Moline's Musings

Wrestling Weekend Preview

Posted by: Brian Moline

Friday, February 13, 2009 4:41 PM

Let's take a look at this weekend's schedule.  My projected winners in bold.

Friday's duals

Indiana at Illinois

Minnesota at Wisconsin

Penn State at Michigan State

Purdue at Iowa

Saturday's dual

Penn State at Michigan

Sunday's duals

Illinois at Ohio State

Minnesota at Iowa

Northwestern at Indiana

Purdue at Wisconsin

Michigan State at Oklahoma

I think there are some very close duals this weekend, and Ohio State is involved in two of them.  Everyone knows about the Michigan - Ohio State rivalry, and it's not just in football.  These two schools just don't like each other in any sport.  Ohio State has a deeper, more balanced team than the Wolverines, but Michigan does have a couple of clear favorites at 174 and 197, plus matches at 125 and 141 where they should be slight favorites.  This is a dual that could easily come down to a pair of unranked heavyweights in Ed Phillips and Corey Morrison.  I'd give Morrison the slight edge in that match, and therefore Ohio State the slight edge in the dual.

As for Sunday's dual between the Buckeyes and the Illini, if it starts at 125 there will be two vital matches right out of the chute.  B.J. Futrell lost a close match to OSU's Nikko Triggas in Las Vegas earlier this season.  B.J. has certainly improved since then, and if he could get the dual started with a win for Illinois, their path to victory would be much easier.  Follow that with a battle of top-5 wrestlers in Jimmy Kennedy and Reece Humprey at 133, and there could be a very clear advantage after those two weights.  I give OSU the slight edge, as they will be favored at four weights (141, 149, 165 and 184), while the Illini will be favored in three (157, 174, Hwt.).  The other tossup match is at 197, where Patrick Bond has looked better as of late, but still carries a losing record on the season for Illinois.  If the Illini can get a victory on Sunday, it would likely mean another boost in the rankings next week, while a close loss shouldn't hurt them with the Buckeyes ranked sixth this week.

The other tossup in my mind is Northwestern at Indiana on Sunday.  The Hoosiers have only one dual victory so far in the conference, but they've wrestled well in two-point losses to Michigan and Ohio State.  Although they don't match up well with the Illini tonight, they do match up pretty well with Northwestern.  The key weights are at 125, where defending national champion Angel Escobedo goes for Indiana against Northwestern's returning All-American Brandon Precin; the other key match will be at 157, where Northwestern's true freshman Jason Welch will battle Indiana's Kurt Kinser.  Both are ranked in the top 15.  I give Northwestern the slight edge, in part because Jake Herbert is almost certain to pick up bonus points at 184 for the Wildcats.

I went five for five picking last Sunday's duals, which brings my season record to 18-3-3.  Hoping to keep the streak going this week, but with some really close matchups, I'm not counting on it.  Talk to you tonight from Huff Hall, as I'll be broadcasting the Illinois-Indiana dual on WDWS 1400-AM in Champaign and on fightingillini.com at 7 pm.

bmoline@wdws.com

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