Penn State wrestling mailbag: After Anthony Cassar’s Big Ten title, what’s his outlook for NCAAs?
The first leg of the postseason is complete for Penn State wrestling.
The Nittany Lions came away from Minneapolis, Minn. with their first Big Ten title since 2016. They also set a new program mark for points in the conference championships with 157.5.
With the most important leg still in front of Penn State, at least according to coach Cael Sanderson and staff, it is no surprise that this week’s mailbag had questions about the NCAA Championships.
Let’s take a look:
After (Anthony) Cassar’s performance at Big Tens, how does his outlook at NCAAs change?
Cassar showed this weekend that he is capable of beating anyone, even a talented freshman like Minnesota’s Gable Steveson, who has been the talk of the college scene. So, from an outside perspective, he’s shown he has a genuine shot at a national title.
The real question now is, can he have that same approach and focus in the national tournament as he did in the Big Ten championships, and can he beat Steveson a second time?
All the automatic qualifiers and the at-large wrestlers will learn their paths Wednesday during the NCAA Selection show. It will be interesting to see how Cassar’s weight class gets seeded.
The top-three ranked wrestlers are Steveson, Oklahoma State’s Derek White and Cassar, in that order. Well, Steveson topped White in a November dual, which is when Steveson’s redshirt was lifted. White beat Cassar in the Southern Scuffle finals in January and, of course, Cassar beat Steveson on Sunday.
It leaves all three of those wrestlers with one loss coming from one another. The only other wrestler in the weight class that has one loss is Oregon State’s Amar Dhesi, but he hasn’t wrestled nearly as many matches as the top three.
It is expected that White will be the top seed since he hasn’t lost since November. Cassar meanwhile edges Steveson out for the No. 2 seed.
So what happens at NCAAs? I believe Cassar not only tops Steveson again, but he will avenge that loss to White. It would end just another interesting chapter in what is Cassar’s book of wrestling.
Will Shakur Rasheed and Brady Berge be OK for nationals? What are the expectations for them?
I’m going to answer this question separately for each wrestler.
For Berge, Sanderson stated Sunday that had it have been the NCAA championships, the redshirt freshman would’ve been competing.
I’m not one to criticize a guy like Sanderson, who was led his team to seven of the last eight NCAA titles, but he has mentioned about wanting to help grow the sport. How do you do that by keeping wrestlers off the mat that aren’t hurt and, as Sanderson claimed, could’ve wrestled?
Now, maybe Berge is hurt, but he didn’t look to be Saturday night after he was finished wrestling. So one must just look at this as another part of the process for Sanderson and Co. to win the ultimate prize of another NCAA crown. Regardless, Berge obviously appears to be a full-go for nationals.
As for Berge’s expectations, I still look for him to finish as an All-American. He was wrestling well and had a solid match against Iowa’s Pat Lugo to reach the semifinals. He ran into a buzzsaw of Ohio State’s Micah Jordan in the semis, but Berge is still young in the college ranks.
Now, for Rasheed, this is a whole different story.
Outside of Cassar’s upset of Steveson, Penn State forfeiting to Ohio State’s Myles Martin in the 184-pound finals was another shock. It wasn’t a decision that Sanderson liked doing, especially to a guy of Martin’s caliber.
But it still happened, and the crowd erupted into boos. The decision was made by the Nittany Lions medical staff, and it was just precautionary to hold Rasheed out. If you’ve followed the program long enough, you know that Sanderson won’t put a kid in jeopardy of further damaging an existing injury.
He even said that on Sunday that an athlete is more important than winning. He also mentioned it was important to have Rasheed at the NCAA championships in two weeks. Rasheed told us last week he still intended to wear his bulky leg brace at nationals, so he’s obviously not going to be 100 percent.
As for Rasheed’s expectations, he’ll still be an All-American again, after finishing in the top eight at 197 pounds last season. The possibilities are endless of his finish but, realistically, I don’t see anyone else winning the 184-pound crown other than Martin. I can see Rasheed making the finals this year but, again, everyone is just wrestling for second in two weeks.
