03.20.26 Men's College Tennis Weekly Results ft. Chris Halioris | The Deciding Point [College Tennis]

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Welcome to Who?

Oh, hey, great shot.

It's the great shot podcast.

A cracked rackets and believe podcast network production.

My name is Alex Gruskin.

On today's show, we have a long overdue edition

of the deciding point.

It has been the craziest season of college tennis

in the game's history.

The upsets coming each and every weekend.

As a tennis fan, you got to constantly

stay on your toes.

Your head has to be on a constant swivel.

Your fingers need to be able to maneuver tabs

at a rate unseen in college tennis history.

As you just never know, any region of the country,

something crazy is happening at any given moment.

And thus, it is a legitimate federal crime.

Dare I say a hate crime that we have not had a podcast

for all of you listeners recapping everything

in what has been the craziest post indoor stretch again

in men's college tennis history.

You knew parody would be a theme.

We saw that at the national indoors.

But to see it to this extent, to see number one's fall.

But the team that beats them then loses

to a team outside the top 20.

And just again, home matches, road matches,

it doesn't matter upsets are happening everywhere.

It's been fucking awesome.

And again, it's the sin above all sins.

I'll be repenting for this on Rosh Hashanah,

on Yom Kapoor, in a way I have never repented in the past.

That is my promise to all of you college tennis fans

because so much, so much to discuss

that we're breaking down our mid-year award show

into two distinct parts.

Now of course, we wanna do all the fun things.

We gotta update you, who's the all lineup first teams

at the halfway mark, who's the guy

who have been the most impressive coaches,

the most surprising moments, the things to look forward to most.

Before we can do any of that,

we gotta catch up on what has been again.

Just the craziest of three week stretches.

I also wanna try and make sense of the hierarchy.

We've seen unfold because as I was trying to put together

the top 10 rankings, I have never been more grateful

that we have a computer system.

Because holy shit, if you had to do this by hand,

you're just fucked.

There's just no clean way to do it,

and yet we will attempt to do precisely that today

when a breakdown are contending tears.

As we are at the halfway point, I of course,

also wanna talk about the chaos that has unfolded.

And if I'm gonna do all of that, there is only one man

I can have on the podcast joining me in said discussion.

He is the man you all know best as the forefather

of the college tennis ranks formula predictions

and never far from the listed U.T.R.A.

lean, mean, Michigan Wolverine,

the professor COVID, grusskin,

and a man who I just could not get my schedule aligned

with until tonight, Chris Alliores,

hey, the greatest of shots to you.

Is this podcast over under 120 minutes?

Like I honestly just set that line now,

we got some shit to discuss.

It's probably not short,

and as you were going through the,

as you were going through all the Jewish holidays,

you were gonna repent on.

I'm not gonna lie, my first thought went to,

you know what, I'm just thinking everybody figured

grusskin converted to Catholicism

and it was podcasting he gave up for Len.

That was it.

Not a bad idea.

It's, I believe Catholicism is the same testament.

Certainly they look the old ways, the way that we do.

So not a bad venture.

You've been on the call.

You've been the lead voice

for all college tennis commentary at Crack Crackits

for two weeks consecutively.

You got a third week as the lead as well.

You've had a front row seat to it.

I, we have a lot to discuss,

but just how are you feeling, my friend?

Let's just talk about this.

Be the voice of the people here.

What's this season been like from your perspective?

Yeah, I mean, I've even gotten calls from coaches

that going is this just the craziest thing.

Like I kid you not last weekend

when I had, you know, particularly for the SEC

just on both sides, men and women,

just everything that was going on was just insane

with all the matches you can't make sense of the upsets,

the really scratching your head like how the hell did that happen?

And then it continues on into other conferences

when you, you know, we're gonna get into them

with what happened in the big 10.

I mean, it's just been unbelievable.

Like no other time.

Like usually you see, you know, A head scratcher

over a weekend that you're like, wow,

or one good upset, but to have like more than half the matches

in a powerful conference be like, wait a minute,

that's an upset, wait, that's an upset, wait, that's an upset.

Like it was an on and wins on there.

It doesn't matter if you're on the road or at home.

I mean, it doesn't matter if you're, you know,

if you're Texas in the SEC,

it's supposed to be the top dog.

It doesn't, you know, Ohio State, the big 10,

if you're the top dog, it doesn't matter.

They're all going down.

Like I think I've said this to you

and I've said this to many other people.

The team that, and I just, you know, I don't fear it.

I literally think this is, I would bet a good chance

that something like this happens.

Everybody's getting the hell beat out of them.

And the team that none of us are talking about

that's been able to fly under the radar

this entire time because of it

is our defending champion, Wake Forest.

Who could just waltz right into May

play an Ariane Shaw at five

who's like almost top 500 in the world or is?

I don't know, he's very close.

Yeah, no he is.

Yeah, and just, oh, thank you very much.

Guys, you all beat each other up.

Well, we'll take that trophy back now.

Thanks.

But it's, it's, but it's one of those years,

but, but they've got their own problems.

I mean, DK's not winning, rockering may or may not play.

Shaw isn't winning, which is why he's at five.

But, you know, I, it's a, that's a team

that I just think come may they get it figured out

and, you know, things get good.

But I mean, it's been, it's been crazy.

And it's, I expect it to continue to happen.

So many follow up questions.

First of all, what do you mean rockering's not gonna play?

What did I miss?

What do you mean?

He hasn't been in and every man, you know,

and he's, oh yeah, but that, that's just like

Coastal Carolina Thursdays.

But again, you know, he's gonna, like,

especially come may he's gonna be there.

Yeah, when I last looked, he was up to two.

And, and like DK, just, you know, DK's a guy, I think,

that it's like, he's one of those guys

that it really has to matter.

And, you know, is that what you absolutely want

as a head coach, you maybe probably not,

but when you got a guy that with that kind of potential,

that's that good, that maybe just doesn't get up

for everything else.

I mean, okay, what it is, what it is,

but like come, come may, you get the DK

that you saw last May with, you know,

and somebody like Steph to pump him up.

And maybe now it's gonna be Luca Powell, I don't know.

But, I mean, yeah, I just expect them to be, you know,

great come may when nobody's talking about him right now.

Cause honestly, they just haven't looked great.

I mean, help Florida.

I think they've won four other last three matches,

but they did have that Florida state moment.

I was gonna say of all the parody we're talking about.

Then there's the like almost like Florida state

had them dead to rights and let them up.

And, and this is a Florida state team

that would have been more, that would have been more shocking

than any other win that we've seen this year.

Had that one happen because they just haven't been good

and to challenge Wake like that, just crazy.

So yeah, it's been a very, very, very strange couple weeks.

And like I said, I don't, I just,

I think it's gonna continue to happen

because I think it's just, it is parody.

It's that everybody, there are, the levels are so close

right now that you, you wanna look at it especially on paper

and especially by the names of the people that you know.

Oh, yeah, we know the names of the guys on these teams.

But, man, like you can go down, you know, we've seen it.

We've seen, you know, whether it's SMU knock-and-off,

Baylor Michigan State, knock-and-off, Ohio State,

Alabama, knock-and-off, George.

I mean, you can go down the list like, what?

That, who have what?

Like, how many times have we seen top five, top 10 teams

going down to teams outside the top, you know,

what, top 30?

And it just, it doesn't, that doesn't happen very often

and all of those were that.

Why I love you and why I will always love you

is Wake Forest has been maybe the only team

that has not played one of the meaningful matches.

We really have to discuss tonight

and you do an opening five minutes on them.

That's Chris Halliore's.

That's why he's the professor, folks.

That's why I keep him around.

Again, we have, just to give you,

it's like, I almost want to talk about the things

we're not going to talk about tonight.

Like, we're not going to talk about nine and seven

Pepperdine as much as I know Chris could do

30 minutes on them.

We're not going to talk about Virginia Tech beating UNC,

which by the way, was just like one of those quiet ones

that like, I got nothing to be with.

Yeah, that was the same weekend I had,

yeah, that I had everything I was like,

oh, what is going on here?

Exactly.

We don't even have bandwidth for that one.

We have bandwidth for a lot of different ones

and I want to run you through the menu

before we get specific here, Chris Halliore's,

because here's just a laundry list of things

that have happened since you and I last spoke.

We've been on the journey with Ohio State,

Ohio State, of course,

who you could give me a hundred guesses

to try and get their lineup correct.

I think I could get it maybe by lineup

in the S-72, but I'd probably need that many.

They lose that Baylor.

They lose at home to Michigan State

and then they knock off Texas A&M

and they take burning out of the garage

and they move filling up to four

and they have Carpico and filling up to one doubles.

That could be its own hour conversation.

What about the journey Texas has been on

since winning the National Indoor Championship

and yeah, we really haven't seen much OSHA car in the moment

since they obviously got a great win against Mississippi State,

but since then lost to TCU, lost to LSU,

the lost this past weekend to Oklahoma.

By the way, an Oklahoma team that has four, four,

three losses in conference play,

they finally got over the hump.

What about just the TCU of it all?

They beat Texas, they beat Georgia

and then by the way, I could do 30 minutes

on Rodini having the phone ready on the clinch,

diabolical to record that Rodini report

in the first 30 seconds post match.

Like, that's a new peak for Coach Roy.

It's just like, yeah, that made its round in the group chat.

That was like, damn, that's just to get it.

The smile on his face.

Yes, I've watched that video more than once.

By the way, what about Baylor?

They beat Ohio State at home.

They've now beaten Wake Forest and the Buckeye, like, holy shit.

Those are tier one quality wins.

They've also lost at Illinois.

They've also lost to SMU.

What the fuck do we do with them?

A&M, they've had their ups and downs,

but they get wins over LSU, over Georgia.

Vanderbilt, who's come so close,

we know how much talent they have.

They beat Oklahoma, they beat A&M.

How about the fighting Jacobis?

Wind over Vanderbilt and South Carolina for Ole Miss.

I haven't even mentioned Arizona.

Again, good win for them over Columbia.

We got to see Jay versus Michael, all the things,

all the different things.

Again, we could talk about all of them, Chris,

and we'll touch on them all here

as we get to our tiers of contenders,

but this is what I wanna ask first.

And it's the million dollar question.

It's the billion dollar question.

It's the question on the tip of the tongue

of every college tennis fan right now.

Why?

Why is this what we're seeing?

Like, if you were to point to root causes,

what is it about the environment of 2026

that has led to this sort of season?

Man, I don't know.

I mean, I think it's just a lot of little things, right?

I mean, you certainly had the opportunity for,

and we've seen more movement of players,

whether it's because there are teams stacking up

because they've got NIL money,

but the mystery here is we talked about it last year

with a couple teams, including the defending champion

that clearly had some big NIL budgets

that brought in a pretty big payroll

and kind of ran through things.

Nobody's doing that this year.

And would it have looked a little different head,

you know, had a Hodor stuck around maybe,

but I don't know.

I think it's, there's just no clear,

there are some teams that have some pretty good payrolls,

but I think they're kind of young

and so they're just not quite there in maturity yet.

And you just have a bunch of really level teams.

I also think that we've got a bunch of teams that have played,

I mean, if you go and look at all of these teams

that we're talking about,

almost all of them with the exception probably

of Ohio State that I can think of,

maybe teach you to some extent, I'm not sure,

have been playing, you know, some decent time

without serious contributors in the lineup.

And whether that's, oh, we lost matches because of it,

or it's made things different, you know,

you talked about, oh, the great win for Texas over Mississippi,

state will Mississippi state,

didn't have Barroni for that match.

And, you know, you take that and you go,

well, has that run at post indoors really been that great

that, you know, what has it looked like since indoors for Texas?

And you look at all of these teams, right,

that are, and, you know, Texas themselves

has been missing guys, even off skis in and out,

oh, your car's in and out, Lucas Brown still isn't back.

It's, I think you've got a lot,

and then you, and then you throw in the hits and misses

because of people out playing, you know,

you've got some of the LSU guys playing ITF tournaments

and a little bit of that going on.

I think we might hit a little bit of that this weekend.

I saw a couple guys playing tournaments here

that are leading into the weekend, guys and gals, both,

with some ITFs.

You know, I think it's just a lot of little things.

It's the movement on the rosters.

It's the, the more inclination of some people

to play some pro events and so they missed time.

And then it's just the fact that, I don't think it just seems

like we don't, we didn't really get a,

for whatever reason and I can't pinpoint why,

we didn't get a dominant, a dominant roster from where,

you know, somebody just went out and built the,

hey, we're, this is it, we're gonna stack it up.

Yeah, we thought coming into the year,

probably we had, you know, weight, Texas,

TCU, Virginia, like that might be, you know,

but there's more teams than that now

and I think in that group.

And none of them have really, really stepped away

and it's just a very, very level field

and it's so level as we've seen that, you know,

you can go 25 plus deep and those teams can knock off anybody.

Like we saw it, we saw number one go down

to whatever the Hell Michigan State was ranked when it happened.

It's, it's, there's just not,

there's not a big, big, big, big distinction here

and I don't have a good reason as to, you know,

why, why nobody's been able to build that sort of, you know,

is it just a, an in-between year for some of the teams

and they just didn't get a chance to really put

that dominant roster together or is it the fact that,

now this whole, you know, we're just a couple years now

into the whole, the, the NIL and the transfer portal

being really big and making the movement so easy

that it just sort of levels things out now

because guys that figure out they're near,

that they're, you know, fighting for lineup spots

or whatever are just going to move around

and help level the field out everywhere

because they don't want to be in that spot.

They want to get to somewhere where they're,

where they're in a little better position

and, and we've seen a lot of that.

I mean, that is the one thing that I,

I really, really notice, especially when calling matches these days

is as you, as you go through the six courts

doing the intros for the players,

it seems like it's at least two players on every team nowadays

that you're talking about has transferred from somewhere

every time you go through and that never used to be the case.

No, granted, I mean, that's, you know,

that's not new to this year.

That's been the case for, you know, it's been growing

but, but I think that's also, I think that has led to

the ease of which you can just move between teams

has made it so easy to get all the teams level now

because guys, if you're, if you're a seven on a,

you know, on a top 10 team or even a six

that might be fighting for a playing spot next year

and you say, oh, I'm gonna go over and play for, you know,

a number 20 team and being solid in the lineup,

that's, you know, I think it helps level the field out

and there's some of that going around

but I think it's just a lot of those little factors

and then sure, maybe there's just a little,

a little bit of randomness in it too

that every once in a while that's gotta happen

and maybe this is the year.

It's just, I was trying to think of seasons

I would equate this to where, okay,

I was talking about this with our dear friend, John J. Parsons

of like, there's no clear cut front runner for the title

and I was going through in my head

and it's like, not on either side right now.

Well, the one I always turn to, it's like,

well, yeah, that's it's own conversation

and obviously, Jay and I talked a lot about that

in our mid-year award show yesterday

but, or whenever it was.

Like again, 23, there wasn't a clear cut favorite

but that's because you had eight championship tier one

caliber teams.

Again, Draxel and Diallo played for a team

that lost in the quarter finals in 2023.

We had the heavy hitters.

22, you had the defending champs Florida

and you had Virginia just still get hotter than hell

and it was just like, oh yeah,

that's what a championship winning team looks like.

You still have Tennessee Baylor,

their course from the prior year.

Again, 21 in Florida was a jug or not.

19's the one to make the easy comparison to

where it's just like there was never a clear cut favorite.

You know, again, Ohio State wins the indoors

and they had the best player in the country with JJ

but healthy Bloomberg, UNC could beat anyone

and they beat the buck guys in the quarter finals.

Obviously, for Wake, you had still the force

that was Petros, Borna, Bar, fine one more.

That's three points and again, works their way

all to the final.

You had a year too soon Florida team

with young Riffus, young Crawford,

old Kessler, anchoring that line up.

Obviously, you also had the national champs in Texas.

Don't worry, I was gonna forget him, coach Berkou

was the older experience team

and by the way, had the chaos of obviously

an interim coach picking them up

midway through the spring and yet that bonded them together.

They win that national championship.

That was a surprise championship, no doubt.

And this blows that out of the water

because at least that Texas team had lingered

the prior years in a loss to Virginia, 17.

I forget how they did in 18

but you knew that team had the pieces.

Obviously, helped that Edo and Siskar

took another leap forward.

So you scratched that.

18, again, Wake was the clear favorite.

I think about 14, but again, that 14 team,

you saw it, Hanthman Queeros, like at the time,

Sarmiento at the top of the ultimate USC winning team.

I mean, Clay Thompson, Marco Skiron,

Mackey McDonald Gage, but like I can still tell you

the exact UCLA lineup.

They were juggernauts, Alcorda and Axel Alvarez

at the top for Oklahoma.

Obviously, they make their first of three consecutive

finals that year.

It's just like, it hasn't been this in, I don't know.

Again, I wasn't as conscientious of it in the odds.

Maybe it's Drake Bernstein's team

that wins at the post-isner year.

But even that, it's just like, yeah,

but you still have the residual of you guys

where the defending champs and you kind of knew

how to do it.

It gets me to the tiers, Chris Halliore,

so that's where I brought this all up.

I think you can, our friend John Parsons makes this case,

that there is no legitimate, like,

clear-cut, unequivocal tier one contender right now

in this 2026 season.

You have more teams than ever who are top eight quality

and trying to delineate who goes where in that tier two,

again, go to fucking luck.

But there's very clearly not a definitive national

championship favorite.

Like you could tell me any of these teams win the championship

or lose in a frisky round of 16

because the seeding broke against them.

And because of that, I just like,

I don't know if I can put a team in tier one

and I don't know if that's ever been the case

at the midway point of the season.

Yeah, I mean, I think I could, I would still draw out

a tier one, but I will say to,

I mean, to the point you're trying to make is,

I don't think that I've ever been sitting here

at this point of the season thinking, boy,

the top eight, you felt like a seven and eight

maybe could get vulnerable to nine and 10

in that super regional.

Yeah, like when USC's with Learner TN is looming as a 12,

you're like, yeah, that's really fucking tough.

But outside of that, you know, you're pretty,

I think for almost every year I can remember,

I feel like it's been, yeah,

we kind of have this top eight and the top eight is,

you know, at least six of the top eight,

you're pretty damn solid about

and you're pretty damn sure those six teams

are making it to the final site.

Right, and I, there's no chance I feel that good

about anybody this year saying, yeah,

I'm pretty damn sure.

Like if you want me to say, I'm pretty damn sure that,

you know, every, you know,

I'm just gonna read off whoever the hell

to not be biased here in order of the current rankings, right?

Virginia, Virginia one,

I've got a little bit of proof.

TCU2, Texas three, wake four, Ohio State five,

Mississippi State six.

Am I pretty damn sure every one of those six teams

is making the final site not a chance.

I mean, we've seen, look, we just saw Florida State

almost knock wake for us off.

We just saw Mississippi State almost lose a couple matches there.

They had Vandy had him on the road.

I mean, Vandy had him on the ropes, Florida had him on the ropes.

Like it's insane.

We saw Michigan State, that was whatever number,

ranked they were going beat Ohio State.

We saw Texas get knocked.

I mean, any one of those teams can be beaten in the round

of 16, like I don't feel great about going lock them

into the final site for any of them.

I think there's, well, you could argue

there's only two teams, maybe three on the board,

who haven't had one of those jaw dropping.

Wait, what the fuck happened?

Losses yet this season.

And that's where, okay, if you want to make a tier one,

if you want to put in Virginia and wake,

a Virginia team that, yes, has lost twice to Ohio State,

once in Columbus, although Michigan State just got a win there,

but like, that was the juggernaut portion

where they ran the Texas Wake Forest, Virginia.

Like that's not a bad loss indoors.

They had that match on Dietrich's racket

and he just wasn't able to finish Eagle.

Kaka, like that happens in those moments for a team that again,

yes, has knocked down the door still,

knocked down the door last year,

but Montez, Ro-Desh, Founder, Schulenberg,

Kiefer, the guys who did all of that winning

and had the institutional know-how,

they're still replacing that in learning those sorts of things.

I find it funny that you put Wake in that category

whose two losses are to number five and number eight

and you're leaving a team out whose two losses are to number one.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

I didn't leave anyone out yet, Chris, let me finish.

Wake Forest, the other one, because again,

they lose at Columbus and they lose in Waco.

A team they then beat, obviously, when they get them at home,

but Baylor has beaten both Wake and Ohio State at home.

We know how fucking good they are in Waco this year.

No bad losses for the Deeks and they avenged again,

one of their two.

The last team you would throw in this tier

who hasn't taken on what the fuck loss is Mississippi State.

Like Mississippi State, who I knew you were gonna mention

and I was gonna get there.

You just got to trust me, Chris Halliors

and a team who, by the way, hasn't had Baroni

for much of the season and yet again,

they don't have on what the fuck loss.

They lost a heartbreaker, obviously,

at the time in the national indoors, of course,

4-3, excuse me, 4-3, 4-1 to Virginia,

but they had worked their way back in that match.

Obviously, the other loss was the heartbreaker,

4-3 at home to Texas, but that was a deciding set

and they still didn't have the full version of Baroni.

Now again, didn't Baroni at all that day?

Yeah, now I don't know if they have the signature victories

of some of the other.

Although their Illinois win is certainly aging better

with every passing day, but those are three teams

who don't have, again, I'm sorry for swearing so much,

but it's long overdue.

Those are the only three teams without

a what the fuck loss, Chris.

And if I virtue of that, you wanna put them into your one,

I'll listen to it.

That said, if I told you Virginia loses in the quarters,

if I told you Wake loses in the quarters,

if I told you Mississippi State,

sorry coach Roberts, I have a huge believer in the Bulldogs.

I just included them in this tier,

but if I told you honestly, all three of those teams

lost in the round of 16 because they drew the hot fill

in the blank, it's believable in a way that it's just like,

even if they're the top three,

or certainly UVN Wake are well-positioned themselves

to be the top two seeds, but it's just like,

I still, one for 16, it's gonna feel like,

it's not quite to this extent, but it's like,

you know how the Stanford women used to just not play

the indoors and they were the looming 15th seed,

it's like, it's not quite 2010 Stanford women,

but it's a team who will absolutely beat you

if you are not ready.

Yeah, no, and I'm sitting here, so not on current rankings,

but I'm looking at the projected live rankings right now.

And so if we start talking about those top teams

and we look down at the bottom end of the top 16,

I'll just name out, you know,

I don't know if I get completely scared

with Auburn who's sitting at 15,

San Diego at 16, UCF at 14, Vanderbilt at 13,

I don't want any part of any of those three teams.

And like, like, I've already watched Vanderbilt

should have beaten Mississippi State.

We know what San Diego can do.

I mean, nobody wants to play them regardless.

You give them doubles and tarvets

and you're in a world of hurt.

And UCF's just like, they've got all kinds of talent.

I don't want to touch them either.

So yeah, there are some other teams,

I think I'd rather pick out of there

to play than those teams.

So yeah, if you're a 1, 2, 3, 4 team

and that's who you draw in the round to 16,

you don't feel like, oh yeah, we're just waltzing

into Athens, you know, we'll see you next week.

No, no, you've got, you know,

you've got some serious preparation and work to do

and a match that like, I think in past years,

yeah, 1 versus 16, it's almost never been a question.

That may not be the case.

If you're looking at San Diego as your 16,

you're not going, yeah, no worries, we got,

we'll see you next week, that's not gonna happen.

I'll go pass that.

I don't not say this is gonna happen,

but right now UCSB is 32, so I apologize

and yes, we sell them make the national indoors

but I'm not as familiar with their lineup as I should be.

I got to see them play love the energy

and the edge they play with.

But Princeton is 33.

For the sake of this exercise,

I'm gonna move them up to 32 in my head.

Let's just say it was straight numerical.

It's not, it's regional.

But by the way, by region, guess where Princeton's going?

Number one, Virginia, we know that story.

Here's why I say that, Chris.

They take doubles, Paul Beats-Dillon, top beats Keegan,

not out of the realm of possibility

as a round two matchup in the slum at all.

And it's now, look, Colombia is not,

Colombia's sitting in a position right next to Princeton

in the projected, they're 29 and 30 in the live right now.

They don't have enough meat left on the schedule

outside of the San Diego match this weekend

and I don't even know if that would be enough

to beat San Diego and then run the table

to get them to a 16.

They're probably not hosting,

which means they're going somewhere

and that Princeton and Colombia at the same conference

can't both go to Virginia,

but yeah, Virginia's, you know, in all likelihood,

getting one of those two teams.

I mean, right now, again, and it's not unreasonable

to think it stays this way.

Right now, these are just number ones going on the road

for the opening weekend of NCAA play.

Target, I'm going to throw Domingo on that list

because shout out Notre Dame, man.

They're fighting, I know they lost a tough one,

four, three, and three, and three, and three.

By the way, an NCAA team undefeated in ACC play.

But again, like, Domingo, Rudy Kwan,

I was going to say bored, but no.

Eddie Winter, Michael Zang, a current guy,

the number one in the rankings you might have heard of him

by the name of Trevor Svida, for an SMU team

that again, just beat Baylor and was four, three

with Ohio State at the national indoors.

Fool me once, shame on me, shame on you,

fool me twice, I'm not paying attention.

Clemson's fallen to 38, like, they're not healthy,

but what happens if Galice is back?

And now like, I'm just trying to think of like the break,

I just, some of the scenarios,

they're going to go somewhere in that SEC region,

and it's like, oh, it's them versus number 13 Vanderbilt,

or whatever, number 11, Georgia, as a round two matchup,

and you're just like, fuck me, like,

that's who I'm drawing round one.

Again, we still haven't seen the PyJonka piece,

I think at this point, we can say no to that,

but I don't think that's happening.

Yeah.

You got one of the hottest players in the country,

Lucas De Silva, they're not in a hosting spot right now,

so that'd be a number one guy on the road.

This is what I'm saying.

It's just like these teams are so,

there's so much depth, like,

what if Harvard gets their shit together?

That's a team that's had a rough season.

By the way, what if Duke finishes and it's like,

oh, we got to play Cooper and Pedro,

and I know there's, it's tough for them to find their pathway

before it's a very narrow path,

but it's just like, that's not a tough out.

You just like, you don't want to spot,

it's just, it's chaos.

And so again, all of this was a point of making,

do we have a tier one team right now?

Is there a clear cut?

You're like, yeah, that team's competing for a net.

I mean, again, you can see this about all of these teams

given the parity that, well, now you're all competing

for a national championship, technically.

Since tier one doesn't exist, tier two becomes tier one,

and you're all tier one candidates now,

and it's a disappointment otherwise,

given the opportunity at hand.

That said, just to put this bow on to your number one,

do you have any teams that you are,

that you're like, I will,

you'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

They are your national championship contenders.

I mean, I still, I do still kind of feel like there is

a ring around like the top six teams,

and that, and they are whom.

They are Virginia, Texas, Wake,

in no particular order here, Virginia, Texas, Wake,

Ohio State, TCU, and Mississippi State.

And the problem is, obviously they've taken losses outside,

so any one of the teams that beat any of them

can make an argument, but that's all, you know,

that's almost always gonna be the case anyway.

And then there's, and then I have probably a very small tier,

but another tier behind them that includes teams like

Baylor, like A&M, that could, that LSU?

They've been there, huh?

LSU?

Yeah, LSU, I just don't have those,

those teams right on that tier one line.

I think for the most part with all of those teams,

I get worried A about deck,

but A&M, like they're still,

they're sitting there in the top 10,

and they were playing a bunch of matches with, you know,

not their healthy lineup, let's say they had,

I think they played even Skrabarsik at five,

and Patel at six won match.

It's like, they've struggled to stay healthy,

and so they can certainly be super dangerous,

but I just don't think I have the absolute faith,

just up and down the line up,

like with those top six teams,

and are all six of those teams gonna make the final strike,

probably not, probably, you know,

one of them's probably gonna get knocked off,

if not more than one,

but I still think they, those teams,

I think do feel to me like they sit a notch above,

and yeah, I think there are people

that will make the argument for LSU,

the LSU, it's just so fresh,

and we haven't seen a lot of the Pitchkowski and Aratunian show

that I don't, you know, I haven't had enough,

see it to believe it, right, to go, yeah,

I really, really, really do believe it,

and they might be legit belonging to be in that same tier,

and so that's the only team I kind of question,

and then I do sort of draw a line for me there at,

those are right now my contenders,

and I think the other teams, the other teams in there,

can knock any one of them off on any given day,

I'm just not sure that I have the faith in any of them

to be able to win three matches in a row

at the final sight and win a title.

I don't have any doubts that if any of those teams

that I just named made the final sight,

they could win three matches in a row and win the title.

I just don't know right now if any of those other teams

could do that, could they win one or two matches?

Yeah, can they not, can they do it three days in a,

you know, not necessarily through,

I can't remember whether the men played first or second day

at the final sight this year,

but three out of four days at worst,

and make it, make the run, I'm not so sure,

and so that's kind of why I put those teams there,

but I also think that some of those teams

are very susceptible to being upset.

I just feel better about the all around depth

of the team that if they are playing well,

yeah, I think they can win three days in a row,

whereas I have those doubts about the other teams.

Well, what's so amazing is, again,

I agree with your first of all,

you said a lot while saying nothing, shout out to you.

We've been doing this for a long time.

I've worn off on you very well, my friend.

Texas, the loss to Oklahoma, they had everyone.

Ojikar played, like Ericsson was up to three,

they had even Ovsky as well.

Marino seems to be the guy they're going with at six,

like I kind of know what Texas is gonna look like now

as the best version of themselves,

and that best version can still absolutely win three

consecutive matches.

Keep in mind, again, in the loss with TCU,

they didn't have Ojikar, they didn't have even Ovsky

in the loss to LSU, they didn't have Ojikar.

I agree, I would throw Texas in the benefit

of the doubt category with Wake Forest,

with Virginia, certainly, with Mississippi State,

excuse me, of course, as well.

So I suppose by virtue of that,

yes, you give them that.

For TCU, a couple of things have happened.

First of all, again, we still don't have

the 2025 version of Pedrico,

and yet all the bonding's finally starting to heat up.

They made a little switch,

one, two, Cosme, Roland DeRolo, Roland DeRavo,

Duncan Chan, that seems to be finding some success.

That team's really good at doubles,

and I still think that our Pedrico at his best piece

to add as we move forward, and yet again, like.

So you add them to that list,

because there's also the continuity again,

allow those guys have played big matches

in a way a lot of other players across the nation haven't.

Let's have the Ohio State conversation.

Let's fucking do it.

Let's rip the band data off.

We've been dancing around it for 38 minutes here,

Chris Halliores.

I cannot fucking believe they lost the Michigan State,

and I, all the credit in the world to Harry Jaden,

who has not had a healthy or full roster the entire spring.

And we knew going into the air,

I think we said this in our January preview.

It's like, well, what Michigan State do we see?

Do we get the best version of them?

Because the best version of them has six guys

that on the right day can go find you your four points.

At any of the positions, we saw that.

To do that on the road against Ohio State

after dropping a doubles point as well,

like that, they dropped doubles, right?

Michigan State dropped doubles.

They found four singles victories.

If my brain is working correctly,

you can double check me on that, Chris, if you don't mind.

It was stunning.

I just like again, the buck guys don't lose in Columbus ever.

And I do want to emphasize, here's the thing though.

I looked at the A&M scoreline, Chris,

who they then beat this week.

And I swear to God, they found their lineup

because I'm looking at that path

and I'm seeing doubles and drop at two,

fill in at four, Bernie at five.

And I'm going, uh-oh, if I'm the rest of the country, go fuck.

That's probably the lineup.

Like that's the one for me, especially outdoors,

because Finland's been so good this year.

I'm a huge fan of the lefty.

Obviously lost a tough one in the National Indoor

Championship, but man, that's a guy I want to go to war with.

They brought Bernie out of the car, out of the garage,

and he gets the three set clinch over Pirus

at that number five spot.

And then Anthrop at two does what Anthrop does at two.

I know he lost a tough one, obviously,

at one to Michigan State, but like we've seen Anthrop at two.

We'll talk about it more next week.

He's probably the all lineup first team selection

at that two spot, given he's played the majority

of his matches there.

Doubles, it was time for Bernie for Carpico

and Finland, I mean, they're the number one team in the country.

They belong at the number one spot.

They showed that against me, and that's a fucking good team.

They still can, you know, again, Bernie and Akanko

at two, that's a really fucking good team.

This team should be really good at doubles.

They have all the pieces.

Yeah, that, that Bernie and Akanko were playing

to this past week, but I don't know how far back

if it's just two, two weeks ago, three weeks ago,

but I watched a match not long ago, post indoors,

where Bernie and Akanko were all the way down to three.

But yeah, that's like, and they did win doubles

in that Michigan state matchup.

I think the, by the way, they won doubles against Baylor as well,

like worth pointing out in what was ultimately, again,

a tough four to loss for them.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think the most shocking part to me,

not that they lost the four singles matches.

Look, I think, and I've said this before, this loss,

I honestly, when you get a fully healthy and focused,

which is another problem, Michigan state team,

is very dangerous.

And so it didn't shock me.

What shocked me more than anything

were the first set scores.

And to see on the top four courts,

anthrop down six to eight and Kim down six love,

Lauren Byers down six love.

You got two games total in the first set on courts,

one, two, and four.

That's absolutely ridiculous.

Now, this match played outside.

It was super windy.

It's never super clean tennis.

If you're going to play in 18 mile an hour wins,

the Ohio State crew wanted to get that match moved indoors

as badly as they could have tried.

And it just, you know, when you say that,

you mean Owen Alderman.

Owen Alderman fought to get that.

And he had the fans going up.

He's like, it's, he's been stalled solar panels

to try and he's like, move this match inside.

I continue.

Yeah, but, you know, it was like 18 was the, was the win.

Well, Rick was the, you know, the reading on the win.

And it's got to be over 20.

And it's, but, but we've seen that when you,

once you get into those kind of windy conditions,

it's a completely different game.

So, so it can change things.

But nonetheless, like a great win to me,

not, not necessarily all that surprising.

But look, these guys at Michigan State, it's one win.

I don't think anybody's giving them that respect

just yet.

Well, I think they're like seven and six now, right?

It's like, it's still, yeah, it's, I mean,

they still look, they're seven and seven, excuse me.

Yeah, the poor start to the season,

which is hard to a match, hard to say this,

far outweighs your one good win guys.

Like, you're, it's, it's still, it's still on the,

if I put all your season together in a pile

and I look at it, I go, it's crap, okay?

Like, yeah, you pulled off a great win at Ohio State,

whether you got luck, you're, whether you got healthy,

I don't know, that remains to be seen.

We're gonna find out when you play Illinois

this weekend, how good you are.

So you better go out and do something

because you're not getting any respect

until you back that one up.

But again, still, you know, from the standpoint

of the shock factor, for me, honestly, not that shocking.

But yeah, I think for most people, yes, it was

and certainly from a ranking perspective, it was.

But yeah, it's, you know, you put it all together,

it's outdoor tennis for Ohio State,

which always, you know, those questions are always

gonna come and then, you know, tough condition

outdoor tennis at that.

And then you just caught a team that just like,

just really a week ago, was able to finally get everybody

back and put a full line up together

other than, you know, they're not gonna have

Luke Ragnavitch the rest of the year.

But, but they've got, you know, they've got what,

what they have, then what they played there.

And whether you play Sheldon or Say, you know,

in that six spot, that's up to you.

But it's, I mean, the top four is a great top four.

And there were, Taz, D-Rack and Thanos, that's a crew.

Yeah, and, I mean, Ozon, if, you know,

if he's locked it, we've, you know, we've seen,

we've seen really good Ozon and we've seen like,

I don't really give a shit, Ozon.

And, and if we see the really good Ozon and locked in

and I want to win, that gets to be a dangerous team.

And I think he's, I think his just sort of mental attitude

towards the way things are going is just bleeds over

to the entire team.

And when they, when they are like ready to go and locked in,

ready to go to war, that's not a team you really want to play.

No, it's, you can say that about a million different teams.

Again, it's remarkable.

And just to put the final bow on the Ohio State conversation,

and never has a team reminded me more of 2014 Virginia,

where it was again, like, do I play Dagle?

Do I play Richmond?

Do I play, and by the end of the season was, yes,

I'm playing Eragoni.

What do I do with senior Justin Shane,

who is the senior bad?

I don't know if he's as good as some of these other guys.

And, you know, again, it's just like,

you have so many options and you want to play them all.

There's no doubt right now, Bryce Nakashima,

went undefeated in duel match play last year in singles.

He's earned the benefit of the doubt.

He's in a rough patch.

Hasn't been the best middle stretch of the season,

and yet that's still a guy I would bet on to bounce back.

Buyers is in a rough patch.

Like, no doubt about that, either.

And yet again, it's like, okay,

well then we'll take the Bernie toy out of the car.

Well, out of the garage.

Well, we still have a conqo to work with.

And Carpico is always good for a Sponette 6.

I mean, again, what's been the most notable thing,

and I hate to rag on it because I'm still such a believer

in the so-called state team.

They're winning doubles points, right?

Like, they win it against Michigan State.

They win it against Baylor.

They win it against Texas in the championship match.

The issue is the singles.

Did they win it against Texas in the championship match?

No, they had the match points on every court

and they weren't able to close up the doubles point there.

Yeah, my brain still works.

I promise.

I just, they gotta find the,

they're still searching for the order.

Where that's the biggest takeaway is we're two

and a half months in and we knew we were gonna get

a bunch of different lineups from Ohio State.

I will continue, I wanna end on a glass half full

and then we're moving on Chris

because we gotta talk about the SEC here.

I think they found it.

Like, I looked at that ANM score line

and the first thing I thought was holy shit.

Like, that's not the lineup I wanna see Ty play

the rest of the year if I'm his opponent

because it's just, well,

Manthrop doesn't lose it to, again,

I think Phillin is the rock of that lineup right now.

And yeah, give me Alex Bernard at five or six

and your team makes the NCAA final

as we learned in 2023.

So it's just like, I think they're,

it's the ultimate zag.

I think they're closer.

Like, it's crazy to say they still have the rankings wins

and I know obviously things get interesting now

but let's point out in the big 10,

like Illinois is gonna give them points.

That's a top 10 team right now.

You've got, you know, again, a core of UCLA and USC

and Wisconsin's up to 30 right now.

Michigan State's obviously bounced back.

Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon,

all inside the top 50 as well.

There are real teams for them to continue to sharpen

the iron against.

I'm not hitting the panic button.

I'm keeping them in my tier one

but of course they have been the story of the last three weeks

because certainly they have provided plenty of,

it's just all the different, it's just,

it's the best part about college tennis,

all this talent and trying to figure out the best version

of it, that's the struggle for every team

and for 25 years.

No one's done it better than Ohio State

consistently year after year after year.

So yeah, is that enough buck I talk?

Do we, we would have done about that accumulation of it

over the course of the last three weeks

had we had episodes.

We didn't, like, we're still in the tiers by the way

which is incredible because I think I coped out

of answering any of the questions.

I would still go, and this is crazy

because I know they just lost and they've lost.

I would still have Texas as my one

because again, I watched it at the national indoors.

I saw what the best version of them looks like

in a way I just haven't seen yet.

I think from the rest of the field in a moment like that.

Wake two, Virginia three.

Ohio snow.

I don't know what to do.

Like I agree TCO, Ohio State Mississippi State

would be my next tier of three.

I don't know what to do with my order there.

And again, having Texas at one is crazy

but that's just an eye test thing

because everything is so equal.

Let me ask you this.

Are 7, 8, 9, 10 all from the SEC in your mind?

Like what have you made?

You look right now at the SEC standings.

No, Baylor has to be in there.

I think, oh yeah, I forgot about it.

Thank you for the inclusion of Baylor.

We talked about like who would have the better

winning record amongst the matches?

The SEC men's regular season champ

or the women's regular season champ.

And as expected, everyone's beating up everyone.

Again, Mississippi State's in the lead right now

at six and one overall.

They're one lost to Texas.

LSU's five and two.

They have a win over Texas.

Texas of course has the lone win over Mississippi State.

Auburn is just sort of lingering at four and two

in the background.

Again, like all of these teams,

the fight in Jacobi's are 15 and four overall,

three and four in play.

Oklahoma, all of their conference losses,

four, three by score line.

Or three.

Yeah, South Carolina.

Like again, Alabama's nine and nine overall,

three and four, they have wins over Georgia and Kentucky.

Like your RSEC correspondent, Chris,

help me make sense of it, please.

Who do you like most?

Texas aside, give me the power rankings.

Texas and Mississippi State are the tier ones.

We've talked about them enough.

Organize the rest of the SEC for me.

Yeah, I think, well, it's the funny thing

you talked about, Alabama with the win over Georgia.

Alabama is in ranking-wise, the second worst team in the SEC.

They sit solely above Tennessee at the 14th spot

with Tennessee being 15.

I think if you're power ranking Texas Mississippi State,

I think as of right now, that next group,

it's probably really just a group of two at the moment

has to be LSU in Texas A&M.

I would have said LSU then Texas A&M

until Texas A&M went into Baton Rouge

and beat him this weekend in that crazy.

I just, I want a running video of the Moncy celebration

of that point at the, like whatever that was,

four-all, 15-all, and the third where,

I mean, that was just an insane point, yeah, unbelievable.

If you haven't seen that, go search it on Twitter, people.

Go find it.

But I think those teams have to come in as the next two,

and then it gets really, really interesting

because barring the Alabama loss,

I would have said Georgia's actually in that tier

with LSU in Texas A&M.

I just, the Alabama loss is absolutely inexplicable

to me for Georgia.

It makes, it made no sense,

and I just, I struggled to figure out

what the heck happened there.

So I don't know, I still think,

and they played, they played Mississippi State Super Type,

and they've looked good in their other matches.

So I think that next grouping definitely has,

but there's a bunch of teams in there.

You've got Georgia, you've got Oklahoma,

you've got South Carolina, you've got Vandy,

you've got Auburn, you've got Florida, you've got Ole Miss.

That's like one big group.

The question is, do you include Kentucky in that?

I don't know.

They've been so hit or missed that that's a group.

You probably have to include Kentucky in there,

but it's like one big monster group

from what is that one, two, three, four, after four.

So from like five down to,

and then I'm gonna leave Arkansas,

I'm gonna go to Alabama, Tennessee for like a bottom three.

And everybody else is just one tier lump together

in the SEC that we've already seen it.

Ole Miss just beat South Carolina at South Carolina.

Oklahoma, you know, Kentucky goes on the road

and beat Oklahoma, I don't understand.

Bama somehow beats Georgia.

Didn't South Carolina go on the road

and beat Oklahoma 432?

Like an Oklahoma team, I would remind you again,

just beat a full-fledged Texas lineup.

Did South Carolina?

That was a 4-3 match in Norman.

I remember it.

Yeah, it was.

Yeah, it was.

You're right.

It was at Oklahoma.

Yeah.

I mean, it's all over.

That tier is just, it's just crazy.

And every team's got a little

something for it.

Panoron's playing three for Vanderbilt.

It's like, all these teams have real,

there are chents at like four and five.

It's like, there are chants playing five for Florida.

And it's legitimate.

Like, yeah, it's so, and it wasn't,

and you know, obviously he's there

because he's, why he started at four,

worked his way down to five after coming back from injury.

But it's like, he said it's legit.

He, that's where he belongs.

He's still not, he's not winning

and beating people up at that spot.

But, but it's not a spot that you, you know,

especially if you're looking forward to thinking,

hey, come SEC conference tournament

and then NCAA tournament time.

Do I want to be playing a team

that's got Jeremy Jin at five?

Hell no, I don't.

Like, that's ridiculous.

Here's, it's the argument I've gotten

with Jay from the start is like, his argument,

I don't think he'd mind me saying it

because I know he said it publicly,

is that there aren't any great teams.

He's literally said it on our last show

that there are no great teams

in men's college tennis this year.

And I've been grappling with that.

I guess this is sort of where we can end.

We're gonna get to a top 10 conversation here.

And I just, we're gonna wrap it

via through, I've got some questions for you.

The gold standard for me at five and six,

we're not talking 98 stands for,

that's the real gold standard.

But the modern day, it's like,

Erragony Wearsholm, where it was just like for 16

and 17 and it's like, well Virginia's up 20

because they have Erragony and Wearsholm

to close shit out.

Again, Wearsholm, top five recruiting his class,

futures titles, Erragony qualifies for US Open,

literally the fall after graduating.

I still think those two guys would be the favorites,

of course, at five and six versus like,

I'm taking Wearsholm over Mariano.

I'm taking him over Dolberg.

I'm taking him over Delgado or Guillem,

whomever it may be for Wake.

Pride Teja, I'd like to see him play Pedrica.

That'd be fucking fun.

Himvars Carpico would be a really fun contrast

in styles as well.

I guess here's what I'm saying is,

yeah, I'm taking those two over the rest of the field.

But the depth is there.

Like again, it's not as though like,

re-shard and L, I mean, I'll turn around on it for fuck.

That's pretty good.

But like, I'd like to see Elton Morano versus Erickson.

I'd like to see Elton Morano versus Chuckie the Kid.

Like, I think there are good matches to be had there.

I certainly, like again, my boy Carl.

I want to watch Carl Sodorlin play Cooper Weston.

I'm sorry to add a key point to the Virginia team,

but it's like, let's talk about it.

You know, again, the 2012 USC team had Hanfman at five

and Kero's at six, but it was the freshman version of them

is what people have to keep in mind.

Of course, on paper, you're like, holy fuck.

But you know, I don't want to see Sodorlin Weston

like that match might go three hours and 45 minutes.

Oh, it will.

But it'll also be the most polite three hours,

45 minutes in the history of tennis.

I'll just play like 25 ball rallies

until someone goes, I think I'm going to take a shot now.

No, and then they'll shake each other's hands

and be like, dude, that was very fun.

Thank you, Carl.

And they'll be like, you're welcome, Cooper.

Like, I'm picking that Virginia team

because that Virginia team had all of that talent

and they had the continuity of like,

we've been here before for, we don't have a great team.

Yeah, for sure.

None of these teams are good.

But I guess what he always argues is that

last year's wake would blitz all of these teams.

Are you picking like, I'm going to go through it real quick.

We'll go them versus Texas, just as a de facto thing.

Just to talk me through a Christmas rapid fire,

let's do the thought exercise.

God, I've missed these thought exercises.

Or well overdue.

Dostonech versus Gorsny.

Dostonech.

Yeah, he was so good in the two tournaments last year.

I'll do respect, Seb.

Evenovsky or DK?

DK.

I'm taking evenovsky.

Like, if I get indoors evenovsky, I'm taking Colin.

Or Kaelin, have we decided what he's branded Colin?

It is Colin.

Okay, good.

We'll go with the most recent lineup.

Erickson versus X-man.

Yeah, that's probably a toss-up.

I agree.

Yeah, it's probably a toss-up.

Chuckie the kid versus the other, I guess versus 4J.

It's a fucking good match.

Yeah, but I mean, yeah, 4J has been like,

he's been so hit or miss.

I mean, freshman Chuckie the kid had some misses too.

Yeah, exactly.

That's what I'm saying.

Like, it's another one of those 50-50s that it's like,

well, who just shows up today because either one of them

could easily take that match.

Toucher Oshikar.

Oh, I gotta take Oshikar.

I agree.

Pow or Mariano?

Pow.

Can I tell you, that match goes three sets,

but I'm taking Luca with a tight 6-3 in the third.

But that match would be fucking electric.

Here's my point.

I think I favor Dastonich definitively,

pow definitively, and I take Wake Forest in doubles.

Their still 2-5 is a very clear feasible.

They could absolutely, you know,

Gorsny plays the right match.

Gorsny's been captain clutch his entire life too.

The better the opponent, the better the Gorsny.

And the bigger the moment, the better the Gorsny always.

I just don't think the gap's that big.

I felt much more confident because Wake had, again,

the totality of talent and experience in a way certainly

a lot of these teams lack here in 2026.

Like, it's again, do you want to go with the experience picks

of Mississippi State?

Ohio State is both the X.

Ohio State is the X factor.

Like, what if they find the best version of themselves?

Which they clearly still haven't, in my opinion,

because they are still playing with the lineup so frequently?

We haven't even talked about Illinois.

Like, I'm so in on Jilly-jilly.

Like, I'm saying, Jilly, I'm so mad,

more people didn't like my Dilly-jilly-jilly-jilly.

Tweet the other day because I was like so proud of it.

I was like, God, if you remember the Budweiser Bud Light,

Dilly-jilly commercial, like, that's all.

Let me tell you.

Let me tell you, Chris.

Let me get this off my chest.

2015, if this is the Gosea Hiltzick Years of Champagne fandom,

every point he wins or in-between serves when we are allowed to do that,

you'd get a Jilly-jilly, like from the Champagne crowd.

And that we've been robbed of that a decade later.

Anthony Montero, you're on the shit list.

No, I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

Forget the between points.

Who?

I saw McCoy commented on it, which is I think it was why it popped up for me.

I don't know who the post was, but it was the,

it was Baylor Oklahoma from the NCAA tournament of like,

or a match in 14 or 15 there,

because it was Julian Lens, I believe.

And there was, it wasn't just between point.

It was yelling during the points.

Like, it was, it was unbelievable.

Oh, I, I wish we could have that again.

Like, nobody has to be quiet ever.

Just, it just can't be, you know, no, the problem is,

once you say no one has to be quiet, I mean, again, you got to pick.

It's either we, but here to that and no more complaining

and we all have to just embrace it.

Or again, we have these rules where it's kind of like,

well, are we?

It's the gray area.

Again, I love Anthony Montero.

That was a joke.

I'm fine with all those yelling during the points.

It's just the what you say, right?

You still can't say the certain things, right?

Can you imagine mid four hand though?

You hear it?

Julie, Julie.

I'm like, I just like love it.

I just like, oh, somewhere,

somewhere, as that Deepai Lobs coming,

he's getting time.

No, it's just like somewhere in my head,

it's like Brian Clark or Ross Gionne

is sitting on the sideline.

Julie, Julie.

And so it's so sad to me that we've taken that away.

Or like you go, papau,

it's just like there's so many easy ones.

I do DK, clap, clap.

DK, clap, clap.

DK, clap, clap.

By the way, that one's still legal.

Julie, Julie.

We haven't talked about Illinois.

They got the wins.

Like, you saw the sign of it, of course, kick off weekend.

And then they sweep the Baylor TCU home weekend, Chris.

Like, Julie's getting better.

Obviously, DeBruh.

And you're like, oh, okay.

Yeah, that's the DeBruh we signed up for.

Like, that's the one we all expected to see.

Neo, she's playing well.

Like, even Emra's.

My boy, I know that's not how you pronounce it,

but he is Emra's.

Come on, that's just, that's sick.

They got, they're good.

They're good, man.

They're starting to find themselves too.

And it's just like that culture.

It's like the stiny culture.

It's like, give him the players.

Give them the confidence.

And when they start winning, that's when it really takes off.

Um, I just like, I could do 10 minutes.

By the way, like, what do we do about San Diego?

I could spend a whole pot on the San Diego Pepperdine.

Let's, let's, can I rapid fire questions to end?

Yeah.

All right, we're going to rapid fire through.

And I am going to try and keep us here.

We're just over the hour mark.

I'm going to keep it responsible here tonight, Chris.

Mostly because I did a nine hour broadcast today.

You did like six hours and you got a full weekend ahead of you.

We both do.

Um, and this is why it's a two part mid year,

because I just needed an hour to just, I don't know.

There wasn't an outline.

There was no structure to this show.

I think we've kept it pretty coherent, Chris.

I'm pretty happy with ourselves.

By the way, we didn't really, like we kind of answered the SEC question

and then we did moral highest.

I love this job.

Um, it's the great.

I just, just for the avid listeners that want to hear your follow-up

every week, because you said you were going to ask me every week.

Like, what's the lineup?

What, what, what, what's how many of the SEC teams make?

I'll tell you right now.

If we drew the tournament today,

14 of the 15 SEC tournaments teams,

excuse, 15, 14 of the 15 team teams make the NCAA tournament

with Tennessee being also close at the moment after that winover out.

They pick up their first conference winover Alabama over the weekend

and that gets them inside the top 50.

Last year, I think the cut, if I remember correctly, was like 46.

So they're lingering, you know, right there in the area for the SEC

at 48 this week.

And everybody else is 41 and better.

And in the tournament right now, that's absolutely insane.

And, you know, you have teams like Florida and Alabama now

that are looking to make sure they're exactly 500.

They have to avoid the sub 500 rule and pick up,

make sure they've got some decent double headers in there.

But yeah, 14 out of 15 in as of right now.

So that 11 and a half line, you're taking the over for sure.

Julie, Julie, I've lost my brain, Chris.

It's entered my head and I can't go away.

All right.

Well said, by the way, did you enjoy me?

Someone had a college tennis ranks question because we're now in the season

where people are looking through things and they're like,

well, wait a second.

This number doesn't add up.

Do you think he carefully bring it up?

All right. I'm just going to bring it up.

I know he won't mind.

We won't talk about the specifics.

He won't care.

He's family.

He's miss book, as we say in my culture.

To get a text from coach Andrew Lichonig,

who's trying to do the math for his date and flyers.

I've never been prouder.

I was like, oh, our boys all grown up.

That's our guy.

He really is.

I was like, I'm so like, great question.

I can't answer that.

I was like, and I really don't want you to think I'm passing you off.

But I was like, I want to help you.

Here's Chris.

Chris, this is right up his alley.

That's actually...

You know how the...

Well, sorry.

You don't have the ITA hands out tutorials and they do it for coaching training.

And it's part of the reason we have such exceptional coaches right now.

Part of that tutorial should be like,

and here's how you contact Chris for your college tennis regs questions.

Because it's like, that actually is part of the steps of becoming a coach.

And it's like, well, I got a text Chris at some point.

Because I got some questions about the math.

Well, so yeah, it was great.

So no, I did, yeah.

Lichonig and I had a good long conversation on the phone.

I had jealous.

I've had probably for the last three weeks, I would say.

I've had four or five of those each week with various coaches,

both men's and women's now.

And it's interesting at which it's the rate at which they all start getting to the projected rankings.

And realizing the page doesn't look the same.

And they go, hey, wait a minute.

What happened here?

I don't like...

I don't see my top...

The point values from my top 10 wins in the table anymore.

What's going on?

And then we have to go through that.

Talking about all that.

But yeah, no, it was...

I was going to lead this off, though, with the best part of that entire interaction to me

was the fact that you first texted me and said, hey, I'm going to give you

Andrew Lichonig's contact if information.

He had a question.

If he hasn't already reached out to you, reach out to him.

In that text, you spelled out Andrew Lichonig.

So I know you know how to spell Lichonig.

No, okay.

I'm going to cut you off there.

I got the contact from Robert Cash.

So...

I assume they call him Lichonig.

His contact name was just Andrew Lichonig.

No, no, no, no, no.

It was many moons ago.

I texted Robert Cash.

I go, yo, can you send me Lichonig's number?

Or maybe it was JJ, who I saw both of them.

I really wanted to get that and go, he just has no idea how to spell,

but you clearly spelled it in the text.

I was like, he's just too lazy to type it all out in his contact.

By the way, speaking of guys we speak with,

in my experiences in Phoenix,

gets in, I want to say, 7.30, 8 p.m.

This must have been, when did I get there?

Well, I had to get there Tuesday morning.

So it was Tuesday.

It was before the doubles had started.

It's late Tuesday night.

He gets in.

His partner was still flying into town,

but he wanted to hit a few balls and say to when's they start?

Ben Kite.

Looks at me and goes, Alex, can you give me 15 minutes

of down the center tennis?

I go, Ben, that's exactly the amount of time I can give you.

His coach is like, look, trust me,

because his coach is the nicest guy,

but he's like, look, if you think you're competent,

you will do better than I do.

I was like, yeah, I think I can do 15.

At first, I was like, just keep it to my back, can't please.

Let's keep it clean.

Though I've been working on the forehand shout out Peter Cobalt.

By the end, I was running around.

I was like, I got to hit the forehand.

I got to get into the fucking zone.

I go, Ben's like, I hit some serves and returns.

And like, I was a little offended by how surprised they were

that I could land returns cross and take them on the rise.

I was like, motherfucker, I play.

It's the same thing.

I'll share this story too, because I know she won't mind.

I met Ethan's mom, and I knew it was common.

I could see it in her face, where it's like, wait, like,

you're Alex Ruskin, but you're tall.

And I was like, I know.

I was like, it's believe me.

Like, if I could deepen my voice, I would.

It's the other funny thing.

She goes like, wait, you're a man.

And I was like, I know.

I was like, it's the boyish charm.

It's the youthful enthusiasm.

So, great to be there.

I'm a warm-up partner, is what I'm saying in a pinch.

I'm just announcing my availability for all of the listeners here.

Should they need me at any point, Ben's EA's?

I think there was a question.

Oh, yeah.

I saved it as lots.

I didn't save it as lots.

It was not my arena at all.

I wanted to spell Loot Shouting.

I even say it as I want to spell it.

So, I know I get it right.

And by the way, that's my family.

Don't.

It's so the what's is.

All right.

Rapid fire down the home stretch.

You ready?

Yep.

Don't think just answer.

But do think.

But answer short.

Final ranking for Auburn.

19.

Over under seven top 16 SEC seats.

Seven and a half.

Top 16.

Texas.

Mississippi State.

LSU.

A&M.

Georgia.

And I still have two more.

Yeah.

Build Auburn.

Have to be Andy Auburn.

Oklahoma.

I will go.

What'd you say over under what number?

Seven and a half.

Under.

I'll go seven.

I'll go six or seven.

I like it.

One of San Diego or Pepperdine finishes top 16.

Yes or no?

No.

Wow.

I mean, God.

I just I don't have like Pepperdine's not getting there at this point.

I don't think they're going to have to live off the win over each other here late in the season.

I think they still play each other.

But I mean, conference tournament, right?

No, they play each other.

April 12th.

That matches at San Diego.

Then yes, they have the conference tournament as well.

So yeah, unless they split.

But yes.

So.

Is it splitter?

Does one have to sweep?

Yeah.

Does one have to sweep to get in.

So I actually, I guess I'll change my mind.

I guess and say yes, one.

And it's going to be whoever comes out better in that exchange.

But yeah, if they, if an assuming they meet in the conference tournament, which they should.

If they split.

You know, I, I just don't know how much meat and San Diego does have Columbia this weekend.

If if they can pull that one off.

Yeah, I'll change my mind and say yes, whoever comes out better in those exchanges maybe gets there.

But it could easily be a no fair enough.

SMU finishes top four in the ACC.

Virginia Wake Forest.

You got Notre Dame.

You got NC State.

Stanford, of course, lingering.

Does SMU finish top four Clemson?

No.

I'll say they got a good shot at five.

I don't think they go for it.

All right.

Are you sure?

I'll give you a chance.

Oh, no, I'm not sure.

I'm pretty sure they're not coming in front of Virginia.

Wake Forest.

NC State's had a really good start, but still obviously has meat to go.

It's the fact that Stanford really shouldn't.

Shouldn't go down.

And they've got the win over SMU.

So I'm going to say Virginia Wake NC State Stanford top four.

Virginia Wake NC State Stanford NC State six and off to a really good start.

Last couple for you.

We are answered the Ivy League question.

The winner of the big 12 two weeks later three weeks later since I last asked whenever it was will be.

It's still like, yeah, I still don't know.

By the way, I agree with all of your answers so far for people wondering what my opinions are.

I feel like I'm going to take like even though they had a great start to the year made indoors.

I feel like I'm going to take Arizona State off the table for the answer to that question.

And do you put Arizona back on the table even though I think Arizona UCF Baylor TCU are all in that equation.

And I honestly still don't know.

I boy, yeah, I like.

And I'm going to I'm going to almost use recency bias because I called the UCF match tonight.

They played just an awful pathetic doubles point.

But once they got an and it's BYU.

So take, you know, it's not a top 20 team is all I'm saying no disrespect to BYU.

Was it at BYU?

No, this was that.

You know, they they looked really good.

It just reminded me of the talent they've got on that team.

I mean, it's just the freshman Pedro Rodriguez.

There's a ton of talent there.

I feel like they could they could easily do it.

But just as easily as they could do it.

I sort of make Arizona the fourth team in that conversation.

And I kind of feel like TCU Baylor UCF are in a dog fight for who's going to win it.

Make me pick right now.

I think I'm going to say who's got the most home matches?

I think they try to distribute it equally.

Like I mean, well, I mean, I'm those those teams playing each other.

Like just Chris, give me a pick.

Fuck that shit.

That those are for facts.

Okay.

Right now.

T Baylor's at Arizona at Arizona State.

They get UCF and TCU at home.

I'll go Baylor.

He's just going to hop on my pick.

I said Baylor at the start of the season.

And again, they are the most experienced of all these groups Arizona working in so much.

TCU working in so many new pieces.

UCF has some similar experience.

Arizona State still is Yolani started the bottom of the lineup, man.

They're beating someone.

Oh, they're going to yeah, they're going to pick up wins for sure.

I just I don't know if they're going to be consistent enough to be able to pull off.

The conference style.

I'd stick with.

I stick with Baylor as well.

Where does Roedini go next after that last Roedini?

I mean, again, that's the thing.

Like Duncan celebrating.

I said, God, that's just clever, man.

He's got to start the road.

I mean, granted, it might take 10 takes and we would never know it.

But he's got to start the road.

Did he report on the service toss or something?

I was like, what cousin Texan he goes, diabolical.

And I look at it immediately.

And I was like, what, you just said me.

And I was like, oh, that's a good one.

Do I have any more?

I feel like I had more fun.

I was like, I'm going to go to the next one.

Do I have any more?

I feel like I had more for you.

I'm asking you for my mental health.

Michigan making the NCAA tournament.

Oh, golly.

Let's not do it.

Let's not do it.

Let's not do it.

I don't like that answer.

I don't want to do this right now.

Okay, let's do it.

Can I just say max Bjorn Mert as a path is just like,

because that's our path.

That doubles.

It's the only path right now.

It's it's self.

I'm like, it's brought me and it's and Mert.

Mert has been moved up to three and stag Leonard down to four.

So it's now doubles one, two, three, or you know, like anybody,

obviously any given day,

any team can find a bonus point somewhere.

So they need a bonus point somewhere.

But they're not, I mean, literally like five, six matches in a row.

It's been the same thing.

It's either those three and doubles or forget it.

So I brought all this up to bring up just one point,

because I think these two teams are really similar this year.

You know how in the NTA basketball tournament they have the first four,

and you have to play that play and match to get to the round of 64?

Yep.

We should have Michigan do that first Duke.

And just be like, you guys don't worry about the rest of the season.

You're going to play in the play.

And it's just like, we know your strengths.

Let's figure this shit out.

Yeah.

Because I think I'll be hilarious.

I think it'll be really, really fun.

I think we might be in trouble because that means it's BJ against either Cooper or Pedro.

Dude, you're going to doubt Bjorn and that he's P prime time Bjorn.

That's all I have to say.

That's all I have to say.

Anything else is fair game.

But yeah, no, there are several teams I think that are very first visor.

Oh, come on.

Very interesting.

And in that sort of area right now, you look at Michigan at 44,

like Florida State at 47, Harvard at 49.

You mentioned Duke at 51.

Hell, even pen at like 42.

That's a sound team.

Yeah, those are all very, you know, we need it with the new algorithm on the rankings forming.

The formula is the same, but the algorithm runs now right where you just continue to run pass after pass.

I think it promotes or it makes it, it makes it easier to have bigger movement as the season progresses.

And so some of these teams, I think, look like they're either over ranked or under ranked by by the eye test.

And once they get a little deeper in the season and actually pick up a couple of wins,

or if they think they're over ranked, pick up the losses you thought were coming.

I the quicker moves, I think will happen.

And so I think, you know, as we sit here and look at teams that are right around the bubble now,

I think that'll be a there could be some drastic changes there.

And it'll be interesting to watch over over the next several weeks.

But yeah, there's a number of teams that are on the bubble watch along with, you know, teams like Michigan there.

All right, real last question.

Last one.

Your national champion, Chris Halliors, this 2026 spring on the men's side will be whom.

I have to pick right now.

Yep, I'm taking Wake Forest.

Wow.

Should I pick?

Yeah, of course you should.

You know, one of the one of these days you'll ask me a question, Chris.

And it'll be glorious.

And then I'll get to make fun of how you spell a contact in your phone.

I was going to make a joke there.

Thank God I did it.

Oh, shout out to me.

They wonder is the filter still dead?

It's not.

I still have it.

I'll go Texas.

I just like watching.

Okay, this is so stupid, but Michigan basketball.

You see the video of them warming up in the hallway and it was nana nana nana.

And I need you.

Nana nana nana.

Making my way downtown.

Like they had that song was blasting.

They were all singing along.

And I watched it.

And all I could think is, oh, we're 2024 TCU.

Like, fuck yeah, we're the loses team in the field.

Like, we're about to fuck shit up.

And I said it in the immediate aftermath.

Where it's just like, I saw that out of Texas.

That chemistry.

And we saw it at the national indoors.

How it propelled them forward.

And you just wonder if like that extra dose of belief.

If that's going to make the difference in the end.

I mean, I don't know how healthy anyone will be.

Come may.

I have no problem with the wake forest pick.

Somewhere 2018 Chris Halliores is punching you in the face for not picking a Mississippi state team this good.

I'm going Texas.

I think that's my pick right now at the midway point.

But God is it tricky.

Final word.

Yours, my friend.

No, I like again, I think you could take any any of those teams.

I'll tell you my final word since you bring up the basketball angle.

I thought you were about to ask me a question.

I was so excited to continue.

No, since you bring up.

Okay, you want your question.

Does BYU make the tournament?

Yeah.

Well, first of all, AJ Dupinasta is so good at basketball.

I'm so sad they lost today because I wanted to see him more in marketing.

It's watching any of the action today.

I literally haven't seen a single score from the tournament yet.

Could you name a single college basketball player this year?

Name one college player.

One player.

You're going to give you like Joe Smith.

And I'm like, no, no, no.

You got to tell me name.

No, I'll give you Mikel Brown, who's not even playing for Louisville in the tournament.

You know Louisville.

So west off, play him this part of the show.

Tell him west off you got to listen to minute 81 because you'll be so happy.

And, you know, of course, back to my roots.

Go Gators.

That's your roots.

Yeah, you brought over the biggest Udonas Haslam fan in like 2000.

And you're like, you D my God.

Now it goes back the M&M boys man.

Yeah.

I mean, back titles.

Yeah, people don't talk about it.

I mean, first of all, Jo Kim and Alhorfer.

That's like the team of my youth.

Anyways, where did this start?

You had a basketball story.

Oh, sorry.

I cut you off.

No, so no, the tangent I was going to go off on was after having seen a bunch of this stuff around the big 12 conference tournament in basketball.

And that ridiculously awesome floor they had with led lights in it.

I was thinking, can we not make and then I

It must be really glossy.

But then I said, can we not make a surface like that for tennis?

And then because we're playing on a surface that has all those capabilities, surely that same damn court has the ability to do the sensing.

And so now your Hawkeye system doesn't even have to be Hawkeye.

It knows where the hell the ball landed.

And so you get a you get a court that you can make any color you want.

You can change it at different times of the day just for viewing so that everyone can see the damn ball against the court.

And you don't have trouble following it.

And it just shows you where it bounced so you know if it was in or out.

Like, I want to see one of those in tennis.

Two words for you.

Charles Allen.

That's right up his alley.

Yeah, look, it's fascinating.

It leads you to think again, you watch all these broadcasts.

What could we be doing as tennis tech creates to present?

How do we make it so that a sport that certainly possesses that sort of entertainment is as captivating as the college basketball that we see?

We've got the parody.

We've got the gut the depth.

We've got the quality of talent.

We got a fuck of a season ahead of us still.

And by the way, again, we will be back as soon as possible next week with the serious awards.

We'll be able to rush through that.

I'll rush through that.

We'll be able to more efficiently discuss those awards because otherwise we would have gone on even more tangents than we did tonight.

Chris Hellers.

And I still think tangent of the night is you doing the opening five minutes on wait for us.

Like that was so I was so happy.

I was like, God, that was the answer.

I didn't know I wanted that answer, but that is actually the answer I wanted.

I'll give you your last final question.

I can't remember if I talked to you about this or not.

So I'm hoping I didn't and that you're not I haven't already given you the answer.