2018 Season Preview: The Southern Athletic Association

Now that we have established yet again that the SEC is the best conference in college football, we can finally shift our focus to the only conference in the south that really matters, the SAA. After some thoughtful consideration, I decided to take a page out of my dear colleague Reg NEC’s book and do a whole conference preview since I predominantly cover 3 teams from the SAA. I have mainly covered Sewanee, Rhodes and Millsaps as a blogger, but I’m really looking forward to diving deeper into this conference and discussing some teams that I don’t know a ton about. With that being said, let’s get right to it! *Edit – Odds have been adjusted from the original post due to real ASouth’s predictions in the Blogger group chat*

Location: The Southeast (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee)

2017 Order of Finish: Sewanee, Millsaps, Rhodes, Birmingham-Southern, Oglethorpe, Berry, Centre, Hendrix

2018 Team to Beat: Sewanee

#22 Sewanee Tigers (Odds to win: 83%)

Overview: First I want to give a shout out to Felix Mann and congratulate him on his SAA Assistant COTY award. He’s the man. Anyways, the Tigers who’s purple Kool-Aid I sipped all of last season, and once again I think this could be another special season for Sewanee. The departure of Schober will obviously hurt, but I think this young Tigers team has reloaded and might be even deeper than they were last year. While Sewanee might not have a true clear-cut first singles, the depth of the team is what really gets me excited. If the UTR projections are correct, they will have six players with a UTR of 11.23 or higher, Jack Gray (11.88), Andres Carro (11.47), Jordan Brewer (11.47), Alejandro Becker (Proj. 11.30), Jack Metzger (Proj. 11.30) and Ryan Olps (Proj. 11.23). That’s a pretty solid lineup if you ask me. On top of that, you have the lone senior, Davis Owen (10.78), with plenty of experience, who will most likely be vying for a spot in the top 6 as well. My only hesitation with jumping fully on board this train is the doubles. Sewanee went an impressive 60-18 last season in dual matches, but didn’t have the strongest showing at the fall ITA. I am certainly not saying that they will be a bad doubles, team, just unproven at this point. With their singles depth, I truly feel that Sewanee can be a top 15 team, as long as they can figure their doubles out. This will be a very exciting year for this young team and I am very much looking forward to following along.

Schedule Breakdown: This schedule is filled with opportunities to advance, as well as risky matches that could drop the Tigers out of the top 25, maybe even 30, but overall I love it. You can check it out in full here. Overall, they play eleven nationally ranked teams. The first two matches of the season against Kenyon and KZoo will have no huge implications, but at the same time will give us a very good indication as to where this program is at to start the season. The next big four matches are NC Wesleyan, Mary Washington, Coe and Stevens. All are very winnable, but could be dangerous if Sewanee isn’t on top of their game. Spring break features some strong matchups against Swarthmore, Whitman and Tufts. If the Tigers can squeak out two good wins, I think they will be in good shape heading into the home stretch of the season. Sewanee closes out the season with DePauw, a majority of their conference matches, Emory and W&L. While I don’t think they have a chance against Emory, it will definitely be a match that I am going to keep my eye on, especially if the Tigers are playing good tennis coming into the match.

Player to Watch: This is tough because of the sheer depth of this team, but I’m going to have to go with Ryan Olps. He was my fall season MVP and I think this freshman is going to have an immediate impact for the Tigers. Olps was the 148^th ranked junior coming out of high school and is the highest ranked player to go to the University of the South. He seems to have smoothly transitioned to college tennis after his fall ITA showing, and I’m excited to see if he can continue to develop over the course of this season.

Realistic Prediction: Now comes the hard part. I am very high on the Tigers this season, but I think the boys in purple are probably a year out from truly becoming an elite team. They should have a very good season though, and I can’t see them losing more than four regular season matches before taking home the SAA crown. Finishing up with a hot take, I predict that Sewanee will have an NCAA individual qualifier at the end of the season.

Millsaps (Odds to win: 8.5%)

Overview: Millsaps is just one of those teams that you can’t hate. They don’t wow you with top 25 recruiting classes, but just seem to work their asses off to win matches with pure grit. Last season the Majors finished second in the SAA taking down Rhodes, a team I thought was going to be vying for the top 40. I think this veteran program will definitely be one to keep an eye on as this season progresses. They have the personnel to break into the ITA rankings this season as well as the schedule to do it, which we will get into a little later. This fall, I was impressed by the play of Plummer and Marti-Vertiz, making it to the sweet 16 of a fairly strong “Emory” ITA. The two upper classmen will need to continue this kind of play for the Majors to remain in second in the SAA. I think this program is definitely capable of pushing a young Sewanee team, and this year might be the best chance they’ve had yet.

Schedule Breakdown: This is a pretty good schedule for where this program currently stands. You can see it here. Millsaps starts off with a couple lesser-known DIII opponents and a community college, before entering an intriguing matchup against Atlantic South opponent Christopher Newport. CNU is another team that I am high on this season, but the Majors will be looking to improve their regional ranking in this match and things could get dicey for the Captains if they overlook Millsaps. The next notable match is against the blog darling team, Southwestern University, a team that I think is fairly similar to the Majors with their workmanlike mentality. Millsaps will take on tough Emory team before heading on their Spring Break trip to play Kenyon, East Texas Baptist and Haverford. I see them coming out of that trip with two wins. They conclude non-conference play against UT Tyler before starting the SAA schedule. At this point their biggest match will be against Rhodes and I truly believe that this will be a coin flip this year and I cannot wait for this one.

Player to Watch: Henry Friedler quietly had a very impressive 18-3 season last year playing most of the time at third singles. Friedler has had an interesting career, graduating high school in 2012, but only playing for Millsaps during the 16-17 season. Listed as a junior, Friedler has time to continue to develop under Coach Box and continue to be a Major stud. Millsaps will rely on their veteran depth in the tight matches, especially in SAA play, and that will most likely start with Friedler.

Realistic Prediction: The Majors will finish second or third in the SAA, but between them and Rhodes, I think whoever loses the regular season match will get their revenge in the SAA tournament. Outside of that, I think Millsaps could push, maybe even beat, Southwestern and gain a national ranking for the first time in recent memory. As I mentioned earlier, this is a veteran team and this will be the season to accomplish big things for the program if the stars align.

Rhodes (Odds to win: 7.5%)

Overview: Being completely honest, I was a little disappointed by Rhodes last season. I will be the first to admit that I drank a little too much Kool-Aid and overreacted to the phenomenal recruiting class that was brought in, so this season I am going to be a little more cautious. With a year of experience under their belts, Morton, Lauture and Chatterjee should be able to progress forward and take over the top of the lineup for the Lynx. I am worried about doubles for this team. They had a pretty bad fall showing and will need to clean it up if they want to push for second in the SAA. While they have a higher UTR Power 6 than Millsaps, I still think the Majors have the slight edge over Rhodes at the moment. That being said, this Lynx team has tremendous talent and can develop into a real contender over the next couple of seasons.

Schedule Breakdown: I am actually not in love with this schedule. I just don’t see a ton of opportunity for this up and coming team. They start off the season with a bunch of DI, DII and NAIA, which will be solid experience against strong players, but hold very little merit in the DIII tennis world. The most notable DIII matches on the schedule are DePauw, Coe, Wabash and Emory. If Rhodes can’t beat DePauw and Wabash, and push Coe, I will be very worried about this team going into SAA play. Other than that, there’s really not a ton to say about it. Maybe teams are scared of the talented Lynx and won’t schedule them, maybe they’re just in a tough region to get quality matches, but over the next couple of seasons to give themselves the best opportunity to burst onto the national scene, Rhodes will need to travel a little more.

Player to Watch: Andrew Morton was a rock last season at second singles going 12-1 and he really flew under the radar due to the hype surround his fellow freshmen Chatterjee and Lauture. This just goes to show that rankings don’t mean everything. I digress, with the graduation of Albert Vacheron, I think Morton will probably be the guy to pick up the first singles mantle. The sophomore had a solid first round win at ITAs, but unfortunately had to retire due to illness before his match with Sewanee’s Jack Gray. I think the strength for this team will be more top heavy and they will need to pick up key wins at 1, 2 and 3 to take down Millsaps and maybe even Sewanee, and I think Morton will play a big role in that.

Realistic Prediction: As I said earlier, I am not going to drink as much Kool-Aid this season and will let the racquets do the talking instead. Right now I think Rhodes has the talent to take down Millsaps and will be looking for revenge after getting drubbed twice last season by the majors. The Majors on the other hand have just seemed to have their number over the past couple of years. April 14^th is going to be a coin flip 5-4 match for second place in the SAA and I’m excited to grab the popcorn and watch twitter for score updates on that one. Outside of that, it’s tough to really predict these DI, DII and NAIA matches because we’re the DIII Tennis Blog, and quite frankly I don’t give a damn Texas A&M-Texarkana so here we are. I think Rhodes will beat Wabash and DePauw as well as take down Coe this year. Look for a revenge season for Rhodes to learn from their experience last year and potentially pick up some signature wins this season.

Birmingham-Southern (Odds to win: .6%)

This senior heavy team is incredibly scrappy and could definitely scare Millsaps or Rhodes this season. Last season they went toe to toe with both teams and if the Majors or the Lynx have a bad day, this could be a perfect opportunity for Birmingham Southern to pick up a signature win this season. As I mentioned in the ITA recap, Jacob Weinacker had a good fall and could possibly make a push for the top of a weaker Atlantic South region, but unfortunately I don’t think there are enough opportunities within the schedule to give him a real chance to finish in the top 7 and slip into NCAAs.

Oglethorpe (Odds to win: .2%)

It’s amazing what one player can do for a team, and the days of CJ Antonio are a distant memory for the Stormy Petrels. Oglethorpe went from second in the SAA to fifth in just a season and should be very careful with a hungry Berry team right at their heels. The good news for the Petrels is that they brought in some immediate impact freshman, David Benson (UTR 10.09) and Elijah Bullock (UTR 8.77), who could see playing time right away.

Berry (Odds to win: .1%)

The Rome Tennis Center is probably the nicest facility in the SAA. The brand new facility on the beautiful campus of Berry College should be a selling point for many recruits in the future. I think the Vikings have a firm grasp on the sixth place spot in the conference, but could definitely take a step forward to fifth if Oglethorpe continues to slip.

Centre (Odds to win: .07%)

Centre definitely took a step in the right direction this season with the addition of Arpit Rana (Proj. UTR 9.85) and Casey Diamond (Proj. UTR 7.96), but aren’t quite there yet. They are a very young team though and have plenty of room to grow in the next couple of years to become SAA contenders.

Hendrix (Odds to win: .03%)

Hendrix unfortunately just isn’t that close to competing for an SAA championship. Without any new recruits, I see their 34 match losing streak to SAA teams continue to grow. But the good news is that they have a sweet mascot! You can check him out over there.

#EndWallofText

Anyways, leave a comment, tweet at me, email me, you know the drill. Also, be sure to congratulate New West on being added to our group chat. He now gets to enjoy waking up to 200+ text messages if he goes to bed too early. Gotta love it. Until next time, Reg ASouth out!