US College Signings 2017 (and general college tennis chat)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

RE: US College Signings 2017 (and general college tennis chat)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Added James C-L and Jacob T to those going to college

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Stanford continuing to crush the west Emily (no 95) cleaning up again against Colorado winning clinching rubber, I think they have now one as many on the trot as they won last year in the run in to completing their 18th NCAA tittle.

I feel for the opposition playing against a team whose number 4 has an ITF JCH of <30.

Spectator · All-time great

I am losing a lot of respect for algorithms! Looking at the individual rankings, the top (say top 30) seem fine. But there's no way that Emily Arbuthnott's ranking is really 104 - it's just a function of her position on the team. And if that's true for her, it's probably true for others on strong teams.

indiana · Tennis legend

Do people much more in the know think Emily is very well placed for tennis ( I appreciate the academic side is a true factor with her ) ?

I mean say does playing down the order give her less competitive matches than she could have had playing higher up, but then the internal practice and competitiveness must help bring her on day to day ?

Be good if the college rankings truly more represented ability, if there is indeed an issue. But I doubt these are top of her concerns.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I think she is perfectly placed, there is a strong track record of WTA progression under a coach with over 400 wins. Nicole Gibbs being the most recent example. Carole Zhao is now having a go but the honours board is pretty impressive the currency being slam wins to get a mention, NCAA championships read like petty cash.

Players generally play at least 3 years before going pro, and my impression is for the most part they like being "normal" young adults it kept Michelle Wie sane. Daughter of a college professor dad and part model/pro golfer mum she wouldn't necessarily be that different from her cotempoaries particularly as she didn't play college golf. She did a full stint, graduated and got a window of opportunity to be normal while in the circus that is pro golf.

Emily has walked into a side that are the reigning NCAA champions and playing down the order is a product of strong players returning, they appear to understand they have an outstanding freshman but initially in the very early tournaments she took some time to settle.

Stanford in other sports particularly football will redshirt even outstanding players to give them time to learn the ropes, even Andrew Luck wore a red shirt for his entire year, I feel by playing down the order Emily has been given the opportunity to thrive on court and settle academically, she is probably used to being standout at both, now she is primarily a jock but the academic pressures are still full on. There was a great piece this season about a couple of knuckle head footballers, linebackers knocking out some high quality stem cell regenerative work under the tutelage of another ex knucklehead.

Although well supported. If you are not fufilling your academic criteria you will be kicked out, a few years ago one of the outstanding basketball players was let go and standout academic basketball players are hard to recruit, they haven't really had any since the Lopez twins.

Emily will have the opportunities and resources to push herself and develop in what ever direction she chooses, it will be a minor disappointment if she doesn't pick up a Lacroose stick. A number of the most talented athletes there have two options as to which pro sport they are going to choose, NFL player Toby Gerhart was a standout baseball player and Tyler Gaffney got drafted to the Pirates (baseball) played a season came back played football at running back and then got drafted to the NFL.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Thursday 6th of April 2017 04:55:08 AM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Stanford just destroyed Oregon 7-0, Emily dropping to the no. 5 slot winning one of the most competitive encounters, Emily has the lowest national rank in the team at 103, the whole team is ranked and now on its longest winning streak since 2014. 15-1 for the season unbeaten in conference.

Emily's rank is a product of playing 5. The team is two seniors playing 1 and 2, 2 sophomores playing 3 and 4 with 2 Freshman at 5 and 6. Frightening depth for the future.

She played in the no.1 slot for doubles.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

It will be interesting to see if Emily gets selected to play in the NCAA singles tournament. It is unlikely she will get the PAC 12 automatic slot and would then have to be an at large selection, she has played enough to make her eligible but the NCAA apply their "selection criteria" ??? For the at large selections.

Please post if you understand this process, it seems to me that it's not necessarily the best 64 singles players slugging it out and actually there is a perverse benefit in being a strong player in a weak conference, ie you would just have to be the highest ranked player in your conference and be in the top 150 nationally to get an automatic qualifying spot representing a weak conference (so all 6 girls at Stanford could qualify in a weak conference) but in the PAC12 they will have to be at least top 10 probably 5 to get that slot ... and if selection is then by national rank you stand little or no chance getting an at large birth playing 5

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Last year the PAC 12 contributed 4 players the SEC almost half the field about 31 ish. They got something right in that the no1 seed played 2 in the final

paulisi · Tennis legend

Rankings aren't that important and are distorted amongst strong teams. Emily will be playing at least no.3 next year i suspect and then her ranking will climb if she keeps on winning.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I am absolutely unconcerned about the rankings per sae but not to get an opportunity to test yourself against the best college players in the NCAA tournament would be a frustration. The general level of top 20 college players sits outside a JCH (ITF) of 300. 10 x that of Emily's

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Latest Rankings:

Men

3 - Cameron Norrie - Texas Christian

21 - Julian Cash - Oklahoma State

67 - Jack Findel-Hawkins - North Florida

69 - Jathan Malik - Michigan

79 - Ryan Peniston - Memphis

84 - Vinny Gillespie - Drake

105 - Andrew Watson - Memphis

110 - Rob Mitchell - Lipscomb

Dubs

3 - Julian Cash - Oklahoma State

5 - Jack Findel-Hawkins - North Florida

17 - Jathan Malik - Michigan

40 Max Andrews - Miami-Florida

50 Tommy Bennett - Rice

54 - Alex Gasson-Denver

64 - Sebastian Rey - Tulane

66 - Cameron Norrie - Texas Christian

72 - Ricky Hernandez-Tong - New Mexico

82 - Josh Page - San Diego

84 - Alex Sendegeya - Texas Tech

Alex in the dubs is the only newcomer this week.

Women:

100 - Holly Hutchinson - Old Dominion

108 - Emily Arbuthnott - Standford

Dubs

5 - Emily Smith - Vanderbilt

28 - Sabrina Federici - Texas Tech

43 - Georgie Axon - Auburn

45 - Kim Schmider - Indiana-Bloomington

67 - Emily Arbuthnott - Standford

We have lost Zoe Douglas and Elise Van Heuvelen from the dubs.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Oakland2002 wrote:
I am absolutely unconcerned about the rankings per sae but not to get an opportunity to test yourself against the best college players in the NCAA tournament would be a frustration. The general level of top 20 college players sits outside a JCH (ITF) of 300. 10 x that of Emily's

I wonder how well Emily is actually playing. I know she has won the majority of her matches down at #5 but she has been playing #1 in dubs and is still languishing towards the bottom of the dubs rankings. It may be that her current play is not good enough to move her further up the singles order. No matter how good they are going in, a lot of freshmen take a while to settle and produce their best tennis and, given all the other demands made on an athlete at Stanford, this may well have happened to her.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

The Missouri Valley Conference has announced that it is not going to sponsor mens tennis as a varsity sport after this year as several of their schools have dropped the sport over the last few years and now another of their member schools is transferring to Conference USA. This would leave the Brit-heavy team of Drake high and dry but they are being allowed to affiliate to the Mountain conference for mens tennis only. So the Drake Brits, Ben Clark, Vinny Gillespie, Tom Hands, Calum MacGeoch, Ben Stride, Barnaby Thorold and Ben Wood, will have new opponents next year.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

The Optimist wrote:
Oakland2002 wrote:
I am absolutely unconcerned about the rankings per sae but not to get an opportunity to test yourself against the best college players in the NCAA tournament would be a frustration. The general level of top 20 college players sits outside a JCH (ITF) of 300. 10 x that of Emily's
I wonder how well Emily is actually playing. I know she has won the majority of her matches down at #5 but she has been playing #1 in dubs and is still languishing towards the bottom of the dubs rankings. It may be that her current play is not good enough to move her further up the singles order. No matter how good they are going in, a lot of freshmen take a while to settle and produce their best tennis and, given all the other demands made on an athlete at Stanford, this may well have happened to her.

OAKLAND2002

A reasonable point initially but after a couple of early invitationals where she still did Ok in one, Emily's rank I think is merely a product of the peculiarities of the ITA ranking system, apart from 2 losses in the early season invitationals she had a 19-2 record. She has dished out 20 sets of bakery products in 45 sets of tennis being taken to 3 sets only 3 times. She has only lost to ranked opponents no 90 and no 44 but has since warming up beaten no 45 and 42 (all the ranked opposition she has played this year).

Looking at the results of the ITA Northwest regionals the other freshman who plays 6 beat the older girls. The strength of the Stanford team is its depth, the older girls and reigning champions have retained their slots 1-4, and they were one of the lowest ranked teams to become NCAA champions, one of the sophomores (Melisa Lord) I think is strong and the team much stronger than last year and I think paradoxically the 2 Freshman at 5 and 6 two of their best players.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Wednesday 12th of April 2017 06:50:13 PM

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Wednesday 12th of April 2017 06:50:47 PM

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Wednesday 12th of April 2017 06:52:15 PM