Penn State wrestling: Cael Sanderson talks NCAA Tournament, Lions' seeding, and more

Penn State wrestling has arrived at Tulsa, Okla., for the NCAA Tournament. The Nittany Lions start their quest for a 10th team title on Thursday when the action starts at Noon ET inside the BOK Center.

“Feeling good,” Sanderson told reporters earlier this week in State College. “Excited to compete Thursday. The guys are happy and healthy and ready to roll.

“The NCAA Tournament, it’s a fun tournament. I mean, it’s doesn’t get any better than that. I mean, the competition level, the team race; it’s good stuff.”

Here’s what else Sanderson had to say as his team readies for a big three days.

Penn State is not complaining about any of its seedings

This portion of the story could have been written long before Sanderson’s media availability. He and his wrestlers never gripe about their tournament seeds. That’s so if Penn State fans had no problems complaining about Aaron Brooks checking in at No. 3 at 184 pounds due to how few matches he wrestled this year (14). Max Dean, meanwhile, is No. 9 at 197 pounds.

“It’s a difficult tournament to seed with the different criteria,” Sanderson said. “And obviously, they’re trying to encourage kids to compete more and have certain win percentages and different things. But everybody’s in the same boat. I think probably every team, they look at the seeds every year and kind of scratch their heads. But it just is what it is, and you got to go wrestle.”

As for Dean, who will have every chance to defend his national title despite a less-than-stellar Big Ten tournament, his head coach believes he’s in a good place.

“Max wasn’t really excited with the way he competed [at Big Tens],” Sanderson said. “But, he has a great foundation, and I think it’d be a blessing for him, and help him to just kind of refocus and get things in place mentally and physically for this last tournament.”

Lions’ young stars ready to shine

Three Penn State wrestlers will compete in their first NCAA Tournament: Redshirt freshman Shayne Van Ness (149 pounds), classmate Alex Facundo (165), and true freshman Levi Haines (157). All have wrestled on big stages before. This one will have the brightest lights. But none of the three should be intimidated by them.

“They’re both very experienced wrestlers,” Sanderson said when asked about ‘SVN’ and Facundo. “I mean, they’ve wrestled on a national stage many times. Wrestling in some of the dual meets that they wrestled in earlier this year is great preparation. The conference meet is great preparation.

“If there’s some adjustments they need to make, mentally or more technically, we’ve had some time to kind of work on that. But yeah, they’re both ready to go. I mean, they’re trying to get better every day. That’s just what they do.”

It’s worth noting that Van Ness now has a new first-round matchup. A wrestler withdrew due to injury at 149 pounds. So, everyone bumped up a spot. ‘SVN’ is now the 12-seed instead of the 13th. He faces Ethen Miller of Maryland, the 21-seed, in Round 1 because of it. He was previously set to face No. 20 seed Graham Rooks of Indiana.

On Haines, Sanderson said:

“Levi’s really young. He’s a young kid. But he’s just very mature. And just as far as his perspective, he’s relaxed and grateful, and ready to go. Now he’s going to give it his best effort, regardless of the time and place, event, he’s always very consistent. I think that makes things a lot easier for him. And for everybody else, just consistency.”

He said it

Sanderson, on how he prepares his Penn State wrestlers for the NCAA Tournament:

“We just tune them up a little bit the week before, finish off and top off their conditioning. But for the most part, they’re ready to roll Right. It’s consistency, and just being the same person all the time. We’re going to be back in here [next] Monday, as coaches, you know, some of these guys will be in here too. You just don’t get too high or low and just give your best effort every day. That’s what we do as a program.”