The mens match has been moved to noon today at the Mitchell Tennis Center. Louisville is ranked about 12 and really took it to us last years on their indoor courts. The Women play at one. Obviously the wind will be a factor. Should be interesting.

Check signals. I have just been told that the mens match has been postponed until 11am on Monday....still not certain about the ladies...they may be going indoors at the Mitchell Elementary indoor facility....points out again our need for an indoor facility on campus.

Find a big donor and the indoor facility will be built. Still quite a bit short from what I have heard.

you are correct...don't see it happening anytime soon....very sad....

7-0 sweep of #12 Louisville with a new lineup. Pretty impressive.

Great win for the Aggies. Louisville has had some impressive win. No way I would have predicted a sweep. Sets us up well for a big weekend with OU and OSU coming to town.

Bautista seems to really be coming along.
I guess they are sticking w/ Beef over Lunt.

Nice win for the guys today. Are we that good, clicking that well, or is Louisville over-ranked at 12?

If you're referring to the win, I'd say we're that good. We've been that good all year, and the lineup is finally clicking at the bottom half.

If you're referring to the 7-0 sweep, it's hard to say. I'd imagine that putting the match off a day like that affects the away team a lot more than the home team, which could've been a factor. Our guys are just coming off of Spring Break, maybe a little mental recharge from the rigors of a student-athlete. I think we'll get a little bit better feel about what the 7-0 means over the next few matches.

I really think we are fairly good. I know this, we are deep. When you have guys like Marcus, Colin, and John Lewis unable to break into the top six on a consistent basis, we have some guys up above who can play. I don't know, however, how much difference there is between teams 5 to 25 this year in college tennis. Every match shapes up as a war. We suffered the effects of the Fresno loss for a while, and even though we thought we would be better indoors, we lost to Texas, Illinois, and Ohio State indoors. The kids are looking forward to warmer weather, and hopefully it will be nice this weekend. OU is improved under Coach Roddick, and OSU is always a battle, even if we have already beaten them earlier in the year. Should be interesting.

It's funny how on this board, people continually clamor for a better indoor facility. But I don't think I've ever seen us play well indoors. I mean, it'd be cool to have, but would it really improve the program?

It would make it easier for us to go play indoors at Ohio State, Illinois, national indoors, etc. Plus it would be a nice addition for a bid to host more national tournaments, and would let us practice year round, through the heat or cold or rain, etc.

Totally agree bigfoot. Until we get this thing done, we are going to continue to struggly indoors. We won't get another shot at the NCAA's until we get it built, I don't think. This falls in the category of "I hope I live long enough to see it happen"....lol, I am not getting any younger either.

But does the cost really justify building it? I mean, hosting NCAA's can't pay off financially for the cost of an indoor facility. And are the Mitchell Elem. courts really not good enough to at least get quality practice on? I mean, I know they're not outstanding, but they've gotta be good enough, for practice, no?

The courts at Mitchell Elementary are not climate controlled, so you technically may not be able to use them for a match because of the temperature rules. Also, there are only 3, so a team is limited to how many players can play. Also, being a public facility that is open to just about anyone, and is broken into quite often, the condition of the courts can sometimes be subpar.

If there had been no donation to the track or football program, would you have been able to justify those buildings being built for the purpose of holding a national championship or for practice in any weather? I think so. Same deal here.

Right, I understand not being able to play matches there. But the response was given that having an indoor court helps prepare us to beat Illinois and Ohio State and whoever else that play on indoor courts. I mean, being inconvenienced for a match because of rain is one thing. But does avoiding match inconveniences justify it is the question?

To me, when you play in South Texas, and have access to an indoor facility (even if it's not a great one) for them to train in, it's not worth spending that much money on a huge state-of-the-art facility.

Comparing tennis to football is going to be a losing battle every time. Saying "if it was worth it for football, then why isn't it for tennis?" And the track facility was a whole different issue. We needed the track facility to get Henry to come to Texas A&M, and with Henry came the national championships. If building an indoor facility was going to bring Nick B, or Brad Gilbert, or whoever the best tennis coach in the nation is to campus, and he was going to bring 3 out of the nation's top 6 players with him every year, then I'd say hell yeah! But I feel like the response is going to be "we're just fine with Coach Denton."

If we're not challenging for NC's with a good coach and an outstanding outdoor facility in a warm-weather state, then an indoor facility isn't going to push us over the top.

I think the solution would be to spend some money improving the Mitchell Elem. facility (enclose it, put in central air/heat. Beyond that, I think the best hope is to build some good indoor courts with a fairly bare-bones structure around it that was climate controlled. It doesn't have to be huge and have all of the bells and whistles. Mitchell already has plenty of those. Don't need more locker rooms, don't need more coaches offices, don't need massive grandstands. Just 6 courts, a shell, roll-away bleachers, and a basic heating/cooling system. The cost of that couldn't possibly be very high, and it would be adequate for training and as a backup in the event of rain. Maybe talk rec-sports in to footing some percentage of it. How much could a building like that run, a million? I imagine that they could get a huge portion of that just for someone who wanted to get their name on something but couldn't afford a world-class indoor track or a huge lecture hall.

I guess what I'm hearing is "without an indoor facility like Ohio State's, we can't be as good as Ohio State." Ohio State needs that state of the art indoor facility to be good, because it's below freezing from November until March. We don't need it for one rainy match in April and 2 practices over winter break where it dips into the 40's. THis isn't a sport vs. sport thing. This is a "what can we spend $6 million on to improve the team," and I don't think the first thing on the list is a big-time indoor facility.

[This message has been edited by bigfoot10s (edited 4/23/2010 9:07p).]

bigfoot - How about you stop your btching and pony up with a donation?

[This message has been edited by bigfoot10s (edited 4/23/2010 9:07p).]