Bracket Challenge Winner: David Lee

Welcome to the 4th 2014 Bracket Challenge Interview! Today we are interviewing David Lee, the Team Bracket Challenge winner. Before we get into discussing the bracket, let’s take a little time to learn about Mr. Lee’s background. Unlike our previous bracket winners (Brian Tan, Brenton Arnaboldi, and Matt Seeberger) D-Lee has never been a DIII player. I was very interested to get a new perspective on both The Blog and the world of DIII Tennis. Thanks to David for a great interview! You can follow him on Twitter @dleect.

1) How did you first get involved with DIII Tennis?

My first interaction in D3 tennis was over 30 years ago (probably makes me one of your older readers who isn’t a parent or coach!). I was a competitive junior tennis player in Southern New Jersey and had been recruited (as much as D3 tennis recruited back then which basically meant you met the coach and he said if you get admitted, you would probably be on the team) by Swarthmore, Haverford, Amherst and Williams.  I decided instead to go to an Ivy League school where my tennis career died on the vine (sorry about that pun) after 1 day of tryouts.  Meanwhile my wife, whom I met during college, attended Amherst, so I’ve had a soft spot for D3 athletics with a bit of wishful thinking ever since.

Recently, my interest in D3 tennis has grown through multiple touch points.  Besides my wife’s Amherst affiliation, my biggest D3 connection is Tyler Kratky, the #5 player for WashU, who is the son of my business partner and also should get a bit more love from D3Central!  Needless to say, we were live-streaming the NCAAs in our office and D3 tennis is a major topic of discussion during the season.  Other connections include a childhood friend of my wife who is the mother of Joshua Kim who plays for Pomona; a former co-worker who is the father of Robby Crampton (Bates All-American); and another family friend who is one of Bowdoin’s recruits next year.  Finally, I am on the board of the American Platform Tennis Association, a sport that is basically mini-tennis in a wire cage played in the off-season (www.platformtennis.org).  Through platform tennis, I have become friends with Mike Fried, the Wesleyan coach, and Karl Gregor, Tufts assistant coach.  Plus I have also gotten to know former D3 players like Ben Stein (national doubles champion at Bates), Max Gumport (member of Amherst’s 2011 national champions), Garrett Gates (Bowdoin), Jeff Byrnes (Williams) and Matt Rogers (Mary Washington) among others.  It seems to be a sport that seems perfect for former D3 tennis players btw!

2) What do you do for a living?  

I co-manage a hedge fund with the father of Tyler Kratky.

3) Who is your Tennis idol?  

People think it should be Michael Chang but it’s Roger Federer.

4) For those who are unfamiliar, would you try to give us the 30 second explanation of Platform Tennis?

Platform tennis is basically mini-tennis played in a chicken wire cage. The court has same lines as tennis but is less than 1/2 the size. The ball is hard rubber and the racquet is a solid paddle with holes.  The chicken wire surrounding the court is in play, so balls that land in can be played off the wires, also known as screens. Consequently power is not as important and rallies can last 50-100 shots as balls that go past players rebound off the screens and can be put back in play. Primarily played in the winter as doubles, platform tennis is basically chess where tennis is checkers. The most important shots are the return of serve, the backhand volley and the lob. It is especially popular on the east coast and Chicago. The best known tennis player currently playing high level platform tennis is Jared Palmer, former #1 in the world doubles and Wimbledon champion.

5) What DID you want to be when you grew up?

A professional baseball player.

6) What DO you want to be when you grow up?

A professional poker player. I’ve actually played the World Series of Poker 3 times.

7) What is your favorite sports movie?  

Caddyshack.

8) What is your favorite kind of dessert?

Key lime pie

9) Who was your first celebrity crush?

Jaclyn Smith of the original Charlie’s Angels.

10) Finally, have you ever played Mario Tennis, if so, what character do you use?  

No after my time!

OK! Enough of the Player of the Week style of questions. Let’s get to discussing that winning bracket!

11) You only missed one pick in the whole damn tournament! What was the toughest pick for you?

Probably Otterbein over Messiah.  I knew nothing about either team but picked the 5 seed over the 4 seed after seeing that Otterbein had more star recruits on tennis recruiting.net than Messiah.  It wound up being the only “upset” in the first round so I was happy about that pick which really was made out of thin air.

3) Ok, let’s go through some of your tougher picks. Walk us through your thought process

a) Case over Carnegie

I chose Case because of doubles.  The first time they played, they swept the doubles and lost a bunch of 3 setters in singles.  I figured they would have the edge after doubles and that singles would even out especially given that Case players were a bit more experienced. As the 4 bloggers have pointed out, NCAAs are different and experience is key.

b) Williams over Skidmore

While Skidmore had pulled the upset earlier, I couldn’t see Williams losing again especially in the NCAAs given their experience and fact that they knew they couldn’t coast against Skidmore and would have to fight for the win.  That was another great match and I was definitely nervous watching the twitter updates.

c)  Amherst over CMS

My wife would have killed me if I had picked against Amherst!  In all seriousness, I thought Amherst just matched up well versus CMS.  They were strong at the top and bottom of their singles lineup.  Also I remembered the blog post about Williams Journey last year and the importance of seniors at NCAAs.  Amherst had 3 at critical spots in the lineup who had all played well this season.  With the pressure being on CMS playing at home, it seemed like a reasonable upset prediction.  It didn’t hurt that I assumed everyone would be picking CMS in the bracket so going against the grain would be beneficial if Amherst did win.

4) What first brought you to The Blog?

I think I first started reading the blog when it was d3tennis.blogspot.com and Amherst began its ascension back around 2008ish.  It was something to keep my wife updated on her alma mater.  I was a casual reader until Tyler Kratky started getting recruited by D3 schools and then started at WashU in 2012.  Since then with the new website and addition of multiple bloggers, I’ve been pretty devoted to reading the Blog.  The 4 of you do a great job of keeping up with D3 tennis and are a great read.  More importantly, I think D3 tennis is college tennis at its purest and best form.  With the vast majority of players having no professional aspiration (no offense Eric Butorac and now David Konstantinov ) and knowing that D3 tennis will most likely be the pinnacle of their tennis careers, D3 tennis players epitomize the concept of scholar-athletes especially given that there are no scholarships.  In the end, D3 tennis is all about team achievement and desire – there’s a reason doubles count for 3 points unlike D1. The level of play and competitiveness get better every year and this year’s NCAAs were clear testament to that.

5) Besides Amherst, what team impressed you most through this year’s NCAA Tournament?

Without a doubt Trinity.  They came into the Elite 8 a bit under the radar and avenged their prior loss to WashU with a great performance that was my only missed pick!  They then had a great chance to beat Amherst after sweeping doubles but fell just short.  Coming back from that heart-breaking loss to beat Middlebury in the 3/4 match was really impressive and showed a ton of grit and heart.  It seemed like Trinity really jelled at nationals and showed what a group of players playing as a team and for each other could accomplish.

6) Seeing as you’re the best prognosticator out there, who are your final 4 for 2015? Your finalist? Your champion?

You never know how things will develop during the season so I reserve the right to change my picks in 2015.  However, I would say my pre-season final 4 teams are: CMS, WashU, Johns Hopkins and Emory with CMS the champions and WashU the finalist.  CMS returns 5 of their top 6 and their top 3 will be seniors which usually is critical to winning a championship.  WashU returns 5 of their top 6 as well but are a year behind CMS.  Hopkins returns their entire team and you’d like to think they finally take the next step.  Emory also returns 5 of their 6 with good senior leadership.  Can’t believe I don’t have a NESCAC team in the final 4 but Amherst and Middlebury lose key players to graduation.  I’m sure I will be wrong about the NESCAC teams as they just seem to reload and the coaches are very strong.  BTW: I agree with D3NE that Wesleyan is the team to watch.  I may be biased but Mike Fried is doing a great job of recruiting and it’s just a matter of time until they get some big wins (Note: I didn’t pay him to say that).