Time For A Decision At 197: Anthony Cassar Or Shakur Rasheed
Time For A Decision At 197: Anthony Cassar Or Shakur Rasheed
Cael Sanderson and the Penn State coaching staff have one final dual to decide who their starter at 197 is: Anthony Cassar or Shakur Rasheed.
It's the final weekend of the season, and we still don't know who Penn State's 197-pound entrant will be for the Big Ten championships. But now is the time for PSU coach Cael Sanderson and his staff to decide, will it be Anthony Cassar or Shakur Rasheed?
Sanderson was noncommittal in his weekly media appearance on Tuesday as the Nittany Lions prepare to host Buffalo this weekend in their regular-season finale. The Centre Daily Times has a video of Sanderson with the following quote about the 197 situation:
"Nothing is set in concrete yet. We have two great choices there and we're proud of both of them, happy with both of them. You'll probably know before I do I guess, I don't know. It seems like you do, generally."
As a follow-up, Sanderson was asked by a reporter, "Whoever starts Sunday, is that going to be the guy?" The coach answered with, "Yeah, probably, that'd be a good assumption."
Our own Ryan Holmes already dug a little bit into this in a short preview, but let's dive deeper into the decision.
WATCH PENN STATE VS. BUFFALO LIVE!
DATE: Sunday, Feb. 18 | TIME: 2 PM ET | WHERE: University Park, PA
For its first three duals of the year, Penn State went with Cassar at 197, which included an 11-8 loss to Garrett Hoffman of Bucknell. After Cassar beat Matt McCutcheon in the Keystone Classic semis, and then won the tournament, the spot seemed locked up.
But then at the Southern Scuffle, Rasheed picked up two majors and three falls in the first minute of the match en route to his title there. One of those falls was in 46 seconds over Jacob Holschlag of Northern Iowa, who had beaten Cassar 6-4 in the semis.
Since that threw a monkey wrench into things, let's look at how the two PSU 197-pounders' resumes stack up so far this year.
Anthony Cassar | Shakur Rasheed | |
Record | 15-2 | 16-2 |
Losses | Garrett Hoffman, Jacob Holschlag | Kyle Conel, Ben Darmstadt |
Bonus Rate | 29.41% | 77.78% |
Falls | 0 | 11 |
Techs | 0 | 1 |
Majors | 5 | 3 |
Ranked Ws | 4 | 6 |
Rasheed clearly has the higher bonus rate, and 11 pins to zero. He also supposedly has a 7-4 win in a wrestle-off the week of the Ohio State match. That would of course lead to Cassar's signature win, a 6-3 victory over #1 Kollin Moore of OSU.
The Nittany Lions have had eight duals since the Scuffle, and each guy has started four of them, with neither starting more than two in a row.
This Sunday is PSU's final dual of the year, with Joe Ariola of Buffalo being the man who will wrestle either Cassar or Rasheed. The Big Ten tournament is March 3-4. It's time for Sanderson to make a decision. Who will it be?