• The KillerFrogs

TCU Men's Tennis 2021-2022

Jared7

Active Member
Texas swamped OU 7-0 for the 7th straight time last night and solidified their claim on the #3 seed in next week's Big 12 tourney in Ft. Worth. It looks like the seeds will be (1) TCU; (2) Baylor, (3) Texas; (4) OU or Tech; (5) OU or Tech and (6) Oklahoma State. Tomorrow will determine all that with TCU at OU, Texas at OSU and Baylor at Tech. TCU will likely face the OU-Tech winner and then, if we advance, either Texas or Baylor. Nationwide, conference play is ending this weekend; among some of the matches are, Bama-Tennessee; North Carolina-Wake (today) and Stanford-Cal, Princeton-Harvard (tomorrow) and A&M-Florida, Auburn-Tennessee, Michigan-Ohio State and BC-Virginia (Sunday).

But first up, we've got the #38 Sooners tomorrow in Norman at 5:00 p.m. (CDT) in our conference finale for a chance at an outright Big 12 championship and an undefeated conference season. OU is 13-8 on the year with W's over Bryant, Incarnate Word, Purdue, ACU, Nebraska, Illinois, Wichita State, Nebraska, Alabama, Drake, A&M, Louisiana and Oklahoma State and L's to Mississippi, Baylor, Arizona, Tulsa, Texas, Tech, Baylor (again) and Texas (again). All-time, we're 18-9 against the Sooners and we're currently on a 9-match win streak; starting in 2015, so Roditi has turned this even series into a substantial TCU advantage. We beat them 4-0 last year in the Big 12 tourney, with W's at doubles and from Fearnley, Jirousek and Paroulek most recently. They'll be motivated because they're probably on the bubble for the NCAA's and need a late W to assure their bid (and a W over the Frogs would do that).

Alastair Gray just lost in the quarters at Nottingham to Harris 7-5, 0-6, 2-6.
 

Jared7

Active Member
Guilty as charged. But in my defense, I've only really thought that TCU was the best team twice - in 2017 and now. We won the Indoors. We have the most impressive resume in the ITA ranking system, with 6 W's over Top 7 teams and 8 W's over Top 12 teams. Other than Michigan, we have W's over each of the other top contenders. In my view, how can we not be #1?

On the other hand, I watched the most recent Cracked Racquets show/podcast, and those guys are not sold on the Frogs. They have us 4th and were at pains to say that we were "top tier" and that we're certainly going to get a Top 8 seed and would be projected to make it to Champaign-Urbana, but they are far higher on Florida (they've dominated the SEC and their early L's to TCU and Texas were indoors while they were injured and Riffice is Gruskin's "most valuable player" and an automatic point...blah blah blah) and Ohio State (what they did in January and February was almost unprecedented and can't be erased, and if not Riffice,J.J. Tracy is the most impressive player...). Now, CR is headquartered in Indianapolis and has contracts with the Big 10 and SEC to broadcast their matches weekly, and Gruskin himself is a Michigan Wolverine and the other guys (Halioris and Stachowiak) are SEC/ACC influenced (and Stachowiak's younger brother Nick played at Baylor after starting at Duke), so I suppose we could lay it off to SEC/Big 10 bias. But they're not alone. The USTA poll has TCU 4th; CTR's own independent rankings have us 4th. Suffice it to say, much of the college tennis world still harbors doubts about TCU - other than the Indoors, our history is to be Top 8 but go no further. Indoor National Champs actually win the NCAA's less than half the time, and in recent years, only Virginia did it multiple times.

From the Michigan/Gruskin perspective, we may deserve to be ranked #1 because of the peculiarities of the ITA ranking system, but we're not necessarily the best team or the favorite for the NCAA's. Roditi's scheduling philosophy means a tougher SOS, but we're beatable. We continue to have doubters.
 

Longfrog

Active Member
On the other hand, I watched the most recent Cracked Racquets show/podcast, and those guys are not sold on the Frogs.
They drive me nuts. I try to see their side of it, and it's true that we had a couple of very unimpressive performances at home vs UM and Baylor. But we obviously have the best resume over the entire year, which ought to carry a ton of weight at this point in the season. They have us at 4 and Baylor at 5, and they were at pains to explain why they had us ranked ahead, even though our body of work is clearly better. I don't think they have a regional or conference bias, but It's pretty clear that they came into the season thinking Florida, Ohio State, and Baylor were the best teams on paper, and if it's at all close those teams will get the benefit of the doubt. (They also loved Tennessee, but when the Vols lost Bicknell for the season, I think that moved them off their radar a bit.)

My counter on Ohio State would be, yes, they are awesome at home like they always are. They have one (1) win away from home vs a top 10 team when they beat Wake at indoors. Florida is scary too, but the SEC is down this year, and they got to face Tennessee when Monday was out. The fact they've played two 4-3 matches vs UT, as badly as the Horns have struggled this year, says a lot.

But the men's game is super deep this year and I think they would acknowledge that it wouldn't be a shock to see any of 5 or 6 teams win the outdoor title.
 
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Longfrog

Active Member
Jong now 6-0 this season in 3 setters.

No Aguilar in singles, and I believe they played with their A lineup for the first time in a while. The Vives result was the only real dud, but overall it was a struggle to get to 4. Chance we'll have to do it again next weekend if they can get by Tech.
 
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