Wednesday, June 20, 2007

This Week on the Courts

Wow. It must have been a slow Wednesday at work. The comments were coming rapid fire. I do track the visitors to this site...interestingly enough we do have some visitors from the USTA offices in New York. Perhaps some of the venting has at least reached the ears of someone in a position to do something about it. Don't get your hopes up.

Even though there are a bunch of interesting matches this week, the one I'm most curious about is in the 5.0 division. The Met is taking on Teague. Teague is out of things, but with Arun's "suspension", the Rice team is vulnerable and is in the awkward position of relying on the team that protested them. If Teague were to put out one of its strongest lineups the Met would be hard-pressed to beat them. As we've seen, Teague has not often fielded a top flight team, but I'll be curious to see if they put out any effort to help out the Rice team. I'm getting off the subject a bit, but one year my team was in a similar situation: two teams were slated to head to Sectionals from Houston and I needed the team that had clinched to kick a$$ in their final round robin match in city playoffs. I had some friends on the team and begged and pleaded for them to play a strong lineup. It was not one of my finer moments or something I'm proud of. However, they did field a strong lineup and we managed to make it to Sectionals. Later on their captain told me it was a very tough decision for him. On the one hand he felt it was fair to everyone that he put a competitive lineup out there every match, but on the other hand he had lower level players who had played all year and would love to have gotten a chance to play in city playoffs. Anyway, I probably never thanked him enough for his fairness. Thanks again. Too often we hear the negatives about League Tennis, but there are a lot of positive stories out there as well.

There's an important match in 4.0 Division II between Chancellor's and Briargrove Park. Both teams have two losses and the loser may be on the outside looking in for city playoffs. The first meeting of the two teams was rained out, so this is not necessarily a do or die situation. Chancellor's has added Dimitri Ang, a very good 4.0 player, so their roster is considerably stronger than it was early in the season.

In 4.5 Division I, Ssshhhwing again takes on West Side No Way Out. Ssshhhwing handled them pretty easily the first time, but Alex Bitoun and Peter Hill were not in the lineup in that one.

Kingwood looks to take care of business against the Yutts, who are still alive, at least mathematically, for a playoff berth. The Yutts had the misfortune of being in the same division as two heavyweights this year, but do have a lot of talent on their team.

I'm also curious to see if Men In Black have packed it up for the season. If so, the Hangovers will not be able to get some of their studs eligible for playoffs.

In other news, it appears that the Rice-Black Sheep makeup match has been entered as all defaults and a victory for Scott Carr's boys. Very strange, considering that a playoff berth was being heavily contested between the two of them. I wonder if there's a story there....

24 comments:

  1. Alex who... he's terrible.

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  2. Why would WSTC-Black Sheep add a player Chris Roberts and put him in as a Default when he can't even Qualify for the Playoffs??

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  3. Because they're rolling the dice and hoping Cheryl will allow the default to count towards his 2 matches. WS still has a match to play against Sugar Creek. Knowing Cheryl I think she'll allow it especially given the fact that all 5 lines were defaulted.

    It won't affect who goes to playoffs for that division, but I'm pretty sure that since Steamed Rice defaulted more than 2 lines for that match, all of Steamed Rices matches will go down as 5-0 loss which reverses Black Sheep's 2 losses and puts them in 1st place for that division.

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  4. I stand corrected. Since Steamed Rice has played both Black Sheep and the Titans an equal amount of matches, their points will stand in determining 1st and 2nd place.

    "Points won or lost by a disqualified team will stand if that team has played all teams in contention for first and second place."

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  5. Does anyone know why Steamed Rice defaulted all 5 lines when they are still in contention for the city playoffs?

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  6. They are having problems with the captains I have heard. Noobody knows whats going on with the team and when they are supposed to be playing.

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  7. I heard some Rice 4.5 players are playing in the 5.0. Maybe that had something to with the Rice decision.

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  8. Topspin, while I don't take as seriously winning at HTA league (thank GOD), I freely admit that my desire to win/be successful is probably considered to be abnormal and excessive.

    Case in point: the reason I can easiliy provide Fantasy Football as an anology to captaining a USTA League team is because I have had to ban myself from participating in a league. I've only been in 2 FF Leagues. Won them both. It was like having another job. Maybe I'm OCD, I don't know. But, I know that is pretty extreme.

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  9. With all the rained out matches this year, anyone know what the deadline is to makeup the unplayed matches?

    What happens if the 2 teams can't agree on a makeup date?

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  10. The legend of Atushi lives on in 5.0. Hes no Nanjappa but might give Rice just enough to squeak into the sectionals.

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  11. MIB mailing it in. Could it happen to a better group of ladies?

    Maybe they can schedule their matches at 5pm and default everyone who gets stuck in traffic.

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  12. So if the Ladies on MIB have packed up for the season, then which of the 2 ringer teams would you prefer to face in the playoffs - Kingwood or Hangovers?

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  13. Htown, Bhollis, that's interesting. So if Team Teague were to default all their lines against Team Met, it would also retroactively change the only loss Team Met had. Hence, it would make Team Met undefeated and no one could take the spot in the playoffs from them anymore.

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  14. That would be interesting. I wonder what USTA and other captains would think about that. First they protest a player, then default all lines in order to allow another team to win the league.

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  15. For those of you that care...Craig Bobo's wife Amber is in the Hospital and nearly past away the other night due to organ failure. Please keep the two of them in your prayers.

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  16. July 3rd is the day to get in the make-up matches.

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  17. I wonder if MIB is the only team mailing it in for the rest of the season, are there other teams? The rain this year really screwed up the season.

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  18. Rice wanted to have Asushi on their 5.0 team, but Scott Carr didn't give his phone number up for nothing. He negotiated a spot in the city playoffs and Rice gave it to him.

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  19. Dinker Green,

    Thanks for sharing the info on Bobo's wife. That is horrible and I hope things turn out OK. I will definitely pray for her. That is time much better spent than worrying about who is screwing up who's playoff plans because they are going to default some matches.

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  20. Haha if that is true about rice/WS thats just weird. You league guys are insane.

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  21. Since the 5.0 league is a double round robin, only the points in the defaulting segment will be taken away. So, if Teague defaults 3 lines to Met-Toney, then the 5/31 match between Teague and Rice would go down as a 6-0, 6-0 win on all 3 lines in favor of Rice. This wouldn't affect the outcome unless there's a tie for 1st place. At that point it goes to sets lost, games lost, etc.

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  22. Tim,

    Please keep us up to date on Craig's wife.
    Thanks,

    David

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  23. Not true about the Rice/Westside BS swap. Rice also wanted Lukas, but had to settle for the #1 pick in 2008.

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  24. Hey Guys... I appreciate your thoughts & prayers for my wife. She survived a scare, and is at home now. She had more tests and CT Scans taken in med center yesterday and has to see another specialist in a few days; -so we are hoping and praying for good news. Keep us in your prayers. Thanks. Craig

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