AD Barnes has so thinking to do in many sports, wrestling included. WPA is a great area for wrestling with lots of interest. The wrestling program could sell out its gym for matches with a solid, contending program. The last few matches, especially today, have been embarassing. What happened to Zanetta, who had a solid lead, should not happen at this level. Is Peters the answer, or should AD Barnes look for a proven, solid winner to upgrade the program?
WVU 18 Pitt 12
- Thread starter jctrack
- Start date
Peters is the problem, not the answer. He was Rande's protege and that alone is a red flag. I watched both matches this weekend on the Internet, and he puts out there some embarrassingly bad wrestlers.
Bentley shows a little promise at 125. Forys is solid at 133. Raciotto is pretty good but hasn't improved a lick in three years. Wiercoch is wrestling pretty well at 165 right now -- as long as he isn't wrestling a top 10 wrestler. Campbell shows some promise at 174. Solomon is decent at Hwt. But I don't see any of them, except possibly Forys, as solid, top 5 or 10 wrestlers nationally.
Lee is terrible. Garbinsky is an embarassment as a senior. Zanetta is bad. He lost today when he gave up 6 points in the final 30 seconds. Bruce is pathetic. Bono can't beat anyone whose any good. Basically, we start every match down somewhere between 15-0 and 20-0.
We beat Duke because they forfeited the 125 match, a six point gift. NC State wiped the floor with us. NC State? They brought in the former coach from Binghampton to build a program from scratch in an area with no good HS wrestling, and in his third year he has them ranked #3 in the country. In Peters' third year, Pitt is bad and has gotten worse each year. We will not win another ACC match pending an opponent forfeiting at least two bouts. Peters can't recruit and only Forys has shown any real improvement. That simply doesn't cut it. A 36-0 loss to Oklahoma State. PSU could beat us handily wrestling their backups. It is a disgrace to a program with our history.
There have to be good coaches out there who would jump at this job. Barnes needs to find the best of them because Peters isn't the answer.
Bentley shows a little promise at 125. Forys is solid at 133. Raciotto is pretty good but hasn't improved a lick in three years. Wiercoch is wrestling pretty well at 165 right now -- as long as he isn't wrestling a top 10 wrestler. Campbell shows some promise at 174. Solomon is decent at Hwt. But I don't see any of them, except possibly Forys, as solid, top 5 or 10 wrestlers nationally.
Lee is terrible. Garbinsky is an embarassment as a senior. Zanetta is bad. He lost today when he gave up 6 points in the final 30 seconds. Bruce is pathetic. Bono can't beat anyone whose any good. Basically, we start every match down somewhere between 15-0 and 20-0.
We beat Duke because they forfeited the 125 match, a six point gift. NC State wiped the floor with us. NC State? They brought in the former coach from Binghampton to build a program from scratch in an area with no good HS wrestling, and in his third year he has them ranked #3 in the country. In Peters' third year, Pitt is bad and has gotten worse each year. We will not win another ACC match pending an opponent forfeiting at least two bouts. Peters can't recruit and only Forys has shown any real improvement. That simply doesn't cut it. A 36-0 loss to Oklahoma State. PSU could beat us handily wrestling their backups. It is a disgrace to a program with our history.
There have to be good coaches out there who would jump at this job. Barnes needs to find the best of them because Peters isn't the answer.
A good contrast to wrestling is women's tennis, where, it is safe to say, the local recruiting area is not overflowing with talent, unlike wrestling.
After Diefenbach finally retired, Pitt hired an assistant from perennial top ten Miami. I believe he is from Portugal. He brought in a pretty decent class in his first season -- apparently some players who Miami had recruited but hadn't offered. In his second year and first full recruiting class, he brought in four foreign players: one from Hong Kong, one from Japan, one from Spain and one from Portugal. Three of them had attended tennis academies in Barcelona, where he apparently has good contacts.
The results so far: They beat PSU handily, and it was the first win over PSU since 1976; they beat a ranked Marshall team; they beat an Akron team which has eight European players; they competed in tournaments at Harvard and Yale and did well -- and the Ivies are good in tennis.
We have new coaches in softball, both men's and women's soccer and women's BB who seem real promising. But, the long-tenured SP hires who have hung around are all presiding over bad programs. Barnes needs to change that -- and based on my one conversation with him, he will.
I discussed wrestling with SP a few years back, and he said that being from Nebraska he understood the passion of college wrestling fans; he said he would address wrestling in a year but right then his focus was on FB (it was the year he hired DW). That turned out to be typical SP b.s. But, when Barnes told me that he was aware of how strong the WPIAL and the rest of the state, plus eastern Ohio, is in wrestling and there would be no excuse if Pitt was not good every year, I believe him. I will be very disappointed if Peters isn't fired after this season.
After Diefenbach finally retired, Pitt hired an assistant from perennial top ten Miami. I believe he is from Portugal. He brought in a pretty decent class in his first season -- apparently some players who Miami had recruited but hadn't offered. In his second year and first full recruiting class, he brought in four foreign players: one from Hong Kong, one from Japan, one from Spain and one from Portugal. Three of them had attended tennis academies in Barcelona, where he apparently has good contacts.
The results so far: They beat PSU handily, and it was the first win over PSU since 1976; they beat a ranked Marshall team; they beat an Akron team which has eight European players; they competed in tournaments at Harvard and Yale and did well -- and the Ivies are good in tennis.
We have new coaches in softball, both men's and women's soccer and women's BB who seem real promising. But, the long-tenured SP hires who have hung around are all presiding over bad programs. Barnes needs to change that -- and based on my one conversation with him, he will.
I discussed wrestling with SP a few years back, and he said that being from Nebraska he understood the passion of college wrestling fans; he said he would address wrestling in a year but right then his focus was on FB (it was the year he hired DW). That turned out to be typical SP b.s. But, when Barnes told me that he was aware of how strong the WPIAL and the rest of the state, plus eastern Ohio, is in wrestling and there would be no excuse if Pitt was not good every year, I believe him. I will be very disappointed if Peters isn't fired after this season.
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