US College Signings 2018 (and general college chat)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

RE: US College Signings 2018 (and general college chat)

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Whey hey not a bad start for a freshman! That really is setting down a marker for next year)

But oh my has she had to suffer, LSU have the most disgusting colour combo in College sports ie canary yellow and purple! That is one thing potential college players never consider as it is not unusual to develop a life long affinity.

There is some great branding out there. Lauryn (sun devils burnt red and yellow) and Emily Arb (fear the tree! I know but as a piss taking mascot it works along banana slug lines) will always have decent kit as will the boys at Cal, I suppose you could get used to the faecal brown of Texas but the Oaklahoma State (Hi vis jacket orange!) and LSU who meet in the final well you've really got to be in it for the Tennis because beautiful on the eye it wont be. Go Tigers.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Monday 28th of May 2018 09:58:30 AM

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Monday 28th of May 2018 10:03:36 AM

Elegant Point · Satellite level

College Tennis signings 2018

Sophie Clark - Uni Iowa
Caragh Courtney - Uni Delaware

NJCAA
MAtt Caroll ASA College Miami
Josh Rose change from trying to go pro, will attend ASA College Miami

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Congratulations to Eden Richardson on a blinding first year in college Tennis, to arrive at LSU not really an elite tennis programme but an improving one, in the toughest conference and play at No 1 almost from the get go and then win frequently enough to make the NCAA singles tournament is a great start.

To top it off with LSUs first ever NCAA tittle is a dream start to her American College Tennis career.

NCAA Division I Womens Doubles Champions

No. 29 Eden Richardson/Jessica Golovin (LSU) def. No. 14 Vladica Babic/Sofia Blanco (OSU) 6-3, 6-2

The first game I watched yesterday on TV was Caroline Wozniaki being given a tough time by Danielle Collins who was a double NCAA winner in singles while at Virginia another SEC school. She is now in her second year on the WTA tour and this is the sort of level you need to play at in colllege Tennis as a freshman to have a chance of making the main tour.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Well done Eden... that is amazing as a freshman.

BTW, I think Virginia is ACC.

Strongbow · All-time great

http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=211717157

Oakland2002 · All-time great

The Optimist wrote:
Well done Eden... that is amazing as a freshman.
BTW, I think Virginia is ACC.

You would be right

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Well done, Eden.

pbs.twimg.com/media/DeTt565U8AUD-Nb.jpg

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I see Emily Arb has been named in the all academic PAC 12 first team with a GPA of 4.21(4.0 is as high as you can get on an unweighted scale so I assume she is doing some more advanced classes). You need to have played 50% of fixtures and have a GPA > 3.0 to be considered Stanford had 4 selected as academic selections but only Emily made a team, the first team (first in the first team) which I suppose out of 6 is not bad as the two freshman arent eligible. Even so slightly disappointed as the swatiest PAC 12 institution this is the area in which they should excel none of this NCAA championship winning nonsense, none of the others broke 3.5.

The boys did way better of court with 4 in the first 1 in the second and a freshman (thats the whole team). Congratulations to Piers Foley (Washington) who was right up there .... hes doing Latin! Very handy for the drinking games Fizz-us Buzzus Roman Numeralis and the Utah boys Dan Little and Joe Woolley who all made the second team.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Thursday 31st of May 2018 10:37:35 AM

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Thursday 31st of May 2018 10:52:01 AM

Kenneth · Lower Club Player

Great achievement with GPA and such a successful tennis year. The only issue I have with the sports teams and the GPA at some of these schools is that some of the kids are doing super easy subjects which can mean their own GPA and that of the team can be very high, doesnt always tell the whole story. Something for those who dont understand the system to be mindful of.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

It obviously depends on the school and the course. Kenneth I definitely dont have the insight you have, the only colleges I have any real first hand knowledge about are the California schools. The California State schools ie the University of California at.... provide state subsidised high quality education the athletes are expected to perform at the same level as the other students or they get kicked out, having worked with a couple of Cal graduate athletes they were doing academically demanding subjects and got additional tuition ie a personal tutor. If you go to an academic school and do a challenging degree there will be help, party schools doing something not so academic less so, then, realistically you are going for the Tennis.

There is s certain irony in that quite s lot of students are doing sports related degrees, in 2017 Loughborough was awarded the TES award for best University worldwide for studying sports related subjects! University of Florida and Penn State are featured in the top 20 as did MIT just!

Stanford which is a private school has set itself up to work in this way, it is very strict on limiting its recruitment to those able to meet its academic standards and provides tutoring for those that do, it does outstandingly well in almost all sports that dont have a massive fan base or arent that lucrative professionally because of the basic value of the degrees the athletes study as that is the way they will earn their living. Since about 2010 they have even able to compete at Football. Part of the recruiting pitch is that the NFL (Not For Long) is not the way most college athletes earn a living and that a Stanford degree generates higher average earnings than all their competitors on the football field.

Interestingly virtually every player who goes to the NBA goes to college, a bit of a farce, few stay to even attempt a degree they stay a year and are one and done. Stanford struggle at Basketball at a national level, Duke is similarly academic and has an outstanding reputation for Basketball, my impression is there are only so many guys 68 and over with the genuine academic credentials to get, in one player on its own is not enough you need a least a couple. Stanford did have a purple patch in about 2008 ish when they recruited twins Brook and Robin Lopez who were outstanding and went 10 th and 15 th in the NBA draft they are both still forces in the NBA a decade later. Simlilarly between 1997 and 2001 Stanford were also decent with a recurring theme in that Jason and Jaron Collins now just retired from the NBA were also drafted to the NBA in the first (7ft Jason!) and Second round Jaron (611) which proves one thing, as you say in Basketball you cant teach height.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Friday 1st of June 2018 05:02:16 PM

Kenneth · Lower Club Player

Reading that I think your knowledge exceeds mine! And I think were on the same page!

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

It is also worth saying that at some particularly sports focused schools, an athlete may not have complete freedom to choose their degree. If the course chosen has a lot of hours and can't be worked so that it doesn't clash with practice times etc, heavy pressure can be put on the athletes to choose something else which has a lighter load. Also, in some cases athletes are discouraged from courses which might be academically challenging for them (we're talking about the students who arrive without particularly brilliant exam results / SATS). The coaches don't want to risk that the athlete might fall below the NCAA base GPA (think it's 2. something but not sure) as it restricts their availability to the team. If a youngster is going purely for the tennis, a school where the focus is on the athlete bit of student-athlete is probably no bad thing. However, if they are not sure of their path, a school where the focus is equally on both parts or even focused more on the student aspect might be better (and there are plenty of all types of school out there...)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Shout out for Eden Richardson, who's just ousted the 4th seed, America's Chang, WTA ranked about 300, in a third-set tie-break in the Manchester 100k qualis.

Well done to her and thank you to the US college system.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I dont quite see it that way, LSU are lucky to have recruited her, she has lifted one of the traditionally weaker tennis programmes in the SEC bringing them a certain amount of credit. Obviously some of the credit goes to the relatively new coaching team building the programme but to do so they have had to go out of the US as all the blue chip recruits are at Ohio State, Florida, Vandy etc..... the relationship is sumbiotic in that the overseas guys add depth and make it (college tennis) a potential route to the WTA.