by Bobby Knight | Jan 1, 2016 | Blog
When Texas A&M made the transition from the Big 12 to the SEC in the summer of 2012 they were coming off their first losing season since 1997 and it had been 10 years since the Aggies had won a conference or division title. Fast forward to the summer of 2015 and in the past 3 years the Aggies have won a West Division title (2013), a Conference Tournament title (2014), and another Conference Tournament title with a share of the Regular Season title (2015) to boot. (Note: SEC discontinued divisions after the 2013 season and combined everyone into one group)I don’t know if it was the SEC branding or the incoming talent (latter) but the Aggies have...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 29, 2015 | Blog
When you talk about the greatest college tennis programs in the land, Georgia is always going to be in the conversation. Georgia boasts 6 NCAA National Titles (85, 87, 99, 01, 07, 08) with current head coach Manny Diaz, who is now in his 28th year as head coach of the Bulldogs, the architect of the last 4. The last time Tulsa hosted the NCAAs (2008) Georgia won it all so Manny Diaz is probably hoping that lighting strikes again this year. Diaz returns 5 singles starters from last year’s team which finished ranked #8 after falling to then #1 Oklahoma 4-2 in the NCAA quarterfinals. Georgia and Texas A&M shared the SEC regular season title after...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 27, 2015 | Blog
Optimism is in the air on The Farm as year two of the Paul Goldstein era has many of the Cardinal faithful believing that a return to prominence is much closer than originally anticipated. Stanford was the undisputed king of men’s college tennis from 1977 to 2000 winning an astonishing 15 National Championships but since 2000 the Cardinal have only made it past the quarterfinals once (2003) and have only advanced to the Final 16 site 8 times. The last time Stanford made it to the Round of 16 was 2012 so the current 3-year drought is the program’s longest since the dual-match format was instituted in 1977.If you look at the TRN’s...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 24, 2015 | Blog
No team has been more consistent over the years than UCLA with the Bruins the only team to make the NCAA Round of 16 every year since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999. UCLA head coach Billy Martin enters his 23rd year at the helm with 1 National Title (2005) and 4 National Runner-Ups (96/99/04/13) in his previous 22 years.Martin only loses 1 player from last year’s Round of 16 team though that 1 guy was a valuable one with Dennis Mkrtchian going 15-5 in dual-match play with the majority of his matches coming at #2 singles.UCLA returns everyone else with Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki expected to anchor the singles and doubles lineup....
by Bobby Knight | Dec 24, 2015 | Blog
During USC’s stretch of dominance, which saw them win 4 National Titles in 5 years, one of the biggest things that contributed to USC’s success (aside from Steve Johnson) was the lack of turnover among its starters. The last time USC had to replace more than 2 starters was all the back in 2008 (Van’t Hof, Sacks, Piotrowski) but this season they have to replace 4 with Yannick Hanfmann, Roberto Quiroz, Eric Johnson, and Jonny Wang all moving on after 4 spectacular seasons.Hanfmann, Quiroz, Johnson, and Wang accounted for 59% of USC’s dual-match singles wins last season though the 2 returning starters, Max de Vroome (Sr) and Nick Crystal...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 23, 2015 | Blog
Many wouldn’t consider a 27-9 season a disappointment but it is if you are accustomed to winning conference championships and making deep runs at the NCAAs. When Ohio State lost 4-3 to Texas A&M in the Round of 16 it marked the first time since 2005 that the Buckeyes hadn’t at least made the NCAA Quarterfinals. Ohio State had won the Big Ten conference tournament 8 of the previous 9 seasons but Illinois shut them out twice in Champaign last season with the second occurrence coming in the Big Ten finals.Ohio State’s strength last season was the bottom of the lineup with the 4 through 6 spots going 69-16 (.81) while the top half of...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 18, 2015 | Blog
They started playing tennis in Columbus all the way back in 1912 but they didn’t “really” start playing until Ty Tucker took over the program in 1999. From 1912 to 1999 (87 years) the Buckeyes had a record of 733-613-10 (.541) and won just 3 Big 10 Championships but from 2000 to the present they’re 455-74 (.860) and have won 10 regular season Big 10 Championships and another 10 Big 10 Tournament Championships. Prior to Tucker’s arrival Ohio State had never played in the NCAA Tournament but since his arrival they’ve made it all 16 times (note: field was expanded to 64 starting in spring of 1999). In those 16 appearances Ohio...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 16, 2015 | Blog
The 175 or so coaches that made the trip down to Naples for the 2015 ITA Coaches Convention got treated to a slew of terrific speakers and demonstrators who gave them tips on everything from developing a championship team to learning how to add 10 miles per hour to their player’s serve.While Sunday was loaded full of strategy sessions and round table meetings, Monday and Tuesday was a lot more loose with a number of high profile guest speakers with many of them providing on court demonstrations.The first half of Monday had 4 different coaches forums with each 45 minute forum talking about a different topic. Pomona-Pitzer’s Ann Lebedeff, who...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 13, 2015 | Blog
Last month the ITA’s new COO, Erica Perkins Jasper, invited me to attend the ITA Coaches Convention as a guest of the ITA so I took her up on the offer and sat in on a lively day of discussion today in Naples at the lovely Naples Grande Beach Resort. The convention is open to all college coaches including assistants and I thought the turnout was pretty good for mid-December.The charismatic and lively Tim Russell, ITA’s new CEO, opened up the day with a few personal stories and then talked about a number of topics but said his main goal is to not only preserve college tennis but to strengthen, grow, and transform it. There are some other notes from...
by Bobby Knight | Dec 10, 2015 | Blog
TCU has plenty of history when it comes to men’s tennis but prior to last year most of it was distant history. TCU had made just 3 trips to the NCAA Round of 16 in the previous 16 years, with the most recent being in 2004, and hadn’t made the Round of 16 as a seed since 2000. TCU head coach David Roditi updated the record books last year when he guided his senior laden team to the NCAA semifinals and had them a whisker away from a spot in the finals.I thought this would be a rebuilding year after losing 5 seniors (Nick Chappell, Facundo Lugones, Arnau Dachs, Will Stein, Blake Wiggins) that accounted for 55% of TCU’s dual-match wins but...
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