looks like the ags lost a tough doubles point in a tiebreaker at #2 dbls...so it looks like it could be a battle down to the wire, but the bad news is we won the dbls point last time against them and still lost 4 singles matches....the first two matches off the court will be key to the momentum and pressure, if we can still be in the match up 2-1 or down 2-1 then we are alive and just battle, but if we lose the first 2 matches off the court to go down 3-0 the guys might pack it in

4-8, 8-9, 8-9 in doubles!

tough!!

any shot for at large bid if they lose here?

is this male or female?

I only care about the wemmins!

men...jerry is getting rocked, and williams is down a set so just what i said would be trouble losing the first two matches is gonna happen...

ya the men will still get an at large bid...luckily, this is not like the basketball selection with a lot of different factors...the selection is based on the computer rankings and as long as you're ranked top 45 you're in...with the win over tulsa and michigan they're ranking will still be in top 45...if it were hoops we would be out based on finishing last in the conference, first round in tourny, and losing 6 in a row, but the computer ranking will get them in...

[This message has been edited by Ags76 (edited 4/27/2007 11:55a).]

well its not over yet....down 3-0, but looks like a win at 6 to make it 3-1 and the other 3 matches are gonna split sets....so it gives us a chance, but down 3-1 and having to win all 3 of 3rd sets is a tough task

tough loss, but anytime you get down 3-0 its almost impossible to come from behind and win the remaining matches...the only way to come back from 3-0 is to have won the first set in the other four matches and then close those out....but to be down 3-0 and then to have to come from behind in the other matches is too tough....the ncaa draw will determine if the ags have a chance or not...they will be one of the last at large teams in the filed but the one positive of that is you will play a tough first round against a team ranked between 18-25 but if you get through that you will play one of the lower top 16 seeds (13-16) and avoid the top 8 seeds which are unbeatable...

Wow. The Men's Team has now lost six matches in a row. Has that ever happened before?

How can we drop so fast? Did losing Coach Cass really hurt us this much?

its hard to say that this is all because of Cass, bc towards the end he was not as involved as he always was but this is a huge step down for the program...the one thing with cass is that he never had to totally rebuild the was never a down year, every year they would compete with Baylor for the title and make the sweet 16, some years were better and be top 10 but never outside the top 30 and especially not in the 40s....time will tell

Cory - thanks for the input on this and other tennis threads. It's nice to have some solid information without having to wonder and assume.

Interesting that he inserted Brad into this Match. How many times has he played this year? Maybe trying to shake things up a bit?

ya its also intresting that he was able to insert him into the #4 spot...the coaches have a meeting to discuss lineups and its tough to put a relatively new player into the lineup higher than #6....most teams would red flag this as a semi stack since williams did not have an established record and to put him above bain and nallon who have been regulars in the lineup is a definetly trying to shake things up and i bet looking back at the season #4 has been a position that has been trouble for the ags so you try to insert a wild card someone that probably wont win but will keep your #5 and #6 in a good position to win their matches and try to get a 2-for-1 and maybe you win at #4...

quote:

---

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Texas A&M's club tennis team beat Florida in the semifinals and Virginia in the championship match to win the 2007 USTA National Campus Championship at Cary Tennis Park on Saturday.

The title is A&M's fourth straight and fifth in six years. A&M also beat Virginia in last year's final and in the 2004 final. A&M has now won 29 straight matches at the event over the past four years and has reached the last six finals.

---

At least this a positive for Aggie tennis.

Is anyone familiar with the level of play on the club team? How good are they?

The reason why I ask, is that if we have the best club team in the country, and the worst real team in the conference, I'm wondering if we shouldn't let the old club team come up to the show for a match or two.

They might get pounded, but at least they would be enthusiastic.

Too be brutally honest. A&M has no business getting into the NCAA tourney. The computer must love A&M b/c they lose to Nebraska and only fall 4 or 5 spots, finish last in their conference, etc. They are not a top 50 team, I know thats hard to swallow for you aggie fans, but its the unfortunate truth for this season. A&M has always under achieved in my opinion. They have had teams that were capable of making final four appearances and be consistent top 10 teams, but they never had the team concept down. They always had one or two guys who didnt get it and were playing for themselves or how they felt that day. If Lester Cook was a true Aggie why did he bail on the team with only one season left. The days of Madden and El Dorry are gone unless Denton and the leprechaun get it going next season with a slew of new probably foreign recruits. Its says something when the Tx Tech coach with lesser facilities, lesser budget, lesser prestige turns down the Aggies for some reason (maybe he reallys love Lubbock..LOL). I wish them the best, but I will consider it a tragedy for the team that gets left out b/c A&M stole there at-large bid b/c they are the big school with lots of clout. There are many more deserving schools who deserve the oppurtunity to play in the tourney. Good Luck next year ......guys

The year Lester decided to go Pro and give up his eligibility, I thought we had a great chance to win it all. Go back and look at that season and we are just an LC short of making some serious, serious noise. Like you said tr, we just can't quite figure out how to get over the hump, now we're falling down the hump!

I don't know about national title, but it could have been the best team that A&M ever fielded.

That team went 17-9 and ended up ranked #18 (was ranked as high as 9 early in the season), which doesn't exactly scream "one player away from greatness," but consider...

Lester ended up the previous year ranked #8 in the country and was only getting better. His leaving also broke up the #3 doubles team in the country (with Ante).

So you would have had Lester at 1, Jerry at 2 - and mind you this isn't the shadow of his former self, burned out on tennis Jerry, but the phenom that he was when he first got here who ended up the season ranked #14 as a freshman.

At 3 you have Ante - pretty nice to have an all-american and a guy who had been ranked as high as 6 in the country playing 3 for you. That would make, arguably, the strongest 1-2-3 in the country. Definitely a team that could give Ze Germanz at Baylor a run for their money.

At 4-5 you would have had Wooten and Joelson. Wooten was really coming into his own (what in the world has happened since then?!?). He really held down the fort at 3 that year and even managed a ranking at one point. He could have only done better at 4. Almost the same exact story for Joelson, who went 8-1 at #4 that year, while struggling (1-5) at 3. You've got to think he would have gotten it done at 5.

Dakki might have stayed motivated and not tanked if he was on a better team. He had all the talent in the world, but it's hard to be motivated when you're nearly 30, playing with a bunch of kids, knowing that you're playing for 2nd place to Baylor. In any case, you think that a guy who was ranked 103 in the preseason poll might have been able to win some at 6. He was certainly capable of it, injured, demotivated -- whatever.

Our doubles lineup would have been Lester/Ante at 1 (automatic), and some combination of Joelson, Wooten, Jerry, and either Bain or the Malm - of which you could make some very solid teams.

We had a lot of 3-4 losses that year (UVA, Duke, USC, Tech, and a 2-4 loss to OSU). There is obviously no way of knowing how having Lester would have affected those outcomes, but you have to think that those were all winnable with Lester. That puts our record at 22-4 with our only real beatings being at the hands of Pepperdine, LSU, and Baylor (twice). There is really no way of knowing how positively it might have affected the team had Lester stayed and allowed everyone to play one spot down. It would have still been tough to beat Baylor that year, but I think that we could have definitely made it further in the tournament, as the better record might have put us further away from them in the draw.

realist...i do agree that this team probably doesnt deserve to be in the way they are playing now, but the computer rankings show no bias...they take your best wins point value and subtract your loses point value...the do have good wins over tulsa top 20 and a solid michigan team, the other teams ranked behind obviously have not beaten any big teams...

as far as the best team goes, my vote goes for

Madden
Newport
From
Caradima
Hubbell
Davis

Madden/Caradima
Newport/Davis
Hubbell/Skube

this team made the Elite Eight and lost to a TCU team they beat in the regular season....they had wins over #2 TCU and #3 Duke in one weekend...definitely should have won agasint TCU to make the Final Four, but Davis didnt show up that day losing doubles 8-2, and singles in straight sets to a guy he beat bad earlier in the year...

realist...i do agree that this team probably doesnt deserve to be in the way they are playing now, but the computer rankings show no bias...they take your best wins point value and subtract your loses point value...the do have good wins over tulsa top 20 and a solid michigan team, the other teams ranked behind obviously have not beaten any big teams...

as far as the best team goes, my vote goes for

Madden
Newport
From
Caradima
Hubbell
Davis

Madden/Caradima
Newport/Davis
Hubbell/Skube

this team made the Elite Eight and lost to a TCU team they beat in the regular season....they had wins over #2 TCU and #3 Duke in one weekend...definitely should have won agasint TCU to make the Final Four, but Davis didnt show up that day losing doubles 8-2, and singles in straight sets to a guy he beat bad earlier in the year...

Lester's Dad gave up his eligibility because Cass took away Lester's scholarship to help fund freshman opportunities. Cass did the same to Newport that I know of and to Joelson and Wooten most recently. Not a real motivation for seniors. Guess he just wasn't as creative as Knoll to save scholarship money.

Is that a true story about Lester's scholarship? Not to take sides, but isn't his dad pretty well off? Not that this justifies taking his scholarship away, but you'd think that if money weren't a big issue, he'd want to see his kid play on the best team possible. I don't understand why more "rich" parents of athletes don't suck it up and take care of their kid's tuition for the good of the team...and I might be wrong, but even if an athlete is on a partial (as most male tennis players are), isn't the rest of the tuition in-state, rendering it very affordable? Anyway...

CHub That was a great team. Too bad we can't get the ESPN computers to do a virtual match up of that team and the "what if?" Lester cook stays as a senior team. Try to put aside your bias and predict the outcome...

Madden/Caradima vs. Cook/Matijevic
Newport/Davis vs. Joelson/Wooten
Hubbell/Skube vs. Makowski/Bain

Madden vs. Cook
Newport vs. Makowski
From vs. Matijevic
Caradima vs. Wooten
Hubbell vs. Joelson
Davis vs. Dakki

I say Madden wins a close one at 1, Jerry and Ante take 2 and 3, Dimitru wins at 4, Hubbell gets SMOKED at 5...just kidding I'll give Hubbell the tough 3-setter at 5, and Dakki plays up to his potential and his experience is the difference at 6.

Whose doubles is stronger?

here's my analysis and no bias, because I was already done with that team just know all those guys...

Madden in college is better...Cook on the circuit is better so I say Madden
Newport beats Makowski..Newp is most talented guy we have had
Ante wins - too much game
Caradima wins - but Wooten is a bad matchup for him so toss up
Hubbell wins if the match is played at home and the crowd is there
Davis wins - probably one of the most prolific background for a 6 and only twice...

I'll go with Cook/Ante in a breaker bc Caradima serve is by far the weakest on the court
Davis/Newp - not even close they could have played 1
Hubbell/Skube - very tough team mentally and have the lefty edge and better competitors

If they dont show bias, it still prevents smaller programs that lack the prestige of a major conference school. A small mid major school cannot schedule the teams that the major conference teams can. Big schools do not want to play talented mid major schools because it reflects horribly on them which I totally understand. Im just saying a school like Texas A&M will start out very high pre season and will have a loaded schedule to where if they lose it does not really hurt and then they schedule a couple of ass beatings to put on some teams to boost there wins. (ex. When A&M would play TAMU-CC, UTPA, Trinity in one day, obviously the Trinity win does not count but you get my point. They take up one date to get two D-1 wins. Of course I think TAMU-CC beats the aggies this year. They are the stronger which is just a shame. I could go on, but my fingers are tired. When I get motivated some more I will explain further.

P.S. If the Aggie club team ever took the court against the real Aggie Tennis team, I would compare it to Pro vs Joes. The level is so drastically different it would be boring to watch. The real Aggie team could go out and get ripped the night before, show up and put a beat down on the club team so we can stop that discussion right now.

ok, im really done now

tennis is much diff than b-ball...there are no midmajor teams that deserve to get in the tourny that dont win the conf tourny...AMCC will win their tourny and get in, VCU will win their tourny and get in...there are no midmajor teams on the bubble that get left out...midmajors are terrible besides the 2-3 that are pretty good and the get in the tourny as an automatic bid....teams like southern ill, wichita st, bradley, etc are so terrible in tennis thats why no one schedules them....all the bubble teams are from major conferences because they are so much better than the midmajors that dont win their conference...so teams that might get left out are ASU, Penn St, Wisconsn, vandy, GT....midmajors do not deserve 2 bids however, C-USA is not a midmajor in tennis they are strong and will get several teams in bc of ranking

The point Im trying to make is that year in and year out the same teams are pre season ranked high no matter what they did last season, I understand it is the same for basketball, but what Im saying is that there pre season ranking and early rankings are so high it is virtually impossible for them to fall low enough to not get in by virtue of the schedule they are able to play and the caliber of teams on there schedule. Losses do not hurt them and then they are able to schedule easy wins. What I am saying is that smaller schools that play in weaker conferences get hurt when the get into conference play because there schedule strength is so poor. Most of these schools do not have the budgets to travel around the country to the perennial powers like A&M etc. I played on one of these teams where we were confined more by our budget then the strength of our team.

The point Im trying to make is that year in and year out the same teams are pre season ranked high no matter what they did last season, I understand it is the same for basketball, but what Im saying is that there pre season ranking and early rankings are so high it is virtually impossible for them to fall low enough to not get in by virtue of the schedule they are able to play and the caliber of teams on there schedule. Losses do not hurt them and then they are able to schedule easy wins. What I am saying is that smaller schools that play in weaker conferences get hurt when the get into conference play because there schedule strength is so poor. Most of these schools do not have the budgets to travel around the country to the perennial powers like A&M etc. I played on one of these teams where we were confined more by our budget then the strength of our team.

what i'm saying is the teams in these smaller conferences that do not win their tourny for the auto bid, are not even close to good enough to be in regardless of preseason rankings and scheduling...every small conference school that we played when i was coaching that wasnt the best team in their conference and even the best team in their conference we hammered (utpa, utsa, nau, wich st, uta, marq, depaul, slu, nau, montana st, nmsu, etc) none of these type of teams are better and deserve to be in the tourny...i am all for the small conferences and in some sports they can compete and beat the big boys (boise, tcu, etc) but tennis is such a small sport that budget is a big reason they can't compete but those are the breaks of big $$ athletics, its not the small schools fault but in tennis they can't compete and do no deserve more than one bid and the reason they arent ranked is bc they arent good enough...most big schools play many smaller school during the season, especially as double headers so these schools do get the oppty to play and if they get a win then they will be ranked with a chance for at large bid...

[This message has been edited by AgTenGod (edited 5/1/2007 2:12p).]

Congrats to Coach Denton and the Aggie men on getting in the tournament!!

Tough draw in Baylor site, but new life for the Aggies.

Keeps up the NCAA streak started in 1994 of consecutive appearances!

[This message has been edited by AgTenGod (edited 5/1/2007 2:13p).]

Women have a tough road through Baylor as well. Tough draw for both teams.

LOL...well congrats Ags for getting in. At least you dont have to travel across the country to get thumped. Its hard to understand how Denton considers it a toss up when A&M has lost its last 6, it would have been better for him to say the Ags were underdogs, anything above that is a gross overstatement of what the Ags are. Any guesses on who will win Rice vs Baylor? I hope the Ags can get an entire team effort this time. Rice is a far better team then Nebraska, OU., etc. Gig em'!

sorry double post

[This message has been edited by tennisrealist (edited 5/1/2007 6:09p).]