My job as the newly hired tennis coach at Bradley University is to elevate a team that has been average, to a team that year in and year out contends for the conference championship. The ultimate prize is the automatic bid to the NCAA national team tournament.  The best result the Braves have had in the past 6 years, are a 4th place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference, and a 10 and 10 won/loss record.  A recruit would think the level of tennis is average at best.  I have had recruits that would not make my team look at our archives, and due past winning percentages, assume they would be a good fit.  These young men are fine players in their own right. . Tennis players, if you want the best chance at having the best college tennis experience you must do your homework and find the right fit based on your academics and tennis level There are many resources available and many times you have to look deeper than just won/loss records.  

1) Strength of Schedule and Conference 

  A team may have very strong players with impressive junior backgrounds yet if the schedule is filled with strong competition, the won/loss record could be misleading. Along these lines if the conference the team play in is strong losses may be more numerous than wins. 

The opposite could be true as well. There are division one teams that continually win in a weak conference and feast on sub par competition, yet the make they NCAA’s each and every year.  It is impressive on the surface. A high level player may lack quality practice partners within the team and the result is that players skill level may decrease during his college career.  

2) Look at the past junior rankings of the players currently on the roster.  If the program is stocked with international players it is possible to go to the ITF website and research some players international experience. With American players generally their high schools are mentioned in their bio’s, so you can surmise the section they played in, then go to the USTA website where you can check rankings for previous years.  As of today, I have five players on my roster with two on the way for the January semester. Currently, 3 are American and two are international. Will was a top 25 player in the Midwest and top 100 nationally.  Matt was top 35 in the Midwest and top 150 nationally.  Together they were top 25 nationally as a doubles team. The internationals were highly ranked in their countries. Yev had an international junior ranking and Miche was top 8 in his country.  It is possible that the former #8 player in Peru will be the #7 man On my roster this spring. 

  When I was previously at the university of Hartford the team I have now may be better than the best team I had before.  That team (Hartford) was conference champion and went to the NCAA’s. My team at Bradley is considered middle of the road for the Missouri Valley Conference. 

  Looks can be deceiving student athletes of the future. I have some hurdles to overcome in terms of the perception of my men’s program. My first goal is to achieve a winning record for the 2006-2007 and through this show the tennis world that Bradley is on the way up and a strong institution to play tennis at. 

  Have a great Holiday and remember, you are choosing your college for academics first and foremost.  Tennis will be four years of college; your education is for the rest of your life! 

  Go Braves.  P.S. Bradley Basketball Leads the nation in 3-point percentage we are dangerous.  Head Coach Jim Les (Sacramento Kings), You are truly a coach’s coach! 

                       Peace! 

From the always-great SportsGuy:

Q: The Sox should just tell Manny he got traded to Boston. He won’t know the difference.
–Mike H, Noxen, N.H.

SG: I love this idea. They could go all out with this: Call him up, tell him he’s been traded to Boston, have him pack up all of his stuff, fly him in circles in the team jet for five hours, then drop him off in Cambridge and tell him he’s on the West Coast. He might fall for it. By the time the season starts, it will be too late for him to complain. I really think this could work

Amazing weekend for the NBA - Kobe drops 50+ and then 45 while Arenas scores 60… and all we can talk about was the New York Knicks vs. Denver Nuggets brawl. Remember the Pacers / Pistons fight? This wasn’t as bad - but awful nonetheless and the implications are far reaching as Carmelo Anthony was the league’s top scorer and the Nuggets were shopping for the league’s #2 scorer - Allen Iverson. Your thoughts?

Suspensions were handed out this morning and seem to be tough - but right:

Denver’s Carmelo Anthony, the NBA’s leading scorer, was suspended 15 games for sucker-punching the Knicks’ Mardy Collins. Denver teammate J.R. Smith and New York’s Nate Robinson also received stiff penalties from the league — 10-game suspensions.

But there was no separate penalty for Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, who had warned Anthony not to go into the lane before the mayhem started Saturday night.

The NBA, still trying to repair its image after the brawl between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans two years ago, also fined the Nuggets and Knicks $500,000 apiece.

Carmelo’s Apology:

“Last night’s altercation with the Knicks escalated further than it should have. I take full responsibility for my actions in the matter,” Anthony said in a statement. “In the heat of the moment I let my emotions get the best of me. I apologize to the fans, the Denver Nuggets, the NBA, my mother, and my family for the embarrassment I have caused them. I ask you all for your forgiveness.

“I also want to make a personal apology to Mardy Collins and his family. My actions were inexcusable, and I am sorry for making this an even more embarrassing situation.

“What makes this all the more painful is that this was one of the biggest weeks of my life. I just realized one of my biggest dreams when we opened the Youth Center in Baltimore that bares my name. To see the community excited and hundreds of kids smiling was an incredible feeling. Now the thought of thousands of kids seeing this incident on TV pains me. This is not the example I want to set.

“It’s my hope that we work to move forward from this event, and never let something like this happen again.”

In the NCAA National competition for Cross Country there are two ways of getting in. One way is just be on your Regional Champion Team, or you can do it the harder way. You must finish in the top 4 runners who’s team didn’t make the race, and be in the top 25 overall of that Regional Race. Do you think this is fair to all of great athletes who may not be on the best teams? I mean if your in the top 4 of runners who didn’t make the National Meet, you should still get in. Who cares if you weren’t in the top 25? The top 25 of that Regional could of been filled with the top 7 of the Regional Championship team, and the top 7 of the Regional Runner Up who still gets into the Nationals. I feel if a team has a runner who dominated all year and ends up with one 26th place finish shouldn’t be penalized and should at least get some consideration for an At Large Bid.

World’s tallest man saves plastic eating dolphins

POSTED: 3:12 p.m. EST, December 14, 2006

Chinese herdsman Bao Xishun, the world’s tallest man at 7-feet-9, reaches into a dolphin to retrieve plastic the mammal swallowed.

BEIJING, China (AP) — The long arms of the world’s tallest man reached in and saved two dolphins by pulling out plastic from their stomachs, state media and an aquarium official said Thursday.

The dolphins got sick after nibbling on plastic from the edge of their pool at an aquarium in Liaoning province.

Attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because the dolphins’ stomachs contracted in response to the instruments, the China Daily newspaper reported.

Veterinarians then decided to ask for help from Bao Xishun, a 7-feet-9 herdsman from Inner Mongolia with 41.7-inch arms, state media said.

Bao, 54, was confirmed last year by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest living man.

Chen Lujun, the manager of the Royal Jidi Ocean World aquarium, told The Associated Press that the shape of the dolphins’ stomachs made it difficult to push an instrument very far in without hurting the animals.

People with shorter arms could not reach the plastic, he said.

“When we failed to get the objects out we sought the help of Bao Xishun from Inner Mongolia and he did it successfully yesterday,” Chen said. “The two dolphins are in very good condition now.”

Photographs showed the jaws of one of the dolphins being held back by towels so Bao could reach inside the animal without being bitten.

“Some very small plastic pieces are still left in the dolphins’ stomachs,” Zhu Xiaoling, a local doctor, told Xinhua. “However the dolphins will be able to digest these and are expected to recover soon.”

Guitar Hero Benches Tigers Pitcher

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Joel Zumaya missed three games of the American League Championship Series thanks inflammation of the forearm and right wrist, something everyone assumed was brought on by his pitches.

But it turns out that like yours truly, Zumaya is a Guitar Hero addict and the prolonged gaming was what actually brought on the injury.

Club president and general manager Dave Dombrowski said that team trainers discovered that the injuries to 22-year-old Zumaya’s arm, was more consistent with the action of a guitar player than a baseball pitcher.

So the team told him to stop playing the game and he was able to pitch pain-free during the World Series.

Oh noes! How do you choose between the World Series and Guitar Hero? Brian Crecente

Listen to the first Daisuke Matsuzaka Press Conference on WEEI!

Today at 5pm. WEEI’s Big Show will carry the first press conference for new Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.  Click here  to listen to it live via the WEEI online stream or if you already missed it, download it in the WEEI Audio Vault by clicking here after 6pm.  The Red Sox and Matsuzaka recently reached a reported 6 year, $52 million dollar contract.

Sox Get Their Man

Daisuke Matsuzaka has struck a six-year, $52 million agreement with the Red Sox, SI.com’s Jon Heyman reports. John Donovan examines the deal and how it affects the rest of market.