iowa fans

[leg turk]

Ok, at first I thought they were kind of comical, but by the end of the day Saturday, I was pretty sick of the cry babies.  The next time they are in town, we should give them a little cheese to go with their wine!  Go Bucky!

[BuckyMatt]

Ok, at first I thought they were kind of comical, but by the end of the day Saturday, I was pretty sick of the cry babies.  The next time they are in town, we should give them a little cheese to go with their wine!  Go Bucky!

Agreed!! Huge babies!

Although they were much louder than us Wisconsi Fans yesterday. We need to pick it up and make some NOISE today and drown them out!!

[theunionchair]

I personally like what Tom Brands to brings to the sport of wrestling. Fire, passion, the will-to-win, and a enough color and intrigue for the the Big Ten Network cameras to keep an eye on him the entire tournament. That is good for the sport.

But Brands crossed the line on what was a great day of wrestling on Saturday in Madison.

To set the stage, the Big Ten atmosphere was incredibly amicable, filled with fans steaming with pride, not only about their teams and a tremedous venue at the host University of Wisconsin, but more over, for simply belonging to a conference that will boast 65 automatic qualifiers and produce at least 7 national champions. 

Between sessions, wrestling fans visited Mad-Town's many restaurants and historic water holes. They mixed friendly banter with harmless barbs and sincere compliments of each other's programs, coaches, and wrestlers. They traded stories of wrestling warriors of days long ago, predictions of today tournament, and optimism for this great sport in the future. I personally witnessed this when a group of Minnesota fans I ran into at the Kollege Klub, humbly and correctly predicted "Wisconsin is on the rise big-time. We will be lucky if we (Minnesota) gets one wrestler to the finals." Talk about friendly and accurate comments. They were exactly right!

Even the normally proud Iowa fans were appreciative of being in Madison and being a part of the great tradition of the 100-year aniversary Big Ten wrestling championships. Overall, their demeanor and conduct was a credit to the Big Ten; their love and knowledge of the sport is unprecedented.

That leaves us with the head coach of the Hawkeye Nation. We know what we get with Tom Brands: a man filled with enough energy and will to power the impressive, high voltage lighting system and powerful scoreboard at the Kohl Center on Saturday. A man whose accomplishments in the sport both as a coach and wrestler need no explanation. A man who continues to add to the rich tradition that is Iowa wrestling, so much so that two-thirds of the crowd roars when Iowa is scored on or loses a match. This is not so much as to dislike their program and wrestlers, but out of respect to Iowa's historic program as to say, "Hey, can you please give the other Big Ten wrestlers a chance to compete against you guys?"

During the tightly contested match between Isaac Jordan and Derek St. John, with the Iowa wrestler continuously being returned violently to the mat after a Jordan takedown, St. John appeared to escape late in the first period. This questionable call was wisely challenged by coach Barry Davis. The call was reversed and Brands was as hot as the chicken wing deep fryer at State Street Brats.

After St. John's overtime, last second victory, Brands came on to the mat, not to congratulate his wrestler, but to chastise the officials for a bad call. He picked up a well-deserved unsportsmanlike conduct. He didn't stop there. He sprinted off the mat toward the scorer's table and delivered a Nikita Khrushchev-like table pounding and shouted at replay officals for reversing the escape call.

He could have ended it there but instead decided to skipp toward the Wisconsin fans in the Kohl Center's middle lower seats and with index fingers pointed at them, taunted them for as many as ten seconds before running with child-like glee into hidden tunnel in the bowels of the arena.

Why, with all these accomplishments, must a man lose control of himself and his actions as to not only make a complete fool of himself, but to bring shame on the sport and his prestigious University of Iowa? Why can't a wrestling leader like Brands set the example of good sportsmanship and honor in victory (or defeat) and simply walk off the mat with the incredibly humbling experience of valor.

Maybe Brands was just trying to give St. John, his defending NCAA champion, a kick in the pants to start wrestling more aggressively, especially due to the fact that St. John's offensive output has been non-existent and his recent senior slide has dropped him in the rankings. We will never know. But I guarantee the crowd will be even more apt to cheer for St. John's opponent, Nebraska's James Green, because of Brand's kindergarten-laced trantrums.

Whatever the case, his actions warrant a harsh response by the Big Ten Conference and rebuke from his own athletic director. While the Iowa fans were rolling their eyes and saying to themselves, well, that's just 'Ol Tom", I can't help believe they were actually asking "What am I going to say to defend his actions when we meet our Big Ten brethren in University Avenue taverns after session two?"

In my son's preschool class, when a child cannot control himself in the classroom due to hyperactivity which causes disruption, he is asked to sit in a turtle-shaped chair for a "time out." Brands is not that big. We may be able to find one for him.

[Dale Einerson]

Just think for a moment what a rush, and a recruiting advantage, the Iowa following is to wrestle in front of as a Hawkeye...

Did love Bucky fans getting to their feet and making some serious noise when Zeke manned up against St. John.

Zeke wasn't able to pull that one out, but he is a forever Bucky favorite, and at the end of the day we don't have to go to our collective homes in Iowa so we win.

[Brett Favre - R.I.P.]

WISCONSIN is "ON THE RISE BIG TIME"
UW is in 8th out of 12

[matwarrior34]

WISCONSIN is "ON THE RISE BIG TIME"
UW is in 8th out of 12

Looks like the badgers are in 6 and 5.5 points out of 4th, I would say they are doing just fine.

[Gutwrench]

During the first session Saturday I couldn't decide which fan base was more annoying, Iowa or Minnesota.  If I heard one more complaint about officiating and cries for stalling from these two groups I think I might have puked.  Session two however sealed the deal.....Iowa won the contest for the most annoying fan base hands down.  I almost felt bad for the Minny fans after their beat down in the semi's......almost.  Back to Iowa, after the 125 Clark loss in the semi's, one Iowa fan almost started a fight with some Minny fans where I was sitting.  Come on man.

With that being said, I was pretty impressed with Penn State.  Several of their wrestlers would shake the hands of the opposing coaches win or lose.  I heard very little complaining yells coming from their section.  Kudos to Penn St.

[Brett Favre - R.I.P.]

UW is 7th with 73. Only 40.5 out of 3rd

[mkm13]

And 9.5 out of 4th and 6 out of 5th. 

[Ghetto]

A group of Iowa fans sat behind us and they cried almost every time someone cheered against the Iowa kids. I finally turned around today and asked if they were gonna cry every time. They said yes.  I tried to explain that one time it was FOR Polizzi and not against their kid.

It was funny to hear them complain about us but never about Brands or any of their kids.

I am not sure that Brands was pointing to Wisconsin fans, because there were some Iowa fans in our section in front and behind us. But his antics led to the mess between us and Iowa.

Thielkes two throws in the 7th place match were completely sick. He has to scare kids if they tie up at all. I hope he gets in. He gets that throw against Iowa on the edge....

[jeast]

Thank goodness for the Iowa Fans! 

Loved their appetite for wrestling.  Loved their attitude.  Loved giving it right back to them.  They loved dishing it out. 

If only we could have fans like that in Wisconsin.

Next year, where-ever the Big Ten tourney is, there will be 5,000+ Iowa fans there too, yelling, hollering, swaying officials, crying for stalling, crying for TWO at the top of their collective lungs.

And maybe 50-100 badger fans. 

If not for those Iowa fans and PSU and Minn fans, the Kohl center would have been embarrassingly empty.

[Manty77]

Thank goodness for the Iowa Fans!  

Loved their appetite for wrestling.  Loved their attitude.  Loved giving it right back to them.  They loved dishing it out.  

If only we could have fans like that in Wisconsin.

Next year, where-ever the Big Ten tourney is, there will be 5,000+ Iowa fans there too, yelling, hollering, swaying officials, crying for stalling, crying for TWO at the top of their collective lungs.

And maybe 50-100 badger fans.  

If not for those Iowa fans and PSU and Minn fans, the Kohl center would have been embarrassingly empty.

You make a good point but it does not help your case to exagerate.

Iowa fans had reserved tickets in 6 sections.   One section held 252; two held 225; one held 120; one held 130, and one held 225. That's a total of 952.    The rest of the 6,000 reserved seats were held by other schools.  For your number to hold water that means Iowa fans would have occupied the entire non-reserved section and that did not happen.  At most, there were 1,500 - 2,000 Iowa fans in attendance.  Still impressive, but nowhere near 5,000.

EDIT:  oops, in too much of a hurry.  The IA fans in reserved seats comes to 1,177 (not 952), but that does not significantly change my point.

[hammen]

Thank goodness for the Iowa Fans!  

Loved their appetite for wrestling.  Loved their attitude.  Loved giving it right back to them.  They loved dishing it out.  

If only we could have fans like that in Wisconsin.

Next year, where-ever the Big Ten tourney is, there will be 5,000+ Iowa fans there too, yelling, hollering, swaying officials, crying for stalling, crying for TWO at the top of their collective lungs.

And maybe 50-100 badger fans.  

If not for those Iowa fans and PSU and Minn fans, the Kohl center would have been embarrassingly empty.

Oh yeah, just remove the fans of the top 3 teams in the B1G and arguably in the NCAA.   Head out to OKC for NCAA's and you'll be saying the same thing.

[Manty77]

By the way, whoever sold their tickets in the WI sections to Iowa fans should be identified and banned from attending any future Badger event. I scanned the WI sections with my binocs and was surprised to see a few of those annoying suckers scattered throuhout 'our' seats  

[BuckyMatt]

Thank goodness for the Iowa Fans!  

Loved their appetite for wrestling.  Loved their attitude.  Loved giving it right back to them.  They loved dishing it out.  

If only we could have fans like that in Wisconsin.

Next year, where-ever the Big Ten tourney is, there will be 5,000+ Iowa fans there too, yelling, hollering, swaying officials, crying for stalling, crying for TWO at the top of their collective lungs.

And maybe 50-100 badger fans.  

If not for those Iowa fans and PSU and Minn fans, the Kohl center would have been embarrassingly empty.

You make a good point but it does not help your case to exagerate.

Iowa fans had reserved tickets in 6 sections.   One section held 252; two held 225; one held 120; one held 130, and one held 225. That's a total of 952.    The rest of the 6,000 reserved seats were held by other schools.  For your number to hold water that means Iowa fans would have occupied the entire non-reserved section and that did not happen.  At most, there were 1,500 - 2,000 Iowa fans in attendance.  Still impressive, but nowhere near 5,000.

Well said.

Plus, I'm sure Iowa was aided by the proximity to Madison (3 hours).  Let's see if all 2,000 make it next year for their 9+ hour trip to Columbus.  I'm sure they will have a lot of fans in attendance regardless of distance.  Exagerating to 5000 isn't true though!