By Bryan Van Kley, W.I.N. Publisher

J Robinson’s Minnesota Golden Gophers started the year ranked No. 1 in our Oct. 11, 2006 preseason rankings and I’m confident they are going to be the last team standing at the NCAA Championships on March 17.

Last year, I was quite certain as well that the Gophers would end Oklahoma State’s three-year reign on top of the Division I wrestling world, and they did not. John Smith and the Cowboys showed why they are the standard bearer in college wrestling right now. OSU performed their best at the end of the year under the NCAA lights; Minnesota did not wrestle up to potential.

But I feel this year’s team race is a much different situation as Minnesota has the numbers in terms of All-American point potential and other teams can’t match the numbers on paper.

If guys placed exactly where they’re ranked, which obviously never happens, the Gophers will leave Auburn Hills, Mich. with seven All-Americans, including four finalists and two champs. Returning titlists Dustin Schlatter (149) and Cole Konrad (HWT) are both undefeated on the year and are heavily favored. Returning NCAA finalist Roger Kish (184) and the lanky freshman 125-pounder Jayson Ness are both ranked second and have been extremely solid all year long, showing signs of improvement towards the end. Kish only has two losses on the year, one to Herbert in the Big Ten finals (as well as unofficially in the All-Star meet) and another to Dan Hodge Trophy winner Ben Askren at the National Duals when the Tiger senior moved up a weight.

Throw in third-ranked standouts in Manuel Rivera (141) and CP Schlatter (157), as well as two-time All-American and team leader Mack Reiter, currently ranked No. 8, and Minnesota clearly deserves the favorite label.

Two other Gophers will also make the trip to The Palace, No. 11 Tyler Safratowich (165) and No. 12 Gabe Dretsch (174).

So who will be pushing the Gophers? It could be a number of teams. But the most likely candidates will come from the Big 12 Conference. Iowa State qualified all 10 wrestlers, but six of their wrestlers are freshman who have never wrestled at the NCAAs before. The Cyclones have proven doubters wrong most of the year and may again.

Based on our rankings, Iowa State has seven guys who will likely get seeded, but don’t have the top-end placement potential on paper that Minnesota has. If Sanderson’s young squad is going to be in the hunt on Saturday, their highly-ranked seniors — Trent (157) and Travis Paulson (165) and Kurt Backes (197) — all need to be in the semis and senior Grant Turner (174) and the six freshmen need their best performance of the year. I think No. 2 ISU will have a shot if they have seven All-Americans.

Missouri, ranked No. 1 just a few short weeks ago, needs their best performance of the year and needs momentum from bonus points like they’ve done most of the year. Brian Smith’s squad qualified eight through the salty Big 12 conference tournament, but with as many pins and bonus points as the Askren brothers and a few others normally get, it’s like having a solid ninth guy competing.

The key for the Tigers’ title hopes could fall on the backs of senior Matt Pell (165), ranked No. 9, sophomore Raymond Jordan at 184 (No. 5) and junior Tyler McCormick, ranked No. 7 at 133. All three must be wrestling on All-American Saturday, providing Coach Smith with big-time additional points to what they hope will be two Askrens in the finals.

If those five all place, two or three of them in the top four, and one of the remaining Tiger qualifiers, Josh Wagner (No. 13 at 149), Michael Chandler (No. 15 at 157) or Mark Ellis (No. 18 at HWT) takes home an All-American medal, Missouri will have a chance.

The next few teams like Iowa, Northwestern, Hofstra and Oklahoma State all have individuals who can place high, but not enough of them.

We moved Iowa up to fourth place in the rankings despite a third-place finish at the Big Tens. They have four guys ranked in the top five (Charlie Falck, 125, Alex Tsirtsis, 141, Mark Perry, 165, and Eric Luedke, 174) and heavyweight Matt Fields, who is ranked No. 8. The Hawks need to put together a consistent tournament from start to finish, something they’ve struggled to do all year and need some help from some of their other qualifiers. Keep in mind, even when Iowa has struggled during the regular season at times in the past few years, they find ways to pick it up at the NCAAs.

Northwestern has four guys ranked in the top five, including two ranked No. 1, in Ryan Lang (141) and Jake Herbert (184), but probably doesn’t have the quantity of placers to give them a legitimate shot.
Hofstra is different than the other teams around them because they actually have the numbers of guys who can place, which is why they’ve been such a tough dual team all year, downing Minnesota in late November. What’s going to hold Hofstra back from pushing into that top two or three is not having guys make the semifinals or place in the top five. They have six guys ranked between No. 6 and No. 13.

We have the defending champs, Oklahoma State, ranked at No. 7, which is definitely low for a returning four-time team winner. But with six new faces in their line-up, the Cowboys look to lack the depth and experience they need, despite three team leaders who will place high in Coleman Scott (133), Nathan Morgan (141) and Johny Hendricks (165.)

Star pitcher Zito meets with Smith, Gable

As the wrestling season winds down, baseball’s top players are gearing up for the upcoming Major League season. One of that sport’s biggest stars has quickly become a big fan of wrestling. Barry Zito gave wrestling some very unique publicity at the National Duals, Jan. 13-14, as the highest paid baseball pitcher of all-time attended the event to spend time with wrestling legends John Smith and Dan Gable.

Zito recently signed a seven-year, $126 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. The 28-year old is preparing to start his eighth year in the Majors. Named the 2002 Cy Young Award winner as the top pitcher in the American League, Zito’s trying to take his career to another level and achieve his goal of winning a World Series.

To reach that level, he sought out Gable and Smith to get their insight on domination.

“In baseball, it’s not as physical but it’s one on one. It’s almost like a war atmosphere with the pitcher and the hitter. It’s very similar to (wrestling). Having a confidence in yourself and your strengths is kind of the same game,” he said.

Smith was impressed with Zito’s humble desire to learn and improve on his strengths.

“The norm is to fall back. But there’s been some exceptional people who have continued to compete at a very high level, like Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, Joe Montana and Tiger Woods,” Smith said. I quickly added that Smith should include himself in that group. He accepted.

“I would put myself in that category and (winning six straight World titles) may be tougher than all of them. You need to find that passion to be the best again. When you talk to guys that have been successful, often times they can’t tell you what makes them click. If I can pin point the thing for myself, I never stopped learning,” Smith said.

Gable challenged Zito to expand his definition of dominance.

“He wants to throw a perfect game. So I asked him what that was. He said nobody reaches first base. To me, throwing 81 strikes is a perfect game. It showed a difference between what he’s thinking and what I’m thinking,” the Iowa assistant said when asked about his meeting with Zito.

People familiar with baseball would laugh at Gable’s comments. Eighty-one straight strikes without being hit would seem as unrealistic as beating every World champion in the other seven weight classes in seven straight matches without taking a break to be called the best wrestler in the world. But, what’s makes Gable’s comments to Zito ironically interesting is that is how the 1972 Olympic champ actually thinks.

From talking with Zito, he was fascinated by the mindset in both Gable and Smith.

Smith pointed out that Zito needs to find ways to keep positive pressure on himself in order to dominate. An example Smith shared was that Zito would probably have thrown a no hitter in 2006 had the game been closer when he took a no-no into the eighth inning.

W.I.N. writer Kyle Klingman got a unique opportunity to spend some time with Zito and 2006 Dan Hodge Trophy winner Ben Askren as they got to know each other. Klingman asked the two standouts about handling accolades or steaks like the Cy Young Award and Askren’s 17-match pinning streak this year.

“I think that when you pull back and analyze it you’re (in trouble) because you’re leaving the moment. Your passion isn’t to create records. Your passion is to dominate whoever your opponent is. It’s like a boat. In the wake is all the records and what everyone talks about, but the boat going forward is us chasing our passion,” the former USC standout said.

“The Cy Young Award is just a result of you chasing something very passionately and intensely and being determined. You can set that as a goal but the process of every day having great games and being as dominant as you can on every pitch will eventually lead to a Cy Young or a world championship, but it’s not the other way around.”

One other thing Gable warned Zito about was the need to stay focused as attention increases since he is wealthy and single. Zito will make around $285,000 every start this year.

“I talked about that,” Gable said. “Everybody’s trying to get a piece of that (money). Take control of your life and stay focused. You’ll get friends you never knew you had.”

Of course the talk of many wrestling fans at the Duals was how much Gable and Smith got paid for their time. Both said they did not receive any money from Zito and stressed that it wasn’t about possible compensation for them. Despite wrestling benefitting from Zito being at the Duals in terms of media publicity, Smith said he knows it was very beneficial for the star pitcher as well.

“I look at it as Gable was doing him a favor. He was fortunate to be around (Gable). We are in the best sport in the world. It tests everything … physically, mentally and emotionally like no other sport.”

(Bryan Van Kley is the publisher of W.I.N. Magazine. He can be reached via e-mail at Bryan@WIN-magazine.com.)