Sweet Sixteen

My beloved Mountaineers are heading to the Sweet 16 after defeating 2nd ranked Wake Forest in Double OT.

Huzzah!

Props also to Greg Jones, the greatest wrestler in WVU history, who won his third NCAA championship today. And when I say greates wrestler in school history, I am not exaggerating:

Over the past several seasons, the West Virginia coaching staff has engaged in a rather bizarre offseason ritual. Coach Craig Turnbull and assistant coach Zeke Jones sat in the wrestling office, poured over a list of tournaments and brainstormed a way to schedule a match that their 184-pound wrestler would lose.

Seriously.

It’s not easy. Not when the wrestler in question is senior Greg Jones, who enters tonight’s 184-pound final against Tyler Baier of Cornell at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship at Savvis Center with the following qualifications:

A 50-match winning streak.

Two previous NCAA titles.

A total of 10 takedowns scored against him. In four seasons.

And more than 400 takedowns scored.

“Our goal his whole college career is to find somebody to beat him,” Zeke Jones said.

There’s a method to the coaches’ madness – to relieve Jones of the heavy burden of an undefeated season.

The only thing keeping Greg Jones from being mentioned in the same breath as four-time NCAA champions Pat Smith and Cael Sanderson is his performance as a sophomore at the 2003 NCAA tournament. He entered the tournament with a 46-match winning streak, got upset in the first round and failed to earn All-America status.