Listening to Cael Sanderson try to walk the line between respecting the Big Ten Tourney while also attempting to return the word “priority” to its original, singular meaning (before we bastardized it to become meaningless in its “priorities” form) is always a little awkward. He quipped in last week’s presser that his wrestlers don’t typically grow up dreaming of becoming Big Ten Champions—they dream of becoming National Champions. Meaning the National Tourney is THE priority.
So on this, like so many aspects of this wonderful sport, we fans take our lead from Coach. And we approach this tournament with a similar attitude: number one priority is get guys qualified for Nationals, and watch the team race with an interest toward preparation.