Wrestling Mailbag: Big Ten Network's new show, COVID affecting NCAA Championships, Gable Steveson, Hawkeyes

Big Ten Network has an in-studio wrestling show now, called "B1G Wrestling & Beyond." It debuted Monday evening and will air every Monday evening through the Big Ten dual schedule, Big Ten Championships and NCAA Championships.

Rick Pizzo was the host, and Shane Sparks served as the analyst. They discussed last week’s results, analyzed some film (Sparks’ "Mat Return of the Week"), did an interview with Iowa wrestler Michael Kemerer and looked ahead to the next week of wrestling.

I had many thoughts while watching the initial run last night. Let’s start at the top:

It’s about (dang) time BTN launched an in-studio wrestling show.

To be fair, the network had initially planned on launching this show last year, then COVID-19 happened, so it held off for another year. But this is something BTN could’ve jumped on a few years ago. At least most of us wrestling fans think so.

Having said that, watching that last night was pretty cool, right?

Let’s give credit where it’s due: BTN has gone all-in on wrestling coverage in recent years. It helps that the network covers the best college wrestling conference in the country, but between the live coverage, documentaries, storytelling and social media engagement, there’s a concerted effort here to help grow the sport. That matters.

So a live, in-studio wrestling show is another sign that the sport is growing, slowly but surely. Again, it helps when the Big Ten is home to some of the sport’s biggest stars — Gable Steveson, Spencer Lee, etc. — as well as some of the sport’s biggest brands — Iowa and Penn State (Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska all carry huge footprints, too).

An in-studio show was the next logical step in BTN's coverage. 

It opened with an around-the-horn-style recap, hitting on all the big results. Smart way to open the show, in my opinion. The idea behind this show is to pull in more casual fans. Tell them the big results and why they matter first.

Then it went to Sparks’ "Mat Return of the Week," which I thought was a little corny but also on-brand for him. I’d like to see BTN do actual breakdowns on crucial moves or techniques. That window is a fun opportunity to really dig in with some good wrestling stuff — which would cater to both the casual fans and the big-time nerds.

Pizzo interviewed Kemerer in the third block, which was great, and then the show ended by quickly previewing the upcoming weekend. They handed out headgear for guys that needed to "strap up" for big matches. Again, corny, but their heart is in the right place.

Overall, I liked the show. It's an awesome opportunity for BTN to further cement itself in the wrestling space. Pizzo and Sparks maybe struggled with chemistry, but they’ll get better as they go. I also think they can eliminate the corny stuff from the analysis segments and really focus on the wrestling. Thirty minutes goes fast. Don't waste it.

But for a first run, I thought it was really well done. I’ll tune in every Monday, and I’m excited to see how the show evolves over the next few months.

Now, then. Onto the Wrestling Mailbag. I hope Alex Marinelli lands some sort of Wheaties deal after his post-dual comment on Sunday. The official Wheaties social media accounts found the tweet, so we'll see what happens. These are the updates you came here for.

Please give me a follow on Twitter and I’ll keep you up to date on all things wrestling in Iowa. Don't forget to tune into the Register's wrestling podcast, In the Room, each week. You can find the latest episodes below.

Thanks for your help here, and for reading.

► MORE WRESTLING FROM THE DES MOINES REGISTER

• Gable Porter has now beaten four state champs from four different states
• Hawkeyes thump Purdue, 36-4, before another sold-out Carver crowd
• Northern Iowa falls to SDSU; Iowa State blanks NW Kansas Tech
• Why 145 pounds might be the most intriguing weight in Class 3A this year

A quick story on Purdue heavyweight wrestler Michael Woulfe

Most of you know by now that I like to make jokes when I send out my mailbag roll calls every Monday morning, but this week, I opted instead for a fun fact:

Michael Kemerer wrestled his first college match on Nov. 7, 2015, when Drake Ayala was just 13 years old. Now they’re in the same Iowa lineup.

Pretty great, right?

And then my man Corby brought up Purdue's Michael Woulfe to go along with it. A lot of you will know Woulfe as the guy that Tony Cassioppi pinned on Sunday, but like Corby alludes to, Woulfe has a really awesome story.

Woulfe wrestled for Navy from 2014-16, where he went 58-31 at 184 and 197 pounds. He qualified for the 2016 NCAA Championships. He was quite the pinner, actually — of his 58 career wins during that span, 26 were by fall.

Then Woulfe served in the Navy from 2016 through 2021. Because of his service, the NCAA essentially froze his eligibility clock. When he was done, he went to Purdue because he wanted to pursue a master's and Ph.D. in chemical engineering. Smart dude.

And because he had a year left on his NCAA clock, he reached out to Purdue wrestling coach Tony Ersland. Because why not? Ersland said let's do it, and Woulfe has filled in at heavyweight for the Boilermakers. He's 12-8 with six pins.

It's a really unique story, one that maybe needs more love than it's currently getting, and Woulfe is an easy guy to root for. It would be pretty fun if he could navigate a deep, deep Big Ten heavyweight field and reach the big dance come March.

Is COVID-19 going to impact attendance at the NCAA Championships?

I do think fans will be in the building for this year’s NCAA Championships, but I also think the NCAA’s wrestling committee better have a backup plan ready just in case things get haywacky in Michigan.

As we continue to navigate the second year of this pandemic, it’s been very clear to me that sports can be a leader in how we go about returning to normal.

If you’ll recall, it was sports that initially led to everything shutting down, with the news of the Utah Jazz's Rudy Gobert testing positive for the virus. That was March 9, 2020. Three days later, the NCAA formally announced the cancellation of every national wrestling tournament.

I think sports can show us the way out.

Look at the NFL, with its seemingly infinite dollars and resources. The league has made business decisions by allowing all fans back in and relaxing its own COVID-19 protocols. The NFL is reportedly looking into moving the Super Bowl if it can’t happen in California.

That says a lot — mostly that every state is still doing its own thing when it comes to the pandemic, but also that the NFL is determined to host the Super Bowl, a billion-dollar party, with the full experience intact, and there’s nothing that’ll stop them.

The NBA is, slowly, heading in the same direction. At the college level, yes, several bowls were canceled, but the football playoffs were held without much issue. Monday night’s title game at Lucas Oil Stadium offered the full fan experience.

Now, yes, the College Football Playoff is technically a different governing body from the NCAA, but until I see or hear otherwise, I’m of the belief that the NCAA will follow suit — it already did, technically, with North Dakota State’s run to a national FCS title.

Why? One: Money is undefeated. Two: Right or wrong, people seem to be easing up when it comes to the pandemic.

I'm hopeful the NCAA will see and use all of this to make decisions that benefit the student-athletes. That could happen by following the lead of the NFL: Plan as if nothing is going to change, but have a backup plan ready and tell everybody to prepare accordingly. 

(An easy backup plan: Tulsa's BOK Center, capacity 19,199, is hosting the Big 12 Championships. Leave the mats down once matches are done that weekend — just in case.)

I'm naturally an optimistic person, so I’m hopeful that come March, Little Caesars Arena will be jammed full with diehard wrestling fans for three days of magic.

From Jeff Budlong: Gable Steveson is a wrestling freak on the level of Spencer Lee, yet the Gophers experienced no real bump in success on or off mat during his time. Spencer helped revitalize Iowa. Why no similar Gable bump?

This is a very interesting question and comparison, and there's a few different ways to look at this.

By the time Spencer Lee burned his redshirt, in January 2018, a lot of the pieces were already in place. Marinelli and Kemerer were starters, and Jacob Warner, Max Murin and Pat Lugo were all redshirting. The next year, Young dropped to 157, Austin DeSanto transferred in, and Warner, Murin and Lugo all entered the lineup.

The whole thing came together in 2019-20 and 2020-21 and they're attempting one more run this season.

Minnesota has tried to do the same with Steveson. That 2018-19 Minnesota team was actually really good. It had eight NCAA qualifiers, finished with four All-Americans and had three others lose in the bloodround. It finished eighth at the 2019 NCAA Championships, and would've jumped to fifth had those bloodround guys all won.

The Gophers have continued to build around Steveson. They had eight NCAA qualifiers in 2020 and nine last year (three All-Americans and another in the bloodround). They've done it with the transfer portal (Sean Russell in 2019, Michael Blockhus last year) and they've developed their own recruits (the McKee brothers, Brayton Lee).

You can't knock Minnesota's coaches for trying. All these teams have had a lot of potential. This is another strong example that Division I wrestling is hard. Very hard. Sometimes it pans out (see: Iowa) and sometimes it doesn't (see: Minnesota).

Minnesota has continued that momentum in a number of ways. Look at its team this year. All 10 starters are in InterMat's latest polls, including eight in the top 25 at their respective weights and three in the top 10. By virtually any standard, that's a dang good Minnesota team. It just might not be good enough to run down Penn State, Iowa and Michigan.

One thing Lee has really helped Iowa with is recruiting. Steveson's had a similar impact, as Minnesota is doing a great job on the recruiting trail. The Gophers, currently, have two top-100 recruits coming in as part of their 2022 class and two top-10 prospects committed for their 2023 class. 

It stinks that some of these Minnesota teams didn't pan out, when looking at a deeper Spencer Lee vs. Gable Steveson comparison. Those could've been some really fun battles between two teams with generational talents. But we'll see if these incoming Gopher recruits will pan out and turn into future trophies.

Why the Iowa Hawkeyes wrestled better against Purdue on Sunday

It must have been nice for fans to see the Hawkeyes bounce back. Friday’s dual against Minnesota was slow and their performances seemed a tad uninspired. They would do well in the first periods, then fade.

Here’s a fun stat: Iowa wrestlers scored 21 total takedowns on Friday, and 13 came in the first period of their respective matches. On Sunday, they scored 27 total: 12 in the first, nine in the second and six in the third. They continued to hustle all the way through.

Part of that is the opponent — Minnesota is ranked eighth in InterMat’s latest Division I poll, while Purdue fell out of the top 25 — but they wrestled better and just looked more focus on the whole, which was certainly a positive development.

Iowa is going to have to keep that level of focus to win the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, yes. That's obvious. Friday’s performance won’t cut it. Sunday’s showing is much closer to where they need to be.

The other thing to remember is that the A-team got 17 days off between competitions, and this specific Iowa team tends to do better as it gets more mat time. There’s something to the idea that there isn’t really time to think ... they just wrestle. When they screw up, they look at the film, make adjustments and move forward. Quickly.

We saw a bit of that last weekend, and we’ll see more of that this coming weekend, when Iowa hits the road for another Friday-Sunday doubleheader against No. 11 Northwestern and No. 18 Illinois.

If I had to guess, I think the Hawkeyes will come out more focused this Friday than they did last Friday. Bigger tests await — No. 9 Ohio State next week, No. 1 Penn State the week after, plus No. 22 Wisconsin, No. 4 Oklahoma State and No. 6 Nebraska in February.

Being back on a steady schedule like that will only benefit this team. One thing worth following is the team's progression over the next month — both overall and individually. The wins don’t matter as much as the effort and willingness to compete and create action.

As long as steps are being made, they'll get closer to the best version of themselves come March — which is when they’ll need to be at their best.

That’s at least what I'll be watching.

Analyzing Iowa wrestler Abe Assad

He looks far more aggressive. There seems to be a willingness to not only fight, but force and create action and let his wrestling clean up whatever mess might follow. But there hasn't been much of a mess, to be honest.

Assad has clearly developed a more versatile offensive repertoire, which is actually something he talked about during media day. A lot of wrestlers say they can benefit from a year away from competition because they get to watch how their teammates operate and practice and compete. He’s clearly putting that to good use this year.

Look at his match on Friday against Minnesota’s Sam Skillings. He scored five takedowns for Iowa’s only bonus-point win. All five takedowns were different:

• snap to a blast-double
• head-outside single where he got extended, but pulled it in and finished anyway
• snap to a low-single
• re-shot to head-inside and climbed up to finish
• then a cleaner head-outside shot that he methodically finished for the major decision

Against Purdue’s Max Lyon, who is a grizzled veteran and three-time NCAA qualifier, Assad wasn’t ever really in danger of losing that match, at least from my vantage point. He continued to stay aggressive, even though he only won 6-3.

Assad is now 7-2 with six bonus-point wins this season, and, yes, he looks more poised and comfortable and is every bit of an All-American contender — which is a promising development, as Tanner alludes to, because the Hawkeyes need all the points they can get now that Lee is on the shelf the rest of the season.

Ready for a not-so-fun fact? Over the past three NCAA tournaments, Iowa’s 184-pounders have scored a grand total of … 7.5 team points.

That’s 4 from Mitch Bowman in 2018, 2.5 from Cash Wilcke in 2019 and 1 from Nelson Brands last year.

Not great!

(The year before, in 2017, Sammy Brooks scored 16.5 and took fourth.)

Assad can change those fortunes, and the Hawkeyes will need him to if they want to repeat as NCAA champs. I wrote about this in last week’s mailbag, but it’s going to take a team effort for Iowa to make up what it's losing with Lee now gone.

That means Assad. That means Ayala. That means Marinelli. That means Murin. That means everybody needs to step it up and replace Lee’s 25 points. So far, Assad looks the part.

Tougher tests await, and 184 looks pretty deep in the Big Ten — Aaron Brooks, Myles Amine, John Poznanski, Kaleb Romero, Donnell Washington, Taylor Venz and Kyle Cochran are all ranked in InterMat’s top 12. Three others (Assad, Zac Braunagel, Lyon) are inside the top 25.

And that’s all BEFORE adding Trent Hidlay, Parker Keckeisen, Marcus Coleman, Bernie Truax, Dakota Geer and so many others. Assad already got his hands on Hidlay, and I think Hidlay is the better wrestler, but I'd like to see them run that match back, just to see how it might unfold if Hidlay doesn't take Assad feet-to-back in the first period.

The Big Ten Championships are going to be crucial when it comes to NCAA seeding at this weight. We’ll see if he can keep the train rolling. His team needs it.

Looking at Iowa wrestling's upcoming duals against Illinois and Northwestern

Got a few in mind that I'd like to see.

For Iowa-Northwestern:

• 125: Drake Ayala vs. Michael DeAugustino — Another high-level test for Ayala. DeAugustino is 2-0 with wins over two All-Americans, Pat McKee and Eric Barnett.
• 133: Austin DeSanto vs. Chris Cannon — Cannon qualified for the U23 men's freestyle world team, and I don't believe he and DeSanto have ever wrestled.
• 149: Max Murin vs. Yahya Thomas — Good test for Murin against another past world-teamer and, just last year, an All-American. Murin has a win over Yahya, 4-3, but that was back at the 2017 Midlands. 
• 157: Kaleb Young vs. Ryan Deakin — Young's season of only-tough-opponents continues.
• 285: Tony Cassioppi vs. Lucas Davison — Cassioppi beat Davison in the best-of-three finals at the U23 men's freestyle world team trials last spring. Series went to a third match. This one could be fun.

For Iowa-Illinois:

• 133: Austin DeSanto vs. Lucas Byrd — They wrestled twice last season. DeSanto won 18-6 in the dual, then 5-4 at the Big Ten Championships. Byrd is an aggressive, smart wrestler. Good test for ADS.
• 149: Max Murin vs. Mikey Carr — I don't believe Carr has wrestled yet this year, but Murin has beaten Carr four times (by a combined six points) in five meetings all-time in their college careers.
• 184: Abe Assad vs. Zac Braunagel — The last time these guys met, Assad pinned Braunagel in the 2019 Midlands semifinals. Another good test for Assad to see how he competes and where he's at.

This week, I'm grateful for old friends. Had one reach out to me on Sunday to crack a joke from back when we were 17 years old. Made me laugh all these years later. Old memories are great.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.