We're writing this, our final preview, on Monday. We leave for Pittsburgh on Tuesday. First whistle is noon Thursday. If someone could hit the fast forward button to get us to Thursday already, that would be super.  

NCAA Brackets in FloArena

Previews: 125 | *133* | 141 | *149* | 157 | *165* | 174 | *184* | 197

Time to roll out the earth shakers. This division has been dominated by a three-man heavyweight jam. What makes the Derek White-Anthony Cassar-Gable Steveson troika so unique is that none of them have ever been an NCAA All-American before. White fell in the blood round in Cleveland last year, Anthony Cassar didn't start (a hazard of being on a team as deep as Penn State) and Gable Steveson is but an 18-year-old true freshman.

Only three All-Americans from last year will be in the field in Pittsburgh: Maryland's Youssif Hemida, Amar Dhesi of Oregon State and Iowa's Sam Stoll. 

The graduation of Kyle Snyder, Adam Coon, Jacob Kasper and Mike Hughes, among many others, led to the changing of the guard that is currently transpiring. Cassar usurped his All-American teammate Nick Nevills to make his first tourney appearance. Mason Parris, Trent Hillger, Demetrius Thomas, Chase Singletary and others are also punching their first ticket to the big dance.

This is a new era of NCAA heavyweights. Time to dig into our final bracket of bone-rattling behemoths. 

Title Contenders

#1 Derek White (Oklahoma State)

#2 Anthony Cassar (Penn State)

#3 Gable Steveson (Minnesota)

All-American Contenders

#4 Jordon Wood (Lehigh)

#5 Mason Parris (Michigan)

#6 Amar Dhesi (Oregon State)

#7 Trent Hillger (Wisconsin)

#8 Demetrius Thomas (Pittsburgh)

#9 Matt Stencel (Central Michigan)

#10 Youssif Hemida (Maryland)

#11 Thomas Haines (Lock Haven)

#12 Conan Jennings (Northwestern)

#13 Matt Voss (George Mason)

#29 Sam Stoll (Iowa)

No one enters the heavyweight bracket with an unblemished record. Four wrestlers have only one loss, and one of them is Amar Dhesi, who is just 10-1 with three wins over national qualifiers. The three others are constituents of our triumvirate of title contenders.

Steveson, Cassar and White are a combined 84-3. Steveson beat White, White beat Cassar, and Cassar beat Steveson. White ended up winning the seeding lottery, while Cassar and Steveson will both occupy the bottom half of the bracket. 

Heavyweight was surprisingly volatile this season, and there is a good argument for adding to the list of All-American contenders. We stopped at Matt Voss the Boss more or less arbitrarily, and then added Stoll, who has a brutal path to the podium, however, it just felt wrong excluding him from the list, so we didn't.

Landmines

Billy Miller (Virginia Tech)

Jeramy Sweany (Cornell)

Ian Butterbrodt (Brown)

Billy Miller is a four-time national qualifier, having made the tournament as a freshman, sophomore and junior while competing for Edinboro. Now a Hokie, Miller will be looking for his first Saturday match at NCAAs. 

Jeramy Sweany is now a three-time qualifier and will be looking to become Cornell's first ever heavyweight medalist. 

And Ian Butterbrodt's name was too good not to feature somewhere. Listen, it's our preview, and we'll add Ian Butterbrodt to the list of landmines if we want to. Butterbrodt also made the EIWA finals, so we'd say he earned his inclusion through his wrestling and his outstanding name.

Session I

Matches to Watch:

David Jensen vs. Chase Singletary

Matt Stencel vs. Jeremy Sweany 

Cory Daniel vs. Conan Jennings

Matt Voss vs. Zach Elam

Thomas Haines vs. Billy Miller

Tate Orndorf vs. Joey Goodhart

It's a rematch right off the bat for two very evenly matched Big Ten heavyweights in Jensen and Singletary. A chance to get revenge or establish dominance.

Watch Jensen and Singletary when they met in a dual meet:

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Stencel is Central Michigan's highest-seeded qualifier, but he will be tested early by the dangerous Jeramy Sweany, who's got a win over Cory Daniel among other fellow qualifiers.

Speaking of ACC finalist Cory Daniel, he'll have an opportunity to upset Conan Jennings in the first round. Jennings has the higher seed, but he's had an up and down season. Well, more like down and up, as he is in the midst of a Conan Jennessaince (when we said in the D1 Stock Reports that we were done making this joke, we were lying).

Voss has the higher seed and the top 20 ranking, but if Zach Elam can regain the form that saw him place third at the CKLV, he could score the upset.

Haines and Miller are old EWL and PSAC foes, though Miller is an ACC man now. Miller beat Haines in the 2018 EWL final but this year Haines has had the better season.

Orndorff placed second at the CKLV, where Goodhart could only muster an eighth-place finish. But their resumes are very similar and this should be a solid bout.

Session II

Matches to Watch:

Matt Stencel vs. Demetrius Thomas

Mason Parris vs. Concan Jennings

Thomas Haines vs. Amar Dhesi

Trent Hillger vs. Youssif Hemida

Big Meech Thomas (who is also an accomplished violinist by the way) tore through the ACCs, but he'll have a tough second round match against Matt "The Tracer" Stencel. Meech did pin Stencel back at the 2018 CKLV, but there has been a lot of season between then and now.

Speaking of rematches, Parris and Jennings could meet for the fourth time this year. Despite Parris being the No. 5 and Jennings being the No. 12, Jennings owns a 3-0 record over Parris so far. 

Watch Jennings beat Parris in the semifinals of the 2018 Midlands:

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Dhesi was third last year, but only has 11 matches under his belt this season. Haines will have an upset on his mind as he makes his final postseason push.

Hemida will also be looking for an upset, at least according to seeds, although he did beat Hillger for third at the Big Tens just a couple of weeks ago. Hemida is also wrestling for his coach Kerry McCoy, who recently announced he was stepping down as head coach of the Terrapins. 

Session III

Matches to Watch:

Derek White vs. Demetrius Thomas

Conan Jennings vs. Jordan Wood

Gable Steveson vs. Amar Dhesi

Youssif Hemida vs. Anthony Cassar

We picked Hemida and Jennings in very mild and not unprecedented upsets in the second round, but it's back to chalk in the crucial quarterfinals, where a win means a trip to the semis and a coveted All-American honor. 

White and Thomas will be an explosive match pitting Cowboy Bulk Job power versus Pitt Panther power. This match was a 9-8 thriller won by White in a January dual meet.

Wood and Jennings have never met in college before, but Wood will be the favorite to make his first semifinal round of his young career. 

Steveson and Dhesi have also never met before. Steveson had looked invincible before taking the first loss of his collegiate career against Anthony Cassar in the Big Ten finals. If his confidence is not too shaken, he should be able to get by Dhesi and line up a rematch with Cassar. 

Hemida and Cassar have yet to wrestle, but odds are it will be Cassar, who could be the Nittany Lions' seventh semifinalist. 

Session IV

Matches to Watch:

Derek White vs, Jordan Wood

Gable Steveson vs, Anthony Cassar

Trent Hillger vs, Conan Jennings (consi)

Thomas Haines vs, Demetrius Thomas (consi)

Mason Parris vs, Youssif Hemida (consi)

David Jensen vs, Amar Dhesi (consi)

We're picking Steveson to get revenge on Cassar. Not that we would be surprised for Cassar to go two-in-a-row against the true freshman phenom, it's just that Steveson will have had two weeks to prep for Cassar and his elbow post freight train double. Having two-time NCAA champ Tony Nelson in the room to train with should help Steveson adjust for Cassar's punishing signature move.

White and Wood were in a tight 3-2 bout a little over a month ago, but White was in control for most of the match. We think the rematch will go pretty much the same way. 

The blood-round matches are the toughest to call, as it's never fun to say who you think won't become an All-American. We've got Hillger and Meech earning their first NCAA medal, with seniors Hemida and Dhesi concluding their college careers also with All-American honors. However, as with all the other picks, we would be quite pleased to find Jennings, Haines, Parris and Jensen prove us dead wrong.

Session V

Matches to Watch:

Anthony Cassar vs. Jordan Wood (third)

Demetrius Thomas vs. Youssif Hemida (fifth)

Amar Dhesi vs. Trent Hillger (seventh)

These are just educated guesses at this point. The only result about which we have much confidence is that Cassar takes third. And if Cassar beats Steveson in the semifinals, then we're fairly confident it will be Steveson taking third. 

But none of this will have any effect on the actual matches, so let's not get too worked up about it either way.

Session VI

Derek White vs. Gable Steveson

We've seen this one before. And we can, in fact, see it again, right now, by watching the video below.

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It's doubtful Steveson will be able to hit another six-point move on White, which was the difference maker in this early season dual. We expect things to be measured and tactical, as most heavyweight bouts at this level are. 

White has been superb ever since taking this loss, beating Cassar in the Scuffle finals and cruising to a Big 12 title with a tech fall over AJ Nevills. But Steveson has looked superb all season long, even in his loss to Cassar in Minneapolis. We thought Steveson was the best heavyweight at the start of the season, and we think he proves it in Pittsburgh. 

Will we be vindicated in our beliefs, or will we leave Pittsburgh with the proverbial egg on our face? We shall soon find out!

Spey's Spredictions

1. Steveson
2. White
3. Cassar
4. Wood
5. Thomas
6. Hemida
7. Dhesi
8. Hillger

For our entire bracket, please see below:

Here it is: my heavyweight bracket. pic.twitter.com/HLy95DqUYJ

— The King of Chalk (@SpeyWrestle) March 18, 2019

Okay, that's it. The hay is in the barn, as the saying goes. Time to wrestle. Let's party, Pittsburgh!