Athletor

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Iowa comes in at No. 6 in the AthletorIQ season preview, so four-time Big Ten champ Alex Marinelli came back on to go through the numbers with Mike. Riding time, reversals, Ryder Block, Nasir Bailey, and why he thinks the gap between fourth and first is thinner than it looks. 📊 Iowa's full 2026-27 season preview: https://preview.athletorlive.com/teams/iowa 🔗 Recruitable: Your step-by-step playbook for today's recruiting process, from first contact to signing day: https://www.athletorlive.com/product/recruitable Free resources: 📊 Find out your recruiting tier: https://recruitable.athletorlive.com/quiz 🏟️ Find a college to wrestle at: https://recruitable.athletorlive.com/database ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 - Iowa at No. 6: 62.5 of 92.5 NCAA points coming back 2:13 - How impact scores and development scores work 4:02 - Where Gabe Arnold's comeback All-American run fits 6:10 - Ryder Block: long, lanky, and proving people wrong 7:23 - Would you build a team of long, lanky wrestlers? 8:33 - Nasir Bailey and pulling the trigger 10:14 - Why it's easier to get a 12-year-old to open up 11:16 - "Take yourself to deep waters" every practice 12:26 - First 10 seconds, go out there and shoot 15:15 - Do kids in the best rooms wrestle scared? 17:15 - "Tom Brands is not that. He will confront you." 19:23 - How many kids actually want to be elite? 21:44 - $100 for 100 takedowns 24:46 - Stop hanging on the leg: hop to the body 27:32 - Iowa's 2026 NCAA numbers: No. 1 in riding time 29:52 - Should reversals be worth more? 30:45 - "There's 3 days in March that matter" 32:02 - "We're doing nothing, we just gotta work" 34:25 - Is Iowa getting a return on its budget? 35:52 - From fourth to first: the biggest jump in college wrestling? 40:41 - "Stay on the front side" and his first trip to Fargo 48:24 - Speed round: the Mount Rushmore of Iowa wrestling 51:06 - Magic wand: take the politics out of wrestling 📋 ABOUT THIS EPISODE Alex Marinelli is Iowa's 22nd four-time All-American and one of eight Hawkeyes to win four Big Ten titles, finishing 99-13 at 165 pounds. Now he runs the Hawkeye Wrestling Academy, where around 140 kids train in the elite group alone. Mike walks him through the AthletorIQ numbers on Iowa: 62.5 of last year's 92.5 NCAA points returning, the impact and development scores behind Ryder Block's rise, and a 2026 NCAA tournament where Iowa led the field in riding time points but managed just 3 reversals. Alex pushes back on a couple of things. He doesn't buy the idea that the room beats guys up before March, and he doesn't think fourth to first is the monumental jump Mike does, because so many of those losses came down to a single takedown. He also gets into coaching kids: why the first guy to shoot usually wins, why motivation shouldn't be a feeling, the $100 he offered a kid for 100 takedowns, and when to stop a kid from living on one move. Plus his Mount Rushmore of Iowa wrestling and the one thing he'd change about the sport. 🎙️ ABOUT ATHLETOR PODCAST The Athletor Podcast brings you conversations with the coaches, athletes, and minds shaping wrestling. Subscribe for new episodes weekly. 🔗 CONNECT YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXjsj-4x50ZVLOvSjaUEM9A Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athletor.live/ X: https://x.com/athletor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/athletor.live/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@athletor

Ep. 0190

Why Alex Marinelli Thinks Iowa Is One Takedown From A Title

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