Cracked Racquets picks up the College Contenders Series with Ohio State University, taking an in depth look at this elite squad and predicting their 2018 season.

Ending the 2017 season with a loss to UVA in the semis, the Buckeyes have lost no time in preparing for May with their eye on the prize. Is this OSU’s year to take home their first title?

Ohio State Lineup

Martin Joyce , JR

Alex Kobelt, RS SO

John McNally, FR

Matt Mendez, RS SR

Riley Reist, RS SR

Kyle Seelig, RS SO

Joseph Thomas, RS FR

Mikael Torpegaard, SR

Hunter Tubert, JR

Jacob Wareti, RS FR

JJ Wolf, SO

Outlook

Though not a new phenomenon, the prevalence of “Ring Culture” in team sports continues to increase. Too often, determinations about specific player’s careers or certain teams boil down to one question: “how many rings did that player/team win?”

The most egregious example of this shifting paradigm occurs during arguments surrounding LeBron James and Michael Jordan. Rather than have a nuanced debate over the merits of their many respective skills and accomplishments, fans are forced to take a tribalistic stance defending their guy. Defenders of James will point to his superior all-around game (better rebounding, passing, field goal numbers) and incredible longevity (never been seriously injured/retired in 15 seasons[1]), while defenders of Jordan will simply say “yeah, but MJ got six rings”[2]. Such simplistic arguments make it much more difficult for fans to properly value the individual accomplishment of the two players’ careers, and too often lead to us belittling their other accomplishments such as regular season success, conference titles, and their individual accolades.

Given their similar residencies, it is both slightly humorous and surprisingly reasonable to proclaim the Ohio State Men’s Tennis program as the LeBron James of the “Ring Culture” argument in college tennis.

The LeBron Argument: Despite zero NCAA tournament appearances prior to Ty Tucker’s arrival in 1999, the Ohio State men’s tennis program has experienced an unprecedented level of success in the 21st century. The team has gone 174-12 in Big Ten play, won an unprecedented twelve consecutive Big Ten regular season titles, accumulated the longest home win streak in Division 1 sports history[3], and have been ranked in the ITA Top 20 for 384 consecutive matches[4]. Tucker’s teams have featured 26 All-Big Ten honorees, 16 All-Americans, and six individual national champions[5], and currently feature five of the top 125 ranked singles players in college tennis.

The Jordan Argument: Despite all of the individual accolades and regular season successes, the program has only one team national championship to its name. Being a northern school, Ohio State frequently plays indoor matches, and thus enters the ITA Team Indoor event as a top contender each year. In 2014, Ohio State defeated both UVA and USC on route to winning the indoor championship, the program’s first and only national title. They have made the finals of the event on multiple other occasions[6], but too often have fallen victim in the semifinals and finals of the tournament. Similarly, at the outdoor championships in the spring, the program has failed to meet the kind of expectations their regular season results merit. The team has reached only one NCAA outdoor final, where they dropped a 4-1 decision in the 2009 finals to Steve Johnson’s freshman year USC team. The team has reached the NCAA outdoor round of 16 every year since the ‘05-’06 season, but has only advanced to the semifinals or better four times during that span. Thus, while the Ohio State team is always considered a contender, they are often left out of the discussion of elite programs like UVA, USC, and Georgia.

Now that we’ve laid out our “LeBron” and “Jordan” arguments for and against Ohio State, let’s talk a little bit about the team’s 2017-18 outlook, and how that may affect their standing amongst college tennis’s elite programs.

Coming off of a season in which the guys reached the ITA indoor finals and NCAA outdoor semifinals, it should be hard for Ohio State fans to expect more from their team this year. Yet that is the exact situation Tucker and the Buckeyes find themselves in entering the 2017-18 season. The team may have lost two essential contributors in Herkko Pollanen and Hugo Di Feo to graduation, but with the return of perennial top five player Mikael Torpegaard, freshman sensation JJ Wolf, ranked players Martin Joyce and Kyle Seelig, and the arrival of the top-ranked recruit in the nation, John McNally, Ohio State should expect to find itself in the preseason top five rankings.

While Tucker’s teams have always been known for their doubles prominence, college tennis fans will be hard pressed to find a team in the country with a more experienced singles lineup. And though McNally did not have the best fall season, going 6-3 overall, only a fool would doubt Coach Tucker’s ability to put his players in the best possible position to succeed.

Tough early season clashes against Texas, Texas A&M, and Florida will help ensure this team is prepared for the ITA indoors, however the real fun in their schedule isn’t until later on in the season. As Coach Tucker will certainly tinker with his lineups throughout the year, the team’s March road matchups against Georgia and USC should provide the best litmus test for what they will look like come NCAAs. Though both Big Ten rivals Illinois and Michigan return most of their players from last year’s teams, Ohio State should have little trouble cruising to their thirteenth straight Big Ten regular season title, particularly because Ohio State faces both conference foes in Columbus.

When looking around the country, the only team that can really match Ohio State’s roster in terms of returning talent and experience appears to be Wake Forest. The two teams, coming off of top five finishes in last year’s ranking, played one of, if not the best, match of the 2016-17 season. The doubles point came down to a tiebreaker at the #3 position, with Wake Forest taking the match and the point with a 7-5 victory. Ohio State then took the first three singles matches to finish, digging Wake Forest into a 3-1 hole with three matches left on court.

The Demon Deacons responded with two huge wins, leaving the #1 singles match as the decider. In that match, then-ITA #1 Chrysochos faced off in a rematch against then-ITA #2 Torpegaard. After finding himself down 3-0 in the third, Torpegaard clawed his way back to win 76 57 76, earning Ohio State the team victory. All fans of college tennis, even ones from Wake, should really take time to watch the highlights from this match, as it truly was an all-time classic. Given that both teams return almost all of same players from last year’s matchup, fans should hope that these two teams match up as many times as possible during the season.

So, can OSU make the jump from “LeBron” to “Jordan” status: Fans need to stop treating Ohio State like the CP3/Blake Griffin/DeAndre Jordan Clippers, and take more time to appreciate the team’s unprecedented success throughout the Ty Tucker era. Yes, I am a University of Michigan graduate, but even I recognize that Tucker’s success at OSU puts him in the pantheon of college’s best-ever coaches regardless of their sport!! Tucker is the third winningest coach in any sport in Big Ten history, is the most unintentionally comedic personality in college tennis, and will always have his teams fired up to play. Much like Brian Boland’s early days at UVA, it is more a matter of when, not if Tucker will win an outdoor National Championship. If it happens this year, like many suspect it might, we can forever put to bed the argument that OSU does not belong in the conversation of College Tennis’s elite, and finally begin to appreciate the OSU program for the sustained level of excellence they have achieved.

Schedule

The Buckeye’s official season kicks off in late January with a double header hosting Xavier and Cleveland State in Columbus that begins their first stretch of weekend home games up till the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Seattle on February 16. In early February, Ohio St. faces #12 ranked Texas A&M and #14 Florida. These key home matches will provide needed experience for their matchup against #7 Georgia in Athens. This will be one of their toughest matches of the season and can’t be missed.

Following the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, Ohio St. will spend the majority of March on the road, only facing Michigan at home. A final stretch of home games throughout the month of April will hopefully allow the Buckeyes a comfortable finish to the season leading up to the National Championship in early May.

A downloadable pdf version of the schedule is available here.

Reader Poll

How will the Buckeyes do this year? This is Ty Tucker's year. I'm getting "Ohio State Tennis 2018 National Champs" tattoed across my chest.

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Cracked Racquets’ Take

Dalton Thieneman (Co-founder, Host of CI): Coach Ty Tucker rolls out one of his best squads in the last five years, and that’s saying something. The Buckeyes bring back the lines of No. 1 players in the country Mikael Torpgaard and also 2017 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and All First Team standout JJ Wolf.

Coach Tucker has built a consistent top-10 program at Ohio State, but this just might be the year the Buckeyes break through to win a national championship. It won’t hurt adding Blue Chip Freshman and Cincinnati native John McNally. In our exclusive interview with McNally earlier this season, he shared his thoughts on OSU’s title aspirations, “We can compete for a national title this year. We all believe this is the year that we can finally mesh things together and bring a well-deserved title to Ohio State.”

The Big ten and the rest of the country better have this incredibly gifted group on their radar screen because it’s all eyes on May in Columbus.

Alex Araiza (Contributor): The Buckeye’s squad under Ty Tucker, is unquestionably one of the most talented teams nationally and enjoys continued success. Tucker, an Ohio State alum, has built an impressive resume during his tenure, posting a 521-81 record. He is the winningest head coach in Ohio State men’s tennis history and third winningest coach in any sport in the Big Ten. Despite this success, OSU has yet to claim a title. That said, returning standout Mikael Torpegaard and Freshman of the Year JJ Wolf, Tucker’s Buckeyes are major returns to OSU. The addition of John McNally adds additional firepower to this elite squad, which leaves me confident that OSU can claim their first title this year.

Alex Gruskin (Contributor, Host of GSP): Despite my history with John McNally (which you can learn more about in the latest episode of The Great Shot Podcast), it’s hard to imagine this team falling out of the top three of the rankings at any point this season. The combination of experience, depth, and top-level talent, along with the incredible coaching of both Ty Tucker and Justin Kronauge, make me think this is finally the year the Buckeyes conquer their spring demons and take home the outdoor title. Senior Mikael Torpegaard has had the best college tennis career of any male player since Steve Johnson, and it would not shock me to see him take home his first individual NCAA singles title. Alas, I am a UM Wolverine until the end, and thus I cannot allow myself to predict them to win-it-all. I’ll take OSU as the National Indoor Champs, and will say they’ll lose to Wake in the NCAA outdoor finals.

Parsa Nemati (Contributor): Ohio State lost two contributing seniors, first of which was Canadian Hugo Di Feo who played at the #2 doubles spot and split time between the #2 and #3 singles spots with freshman standout JJ Wolf. Di Feo had a remarkable singles dual match record of 25-3 last year, finishing with the second most wins on the team for the season. The Buckeyes also lost Hammarmen drummer Herkko Pöllänen who last year had a 14-match winning streak at the #5 singles spot that lasted from the start of conference play all the way up to the NCAA semifinals against Virginia. The Finn also anchored the #1 doubles spot with fellow Scandanavian Mikael Torpegaard, who has decided to return for his senior season. The Hammarmen guitarist has a career-high ATP singles ranking of #310 but just like Cameron Norrie last year at TCU, the Dane has returned to help lead his Buckeyes to their 1st NCAA championship in May. Backing up Torp this year will be the young Wolf whose decision to enroll early last spring paid huge dividends for both him and his squad. The other half of the best bromance in college tennis is lifelong Buckeye fan and Cincinnati native John McNally who will make an immediate impact for the Buckeyes after a standout junior career. After redshirting his first season, Kyle Seelig had a stellar campaign last year as he finished with a 24-5 dual-match record in singles while competing at the #4, #5, and #6 singles spots. Mr. Mullet A.K.A Martin Joyce will be the fifth starter in the singles lineup and the Buckeyes have plenty of options for the sixth spot with Hunter Tubert, Matthew Mendez, Alex Kobelt, and Riley Reist all solid pieces ready for coach Ty Tucker to incorporate.

As they’ve won the Big Ten for 12 straight years, the Bucks usually are able to pass through conference play without being tested. However, the Bucks will have an opportunity to face some top teams this season as Texas A&M and Florida will be visiting Columbus the weekend before the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in February, and coach Tucker’s men will also travel later in March to Athens for an intriguing battle with coach Manny Diaz and his always hungry Bulldogs. A week later the Buckeyes will head to Los Angeles and take on USC and Arizona State on consecutive days which will also be a great test for the Sun Devils in their return to college tennis. Along with host Wake Forest, Ohio State will definitely be one of the top teams competing for a Natty in May as this experienced squad who fell last year in the NCAA semis to the dynasty of Virginia will attempt to advance even further this year. The Bucks are a very strong indoors team and will fare well on the fast outdoors courts in Winston Salem. Looking ahead to next season when they will lose their top player in Torpegaard, the Buckeyes have already landed a verbal commitment from top-100 ITF junior James Trotter who is half-Japanese and half-Australian.