Group Stream of Consciousness

It’s been a whirlwind of a Blog week, with the debut of our SIBLINGS BRACKET taking up far too much of our precious blogging time. Don’t worry, we still have the usual weekly features too. What else can we bring you this week? Well given how much people loved D3AS’ stream of consciousness article from a couple weeks ago, we invited the blogging team to jot down whatever DIII topic has been on their brains of late. This type of article really embodies the true nature of The Blog, as it ranges from national title aspirations, to heckling commenters! New women’s coaches to a blogger selection show. Teams earning their hype to BRIAN GRODECKI’S VISOR!!! If you have anything you think is worth discussing in these types of articles, feel free to reach out to any of your neighborhood friendly bloggers.

AS: I’m really enjoying the amount of quality teams this year. You know what’s really amazing? I think there are 6 teams so far this year that could win it all. I don’t remember the last time that’s happened and I’m pretty sure it hasn’t happened in my blogging career. Emory, Bowdoin, Chicago, Williams, Middlebury, and CMS can all take it this year, especially given that CMS is going to be on their home courts. I’ve already talked about Chicago in another stream of consciousness article but they are really being underlooked right now. It’s quite interesting to see the makeups of these teams as well. Bowdoin + Williams + Chicago have all gone through something I like to call the “DIII Process.” If you take a look at multiple champions across the years, you’ll see a similar formula. A team built on seniors that went through trials and tribulations in their previous years – most often disappointment. Chicago is actually the team that fits that bill the most this year, but Bowdoin and Williams are similar. Middlebury + Emory are kind of like your powerhouse talent schools, two teams that can really just go out and win a match because they can. CMS is just a generally strong program with home court advantage at the best time of the year. Amherst would have been included in this, but unfortunately they’ve lost steam.

NE Women’s: Progress Report on Top 10 Teams with New Coaches

Middlebury – Pretty young team with ZERO seniors, and I’m sure Coach Rachel has her work cut out for her.  Not sure what to make of this team just yet. Their sophomore class is ultratalented and big in numbers. They lost to CMS 7-2 and to Williams 5-4.  Their next big match is not until 4/22 vs Wesleyan.

Pomona – Never easy to come after a legendary coach like Ann Lebedeff.  She did so much for Pomona and for DIII Women’s Tennis. Results-wise, they haven’t strayed too far from what they normally do – they have wins against Chicago, Amherst, Bowdoin, and Sewanee.  And losses against Emory, Wesleyan, Tufts, Williams, and Middlebury. Next big match against CMS on Thursday! Can Coach Mike take them over the hump??

Williams – Undefeated 11-0 so far. Beat both CMS and Midd 5-4 and beat Wesleyan 8-1!  With a strong senior class, this was a good time to ease a new head coach in, and I’m sure Coach Anik is taking advantage of this.  They’ve got their rivalry match vs Amherst on Saturday.

RegNE/C: Who wants to be a hero and make a D3 Tennis related 30 for 30 trailer? We were talking about the amazing progression of the Blog through the years (particularly ASouth, who has grown up right before our eyes) and I suggested that there should be a 30 for 30 about the Blog. While a full film might be too much to ask, there’s gotta be at least one film or digital media studies major reading the Blog that can make a trailer for SOMETHING D3 Tennis related. We’ve seen many spring break videos from teams so I know you all have the time. Who’s going to step up? Entertain us!

AS: Brian Grodecki’s visor. Okay, so I’ve heard that Brian Grodecki wears a visor during his matches and then CHANGES OUT OF SAID VISOR post-match to WEAR A REGULAR HAT. Can we talk about how weird this is? Is this some type of match ritual that has allowed him to become one of the best players in DIII tennis? Seriously, who does this? This is something that I’d attribute to some like cult leader or like some really strange dude who’s heading up “innovation” at your company. What goes on in this man’s mind? Is it possible that he enjoys when the top of his head feels more airy when he plays and then likes his scalp to be protected when off the court? We need to get to the bottom of this.

AS Women’s: To the person heckling the men’s articles for more women’s coverage: Love your work. Sorry I’m busy, I’ll try harder to bring you more women’s coverage. With your passion I think you’d be a great blogger. Hit me up if you want to write some articles for me.

NE: Some things are more important than tennis.

So excited to have Ethan as our newest additions to Wheaton Tennis through @GoTeamIMPACT! #letsgowheathttps://t.co/lMTJzE2QGe

— WheatonTennis (@WheatonTennis) April 9, 2018

I cannot express how happy this makes me. When I was in school, we were lucky enough to draft our own Team Impact player into our tennis community (let’s call him John), and he came to most of our home matches when he wasn’t undergoing treatment. John would come out onto the court during lineups and give all of us high fives and big hugs. John and his family even bonded with some of the families that would watch us play. After your careers end, less than one month for some, you only remember certain things from your time in college. I remember the long van rides, I remember the off-season conditioning program, I even remember how I thought it was difficult to eat healthily at that point (it only gets more difficult, trust me). But the thing I remember most of all is being away from home and finding another family. John was a part of that family. He was our collective little brother. He was always so positive, so excited to be just hanging out with us. He wanted nothing more than to HANG OUT WITH US. A bunch of entitled 18-22 year olds who threw public tantrums because of a game. John was inspiring, motivating, and led (at least some of us) to real soul-searching. I cannot recommend this program highly enough, and I’m thrilled that it continues to flourish.

AS: The Absence of MIT (Mens) You know a team we have barely said anything about this year? The MIT Men’s team. This is a team that has Sean Ko at #3 singles (he was top 20 in the nation in his recruiting class). How have we not talked about this team? Well, that’s because they really haven’t given us a reason to talk about them. They’ve lost to Tufts, Bowdoin, and Middlebury, and none of those matches were in any way close. The MIT “Big 3” of Barr, Cauneac, and Ko lost 2 of 3 singles matches against Tufts, a team that should be around the same level as them. It’s been quite disappointing to see MIT be quiet all year, but they still have some chances. I’d like to say, in a little ASouth “i told you so” moment, there was way too much hype about MIT and their recruiting class 3 years ago.  How many times do I have to tell you that a recruiting class doesn’t make a program, but a program makes a recruiting class. Tyler Barr has been impressive, but color me not impressed with this team right now.

AS Women’s: Still looking for the best name in D3 tennis. It’s much harder to find now that I’m looking for it. One fun name I’ve recently found is Ksoosha (xoo-sha) Ramras, a freshman at Williams. Her name is literally listed on the roster as above, with the pronunciation in parentheses. What’s funny about this is that the pronunciation doesn’t actually help me. I must have missed the day in Kindergarten where they went over the “xoo” sound. Does the X sound like a Z? An S? Is it ex-oo-sha? Someone help. In the meantime I’m staying on #teamfink.

RegionalNEC: Multiple times this year I’ve seen score lines along the lines of 6-4, 5-0 (ret). Unless you’ve got some imminent health concern, just stand there and let the other person finish the match. I think much more negatively about someone if they default one game from losing than if they just lose a completed match. I remember seeing this nonsense in the juniors fairly often, but by now people should be mature and classy enough to finish the match. Take a page from both Federer and Nadal, who have both been particularly good throughout their careers about finishing matches even if they were compromised unless it was really just impossible for them to continue.

AS: It’d be nice if we stopped hyping teams before they earned it. There are so many teams these past few years that have gotten hyped up because of recruiting classes. I blame AVZ for this. RPI two years ago, MIT three years ago, Denison this year, Rhodes two years ago. None of these teams have broken through into the top 15 and haven’t really even come close. Hell, RPI and Rhodes haven’t even gotten into the top 25 yet. Neither has Denison. If you want to learn about the process it takes to become a top team, ask Coach Fried of Wesleyan. You START with one recruiting class. It then moves on to development, more recruiting classes, and building your team culture. While UTR and numbers are great, I find it quite fascinating when people routinely compare teams on paper without taking into account team history and program strength. The Guru would be proud of me for this paragraph.

NE Women’s: The Increased Depth/Parity on the women’s side

Last week we saw #19 UMW push #9 CMU in a match that CMU was lucky to escape with a 5-4 win.  The top 4-10 teams should be afraid of the the top 10-20 teams on any given day. Also, the teams ranked 20-40 are pretty even with each other.  We saw unranked UWW almost take a 5-4 win against #22 Kenyon.

AS Women’s: I think I’m just kept around for comic relief. I got onto the document planning on talking about the close 5-4 match between CMU and Mary Wash last weekend and how it highlights the increased depth in the top 20 teams this year, but NEW already got to that. OK cool. My next thought was to talk about how Williams and Pomona are getting on with their new coaches but NEW already touched on that too. Now I have nothing to add! I guess great minds think alike.  

AS: I’ve said this many times but seriously, I’d really like to have the Blog host a NCAA Selection Show. I promise we wouldn’t curse and we wouldn’t trash any teams. I understand where people are coming from when they don’t want us to have a selection show. This Blog started as a player’s blog, has now evolved into a somewhat pseudo-mix of players/parents/coaches/general information. We keep a very informal feel and that’s us. But come on! We all have real jobs and work in professional manners. The Blog has quite possibly the most passion for this sport as anyone out there. We do a lot of research, are generally informed, and I feel like we have enough personality to make a DIII Selection Show worthwhile (even for 30 minutes!) I’d seriously take off from work on that Monday to participate and if it means “revealing my identity,” well, whatever. I think I can handle it. If any of you have any NCAA connections – this doesn’t have to be anything paid or expensive. Hundred bucks can go a long way in terms of getting together a 30 minute stream of some sort for players that play their hearts out.

NE: What he said.

NE Women’s: A Question to the Blog Fans

Which campus do/did you enjoy playing at because of the food?  Answer in the comments section.