165 toughest weight class top to bottom. No telling who will win that.

As far as 141 goes you have a good point about Harrison. I thought I already said that I thought Bryant ommitted Harrison by mistake. This time around there will be no cheering from the stands or questionable refs. It will just be straight up best man wins. I doubt anyone will understimate Hensley. And they should not understimate Morgan either. I think many don't give him a chance which is funny to me since he is the hotest wrestler entering the tournament. That is why Bryant featured him in his article. At the same time dont look past Savala. Or Parker. And of course there is always sleeper. As far as JUCO goes I know the kid that won Harrison's JUCO bracket is from my town and he told me all about that bracket and tournament. I know Harrison is good and I doubt anyone in the bracket is not respecting him. I would hope that Harrison has improved since a 7th in JUCO. Any All American placing is important and a sign of a successful wrestler. I still think Harrison will reach the finals (if he can get past Parker). I just don't think he will win it. I see the Kansas fans are staunch in their support but so are the fans from other teams. The other half of the bracket is tougher in MY opinion. Harrison has exposed how to beat Hensley and we will see if that works for others too. But make no mistake that Savala, Morgan or Parker could win this weight class too.

It will be a fun weight class to watch.

Bottom half of 141 is definitely the tougher side. There are two schools of thought on guys coming through the tougher side. The guy will be worn thin or he will be hittin' on all cylinders. I've heard Savala is nails but I think he's been injured. I don't know anything about Parker. Morgan is definitely in the mix to win this thing as his last loss was to Harrison back in...December?

Less than 24 hours to go time!

In the midst of rifling through the last four years of Division II championship brackets, regional results and my own memory from watching Division II wrestlers the past two years, I'll absolutely admit the look on Harrison, or lack there of, was an oversight. I wouldn't call it truly an error, since in my drawn out brackets, I've got him placing.

If anything, thanks for the fans in pointing this out. Back in the newspaper business, we had copy editors who checked for grammatical errors, but this was a statistical omission. Ike is right, in many weights, I mentioned wrestlers who were threats that weren't returning All-Americans. The focus of much of each weight breakdown was, in fact, on returning All-Americans, but let's be honest, those of us who know the Division II tournament know that nothing's a sure thing from one year to the next (RE: McMahill last season).

The one thing about the 'net vs. newspapers is I can go back and tweak things, but when it comes to previews, often times, I'll have the dubious distinction of making an upset pick abundantly clear within a preview. Sometimes a first trip to the big show can be a negative in terms of performance. I'm not clouding the fact I inadvertently looked over Harrison.

I keep a decent eye on Fort Hays State, since I work with former head coach Cody Bickley, but again, a 2,000-word preview in short time (err, quick turn-around), does lead to some things like this from time to time.

I admit the omission, don't take it personal, because it never is. There is the other side of the coin (if there was say, a fourth-place regional kid I overlook) is I can't list all 160 wrestlers in the preview, then it becomes relatively re-hashed bracket talk.

Harrison's a threat, to this I admit, as I do the oversight.

Thanks for the heads up -- Kyle Klingman and I will be on the webcast for NCAA.com starting Friday morning and Craig Sesker of USA Wrestling and myself will be there with full coverage on TheMat.com.

JB

Welcome to the forum Jason! Stick around, you'll see there is a pretty knowledgable fan base. We have more chat about Juco's and DII than anywhere I can find. I read your blog the other day and saw that your first trip through Kansas was just a couple weeks ago. You just happen to drive through the bleakest part of the state (no offense NW Kansas). By the way...Colby didn't drop their program they just hired former FHSU Tiger David Nordheus to take over. Thanks for the clarification on Harrison.

As soon as I wrote the note about Colby (because the last I'd heard was Lampe was leaving, starting a new program because Colby was axing it), Cody Bickley e-mailed me about the hiring of a new coach, which was a nice surprise.

I've been in Kansas before (Kansas City, but that hardly counts, yes, I drove across to the Kansas side, then I left and said "I'm not in Kansas anymore") ... but this was just a ride I'd never taken before. I've been to over 40-something states ... and then there was my trip to Azerbaijan along with USAWKS state chairman Mike Juby.

I've got a few KS shirts in my wardrobe.

Now that we've covered Harrison, what about my favorite, Cody Garcia? I hope he wins his 3rd National Championship. He's 45-0 with 29 pins and this year broke the previous UNO record for both season & career pins. He plans to teach and coach. I hope he will eventually settle down in Kansas where we can benefit from his talent and positive leadership. Here's a spotlight on Cody Garcia from the UNO website:


http://omavs.com/news/2010/3/8/WREST_0308103106.aspx?path=wrestling

Garcia is a beast. Valko was ranked ahead of him all season...Why? I know Valko is good but have the two ever went head to head? Garcia is definitely UNO's best wrestler.

Garcia may be the best this year, but UNO is full of very talented wrestlers. I think Elijah Madison is also a beast and one of the nicest guys you'll meet. He has the potential to be a 4 time All American and who knows, maybe multi-time champ.

Glad to see you on our pages JB!

If Harrison is not on his "A" game, he won't be champ? I think that goes without saying. I've never seen a National Champ who was not on their "A" game.

Jobe is fired up! I like him best that way. Come on somebody...talk some trash and keep him on his "A" game.

Well done Ike, well done.

Spladle - Your comments are valid. Harrison will certainly have to perform in order to win it. And, while I am as big of a supporter of Andre as anyone, he has had a few matches (wins and losses) in which he did not look as impressive as he is capable of.

One point of dissension I do have though is your implied discounting of his 7th place finish at juco nationals. He had four losses at the juco national tournament

Freshman year - first round loss to returning AA (and current teammate) Levi Younkin by one point and a loss in the All-American to Colby Crawford of Labette (believe he placed 4th that year) in the All-American round.

Andre's sophomore year, he lost to eventual finalist TJ Hepburn (who at the time was every bit as much of a DI talent as Albert White is/was) in the quarter-finals and then lost to the defending national Champion Matt Burns of Iowa Central in overtime to drop to the 7th place match.....and that was after beating a returning AA (and perhaps even a returning finalist - my memory fails me right now) just to earn AA status.

7th place at the NJCAA was nothing to sneeze about at 149 pounds that year and especially after considering the path Andre took to get there.

Thanks for the lively discussion. And good luck to all DII qualifiers and their fans this weekend.

Great post Les Brown and duly noted on the Juco Bracket. As I said before I don't "sneeze" at any All American achievement. If it appearded as a snub it definetly apogize.

I too applaude the lively discussion.

Good Luck to the Fort Hays State University wrestling team and bring back some hardware. RMG

Speaking of TJ Hepburn, he could win the thing! He is a stud on his feet.

Steel trap of a mind there Les. I'm sure I was at that tourney and I can't recall those details.

I agree with thinking Hepburn had the same heat that Albert White had. White wrestles more conservative and holds position better though.

Thanks, Ike. I missed a couple of things though and had to check the brackets when I got home.

It was at 149, not 141 as I had thought. And the name of the guy that Andre beat in the All-American round was Tim Burdine of Spartanburg.....although he was a returning finalist from the prior year as I seemed to recall.

It's been a while since Harrison had a tough loss though and his last two have been to dominant mat wrestlers. I think Hensley is good on his feet though too. He definitely won't be choosing down against the tough riders.

157...Grater has impressed me this semester with his chest out and radiating confidence. There is a lot of parity in this wt. but Grater can win this thing. I like that potential Ivanov match in the semi's. I don't like it so much if it isn't Ivanov. Still...I think this is Grater's time to shine and he is feeling it. He is better than Deguero (ranked #1) I don't care if he just lost to him. He was in so many times in that match. I loved the 30 second pin Grater had on him when they dualed. Deguero is slippery though and he knows how to scramble and spaghetti wrestle. That is the reason he is so tough. Spaghetti and Olive Oil is what I call him.

Ivanov is the real deal. I know this is folkstyle but he was a 4 time Bulgarian Freestyle national champion and was named outstanding wrestler of the Bulgarian national tournament in 2006. Also placed fifth in freestyle at the National European Tournament in 2006.

He is still young, but intense. He is 16-2 after the winter break. I also hope we get to see a Grater - Ivanov semi rematch of the MIAA Dual that had Grater winning 3-2.