sorry if this is an ignorant question, but who are the teams getting next year?

Don't sweat it, we on the other sports board aren't as violent towards newbies as they are on some of the other boards.

As of now, our girls do not appear to be getting anybody. There's some question about a very good Mexican player who was rumored to be coming this year, but had some eligibility issue last year. Someone else would be better to comment on that issue. The girls are not graduating a single player, and despite some people on here who feel otherwise, they definitely played better at the end of the year. Either way, I expect that they'll be 2nd or 3rd in the Big 12 next year, and kind of a middle 2 seed in the tourny.

The guys biggest addition will be Alexis Klegou, aka "Frenchy", who was ineligible this year, I believe due to having made some small amount of money playing professionally (don't know if that's the official word, but it's what I've heard). Not enough where he loses all eligibility, he just had to sit out a year. He's a very good player, and I believe someone said he's beaten every member of our team in exhibition. It almost makes me wonder if he's got some kind of nagging injury and he came here to recover more than anything, if he's that good and he's already made some money playing pro? Just speculation though, I really don't know anything.
They also have a "1 star" recruit coming in from Tennessee. Someone on this board has referred to him as a heart player, so I doubt he will crack the lineup next year, but it seems like he'll be a good guy to have on the team.

Our tennis teams often come up with someone that transfers in at the semester, so I wouldn't close the book on our classes yet.

Frenchy played too many dates of pro tournaments, which is why he was not eligible to play this year. Griggy almost ran into the same problem, but missed it by one day.


Klegou will be a HUGE addition to our lineup next year. Should be fun to watch.

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Either way, I expect that they'll be 2nd or 3rd in the Big 12 next year

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In other words - same story, new year.

Guys are also getting Alberto Bautista from south texas. He should crack the bottom part of the roster. Pollock graduates and AK???-we will see if he turns pro. I imagine it will depend on how well he does playing futures this summer.

Haha, thanks for not killing me. I just don't know where else I would search for this info anywhere.

cool. so assuming austin stays, the men should improve. that's good to hear

We had two juniors on the women's tennis team to go along with a lot of sophomores and freshmen.

Cue for jessieliverdoosch and his 'Down with Bobby!' post...

I would think that Austin would have to play extraordinarily well in futures to go pro. After being knocked out in the first round of singles I think he'll see he has a bit more work to do at this level before going pro. The only way I could see him going pro is if he wanted to team with Conor in doubles as they play real well together. But who knows?

[This message has been edited by gigem08aggie (edited 6/4/2009 6:12p).]

When you're not even a top thirty collegiate player, you need to concentrate on getting your degree. The NCAA champ this year from Ole Miss lost in the first round of the French Open JUNIORs competition this year. There is a huge gulf between being a top college player and even those players barely scratching out a living on the tour. Austin needs to stay in school.

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Cue for jessieliverdoosch and his 'Down with Bobby!' post...

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spoken like the the true idiot you're...bobby is not an effective coach and many on this board agree..just because you once were allowed to pick up tennis bally by ole Booby K doesn't make him a good coach...Expect another first round exit from the NCAA's to an inferior school...HTH...EAD..STFU.

right on cue.

The Mexican girl will definitely play, I would guess in the top of the lineup based on her pro results, which are good. I watched her hit and she does not have a lot of firepower and is not going to be a Helga Viera type, but I think she will be a solid player who has the ability to be nationally-ranked if she stays motivated and if Mark is able to develop her. Last fall in $10ks in Mexico she lost a close 3-set match to a recently graduated player from Vanderbilt who hovered between 25-100 NCAA throughout her career and beat Marlene Ryan, a former top-50 US junior and handily beat Noel Scott, one of the top kids in the class of 2011...so she has some talent.

With her, I think that the women's team should be better...probably not better than 25-ish but ought to have an improvement.

The men's team on the other hand should be very exciting if Krajicek has half a clue and stays (see Lester Cook, much more accomplished than AK in college, still eating away at his parents' savings trying to grind it out on tour).

[This message has been edited by Harry Dunne (edited 6/5/2009 10:53a).]

Bigfoot another bobby apolgist..right on cue touche....Heaven forbid a new coach came in and lostboy and bigfoot lost access to all things aggie tennis ..I can see them crying now....

[This message has been edited by jessielivermoore (edited 6/5/2009 2:03p).]

For the men to crack the top ten they need to bring in another player comparable to Conor or Austin in addition to the French player. the wome are going to continue to languish around 30

Top 30 they wil be lucky with santa claus running the ship they finished 38 this year...Look at the bright side its summer camp season he can sit back and watch the money roll on in...

[This message has been edited by jessielivermoore (edited 6/5/2009 1:55p).]

From what Harry says about the Mexican girl for sure coming here (can we get a name??? I feel like she should have a better nickname than "The Mexican Girl" ) there's no reason the girls will finish below 25, even with Bobby. Keep in mind many of the girls train with their private coaches in the offseason, rather than staying in Aggieland like most sports do, so theoretically they should improve even with him being a bad coach. We just have to hope he doesn't screw up the lineups like he did last year. He would do more good if he just stayed out of the girls' ways rather than trying to coach. If the Mexican girl is a top 100 player, that will give us 3 ranked singles players, which isn't half bad. But probably worth reserving judgment on how the girls will progress (positively or negatively) until the fall season. With a team this young, it's just so hard to tell.

I don't think the guys will crack the top 10 without more consistent play at the bottom of both singles and doubles. With Frenchy as advertised, we'll be back in the situation where we have the firepower to sweep at the top, but with a big question mark about the doubles teams. I think (hope) Griggy will settle in and have a better season, so that should help, but we had to rely too much this year on a sweep at the top to beat the big teams, and without that slam dunk at the 1 doubles line, it could be trouble this year.


The good news is that all of the guys showed flashes of being really good (the well documented struggles of our 2 and 3 doubles to close out big leads, Colin and Marcus against some big name opponents like t.u.), so if they just figure a few things out, we could still be very, very good.

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 6/5/2009 4:47p).]

And check out tennisrecruiting.net. Not a perfect source, but pretty good as far as American players go. You have to be careful, because sometimes highschool c/o 2008 kids don't get here until 2009.

won gniyrc meht ees nac I.. sinnet eigga sgniht lla ot ssecca tsol toofgib dna yobtsol dna ni emac hcaoc wen a dibrof nevaeH....ehcuot euc no thgir..tsiglopa ybbob rehtona toofgiB

Her name is Nazari Urbina. I am almost positive that she didn't sit out because of amateurism issues because she barely played any pro stuff. Maybe academic issues?

I'm not sure if she was even in school this year - maybe she was working out some academic issues in order to be admitted in August. Does anyone have the inside info? Will she be eligible in August?

I believe that she will be eligible for this year. She wasnt eligible last year because she hadnt passed the TOEFL test, which A&M requires an international student to pass before admission. Mind you, every other school that she tried to get into didnt care about her TOEFL scores. We kinda got screwed that our admissions wouldnt let her in last year because we really needed her.

I can confirm Bigfoots version of the facts.

That's a tough break.

I do think that most state schools require the TOEFL, however some waive it if the SAT is high enough and some private schools don't require the TOEFL at all - just SAT or ACT. From my experience as a grad student and TA I know that A&M for school waives the TOEFL if your GRE verbal is high enough and lowers the TOEFL requirements considerably if you can show strong academic background and a good SAT. I imagine that her other scores weren't stellar either.

On the one hand, it is definitely a tough break for both the kid and for us. On the other hand I am glad that A&M isn't one of those schools that lets just anyone in and it is good to see that this girl did what it took to improve her English enough to get it rather than just go to an SMU or TCU where they take all comers. That's respectable.

Does anybody know what year of elgibility she will be this season?

I dont know why she wouldnt be a freshman

I was just curious. Didn't really understand why Griggy was a sophomore this year since it was his first college season but I don't know anything about rules regarding year classifications for incoming foreigners.

I think it has to do with how much pro stuff they've played. Sitting out a year from your last pro tourny or whatever is actually sitting out a year and losing a year of eligibility. Someone said that she hadn't played MUCH pro stuff, and if I had to make an educated guess, I'd bet that will take a year of eligibility, but I can't say for sure.

It Nazari's case it also depends on how many years since she finished high school. I believe you are allowed to sit out a year. And gobluewolverine is correct, she hasn't played many pro tournaments

There are 2 rules - a graduation date rule, and an age rule.

The graduation date rule says that if it has been more than one year since you graduated and you have played pro stuff during that time, then you have to sit out one year (while studying at the school) and then you are eligible next year. It's tough using a scholarship on someone that has to sit for a year while you're playing short-handed, but University of Pacific did it to get a player that had been about #180 WTA (that's not a typo)...she sat out last year and played her first year this year, as a soph.

There is also an age rule, that basically says that 20 is the oldest you can be as a freshman. If you come in at age 21, they don't make you sit a year (as long as you haven't been playing pro stuff), but they DO take a year of eligibility away...so you come in and can play immediately but are classified as a soph (or a jr if you're 22). This rule was in response to the 25 year-old Germans that Baylor was using.

If Nazari's deal was just not passing the TOEFL, I don't see why she wouldn't just be a freshman next year...unless one of the issues above is in play. For the guys on our team, both of them had played tournaments more than a year after graduating. Denton was somehow able to appeal for one of them because the kid had only played maybe a couple of tournaments and the NCAA decided to make a discretionary call and not penalize the kid an entire year when he had just played a couple of events.

[This message has been edited by Harry Dunne (edited 6/7/2009 11:01a).]

That makes sense, thanks for explaining it.