Wrestling Mailbag: BTN's wrestling show, Iowa State freshmen, Hawkeye thoughts, and more

“B1G Wrestling and Beyond,” Big Ten Network’s in-studio wrestling show, returned last night. It will air each Monday through the next couple of months. It debuted a year ago, but already, they’ve made some pretty distinct changes.

Rick Pizzo is still the host and Shane Sparks is still the analyst. Their chemistry is much better than the initial airing last season. By that, I mean Pizzo is learning to work more with Sparks’ energy. At least that’s how I saw it.

They began last night with an around-the-horn style segment that touched on the big results: Iowa edging Illinois then pounding Purdue; Illinois beating Wisconsin; Northwestern beating Minnesota; Penn State toppling the Badgers.

From there, they launched into short discussions about various teams and specific wrestlers: Penn State, Illinois, Northwestern, Iowa. Sparks mentioned that Northwestern coach Matt Storniolo told him that Trevor Chumbley helped propel Ryan Deakin and Yahya Thomas. Liked that detail, and really enjoyed the opening segment.

They debuted a couple new segments, too. The first one: “Fired Up” where Sparks is allowed five minutes to talk passionately about whatever he wants. Last night, he talked about the importance of dual meets:

“Dual meets are so much fun,” Sparks said. “We need dual meets. The national tournament is fantastic, but it’s an individual tournament that gives a team trophy away. Doesn’t necessarily make a whole lot of sense to me.”

He continued: “(A dual meet) embraces the fans. Fans get behind a team. Let’s get a dual meet championship. That, to me, is the Red Ryder BB gun in 'A Christmas Story'. That’s what I want.” Enjoyed that line.

After the first commercial break, Pizzo interviewed Wisconsin wrestler Dean Hamiti. Talked about a lot: Hamiti’s wrestling style, his celebrations, 165 pounds nationally, Hamiti’s wins over the weekend, Wisconsin's team’s struggles. Some fun personal questions, too. Hamiti likes to play Fortnite. Also likes the movie “Lone Survivor.”

“Dean Hamiti is hoping to be the ‘Lone Survivor’ at 165 pounds at the national tournament,” Pizzo says before throwing to commercial. Corny as heck, but a clever segue.

LAST YEAR:The 2022 Iowa-Penn State dual was the most-watched wrestling broadcast in BTN history

The most exciting part of the show came in the third block. This was Sparks’ film-breakdown analysis segment, called “Tough Wrestling,” the replacement for his “Mat Return of the Week” bit he did last year.

It was pretty good!

Sparks broke down key situations that decided five different matches. He hit Dylan D’Emilio’s two third-period takedowns to secure bonus points; Indiana’s Derek Gilcher’s come-from-behind win over Paddy Gallagher; Yahya Thomas's overtime win over Michael Blockhus, which went to the rideouts.

“This is not sudden victory,” Sparks explains, smartly. “You have to ride this guy like a leech. You cannot let him go. Great mat awareness. Mat return right there … that’s how you win tough matches.”

His final two breakdowns — on Zac Braunagel, then Spencer Lee’s pin over Ramos — were great. On Lee’s match, specifically, Sparks almost exclusively uses wrestling jargon to explain the moves Lee hits. I always thought this segment would be a good one to use to educate fans. Sparks did really well with it here:

“Spencer Lee finds a way to get it done. He keeps wrestling, stays poised. He’s down 8-2. The three-time national champion works out of a two-on-one, a tie that he likes. There’s a sweep single by Spencer Lee, drives through and gets the takedown, and here we go again.”

He continued: “You leave a little window open for Spencer Lee, he’s going to make you pay. Watch this. Time counting down, Spencer Lee, are we getting the slap of the mat? Yes, we do.”

Sparks ended it with some over-the-top reactions — literally, he punched his own face on live television, which was weird but, again, on-brand for him.

“Easy, my friend,” Pizzo said

“I love this Rick. This is how you win matches at this level,” Shane screamed.

“This is season-opening energy from Shane Sparks,” Pizzo responded, then threw it to break.

They ended this first show with some big-picture stories that Sparks is following this season: Lee’s chase for a fourth NCAA title, how many NCAA team trophies the conference can win this season, and Penn State’s new guys, again. Pizzo asks Sparks a big question to close.

“Penn State, without question, the team to beat. An impossible question for you to answer. Is this the best lineup Cael Sanderson has ever had?”

Sparks didn’t blink. “It might be,” he said. He cited the 2017 NCAA Championships when the Nittany Lions scored 146.5 points and had five national champs, then he comes back to the 2022-23 Penn State team.

“Could this be Cael’s best team ever?” Sparks said. “I think it can be.”

Guess we’ll see.

Overall, a great first show back. I like the small changes they made, especially the “Tough Wrestling” segment. That's a really cool opportunity to educate the casual wrestling fans that tune in. (I could do without the face-punching, though.) I'll tune in every Monday. Hope you do, too.

FROM 2021:Big Ten Network announces record wrestling viewership numbers: 'It's our third-highest rated sport'

OK, onto the Wrestling Mailbag. A reminder that we're 17 days from the girls high school regional tournaments, 23 days from the girls state championships, 25 days from the boys state duals, 32 days from the boys district tournaments, and 36 days from the boys state championships. This season always goes too fast, man.

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.

Assessing Iowa State freshmen Casey Swiderski and Paniro Johnson

Might be a little bit of both. It would've been pretty remarkable and incredibly impressive if they blew through the entire season unscathed or without any hiccups, and the good news is the little mistakes they made Sunday are fixable. We'll go match-by-match.

Casey Swiderski's mistakes were, in order:

• Not wrestling well on bottom after giving up a takedown in the first period;

• Allowing Jesse Vasquez to escape to take a 5-4 lead with 21 seconds left in the second;

• A locked-hands call in the final seconds of the third.

Swiderski scored two takedowns in the second period to charge back from down 3-0 to tie the match 4-4. If he rides Vasquez out those finals 21 seconds, it's a different match in the third.

Swiderski scored another takedown with 24 seconds left in the third to take a 6-5 lead, and again, a rideout here wins the match, which is exactly what he did … but then the locked-hands call forced overtime. Vasquez eventually scored on the edge and won, 8-6.

Not riding Vasquez out in the second and the locked hands were mental mistakes that can be coached. But in the case of Swiderski, he's also two matches in after an injury. Division I wrestling is hard enough, and he's special, but now you're having to compete while also dealing with the first major injury of your wrestling career. I am very curious to see how he handles that the rest of the way — especially with the Big 12 schedule up next.

Paniro Johnson's mistakes were, in order, giving up an escape and a takedown in the second period. That's really it. Kyle Parco is really good, a two-time All-American, and he won 7-5 in sudden victory. Can't give him opportunities like that.

Like Swiderski, Johnson scored two second-period takedowns and led 4-2 with 35 seconds left. If he rides out Parco the rest of the way, or even doesn't give up the takedown, he's got a 4-2 or 4-3 lead going into the third. Instead, Parco went escape-takedown and led 5-4. Changed the match.

Sometimes, that's a 'want-to' thing — as in, you have to 'want to' keep that guy down over those final 35 seconds. If Johnson does that, I'm convinced he wins that match.

Here's the other thing about the Johnson-Parco match, too. That's the level Johnson is at. Clearly. Until I see Yianni Diakomihalis lose in March, it's him and then the rest of the field at 149, but the rest of the field is pretty good: Johnson, Parco, Austin Gomez, Sammy Sasso, Max Murin, Jonathan Millner, Brock Mauller, on and on.

When two guys who are at that level compete against each other, those little details are absolutely crucial. Johnson was on the winning side of those details when he beat Gomez and Murin earlier this season. On Sunday, he was on the losing side.

Those little details could be the difference between a Round-of-12 loss and an All-American finish come March, which is important if Iowa State wants to win a team trophy this season.

MORE:Iowa State wrestlers start strong, finish slow in 19-15 win over No. 13 Arizona State

Appreciating Spencer Lee's Iowa wrestling career

This is an interesting proposition and I'm not sure I know the answer, but this question inspired a couple of thoughts.

Spencer Lee is 85-5 over his career, which is amazing. He has recorded 73 bonus wins, which is staggering. That's 30 pins, 29 technical falls and 14 major decisions. Quick math says he has a career bonus rate of 85.9%, which is just absurd.

He has won 45 matches in a row dating back to the 2019 NCAA Championships. It is easy to forget now, but his five losses came to just four guys:

• Oregon State's Ronnie Bresser at the 2017 Midlands Championships;

• Ohio State's Nathan Tomasello at the 2018 Big Ten Championships;

• Oklahoma State's Nick Piccininni in 2019;

• and twice to Northwestern's Sebastian Rivera during the 2018-19 season.

Even then, Lee went 2-1 against Tomasello that season (and is 3-1 all-time against him, if you count the 8-2 finals win at the U.S. Senior national championships in 2019), finished 4-1 against Piccininni, and 2-2 against Rivera. Bresser finishing his college career 1-0 against Lee might be the trivia question of the century.

There's a case to be made that Rivera was Lee's one true rival. He was the Vincenzo Joseph to his Alex Marinelli. Unfortunately for us, we didn't get to see what would've ultimately been the rubber match at the 2019 NCAA Championships, because Rivera lost to Virginia's Jack Mueller in the semifinals.

Rivalries are good for wrestling. We saw it with Kyle Dake-David Taylor in 2012-13, Cenzo-Marinelli and Michael Kemerer-Mark Hall in 2019-20. It seemed like Matt McDonough always had a rival, whether it was Andrew Long or Brandon Precin or Jesse Delgado. Mike Evans had Matt Brown and Robert Kokesh and Logan Storley. Tony Cassioppi has Greg Kerkvliet. Austin DeSanto had RBY. On and on.

Rivalries are an easy way to get people interested in any sport because it forces casual fans to pick a side. Do you like Iowa or Oklahoma State? Trent Hidlay or Parker Keckeisen? The NWCA All-Star matchup between David Carr and Quincy Monday struck a chord with older wrestling fans because they remember watching their dads go at it.

It's fun, and it helps lift the sport, especially when the two sides go back and forth. It's not really much of a rivalry if one side wins all the time. Take it from a Chiefs fan. When the Broncos announced their new ownership group, we joked about how they would get along with Patrick Mahomes … because he also owns the Broncos.

All of that to say, I think it says a lot about Lee's dominance that he hasn't really had a true peer rival during his college career. He's just been that good. It would've been fun if we had those big matches to look forward to, but Lee has always consistently dominated. I think that puts his career on a tier all its own.

MORE:Brody Teske returns, Aiden Riggins makes dual debut, Hawkeye wrestlers thump Purdue

Breaking down why some Iowa wrestlers struggle offensively

A lot of these things are best explained case by case. We've seen Iowa's guys struggle to finish shots, like they did against Iowa State and, to varying degrees, against Illinois last Friday. We've also seen them finish shots efficiently like they mostly did against Purdue on Sunday.

But I wanted to start with this. After Abe Assad won the Soldier Salute, on an overtime takedown against South Dakota State's Bennett Berge, I asked him about finishing shots, and he came back with this answer:

"Finishing shots is something I'm working on a lot. This is maybe hard for people who don't know a lot about wrestling to understand. It's not that I don't know how to finish when I get to the leg. When I shoot to the leg, it's about putting myself in the right position to finish, if that makes sense. So sometimes you take a shot and you're already out of position before you can try to finish it.

"There were a couple of times in that match where I shot low doubles, and my shoulders were below his knees and my head is under him. I'm never going to be able to finish on any good guy like that. It's stuff like that that people don't understand. They're just like, finish every shot you get in on. But sometimes, it comes before you even shoot. It's the actual shot. That's something I've worked on a lot."

I thought that was insightful and it really gives you a sense of how crucial both positioning and timing are to scoring points. These matches, especially at the Division I level between two really good guys, are basically seven-minute calculus equations in motion. If one variable is off, you won't get the answer you want.

There's a lot that goes into finishing shots. There's the actual shot entry, getting your hands to the legs, lifting it off the mat, driving through a finish, or maintaining control while you work patiently for a finish, either with your opponent's leg in the air or while working from underneath after the initial shot.

One of the biggest things that tends to separate those who finish and those who don't is speed. I appreciate a patient, methodical finish as much as the next fan, but generally, those who finish shots more frequently do so because they do it fast. The less time you need, the less time your opponent has to react. Find an angle, shoot, finish, score.

I'm not sure if this totally answers your question. I'm not sure what the finish rates are for Iowa compared to its peers. They have good days and bad days, same as every other team. Trends are easy to spot and that's something I make note of, but this is where advanced wrestling analytics would be incredibly useful, something like keeping tabs on shots taken, shots finished, conversion rate, all that stuff. Wrestling ain't quite there yet.

MORE:National Duals: Grand View men’s wrestling wins 11th NAIA crown; Grand View women take second

How Iowa heavyweight Tony Cassioppi takes the next step

Well, for starters, he needs to quit getting taken to his back.

In each of their three meetings, Mason Parris has taken Tony Cassioppi down and to his back. In their first two meetings, Parris pinned Cassioppi. In their last meeting, at last year's NCAA Championships, Parris scored a takedown and four backs for a 6-0 first-period lead and ultimately won 11-5.

So, start there. Don't go to your back.

Parris is a bruiser. He's every bit of 265, if not bigger, and charges forward virtually the entire match and takes a million shots. Cassioppi needs to keep his legs back, constantly. Head-hands defense first and foremost, but also stay ready because sometimes Parris can be over-aggressive and come out of position while attacking. Cassioppi is savvy enough to score in those situations.

Against a guy like Parris, you need to hold position well. You also need to pick your spots offensively and capitalize on your opportunities, because Parris is a freak athlete. If you're out of position, he will take advantage and score.

That's a winding road to get to the simple answer, which is to wrestle tough and wrestle smart. Parris is a behemoth of a man and a fantastic wrestler, but he's not unbeatable. Cassioppi can do it, which is an odd thing to say about something we haven't seen yet.

We should circle back to this question after Iowa hosts Michigan on Feb. 10. I was hoping to watch the Cassioppi-Parris match from last year's NCAA Championships before answering this question but could not find it, so I watched a few of Parris's matches from the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational — which he won.

Also, Shawn asked if it's exciting or boring to watch Cassioppi win by stalling disqualification, something he's done twice in his career: against Iowa State's Sam Schuyler in 2021, then again against Illinois' Matt Wroblewski last Friday. Can't lie, I usually roll my eyes at it. I'd rather see an actual wrestling match. We learn more that way.

MORE:Northern Iowa wrestling falls to #4 Missouri, 24-12, in Big 12 road dual

Looking ahead to 149 and 157 pounds for Iowa in 2023-24

A couple of you guys asked a variation of this question. It likely stems from Caleb Rathjen's strong performance in a 3-2 loss to third-ranked Kendall Coleman at 157 pounds. On rewatch, Rathjen didn't give himself too many offensive opportunities, but outside of that blast-double in the first, he did a really nice job limiting Coleman's scoring chances and thwarting others — especially on that scramble on the edge in the second period.

(By the way, Rathjen, who looked great at 149 at the Soldier Salute, told me afterward he weighed in at 150.4 on Sunday, which makes his performance against Coleman all the more impressive, if you ask me. He looked a tad undersized up at 157 again, but the fight was there against one of the nation's best guys. Love to see it.)

Before I answer, this question is a tad annoying. This season only just reached the halfway mark. Iowa has exciting guys at 149 and 157 this year. Max Murin is wrestling out of his mind. Cobe Siebrecht has provided many great moments thus far. Enjoy this season while it's still here, you guys, because it'll be over in a blink.

But, whatever. This nonsense is what makes the Mailbag what it is. So what's 149 and 157 look like next year?

Here's who will be in contention, in no particular order:

• 149 pounds: Caleb Rathjen, Bretli Reyna, Joel Jesuroga, Leif Schroeder, Cody Chittum, Cade Siebrecht, maybe even Ryder Block

• 157 pounds: Cobe Siebrecht, Joe Kelly, Carter Martinson, Cody Chittum, Sebastian Robles, maybe Aiden Riggins and maybe Ryder Block

Block will be a true freshman. I'm expecting that he'll redshirt. He'd be a lean and lanky 149-pounder, but there's a world where he spends that first year in the weight room and bulks into a big and powerful 157-pounder.

I have a hard time thinking Siebrecht goes back down to 149 after finding the success he's had at 157 this year, but that's a possibility worth mentioning. I put a maybe next to Riggins' name at 157 because he started there this season but has since wrestled up at 165. It's possible he goes back down next year.

I am of the belief that Cody Chittum will be an immediate-impact guy at 149 or 157. I still need to see him at one, the other, or both, but I believe he will be that good. With the new redshirt rules for true freshmen, Iowa coach Tom Brands has some flexibility to figure out who goes where next season.

The tough part with a question like this is you learn quickly that, inevitably, there will be an odd man or two out. It's too early to tell who the odd men out will be. The early returns suggest Rathjen at 149, Siebrecht at 157, Jesuroga and Riggins back them up, and Block and Chittum redshirt. But when you've got that much talent across two weights, it seems natural to tinker and explore all the options before concrete decisions are made.

That's a next-year problem, and we'll cross that bridge when we get there, but those are my preliminary thoughts.

(Also, no, Tanner, I have never been pinned in a leg cradle.)

MORE:Bettendorf, a Class 3A contender, shines at The Clash, plus more Iowa HS wrestling takeaways

This week, I'm grateful for my new Beats headphones. They make listening to music at the gym delightful.

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

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Wrestling Mailbag: BTN's wrestling show, ISU's freshmen, Iowa thoughts