by Bobby Knight | Jan 29, 2017 | Blog
I tell you if you are a fan of college tennis today was as good at gets with one close match after another as all 15 Men’s KOW regionals were in full swing. There were two regional hosts that got knocked out in the first round which is something that doesn’t happen very often. Another thing that doesn’t happen very often is Iowa winning a match during an ITA Kick-Off Weekend because this was the first time since 2010 that the Hawkeyes had a high enough previous year-ending ranking to be selected to participate. Iowa rolled into Lubbock on a cool and windy day and jumped on Texas Tech early by going up breaks on all three courts and would...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 28, 2017 | Blog
Six of the 15 men’s regionals got started on Friday but that means there are nine more to go so here is my preview of those nine regionals that will play on Saturday and Sunday. I’ll let everyone take a look at the first two regionals but to view the rest you’ll need to subscribe for a small price of just $.33 a day. In addition to the match previews you’ll also get to see all the live scoring links laid out for you. Each preview has current Universal Tennis Ratings as of 1/27/17 so that’ll help you decide who will win each match. I went 12-0 with my predictions on Friday so let’s see if I can beat that on...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 28, 2017 | Blog
The opening day of the 2017 ITA Kick-Off Weekend is in the books with several close matches but nothing that really qualifies as an upset. The day got started in Athens where Washington and Alabama went toe-to-toe for just under four hours. When you look at the box score below you’ll probably wonder how it lasted that long and the reason is because Georgia’s indoor facility only has four courts so the final two singles matches couldn’t start until courts became available. Alabama jumped out to the early 1-0 lead after claiming the doubles point with a 6-2 win at No. 1 and a 7-6(4) win at No. 2 while No. 3 went unfinished with it tied at 6-6...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 26, 2017 | Blog
There are four big weekends in the dual-match college tennis season and this coming weekend is the first one. There will be 15 different Kick-Off Weekend Regionals taking place throughout the country with 6 of them getting started on Friday and the other 9 kicking off on Saturday. The 15 winners will advance to the National Team Indoor Championships which take place three weekends from now in lovely Charlottesville, Virginia. Those 15 teams will be joined by No. 1 Virginia who gets the automatic bid since they are the host. Even though these regionals are qualifiers for the National Indoors there will be 7 that will be held outdoors with those being at UCLA,...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 25, 2017 | Blog
Here is a look at how long each current head coach has been at their respective school (as a head coach) as we begin the 2017 dual-match season. I’d say 95% of coaching hires are made in the summer/fall but there are a few made mid-season for one reason or another. There are 34 coaches that are in their first year while 8 have 30 years or more in at the same school.Tenure Breakdown by the #s:40+: 2 (0.8%)30-39: 6 (2.4%)25-30: 9 (3.5%)20-25: 14 (5.5%)15-20: 25 (9.8%)10-15: 39 (15.3)5-10: 48 (18.8%)3-4: 45 (17.6%)1-2: 67 (26.3%)Note – New Orleans head coach Burzis Kanga coached at UNO from 2003 – 2006 and then from 2008 to current with the gap...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 25, 2017 | Blog
The latest Oracle/ITA Top 25 is out and as expected there was a good bit of movement on the men’s side while there wasn’t much movement on the women’s side but more than I expected. The men’s top three stayed the same with Virginia, Wake Forest, and Ohio State retaining their spots while the losses of Texas and TCU caused some movement between 4 and 10. Cal, Georgia, and UCLA each slid up a spot to 4, 5, and 6 while North Carolina and USC jumped two spots to 7 and 8. Texas’s loss at Tulsa dropped them from 4 to 9 while TCU’s loss to Northwestern dropped them from 7 to 12. Northwestern moved up 3 spots from 13 to 10 but in my...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 25, 2017 | Blog
Here is a list of all D1 men’s head coaches and assistant coaches as of 1/25/17. If a school didn’t have an assistant coach listed but did have a volunteer or grad assistant showing then I put their name down with a notation in parenthesis that they were a grad or volunteer assistant. This info is from each’s school website so if they have an assistant but didn’t have them showing I won’t either. Let me know if anything needs to be updated – I’ll plan on updating this once a year. {loadposition ads} SchoolConferenceHead CoachAssistant CoachCentral FloridaAmericanJohn RoddickPhillipe...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 25, 2017 | Blog
Here is a list of all D1 women’s head coaches and assistant coaches as of 1/25/17. If a school didn’t have an assistant coach listed but did have a volunteer or grad assistant showing then I put their name down with a notation in parenthesis that they were a grad or volunteer assistant. This info is from each’s school website so if they have an assistant but didn’t have them showing I won’t either. Let me know if anything needs to be updated – I’ll plan on updating this once a year. {loadposition ads} SchoolConferenceHead CoachAssistant CoachBoston CollegeACCNigel BentleyJohn...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 25, 2017 | Blog
The USTA announced on Tuesday that it will be debuting a new set of college tennis rankings beginning on February 8th. A nine member panel (including myself) will vote on the D1 Men’s and Women’s Top 25 each week with the poll released on usta.com each Wednesday – the USTA’s full release is available here. The USTA also recently announced that it was expanding its College MatchDay series to a few sites outside of National Campus in Orlando. The full schedule is available here but the highest profile matches will be Stanford/Oklahoma State (W) in Orlando on February 17th, Ohio State/Florida (W) in Orlando on March 14th, and Virginia/Wake...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 24, 2017 | Blog
When the new ITA rankings come out tomorrow I’m definitely expecting to see some movement on the men’s side after several ranked teams went down over the weekend. #4 Texas, #7 TCU, #12 Oklahoma, #19 Arkansas, and #25 Duke each lost with Arkansas actually dropping two. Five of the current men’s top 25 has yet to play a match with #5 Cal, #17 Illinois, #23 Columbia, and #24 South Florida set to open up this weekend during the ITA Kick-Off Weekend while #1 Virginia opens up on February 3rd at Vanderbilt. As with last week I don’t any changes coming on the women’s side because no top 25 teams have lost and in fact many...
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