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Friday, May 4, 2007

Best College Team Ever?


I've been remiss in not posting this story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution about where the current Georgia men's team ranks among the all-time great college teams. Until the NCAA team competition is over, the discussion is premature, but if you go undefeated and the most points you lose in a dual match all season is two, the topic IS going to come up. When the NCAA selections were announced, Georgia was the only team with more than one player seeded, and they have three of the top 16 players in the country.

Casey Angle of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association is among those quoted, and I assume he helped compile the list of the candidates for the best ever. I think there's a glaring omission on that list--Craig Tiley's 2003 Illinois team, with an undefeated season, the ITA Indoor and NCAA team titles and the individual singles and doubles champions. They can't be left off the list.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Good luck to Jamie and Schnugg!! Georgia does have a shot to be the best team ever. I think they play Texas (Kellen's team) is the 2nd round. BTW, Kellen is 100% healthy and smacking the ball!! Look for good things from him this Summer before he heads off to college.

Rich
richbenvin.com

Anonymous said...

Haha what a statement. This Georgia team is not even in the top 10. Think about some of the great Stanford teams. And, even last years UGA team is better than this team. They played an easy schedule with only 4 tough matches total; UVA, Ohio State, and Ole Miss twice. They will have a tough time in the tournament. Mark my words.

Anonymous said...

This team is good, but not the greatest. Is Jamie Hunt going to win NCAA singles in two years? Because that's what Alex Kim did in 2000. He played #6 on that Stanford team in 1998 that lost ZERO POINTS ALL YEAR. That's the best team ever...by far.

Anonymous said...

I stand corrected, Stanford lost 3pts in 1998.

Anonymous said...

totally agree. I mean the start of their schedule is soooo weak. They are good but I think they'll have their hands full later in the tournament. And how is Isner ranked number 1 still? He played all over from 1 to 3, lost to Levine in straight sets, I don't get it....Levine played tougher matches, exclusively at no. 1...is it just senior vs. freshman hype?

Anonymous said...

Kellen's recovery must be a miracle!! Just saw him in California for the 2 tournaments and he's been hurt since December. He said he could be facing surgery at some point. Yes he was smackin the ball, and in good spirits but he needs a left wrist badly.

Anonymous said...

oh pleeze...Jamie Hunt win the NCAA??? Maybe in dubs...much later...he and Nate have been pretty darn good all year in dubs and didn't even get in the tournament.

Anonymous said...

Levine did not beat Isner in straight sets. John won the first set in a tiebreaker. Levine bageled Isner in the 2nd. Levine won the third set in a 10 point supertiebreaker. The 98 Stanford team is the best ever..Wolters played #1 on 97 championship team and played #4 on the 98 team....Bobby Bryan played #3 in 98 NCAA team championships..and he won both singles and doubles...Alex Kim in 98 would defeat Jamie Hunt at 6...Nate Schnugg would probably defeat Abrams....but Isner, Helgeson, Flores, Omerzel would have trouble matching up with the Bryan twins, Wolters and Paul Goldstein...the Stanford 98 team had no close matches...UGA was really tested by Virginia at the Indoors

Anonymous said...

Collette,

How could anyone compile a list of the best ever college teams and leave off the USC men of 1966-1969? In particular, the 67/68 teams had Stan Smith and Bob Lutz as the number 1 and 2 singles players, as well as the number 1 doubles team - has there ever been a stronger doubles pair in college tennis? Lutz won the NCAA singles in 67, Smith won it in 68. Together they won the 67 and 68 NCAA doubles title.

Four championships in 4 years, two NCAA singles championships, two NCAA doubles championships, two of America's best players and arguably America's best ever doubles combination (yeah, I'd go for Mac and Fleming as well, but not everyone would). How in the world did they miss a place, if not the premier place, in the top 10 ?

Of course, you could just throw down USC from 62-69 (7 of 8 NCAA team wins, 6 NCAA singles wins and 6 NCAA doubles wins )and call it a day.

Anonymous said...

I think a great test for the best team ever might be who individually went on to have great results on the professional tour? Then compare how the entire team as a whole did individually on the tour. I honestly do not know enough tennis history to comment on the best team ever- talking to someone who played college tennis back then and still coaches today might be the best barometer.

Anonymous said...

How can you say they had an easy schedule? In the article it says they have beaten Ohio State 4-0 UVA 4-2 USC 6-1 Baylor 7-0 (How is that possible?) and Ole Miss twice. Name one team that has had a TOUGHER schedule.

Anonymous said...

Okay you are correct I forgot about USC and Baylor. But,USC isn't the greatest team, and Baylor is up and down. If you look, Virginia has a much tougher schedule than UGA. They easiest matches that they have had is William and Mary and Boston College. UGA has had a couple of bunnies.

Anonymous said...

All of those teams they ranked in the top10 were all-time greats playing at #1 and #2, but all that gets you is a 5-2 loss if you dont have the rest.

Anonymous said...

Ohio State and UVA were played at the ITA indoors amd doesn't factor into their "schedule". Starting their dual match season with William and Mary, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Furman and Clemson is a cake start. I'll name you one tough schedule...Illinois.

They open with Pepperdine, UVA, Duke, UCLA, Florida, Tennessee and Baylor. Your players only get better with tougher competition. I thought thats the name of the game. Rankings should factor in strength of schedule, not just wins and losses.

Anonymous said...

Of course thats their schedule...they did play them. Maybe they factored in the fact that they would win every tournament when they were making their schedule. The fact is UGA has beaten the best in the country, all of you are dismissing them like the only reason they are number 1 is because of their schedule. Are you nuts? It doesnt matter who they play. They win, no matter what