Natty Boh Army

Exactly. Sure, a tournament like Big 10's would probably sell out in Iowa City or Des Moines; likewise, a host city like Pittsburgh would probably pull hefty attendance numbers. However, college wrestling desperately needs to increase its visibility, and to make inroads outside of its traditional rustbelt and cornbelt roots. If even 1% of the 12,000 fans in attendance on Sunday evening become fans because of the experience... that's money well spent.

This. I brought 2 nephews and a niece (all rec/club wrestlers), plus their dad (who never wrestled), none of whom had ever attended a college match or tournament of any kind. They all had a blast, and walked away with a new level of interest in the sport (along with what I assume will be a lifelong loathing for Penn State, thanks to the fans surrounding us).

Guess I went to the wrong concession stand- the food I got was ice cold and borderline nauseating. I also had to go to three different stations to find a diet soda.

Sorry to necro an old thread, but I don't think this was answered. As per UMD, total attendance for the finals was 12,277. I believe the Xfinity center holds about 18,000, so it was about 2/3's full (which seems about right). A big part of the reason why it looked empty on TV was because of this. The red seats in the picture here were not available for the public; rather, they were reserved for... well, I'm not really sure who they were reserved for. Regardless, these seats were almost 100% vacant for the entire weekend. And by happenstance, most of the TV cameras were set up on the opposite side of these seats. Result = blocks of empty seats directly behind the mats.

The brothers all attended very prestigious schools- UVA, Lehigh, Cornell, Harvard, etc. Pretty sure none are MDs, but I'm willing to bet all four are successful, with high-paying jobs.

Pretty sure there was at least one more after Marshall, maybe even two. I don't believe they were quite as highly regarded as the older brothers were, but still solid. BTW, Walter was the oldest, and the only one to AA (for Harvard in 2008/9ish). Marshall had a superb HS career, but was something of a bust in college.

Growing up wrestling in a neighboring state, we quickly learned to fear and respect PA wrestlers- especially those from the Lehigh Valley. My high school team traditionally competed in a medium-sized tournament in the region (Christmas City). As freshman in the pre-information age, the veteran upperclassmen routinely horrified us with tales of this tournament- how the top guys in our state would struggle just to place, and about the physical style of wrestling in the area, which typically left nearly everyone on the team bruised and battered. We were also told that the local wrestlers in this area were borderline feral, that their only breaks from toil in mines and factories came from wrestling. It sounds quite silly in retrospect. But again, as a young and impressionable 14-year old in the "word of mouth" era, this left a mark, and I will put the D11 area up against any other area in the country in terms of both quality and quantity of output.

North is your prototypical hot/cold wrestler. He'll wrestle lights out against a top-20 guy one week, and then get tossed around by a backup the next. Good match for the Terps. They still have 3 or 4 worrisome holes in the lineup, where they typically hemorrhage points (most acutely at 125, where they've given up bonus point in 8/10 duals this season). But they are improving.

Pinned is actually quite good. Palmer's dad comes across of a bit of a douchebag, but I think that was sort of the filmmakers point. It's still a solid watch, though, if for no other reason than to see the inner working of the St. Eds program. Takedowns and Falls is also really well done.

This. A huge part of generating interest in any type of activity, sports included, is to tie in some type of narrative. Major media outlets know this and have worked these angles for decades in order to generate buzz and increase ratings- to great effect. Recall last year's NCAA Women's basketball tournament, where the national sports media latched onto the LSU-Iowa matchup by framing it through the lens of the team's respective stars (Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark). The media covered these two players exhaustively in the lead up to and following the finals, and created enormous buzz by comparing and contrasting their play style, life experiences, etc. Throw in a touch of racially-based controversy, and the end results speak for themselves: 10 million viewers, an all-time record for any women's basketball event. If Flo wants to occasionally focus on narrative-based coverage of young athletes, and these stories result in any additional interest in our sport, then I am all for it.

125: Matt McDonough, perhaps? Didn't seem like too bad a guy, until his senior year meltdown, highlighted by him throwing his B10 medal in the garbage and refusing to attend the award ceremony. Definitely a heel-type move.

Yeah, the kids announcing- and they both sounded like children- seemed to just be making crap up as they went. It kind of reminded me of reading AI created content where the general context is not entirely incorrect, but the actual phrasing is a mishmash of randomly selected words which are loosely related to the subject.

Great play-by-play, Lightweight- thanks. I paused my video for a few mins to check on my daughter, and came back to a "stream not found" error. I gave into temptation and read your posts, and I was glad I didn't sit through the final two matches.

Just like last year, a great dual- didn't come out the way I wanted, but a fun match. Thoughts on the UMD side of things: It looks like Brown's early woes were indeed due to the cut, as he looked great at 133 against a top-20 opponent. Unfortunately, with Brown moving up, Sandoval gets bumped. Sandoval, while essentially a journeyman, is a far, far better wrestler than anyone MD has at 125. Keep Brown at 125 and Sandoval at 133, and we head into 141 with a very different score. Brown, however, obviously couldn't make 125, so its a moot point. Miller has looked very solid all season (aside from more or less stalling for 7+ straight minutes in the Tiger Style finals), and notched a signature win vs Mathews (who wrestled a very sloppy match). I am unsure why MD didn't go with Best at 65. Best isn't a ringer, but I don't see him getting teched by Heller

I saw some good and some bad for the Terps tonight. Brown- he was crisp and had some nice attacks in the first period... and then he just died. Seriously, I thought they were going to need a stretcher to haul him off the mat. My initial guess was weight issues, early season conditioning problems, or even some type of illness. Reading Clemson's comment in an above post backs up my initial thought. Well, I hope he gets it together soon- the only other 25 on the roster is little more than a warm body. Sandoval- I've always dug his "go for broke" style, and I'm excited to see if he can finally put the pieces together in what I think is his 6th year. No fireworks tonight, but a grinding win against a solid opponent (who is also a home run hitter). Miller- Dude looks huge at 41, and he obviously he spent some time in the weight room this summer. His opponent tonight wasn't a ringer, but Miller was aggressive and physical. Things began to click for him late last season, and it looks like he hasn't missed a beat (again though- this is against AU). Miller- Same as above. He added some muscle and looked solid. He faded down the back stretch a bit- something that haunted him a bit last year (i.e. Shane Van Ness match). North- Workmanlike win. North is a grinder, and I don't expect bombs from him, but I would have liked to see a bit more against an unheralded true freshman. Best- I like Best. He goes hard, and is surprisingly slick at times; unfortunately, "surprisingly slick" doesn't do much in the B10. But he looked fine tonight against a lower-tier opponent, and I'll take it. Solis- Solis tends to wrestle up or down to his opponents ability. This is OK against most B10 schools, where the Terps just need him to avoid bonus losses. It's not against teams like AU. Mielnik- Like last year, this weight is gonna hurt the Terps, and I just don't see either of the potential starters scoring many quality wins. Dude is game and physical, but just gets caught out of position too often. Smith- Looked like a top-10 wrestler. Nevills- Yeah, he's a heavyweight... but I really, really hoped to see him light up the board and look like the all-everything recruit he was several years ago. Instead he eked out a forgettable win against a .500 opponent. It's very early in the season, and AU is a subpar team, so I'm not trying to read too deeply into this match. That said, Brown's performance is obviously the biggest area of concern, followed by Nevills' listlessness. I also think North can turn it up a bit, and I'd like to see the 149 Miller stay sharp through all three periods. I thought 141 Miller looked fantastic, as did Smith, and I liked both Best's and Sandoval's efforts. Thanks for the match notes, Flying Cement. Go Terps!

Considering where the UMD Terps were 2-3 years ago, they could only trend upwards; however, to see them go from one of the worst teams in D1 to a borderline top-25 team during this time is pretty remarkable. The good news: MD has a nucleus of 6-7 competitive guys, all of whom have at least two years of eligibility left The bad: They have no depth, nobody in development, and will be handing out points in at least 3 weight classes next year. I am excited to see the continued development of Smith, Brown, and the Millers; I also hope that Solis and North can put together breakthrough seasons. But I am worried about the aforementioned holes in the lineup, and I am fully aware that Big 10 wins will remain few and far between for this team.

Considering the employment prospects for a recently graduated English major, a steel mill job doesn't sound too far off

Tell Bonaccorsi while they're at it. Dude is sneaky slick, but he looks like he's made out of puddy. My 3-year old daughter has more muscle.

Please don't put me in a position where I feel compelled to defend Donald Trump. Again, I loathe everything the man stands for. But I, for one, am willing to give him a pass on this, and assume his intentions were pure.

Well, maybe, maybe not. But I see no reason not to give him the benefit of the doubt- and his attendance wasn't the circus we feared it would be. Let's put it another way. Our sport can use any shred of exposure and validity it can get. The presence of a former president is not a bad thing- even when that man is as polarizing as Trump.

This. I absolutely loathe the man, but he showed up as a fan.

Vito reminded me of some type of viper- weaving, stalking, and lightning-fast attacks. He simply laid the hammer down on one of the best lightweights of the last 20 years. Very, very impressive performance.

I am no Iowa apologist, but they're hardly free falling. 6 AAs and wire to wire #2 in the nation is a result most schools would die for. And now that Ok St has more or less fallen off the map, there is no real perennial threat to their spot behind Penn St. And Penn St? Yeah, nobody is beating them. One could craft an argument that Cael and Co. have built not only the most dominant dynasty in college wrestling, but perhaps the most impressive dynasty in all college sports. No, Brands is fine, and Iowa wrestling is still Iowa wrestling.

Shades of Matt McDonough?