The 2016 Fantasy Draft – Rounds 4-6

Well, we are back! As some of you guys have been getting antsy (obviously), we got this article out as soon as we could. As the draft went on, it was clear to see that the players were going to be tougher to pick.  It’s way easier to pick automatic wins than guys you might have to judge on boom or bust potential. A lot of these picks were rounding out the rest of our lineup, which means we were going to have to make some tough decisions. Below, you’ll find rounds 4-6 in the draft, which will complete our starting lineups (except one person, spoiler). Let’s get straight to it.

Round 4

31) D3Regional – Lester Yeh (CMS #5)

I wanted to go back to depth at this point in the draft, and I’ve been a fan of Lester for a long time, even though he hasn’t been a consistent starter for three years in the Stags in lineup.  Whenever Yeh has gotten the chance to play, he has absolutely excelled.  He dominated his first four matches in the West ITA this year, not losing a set and taking out Jonathan Kim from Pomona in the quarters.  He ultimately lost in two tight sets to his teammate Skyler Butts in the semis, ultimately placing him as one of the four best players in the region.  Because of that, him at #5 should be a nice lock most of the time.  I’m really happy to grab him in round 4, and I’m really excited to follow him this year as he should get his first chance to consistently start.

32) D3West – Arthur Fagundes (UT-Tyler #1)

This is probably my only bad pick in the draft, not because I wouldn’t want Fagundes at #1 on my team, but because he probably would’ve been available in the 11th round. No matter. Fagundes opened his college career by being the only player to take a set of Deuel in the SW regional. He also has some great results against DI, DII, and JuCo in the other fall tournaments. Looking at the way freshmen historically perform in their first tournaments (outside of Chua), I think Fagundes has the potential to make a big leap forward in the Spring and have a Ybarra-esque season moving forward. I’m more than happy to slate him at or near my top spot, but I wish I had taken him a little bit later.

33) The Guru – Josh Goodman (Emory #5)

After my first three rounds, I was left having to pick my 4-6 positions. Personally, I’m a fan of historical results rather than potential, so to me this was a decision between Goodman and Aaron Revzin as they were the best two players left at the positions I needed. While Frons was also available, he didn’t play in the fall and there were some questions related to his whereabouts. Anyway, Josh Goodman had a great freshman campaign for Emory playing at this exact spot, and history tells me that Emory players usually get better through their time as an Eagle. Goodman had very few losses last spring and notched wins against Chas Mayer, Kevin Chu and Luke Tsai, who went 18th overall at #5 singles. I don’t expect Goodman to be a starter in my doubles lineup, but I do expect him to be a rock at the bottom of my lineup and give me a chance at #5 singles against any other team. Emory has a lot of question marks headed into this year and may have some guys playing a spot above their comfort level, so I’m sure Goodman will be relied upon heavily to generate wins.

34) Dante Quazzo – Julian Gordy (CMS #6)

I’m pumped that Gordy was still on the board at the top of the 4th round. The fact that the CMS #6 spot was the 4th #6 taken–behind Tyer, Roddy, and Levitin–is astonishing to me. Given their depth, CMS routinely puts out arguably the best #6 player in the nation. Last year it was Hull/Macey, the year before Pereverzin. Every year a new Stag slots in at the bottom of the lineup and just massacres his opposition throughout the season, and Gordy’s got the chops to do that this year. The 4-star recruit out of Tarzana tore through the West region ITA, eventually falling in the quarters to teammate and runner-up Glenn Hull in 3 sets. It’s plausible that Settles decides he should play higher than #6, but the Stags have so much depth that whoever plays at #6 ends up with a ridiculous singles record. That’s what I’m banking on with this spot. I now have a squad of Chua-Zykov-?-?-Zheng-Gordy, and feel really good about the bookends of my lineup. Almost more importantly, I nabbed representatives from each region in my first four picks so you guys can’t call out my west region bias.

35) D3Central – Andrew Yaraghi (Amherst #1)

The top #1s were flying off the board way too early in my opinion, but I still wanted to get someone who is the the upper echelon of players. That left me with a decision between Yaraghi and Alla. I think Yaraghi was the better choice based off consistency as well as a doubles force. I just absolutely could not get my mind around picking Alla who doesn’t even play doubles (might this year) and can play some of the most boring tennis of all time. I watched his entire match against Heerboth last year and wanted to shoot myself. Of course then you also get the Alla that showed up at Nationals who just smacks balls from the baseline for winners. He almost took out Wood and had him searching for a way to beat him. Overall Yaraghi’s doubles and consistency is what made me pick him above Alla.

36) D3NE – Ben Battle (Tufts #4)

What can I say? I just know how to get phenomenal value. Battle played anywhere between #1 and #4 in the Jumbo’s 2014-2015 regular season, and he appears to have come out strong this fall as well. Ben “Jello Shot” Battle has fall wins over Scott (Bates projected #2) and Leung (Skidmore projected #1 and the ITA No. 5 player in the country). Granted, he moved into the A-Flight at the Bates Tournament bc of Telkedzhiev’s absence, but he made a strong case to play as high as #2 or #3 for the Jumbos come springtime. Battle has made significant strides each year so far, and a couple of Tufts insiders think he has the potential to be the best player on the team. Right now, this is a pick that some people might call a reach, but I’m confident that my faith will be justly rewarded.

37) D3TennisGreek – Daniel Levine (CMU #2)

At first, I thought I made a huge mistake because Budd and Tercek were still on the board. But, after doing a lot of research on Levine, I’m really, really pumped about him. Picking a freshman is always a risk because success in juniors doesn’t necessarily translate to wins at the collegiate level. But I’m willing to take that risk on this versatile, young Tartan. In my opinion, he’s already lived up to early expectations as a four-star recruit, reaching the singles semis of ITA Regionals before falling to his teammate and one of the best players in the country, Abhishek Alla. Just as, if not more, impressively, Levine made the doubles final before falling to the 2014 national qualifying team of Michael Buxbaum and Emerson Walsh (they’re going on three years as a doubles team, so they’re really experienced). Since my team thus far has been lacking depth in doubles, Levine was a smart choice. The nail in the coffin for me, though, was his success this past summer. In a tournament this past June, he rattled Alex Ross (Vanderbilt freshman, 5-star recruit in top 50) 6-2, 6-3 and took out Ben Vandixhorn (Northwestern 5-star freshman). He followed these Ws by cruising through Northwestern 5-star commit Christopher Ephron at the National Clay Court Championships. If that doesn’t get you excited, maybe the support given to Levine by seven-time grand slam champion Mats Wilander will. Levine is one to watch out for.

38) D3AS – Abhishek Alla (CMU #1)

When I made this pick, everyone in the draft room just said “ASouth got his player.” I’ve always taken a liking to the one they call “Shek,” mostly because I love the #1s in my region.  He’s really had a stellar and potentially underappreciated career, as he’s manned the #1 position the past three years with really good success.  He is the only player that challenged Warren Wood in last year’s NCAA tournament and was two games away from winning that match.  Shek truly has the potential to beat anyone on any given day and that’s what I want from a #1 player.  I don’t believe that anyone at the #1 spot is an automatic win, because everyone is just so damn good.  (Cue Coach Tee tweeting that everyone is good at nationals).  What I want is a high potential player who consistently beats lower talents but also has the ability to raise his game to beat the upper echelon talents.  That’s what Shek is, and why I picked him.  My worry about this pick is lack of playoff experience as well as lack of any doubles prowess whatsoever, especially with other #1s still on the board (Leung of Skidmore, for example), but I was able to pick up another #1 in the backup draft as well as some doubles specialists so that makes this pick one that I won’t regret.

39) D3TennisBro – Peter Leung (Chicago #3)

It’s no secret that I’m high on Chicago, and Peter “Big Tex” Leung has been a pretty heavy factor in that. The premier guys at the #3 spot are flush with talent, but I think Leung (who sports a 12.42 UTR) is simply a cut above. The Houston product had big expectations as a Freshman after heading to the Chi as the #77 recruit in the nation, and Pistol Pete did not disappoint to say the least. He’s another guy that consistently plays big in big matches, picking up victories over Case, Depauw, P-P, Gustavus, CMU, WashU, and Emory (1 and 0 over Wagner, yikes) on the way to 23-7 singles record. What really impressed me, though, was his ability to bounce back after a tough defeat to Frons of Midd in NCAA’s to take out WashU’s Kratky (0 and 4). He’s a guy that brings the energy every time he steps on the court, and someone I had really hoped to be able to grab before the draft began so I was hyped to have the opportunity to snag him in the 4th. Though he hasn’t shined in doubles to this point, the kid has a monster serve, so I think he has the potential to develop into a really solid dubs option. I really expect him to assert himself as a premier #3 in the country this year and play a pivotal role for a ‘Roon team we all have high hopes for – plus, he’s in the Touchdown Club… I don’t even know what that is but I love it. #SouthSide

40) D3ASW – Kiril Kirkov (CMU #3)

This is a pick that I feel like could absolutely make my team if Kiril plays like we know he can (or if he lets his brother play some of his matches).  his freshman year Kiril went 22-6 mostly at the number 4 spot and Carnegie didn’t play an easy schedule either.  He had wins over Wolstenscroft, Noack, Wagner, and Bush. And two tight three set losses to Dubin and Solimano.  The dude ended the year on a 9 match win streak. That’s the Kiril Kirkov I drafted!  In his sophomore year Kiril still had flashes, like a three set victory over Johnny Wu, but I believe he was injured for most of the season.  Kirkov hasn’t done anything too impressive yet this season because he unfortunately ran into Buxbaum early in his regional, but in Carnegie’s fall dual match he was slotted at court 3 which, to me, is encouraging.  It means he’s shown he’s back in good enough shape to play that high.  When Kiril is playing well he’s one of the toughest players to beat in D3.

Round 5

41) D3ASW – Jeremy Bush (Wash U #1)

I’m really surprised Bush was still left on the board at this point.  I know I know, I already have the best #1 in the country.  ASW why would I take another 1 so early? A lot of people probably think that Bush isn’t good enough to compete at 1 and they’re wrong.  Let’s take a look at some results from last year.  Bush started at 4 because  of some early season injuries, but then moved up to 3.  And I think we know he was at least the second best player on WashU’s team.  Bush had two wins over Sabada, who we know can play 1 and was up a set on Nik Marino at NCAAs before the match was decided.  He also had two #D3Classic, #QualityLoss matches against Rafe Mosetick at indoors and NCAAs.  Those may have been some of the highest level matches ever played at court 3.  Let’s not forget that Bush has consistently been a stud on the doubles court making the quarters and semis of NCAAs.  I feel like JayTee with talent like this on my bench.  

42) D3TennisBro – Taylor Hunt (Redlands #5)

To some this may seem like a bit of a controversial pick, but it’s one I vehemently stand by. Yes, he missed the entirety of the 2014 Spring season due to injury. Yes, last year’s performance was solid – but nothing groundbreaking, right? What is it that makes him 5th round worthy, you ask? To put it simply, Taylor Hunt is warrior. For some reason, everyone seems to forget that T-Hizzle was one of the nation’s most reliable #4s in 2013. Remember that late-season 12-match tear that included Ws against then #1 Williams, top-10 Cal-Lu and Midd, and #11 Bowdoin? Ya, didn’t think so. When he’s on, he’s on, and word on the street is the Seattle native has rededicated himself to the tennis-craft. And I get him at the #5 slot? Sign me up. I expect the experience and maturity of a 5th-year Grad Student (who not coincidentally was a Dean’s List regular during his undergrad days) to be indispensable to the Redlands squad, and with all this new-found spare time for tennis I’m sure the additions to the broken racket collection in the garage will finally begin to taper down. So as long as Taylor “The Enigma” Hunt is eating mountains of pizza and over-using ketchup (seriously, he puts ketchup on everything), I foresee great things in the SoCal sunshine from the Northwest product with a get-buckets mentality. #RollDAWGS

43) D3AS – Luke Tercek (Bowdoin #2)

I think this pick was actually my best pick of the draft.  Tercek plays #1 doubles and #2 singles for Bowdoin (projected) and is just coming off an amazing ITA where he ended up losing in the finals. Tercek has the talent of a #1 and I think he’s made a big jump this year, but Trinka holds down the top spot for Bowdoin, which allows me to go with a big value play for Tercek.  I was debating here between Budd of UT-Tyler and Luke and I simply think that Tercek has the greater upside.  We kind of know what Budd brings to the table (and it’s really good, don’t get me wrong), but I’ve always loved potential and we saw some of it at this year’s ITA.  I don’t see a #2 in the country that can truly say he can beat Luke more times than not.  Tercek took out 2nd round pick Ari Smolyar in the ITA in straights, as well as 1st round pick Palmer Campbell (#3 singles), so the fact that he dropped down to pick #43 is pretty crazy to me.  The potential is there along with the known doubles prowess.  Easy pick for me and I am really feeling awesome about my team up until this point.

44) D3TennisGreek – Aman Manji (Emory #3)

Question: D3TennisGreek, why are you only picking guys from Middlebury and the top UAA teams? Short Answer: They’re good. So…Making the leap from #6 to a projected #3 is pretty large, but Manji has already proven that he will be more than capable of handling his own at #3.  In the prestigious and recent Emory Turkey Bowl, featuring several players with ATP points, Manji had the best result out of any Emory player (including Mosetick and Jemison), barely falling 7-6 in the third set of the semis. Along the way, he defeated second-seeded Daniel Plasa, who was once ranked as high as 1300 in the world. He was a little unlucky at ITAs, drawing a very strong Mosetick in the quarters, but still took his teammate to three sets. These early results tell me that Manji could have some success at #1 if given the opportunity (which he won’t), let alone #3. Plus, let’s not forget last year. The 1st Team All-UAA selection at #6 posted a 9-3 record at the spot and had a key win against my first pick David Liu in the UAA semis. Much like his singles leap, Manji is ready to be a force in doubles. He and Alec Josepher beat NCAA doubles FINALIST Sebastian Sikh (and new partner, Greek freak Ioannis Brokakis) at ITAs. Personally, I really admire guys that aren’t the top recruits going into college and then work their butts off. That’s just what Manji is doing, and he’s ready for a breakout season.

45) D3NE – Daniel Budd (UT-Tyler #2)

A former #1 player who made NCAAs last year and is now playing #2? Sign me up. After a shaky start to his 2014 season, Budd went on a roll winning 14 of his next 15 matches. His season included wins over Skinner (Trinity Tx) and Humphreys (UW-Whitewater and fellow member of D3NorthBeast, my Fantasy team). Budd is a senior this year, and we all know how crucial that experience can be. While making the semis of the Texas ITA isn’t as impressive as some of the other tournaments around the country, the semifinals combined with a close loss to Krull are enough for me. Granted, Budd probably won’t help out my doubles roster very much, but he’s a guy who will fight tooth and nail to get my boys a win at #2. Plus, don’t even get me started on how much another year with Coach Bizot can do. I’m pumped to have Budd on my squad.

46) D3Central – Aaron Revzin (Amherst #5)

Throughout the early few rounds of the draft I made fun of guys who picked players from the same team because what fun is that? The whole point is to make an All Star team from players of all regions. Then by the 5th round I sit here and pick my third Amherst player in a row completely negating my strategy. I guess that was me wanting to win! Revzin is a proven winner and if he is playing #5 will be one of the top #5’s in the country. Many of the other #5’s were already off the board and I even think Revzin fell a bit further than he should of so it was a no brainer for me. With the depth of players at the back half of the lineup getting thinner and thinner each round, I had to jump at the opportunity to pick a player from a top school that was still on the board. I guess that means I have to be a Jeffs fan this season!

47) Dante Quazzo – Kyle Wolfe (Bowdoin #3)

At this point, I knew I had to fill out the middle of my lineup. By the 5th round, almost all of the top 3s were taken and Leung/Kirkov/Manji had just flown off the board, so I was searching for someone who’d be able to hold their own in the middle of my lineup. The sophomore Polar Bear from Connecticut had a pretty solid freshman year, winning the Wallach Invitational and being very dependable on Bowdoin’s spring break trip. You knew what you were getting with Wolfe as a freshman–someone who picks up every W against inferior players, but couldn’t really challenge the upper echelon. I think that starts to change in year 2. He picked up a big win against Schodlovsky towards the end of last year and also finished on a 7-game doubles win streak, so I’m excited to slot him into that #3 doubles spot. Lots of upside here.

48) The Guru – Antony Bello (Pomona #6)

There were several strong #4 players left on the board, so I knew this pick had to be a #6 for me, arguably the spot with the least depth. Before we get into pick specifics, I’d like to bring up that AT #48, BELLO WAS THE FIRST PLAYER FROM POMONA-PITZER THAT WAS TAKEN IN THE DRAFT. He was also the only player from PP taken in the first 6 rounds. If you want to talk about a bunch of non-believers, that goes to show you that everyone thinks Pomona finishing last season #4 in the country was a total fluke. Personally, I find this a little shocking, but I think most people are projecting the Hens to move back to low single digits or high double digits in the rankings this year. The Hens didn’t have any unbelieveable individual performers last year, so that’s a big reason they got no love in this draft. Bello was a key member of the revolving door last year, getting good, but not consistent time at the #4-#6 spots. One result stuck out in my mind, and that was Bello taking a set from Joe Dorn last year. My top 5 is Trinity-Midd-Midd-Emory-Emory, which I feel great about, and with this pick I get a high risk high reward singles player that’s also very strong in doubles and will possibly play in the #2 spot for me. Bello was half of arguably the strongest #3 doubles team in the country, so I feel great about his upside in singles, but even better about his ability in doubles.

49) D3West – Sachin Raghavan (Williams #4)

This was another pick that I didn’t exactly make for myself, but that I was more than happy to get. In the 5th round, solid #4 singles players were already few and far between, and The Headmaster got me one of the stronger #4’s in the country. Raghavan finished last season by beating Rodrigez (Amherst) and De Quant (Midd) back-to-back, and picked up where he left off this fall by beating Michael Liu from Wesleyan in the regional ITA. He also had some solid results in both singles and doubles at the Big Green Invitation, including a nice doubles win over a team from Yale and an excruciating loss to the Cypriot Photos Photiades. He’s another guy that I wouldn’t be surprised to see play higher in the lineup, but he’s an excellent player to have deep in my singles lineup, and his doubles skill will add diversity to my time. Thanks for picking Raghavan for me, guys! I couldn’t have done better myself.

50) D3Regional – David Perez (Hopkins #3)

I got a little bit frazzled with these two picks, as I now had to grab both a #3 and a #6 in a row, two tough spots to develop.  #3 in particular was a spot that I agonized over, because there are several schools out there with a terrific #1-3.  I decided to go with the sophomore Perez at the #3 spot for one reason:  There were basically no great #3’s left at this point in the draft.  Perez is a good player for sure, but he’s definitely an unknown after not playing much his freshman year.  He had a good but not great ITA, winning his first two matches but falling in the round of 16 to Brandon Griffin from Mary Wash in three sets.  Perez can be anywhere from a great #3 to an average #3, so it will be very interesting to follow his development over the course of the Spring.  Hopkins plays a good out of conference schedule, so he’ll get plenty of chances!

Round 6

51) D3Regional – Cam Daniels (Wesleyan #6)

I was stressing out so much over my #3 pick that my #6 pick was a bit of an afterthought, and I kind of wish that I picked up Kyle Schlanger from Midd.  Also, Wes is such a deep team that they really rotate around their #4-6 a lot of the time to mix and match to the weaknesses of their opponents.  However, despite my concerns, Daniels is a great little grinder, and a really solid #6 player.  He’s a short guy, but his heart really is second to none, so he’s an awesome team chemistry guy too.  He dominated Antonio Perich from Stevens at #6 in his only match this fall, so he’s playing well and was given the first start of the year at #6, definitely a good sign.  Daniels, like Perez, is a wild card, but as he gets older and more experienced, I think he’ll get better and better.

52) D3West – Sven Kranz (Chicago #2)

Kranz has gotten a lot of crap over the last couple years for not winning a whole lot of matches. I would have to say that some of that criticism is justified because, well, compared to his teammates, he doesn’t have the most impressive record. This, of course, is why he was the last Maroon on the board, but I am only too happy to nab him for my #2 spot. He might end up playing lower than #2 for the Maroons this year based on the Fall performances by some of the freshmen, but even so, he would be one of the better #2’s in the country. The dude had a lot of close losses last season, but he seemed to be getting over the hump at nationals when he beat Al Houni and was in the midst of a 3-set battle with Putterman before the match was called. His experience playing at the top of the singles lineup for the past two years will be invaluable to my team, even if he does drop down a little bit. He’s definitely a guy I want on the practice court and in the gym with my guys. Regarding doubles, he might not crack my doubles lineup, but it’s only because I have an embarrassment of riches on that front.

53) The Guru – Andrew Harrington (Emory #4)

Have I mentioned yet that this pick allows me to go Trinity-Midd-Midd-Emory-Emory for my top 5? Emory freshmen are usually a mixed bag, but Harrington is a highly-rated 4-star recruit that had a win against Avery Schober in Fall ITA before pushing Sikh to 3 sets on little rest. With Manji moving up several spots and a freshman at #2, Harrington, similar to Goodman, will be looked to to generate a lot of wins for Emory in singles. I don’t expect him to start in my doubles lineup, so any strength he shows there is just upside. I was between Harrington and Bessette for this pick, and I went with Emory because I expect them to be better than people think this year. I expect Harrington to fit in well with this year’s Eagles squad and hopefully complement the top 3 players on my team well by getting wins and taking the pressure off the top of the lineup.

54) Dante Quazzo – Zach Bessette (Amherst #4)

At this point I’ve started to notice a trend in my draft choices. I picked players from Chicago, Amherst, CMU, and CMS–all teams with tons of depth and a penchant for turning out dependable players, especially towards the bottom of the lineup. So why not double down on one of them to fill out the #4 spot in my lineup? 4s were looking pretty thin at this point, but I’m very happy with the way things turned out because Bessette looks like he’ll be the next Herst stud. The highly rated 4-star coming out of Florida will probably struggle against the top competition as he adjusts to the college game, but great signs came out of the NE ITAs when he partnered with Benjamin Fife to make it all the way to the doubles finals. My lineup looks like Chua, Zykov, Wolfe, Bessette, Zheng, Gordy in singles, and I’m thinking Chua/Zykov, Bessette/?, and Gordy/Wolfe for doubles. Looking at my team 1-6 the only regret I have is that there are NO seniors on my roster–and Zykov and Zheng are the only juniors. I’m sure I’ll get grief from ASouth on that come playoff time.

55) D3Central – Jake Roberts (Wesleyan #3)

Ah my last pick of my “starting” lineup where I needed to fill in a number 3 singles player. This happened to be a decision between Roberts and Daniel Morkovine from CMS as they were really only the two best #3s left to draft. In the next round you will see that I was fortunate enough to get Morkovine as well so I have two great options between the both of them which was nice. I chose Roberts over Mork this round because I have seen Mork struggle for CMS a bit. Typically he would lose a first set quickly, but then wake up and win in three sets, but that was at #5 singles. At #5 for CMS, Mork was one of the best in the country so the move up to the #3 spot has some questions for me. As for Roberts, I think he is just a solid lineup guy who has the talent to beat anyone and will be more consistent.

56) D3NE – Brian Grodecki (Williams #5)

This was as close to a toss up decision as I had for the entire draft. I had all my other singles spots filled, with both Grodecki and Frons (Midd) still on the board. I think that in general, 5 is a spot without a clear cut tier of top players. This may be my regional bias showing through, but after Tsai (Chicago) I’m not sure there is THAT much difference between any of the #5’s (and yes, that includes Haugen (WashU) and Zheng (CMU)). As a freshman, Brian went 14-4 playing #4 and #5 for the Ephs with clutch wins over Revzin (Amherst), Tercek (Bowdoin), and Traff (Trinity Ct). In his second fall, Grodecki built off a strong first year with an impressive ITA showing. In the first round he rolled MIT’s prized blue chip Sean Ko, 1&2, and then was leading Ryan Bunis before the match was called. He fell in the 3rd round of the tournament to the apparently unbeatable Noah Farrell (Midd). However, Frons’ singles record is impressive as well. The main reason I chose Brian over Jackson was his doubles. At this point in the draft, I wasn’t sure if it was going to matter (as in, I wasn’t sure who would still be on the board for doubles help in the second section of the draft), but I thought that any little edge could help. Grodecki and fellow Eph sophomore Sachin Raghavan will be firmly ensconced somewhere in the Eph’s doubles lineup come springtime. All in all, not the sexiest pick of the draft, but I’m very happy with it.

57) D3TennisGreek – Jackson Frons (Middlebury #5)

This may have been my worst pick of the draft, not because Frons is a bad player, but because he might not even be on the team. He didn’t play in any matches this fall, and he is not even listed on Middlebury’s roster. The reason I picked the senior is because he was the strongest #5 left on the board, and I was going off of the assumption that he would be playing. Anyway, for our purposes, let’s assume Frons is still on the team. The Middlebury veteran mainly played #4 last year and was quite successful (11-6), so if he were to play #5, I think he’d be virtually unstoppable. He posted big wins against Peter Leung and Andrew Yaraghi. He also cruised to a 6-1, 6-4 win against the previous pick in the draft, Brian Grodecki. He has rarely cracked the doubles lineup, but I’m pretty happy with where my doubles stands up to this point. Ultimately, I can only hope that Frons will make a return. If he doesn’t, I will lose most of my matches at 5.

58) D3AS – Jay Glickman (Tufts #6)

I will admit that I was stuck in a bit of a pickle for my #6 position.  Since we could only do write-ins as our backup #6 pick, I was stuck choosing between some #6s that are solid, but don’t really do anything to wow you.  This was disappointing considering there are only 10 people in the draft, and we should be able to get 10 quality #6 players along the way.  What I decided to do here is go with potential (again) and go with Glickman of Tufts.  Everyone knows this guy has the game, he’s just been the definition of a roller coaster in his time at Tufts.  One thing he has going for him is that he is a senior and will actually be one of the couple seniors on my team (Solimano, Alla).  As you can see from the next couple of picks, I could have went with some potentially safer picks like Sadowsky of Williams, but decided to go with Glickman.  In retrospect, Schlanger of Middlebury should have been the pick here but I was too panicked to make my pick that I got a high risk, high reward guy.

59) D3TennisBro – Jordan Sadowsky (Williams #6)

This was another pick I kind of struggled with. Going into the draft I saw Sadowsky as potential high-upside guy, so as a I sat there watching a lot of the #6s I had targeted fly off the board, I decided to pull the trigger on the SoCal product. Sadowsky currently has a respectable 10.96 UTR, and I think his singles game has a lot of potential. Just look at his Big Green Invitational this Fall, which consisted of an impressive win over Dartmouth’s Joey Haig (4 star, 91 National) before falling in 3 to Aaron Revzin (Amherst projected 5). However it’s not his singles potential, but his doubles prowess that makes him such a valuable asset. Last year as a First Year (not “Freshman,” so Williams) Sadowsky made up half of the hardest-surname-to-pronounce team with Alexander Schidlovsky at the top spot for the Ephs. With victories over Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Trinitiy, Gustavus, and P-P, the former Bishop’s standout (man, La Jolla is the best) proved he has the potential to be one of the better doubles players in the nation, and I expect him to build on what was an impressive first year of doubles throughout the rest of 2015. What has to make this pick scary for the rest of the writers though, is that my guy Jordan “I’m From RSF” Sadowsky will be making up a part of my #3 doubles team – have fun dealing with that **Señor Chang laugh**

60) D3ASW – Edward Ang (CMU #6)

So I’m taking a little bit of a risk here with Ang.  And by little I mean big.  Ang’s results have been less than stellar in his short career, but I really believe he has the talent to be a solid 6.  Ang was a top 100 recruit.  You don’t get that kind of ranking on accident.  He ran into Stratton Gilmore early in regionals so it’s hard to tell if Ang is playing better than last year, but if he lives up to his potential he could be one of the top 6 players in the country.  I’m fine with taking a risk here anyway.  My other #6 is gonna crush it (as long as he plays).  

And that is that.  Many starting lineups are filled, other than ASW’s who is executing a very strange draft strategy. There were a ton of interesting picks in these rounds so please feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments. However, if you plan on asking us where the next article is, you can bug off.  ASouth, OUT.