By The Numbers: PSU vs tOSU

By The Numbers: PSU vs tOSU

Penn State is known for being an exciting and aggressive team under Cael Sanderson. They did not disappoint me when I broke down the dual meet with Ohio Sta

Feb 11, 2016 by Brock Hite
By The Numbers: PSU vs tOSU

Penn State is known for being an exciting and aggressive team under Cael Sanderson. They did not disappoint me when I broke down the dual meet with Ohio State. Jason Nolf had a "By The Numbers" record 22 attacks, and they set a team record with 68 attacks. Great technique was on display and a huge mistake went unnoticed. 

Takedowns:
PSU: 25
OSU: 16

This is an extremely high number of takedowns for a high level dual meet. The final two bouts of the evening were heavily involved in skewing the numbers. Morgan McIntosh converted 10 takedowns on 11 attempts, while Kyle Snyder converted 10 takedowns on 13 attacks. Lump Jason Nolf’s seven takedown performance in with those two bouts, and three matches account for 27 of the 41 takedowns.

With so many takedowns there were plenty of items to analyze and breakdown. If you have watched Nolf this year you have seen his variety and constant pressure. In the dual both Nolf and Morgan McIntosh score on a foot sweep to a single. Even when these guys aren't scoring on the technique it is causing a reaction that opens up other attacks. The technique in Nolf's GIF he doesn't actually score on, he runs out of time. He does use the technique two other times in the bout that opens up other techniques to score two takedowns.

Kyle Snyder is taylor made to wrestle for Cael Sanderson, but he doesn’t. Don’t worry, he is doing just fine. Check out Snyder execute both a regular ankle pick and a cross ankle pick against Jan Johnson. Once you see them executed, listen to Cael talk about how to circle to the ankle pick and the footwork involved.



Bo Nickal didn't score a takedown on this highlighted technique, but it was too nice not to show. Martin is in on a head outside single when Nickal turns the corner. Most wrestlers attack the far ankle and try to win the far ankle scramble, not Bo Nickal. He recognizes Martin is burying his head under the single leg. Nickal counters by picking the near ankle and hopping over to the far side. He ultimately loses the far ankle on the far side before converting to a nearside single leg. He is unable to score because the clock runs out on the period. This isn't exactly the position of Ben Askren's double ankle defense, but the concept is the same.


Ben Askren shows the details of his double ankle defense. It puts the wrestler in the far ankle position Bo Nickal created by hopping over the top against Myles Martin.



Committed Attacks:
PSU: 68
OSU: 41


Everyone knows about Jason Nolf’s pace. It was on full display Friday night in the Bryce Jordan Center. He took a “By The Numbers” record 22 attacks in the bout against Jake Ryan. He converted on 7 of the 22 attacks. It doesn't appear that anyone in the country can match his pace. Here are his 7 takedowns. I threw in the foot sweep to single, that he ran out of time, in at the end for bonus viewing pleasure.


Reversals:
PSU: 1
OSU: 1


The two reversals scored had more to do with the top guys missteps more than the bottom man’s action. Bo Nickal is always going to "go for it" he doesn't know any other way. He returned Martin with a slick cutback once, but got reversed the second time he tried to bring him back into a tilt. The other reversal came when McIntosh shook Fox off the top while riding legs. Would Bo's philosophy change if it was a three-point reversal? I doubt it, but it would change the scoring scenario a lot. 

Nearfall:
PSU: 1 set of 4
OSU: 1 set of 2, 2 sets of 4


It should be no surprise that Bo Nickal was involved in a match that had 2 of the 4 sets of nearfall in the dual meet. His freewheeling style is exciting to watch, but sometimes is dangerous. There was another set of nearfall counted for Zain Retherford, however they weren’t awarded because he was able to finish the match with a fall.

Riding Time:
PSU: 6
OSU: 0

Jimmy Gulibon earned the rare riding point in a losing effort. Bo Nickal used his riding time advantage tactically late in the match as he trailed on the scoreboard, but had just over a minute of riding time advantage to essentially make it a tied bout. Matt McCutcheon put a tough ride on Kenny Courts to earn the riding time and close out a 4-0 victory.

Scoring Error:
The officiating was good, the rules didn’t negatively factor into outcomes, and it was a great night for wrestling with nearly 16,000 fans in the arena. But….. Yes, there is a but. In the scorebook (I think, I haven’t seen the scorebook), Morgan McIntosh scored a 24-9 technical fall. He earned that when the riding time was awarded at the conclusion of the bout. Along the way he scored 10 takedowns, a reversal, and a stall point to go along with the riding point.

Here is the problem: Fox was only warned for stalling one time. When scoring the bout I was watching the video Christian Pyles took matside. After the fourth takedown, he announced the score as 9-2. This came directly after the sequence  shown here in the video.


It confused me because I had not scored a stall warning in the bout yet. I rewatched the match several times before watching the BigTen archive to confirm this was the first warning. As the official issued the stall warning, the graphic flipped the score from 6-2 to 7-2. The commentary was not focused on the action at the time, and they didn’t address the stall call or the point being scored by the table. The official was wired for sound and when the wrestlers set up in the center he said to Fox, “You have a stall warning, sir.”

In this dual, the difference between a major decision and technical fall was negligible. It doesn’t change the fact that wrestling is plagued with scoring errors, and everyone needs to be better.

Coaching staffs should have someone designated to track the score. In duals this is easy, as there are several coaches on the bench. During a tournament someone should be close to the mat keeping track so they can relay the information to the coaches in the corner. We absolutely can’t have another Ian Miller situation arise in a key moment.

I started with coaching staffs, but the real problem is with the scoring table. I understand how this happens at an elementary tournament where the day drags on, and it is tough to focus on the action. This should never be the case in a dual meet. I won’t even get into a mistake like this at the NCAA tournament. Scorers: take some pride in your job!

The last piece of the puzzle is the assistant referee. They should be aware of the score, warnings, cautions, choice, and time on the clock at all times. To let this happen on your mat as the assistant referee should be embarrassing.

Update:
One of our diligent readers, Shane Mignogna, pointed out the electronic scoring of the bout. The scorer must have thought the hand in the air was awarding a point after the stall warning. The scorer manually put McIntosh on bottom and gave him an escape to give the point because no stall warning had been recorded earlier in the bout. 
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Note to scorers: if you don't know what happened in the action and are not sure of what was awarded, ask! The manual override should almost never be used. If you are going to use it, confirm with multiple people before doing so.