The 10 Burning Questions of 2013

D3 Atlantic South and D3Tennis’s 10 Questions of 2013

1.    Can CMS break the drought and win it all?

A lot has been made of CMS’s struggles in the postseason in recent years despite having arguably the best talent in the nation.  In the 2012-13 season, they shattered those doubts by handily beating Amherst in the Final Four and taking Williams to the brink of the title.  The question for this team is no longer whether or not they can quit “choking,” but whether or not they can take that final step.  It’s tough to win a National Championship, which we all know.  With Williams seeing a ton of graduates, CMS is the natural next in line for the D3 landscape.  Can the core of returning players (Dorn, Wood, Marino, Butts, Kotrappa) as well as their extensive bench and recruits put it together at the right time?

2.       Will the proven powers continue their success despite key graduates?

Graduating classes are always something to look at when determining a team’s success the following year.  What separates the good teams from the best teams is how they deal with the losses of key positions and more importantly, team leaders.  Take a look at the seasons of Emory and North Carolina Wesleyan last year.  Remember, NCW took Emory to a 5-4 match in the 2011 season.  Both were hit by graduations, and NCW dropped to the 20s while Emory made the Elite 8.  This year, we’re looking at major graduations from three powers in particular: National Champion Williams (Meyer, Sun, Chow, Weiss), Semi-Finalist Washington University (Putterman, Parizher, Farah), and Quarterfinalist Kenyon College (Burgin, Williams, Ye).  In addition, we have California Lutheran, Amherst, and Bowdoin with some key graduates.  These were some of the best teams in the nation last year, but can they keep up with the always changing D3 competition?

3.     How will Case Western follow-up on a record breaking year?

What a year it was for Case in 2013.  A team that has seemingly come out of nowhere was a mere match away from taking out their rival, Kenyon, and making it into their first ever Elite 8.  With very few major graduations, and an up-and-coming bench and recruiting class, this year has the potential to be another record year for the Spartans.  The Spartans are well aware that a top 10 ranking and spot in National’s aren’t going to be handed to them on a silver platter.  Coach Todd and the Case team needs to re-kindle the hunger they’ve featured so prominently in recent years and re-focus it towards another step forward.  Can this workmanlike team surprise us again and take down a national power?

4.       Is this the year Coach Hansen makes his mark?

It’s now been 2 full seasons since Coach Hansen took over for the storied Middlebury program after leaving the Banana Slugs.  Much was made of this move at first, and most of that hype was probably a bit premature.   It’s tough for a coach, even Coach Hansen, to make a huge impact on a team that he didn’t recruit and he barely has had time to train with.  Now that we’re 2 years into his tenure, I’d say we should expect some big improvements from this Panthers team.  From a disappointing year two years ago, this team took a step forward last year by making it into the Elite 8 and dropping a tough Hopkins team in the Sweet 16.  Unfortunately, they met the red-hot Stags in the next round, and were handily beaten.  They graduated a solid player in Lunghino, but for the most part have high hopes in 2013-2014.  With another summer under their belt, D3Tennis and I are expecting some huge leaps from this Middlebury team.  It’s already Year 3 – it’s go time.  Will the Panthers return to huge success under one of the best coaches in Division 3 Tennis?

5.      Do any of the teams ranked 12-25 have “Case Western” potential?

As mentioned earlier, Case Western took the year by storm in 2012 and briefly broke into the top 10.  We’ve seen the likes of Bowdoin, Pomona-Pitzer, and California Lutheran make similar strides into prominent rankings in the past few years.  Do any teams have the potential to make a similar jump this year?  When taking a look at potential candidates, I always look for teams that have some of the puzzle all figured out.  A team like Gustavus Adolphus has the desire and the facilities, but do they have the talent to breakthrough.  Or take the Carnegie-Mellon Tartans, who have the talent of a top-10 team, but do they have the drive to make it all come together?  How about a dark-horse like Wesleyan, who has been working in the lower 20s for many years, but just brought in arguably their best recruiting class in history.  This is a team that ended the year on a roll, but it’s about that next step.  Or maybe Whitter, who had a few nice wins last year, and have just hired arguably one of the better coaches in Division 3, Coach Belletto.  Every year we are presented with teams that may look the part, but it seems like only one or two make the jump.  Do any of these teams have a shot?

6.       How will the young Emory team respond from a “down” year?

2012 marked the first time Emory finished out of the top 5 in 12 years.  First off, kudos to the Eagles for a simply amazing streak.  With a team made mostly of freshmen and sophomores, last year’s Emory team proved to be a tough out for anyone, which was a surprise to some people given they lost arguably the top 2 players in the nation.  Now the Eagles have another year of experience and another year of training under Coach Browning, and they’re ready to do some major damage to other teams’ national title hopes.  This team made it a point to play awesome doubles at the end of the year, and are obviously bringing in another strong recruiting class.  D3Tennis and I are expecting a top 5 ranking at least for the Eagles, and I honestly think they have a fighting chance at the title.  Can they learn from last year’s losses and make it back to the Final Four?

7.       What dominant players will emerge from the pack?

With the graduations of Nick Ballou and Adam Putterman, as well as a slew of other amazing players, one has to ask who the next D3 great will be.  Throughout the years, we’ve seen guys like Paul Burgin rise from a #6 singles player to one of the best.  Just last year, Aaron Skinner took this blog by storm and cruised to a Fall national title.  Skinner will be in the mix this year, but what does the rest of the top look like?  We’ve got young guns such as Amherst’s Andrew Yaraghi and Ben Fife and Case Western’s Christopher Krimbill.  We definitely can’t forget about the ton of talent in the junior class, such as Emory’s Eric Halpern, CMS’s Joe Dorn and Warren Wood, Hopkins’ Tanner Brown, and Kenyon’s Michael Razumovsky, amongst others.  As DIII gets deeper, it becomes harder and harder to discriminate based on talent, and that much more important to follow the “drive” a player has.  There’s no secret to how players like Burgin made it to the top – a love of the game and a willingness to go above and beyond.  Who are those players this year?

8.      Can the West Teams keep up their reputation?

With so much being made about the unfairness (and rightfully so) regarding the state of the West NCAA regionals, are we in for another unfair draw this year?  My gut at the moment says that the West is going to be a lot easier to call this year.  Teams like UC Santa Cruz and California Lutheran have been taking steps back.  With CMS continuing their dominance, the West region may look a bit more normal this year.  I’m expecting a big drop from the Kingsmen, and who knows about the Banana Slugs given their talent.  Also take Pomona-Pitzer’s loss of Coach Belletto, and that’s three teams that I expect to lower their standard of play this year.  That being said, watch out for the Redlands Tigers.  With a legit #1 in Patrick Lipscomb, and a very deep team that plays great doubles, this team is most definitely a sleeper hidden in the West.  Is it enough for anyone to challenge the Stags?

9.      How many chances does Johns Hopkins need?

I’ve been touting the Johns Hopkins talent for years now.  They will be entering this season with another talented team, led by their #1 player Tanner Brown.  Despite the talent, they’ve suffered losses in the Sweet 16 in two of the past three years.  The one time they made the Elite 8, they were arguably the national champion’s biggest challenge, coming within 2 games of moving on to the final 4.  This team knows how to win, they just need to learn how to get it done on the big stage.  I keep telling myself not to believe in this team.  But we’ve seen teams such as CMS throw the monkey off their backs and reach the next level.  This team should be no different.  Can we finally get a Hopkins Final Four appearance?  Note: Hopkins is re-doing their courts and will be ready prior to next season! Thank god…

10. Can doubles-oriented teams keep up with the growing talent in DIII?

One thing that I’ve been noticing in DIII is the increase in talent across the board.  Teams like MIT, Wesleyan, Whittier, etc have all seen upticks in recruiting.  This is something that we’ve seen from the top-down.  What worries me about this trend is the uncanny ability for hard-working, doubles-oriented teams to take down their talented counterparts.  Trinity TX has been the epitome of this type of team.  They do have singles talent, but we all know where their strengths lie – in doubles.  Can teams like Trinity compete in their respective ranking tiers?  Teams such as Whitman, Gustavus, and Whitewater are vulnerable to upsets against teams like MIT, Bates, and Stevens Tech that feature high-powered singles lineups with barely any doubles talent.  Doubles used to be the mark of an upset, but is it the mark of a contending team?  We will find out more this year.

In addition, I would like to take this time to update you on some happenings with the blog this year.  D3Tennis and D3TennisGuy will still be with us, in a much lighter capacity.  I (D3AS) will be the main man moving forward.  Given the sheer amount of activity to keep up with, I am using this post and subsequent posts to “recruit” some new writers that would like to help me out along the way.  The blogger team would love some fresh blood, especially from you guys who have more recent experience with the existing players.  Please e-mail me at d3atlanticsouth@gmail.com if you are interested.