AS INTRO: WELCOME ONE AND ALL, TO INDOORS WEEK. A week filled with magic and glory, Mohawks, tennis inside a bubble, and live streaming. A week with the only college tennis Daily Fantasy competition that has ever graced the fans. Yep, that’s right. We’re back and continuing to go above and beyond to keep you entertained. Indoors marks the beginning of the season and what a beginning it is. If you’ve been following the Indoors train for years, be sure to submit your Draftkings team to us via email or Twitter DM and enjoy the previews that will be coming rest of the week. We’ll be previewing our Emory/GAC and CMU/CHI matchups here from a general perspective and match by match will come later in the week. Enjoy!
No. 4 CHICAGO vs No. 5 CMU
NewCentral: Let me set the stage for you…It’s April 2016 and the sun is shining down on you in beautiful Orlando, Florida. The Panama Papers have recently been released, you’re probably vibing to One Dance by Drake or maybe Lemonade if you fancy Beyonce. Chobani employees are having a swell time and the Paris Climate Agreement (RIP) was just signed in New York. Oh! And if you’re a Tartan fan, then you’re also rejoicing in your team’s first win over Chicago since 2012 – what you didn’t know is that it would be the last time CMU defeated U Chicago – granted they’ve only played once since 2016… U Chicago will win this match because they are more talented than Carnegie top to bottom even if Rosenvasser, Prettyman, and Arora were still playing tennis. While the Lost Boys would help give CMU a more realistic opportunity of winning, Chicago would still be the favorite. They’re absolutely loaded in doubles, with All Americans doing econ homework on the bench ready to be added in the doubles lineup at any time. With a doubles lead likely, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where Chua, Tsai, Kerrigan, Yuan, Sharma, and Pei/Rodriguez/Leung drop three or more singles matches. Chicago definitely wants to avenge their Indoors loss last year and should start their run with a big statement win over CMU.
I’ll humor ASouth and ditch NE’s format for this write up. Everything I’ve said about Chicago has more or less applied to them for the past three years, yet they’ve been defeated and upset in those years – most notably their defeat at the hands of Indoors Host: GAC. Chicago can be defeated, they’re at the top of the second tier (Behind: Emory, CMS, Midd) of National Championship contenders for now because they’ve proven that they can be defeated. Will CMU have the players, game plans, and matchups to do it? That’s to be seen. I agree that a doubles lead is a necessity and CMU must also win two out of the top three singles spots. Finding that last point (ignoring a CMU sweep) against a deep Chicago team is a big ask but that’s what you have to do to beat Chicago. If CMU can take a 2-1 doubles lead, win 2 of 3 singles matches at the top, and then one more in the bottom three – they can win. I don’t want to blow up my DraftKings spot, but the player to watch here and the player to watch for the tournament is Abhin Sharma. He’ll rack up wins with Kerrigan at three doubles (Kerrigan at three doubles sounds wrong) and his ball-striking, especially indoors, should serve him well at five or six. If you draft Sharma and win, I best get a shoutout.
AS: I’m not going to do the NE classic “why this and why that,” it’s simply not my style. I do love that format though and I’ll hit on similar things in my preview. Going into this, CMU is a huge underdog. I want all of you to know this now. Without Rozenvasser, CMU is heavily weakened and that does not bode well against an uber talented team like Maroons. The issue here is that CMU needs to win the doubles and potentially sweep to have a chance to beat Chicago. They can go up 2-1 (anything can happen when we don’t know the teams) but man, that’s a tough task against one of the best doubles teams in the country.
We’ll maybe get into match by match previews later on in the week but from a general perspective, Chicago probably has an 85% chance of winning this match. I’m interested to see how newly minted head coach Mike Belmonte handles his first Indoors as the main guy. I’m also interested to see Daniel Levine make his case for the best player in CMU history. CMU needs a huge weekend from Levine and probably a surprise from the bottom of the lineup (Shekar, Levin, Pinckney), all of whom will be underdogs in their respective matches. If there’s a time to surprise Chicago it is now, with Liu riding the pine due to injury until April.
The other thing to think about in this match is the potential next match for both of these teams. We’re talking about an 8AM match the next day in the back draw for the loser followed by another long day. If Chicago goes up in the doubles it’ll be interesting to see what lineup Belmonte throws out there. Probably the full one, but who knows. Anyways, when looking at the lineups, I’m pretty sure CMU needs two doubles, #1, #2, and #6 singles. Unless Ray Boppana can beat Erik Kerrigan, which I don’t see, or Shekar at #4 surprises Charlie Pei or whoever is down there at the time. Chicago showed up last year at Indoors – I believe that they will again.
PREDICTIONS:
AS: Chicago 7-2
NE: Chicago def. CMU 7-2
Reg ASouth: Chicago def. CMU 6-3
NewCentral: Chicago def. CMU 7-2
DIIIWest: Chicago def. CMU 7-2
Regional: Chicago def. CMU 7-2
No. 1 EMORY vs No. 8 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS
AS: Again, I’ll skip the whole D3NE preview style and just go with my thoughts on this match. Emory is obviously the favorite here as they are the defending champions, after all. This is one of, if not their favorite tournament to be Emory, so motivation will not be lacking. With the departure of Aman Manji and Josh Goodman this will be our first glimpse of what kind of team Emory is this year. My take? Expect a brash, in your face style much like Emory of years past. And I’m feeling pretty okay with that.
Biggest question headed into this match has to be the lineup. Looking at the past few matches, all against non DIII opponents, we’ve seen a variety of guys sitting out and playing in different spots. What we are speculating is this –
Jonathan Jemison
Alec Josepher
Adrien Bouchet
Hayden Cassone
Andrew Harrington (THROWBACK!)
Scott Rubinstein
Huge story here is Andrew Harrington somehow returning from the dead and being slated at #5 singles. Spaulding and Serituk have been moved out, presumably, but who knows with the amount of talent that Emory has. We honestly guess about Emorys lineup all the time and this is our best guess. I would have loved to see Spaulding and Serituk in the lineup here but hey, I don’t always get what I want.
Anyways, regarding the match, Emory should be wary of what GAC is about to bring. The Gusties are a proud team with solid doubles and a player in Alhouni that can win two matches no matter who he plays. That’s intimidating without the home court factor. Do I think GAC will win this match? Absolutely not. But do I think they will challenge Emory and make it interesting? Absolutely. This could be a 6-3 affair where GAC goes up in doubles. Harrington and Rubinstein better be ready down at the bottom if the lineup. First match jitters could make things very dicey for any player thats fighting for his spot in the lineup. I’m not worried at all about Bouchet or Cassone at 3 or 4, but everywhere else? Watch out.
NewCentral: I can’t go against the preview’s flow and revert back to NE’s ways for the GAC part of this preview, so here it goes…GAC is a unique position. On one hand they’re playing the one seed, defending national indoors and outdoors champions and should be playing reckless abandon and nothing to lose, but on the other hand they’re a team playing at home who all want to show-out for their friends and college. GAC sets themselves apart from the classic David v Goliah, 1 v 8 matchup narrative because of Alhouni. Rarely does David pick up the Golden SCAR (Shoutsout Tilted Towers, if ya know – you know) instead of the slingshot. Alhouni gives GAC a favorable shot at two points every time he steps out for a dual match. If GAC hopes to pull off the home upset (we are getting close to March, maybe the madness starts early this year) they must take at least a 2-1 doubles lead but a sweep is the most likely route to beating Emory at Indoors (Hopkins 2014). After a sweep and an Alhouni win, GAC will have to win one more match at either 2, 5, or 6 because I don’t envision Bouchet or Cassone losing. Unfortunately, Josepher, Harrington, and Rubinstein are all likely favored – the spreads won’t be slim either. GAC loses this simply because Emory has a deeper team 2-6 and they want to make a big statement to begin their title defense(s). I think that the likeliest best case scenario for GAC is a 2-1 lead after wins at 1 and 2 doubles, and a win from Alhouni with Ekstein v Josepher or Derbani v Harrington turning into a 50/50s. Unfortunately their best realistic scenario still falls short 4-5, and I think GAC does too.
PREDICTIONS:
AS: Emory 7-2
NE: Emory def. GAC 7-2
Reg ASouth: Emory def. GAC 8-1
NewCentral: Emory def. GAC 7-2
DIIIWest: Emory def. GAC 8-1
Regional: Emory def. GAC 7-2
FIN
And there you have it. The first predictions and thoughts of Indoors, brought to you by your favorite duo – AS and NEWD3CENTRAL. Look out for this combination in future big name events such as pairs figure skating as well as synchronized swimming in the 2020 Summer Olympics. Our chemistry is just that good. Need pop culture help? AS and NewD3 are here to help ya. Oh, and SIGN UP FOR DRAFTKINGS, HERE. ASouth, OUT.
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