2016 Inaugural Men’s Power Rankings

Yo yo yo.  It’s been a slow week for us at the blog but we’re back with some Power Rankings to freshen up your early Tuesday morning (Monday Night for you westerners).  Now that we have D3ASW on our team as he dual-wields the Men’s and Women’s sides with gusto, we’ve added another column to the power rankings.  I’m almost bursting with excitement as I post this at such a wee hour in the morning.  Classic, am I right?  Power rankings are the same format as last year and will continue to be until I find a site that’s more pleasing to the eye than a WordPress forum.  Good luck AS…. and onto the Power Rankings.

Notable Teams:

Chicago, ranked #1 – Wow, bloggers.  Get off the Chicago train why don’t ya?  With a strong performance at their ITA in the Central region, Chicago has taken the world by storm.  I have people emailing me saying that Chicago is the clear cut favorite.  I have twitter followers telling me that they won’t lose a match this year.  We have to go with what the populous says, right?

Trinity TX, ranked #4 – I’m personally the highest on the Tigers (as always), simply because they added the potentially best player in the nation in Paxton Deuel.  We shall see how he does at ITA nationals, but even if he loses, I expect big things from Pax this year.  With their notable depth and doubles as well as a Coach of the Year in McMindes, the Tigers are a team that no one should count out.  It seems like they always are.  Well, the Guru and I will always be on the Trinity TX train.

CMU, ranked #8 – I feel like some of my colleagues as well as myself fall victim to the CMU hype train every year.  We have them ranked at #8 AHEAD of Wash U, which is straight up trippin.  But with the ITA champion Alla as well as a huge recruit in Daniel Levine, could this CMU team surprise people this year with a season that actually lives up to expectations?  Truth be told, we’re probably too optimistic.

Wash U, ranked #9 – The total opposite of CMU, Wash U is a team that seems to always have poor preseason power rankings and then they go out and win 3^rd place or something in Nationals at the end of the year.  It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.  With the disappointing result of John Carswell for a second straight year as well as losing a key senior in Ross Putterman, will the Bears find a way once again to make the 3^rd place match (they aren’t making the finals, I’m sorry).

Mary Wash, ranked #16 – Wow, Mary Wash had a great ITA.  I haven’t recapped the ASouth ITA yet because I’m a bum, but I will and you will see that they really succeeded.  Mary Washington has always done the same thing every year, but could this finally be the year that they upset a big team?  They have a lot of scrappy guys and a guy who seems to be ascending in Brandon Griffin.  Mary Washington can actually be excited in the fall, which is something we haven’t seen in a while.

UCSC, ranked #19 – CRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZ.  The team with no coach surprised this year as they showed the field that they still can play some legit doubles (shoutout to Kyle Richter).  Cruz has a ceiling because you can only do so much without a coach, but they’ve already done way more than I thought they would.

NC Wesleyan, ranked #26 – Dude, I love me some NC Wesleyan.  I don’t know why my brothers at the blog don’t give the international foes the love, but NC Wesleyan is a team on the rise.  Plus, I just want more Game of Thrones references about Sebastian Sikh.  Don’t we all?  A team that has two legit players in Sikh and Brokakis as well as the potential to bring in recruits in January (what) is a team that I will look out for.  You never know what random recruit the Beeshops are going to bring in, and I already see some promise on the current team.

MIT, ranked #31 – The team with a top 5 recruiting class in the nation is ranked #31 with a ways to go up the ladder.  The reason why is because only one of those guys actually showed me something in the ITA.  If they are out to prove they are more than a sarcastic twitter favorite, they need to put down some top ITA teams and figure out their doubles.  Until I see that, I’m not ranking MIT any higher than 30.  And I’d say that’s a fair assessment.

Well, that’s all we got for you homies.  I’m going on vacation in a week or so but I’ll still be cranking out articles when I feel like it.  Watch out for Central, he’s 0-4 in Fantasy Football and he refuses to bench Marshawn Lynch.  What’s wrong with the dude?  ASouth, OUT.