Who You Should Be Rooting For At Indoors

WHO YOU SHOULD BE ROOTING FOR AT INDOORS

Happy Wednesday, boys and girls. Enjoying #IndoorsWeek? We certainly are. This tournament is going to be fantastic. But what about the people who aren’t rabid fans of Wash U, Pomona-Pitzer, Emory, Chicago, Trinity Tx, Kenyon, CMU, or Case Western? I know how you feel. Sometimes I get a little sad that none of my NE teams are playing in Cleveland this weekend (SHOUTOUT TO BRANDEIS, SKIDMORE, STEVENS, VASSAR, AND ANY OTHER NE TEAMS WHO ARE ACTUALLY PLAYING IN OTHER PLACES THIS WEEKEND!!!). Even if you think you might not have a big rooting interest at Indoors, I’m going to let you in on a little secret, you are probably wrong. In order to clarify just how important this weekend is for non-participants, I’m going to go through each of the top-30 teams (using the Blog Power Rankings from November) and give a little blurb about who they should be rooting for and why. D3West has been kind enough to fill out his teams, but I’ll be trying my hand at the rest of the country. Any questions, feel free to comment, tweet, or email me at d3northeast@gmail.com. Don’t forget that our Daily Fantasy DIII (AKA DRAFTKINGS-Indoors Edition) is ongoing throughout the week and taking lineup submissions. We already have a good amount of submissions, but always are looking for more! Continue to check the site as we will have multiple articles going up each day throughout this crazy thing called #IndoorsWeek. Let’s get to it.

#2 CMS: Good tennis and fun for everybody. You’re going to end up playing 4 of the competing teams anyways (CMU, Trinity/Kenyon, Emory, Chicago), and you have a schedule filled with the top NESCAC competition. You’re not super worried about Pool C, and you’re basically guaranteed to have to go through a tough regional to make it to nationals. Enjoy the tennis.

#3 Middlebury: PP is the only team in the field that’s on Midd’s slate this spring, so a win over CMU in the 1st round would be an added bonus for Panthers. Pomona plays a ridiculous amount of both East Coast and Pool-C teams, so a Sagehen loss to CMU is certainly not the be-all end-all, especially for a team that’s the odds on favorite to earn the NESCAC’s Pool A bid.

#5 Amherst: Amherst didn’t play its usual fall dual matches against CMU and Hopkins, therefore like Midd, Herst’s only direct opponent in the field is Pomona-Pitzer, and the artists formerly known as the Lord Jeffs will be anxious to wipe away the bitter taste of the 6-3 beating PP dealt them last spring. Again even if PP finished 8th at Indoors, Amherst fans shouldn’t worry too much, they are probably the team most likely to earn a Pool-C bid (unless they beat out Midd for the NESCAC crown).

#7 Bowdoin: The Polar Bears are one of the only teams in the entire NE region that did not schedule PP this year. Bowdoin’s biggest out-of-conference matches come against Whitman and CMS, which means they really don’t have too big a stake in the tournament. However, if PP does well, and the other NE teams beat the Sagehens, then Bowdoin’s conference wins look all the more impressive. It’s a slight reach, but indirects do matter when all is said and done.

#10 Hopkins: Good. Enough of this NE team nonsense. Hopkins, a usual participant at this event, has CMU, Emory, and Case Western on it’s schedule this spring. Therefore, an ideal 1-2-3 finish would be just great for the Jays. Seeing as that’s quite unlikely, Hopkins fans should be rooting for CMU over PP, Case to finish higher than 8th, and an Emory run to the finals. All of these things are within the realm of possibility, and would make all three hypothetical matchups that much better for Hop.

#12 Williams: Another NESCAC team, another PP match. The Ephs and Sagehens do battle in late March, and just like Midd and Amherst, a solid PP showing would benefit those watching from snowy Williamstown. An Eph win over PP is likely necessary for Williams to have a good shot at a Pool-C bid, so every PP victory at Indoors makes that hypothetical win that much sweeter.

#15 Whitman: Trinity and PP. The only team in the tournament that you will play directly is Trinity, and what’s good for the west region is good for you when you fill the rest of your schedule with the likes of Redlands, Tyler, CMS, and Cal Lu. #WestCoastBestCoast

#16 Mary Washington: The Eagles have CMU and Emory late on their schedule, but in all honesty the most important thing for them this weekend is to take care of business vs. Stevens. D3AS will be providing a Mary Wash quad preview later in the week (hopefully by Friday but you never know with him). The Eagles will almost certainly lock up their conference and earn a Pool-A bid to NCAAs yet again.

#17 Wesleyan: In an odd twist, Wesleyan has more than just the standard Pomona-Pitzer spring break match. The Cards also have a date in Cali with Trinity Tx, which adds some intrigue for Coach Fried and his boys this weekend. A 1st round Trinity Tx win over Chicago, and a hypothetical Wes win over Trin (not drinking that much Kool-Aid yet, this whole article is merely dealing in hypotheticals) would likely give the Cards a handful of wins over UAA teams not actually on their schedule.

#18 Gustavus: Yikes, GAC plays more than ½ of the Indoors field at some point this spring! The Gusties have Pomona in Cali, Trinity Tx and Wash U in San Antonio, and Chicago at home. They also have a 2nd Round Stag Hen (1st round vs. PP) matchup with either Emory or Case Western. Honestly, with so many teams all you can hope for is a good showing by as many of the teams as possible. Basically, that means root against Kenyon and CMU!

#19 UCSC: Pomona-Pitzer. The Cruz schedule is extremely thin on DIII competition, and Cruz’ only chance to jump in the rankings will be their April 9th date with Pomona-Pitzer. The higher P-P is, the more value a hypothetical win could hold for them. If P-P folds, Cruz’ only hope at a top 20 ranking would be a miracle win against Chicago, which just doesn’t feel like a possibility this year.

#20 Redlands: Pomona-Pitzer, also. The Bulldogs don’t play any of the UAA stalwarts this year, so they’ll be relying on indirects if they want to leapfrog them in Pool C play. A P-P win over CMU would be very helpful. Wins over CMU and Emory/Wash U would be huge. Worst case scenario, a backdraw win over Case would be nice. Losses to both CMU and Case could spell disaster.

#21 Tufts: The Jumbo’s spring break schedule is a bit odd seeing as they travel to California, but only play one team from that state (Redlands). One of those California matches is against Chicago, so that who Tufts fans should be rooting for this weekend. A Jumbo sized upset of the Maroons seems unlikely, but a good Indoors showing from the Maroons means that a Tufts loss in their future matchup would not hurt them nearly as badly.

#22 Bates: Like most other NE teams, Bates is boring when it comes to Indoors. Pomona, Pomona, Pomona. Bates has actually beaten PP two of the past three years, but should go into that matchup as underdogs again. The Bobcats play some other out-of-conference matches against teams on this list, but for this weekend they are rooting for as high a PP finish as possible.  

#23 UT-Tyler: Doesn’t really matter. Tyler is a Pool A team. What’s good for the West region is generally good for them, but they’ll only have a small rooting interest in Trinity and Pomona-Pitzer, as they have plenty of chances to improve their ranking on their own schedule.

#24 Skidmore: Skidmore starts its spring season this weekend with a Liberty League conference matchup vs. Vassar, but it also has the usual NE tie into Indoors. Skidmore takes on Pomona on its annual Cali pilgrimage, so what’s good for the Sagehen is good for the Thoroughbred. That being said, Skidmore is a heavy favorite to repeat as Liberty League champs for like the 15th year in a row and earn a Pool-A bid to NCAAs.

#25 Stevens: Like Mary Wash, Stevens’ primary goal should be to take care of business this weekend. The Ducks have NCW and Mary Wash on Saturday, and a couple of wins would go MILES in terms of Stevens taking the next step…again. However, the Ducks also get Chicago and PP on their spring break trip. A first round win for both teams would do nicely for Stevens.

#26 NCW: NCW needs to rebound from their Christopher Newport loss, and this weekend’s matches against Mary Wash and Stevens are good opportunities to turn the season around. That being said, they should also care about Indoors bc the Battling Bishops have March matches with the two teams projected to finish at the bottom of Indoors: Kenyon and Case. A win for either team before the 7th place match would be good for NCW.

#27 UW-Whitewater: I almost feel bad talking about UWW as the 27th best team in the Power Rankings after a big win over Kenyon last weekend. They will move up next week when we do our 1st spring rankings. The Warhawks have already played Kenyon and Chicago, and also have Wash U on their schedule in the middle of April. UWW should root for all three teams, but ESPECIALLY Kenyon. Any Kenyon wins this weekend are indirect wins for UWW and could matter when it comes time for NCAA seeding.

#28 Swarthmore: Along with Bowdoin, Swat may be the only other team in the Blog’s Top-30 that doesn’t have any matches scheduled with Indoors participants. Their biggest non-conference matches comes against Stevens, Whitman, Bates, and Mary Wash. They also have Hopkins in what should be a matchup between the top two teams in the Centennial conference. The Garnet can just sit back and enjoy the tennis!

#29 Brandeis: The Judges kicked of their season with a 9-0 thumping of Chapman yesterday, and have Cal-Lu today. They also have Redlands on Friday and CMS over the weekend, which should be the biggest their bigger priorities. But if they find themselves back at their California home streaming some tennis, the Judges should probably root big for Case. No Indoors teams are technically on the Judges schedule, but Deis will likely play a couple of them at UAAs. If Brandeis finishes 6th, as usual, they will play the 3rd place team (Wash U? Emory? Chicago?) in the 1st round, and probably play in the 5th place match (vs the Case/Carnegie 1st round loser, most likely Case). So a good UAA showing all around will help the Judges most.

#30 Sewanee: Sewanee has Emory at Emory in early March and CMU scheduled on its spring break trip the following week. The Tigers’ spring break is early compared to most other schools, so they’ll have one of the first opportunities to knock off either the Eagles or the Tartans after Indoors. The Tigers should be rooting for an Emory vs CMU semifinal matchup, that way they’ll likely have two opportunities to take down a top-10 team in less than a week.