Wrestling with expectations

From the day he began wrestling for Missouri, it was clear that Max Askren took after his older brother Ben, a defending national champion and winner of the 2006 Dan Hodge Trophy awarded to the country’s best wrestler.

“His work ethic reminded me of Ben,” Missouri coach Brian Smith said. “And his desire to learn and get better at the sport, always improving

and learning new moves. Both of them are innovators at the sport, and they want to always invent new moves and try new things to have success and step it to the next level. That’s why he’s so successful.”

Success for the younger brother of the Tigers’ star came faster than even Smith expected. After being redshirted last season, Max Askren showed tremendous potential in the offseason when he qualified for the Junior World Championships in Guatemala and finished eighth in the 211 1/2-pound weight class.

Even after his performance in Guatemala, though, few expected Askren to make an immediate impact in college.

He opened the season ranked 12th at 197 pounds in the Intermat preseason poll but quickly rose to the top. In his first career dual, he defeated No. 5 J.D. Bergman of Ohio State on Nov. 16. Just three days later, he won the Missouri Open, defeating No. 2 Joel Flaggert of Oklahoma in the finals. Askren jumped all the way to No. 4 in the Nov. 28 poll. By Dec. 12, after winning the Las Vegas Invitational by defeating No. 2 Jerry Rinaldi of Cornell in the finals, he jumped to No. 1 in the country.

Smith said he was surprised Askren made it through that tough stretch unbeaten.

“I didn’t think he’d be undefeated,” he said. “I thought he might get a loss here or there. You hope he doesn’t, but I thought looking at the schedule, ‘Wow, that’s going to be tough,’ but he battled through them all.”

Perhaps the only person the start didn’t surprise was Askren.

“I never expect to doubt myself,” he said. “I know I can wrestle at any level I want to, and I’ve done so.”

When he decided to come to Missouri, Max Askren knew that his name would bring lofty expectations in a community where Ben Askren has been the face of Tiger wrestling. It was a challenge Max Askren said he was prepared to face head on.

“You outgrow your shadows,” he said. “Throughout grade school and high school and now through college we’ve been our own people. We win different ways, but both of us love to win. I knew I could hold my own.”

By the time Missouri started the home portion of its schedule, Max Askren grew to almost as big of a star as his brother. He built his record to 26-0 and became the buzz of the entire college wrestling community.

The way he was dominating so many of the best wrestlers in the country as a freshman brought comparisons to some of the best college wrestlers of all-time, including Cael Sanderson.

Sanderson went 159-0 in his career at Iowa State from 1999 to 2002. He became the first wrestler to finish an unbeaten career with more than 100 wins and won the Dan Hodge Trophy a remarkable three times.

Suddenly, people began to wonder if Max Askren could be the next wrestler to have an undefeated career. Ben Askren said he was concerned with Max facing the pressure that came with those comparisons, but was impressed with how his younger brother dealt with it.

“I was worried about the Cael thing when the talk started,” he said. “But, Max has handled it so well. He’s just even keel.”

Ironically, it was the Iowa State team that Sanderson coaches that ended the dreams of an unbeaten career for Max Askren. The Cyclones’ Kurt Backes defeated him after the referee called a defensive pin. Askren admitted he was down after the Feb. 11 loss, but used it as motivation to get better. His attitude impressed his coach.

“He went upstairs (immediately after the Iowa State dual), and worked out somewhere,” Smith said. “He and Josh Wagner were coming down from working out after the dual. It was more just to get frustration out, but also to work on things. That’s a sign of kids that really have their head screwed on right, instead of sulking they went out and trained hard.”

Max Askren hopes for a chance at a rematch with Backes at the Big 12 Championships on Saturday at Hearnes Center. An individual title for him would go a long way towards helping the Missouri program win its first conference title. Askren says that moment would be a great one for the Tigers, but that if it happens, they will handle it like a team that expects to win.

“As a team, that’s what we expect,” he said. “And yeah, we’re going to be happy and we’ll be grateful for what we’ve accomplished. It’ll be an experience to share together. But, it’s not going be like ‘Oh, we just got lucky and stumbled upon it,’ we’ve been working. When I’ve won state, when I’ve done whatever I’ve done, I’ve accomplished things in wrestling, it’s not like ‘Oh, you know, I got lucky,’ like Backes after pinning me where he looks like he won a million dollars. That’s because he didn’t expect it.”

Since the loss to Backes, Askren has referred to his opponent “getting lucky” several times.

Like his older brother, he does not hesitate to say what he thinks, whether others see it as degrading his opponents or not. It’s an attitude that’s often looked down upon by wrestlers and coaches across the country, who say the brothers are too cocky.

Smith, though, compares their attitudes to that of Muhammad Ali, one of Ben Askren’s idols.

“Muhammad Ali used to really get in people’s heads, it was a more of a mind game he was playing with his competitors,” Smith said. “They don’t put down their opponents, that would be an arrogance and a cockiness, they just talk about that ‘I’m prepared, I truly think I can win the national title’, and some people say ‘Man, they’re cocky’, but that’s just confidence, and they back it up.”

Smith says the confidence the brothers show often intimidates opponents.

“I think people look at it and think ‘Man, those Askrens, they just believe in themselves,’” he said. “I think their opponents see that and think ‘Oh, I’ve got to wrestle Askren,’ and they’re almost beaten before they go out there, I see that a lot.”

Max Askren says he doesn’t let the criticism bother him.

“I’m living my own life, and I hope they do the same, as well,” he said. “I plan on doing everything I can with my life and being the best. If I say something that they don’t feel is appropriate, they probably shouldn’t read it. I’m not going to come in here and tell you ‘I hope I win’ and this and that, that’s my mentality, I’m going to win.”

The Askrens will try to back up their talk with a Big 12 title on Saturday and a national championship on March 17 in Detroit. This is the only year the brothers will be teammates at Missouri.

They say it would be special to end the season with both of them winning titles.

“Man, it’d be a fun time,” Ben Askren said with a laugh. “It’d be a good time, I’m not going to lie, we’d be having fun (joking) about it for a while I’m sure.”

Max Askren has made it clear that he will be happy with nothing less than a national title. That shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, he does take after his brother.