I'll be hosting my final wrestling chat of the season this Wednesday at 11 am here on IlliniHQ.com.  In case you missed them, here are the transcripts from the previous chats.

Not much new to report on the Illinois wrestling front in the last week.  The Illini did not receive any wildcard berths, so they are still sending nine of their ten starters to the NCAA's this weekend. 

The NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships is one of my favorite events to cover.  Unfortunately, I may not be able to make the short drive to St. Louis this weekend, albeit for a very positive reason.  This year, the IHSA Class 3A and 4A boys basketball finals are the same weekend as the first and second round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, and the NCAA Wrestling Championships.  As some of you know, I also call high school basketball games for WDWS.  We're following Champaign Centennial as far as they go in the playoffs, and if they win again tomorrow night against Belleville Althoff, I'll be with the Chargers this Friday and Saturday in Peoria.  If I don't have obligations in Peoria, I'm still planning to make the trip to St. Louis on Friday and Saturday.  It's a win-win situation for me.  Either way, I'm covering an exciting sporting event this weekend.

I will say this.  I don't think there are any other events that have made the hair on my arm stand up quite as much as last year's NCAA Wrestling Finals on Saturday night.  Just before the finals started, they riled up the crowd at the Savvis Center in St. Louis with AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" over the PA system.  That was one fired up crowd, and I'll be disappointed if I miss the return trip this weekend.

Hoping to catch up with Mark Johnson tomorrow before the team leaves for St. Louis.  I'll share it with you if I do.

bmoline@wdws.com