NWCA Coach of the Year
- Thread starter Superdave63
- Start date
They can’t give it to Cael every year. Iowa City would spontaneously combust.
9 for 9 in the finals over the last 2 years > 1 transfer portal champ. Who are the lunkheads that vote on this award?
There's a lot of truth in that. I'm sure the voters were looking for someone else who they could justify giving the award to. Michigan won its first Big Ten team wrestling title since 1973. Yeah, 1973. Then they finished second in the NCAA tournament and had two guys in the individual finals where they went 1-1. It doesn't matter that one guy was six years out of high school and the other was seven years out. Michigan performed far above their recent baseline. That'll be the voter justification.
UM staff did well. Princeton too, along with Northwestern.
All our staff did was hit their average.
All our staff did was hit their average.
Cael is always the best coach. Coach of the Century in my book. But for the sake of an award like this and looking at it another way, how did Cael improve since last year? He added one former finalist and made him a champ and Kerk improved from 7th to 4th. The other 4 guys stayed the same (pretty much unprecedented and a lot harder than it looks, mind you, but you could look at it that way). Penn State was expected to improve a little bit over last year. Michigan improved a lot over its usual and beat us at Big Tens, including a win over one of our 4 returning NCAA champs. I don't really have a problem with it.
Think he is the goat or damn near. Time for a statue outside Rec Hall. Add one for Russ Rose for WVB.
Don't mind me, I'm just bitter. I've always hated both sports and awards that are based primarily on somebody else's judgement. Which is why I love wrestling. Its mano a mano, very little judgement involved in the outcome.
While I really can agree with much that you said, I do have a problem that Cael did not win the award. Everyone knew with Suriano transferring to Michigan this year they would be a deep and mature tournament team. We saw how they did when going up against PSU in the dual. Yes they won BIGs by a point and a half and wrestled well to seed, but what Cael did to get his team to peak for nationals was unreal. 5 champs, a 36.5 point differential - the head to head victories - give me a break. Michigan was indeed well coached and performed well, but folded when it counted while PSU exploded on the big scene where it counts the most. Cael put his wrestlers in a position to win with the necessary adjustments and conditioning and that's what the greatest coaches do and Michigan did not.
People who think Suriano can't fit in anywhere, also won't give Bormet credit for fitting him in.
But if Bormet doesn't deserve it, then why not Pendleton? Oregon State made huge strides in Year 2 and had a good NCAA tournament.
But if Bormet doesn't deserve it, then why not Pendleton? Oregon State made huge strides in Year 2 and had a good NCAA tournament.
The trouble with any award made based upon subjective judgement is that what you give to one you, rightly or wrongly, take from another. It's always been that way and always will be until people decide to stop making judgement-based awards, which will be approximately forever.
It looks like the award was given out before the finals based on the press release I read (4:08 p.m. Saturday). I think Cael deserved it when you factor in 5-5 in the finals, but I really thought 2-3 or 3-2 was possible with Fix, Lewis and Amine as opponents. Taking a guess how things would turn out and with Bormet having a reasonable shot at 2 champs I can see voting that way. These awards are kind of like College Football when Saban wins a title but doesn't get the award.
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