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Wrestling Preview: Knights return home to.... What? It's gonna snow?

It's winter. It snows. Sometimes a lot. So we ain't wrestling. But I wrote the preview, there's nothing else going on, so read about what would have happened.

By rvc73
Roy DeBoer - used with permission

You'd think people from Wisconsin would be able to handle a foot or so of snow!

The No. 12 Scarlet Knights put their six match home unbeaten streak on the line tonight as they host conference foe Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Badgers (1-4, 0-3 Big Ten)
Date Friday, Jan. 22
Time 7 p.m. ET
Location

Piscataway, N.J. | Rutgers Athletic Center
Live Stream BTN Plus
Radio WRSU 88.7 FM
Statistics Rutgers | Wisconsin
Match Notes Rutgers | Wisconsin
Tickets Buy Here

The loss to Minnesota dropped the Knights six spots in the national rankings.  A program best No. 6 last week was short-lived as RU, still in the top rankings, fell.

Intermat Dual ranking
RANK SCHOOL RECORD PREV
1 Penn State (11) 10-0 1
2 Iowa 11-0 2
3 N.C. State (1) 17-0 3
4 Missouri 9-0 4
5
Oklahoma State 6-2 5
6 Lehigh 10-1 8
7 Oklahoma 8-2 9
8 Michigan 7-1 10
9
Ohio State 6-2 11
10 Virginia Tech 9-2 12
11 Nebraska 8-3 7
12 Rutgers 11-3 6
13 Illinois 10-3 13
20 Purdue 7-2 20
21 Indiana 5-1 22
23 Minnesota 6-6 NR

Despite its 1-4 record, Wisconsin did receive votes in this week's ranking.

All four UW losses have come against opponents ranked in the top-20 of the most recent USA Today/NWCA Coaches Poll, including No. 1 Penn State and No. 2 Iowa. Wisconsin placed 17th at the 2015 NCAA Championships and has three NCAA qualifiers and two-All-Americans back from that squad.

Against Minnesota, both Richie Lewis (No. 15, 157) and Hayden Hrymack (197) were out of the lineup.  They are both expected back for the Badgers.  Against the Gophers, both of those weights were losses for RU.

There are several ranked matchups in the contest.  At 133, redshirt freshman No. 18 Anthony Giraldo will likely face No. 7 Ryan Taylor.  And at 165, No. 9 Anthony Perrotti will square off against No. 3 Isaac Jordan.  Perrotti and Jordan are both All Americans. At 174 pounds, No. 20 Phil Bakuckas (@FloWrestling) will take on No. 20 Ricky Robertso.

Rutgers is 0-2 all-time against Wisconsin. The then-No. 21 Knights had momentum for much of last year's match at UW Field House, but three-straight Wisconsin wins to close the dual tied things at 18-18 and gave the No. 18 Badgers a 19-18 win by criterion.