I noticed that Chris Chirico is no longer on the roster. Anybody have the scoop on that? At this point, we did not get Artem Ilyushin, and we lost Chirico?. We went from having a potentially very good roster to a strong at the top, but not very deep roster.

Chirico was released from the team for certain reasons, which I am not at liberty to say.

Should be fine with the russian and the frenchy though

What Russian?
Just freakin say who the new guys are. Its late January, no need to be secretive...

bigfoot IS the Russian...

All I know is the Russian is Alexi, Frenchy is Alexis. I dont know their last names

You don't know their last names but "oh we'll be fine with them"...
Great.

I know who the guys are, but like I said a couple weeks ago, I'm not saying anything until it's all official. But believe me, if everything works out, this will be the best team in a long time.

They are on the roster now so I guess it is official. Also list Calon Alpar, a transfer from Illinois.

Well everyone is in school. Still waiting for NCAA clearance on immediate eligibility. Should know shortly.

[This message has been edited by aggiedad/huskergrad (edited 1/24/2009 12:18p).]

Any projections on what the lineup will be 1-6?

Just depends on what the NCAA does. Conor, Austin, and Wil seem to be locks on the top three spots. With Chris gone, I would expect that Marcus Lunt will get a hard look. For sure he will be playing doubles. Kavon, Austin Klores,Colin Hoover, and Calon Alpar will all fight it out for court time. Hopefully we will get things cleared up sooner rather than later with the NCAA. If both Alexey and Alexis are cleared to play we could have a very strong team.

quote:

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Still waiting for NCAA clearance on immediate eligibility.

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this.

and just a little background on these guys so everyone can stop worrying.

alexey grigorov from russia, who has spent some time training in san antonio recently. one year ago today this guy was #5 in the world ITF.

alexis klegou from france, who has played close matches with jebavy (ITF high #3) and obry (ITF high #16) and has wins over puget (ITF high #18) and at least ten other guys in the top 100.

plus calon alpar, another texas guy, who transferred from illinois. he was a 5-star out of austin westlake and was a solid doubles player at the national level.

[This message has been edited by camden creek (edited 1/24/2009 2:06p).]

If everyone is eligible, it sounds like a top ten level team.

I see that Alexis and Alexey didn't play against Radford today. Will they be eligible next week for the ITA Indoor qualifying at Florida?

Speaking of Florida, they crushed Baylor 7-0 today.

It is interesting how much of a difference a 1 or 2 players can make. If the 2 new guys get cleared and are as good on the court as they are on paper, I think we have a legit top 10 team. If they don't get cleared we are in serious trouble. We will get dominated at the bottom if the line-up today is what we have to go with all season. I love the fight that Marcus Lunt shows (Kinda reminds me of Khalid and Matt Bain). I think he would make a very good #6, but will be overmatched at #4 against top teams. Let's just hope the new guys get cleared, and soon!

I would think that they are cleared because they are on the roster. I am thinking Denton and Mac just didnt want to play them because they have had no practice time compared to the other guys.

I think there are also some rules on the number of matches that can be played per season. Against easier opponents some of the top guys won't play.

unfortunately (or, fortunately, depending on how you look at it) there are no easy matches or weak opponents this year. other than ou and nebraska, i think radford was the lowest ranked team we will play this year. this schedule is easily top five in the country.

Thanks for throwing the Huskers under the bus, Camden.

don't look now, but the huskers are 3-1 with a win over a ranked team.

and to get back on topic, good news coming for the ags this week.

Ihave been told that Alexi has been cleared by the NCAA. Probably will start at four, and see where we go from there. No word on Alexis.

Was Alexi expected to play higher?

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Ihave been told that Alexi has been cleared by the NCAA. Probably will start at four, and see where we go from there. No word on Alexis

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This is really good news.

It seems Alexi could start at four, and see where we go. Alexis could also play pretty far up as he has been very good in practice. Still one small hurdle on Alexi, which should be taken care of soon, but with NCAA you never know, but our guys feel like he will be good to go shortly. The big hurdles have all been cleard. Alexis....we still don't know.

Alexey at the 4 or higher would be great b/c we can slide our 3 "scrubs" (I use that term affectionately) down the totem pole and hopefully at least 1 of them can pick up an occasional W in case any of our top 4 studs have an off day.

Also, hopefully we will start to consistently win the doubles point. No excuse to be losing that puppy.

If we get Alexis on board watch out!

Thanks for the updates. Results are pretty meaningless until one or both of these guys become eligible.

As long as these guys are near the caliber of the top 3, things will look pretty good. Doesn't matter where they play between 1-5.

Will make doubles much more realistic to pick up. Hard to win dubs w/ three studs.

We really only have 2 stud doubles players. Will Spencer is a stud in singles, but he is a pretty average doubles player.

who does will have to play doubles with? Maybe thats why you think he is an average dubs player

He serves ok and returns very well, but he doesn't volley particularly well. He will make them but he doesn't "stick" them.

I guess we may have celebrated too soon. Still some issues to clear up. Hopefully soon, but who knows.

i can tell you from experience the longer these things go the less likely they become eligible..

in '04 when i was coaching at TCU, we had a swedish kid that came in january and everything looked good... we waited and waited and appealed and he never got cleared.. that yr we were very good and got to #5 in the country, this kid would have played #1 for us so it was agonizing bc we couldve won it all, but the damn clearinghouse

the rules are even tougher now than back then, so i wouldnt count on having these guys, and then if it does turn out good then its a bonus..

Good news. Alexey cleared by NCAA. Should be good to go this weekend against Notre Dame and Louisville.

i found out the good news last night, hopefully he's well rested and can escape the first-match nerves!

and a big eff you goes out to the coaches who have been trying to keep him off the court all season. here's to hoping he's the last match standing and clinches the wins against your teams.

lol camden. that is the sad thing sometimes about college tennis. i guess the margins are just too thin, and the win at all cost mentality causes folks to make bad choices. Alexey is a heck of a young man, and is going to make this team much better in a hurry.