Welcome to our first ever Women’s Bracket Challenge Interview! Though this is my first bracket challenge interview, the person we are interviewing today has actually been here before. For those of us who are not up to date on our Division3Tennis.com Blog celebrities, meet Mr. David Lee, 2014 NCAA men’s bracket challenge winner and now repeat champion as he won our 2019 NCAA women’s bracket challenge. The one and only D3NE had the honor of interviewing David back in 2014, and you can check it out here.
For the TLDR – David is a platform tennis extraordinaire who was brought into the D3 tennis scene way back when the blog started as a way to keep up with his wife’s alma mater, Amherst. He never played D3 tennis but has a lot of D3 tennis connections, including superstar Coach Mike Fried of Wesleyan. He also is close friends with the father of Tyler Kratky, Wash U men’s tennis standout.
See him in action in the cage here – “You got that one? Good! It was a good one!”
He won this year’s inaugural women’s Bracket Challenge in somewhat of a landslide with 167 points. The second place finisher had 142 points. The reason he won so convincingly is that he was our only competitor to pick Wesleyan to win it all. He might have been a little biased in picking Wesleyan, and I’ll let him tell you why below.
ASW: Mr. Lee, you are the Blog’s first repeat team bracket challenge winner, with your first victory coming in 2014 with the men’s team bracket challenge. How does it feel?
DL: I’m honestly shocked – the blog has grown so much in coverage and readership that I think it gets harder every year to win one of these challenges. That said, I’m a bit competitive so I have to admit I’m excited to be the first person to win two of these challenges even if D3AtlanticSouth is a bit of a hater – ha!
Also I just want to say upfront how great the women’s D3 coverage has been this year. It seemed like forever that there was a push to have strong women’s coverage and it’s just wonderful to see it come to fruition. All the D3 womens bloggers have been fantastic and so helpful providing insight to what ultimately was a really competitive year. I definitely used the articles the women bloggers wrote to help me with my bracket picks.
ASW: Thank you so much for the kind words! I too am occasionally on the receiving end of that classic D3AtlanticSouth hater thing. What’s your secret for not crying every time he talks to you?
DL: Someone once told me that “You only hate me because you ain’t me” so I try to remember that. #D3ASHasNeverWonABracket. But honestly, without D3AS, the blog wouldn’t be where it is today, so I think we have to let him give us the tough love. Plus he takes it as well as he gives it. In the end, he keeps us all on our toes which ensures we bring our A game. So does that him Tywin Lannister, Tyrion, Littlefinger, Varys or Bran?
ASW: He’s definitely a Lannister. I personally see him as a Tywin but since he’s my blog mom throw a little Cersei in there. Wait, does that make me Joffrey?? I don’t like where this is going, let’s move on. How is the platform tennis scene these days?
DL: It’s great – I encourage everyone to check it out at either www.platformtennis.org or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCW-u4OMlC3mUWSV0-46QUQ. More importantly I see a bunch of D3 tennis players are now playing in tournaments such as Ned Mandel (Trinity), Aaron Revzin (Amherst), Will Colmar (GAC), Adam Morgan (GAC), Randy Lofgren (Denison), Jeronie Barnes (Denison), Will Oberrender (Middlebury) and Roopali Hall (Amherst). [Note – sorry this list is male dominated – it’s just what I see in the tournament listings]
ASW: Now that Tyler Kratky has graduated, how much D3 tennis streaming goes on in the office?
DL: Still a lot. We watch any event that is live-streamed because D3 tennis is still the best format to watch. The 3 doubles points really matter and they still play deuces. So you are always on the seat of your pants in a tight match. Watching Alexis Almy’s clinching game versus Emory in the semis was heart-stopping with all those deuces – if it had been no-ad I don’t think it would have been the same.
Also the other thing that is great about D3 tennis is its community. I have been fortunate enough to recently become friends with Eric Butorac, who is obviously a D3 great if not GOAT. Another good friend, Ryan Shockley, was on the strong 1999-2000 Kalamazoo team. Obviously I have an Amherst, Wesleyan and WashU connection. In fact Tyler Kratky recently introduced me to his teammate Kareem Farah, who is doing a really interesting project in education, The Modern Classrooms (https://modernclassrooms.org/), that I have gotten involved in. #smallplug
ASW: It really is a small world and it seems like your D3 connections continue to grow. Thanks for that plug for Modern Classrooms. We have many aspiring teachers amongst our D3 seniors this year, and I encourage them to check it out! Back to your D3 connections, who is your favorite D3 coach and why is it Mike Fried?
DL: How could it not be Mike Fried! I actually met Mike over 10 years ago on the platform tennis court before he got into coaching. When he went to Wesleyan, of course, I started to follow his progress and it’s been amazing. He has taken both men’s and women’s programs from unranked to top 5/national champions. His recruiting is strong including the GOAT of D3 women’s tennis. He is also remarkably calm during matches – I don’t know how he does it. Even after the women won the title, all you saw was a fist pump from Mike. So win or lose, he is the same person. Most importantly, Mike really cares about his players on and off the court. I know personally that he tries to help them in all aspects of life which is probably the best thing a coach can do.
ASW: Back when you did your last interview, it would have been hard to predict that Coach Fried would be taking home the national championship in 2019. How else has D3 tennis changed from when we last heard from you 5 years ago?
DL: I don’t think it’s changed other than the competitive level just gets better each year. I also think we are seeing a more even playing field every year. The bloggers have written about it this year on the women’s side that it’s the 4th different champion in the last 4 years and Williams didn’t even make the tournament. On the men’s side, it seems like there are so many teams that can beat each other on any given day – Chicago won indoors over Emory, Amherst beat CMS, Brandeis beat Chicago, Emory wins Nationals and Carleton’s men #1 makes the singles finals (fyi – I didn’t have that in my bracket).
ASW: For someone like me who has been following the blog for only a few years, how has it changed in the past 5 years and what would you like to see from us?
DL: It’s just gotten better and better. The DraftKings fantasy draft for Indoors is amazing (why isn’t there one for final 8 nationals – men and women?). The depth of coverage especially for regional teams is tremendous. I also like the competitive spirit of bloggers getting articles out when other bloggers have also done so. I think you all are doing a great job. As for suggestions, maybe some more personal profiles of coaches and players would be good – I think the senior profiles on the women side have been fantastic.
ASW: If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
DL: So one specific food or cuisine? If it’s only 1 specific food, can you live on only McDonald’s French Fries? If not, Korean bbq and stews, of course.
ASW: Those are both good choices. McDonald’s fries are indeed the pinnacle of fries. Let’s talk about your bracket. What was your toughest pick?
DL: There were a bunch of first round matches that I was absolutely guessing on – UT Dallas/Linfield, Rhode Island/Messiah, Lake Forest/Luther and John Carroll/Wheaton – as you can see from my bracket, ie I got them all wrong. But my toughest pick was definitely Bowdoin/MIT. I should have listened to the women bloggers who were high on MIT but I thought NESCAC competition plus I’m friends with one of the Bowdoin players’ parents, Devin Wolfe, and they had a great Spring Break video with a cool coach moment (see 2:17-2:22). That was enough for me to pick Bowdoin.
ASW: You were in the middle of the pack coming into the semifinals before your dark horse champion pick Wesleyan pulled you up. You were the only person in the challenge that chose Wes to win it all. What made you chose them over CMS, Midd, and Emory?
DL: I thought Wesleyan was the hot team going into the championships. They had just beaten Middlebury to win the NESCAC, had a strong senior leader in Victoria Yu and really strong doubles. Also I didn’t think many others would pick Wesleyan so if they won, I figured I’d be in good shape. It’s how I won the 2014 men’s bracket picking Amherst!
ASW: Be honest, did you just pick Wes because you are friends with Coach Fried?
DL: Yeah – that might have been a factor too.
ASW: Aside from Wes winning the title, It seems like for the most part you just went with the higher ranked team. One exception was Mary Wash over Hopkins – what happened there? What was your strategy? How did you pick between unranked first rounds?
DL: So my main strategy is to pick a winner that I don’t think others will pick as that maximizes my chances of winning. Hence Wesleyan. For the rest, I use TennisRecruiting.net to try and gauge the strength of team, look at head-to-head matchups when possible and read the D3 bloggers’ opinions. I was not very good with the unranked first round matches (see above) but fortunately Wesleyan and Mike Fried saved the day for me. As for Mary Wash over Hopkins – I was shooting for one upset in my bracket and saw that they lost a tight 6-3 match with 8-7 doubles and several 3 setters in singles. I guess I should have gone with MIT over Bowdoin.
ASW: Who are your final four next year? Champion?
DL: Wesleyan, CMS, Emory and Middlebury – none of this year’s final four loses more than 1 senior and all have a good recruiting classes. However, I will pick MIT as my dark horse to make the Final Four. And Pomona Pitzer if the NCAA ever lets them play outside their region! Champion – Wesleyan of course. Unfortunately I doubt I will be the only one to chose them in bracket challenge so I doubt I repeat.
ASW: What are your thoughts on the future of Wesleyan women’s tennis?
DL: Unless something drastic changes at the program, the future of Wesleyan tennis is super-nova. They only graduate 1 senior and have 5 4-star recruits coming next year! Mike Fried has proven he can both recruit great players as well as coach them. Also the culture of the program is super strong. I liked how the men’s team was there to support/cheer on the women’s team at nationals even after they lost in the quarters and the Eudice Chong twitter video at 6:30 am her time says it all about that program.
ASW: Any Mike Fried stories?
DL: Unfortunately I don’t have any great Mike Fried stories. He’s such a nice guy that it’s really hard to call him out. For example, I had a friend whose son was looking to play D3 tennis. I connected them with Mike and while Wesleyan wasn’t a fit, he was super helpful in giving advice/suggestions and the son is now playing at another NESCAC school.
One thing about Mike that most people probably don’t know is that he plays two-handed off both sides in tennis and platform tennis, a la Monica Seles or Jan Michael Gambill. None of his players do that, so that’s pretty unique about Mike.
ASW: Now that is interesting! Since you two are so tight, I reached out to him to ask for his opinion on all of this and to try to dig up some dirt. Here’s what he had to say.
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ASW: Coach Fried, you must be proud of your team and all, but let’s talk about the real winner here, David Lee.
MF: Props to David for taking the women’s bracket challenge (in addition to his previous men’s win)! He’s becoming one of the dominant forces in DIII tennis!
ASW: Would you name your child after David Lee?
MF: I don’t actually know him that well.
ASW: Hm. OK. So what’s the dirt on him?
MF: He’s a great guy, ridiculously smart (well beyond picking us to win last week :)) He’s also a pretty close to world-class poker player and a pretty close to mediocre paddle tennis player 🙂
ASW: Is it annoying when David Lee texts you after a match?
MF: Not at all, love it!!
ASW: Any pressure knowing that David had picked Wesleyan to win it all?
MF: Thankfully I actually didn’t know he picked us until after the tournament; no way Polina holds up and closes that out if she knew in advance 🙂
ASW: So was David smart or lucky picking Wesleyan? Before the tournament, would YOU have picked Wesleyan?
MF: As I mentioned, David is ridiculously smart, so I’m giving him full credit for a brilliant pick! I would have probably picked against us, for fear of jinxing our chances if I called us to win!
ASW: He shared in our interview that you play two handed off both sides – if you were coaching someone who had never played tennis before, would you teach them to play with a two handed forehand?
MF: Ha!! So much for my two-handed secret. I would absolutely not recommend a two-handed forehand 🙂 While it’s really nice to take the ball on the rise, it’s so much harder to get set up to hit it once you get to be my age!
ASW: Finally, the most important question — who has better footwork, you or David?
MF: I’m going with David!
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ASW: There you have it, Mr. Lee. He was too nice to give me any real dirt. He used more emojis than I did and I’m supposed to be the bubbly one. Do you have any rebuttals for him? I think he called you a mediocre paddle tennis player up there. You going to take that from him?
DL: Unfortunately he’s probably right in calling me a mediocre paddle player. I think there’s even a video somewhere on YouTube that confirms it. That said, Coach Fried’s been a little busy coaching these days and hasn’t really been playing a lot of paddle, so maybe it’s time for a challenge match. I have a few ringers/national champions I can bring to the table!
As for footwork, I’d have to go with Mike – the synchronized fist pump/leg kick when Polina won her match in the finals was poetry in motion. HERE is the link to Eudice’s tweet again, watch Coach Fried between 0:32-0:37. He is in all black on the Wes side of the court.
ASW: I’m guessing he spent the past couple of weeks practicing that in front of a mirror! Finally, thank you SO much for taking the time to do this interview and congratulations again on your Bracket Challenge Championship. Any parting words of wisdom?
DL: Thanks to everyone at www.division3tennis.com for doing such a great job. If you can, please donate to the site to help keep it going and at a minimum, improve their web hosting technology 🙂 Finally when it comes to bracket challenges, take some risks. Going chalk is the easy route but then you are at risk to getting all your first round picks right in order to win. If you pick a reasonable underdog, your chances of winning are high if the horse comes in. Shoot – I’m probably never winning again now…