Salyer -
Lampe was not making excuses for Dollaway at all when he made the remark. In fact he was doing just the opposite. He used the comment to reinforce the fact that you have to remain composed on the mat at all times or your frustration could cost you a match you were capable of winning.
Case in point - Dollaway leading comfortably going into the final period, makes a mental miscue and is lucky the referee did not call the fall.
And for those of you not familar with Lampe's coaching style - shape usually is an issue early in the season as he coaches technique during the early season and focuses on conditioning after the fundamentals are in place. This is especially true in a year when he has 8 freshman in the starting line-up.
My comments were to point out that I merely found it interesting that people on this site and especially in the chat room at themat.com site are already writing Dollaway off based in that performance.
With that in mind I offered two observations - 1). Dollaway was one mistake away from winning very comfortably, but he still won and 2). He did so against an very talented opponent who is going to turn a lot of heads at the juco level.
I think you are selling Sponsel short. He appears to be the real deal to me.
