We’re a day late on this, mostly because my colleagues have working behind the scenes to get some Elite 8 Previews for you all and I have been working at a Regional Recap (that sounds weird) for all of those small teams out there. Additionally, we’ve been trying to come together for our annual “Superlatives and Awards” article, which should come out sometime during the Elite 8. That means we’re gonna crown MVPs, MIPs, 1st-3rd All-Blog Teams, and maybe even Father of the Year again (Wootton has a stranglehold on this one). There’s a lot to come from the Blog the next few days so please stay tuned. BY THE WAY, we promised you a blogger reveal and you WILL get that this weekend. Hit the left side of the site to vote on who you would most like to see revealed and we will not take your votes into account and do it our way anyways. Also, Colette Lewis has informed me she will be at the Elite 8 and the official hashtag for it all is #D3Tennis. Let’s flood that hashtag this next week peeps. Okay, after a fun-filled weekend of NCAA action, here are your next Power Rankings. NOTE THAT I HAVE NOW ADDED COMPOSITE RANKING, WHICH IS AN AVERAGE RANKING OF ALL THE BLOGGERS. YAY.
Ohhh there we go. That’s a sexy Power Rankings right there. Let’s go through our Notable Movers as always.
Notable Movers
The Whole Top 10 – There were basically moves throughout the whole top 10, except Emory, due to the craziness that happened this weekend. Middlebury moved ahead of CMS because CMS almost lost to UT-Tyler on their home courts (#upsetalert) and CMU and Case Western were upset this weekend by lower ranked teams. That moved a ton of teams up at least 1 spot in the top 10. Notice how CMU stuck at #7 and Case Western moved out of the top 10. Somewhere, D3ASW is off celebrating the Case Western loss, hence why he isn’t included in these Power Rankings.
CMU, down 2 spots to #7 – What goes up must come down. CMU’s NCAA failings have bitten them in the ass once again and they will finish this year outside of the top 5 despite holding a spot during the season. Same thing happened two years ago when they lost to Case Western in the Sweet 16. CMU had a great season, they faltered at the wrong time against a hot Johns Hopkins team. Now, we wait until next year.
Johns Hopkins, up 9 spots to #11 – Look who’s back where they started. Johns Hopkins fall from grace happened in the part of the season that doesn’t really matter for them, the regular season. Now, they’re back to compete for a berth in the Final 4 for another year. The “Tank and Tree” team has risen about 15 spots in the past two weeks and that’s what happens when your team of talent finally starts performing on the court. I’m excited for the Hopkins/Bowdoin match that will happen on Monday, because Hopkins can theoretically move into the top 5 with another surprising win. I don’t think it will happen, but stranger things have happened in Hopkins NCAA history.
Kenyon, up 5 spots to #12 – Another team is back into the top 15 after a strong weekend, upsetting a top 10 team in Case Western. I personally have always rated Kenyon higher than my colleagues simply because I believe in the program that is Kenyon. Kenyon is definitely a workmanlike team that continues to surprise year after year with guys that come to play. Take Sam Geier, for instance, who is a front-runner for MVP in my book. It’s tough to clinch NCAA matches over CJ Krimbill. Geier made it look like he’s done it his whole life. Shoutout to Andrew McGlashen, because Kenyon is now in the Elite 8 – UWW is not.
Case Western, down 5 spots to #13 – D3ASW finally gets his wish as Case Western is knocked out of the top 10 all the way down to #13. This happens to be where D3ASW ranked them after their wins over Wash U and CMU at Indoors despite those great results. How funny things can be these days. Case Western ended the year on a skid, getting smoked by CMU in singles, losing 4 matches to Brandeis, and losing another 4 matches in singles to Kenyon. That’s not the resume of a top 10 team and they are now knocked down into the rankings. Unfortunately for Case, it doesn’t look like they are moving back into our Top 10 until next year.
UT-Tyler, up 4 spots to #22 – What can a doubles sweep do for you. UT-Tyler took out Whitman this weekend in the Round of 32 and then almost did the unfathomable by sweeping CMS in the Sweet 16 and potentially giving us our first unranked upset in forever. However, it was not in the cards for the Patriots and they went down to the Stags in a 5-4 heartbreaker. I didn’t rank UT-Tyler over Whitman this round because I want to look at the whole season, not the short-sighted thing that we usually do with these power rankings. UT-Tyler has one ranked win over the year. I don’t believe that means top 20.
There you have it folks! Tune back in later today for the beginning of our Elite 8 previews and keep following the blog for live coverage of the tournament. ASouth, OUT.
Why Coe over Depauw? Just curious
Very valid question, and it appears that AS and I are the culprits. I dropped Depauw a couple weeks ago because of their second loss to Denison in as many weeks. I moved Coe up this week because I was impressed with their performance vs GAC (5-2 L and three 3 setters). I’m probably not putting enough weight on the head-to-head from earlier in the year, but I do think Coe’s doubles teams are better now than before.