RAMBINGS BEFORE I SUCCOMB TO THE REAL ESTATE GODS
There is really not much more to say about last night’s butt whoopin’ Baylor put on Texas other than one team came ready to play.
I wasn’t able to get down to the match, despite it only being about ten minutes from my house due to some family business this week. I sold my house this week and my family becomes homeless unless we find some place to live, two days after the NCAAs end. Combine that with several birthdays this week (one being mine, 44, thank you) and we have been a bit busy.
Once I saw online that Baylor had taken the doubles point, I knew it would be tough for Texas to win. The Longhorns have been a bit of a paper tiger this season, with no real substantial wins, except the skunking of A&M indoors. They only beat Michigan at the Indoors and we see where they are these days.
Texas can be a team capable of competing for the title again this year, but they are just not getting a full team performance. In a complete twist of fate, it was Kellen Damico who actually got the lone win.
On the Baylor side, they are playing real well and when Lukacs and Jordan Rux play well at the top of the lineup, you are going to have a long day. They have some great depth and manipulate that lineup better than anyone in the business. Anyone who didn’t think Horny wasn’t going to play at six (despite being in the lineup at 7 before the match) isn’t paying attention.
DIII SMACKDOWN
Saturday morning the two best Division III Men’s teams in the state square off in San Antonio when UT-Tyler travels to Trinity. The Patriots (now 12th) passed the Tigers (now 15th) in the latest DIII Campbell/ITA National Rankings.
Both teams have played strong schedules and on paper it does seem UT-Tyler may be ready to unseat Trinity as the best team in Texas… on the men’s side.
I am not so sure the women are ready to hand that over just yet, as Trinity is ranked 20th despite a rough season.
CONFERENCE ACTION HEATING UP
Lots of conference tennis this weekend as usual. I will try to keep these updated as best I can while attending a soccer game for 3-4 year olds and a pirate party (arrrghhh!) for my soon-to-be four year old.
The most interesting match-up will be Sunday in Austin when Texas Tech will get a shot at a wounded UT. Will the Longhorns be down or will they be the rabid dog you’ve mistakenly cornered, ready to rip your face off?
The TCU men are in Salt Lake and continue a run with BYU, UNLV and Utah. The Frog women are hosting the same kind of quadrangle with BYU, New Mexico and Utah.
In the Southland Conference, TAMU-CC travels to San Antonio to face UTSA. This should be a good match-up. I hesitate to predict because I know that TAMU-CC has kept some players back for one reason or another.
SPEAKING OF TAMU-CC
With their sanctions coming down last week, there has been some discussion about responsibility. After some digging, it has become obvious that the person at fault was the university’s compliance officer. Receiving sanctions over several sports makes that glaringly obvious. I was even told how the volleyball coach was played the sixth-year senior after being told that the player’s waiver was in order. As a coach, there is only so much you can do at that point.
This will be a tough on this program, as the men’s tennis team will now only have 3.5 scholarships next season. I hope to have more on this and how the university will react in a future article.
