Toggle sidebar

What Did You Expect? - NCAA Team Performance Relative to Expectations

W

Wrestleknownothing

All-Conference
Oct 30, 2021
1,685
4,482
113
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Cali_Nittany1, InTheCircle, kingstown and 5 others
WahlbergTheGreat

WahlbergTheGreat

Junior
Jul 2, 2025
74
376
53
Wrestleknownothing said:
wrestling.guru

Expectations - 2026 NCAA Tournament Viewed Through the Lens of What Could Have Been | Wrestling.Guru

Expectations are funny things. There is no universal standard for them. We can both look at the same set of facts and data about the world but develop wildl ...
wrestling.guru wrestling.guru

Just dropped a new post analyzing team performance relative to expectations.
Click to expand...
So really, we peaked in December when we were essentially predicted to tie for 2nd and score 108.. MSU will not be happy to know this.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: Cedarfalls, AndreTheHawk, Hawkeye54545 and 11 others
S

sdvike

All-Conference
Feb 23, 2016
908
2,033
93
Many have expectations based off of the Hawks some 50 years ago. Sorry wrestlersknownothing, couldn't resist and know this will blow up quickly now.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Wrestleknownothing
Nashville_Hawk

Nashville_Hawk

All-Conference
Dec 31, 2015
706
1,851
93
  • Like
Reactions: InTheCircle, WahlbergTheGreat, kingstown and 2 others
dtripp26

dtripp26

Heisman
Oct 29, 2003
10,340
30,877
113
Wrestleknownothing said:
wrestling.guru

Expectations - 2026 NCAA Tournament Viewed Through the Lens of What Could Have Been | Wrestling.Guru

Expectations are funny things. There is no universal standard for them. We can both look at the same set of facts and data about the world but develop wildl ...
wrestling.guru wrestling.guru

Just dropped a new post analyzing team performance relative to expectations.
Click to expand...
we suck again GIF
 
  • Haha
  • Love
Reactions: Sir Pin Alot, Twoooooo, WahlbergTheGreat and 2 others
_Mjolnir_

_Mjolnir_

Sophomore
Aug 23, 2025
85
177
33
Knowing we are so far behind the top 2 and even 3 teams kills any talk about team expectations.

Was happy to cheer each Hawkeye wrestler at Nationals. However the state of the program is a sinking ship. Even some wrestlers overachieving still left the team way behind where PSU and Okie St are. Iowa isn't closing the gap. The gap is increasing.

You have to look at the wrestling landscape. Is Iowa doing anything to compete in the future with PSU and Okie St? Those finding any silver lining right now are the ones willing to continue moving the expectations back each year. You act like your words have strength and meaning but they're hollow words that spread weakness like disease.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: kegan_rivals316901, Hawkeye7, jerseyhawk and 1 other person
WahlbergTheGreat

WahlbergTheGreat

Junior
Jul 2, 2025
74
376
53
1stplacehawk said:
Looking at it this way makes almost zero sense for Iowa. Endene left the team after 12/15, lol. He was ranked 3rd on 12/15. Angelo was ranked 1st on 12/15, and defaulted to 6th while injured as hell. Do you people have any critical thinking skills?
Click to expand...
1. Can’t speak for everyone, but I was mostly kidding and poking at MSUs peaking thread.
2. I said I was mostly kidding, but health (Ferrari & Endene) and team management (Endene) are factors that still count toward peaking.

My actual thoughts are that we wrestled somewhat close to expectations coming into the season at nationals. Not bad. Would like to exceed team expectations and have the expectations be higher, but not bad. 7 AAs is good. Gabe AAing at 97 is incredible. Great. But expectations and results still need to be much higher IMO.

As someone who was in support of making the move for Taylor a couple years ago (before Okie State went and got him), it’s tough to be super happy about 1 finalist and no champs when Okie State had multiple champs the second straight year under Taylor and had 3 true freshmen win the thing and another freshman in the finals. I wish we felt like we were catching Penn State or closing the gap, which is why I thought Taylor was the move. It doesn’t feel like we’re in that position despite a pretty good tournament.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Boro40755, HawkeyeEmpire, AndreTheHawk and 4 others
InTheCircle

InTheCircle

All-Conference
Apr 3, 2018
381
1,295
93
WahlbergTheGreat said:
1. Can’t speak for everyone, but I was mostly kidding and poking at MSUs peaking thread.
2. I said I was mostly kidding, but health (Ferrari & Endene) and team management (Endene) are factors that still count toward peaking.

My actual thoughts are that we wrestled somewhat close to expectations coming into the season at nationals. Not bad. Would like to exceed team expectations and have the expectations be higher, but not bad. 7 AAs is good. Gabe AAing at 97 is incredible. Great. But expectations and results still need to be much higher IMO.

As someone who was in support of making the move for Taylor a couple years ago (before Okie State went and got him), it’s tough to be super happy about 1 finalist and no champs when Okie State had multiple champs the second straight year under Taylor and had 3 true freshmen win the thing and another freshman in the finals. I wish we felt like we were catching Penn State or closing the gap, which is why I thought Taylor was the move. It doesn’t feel like we’re in that position despite a pretty good tournament.
Click to expand...
Your call on Taylor, in hindsight, was the right call based on how things have played out.
I have been a Hawk fan for 50 years and won’t expect a rebound to my high expectations of the past 49 years for another 3-5 years. Which is mostly contingent upon recruiting and development. Iowa administration and compliance hold the keys to the bus. Then there is the question of more money. If we don’t get more we won’t compete no matter who the coaches are.
My serenity is indicative of my expectations, therefore if we finish 3rd or 4th I’ll be pretty much at peace. As Iowa fans, we are now in a position the rest of the college wrestling world was in from 1975 to 2000.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AndreTheHawk, kingstown and Sir Pin Alot
L

LIV4GOD

All-Conference
Oct 2, 2001
496
1,184
93
It went about as I thought it would. There are always surprises. Ohio State did way worse than I thought they would, which helped us.

- I expected one finalist who would lose. I didn't think it would be a tech.
- I thought Peterson would AA. He didn't.
- I was thinking PK would slightly improve over last year. He moved up a spot.
- I didn't think GA would AA. That was a surprise.
- I thought Ayala would go out and do well, but not make the finals. About right.
- I thought Keuter would AA. He did.
- I thought Ferrari would make the finals. He didn't.
- Block did better than I thought he would. I didn't think he would AA. He did.
- I thought PSU would about double our score. They did.
- I was thinking we would finish 5th. We got 4th. But not a big surprise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bones Malone, Cedarfalls, HellerballFTW and 4 others
93hawkeye

93hawkeye

Senior
Sep 19, 2004
300
469
63
1stplacehawk said:
Looking at it this way makes almost zero sense for Iowa. Endene left the team after 12/15, lol. He was ranked 3rd on 12/15. Angelo was ranked 1st on 12/15, and defaulted to 6th while injured as hell. Do you people have any critical thinking skills?
Click to expand...
And Jax vaulted OkSt waay higher than enxpected. One team got worse, one team got better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kingstown
R

redghost1974

Senior
Jan 22, 2006
183
534
93
This may be one of the few times Hawks showed up at nationals and didn't have the dreaded session 2 meltdown. Judging December stands vs March isn't very telling. We had the worst Jan-Feb in 50 years, so a guy with no legs could have jumped the bar.

Critical thinking: Brands got their guys to peak at nationals, we still have issues keeping people healthy to end of season, development/recruiting is lagging (way too many scoreless 1st periods and OT matches), and the portal is gamble (Michigan seems to be best at). In short TnT need to do something different, are they willing to?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bones Malone and InTheCircle
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom