The only sure thing at the NCAA wrestling championships is that there are no sure things on the sport’s biggest weekend.
NC State head coach Pat Popolizio has seen it all at nationals, a double-elimination bracket that runs Thursday through Saturday made up of the top 33 wrestlers in the country at the 10 different weight classes. A top-eight individual finish earns coveted All-America honors, the pinnacle of many's careers.
Popolizio has coached wrestlers who have surprised everyone to become national storylines. He’s also been in charge of others who had everyone talking because they didn’t meet expectations at the season's final event.
“We just don’t overanalyze it,” the coach said of the brackets and seeds. “Our guys have learned from other people's experiences that it doesn’t matter. You can’t be afraid of a number on a bracket. That’s what it really comes down to, it’s just a number.
“The NCAA Tournament is obviously unique and unlike any other event. You see some guys rise to the occasion, and you see some really good guys become victims to the stress and pressure. The seeds really don’t matter, I think we’ve proven that several years here. I’ve had unseeded guys make the semifinals multiple times.
“You can even go back further in history here and look at a guy like Matt Reiss, he was unseeded and won it. There’s been a lot of that history at NC State where guys just show up and perform at NCAAs.”
Although unseeded competitors are a thing of the past — the NCAA went from seeding the top 16 and randomly drawing the rest of the bracket to ranking every entrant 1-33 this year — shocking upsets will never go away from the tournament. In terms of Cinderella stories, it’s March Madness on steroids.
The Wolfpack is hoping to be home to a few of those surprises this season. A year after having five top-5 seeds en route to a fourth-place finish and then losing six starters, NC State once again qualified nine for nationals to tie for second most in the land.
However, several Pack wrestlers had legitimate cases to be made about being seeded too low, led by redshirt sophomore 157-pounder Hayden Hidlay. The 2018 NCAA finalist has lost just three times in his college career, but will start from the five line.
Popolizio is not all that concerned with any wrestler’s seed. He is quick to note that if his athletes wrestle to their seed (place at the same spot they were slotted at the beginning), it would result in a disappointing performance.
“I said the same thing at ACCs — if we go off the paper matches and you get handed a trophy off your seed, we’ve got a guy that’s coming home with a fifth-place finish and a seventh,” he explained. “That’d probably be a 16th-20th team place, so I think we would look at each other and say that really wasn’t what we set out to do this year.
“You can sit there and analyze the draws all day and we can talk ourselves out of anything if we want, but we’re going to have to beat some good guys [to have success at NCAAs].”
After a surprising loss to Pitt during the regular season, NC State's season turned around. From there, it wound up sharing the ACC dual title before claiming the league championship at the conference tournament in one of the squad's best performances of the campaign.
Despite the triumph, Popolizio still did not feel his entire team was peaking in Blacksburg, site of this year's league meet. He had a few wrestling their best, while the others get another crack at doing so on a bigger stage this week.
“You’re never going to get all 10 to peak at the same time, but if you can get the majority of the guys to do that it will have a big impact on our success,” the coach said. “I feel like the majority of our guys are at their best right now. But even when you’re at your best, it doesn’t guarantee anything.
“We saw a little bit of that at the ACCs, not a ton, but a little bit. When I analyze it, I don’t think 125 did it, I don’t think 133 did it, I don’t think 141 did it, I don’t think 149 did it, 157 looked great and wrestled aggressive. 165, 174 and 197 and heavyweight, those guys did, so now it’s time to get the rest of them up to that next level of competition.
“Some of them needed it that weekend, some of them needed to save it for this weekend, so that’s kind of where we’re at. Our practices have been really good and guys have been really focused, but again when the lights come on these guys still have to show up and shine.”
Since the start of the season, Popolizio’s team has had its sights on matching last year’s fourth-place NCAA finish that netted it a team trophy. He thinks the Pack can do it again, but also acknowledges the difference between a top-10 team and one that only places in the top 25 isn't that much at nationals.
“Realistically, this team is one that can show up and bring home a trophy, and it’s also a team that if we don’t show up we're looking at somewhere in the top 25,” he said. “It’s that vulnerable and it’s that talented.
“This year, nobody is really seeded that high, so we’ve got to over-wrestle our seed and not really get caught up in it. … You’ve got to upset one guy and get hot. Why not beat a 1 seed? Somewhere along the way these guys have to beat someone that has beat them, and they know they can.
“That’s the way things have to play for this team to accomplish what we set out to do. We can’t have any letdowns. It’s the NCAA Tournament, and there are going to be highs and lows all weekend.”
Truer words have never been spoken.
The Wolfpacker will be live from Pittsburgh all weekend. Wrestling starts Thursday at noon. Here are NC State's nine NCAA qualifiers:
125-pound fifth-year senior Sean Fausz (11-2 record, 14 seed)
133-pound redshirt sophomore Tariq Wilson (14-3 record, 11 seed)
141-pound fifth-year senior Jamel Morris (22-3, 14 seed)
149-pound fifth-year senior Justin Oliver (18-5, 9 seed)
157-pound redshirt sophomore Hayden Hidlay (20-2, 5 seed)
165-pound redshirt sophomore Thomas Bullard (20-8, 16 seed)
174-pound redshirt sophomore Daniel Bullard (20-9, 23 seed)
184-pound redshirt sophomore Nick Reenan (15-4, 7 seed)
197-pound fifth-year senior Malik McDonald (18-9, 13 seed)
——
• Talk about it inside The Wolves' Den
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker
• Like us on Facebook
