Pharm Frog
Full Member
Ill go with what’s behind curtain number 4
TCU Men's Tennis - 2020-2021
- Thread starter Jared7
- Start date
Ill go with what’s behind curtain number 4
Longfrog
Active Member
Jared7
Active Member
Ohio State is a real enigma this season. On the one hand, they're unseeded in the NCAA's, the ITA computers have been roughly treating them all season, their resume just doesn't compare to the top ranked teams and they haven't played many tough foes (meaning SEC, Big12, ACC or Pac 12) teams). This all stems from the fact that the Big10 adopted a conference-team-only schedule and the Buckeyes didn't make the Indoor Nationals early in the season which would have given them 3 top opponents. On the other hand, they're Ohio State, which virtually always wins the Big 10 and the polls (meaning actual observers who use the "eye test") have been ranking them highly all season. Basically, all season long, they've been winning big against Big 10 teams and correspondingly been dropping in the rankings; which has caused much angst in the ITA (although they never went public about it). As the UTR shows, they have top quality experienced players - and their easy W at the Wake regional shows that. They are ranked #35th and Wake was ranked 9th. Maybe the Buckeyes should be ranked around 9th (or higher).
Here is their schedule: They have W's over MTSU, Michigan State (twice), Northwestern, Illinois, Penn State, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State (again), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Penn State (again), Purdue (again), Indiana (again), Michigan State (again), Michigan, Michigan State (again), Northwestern (again), VCU and Wake in the NCAA's. Their only L's are to Virginia (in the ITA Kickoff), Michigan and Illinois (in the Big 10 tourney final). That is, they're 22-3 compared to our 18-7 record. They are obviously a very good team, but their schedule was not strong. Kind of like football in 2010 - except the teams are reversed. And this year, it's the Buckeyes who are playing with a chip on their shoulders because they've (arguably) been dissed by the rankings system all year long.
In singles, they are lead by John McNally, Cannon Kingsley, James Trotter, Justin Boulais, Kyle Seelig and J.J. Tracy. Robert Cash plays on their #2 doubles team.
In theory, according to the rankings, Arizona State is way better than OSU. Somehow, I think that's not the case.
Here is their schedule: They have W's over MTSU, Michigan State (twice), Northwestern, Illinois, Penn State, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State (again), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Penn State (again), Purdue (again), Indiana (again), Michigan State (again), Michigan, Michigan State (again), Northwestern (again), VCU and Wake in the NCAA's. Their only L's are to Virginia (in the ITA Kickoff), Michigan and Illinois (in the Big 10 tourney final). That is, they're 22-3 compared to our 18-7 record. They are obviously a very good team, but their schedule was not strong. Kind of like football in 2010 - except the teams are reversed. And this year, it's the Buckeyes who are playing with a chip on their shoulders because they've (arguably) been dissed by the rankings system all year long.
In singles, they are lead by John McNally, Cannon Kingsley, James Trotter, Justin Boulais, Kyle Seelig and J.J. Tracy. Robert Cash plays on their #2 doubles team.
In theory, according to the rankings, Arizona State is way better than OSU. Somehow, I think that's not the case.
Longfrog
Active Member
I think they're really good. The early loss to UVA was surprising at the time, but less so after seeing UVA shred the ACC. They lost to Michigan and Illinois, but also beat those teams this year, too. The one place they've struggled somewhat is in doubles, which is historically a huge strength for them. There will be a ton of pressure on us to get that point. I think the strongest part of their lineup is at 2 and 4 with Kingsley and Seelig, which matches our strength. I'm hoping Fomba can play better than he did on Sunday and Fearnley can get off to a better start, but I don't know. Most obvious path to 4 points for me is dubs, Gray, Jong and one of the Czechs.
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Purp
Active Member
Are you fat shaming? Plus, have you ever met anybody who didn't have a death wish willing to go after Big Momma?
Purp
Active Member
So we'll be favored in exactly 0 of our singles matching against Bucky?
Longfrog
Active Member
You're gonna need to do some coalition building. How about Mother's Day as a retrograde assault on same sex/gender fluid parents. Not gonna play in Texas, i grant you. But i'm in a blue state. Puts the libs in a real bind, plus you get the anti-natalists no questions asked.
Longfrog
Active Member
Maybe not but a couple caveats. One, those rankings are pretty close and UTR isn't that finely tuned. Most are practically toss ups. Second, college rankings are tough because you rarely take losses against bad teams. If you're having a bad day, you can just run out the clock and wait for your team to get to four points, and you haven't officially lost. As Jared said, OSU has played a very easy schedule compared to ours.
Jared7
Active Member
If you go by UTR, yes. If you go by the ITA rankings, no. The current ITA singles rankings for TCU are: (12) Alastair Gray; (17) Luc Fomba; (65) Sander Jong; (94) Tomas Jirousek; and (110) Jacob Fearnley. The current ITA singles rankings for Ohio State are: (120) Cannon Kingsley (and that's it). So the ITA says that TCU should win every singles match and the UTR says the opposite. The UTR purports to evaluate every single match played everywhere (even club tourneys if they send it in); the ITA purports to evaluate every college match, but in reality, its algorithm (like the one for team competition) evaluates matches between ranked opponents.
Usually, there is a fall season, with a series of individual tourneys. This past fall, that barely existed and players, if they played, did mostly pro tourneys and there weren't many of those. Usually, that creates a base of rankings on which the Spring season then builds. Usually, teams play somewhere around 30 matches per season; this year, that's closer to 25. So the ITA just doesn't have as much data as it normally does and the data it does have benefits those teams that played multiple OOC matches. Ohio State didn't, so their players played few matches against ranked players.
The NCAA selection committee made some adjustments, but not many. The Buckeyes' top player - John McNally - made the 64-player individual singles field; as did Cannon Kingsley (their only ITA ranked player), but no other players did. OSU was ranked at 35, which should have been a 3 seed, but they got a 2 seed. After losing to Illinois in the Big 10 tourney final, they didn't get a hosting slot. Illinois did, but got the privilege of playing Florida next round. The Buckeyes got us. So you can see why they're upset. And why they have something to prove.
I'm inclined to believe that they are slightly over-ranked in the UTR because all their individual W's counted and massively under-ranked in the ITA because only their W's against ranked teams and players really counted. (And counting Wake, Virginia and Illinois and Michigan, they were 3-3 as a team against those). It'll be the battle of rankings systems (kind of like Sagarin v. Dunkel if you analogize to football) between TCU and Ohio State next Monday.
JogginFrog
Active Member
Has the obligatory comment been made yet about OSU's Little-Sisters-of-the-Poor scheduling?
Anyway, never underestimate nuns. Some of them are ringers.
https://dungiljan.blogspot.com/2017/08/from-tennis-pro-to-nun.html
Anyway, never underestimate nuns. Some of them are ringers.
https://dungiljan.blogspot.com/2017/08/from-tennis-pro-to-nun.html
Jared7
Active Member
Norrie beat qualifier Pablo Carballes Baena 4 and 4 earlier this morning in Rome so he's on to the Round of 32 in the last big clay tournament prior to the French Open.
Alex Rybakov is still in Spain and he'll play Martin Cuevas shortly in the Round of 32 of the main draw (he's seeded 8th) of the ITF tourney in Valldoreix.
Alex Rybakov is still in Spain and he'll play Martin Cuevas shortly in the Round of 32 of the main draw (he's seeded 8th) of the ITF tourney in Valldoreix.
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Pharm Frog
Full Member
Now that’s a name from the past. AJ is from that relatively small window of my life when I actually followed tennis fairly closely. And I recall rooting for Andrea Jaeger (close to the same age). Had no idea where her life and faith had taken her.
jake102
Active Member
Eight
Member
this reads like a chapter in dr zhivago
Jared7
Active Member
Yeah, 2 and 3 to Davidovich Fokina. Not a good result. This bodes ill going into the French.
Perhaps this encapsulates Ohio's State's entire complaint against the ITA system - Cannon Kingsley, their only ranked player at #120, is 27-0 this season. He's amongst numerous players with records like 8-12 and he's undefeated. And all that got him was being placed barely within the rankings and a NCAA singles bid only because of Ohio State's bullying of the NCAA selection committee.
Luc Fomba was named the Big 12 Player of the Year!
Jared7
Active Member
TCU and Ohio State have only played each other twice in history and the series is tied 1-1. The Frogs took the match in 1992 6-0 back in the Tut Bartzen era in Montgomery, Alabama and the Buckeyes won 4-3 in 2017 in the quarterfinals of the NCAA's at Athens, Georgia. The Frogs won the doubles point, Cam Norrie beat Mikael Torpegaard and Alex Rybakov beat J.J. Wolf, and the match was tied 3-all, but we weren't able to come up with a 4th point to make the Final 4 that year.
The U.K. media is saying that one of the reasons Norrie pulled out of the Madrid tourney and didn't do well in Rome is because of recurring blisters on his feet.
The U.K. media is saying that one of the reasons Norrie pulled out of the Madrid tourney and didn't do well in Rome is because of recurring blisters on his feet.
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Pharm Frog
Full Member
Does anyone know if OSU has been receiving massages? Improper benefits?
jake102
Active Member
4-3 you mean?
Geez getting two wins off Torp and Wolf, winning the doubles point and still losing is remarkable. I guess Norrie beating Torp isn't that surprising, but Rybakov getting Wolf is a nice upset.
Jared7
Active Member
Cam Norrie is fitting in one more tourney prior to the French - he's scheduled to play at Lyon on Monday against Corentin Moutet at a time TBD.
Alex Rybakov lost in singles in the first round at Valldoreix (Catalonia; Spain) a few days ago, but he and Martin Damm were teaming in doubles again and, this morning, they just won the title with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) W in the finals. This is Rybo's 2nd doubles title this year; having won with Nuno Borges in Turkey a month or so ago. There's another ITF Futures tourney next week in Spain - I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing he'll stay there and play in it.
Alex Rybakov lost in singles in the first round at Valldoreix (Catalonia; Spain) a few days ago, but he and Martin Damm were teaming in doubles again and, this morning, they just won the title with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) W in the finals. This is Rybo's 2nd doubles title this year; having won with Nuno Borges in Turkey a month or so ago. There's another ITF Futures tourney next week in Spain - I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing he'll stay there and play in it.
