2020 Big Ten Championships 184-Pound Preview
2020 Big Ten Championships 184-Pound Preview
Preview, predictions, and everything else you need to know about the 184-pound weight class at the 2020 Big Ten Championships.
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The offseason was the long dull slog of the offseason, mercifully broken in the fall by the start of the regular season. All of which was all prelude to college wrestling's main event: the postseason. So here we are, on the cusp of the Big Ten Championship, the greatest conference tournament, which are themselves a lead up to the NCAA Championships. Below, our preview for 184-pounds.
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March 7-8 | 10 AM & 11 AM Eastern
184-pounds is the most unique in all of college wrestling. The Big Ten is the most dominant in every other division. Not so at 184.
Furthermore, the biggest NCAA news bombshell that was dropped this season involved 184, as two-time NCAA champ and Hodge Trophy frontrunner Zahid Valencia of Arizona State was suspended indefinitely from the team two weeks ago. Assuming Zahid is not reinstated in time for the Pac-12 Championship this weekend, 184 went from having one of the biggest favorites to win the title, to being the most wide open by a large margin.
Could one of the many Big Ten contenders weave their way through the bracket and claim the ultimate prize Saturday night on prime time cable TV? It's possible. But they'll have to battle each other first in Piscataway, which will have many national seeding implications on the line.
Big Ten Previews: 125 | 133 | 141 | 149 | 157 | 165 | 174 | 197
To get an idea of how the Big Ten 184-pounders have fared this season with regard to the national landscape, the graph below shows the number of projected tournament points as determined by the national rankings, broken down by conference.
For once, it's not the Big Ten that is hogging all the space. The ACC, with the second, third and fifth-ranked wrestlers in the country, command a plurality of the projected NCAA points up for grabs.
The Pac-12 took a hit, as you would expect after Zahid was removed from the rankings, and their yellow band of expected points narrowed to zero. Five of the seven conferences have wrestlers in the top eight, but only two of them are from the Big Ten.
The Big Ten has depth, though, as we will discover when we check out the long list of contenders for the 184-pound 2020 Big Ten title.
Contenders
#6 Aaron Brooks, Penn State
#7 Cam Caffey, Michigan State
#9 Abe Assad, Iowa
#10 Taylor Venz, Nebraska
#12 Rocky Jordan, Ohio State
#13 Zac Bruanagel, Illinois
#15 Billy Janzer, Rutgers
#18 Owen Webster, Minnesota
#20 Johnny Sebastian, Wisconsin
#22 Jelani Embree, Michigan
Aaron Brooks graduated high school in 2018 and spent the last season training at the Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. That left him with true freshman eligibility when he got to campus in State College last fall.
Brooks started in redshirt but Coach Sanderson tore that off in early December when it became clear that Kyle Conel's injuries would keep him out of the lineup. Shakur Rasheed bumped to 197 and Brooks was plugged into 184. Brooks acquited himself well right off the bat, beating Lehigh's Chris Weiler in his first varsity match.
Weiler was one of seven top-25 wins Brooks would accumulate this season. Another was against Big Ten rival Zac Braunagel, which you can watch below.
Brooks' one loss on the year is to Nebraska's All-American Taylor Venz. Though it won't be reflected in his seed, Venz also gave Zahid Valencia the toughest match of the season. Venz has had trouble closing out some matches this year, as reflected by his three in-conference losses, but when he's on, he's as legit a contender as anyone in the nation. Watch his match with Brooks below for more evidence of that.
Like Brooks, Abe Assad has true freshman eligibility and also had his redshirt torn off mid-season. Assad's shirt didn't come off until after Midlands, where he outplaced his teammates Cash Wilcke and Nelson Brands. You can watch Assad's quarterfinal victory over American's Tanner Harvey in the video below.
Cam Caffey rounds out or list of top contenders, though I included more wrestlers in the list for reasons which we will explain shortly. Caffey took a few losses earlier in the season but is rolling into the postseason on a 10-match winning streak, including a victory over Wisconsin's Johnny Sebastian, which you can watch in the next embedded video.
So why so many wrestlers in the list of contenders? Because the weight class is like the arms of the rock band Creed: wide open.
Brooks may be the slight favorite, but he has a loss to Venz, who lost Rocky Jordan, Caffey and Assad. Jordan lost to Billy Janzer and Owen Webster. Webster lost to Jelani Embree twice, and Embree lost to Zac Braunagel and Johnny Sebastian. That plus a whole lot of other circular wins and losses occurred, all within the Big Ten.
The Big Ten may not have as many heavy favorites to place in the top half of the podium as they do in the other weight classes, the will nonetheless have quite a few of All-American caliber arrows in their quiver.
Projected Seeds
Our own Daniel Lobdell took a crack at predicting all the Big Ten seeds, so let's cut and paste from this article and see what he came up with at 184.
- Aaron Brooks, Penn State
- Cam Caffey, Michigan State
- Abe Assad, Iowa
- Taylor Venz, Nebraska
- Billy Janzer, Rutgers
- Owen Webster, Minnesota
- Rocky Jordan, Ohio State
- Zac Braunagel, Illinois
- Johnny Sebastian, Wisconsin
- Jelani Embree, Michigan
- Max Lyon, Purdue
- Jack Jessen, Northwestern
- Jakob Hinz, Indiana
- Kyle Jasenski, Maryland
The Big Ten will have 10 automatic qualifiers at this weight class, and they're going to need everyone one of them and more.
Because I procrastinated long enough in finishing this preview, we can also look at the Big Ten Preseeds that have already been released.
- Aaron Brooks, Penn State
- Cameron Caffey, Michigan State
- Abe Assad, Iowa
- Taylor Venz, Nebraska
- Billy Janzer, Rutgers
- Rocky Jordan, Ohio State
- Zac Braunagel, Illinois
- Owen Webster, Minnesota
- Johnny Sebastian, Wisconsin
- Jelani Embree, Michigan
- Max Lyon, Purdue
- Jack Jessen, Northwestern
- Jake Hinz, Indiana
- Kyle Jasenski, Maryland
Nomad appears to know what he's doing. He only missed the Braunagel, Webster, Jordan trifecta. So yeah, pretty good!
Sleepers and Landmines
When you list 10 contenders you don't leave yourself a whole lot of options for sleepers and landmines, but Jack Jessen - who has a win over Jelani Embree - and Max Lyon - who beat Zac Braunagel in the last dual of the season for the Boilermakers - are two guys with potential that should not be overlooked.
Does that mean they also have a case to be in the contenders' list? Sure, why not? Twelve contenders!
Spey's Spredictions
1st: Taylor Venz, Nebraska
2nd: Abe Assad, Iowa
3rd: Aaron Brooks, Penn State
4th: Billy Janzer, Rutgers
5th: Cam Caffey, Michigan State
6th: Rocky Jordan, Ohio State
7th: Zac Braunagel, Illinois
8th: Owen Webster, Minnesota
This was certainly the most difficult to predict in all of the previews that I have done. Assuming the pre-seeds hold, I think we'll see Venz and Brooks meet in the semifinals. I think Venz gets it done in a mild upset, though what is also a repeat from the regular season.
On the bottom side, I think we'll see another upset, as Abe Assad gets past a very game Rocky Jordan in the quarterfinals and then Cam Caffey in the semifinals. I've got Venz growing stronger as the tournament goes on and beating Assad to take the Big Ten crown in the finals.
There are going to be major battles in every round, so don't sleep on any session as this weight class is going to entertain no matter what round we're in.
All the more reason to tune in and see what I got wrong in the predictions. I predict that will happen a lot!