Since the Big 12 tournament was completely full of nothing but just complete dominance by Oklahoma State, so a combined recap and preview seemed much more ideal. I will do each wrestler and weight class individually, very quick thoughts, and what each wrestler has to do to improve Oklahoma State’s chances at winning it’s 35th national championship.

125 – Klimara is the MAN! Anybody that has following wrestling this season should know that this true freshman is going to have a magical ending to this season. I mean, name one match this season that he truly lost…I’m not talking on the scoreboard…but a match where he just had no chance at winning? None! He is the dark horse on this team. Expect big things!

133 – Morrison has every ability in the world to win himself an NCAA title this year, but he just needs to find it within himself to go out there and attack like we know he can. If he dances like he is usually susceptible to, he could end up low on the podium…if that.

141 – We won’t know if Feikert is even in the tournament until the brackets come out, but my guess is he won’t be in the tourney, and those are crucial points that I’m sure we may need when it comes down to it.

149 – Honestly, anything short of a third (you know what I mean) national championship for Jordan Oliver and frankly, him raising the Hodge Trophy (Heisman) would be a disappointment. There are some good wrestlers in this weight class, but come on…

157 – I don’t know why, but my infatuation with Alex Dieringer might challenge Kyle and his bromance for Markel Brown. This kid figured it out early and has really been super dominant this year. As a freshman he had a setback or two, but he has learned from these and expect him to make some real damage. One of the best wrestlers this school has ever seen.

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1. Well, let’s all take a moment to reflect on this weekend in one word… My word would be “humbling.” From the first match on Friday to the last match today, the entire weekend was humbling for the Cowboys.

2. The difference, however, is that Oklahoma State is no doubt wrestling the toughest schedule in the nation. We have wrestled every team that means something this season, and we have been able to win every single one.

3. Remember when I said I would be surprised if Chionuma or Rosholt lose again until the Big 12’s? I’m surprised!

4. Iowa State has looked good this entire year; I knew that they were going to be one of the toughest tests for the Cowboys this season. Surprisingly ISU is not ranked very high nationally, but they will surprise people this year.

5. I wouldn’t think too much about any of the matches that happened this weekend. If this funk continues on through the national duals, we are going to have some things to worry about.

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1. I have been waiting for this dual for the entire season, and it went much differently (basically exactly the opposite) than I had thought it would, but Missouri had opportunities to beat Oklahoma State, but the Pokes showed just how strong and deep the entire team is.

2. Klimara is wrestling out of his mind as a true freshman. He has consistently wrestled the top guys in the nation, and has consistently been in the matches…iron sharpens iron.

3. The reason this match was half as bad as it was is because of injuries. With Oliver limping with a foot injury, and Morrison in his first match back from his injury, the dual was potentially much closer than it should have been.

4. And Rex Holt….”There are 16,000, wait, did they say 6,000 in attendance?” Rex, does it look like an Oklahoma State basketball game, or a Kansas basketball game? There’s your answer!

5. We as fans have to be pretty content with what we have seen this year, and we pretty much know exactly what to expect from the team for the rest of the season, and in regards to Penn State, that’s scary.

6. I don’t know about you, but I saw a loss coming for Chris Perry. Something about him just doesn’t scream undefeated to me. Not saying he won’t win a national championship, but to go undefeated in a full season in college wrestling is tough, very few do it.

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Photo Attribution: US Presswire

Le’Bryan Nash is an issue right now — I think we’re all aware of that. It seemed to me like one of the problems is that he was playing really well against the Tennessee Techs of the world and not so well against the Gonzagas and Kansas’.

Enter OKC Dave.

I commissioned him to do some research for me the other day about how Le’Bryan performs against teams grouped in various rankings.

All these stats came before the Texas Tech and Baylor games. Rankings are via KenPom.com.

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No. 2 Oklahoma State 26, No. 17 Pittsburgh 14

1. It was great to see Klimara score from neutral, and to look offensive in his match. Only a true freshman, points from him at NCAA’s would be key.

2. Dorrell and Feikert did not put up much of a fight. I’m not too sure anybody really knows the status of Morrison, but he is vital to the Pokes’ success.

3. Oliver has been trying to work on his mat wrestling and certainly had the chance to today. He would have liked to get the pin, but remember, these guys are big.

4. Dieringer…I’m telling you, he’s becoming an all-time great. If you are looking for a favorite wrestler for the next four years…pick him.

5. I think we can all be happy with Caldwell, as long as he beats everyone! At least you know what you are going to get from him!

6. Chris Perry keeps working to score big points, and he has plenty of time for the season to get a pin move that works from top. I guarantee you that is all he thinks about at night.

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Vitals

Start: 4:00 PM
Location: Stillwater, OK (Gallagher-Iba Arena)
Television: None
Radio: 93.7 KSPI-FM (Roger Moore & Rex Holt)
Live Results: okstate.com
Live Internet Video: okstate.tv

Records

Cowboys – 9-0
Panthers – 5-3

Best win

Cowboys – Iowa Hawkeyes (#3)
Panthers – Virginia Tech (#11)

Worst Loss

Cowboys – N/A
Panthers – Bloomsburg (#33)

InterMatWrestle.com ranking

Cowboys – #2
Panthers – #16

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This is a guest post by Nick Isburgh (@nisburgh).

1. Klimara wrestled a great match against McDonough. He didn’t accept a defeat and attacked McDonough the entire match. To hold the #1 wrestler in the nation to a minor decision was in and of itself, a win for the Cowboys. Wow, as only a freshman, if he continues to grow at the current pace, he’s going to win some big matches in the near future.

2. Morrison and Feikert just did not seem to be the aggressors in their matches. Feikert does not look like the same wrestler we all saw at the beginning of the season and Morrison should really trust his leg attacks more against higher competition…they are great!

3. Well, Oliver did manage to match McDonough, although it was only a decision, the fact that he was able to turn the feeling of the match was important. And Dieringer just looked like the spotlight was too big on him in this match. Expect Dieringer to build up some more confidence the rest of the season and compete a little bit more against higher ranked wrestlers later in this season.

4. We really did need bonus points from either Caldwell or Perry in this match to put some pressure on the Hawkeyes. Granted, both opponents were ranked, getting bonus points would have certainly put an insurmountable pressure on the upper weights to perform.

5. Wow! What a win from Chionuma! That was huge for the dual and huge for his confidence! Look for Chionuma to look a little different for the rest of the year on his way to an All-American season!

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Previously we looked at the most popular posts of the first three quarters of 2012, here’s a look at the year in its entirety.

Quarter 1 | Quarter 2 | Quarter 3

You guys rocked this blog last year, here are the 10 most-viewed posts of 2012.

1. Markel Hammers – You hit this post almost twice as most as the next one. With good reason too.

2. Bedlam shirts – I would like to thank OU’s incompetence for providing hits to my blog.

3. Texas fan’s thoughts – This was the most viral-y non-video of the year on our site. It got retweeted like 200 times.

4. Orange helmets - Wish I could have found a pic of the carbon fiber helmets.

5. New basketball uniforms - Didn’t even get in the same stratosphere as our football uniform post from last year.

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Photo Attribution: US Presswire

This is a guest post by Nick Isburgh (@nisburgh) on the Southern Scuffle dual in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

FloWrestling rank (coming into the dual)

Penn State – #1

Oklahoma State – #3

Minnesota – #4

Missouri – #7

Cornell – #8

Three thoughts from day one

1. As expected, there is a four-team race for 1st place. Current standings are:

Penn State: 102

Minnesota: 94

Oklahoma State: 89.5

Cornell: 84.5

2. Minnesota leads all teams with seven wrestlers in the semi-finals. Penn State and Oklahoma State both have six, and Cornell has five wrestlers in the semi-finals.

3. #1 Chris Perry vs #3 Logan Storley (Minnesota). Another match-up between wrestlers who did not see each other in the dual earlier this season, this finals match-up will certainly give the nation an idea of who is the real deal at 174 this season.

3. It looks as if Penn State and Oklahoma State are set for a dual tomorrow, but Minnesota might have a little something to say about that. With two wrestlers already out, (Eddie Klimara, 125, and Austin Schafer, 197) OSU is going to have to beat PSU to get to the finals, and the wrestlers in the consolations must come back and score bonus points in the wrestle-backs.

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Here’s a look at what the Big 12 and Big 10 would look like if they formed a 22-team super conference. I ranked the 22 teams based on their F+ offensive, defensive, special teams, and overall rankings.

As you can see, according to F+ OSU is better in every category than Purdue, most notably on offense. Purdue is average at best in all categories. Not a big surprise given our 16.5 advantage in Vegas.

Photo Attribution: US Presswire

We’ve hit a pretty slow time of year so this is a quick series to look back at what we did in 2012 and share some goals with y’all for 2013. First up is Q1 (January – March)

Top five posts

1. Markel hammers – One of the most viewed posts all year. And deservedly so, I think this is the best Markel dunk ever.

2. New orange helmets – Y’all would break down the Internet to look at new equestrian uniforms so this is no surprise.

3. Griffin vs. Weeden – Pretty interesting post to look back on, also this was the second most commented post ever.

4. Nathan Peterson interview – Great work by my boy @mattamilian to snag this one.

5. We Will Never Forget shirt – I never got an answer from OSU about why these were printed. Good job, good effort.

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Carson Cunningham and I realized something spooky last weekend when Justin Horton, J.W. Walsh, and Brian Williams were all lost for the season within a few days of each other: each wore the #4 or had a #4 in his number.

Justin Gilbert should be double-taping every extremity he possibly can for the rest of the season.

But here’s what’s even more eerie – we started to look at a history of OSU players who have worn the #4 or had the #4 in their number and found that this wasn’t a one time thing. Most of these players are notorious for one thing (bad play) or another (season-ending injury).

Sure, we’re purposely leaving out guys (Patrick Lavine) who weren’t notorious but read this list and tell me there isn’t something to the theory…and please remind us of any we missed in the comments (especially you old-timers!)

Each player has been assigned a Squinky rating (on a scale of 1 to 10) for how notorious they were during their time at OSU. From least Squinky (bad shooting) to Squinkiest (prison!)

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