Wrestling fans have high expectations for their teams heading into the NCAA tournament each year. How each team's wrestlers are seeded plays a major role in setting those lofty hopes.

For this series, we're analyzing the team performances of all the top contenders at the 2017 tournament to see who stepped up last month in St. Louis and who came up short.

Now Up: The Penn State Nittany Lions

We tried to keep things as simple as possible. We ignored bonus points (but if an analysis of bonus points is what you're after, have no fear, we got you covered!). We also simplified the advancement points for ease of calculation. The actual advancement points may vary ever so slightly from the number we used depending on the round in which the wrestler entered the consolation bracket. We also ignored any projected advancement points for unseeded wrestlers, and, in order to balance that out, we also ignored any actual points from wrestlers that didn't advance passed the round of 24.

Also, if analysis isn't you're thing and you just want to stare at the team results, you can do that too!

But for those interested in the stats, here is a chart showing all of Penn State's qualifiers, where they were seeded, and what their results were at the 2017 NCAA tournament.



PSU dominated the news coming out of St. Louis all weekend en route to winning the national title. It started on Wednesday, before the competition began, when Penn State announced that Nick Suriano, their third-seeded 125-pounder, would be unable to compete due to an ankle injury he suffered in the last dual meet of the year. The Lions continued making headlines throughout the tournament, up to and including when they won the whole dang thing.

So just how well did Penn State do? We calculated the difference between their actual (simplified) scores to their projected scores to find out.

Penn State's Seed vs. Reality Score: +1

Positive is good. That means Penn State scored one more point than you'd expect it to based on its seed.

But wait! That's counting Nick Suriano's DNC as going 0-2 and falling 13.5 points short of his projected total after earning the No. 3 seed. If you ignore that, which I think we should, you get a new, better-looking...

Penn State's Seed vs. Reality Score of +14.5

That's pretty dadgum amazing.

So How'd They Do It?

The obvious answer, is, of course, Cael Sanderson's wrestlers going a jaw-dropping 5 for 5 in the finals, a feat unmatched since Oklahoma State's vaunted 2005 national championship team.

The stunning back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back run from 149 to 184 will not soon be forgotten, especially not since three of those champions (the last three matches of the finals at that) had to win upsets to climb to the top of the podium.

It's also impressive when you consider that it's more difficult to live up to the lofty expectations of a No. 1 seed than it is to overachieve as a lower seed.

Retherford and Nolf, PSU's two No. 1 seeds, both lived up to their seedings. Nickal and Joseph, the No. 2 and 3 seeds, respectively, also won championships, adding a combined 10 1/2 positive points to the ledger. Penn State's three No. 5 seeds were a mixed bag. Nevills came in right on target, but McCutcheon fell short of the podium, the only seeded Lion (besides Suriano) to do so. But those eight lost points were more than made up for by Hall, who when from fifth to first and scored 10 more points than expected.

Finally, unseeded senior Jimmy Gulibon may not have earned All-American honors, but he did advance to the round of 12, which was further than expected and ahead of at least four other seeded wrestlers who were projected to go at least to the round of 16.

Conclusions

Sanderson is good at coaching. The 2017 Nittany Lions are good at wrestling. The "no duh" award for wrestling analysis goes to me.

And why not take a few minutes and relive the finals insanity by watching those matches, back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back, right now?






Wow, exhausting, right? But also still very, very awesome.