A Tribute to Michael “MVP” Buxbaum

As much of the DIII tennis world has heard by now, Hopkins senior captain and #1 singles and doubles player Michael Buxbaum suffered a potentially serious ankle injury yesterday while playing in the third set against CMU’s Daniel Levine. There have been reports that it’s possibly a dislocated ankle, which would take a recovery time of at least 6 weeks, basically bringing us to the end of the season. Being a senior, Mike’s career may likely be over. I don’t normally get all sappy with my writing, but the man I originally tagged as the “MVP” has continued to validate that nickname ever since freshman year. When I saw the injury and got reports from a few Hopkins players that he was being carted off in an ambulance, I will admit a part of me wanted to tear up. I can’t imagine what he’s going through right now to know that his storied career may come to a close. Not to make him or us any more emotional or anything, but the MVP deserves a write-up on his career and I’m here to give one.

@d3AtlanticSouth There can only be one MVP, and you know that's Mr. Buxbaum

— D3 Northeast (@D3Northeast) February 19, 2016

The Player – Who is the MVP?

Here at the Blog, we don’t really get into many player profiles. A lot of what we do is objective and we try and stay away from the “personal” side of things, but we get a decent idea of who the players and their personalities are from various stories that we hear around the circuit.  Apparently, “all it took was some candy to get Mike to come to Hopkins.” Clearly, the MVP had his priorities straight when picking schools. Buxbaum is known as a goof to his teammates, despite being their #1 singles player for basically his whole career.  One teammate describes him as down to earth, and “never treated anyone differently based on their status on the team.” That’s what you like from a #1 singles player. He’s been through good and bad times on the Hopkins team – when the Jays lost to CNU last year after he lost his doubles match and cramped in singles, he gave a heartfelt speech about how this was not a year to give up on. As you’ll see below, the Jays went on to the Elite 8 eventually. Throughout his career, Buxbaum was DIII’s token “frat bro” player.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been warned that Bux had too much of a beer belly this year to take him seriously. Every year, he proved those people wrong. At the end of the day, Buxbaum does what he does and he does it well. Apparently, as seen by the picture below, he’s a bit scared of kayaking though.

Rise of the “MVP” – 2013/2014 Season

It all started freshman year in the 2014 season when the moniker “MVP” was born for young Mike. One of the easily recognizable things about the MVP was that he seemed to do really damn well at ITAs. You’ll see, but Buxbaum came into Hopkins as a heralded recruit ranked at about 100 in the nation, one of the best recruits Hopkins has had to date. He made a run at the ASouth ITA before losing to CMUs William Duncan in the round of 16. Doubles, however, is where he began his storied career. He teamed with his fellow freshman Emerson Walsh to create the notorious “Peaches N Cream” combo, where they took the ITA by storm and won it all. They ended up placing 5th at Small College Nationals, no easy feat especially for a freshman team.

Throughout the year, Buxbaum ascended to #1 singles for Hopkins. Along the way he took out some of the games best players as a freshman. That list includes Abhishek Alla, Andrew Yaraghi, CJ Kimbill, Timmy Berg, Ross Putterman, and Tyler Carey. Those are some of the best in the business. In doubles, him and Walsh played at a stellar level, continuing their success and competing against the best in the nation. Addtionally, Buxbaum was a key player in Hopkins first and only run to the Indoors Finals, staging an upset of Emory in the first round. If there ever was a turning point in the Hopkins program, this was probably it.  Previously considered to be a “playoff choke team,” the coming of Buxbaum changed that perception.  This was the year where Hopkins lost to CMS in the elite 8, giving them their toughest challenge. Buxbaum lost to Warren Wood 3 and 4, and ended his team season. Individuals became something to forget as the MVP lost in three in both singles and doubles, but this was one hell of a year for the MVP.

Continuing the Legacy – 2014/2015 Season

Already a household name by this point, Mike Buxbaum came into the 2014/2015 year with really high expectations. Well, the MVP started off the year squashing any talk of a sophomore slump by taking the ITA title in both Singles and Doubles, again partnering with Emerson Walsh to form the dangerous Peaches N Cream duo. In the ITA singles final, he took out Abhishek Alla in an epic three setter that I remember was one of the best baseline performances I’ve ever seen. Buxbaum placed 5th at Small College Nationals, losing to Matt Heinrich in the semifinals.  2014 was no different than previous years – throughout the year, the MVP defeated a sh*t ton of good players, including Michael Solimano (Amherst), Adam Krull (Trinity), John Carswell (Wash U), and Pierre Planche (Bates).  No win was sweeter than his NCAA win in the Sweet 16 against Kenyon, in Gambier.  I remember covering this match and I remember some of the Kenyon players going into the match claiming that the Lords hostile crowd would throw the Jays off their game. After all, the last time the Jays went to Ohio, they were clearly rattled.  The story that day was different.  In a back and forth match, Buxbaum was the clinching victory over blog favorite Wade Heerboth – sending the Jays into the Elite 8 for the second straight year.  

Buxbaum for MVP

— d3AtlanticSouth (@d3AtlanticSouth) February 21, 2015

The MVP went on to lose in the Elite 8, but he capped off his year with a run to the semifinals of the individual tournament, beating Daniel Budd (UTT), Matt Heinrich (Stevens), and Jake Humphreys (UWW) before losing to Warren Wood (CMS) for the second time that year. I would like to note, however, that Buxbaum was the only player to beat Wood that year, albeit indoors, when CMS traveled to take on Hopkins in Baltimore.  Anyways, make that two Elite 8s for the MVP in two years.

The Past 1.5 Years

Last year was a bit of a challenge for the MVP, but we all know it started the same way that they all do. With the Peaches N Cream team winning an ITA doubles championship.  Buxbaum also made the singles final in this one, losing to his rival Abhishek Alla in straight sets, but this marked the third consecutive ITA win for him and Emerson Walsh. His year started poorly, losing to Fallati (Swarthmore) and Reed (CNU) before giving that speech to his team that he’d improve from there on out.  That he did.  Buxbaum went on to notch wins against Alla (CMU) and Griffin (UMW) twice that year.  His season culminated in the Sweet 16 once again, where the “Tank and Tree” Hopkins team that had previously lost to CNU in March came to Pittsburgh to take on the 5th seeded Tartans in the NCAA Tournament. Once again, Buxbaum was the MVP – winning at #1 doubles over Levine/Arora and then, clinching another Elite 8 with a tiebreaker second set win over Abhishek Alla. In the Elite 8, Buxbaum ended his dual match year with a straight set win over Luke Tercek.  Unfortunately, Hopkins lost that match tot he eventual champions by literally 2 points in a tiebreak, and Buxbaum’s season ended.  However, don’t underestimate that the MVP got this team back to his third Elite 8 in three years of playing. Wow.

This year, we obviously don’t have much to say. What we do get to say is that Buxbaum clinched something that I believe no other player has done (other than Emerson Walsh) in the past 10 years. He won his 4TH Fall ITA Regional tournament in doubles, as the Peaches N Cream combo continued their run of consecutive championships. Let’s go below for a career recap.

Career Recap

• 17-3 in his singles career at the ITA Atlantic South Regional Tournament, Champion in 2014/2015
• 20-0 in his doubles career at the ITA Atlantic South Regional Tournament, 4-time champion with Emerson Walsh
• 1 Semifinal Appearance in the ITA Small College National Tournament
• 1 Semifinal Appearance in the NCAA Individual Tournament
• 3 Team Elite 8 finishes in 3 years
• 2 clinching matches in the Sweet 16 to send Hopkins to the Elite 8
• 1 Indoor Nationals Team Final
• 2-time qualifier for the NCAA Singles Individual Tournament
• 2-time qualifier for the NCAA Doubles Individual Tournament
• 4-time NCAA Doubles All American
• 1-time NCAA Singles All American
• 1 of only 3 players in the past 10 years to win all 4 ITA Regionals participated in singles or doubles (John Watts, Wash U and Emerson Walsh, Hopkins are the others)
• Over 30+ Kegs tapped

FIN

And there is my tribute to one of the best ASouth players in recent history, and one of the best that I’ve covered for all 4 years of his career. While I hope that your season isn’t over (Adrian Peterson returned from an ACL injury in the same year, who knows), if it is, I hope you save this article as a nice little recap of your storied career.  Shoutout to Michael “MVP” Buxbaum, for perhaps the final time.  ASouth, OUT.

MVP BUXBAUM

— d3AtlanticSouth (@d3AtlanticSouth) May 14, 2016