ASouth Stream of Consciousness, AGAIN

Just the other day, I promised all those that read this Division III Tennis Blog that I’d be going for the famed BLOG PERFECT WEEK this week, by getting you all an article per day, everyday of the god damn week. Well, the week starts on Sunday, which means I have to do some Saturday night writing otherwise we’d be off to a bad start. Since there are weekend matches that go on, and I wouldn’t be able to a Pool C or a Bracketology without looking at this weekend’s results, that means I’ll just go old-school style blogging for you once again. Commenter MATT said he loves this format of article, and honestly I do too. There’s nothing like putting digital words on a sheet of digital Microsoft Word paper when you’re in the freaking zone. Throw some Thunder/Jazz up on the screen too and you’re talking Saturday night not in NYC. Shoutout to my very few friends who are out today that I’m not joining out, you’ll have to navigate the purgatory that is the NYC dating scene on your own. For me, we chillin. Let’s take a damn trip around the world of DIII Tennis and talk about some newfound stories that have popped up in the past week, or haven’t been talked about at all. 

RELEASE THE PANTHERS

And on the seventh week of the season, God released the final plague. A team of Middlebury Panthers, set to destroy all sinners and those that stood in his path. Everyone better keep their heads up, because this Middlebury team has turned on the switch like Lebron James has done every year but 2018. This is the scariest team in the nation right now and there is nothing you can do to dispute that. You want boxscores, bruh? You got it.

http://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/mten/2017-18/files/bowm.htm

http://athletics.middlebury.edu/sports/mten/2017-18/files/emorym.htm

You got that right. Honestly, Emory lucked out to steal the two super breakers at the end of the match. Otherwise, we’re talking a 9-0 drubbing of the previously #1 team in the nation. Not sure if that’s ever happened before and I’m not going to go through the historical data to see. Doesn’t matter really. The Panthers have awoken at just the right time of year and are ready to annihilate anything in their path. They’re coming off two straight sweeps of the two best teams in the nation in doubles. Remember those old UCSC Hansen teams that played better doubles than anyone? I really hope that this trend doesn’t continue cuz that would be an extremely boring NCAA playoff if Middlebury just brooms every challenger like Harry Potter out here. At the end of the day, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this type of turnaround by a team in literally less than a couple of weeks. Two weeks ago, we had Middlebury at 6 in the Power Rankings. Today, D3NE is fielding comments from Middlebury fans about how he disrespects them by picking against them. How the tables have turned. Let’s hope that Bowdoin/Emory/CMS/Williams can step up and challenge this terrifying team come playoff time. NESCACs, two weeks. See you there.

IDEA! For hosting sites, why not have the #1 seed pay for a facility in the middle of all the teams in their region to host in situations where the draw needs to be evened out?

Before you ridicule me, hear me out. I realize that there are some situations where we are totally effed (California and Texas, for example) and there’s no possible way to get all teams to drive to the same place and be within 500 miles. But, take the Central region for example. GAC and Wash U should be playing in the same draw come NCAA time. Problem is, they have to fly to GAC. In these types of scenarios, why not have GAC pay for a “neutral location” to host? Allowing this would allow for fairer draws, meaning all the top 2 seeds could go to the lowest 1 seeds. While I understand GAC might not benefit from this situation this year because they wouldn’t be able to host, they could benefit from it in future years. For example, if Wash U is a lower 1 seed at some point, but GAC can only go to Chicago…. GAC would want Wash U to pay for a neutral site so they could play them. Fairer draws are always the best solution, people, and I’m just here to think outside the box. This rule could be used for only circumstances such as this one (or Amherst/CMU, who I just learned are outside of 500 miles). If the NCAA is all about the athletes, they’d listen to me. JUST LOOK AT ALL YOUR OPTIONS, PLZ.

Coach of the Year Candidates

We always,always, always, want to show love to the players on this Blog. You guys deserve so many kudos for your hard work on the court. But, I wanted to take a moment to recognize some of my Coach of the Year candidates, because I feel like coaches don’t get praised enough on the Blog sometimes. Here’s my top 5 below, in no particular order. I don’t want to ruin my end of the year voting.

Coach Valentini, GAC – Talk about the Gusties all you want, about their home court and about the bubble and all that BS. Coach Valentini has done more with his talent over the past 4 years than anyone in the nation has, know that. Did any of you think that GAC could be a national title contender prior to the season starting? No, you didn’t. But, Coach Valentini has the Gusties believing in themselves and he has a cast of “lower star players” competing against the best in the business. Guys like Patrick Whaling and Zack Ekstein are household names in DIII Tennis now. And that’s a testament to Coach Valentini’s work in Minnesota. Think about how many old powerhouses have fallen off the map because their recruiting wasn’t up to speed with the CMS and Chicagos of the world. Now, look at GAC. Kudos to you, Coach Valentini.

Coach Lamanna, Brandeis – Despite D3Regional’s lack of enthusiasm about the Judges, I would encourage you not to judge their season based on that. There’s a reason why D3Regional just posted a full article on them (other than my prodding). This is a team that lost 3 of their all-time best players last year. Not even kidding. And not only have they not fallen in the rankings, they’ve essentially improved their ranking, which is just absolutely nuts to me. Brandeis is not known as your tennis powerhouse and they probably never will be. But this team has held steady this year with freshmen playing bigtime roles at the bottom of the lineup and guys stepping up in doubles and at the top. Coach Lamanna has worked miracles with Deis this year, and he’s been doing a hell of a job for a long time.

Coach Belmonte, Carnegie Mellon – A first time coach getting in on CotY? ASouth, you trippin. But no, I am not. Coach Belmonte inherited a team with 5 key players either graduating or leaving the team. He’s taken a team that essentially rolled 3 deep and led them to wins over Wash U, Wesleyan, UMW, Kenyon, and others. This team is firmly at #9 in the nation when many thought they’d fall out of the top 12. For a first year coach to do this is quite impressive. With Shekar and Levin making strides at #4 and #5 singles, some people have the feeling that the best is yet to come for the Tartans. Coach Belmonte, I see you. Good luck doing better next year, ha.

Coach Helbing, Mary Washington – I actually already talked about Coach Helbing (and Belmonte, to be honest) in another stream of consciousness article, so I will keep this brief. UMW has basically improved their ranking by 100% this year. They’ve done so while losing players and barely replacing them. They’ve done so without some mind-blowing recruiting class and really just through hard work, good coaching, and determination.  Coach Helbing is absolutely in my Top 5 coaches this year.

Coach Brice, NC Wesleyan – Wait, WHAT?! All of you need to recognize. Coach Brice has led NC Wesleyan to a top 20 ranking with two nationally ranked and surprising upsets over Johns Hopkins and Case Western. He has a team that was basically reeling after the departure of Coach Hale (not sure if this was good or bad) to a team that is confidently playing within the top 20 and looking good doing it. While the international flair might not be your cup of tea, it’s pretty hard to coach internationals. It’s really hard to get them playing above their level to achieve a top 20 ranking when pundits (us lol) have them pre-season ranked at like #35. This is a team that lost to Washington and Lee at NCAAs recently (last year, I think). They come around this year and are playing lights out. I don’t know what Coach Brice has done over there in NC Wesleyan, but hell, break out the clapping emojis.

Outside the Courts – Take note of Emory Women’s Tennis

http://www.emoryathletics.com/sports/wten/2017-18/releases/20180419klomv6

I’m trying to set up an interview or a feature on what the girls down at Emory are doing in terms of campus awareness, but in the meantime I’ll do this little feature on them until we get more. Something will get set up soon and we’ll be able to give this the time it deserves. I am sure all of you know about the statistics behind sexual assault and sexual harrassment, and it’s quite troubling. I’m not going to bring politics into this, because no matter who you vote for or whatever you believe in, this is an important subject, and I’m glad to see the Emory Women’s Tennis team step up to show that. This is a conversation that needs to be had with literally everyone involved in well, life. We all have a responsibility to our fellow humans to step in when something isn’t right. And that’s the general message that needs to be passed to anyone. I don’t care whether you’re on campus or at a music festival (look at some of the headlines from Coachella) or on the bus going to work. You have a responsibility to step up when something is wrong. Shoutout to the Emory Women’s team once again. I applaud you.

Back to Tennis – Amherst punches right back.

Badmouth them and Coach Doebler with your anonymous comments all you want. What I saw today from the 8 players left on Amherst’s roster was impressive. They went into a hostile environment up in Wesleyan and took care of business in one of the better matches of the year, with NESCAC seeding, Pool C berths, and just general pride on the line. Say what you want about departures and all of that, but the fact of the matter is that Amherst is still considered a top 10 program with 8 strong players on the roster. These dudes will fight for each other and their coach, so let’s start looking at the good things going on at Amherst too. To beat a Wesleyan team that absolutely needed this win and threw the kitchen sink at the Mammoths is flat-out baller. Through all the crap that has happened to the Mammoths, they are still the #7 or #8 team in the nation entering the final weeks of the season. Real recognize real. Keep grinding, boys.

Championship Weekend has begun

In case you play for any of the smaller conferences, you may or may not have had a conference tournament this weekend. Some of them will be determined today, actually. In Texas, we have Southwestern and Trinity TX going in for a rematch of the recent Southwestern upset, where I honestly believe that the Tigers definitely have the upper hand. Southwestern is the better story, but Trinity TX is the stalwart. And in these cases, the stalwart oftentimes wins. Up in the IIAC, Coe took out Luther today in the conference championship to book their ticket to NCAAs. This was a match that D3RegionalNEC loved to troll the Kohawks about, and they definitely took it seriously. Congrats to the Kohawks. I believe the NWC finishes up tomorrow with Whitman vs. L&C, which oftentimes finds us watching if the Blues are going to get swept randomly by the always upstart P10s. It’s great fun. NC Wesleyan actually booked their ticket to NCAAs last week! Man, how time flies. While the focus of this blog is usually the top 10 teams, for good reason, don’t forget these teams that are still playing for their own goals. Winning a conference championship for the first time or the fourth time feels pretty good, especially when those are probably some of the goals these teams have set this season. And I’m all about teams reaching their goals, and celebrating with a team huddle before shaking the opponent’s hand.

Tipping @ Subway

The entire Rhodes college tennis team came to my subway and didn’t even tip that’s 14 footlongs smh

— Will Magoon (@wgmagoon) April 21, 2018

I know NewD3Central wants to take his stab at this story, but I just have to include this tweet. Hilarious. And now I will include my thoughts, which some of you seemed to like.

seriously who tips subway tho

— d3AtlanticSouth (@d3AtlanticSouth) April 21, 2018

Do Something about Indoor Matches in the NESCAC

Okay, I seriously feel for Tufts. Tufts looks like they’ll miss the NESCAC Tournament this year, mostly because they lost 7-2 to Bates at their indoor facility. If you look at the past umteen years of NESCAC play, you’ll find the results to be downright ridiculous. Teams will come out of nowhere to beat clearly better teams (Tufts over Bowdoin 2 years ago), and most of it is because teams aren’t used to playing in their grandma’s backyard with an elephant stomping across the rubber tennis courts to keep it flat. The home court advantage in the NESCAC is absolutely ridiculous and something needs to be done about it. I feel like there needs to be some reeling in of NESCAC matches, because this kind of stuff affects more than the NESCAC. The NESCAC is the biggest and best conference, and wins and losses in this conference affect Pool C in a big way. I’ve had enough of throwdown matches that are happening in the middle of a track meet. Get better indoor facilities or rent out a nearby facility that’s used for actual tennis and not the court I played “wallball” on when I was 6 years old. 

Last Thing – Give me more videos/highlights!

Seriously people, we all post so much on Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook. The amount of highlights or even just regular old stuff that have been submitted to me has been lame. I’m talking any team out there. I really don’t care what kind of highlight it is – even if it’s the team messing around in warmups and team bonding. We want all of you to get more exposure and make this a fun time, because that’s what we’re here for. Hell, maybe we’ll post a Lubo Cuba snapchat once in a while. Actually, probably not. But everyone else, I gotchu.

Final Thoughts

And now, time for me to salvage the night (it’s 12:30AM). MEET ME AT DA CLUB, IT’S GOING DOWN. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I’m looking at you, D3Fan and Matt and the other D3Fan. And for the billionth time this year, ASouth, OUT.