and his absolute laser focus on using it, has left him relatively untouched.

I've been fortunate to train MMA in some major gyms and have found that if you're able to close the distance without getting your head knocked off, it's possible to take down almost any fighter who doesn't have a significant background in wrestling. Holding them there is also possible, though it's made more difficult by the gloves, which make it tough to lock your hands for mat returns and other control positions.

There are always exceptions, but for the most part if you were a good top wrestler in college, there are very few non-wrestlers who should be able to earn an escape in the cage.

Q: When's the next Backpoints podcast? Are you happy with the way homeland is closing the season? What's a Merkel or Merkle? Do you ever yell at the Student U broadcasters through your computer screen or TV? Is it me or all of a sudden freestyle seems more interesting than seven-plus minutes of 1-1 SV? Will Ed Ruth wrestle against Ohio State? Without him I see it five matches each? Wasn't the crowd at Iowa-Edinboro the way every match should be?
-- CB

Foley: Love the rapid-fire questions. Will answer in a similar fashion.

Month? We are on hiatus as I travel. Haven't seen the last two episodes, but I liked the Navy Seal episode -- no spoilers! Haven't watched this year's broadcasts, but yes. More exciting in 2013, but I prefer NCAA wrestling. I think so. 6-4. Sure, but that requires a top five team, plenty of promotion, and Bruce Baumgartner's mustache.

Q: What ever happened to the Living the Dream Medal Fund? Is it still active? I ask because I recently got calls from both DNC and RNC volunteers campaigning for donation in support of the 2014 mid-term elections. In my opinion, funding the dreams of our Olympic hopefuls can't be an "oh-its-an-Olympic-year-let's-raise-money" endeavor and should be treated with the same urgency in off years as in Olympic years. Not easy, I know, but we saw what happened when we, as a community, "dimmed the lights" on our sport.
-- Dylan M.

Foley: Yes. Our Olympic hopefuls are still being rewarded for their wins. Any perceived falloff in the fundraising campaign has to be attributed to the #SaveOlympicWrestling movement which mobilized much of USA Wrestling's fundraising operation. We will see a re-commitment to this effort, though it's unclear if the goals will be larger now that wrestling needs to show the IOC that it's not only worth its Olympic position, but that it can be profitable. To do that, we'll need to retain the best athletes.

InterMat senior writer T.R. Foley answers reader questions about NCAA wrestling, international wrestling, recruiting, or anything loosely related to wrestling. Questions can be sent to Foley's email account or Twitter.

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