2016 NCAA WRESTLING TOURNAMENT PREVIEW!

It's here! Grapplepalooza!  The 2016 NCAA Wrestling Tournament runs from Noon today to Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, which makes sense when you look at the long history of wrestling there. The home of Wrestlemania 1, X, and XX, Royal Rumble 2000 and 2008, and Summerslam 1988 and 1991 gives way to the amateurs performing on their grandest stage.  Without further bad pro rasslin' references, let's take a look at who all the B1G put into the tournament and if anyone will stop Penn State from winning their 5th title in 6 years.

Ok, let's answer that last question first: No. Outside of the snakebitten/injury prone 285 Nick Nevills, everyone else made the tournament.  Not only that, but I wouldn't be surprised if 5 PSU wrestlers were competing for NCAA titles on Saturday night.  Oklahoma State would need to stall themselves to some impressive bonus points if they were to overcome the depth and talent that the Nittany Lions have collected.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's take a look at the individual weights:

125

#1 Nathan Tomasello (tOSU)

#3 Nico Megaludis (PSU)

#4 Thomas Gilman (Iowa)

#13 Tim Lambert (Neb)

#16 Elijah Oliver (Ind)

Sean McCabe (Rut)

Conor Youtsey (Mich)

133

#2 Cory Clark (Iowa)

#3 Zane Richards (Ill)

#5 Jordan Conaway (PSU)

#7 Eric Montoya (Neb)

#10 Johnni DiJulius (tOSU)

#12 Ryan Taylor (wisc)

#14 Geoffrey Alexander (UMD)

#16Anthony Giraldo (Rut)

Rosario Bruno (Mich)

Dominick Malone (NWU)

141

#4 Anthony Ashnault (Rut)

#6 Micah Jordan (tOSU)

#11 Tommy Thorn (MINN)

Javier Gasca III (MSU)

Anthony Abidin (Neb)

Danny Sabatello (Pur)

149

#1 Zain Retherford (PSU)

#2 Brandon Sorensen (Iowa)

#5 Alec Pantaleo (Mich)

#6 Jason Tsirtsis (NWU)

#7 Jason Sueflohn (Neb)

Tyson Dippery (Rut)

Jake Short (Minn)

Alex Griffin (Pur)

157

#1 Isaiah Martinez (Ill)

#3 Jason Nolf (PSU)

#9 Richie Lewis (Rut)

#12 Brian Murphy (Mich)

#13 Edwin Cooper Jr (Iowa)

Tyler Berger (Neb)

Jake Ryan (tOSU)

165

#2 Issac Jordan (wisc)

#3 Bo Jordan (tOSU)

#6 Steven Rodrigues (Ill)

#7 Anthony Perrotti (Rut)

#8 Chad Welch (Pur)

#10 Austin Wilson (Neb)

Patrick Rhoads (Iowa)

Geno Morelli (PSU)

174

#1 Bo Nickal (PSU)

#5 Zach Brunson (Ill)

#11 Myles Martin (tOSU)

#12 Nathan Jackson (Ind)

#13 Alex Meyer (Iowa)

#16 Micah Barnes (Neb)

Richard Robertson (wisc)

Nick Wanzek (MINN)

Phil Bakuckas (Rut)

184

#2 Sammy Brooks (Iowa)

#4 Domenic Abounader (Mich)

#7 TJ Dudley (Neb)

#15 Nick Gravina (Rut)

#16 Matt McCutcheon (PSU)

Jeff Koepke (Ill)

Kenny Courts (tOSU)

Ryan Christensen (wisc)

197

#1 Morgan McIntosh (PSU)

#3 Brett Pfarr (MINN)

#4 Nathan Burak (Iowa)

#8 Aron Studebaker (Neb)

#10 Max Huntley (Mich)

Hayden Hrymack (Rut)

285

#2 Kyle Snyder (tOSU)

#5 Adam Coon (Mich)

#9 Michael Kroells (MINN)

#11 Sam Stoll (Iowa)

#12 Billy Smith (Rut)

Brooks Black (Ill)

Collin Jensen (Neb)

Looking at the bracket, there are at least 9 of the 10 classes that'll probably have a B1G participant in the championship match Saturday night (Tommy Thorn is our only hope at 141.  Yes, that's full-on Homersota. Well, sort of because he is very good. Just inconsistent). The one you're going to want to watch is at 157, where we'll probably get Martinez-Nolf III.  And that's awesome.  There's also a chance we could have an all-B1G final at 125 (Tomasello/Gilman-Megaludis), 149 (Retherford-Sorensen), and 197(McIntosh-Pfarr).  The other matchup that should be interesting will be if we get a Gwiz-Snyder showdown at 285.  Snyder, the freaking FREESTYLE WORLD CHAMPION at 97 kg, decided to come back from his Olympic Redshirt at the beginning of January and has been on a tear since then while Nick Gwiazdowski is on an 84 match unbeaten run and could become a 3-time NCAA Champion.  Until then, turn on ESPNU for the 1st Round, 2nd Round, and Quarterfinals and ESPN for the Semifinals and Finals to get all the Billy Baldwin wackiness you can handle between matches.