The Ohio State Buckeyes have the most talented men’s tennis team in the country. There is no question about that. The Buckeyes are the only school with six singles players ranked in the Top 125 of the ITA singles rankings. Two honestly stunning losses to Michigan State are likely what bumped the Buckeyes out of the top spot. So, as we look forward to the NCAAs, we have to ask two questions: How did the Buckeyes lose those two matches? And what are the chances that it happens again in the tournament?
First of all, let’s go over how NCAA Tennis works. Each team has three doubles pairs, who play a one-set match each. Whichever team wins two doubles sets gets one point. After that, there are six singles matches (best-of-three sets each). Each singles match is worth one point. So, that makes seven points in total (one doubles, six singles). The first team to four total points wins. In other words, the team that wins the doubles point needs to win only three singles points, while the other team needs four.
The Buckeyes are the No. 3 overall seed, likely due to the losses to Michigan State. The other major contenders all have more losses, but none have losses like the ones to the Spartans. (The Spartans are not at all a bad team, but they picked up way too many losses over the season, mostly due to choking matches they should have won.) Even so, the Buckeyes should be heavy favorites to advance deep in this tournament.
None of the opponents in the first two rounds is a potential threat. The third round gets interesting, though. The likely opponent is Illinois. The Buckeyes are a significantly better team than the Illini, but that didn’t stop Ohio State from almost losing to them in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals last weekend. Which raises a big issue for the Ohio State. The Buckeyes played some of their poorest matches of the season in the Big Ten Tournament. If they can’t find a reset and bring back their best level for the NCAAs, their stay in the tournament might be brief.
Texas A&M is the highest seed Ohio State could face in the quarterfinals. The two teams met a month ago, and the Buckeyes won pretty easily. If Ohio State finds its solid level again for that, no one should really stop the Buckeyes before the semifinals.
In the semis, the Buckeyes would likely face Texas. Ohio State and Texas met twice this season, and they split the matchups. The Buckeyes outplayed the Longhorns in the first match, pretty comprehensively, but didn’t play nearly as well the second time around, losing 4-2.
In essence, that second Texas match is emblematic of what went wrong for the Buckeyes this year. Ohio State has four losses — none of them matches they should have lost. The two Michigan State losses came from a combination of slightly less-than-perfect play and Michigan State pulling its best matches of the season. The losses to Texas and Baylor were just the Buckeyes playing uninspired in big moments. That’s something that could crop up again in the biggest tournament of the season. If it does, this tournament could be troublesome for Ohio State. But if the Buckeyes play six great matches, there really should be nothing stopping them from ending this tournament with a national championship.
Ohio State plays its first-round match against Buffalo in Columbus at 1:00 PM on Friday. The second round will also be in Columbus, at 4:00 PM on Saturday.
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This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament Preview: Who can beat Ohio State?
Reporting by Yesh Ginsburg, Buckeyes Wire / Buckeyes Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
