What a tourney!

We saw plenty of happiness, heartbreak and action at the 2024 Olympic qualifiers.

J’den Cox ended his career, along with Mark Hall officially and probably a few others on the list but not officially made yet.

I don’t know if we will see JB at another Olympics, he did look like he was slowing down out there. And Pat Downey looked good for the first period, but took his foot off the gas against Starocci, which ended in a Starocci win.

David Taylor had a great game plan in round 2 against Aaron Brooks, but Brooks’ raw power seemed to negate any tactical strategy. I partially wonder if DT could have benefitted with a warm up match. Same with Valencia, as he narrowly lost to Brooks in the Semi’s at a 7-6 score late on Friday night. Either way, it’s another changing of the guard as past gold medalist Taylor has been a stalwart on the Olympic team for years. I think there was a stat that said that it’s the first time in 15 years with no JB or DT. That’s…quite a run and hats off to both of them.

Kyle Dake was able to turn Jason Nolf’s hesitation against him, and his strategy worked well to ensure that he would be going back to the Olympics. There didn’t seem to be an answer to Dake’s movement, even though Nolf ended JB’s shot at the Olympics a round earlier. Nolf kept the pressure on JB and it didn’t seem like he could match it-even in his panic filled 2nd period. I wish JB had opened it up from the beginning, and then it might have been JB and Dake in the finals, but Nolf seemed ready for JB. He wasn’t as ready for Dake, and that’s the problem he will have to overcome going forward, if Nolf stays at the Senior level.

Lastly, there seems to be a lot of controversy on the “boos” surrounding JB and Penn State fans. I didn’t see a real problem with the fans-they were action hungry and cheered for just about every move that worked. What seemed to matter was JB’s conduct through the tourney. It started with his first match against Facundo-he starting a bit of stalling, and continued on to the Messenbrink match-with the no high five, and head pushing on the out of bounds call. By the time he went against Nolf, it seemed like he turned full heel, and the crowds were vocal about it. JB received a full standing ovation when he entered the arena the first time, and a full ovation when he left, even with the boos.