You are exactly right about Taleb. His style has not changed from what you saw during his entire collegiate career. Scored with that fake to the left, dive to the right, ankle pick, or scored by working underneath his opponents like his barrel rolls. Same way he won the ACC years ago. If he doesn't catch someone with big moves or pin them, he struggles. He did earn a nice fall from the top position (he was losing the match) with some kind of reverse body lock. I don't think his opponent knew what Taleb was trying to do.
Its almost funny to watch him wrestle. In this tournament he looked like a junior high wrestler against some of these more polished technical opponents. He hangs on and almost looks lost, and then he hits a roll for big points or a pin. His opponents walk off the mat wondering what the hell just happened! Of course if his opponent knows his limitations...
Nino continues to impress. He keeps his opponents at an arms length and keeps moving his feet so it is hard for his opponents to set up any offense against him. He completely frustrated a very good wrestler in the semis.
I still cant figure out how he scores from his feet though. I think its the fact that he is tall, risk averse, and very tenacious. From a technical standpoint, his leg attacks leaves a lot to be desired. He is always on his knees so he doesn't seem to have any really clean finished or second shots.
The guy that beat him in the finals (Laperez from Binghamton) has several decisions over him and I think it is because he does not attempt any offense against Nino and just waits for him to shoot to look for counter shots.
Micki Phillipi lost to Joe Colon who won the tournament (and also won the Dave Schultz tourney this year) 13-9. I saw him get a tech fall the earlier rounds I didn't get to watch any of his other matches however.
