Here we have, as D3NE would say it, the last Power Rankings of the regular season. Even though some conference championships are still going on, those are considered post-season. So, to all of you readers, it’s been a great regular season! We’ve come a damn long way from the first power rankings of the season back in the fall and it has certainly been a surprising and wild ride. Some of my favorite surprises of the year have been as follows:
- My homer-like faith in Jonathan Jemison coming true.
- D3NE, for the third straight year, reaching over 15 Microsoft Word pages in one of his posts.
- The Guru stepping up for multiple entries of bracketology.
- Jay-Z being totally okay with Beyonce’s LEMONADE because $$$.
- Johnny Manziel still not in jail.
- D3ASW still ranking Case Western below Pomona (spoiler alert)
- Leicester City winning the title (shout-out to Andrew McGlashen)
- No comments from LoveD3Tennis (or were there?)
- And last but not least, all of you not getting fed up with my brashness and sticking with us the whole year. You guys rock. Sometimes.
I would like to take this time to remind everyone that next Monday, NCAA Draws will be released. This is a big day for us here at The Blog because we get to do our own little selection show type thing where we leak parts of the draw as teams send it to us. I never understand why it just doesn’t get released, but it’s really fun for us to hang out on Twitter and see some draws come through. The Bloggers will have time during the day to answer questions and go through your prognostications about who is getting in the tournament and where they will be placed. So basically, join us next Monday if you’re interested in NCAAs. If you’re not, then I don’t really know what your goal is reading this site. Swerve. Power Rankings below.
Notable Movers
Bowdoin, down 2 spots to #4 – A loss to Tufts only dropped Bowdoin 2 spots in what was a bit surprising revelation for me this week. I personally moved Bowdoin down to #5 simply because that is a really bad loss for a team that had previously went pretty unscathed throughout the year. The Polar Bears have been less impressive as of late but they have the NESCAC tournament this weekend as well as NCAAs to right the ship a little. They’re still a stacked team with national title hopes so that is probably why the rankings didn’t change all that much.
Tufts, up 2 spots to #12 – I personally stubbornly refuse to move up Tufts in the rankings despite their win against Bowdoin. Reason being is that they had an inexplicable loss to MIT that derailed their already historic season. Without this loss to MIT, this is a team that could have potentially snuck into Pool C with a few nice wins at the NESCAC. Now, that’s a bit of a pipe dream. Tufts is an inconsistent team that doesn’t always have their heads in the game, but when they do they are dangerous. I have them below Amherst and that’s probably going to ruffle some feathers.
MIT, up 4 spots to #24 – Despite being unranked in the ITA Rankings, MIT was previously #28 on the power rankings, because we are not restricted by things such as results and scheduling. We can subjectively look at talent, coaching, and really personal preference to determine which teams have the best chance of beating others on the right days. Well, MIT decided to live up to their talent one day this weekend and took out Tufts in a 5-4 upset. While this is a great result, I’ve never considered Tufts a premiere win and with their season, it’s probably still not warranted. MIT gets the benefit of taking out a good team but let’s not forget they lost to Bates 7-2 earlier in the year. Maybe the Engineers are gearing up at the end of the year, but we shall see. Let’s watch out for MIT in the NEWMAC final against Babson and potentially in NCAAs.
Denison, up 4 spots to #31 – I personally don’t know how Denison moved up so damn much this week but they did beat Depauw in the NCAC tournament. They ended up losing to Kenyon 5-1 in the finals of that tournament, ending their season once again without a trip to NCAAs. However, we have moved them all the way up to #31 really because if you win in the 30-40 area, you’re probably doing a lot better than some of your counterparts. Ouch.
Babson, enter rankings at #42 – Congratulations to Babson for entering our rankings at #42. Reason being is that they took MIT to a 5-4 close loss where they were one set away from beating them! MIT’s recent success has allowed us to move Babson up to that final spot to give them some love. I myself will be very interested in the MIT/Babson rematch in the NEWMAC final.
Well, there you have it. Again, join us all this week for NESCAC coverage and of course next Monday for NCAA leaked draws and super draw conversation bonanzas. Now, time for me to attend the Justin Bieber concert in NYC. ASouth OUT.
For anyone paying attention to UTR, the Tufts “inexplicable loss to MIT” would not seem so surprising at all. Alex Cauneac 12.11 beat Jay Glickman 11.59. Tyler Barr 11.99 beat Zain Ali 11.28. Sean Ko 11.45 beat Rob Jacobson 11.25. Cauneac has lost twice playing number one and two singles , Barr in undefeated in division 3 singles dual matches, and Ko has only lost once. For the bloggers who cite a bad history for MIT doubles, that does not account for the current players. Bryan Lilley is an outstanding doubles player and deserves serious respect. The day before the Tufts win, MIT won all three doubles courts against Brandeis.
MIT got swept by Bates, was down 2-1 to Amherst, was down 2-1 to Babson, and has generally been horrid at doubles for the past 5-6 years. While they are different players, there are consistencies in each program’s tendencies year after year. This is why Case Western is a well-known doubles team. Because they focus on it and make it a priority. Other schools, such as Trinity TX, Pomona, have been well-known for strong doubles as well. On the flip side, a school like NC Wesleyan is not known for it’s doubles. That’s not just a product of players. That’s a product of program. I would also like to point out Brandeis has not played any semblance of solid doubles all year.
In regards to UTR – MIT does have some strong spots in the lineup. However, that doesn’t change the fact that they have to take a doubles lead AND win every one of those spots to pull upsets. MIT lost earlier this year to Bates 7-2 and it was not close. This is why the loss is described as inexplicable considering Tufts focused in and beat Bowdoin two days later. That’s a reflection on their focus for the MIT match.
We need to stop looking at teams purely based on UTR and talent alone and start realizing that team chemistry, program environment, and player leadership play HUGE ROLES in a team’s success. Everyone is enamored with numbers. But one thing I mentioned when we saw MIT’s recruiting class last year – this is a team that has never performed above expectations. That is something to note.
The blog is fun and everyone is certainly entitled to have their viewpoint. You can continue to see “a team that has never performed above expectations.” I see a team that just did.
Certainly very fun! And discussion is always what we are promoting. I personally would like to see more from MIT – they have plenty of good recruits and theoretically, could be a top 15 team in the right situation. But in my years of blogging and playing, they haven’t really lived up to that. I don’t think that one win over an inconsistent Tufts team is exceeding expectations. A talented team can win one match. I like to see program consistency.
I know there are already a lot of columns in the blog’s power rankings table. But I think one more field that would be nice to see is the composite/average ranking. We can guesstimate the value for each team by reviewing how each individual blogger ranked the teams, but having the average ranking right there would be great. Could give us a better idea about the segments of quality. For instance we can see just how closely packed Case, CMU, and Williams. And is there a big drop off immediately after that group?
Just food for thought.
This is a fantastic idea and one that I will try and incorporate for the next power rankings. Look out for it next week!
I like this idea and find myself looking for it when I look at the rankings
Is Sean Ko from MIT the highest rated recruit on tennisrecruiting (#13) in D3 history ? We all know junior rankings only mean so much but I am curious if any D3 tennis player has ever been rated higher at the end of their junior career.
Yes he is! From what I know, Joey Fritz had second highest ever ranking at 18.
That Jemison kid is for real….have you seen him play in person. He may be one of first D3 player to make a run at it on the tour in four years.
hes good but not tour good… thats a little ridiculous
Seaberger played at the US Open last year
Eric Butorac. ATP Player’s Counsel. Australian Open Finalist
I was guessing that the person was referring to Butorac when they said “in the last four years,” as Butorac has been having a phenomenal career for a while now
The post made it seem like the 4 years was referring to when Jemison would turn pro since he is a freshmen now. Either way don’t think the post was super serious
Lol this could be the most absurd comment I have ever seen on the blog.
Jemison is a very good player, one of the best grinders in D3. However, if he plays for an Ivy league team now, he would probably play #6. There may be hundreds of juniors or college players who are better than him.