Arizona State assistant coach Lee Pritts takes apparent shot at Tom Brands

Arizona State assistant wrestling coach Lee Pritts took an apparent shot at Iowa head coach Tom Brands going into the weekend.

There was a lot of hype surrounding No. 2 Iowa and No. 1 Penn State’s dual Friday night, which the Nittany Lions ended up winning 30-8. But, there’s an Arizona State and Iowa connection, which seemingly caused Pritts to break a little silence on Twitter.

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Responding to a Twitter thread that was predicting Iowa’s 2025-26 lineup, Pritts took a shot at Brands.

“Brands can’t coach,” Pritts wrote on Twitter.

The thread including a prediction of current Arizona State 125 pounder Richie Figueroa transferring to Iowa next season to conclude his collegiate career. Figueroa won the 125 pound NCAA title last season and is currently 6-1 this season, ranked No. 2 in the country.

But Iowa has a couple of former Arizona State wrestlers: No. 2 Kyle Parco (149) and No. 1 Jacori Teemer (157).

Granted, Parco only had one year left and chose to use the graduate year at Iowa following two seasons at Fresno State and three at Arizona State, coached by head coach Zeke Jones and Pritts, among others. Teemer did the same and is a 7th year senior, transferring to Iowa for his final year this offseason.

But Pritts seemingly insinuated that Brands and the Hawkeyes are transfer heavy rather than develop their own prospects.

Parco and Teemer came from Arizona State, No. 2 Mikey Caliendo (165) is in his second season after two years at North Dakota State including an All-American season in 2023 and No. 1 Stephen Buchanan (197) is in his third stop after his college career featuring stints at Wyoming and Oklahoma. His transfer from Oklahoma to Iowa in his final grad year was seen as a bit of a surprise last summer.

Safe to say, Pritts isn’t quite happy about the approach from Brands and Iowa. The two teams do not wrestle each other this season and ASU and Iowa wrestlers will only cross paths, potentially, at NCAAs in Philadelphia in March.

Pritts and Arizona State are back in action Sunday against Northern Colorado, but were surely watching Iowa wrestle Penn State Friday night. Only Buchanan got a victory vs. the Nittany Lions among the four transfers named above.

Iowa’s only other win came from 133 pounder Drake Ayala. We’ll see if Pritts’ contention with Iowa and/or Brands continues for the remainder of the season.