The Big Ten issued a public reprimand of Gophers wrestling coach J Robinson on Tuesday for accusing an opposing wrestler of faking an injury.
Assistant commissioner Scott Chipman announced, in a release, that Robinson violated the Big Ten Sportslike Conduct Agreement following the Gophers' 18-18 tie against Penn State on Feb. 13.
Robinson accused Penn State 149-pounder Frank Molinaro of faking the injury to get a timeout during his 6-5 victory over Minnesota's Danny Zilverberg.
The Daily Collegian, the campus newspaper at Penn State, published a Q and A with Robinson and asked him about Penn State. He replied:
"They're good. They wrestle hard. They came to compete. I was disappointed in the coaching staff. They let one of their kids, Molinaro, take a timeout when he wasn't hurt. It's not OK to break the rules. The kid wasn't hurt. He knows he wasn't hurt and the coaches know he wasn't hurt and they allowed it anyway. It's outside the integrity of the sport. He just got tired. He wasn't hurt. He just wound his clock, took a timeout and the coaches just went along with it instead of keeping him out there and letting him deal with it."
Robinson was disappointed with the reaction by the conference.
"I don't want to get into a debate about it," Robinson said, "but I am disappointed that the Big Ten is more concerned with what I said than addressing what happened. If what I said was valid, I am not the problem. Maybe they should look elsewhere."
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