Well, it’s late on a Friday night, and I have an early morning tomorrow, but the Southwest ITA deserves some coverage, so I’m gonna do my best. Coach Bizot did a great job to get the draws out as early as he did, all things considered, but this still might not be my best quality preview. Here we go, I’m timing myself. I’ll let you know how long it took
Singles
Trinity (TX)
Most of the time, tournament directors try to fool themselves into believing the talent is more evenly distributed than it is, and they end up seeding the top players from lesser teams pretty high. This was not the case with Coach Bizot. The man is a realist, and he rightfully gave the top five Tigers the top five seeds. Unsurprisingly, I’m going to take the top 4 seeds to be the semifinalists, with the only real threat to the tournament going chalk being their unseeded or lower-seeded teammates.
The real story of the weekend is going to be Adam Krull. The Xavier transfer came home after a frustrating freshman year, and he’ll look to do what Deuel did last year and take the whole thing. No idea how good he is, so we’ll have to wait to see how it plays out. Deuel on the other had, seems to have a pretty east draw into the semifinals. The teammates in his section aren’t well known, and I don’t see Wootton being much of a threat. The players to keep an eye on for Trinity will be Clayton Neiss, Connor Dunn, and Chas Mayer. All three have seen time in the starting lineup, and it seems like some Tiger comes out of the woodwork to make a big run in this tournament every year. Among the other seeds, I’m really looking forward to a potential Curtis/Skinner quarterfinal match to see if the former ITA champ has recovered some of his old magic with his health.
Tyler
There’s no doubt about it: Tyler’s depth has definitely improved. If Wootton is seeded ahead of Kelleher, he must be recovering some of his old form (see what I did there with the old form thing?). I would never consider Budd a threat to win a tournament like this, but I could easily see him getting through to the quarters. He could definitely win any given match, but he’s not about to beat four Tigers in a row, which is what he would need to do to win this tournament.
The two other players to keep an eye on for Tyler will be Justin Randell and Frankie Fischer. If I’m not mistaken, both represent transfers for Tyler. Both had good junior rankings, but we’ll see if they kept their form early here. Randell may very well get the farthest of any Patriot, as he has a nice draw, while Fischer has an early match with Dunn to test his mettle. Other than that, Bizot certainly didn’t give his Aussie any favors with a first round match against Niess. That will undoubtedly be the best match of the first round, and it could potentially be very telling for where the Pats are at this year (or at least as telling as any one match can be)
Other Teams
I am terribly sorry, but with this time limit, I cannot do the necessary research to give you guys proper billing. I’ll keep a close eye on all the matches, and give you fair representation in the recap. Between Ozarks, SW, Dallas, Hardin-Simmons, and Mary Hardin Baylor, they may get one or two guys in the Round of 16. They’re all respectable programs, but they are completely dwarfed by Tyler and Trinity, and it makes it really difficult to recruit when all the players in Texas tend to be a little DI-crazy.
Doubles
Well lookey here, we’ve got a Tyler team as the #1 seeds. Wootton is a heckuva doubles player, and it will be interesting to see how he and Kelleher handle the pressure of being the #1 seeds, especially with a first round date with Dunn and Diaz Bloom on the horizon. That is an absolutely brutal first round, and with Dunn’s serve, we might just see the #1 seed go down early. Other than that, doubles will almost certainly be another Trinity show. Curtis/Neiss, Mayer/Skinner, and Deuel/Krull could all play #1 doubles for almost any team in the country. It’s just a matter of who can get hot on the right weekend. Meanwhile, Tyler’s Budd and Fischer will have to go up against DOUBLES ALL-AMERICAN ELIOT GUIN in the first round. I kid, but that is actually a really tough team. That Tigers doubles lineup is absolutely ridiculous this year. I hope some of these Pats teams can string together a few wins to make things interesting. If Budd and Fischer can get past the first round, they actually have a very nice path to the semis, so keep an eye on that.
There goes 13 minutes of my life. I hope you enjoyed, as I am sure I will enjoy all the tennis tomorrow and the lovely tweets from @patriotstennis