2015 NCAA Bracket Challenge Winner: Matt DeMichiel

Interview with Matt DeMichiel, 2015 NCAA Bracket Challenge Champion

Just because the season has finally come to a close does not mean that The Blog stops. Well, we will stop for a little. More of a small summer break, a hiatus if you will, but that’s neither here nor there. As we wrap up our blogging season, I will bring a couple of interviews your way courtesy of the bracket challenge winners. Sadly, D3West won 2 of the 4 bracket challenges this year, and his region won all three titles. He’s simply going to be insufferable. We’ll see if I can stomach an interview full of snarky smugness down the road, but today we have our interview with Matt DeMichiel, the winner of the Team Tournament Bracket Challenge. Yes, to all you fact checkers out there, he did technically tie with D3Regional, but we had both contenders predict the score of the finals as a tiebreaker. Matt came out on top, so he get’s to do a little something special with me. Here’s hoping he likes seeing a lot of pictures of himself…

1) First thing’s first, for the crazy readers out there who still don’t know you, please introduce yourself. 

I am a sophomore at NYU in the Stern Business School, concentrating in Marketing and Finance. I am originally from Hewlett, NY and went Lynbrook High School out on Long Island. When I’m not playing tennis or reading the blog I’m doing something music related. I play euphonium and trombone in the concert band and also play guitar, doing open mics and jamming with friends.

2) Next, help the readers to get to know the REAL Matt DeMichiel. Tell us something that nobody else knows about you.

I guess this is a good forum to reveal my identity: I’m the guy in charge of the NYU Tennis Twitter account, so hopefully you guys were satisfied with our updates this season, otherwise my job may be on the line. And when I post the link to this interview to our followers, I’ll be tweeting about myself and be totally narcissistic about it. And another one isn’t something that nobody knows, but I guess it’s a fun fact that only a few people know. During the fall and winter, I am a broadcaster for NYU Athletics, specifically calling the NYU basketball games. Myself as well a few other guys will rotate between doing play-by-play and color commentary for both men’s and women’s home games for NYU Athletics online broadcasting site nyuathletics.tv. If you guys at the blog ever get big enough to be sending your own broadcasting crews out to matches, keep me in mind for the play-by-play calling.

3) Steering this back towards tennis, there is a lot of riffing on a tennis team, and there are a ton of nicknames that could stem from your last name. What are some of the best and worst nicknames you’ve been called during your tennis career?

I know the rest of the guys on the team are going to see this and laugh because they’ve definitely gotten creative with the nicknames over the 2 years I’ve been on the team. Zumwalt has been calling me DeMatt during matches, which I kind of like actually. As for the bad ones, I’m going to plead the 5^th on that one, both for the sake of keeping the blog family friendly, and not making them known throughout the entire DIII universe.

4) Ok, getting to your winning bracket, what prompted you to defy the odds and take Chicago over Amherst?

Go big or go home, right? Seeing the way Chicago performed at UAAs was really what motivated my decision. I was able to catch bits of their matches with both Emory and Case and they really seemed like a team on a mission. And then taking out Carnegie 8-1 was a very impressive. And on the other side, I thought that Amherst was vulnerable to an upset, not only because the loss to Williams at NESCACs showed a chink in the armor, but going deep in NCAAs the year after being National Champs is such a tough thing to do, especially when none of the starters are seniors and have that motivation knowing it’s their last time playing. So adding those things together is what made me pick Chicago with the upset.

5) How did you feel about your bracket going into the Quarterfinals?

I was definitely nervous heading into the quarters considering the two tough matches I predicted both didn’t end up in my favor (I picked Stevens over Skidmore and Kenyon over Hopkins). Luckily, my other two big picks ended up working out in the bigger rounds (WashU over Emory and Chicago beating Amherst), but I never felt comfortable until the end.

6) Some of our other bloggers (D3AS and D3Central) are obsessed with the UAA. Make a case, why is the UAA better than any other conference in the country?

First in general, I don’t think you can find a conference with schools that excel both academically and athletically as much as those in the UAA. And then from a tennis perspective, the caliber of play in the UAA is one of, if not the best in the entire country. And then within that there are so many interesting storylines to follow: the WashU/Emory rivalry; the Case/Carnegie rivalry; Chicago’s rise; us, Rochester, and Brandeis battling for 6,7,8 (although hopefully we’ll all be battling for higher spots next year). Lastly of course, find me another conference where the end-of-the-season tournament is played in Orlando and includes a dinner that’s swanky AF. It’s impossible.

7) Yeah, the NESCAC and SCIAC really struggle when it comes to academics…but this is a celebration of you bracket, so I’ll move on. Let’s look more at you and your team, what was the highlight of your season?

I’d have to say it was getting our revenge on Rochester at UAAs. Losing to them in the regular season was tough for us to swallow because we knew the way we played was not even close to our potential (we had a bad season-opening loss to Swarthmore and still hadn’t mentally recovered from it at that point). It was nice to get that win down in Florida playing at a level we knew were capable of all season long. Hopefully it’ll carry over to next year and we’ll get back to where we were 2 seasons ago. In addition, we were able to send out our seniors with nothing but wins in their matches, which was nice. CJ and I were able to get a doubles win in a tough 10-8 match and then he followed it up in singles playing lights out against Ben Shapiro, who is really solid player. And then Billy stepped up at number 6 and won 4-2, ending his career on a backhand down-the-line winner, the least likely shot you’d expect him to hit/make, which I think is pretty hilarious. And lastly, any match where we go up after doubles is automatically memorable to me.

8) Anytime a senior ends a career, it’s noteworthy. Even better to go out with a win. It’s pretty rare. Moving from teammates to coaches, if you had to describe Coach Choy in one word, what would it be and why?

Ice. Nothing fazes him. No matter how intense a match is getting, he’s always got a level head and tells you what needs to get done to win the match. It’s really helpful for me especially, since sometimes I play with a little too much emotion so his coaching helps me keep a level head during a match.

9) How is the squad looking for next year? Any goals for the 2015-2016 season?

I think next year is going to be an interesting year for us. Our first goal is definitely going to be to do better than this year, we were all pretty disappointed ending 4-9 because we know we are so much better than that. We had a new assistant coach this year, Mark Goldberg, and I think he learned a lot this season from a coaching standpoint, and we as team now know what he expects from us in the off season and the regular season (Mark played for Lehigh when they won the Patriot League title and played Ole Miss in NCAAs). From a recruiting perspective, I think we are expected to get some players who will help beef up the roster. We have one committed on TennisRecruiting and as D3 Regional mentioned, Horace always have some tricks up his sleeve. We have a history for having transfers or recruits just show up unexpectedly and make a big impact, and if the rumors I hear are true, next season will not be any different. I also think we are going to have more matches on our schedule next year, so hopefully we’ll be able to get some big upsets next season.

10) Ok, prediction time. Our reigning champ is calling some surprises for the 2016 Final Four. But hey, he beat me, who am I to criticize? Let’s see Matt’s prediction… 

MIT, Chicago, Amherst, and us (NYU). If not us then WashU.

BONUS) Finally, looking at me and the blogging team, what praise, criticism, or advice do you have for the bloggers?

You guys keep getting better and better with your coverage. As D3 players, we all have that understanding (as much as we probably don’t want to admit it) that our competitive days as tennis players end with college, and we’ll never get that super intense coverage that pros are getting. But with you guys leading a great D3 tennis community, we all get to have that feeling that what we are doing is being noticed and that’s a cool feeling. And given that he’s in charge of our region, I have to give a shout out to D3 Regional, keep killing it with those Regional Roundups. Sorry for taking the crown away from you in the bracket challenge. As for advice, maybe include some more interviews throughout the season, with both players and coaches, or maybe just a quote or 2 to include in your recaps of matches. But overall, you guys do a great job. Keep it up!

Our thanks to Matt for being such a good sport with the interview. Check back this weekend for an interview with our NCAA Singles Bracket Challenge winner, Jonny Baker (Rochester), and possibly a surprise guest. Enjoy your Saturday