diadeloso
05-18-05, 04:41 PM
Remember this one? I try to post this blast from the past every year or so. Especially when we are gonna play the Ag's
No love at Aggie courts
April 21, 2002
http://www.aggiesports.com/columnists/premeaux/042102noloveattennis.htm
Ask a Texas or a Texas A&M men’s tennis fan about Baylor head coach Matt Knoll, and you will hear the same thing.
Knoll is the Dark Lord of Big 12 men’s tennis. He stacks his teams by recruiting older foreign players who have been paid to play professionally. Some suggest he even teaches his players to hook, a cowardly act performed by tennis players who either have no game or aren’t good enough to win straight up.
Cheater or not, the Dark Lord and his Baylor Bears forged one ring to rule them all Saturday, thwarting what could have been a three-ring binding of Big 12 regular season champions.
And now the naysayers from Texas and Texas A&M will have to feast on their unbelievable hatred for Knoll, gnawing away at themselves until their teams get a shot at Baylor in the upcoming Big 12 tournament.
One team promises to get that shot. Baylor, the No. 1 seed, will probably have to face either No. 2-seed Texas or No. 3-seed A&M in Sunday’s championship match at the Texas A&M Tennis Center.
Sparks will fly that afternoon, no doubt, and many of them will not be red, white and blue. Baylor’s team is almost entirely foreign. Texas’ top four players are usually foreign (though lineups often change). And A&M carries three foreigners on its roster, including Ante Matijevic and Khaled El Dorry, who both play key roles.
Here’s an idea, too. Considering what’s going on around our planet right now, why don’t we cheer them all on?
Had the NCAA men’s championship been underway Saturday, the Bryan-College Station community might have embarrased itself with so many racist comments being lobbed at the Baylor players. Jokes about Germans (Baylor has three Germans on its roster) seemed to be the most popular.
We hear so often that Aggie fans are the classiest in the Big 12. Saturday, many of them were not.
Perhaps tennis fans in the area don’t realize it, but in about a month, we will welcome the world of college tennis to Aggieland. Much of that world consists of foreigners, players like Aggie Dumitru Caradima and, technically speaking, the legendary Shuon Madden.
Fortunately, both Knoll and A&M coach Tim Cass acted a bit upset over the way some of the fans acted. Both were also classy about the touchy issue of foreign players in college tennis, discussing it upfront with the media without any hesitation.
Cass’ only gripe here is legitimate. Just like Aggie quarterback Mark Farris cannot play baseball because he played minor league ball, Cass believes professional tennis players should not be allowed to play college tennis.
As of now, the rule seems to be fuzzy, leaving it open for coaches to police themselves or ignore it.
Both Knoll and Cass have players who have competed in professional tournaments. Their players are allowed to do so as amateurs, the same as college golfers are allowed to play in the U.S. Open or any other professioinal tournament.
The subject exhausts Knoll, but he graciously discussed it after Saturday’s match. In the process, he threw out a decent little idea.
Rather that using his 4-3 victory over Texas A&M and the subsequent Big 12 regular season title to lord it over the conference, Knoll asked the state of Texas to come together and fight the evil empire of college tennis, the four armies of Mordor that will descend upon College Station in the upcoming NCAA men’s championships.
If A&M plays Georgia, root for the Aggies. If Texas plays Stanford, suck it up and root for the Longhorns. If Baylor faces UCLA, swallow some of that Aggie pride and be a Texan by rooting for the Bears. And if Texas Christian or Southern Methodist have to tackle Southern California, don’t be afraid to put your hands together for some old Southwest Conference brethren.
“I’m hoping that we will all cheer for each other,” Knoll said. “When A&M’s [playing], I’m going to hope our fans go out and jump up and down for the Aggies. When Texas is playing, TCU, SMU, whoever’s here, I hope it’s vice-versa because that’s healthy. That’s a championship mentality.”
To beat out Georgia, Stanford, UCLA and USC for a national championship will probably take more than that. The four are the lords of men’s college tennis, and they own every title ring forged under the current team format.
To steal one from them might take some Texas hospitality, spoken in any language.
Robert Premeaux Jr.’s e-mail address is rpremeaux@theeagle.com (rpremeaux@theeagle.com)
No love at Aggie courts
April 21, 2002
http://www.aggiesports.com/columnists/premeaux/042102noloveattennis.htm
Ask a Texas or a Texas A&M men’s tennis fan about Baylor head coach Matt Knoll, and you will hear the same thing.
Knoll is the Dark Lord of Big 12 men’s tennis. He stacks his teams by recruiting older foreign players who have been paid to play professionally. Some suggest he even teaches his players to hook, a cowardly act performed by tennis players who either have no game or aren’t good enough to win straight up.
Cheater or not, the Dark Lord and his Baylor Bears forged one ring to rule them all Saturday, thwarting what could have been a three-ring binding of Big 12 regular season champions.
And now the naysayers from Texas and Texas A&M will have to feast on their unbelievable hatred for Knoll, gnawing away at themselves until their teams get a shot at Baylor in the upcoming Big 12 tournament.
One team promises to get that shot. Baylor, the No. 1 seed, will probably have to face either No. 2-seed Texas or No. 3-seed A&M in Sunday’s championship match at the Texas A&M Tennis Center.
Sparks will fly that afternoon, no doubt, and many of them will not be red, white and blue. Baylor’s team is almost entirely foreign. Texas’ top four players are usually foreign (though lineups often change). And A&M carries three foreigners on its roster, including Ante Matijevic and Khaled El Dorry, who both play key roles.
Here’s an idea, too. Considering what’s going on around our planet right now, why don’t we cheer them all on?
Had the NCAA men’s championship been underway Saturday, the Bryan-College Station community might have embarrased itself with so many racist comments being lobbed at the Baylor players. Jokes about Germans (Baylor has three Germans on its roster) seemed to be the most popular.
We hear so often that Aggie fans are the classiest in the Big 12. Saturday, many of them were not.
Perhaps tennis fans in the area don’t realize it, but in about a month, we will welcome the world of college tennis to Aggieland. Much of that world consists of foreigners, players like Aggie Dumitru Caradima and, technically speaking, the legendary Shuon Madden.
Fortunately, both Knoll and A&M coach Tim Cass acted a bit upset over the way some of the fans acted. Both were also classy about the touchy issue of foreign players in college tennis, discussing it upfront with the media without any hesitation.
Cass’ only gripe here is legitimate. Just like Aggie quarterback Mark Farris cannot play baseball because he played minor league ball, Cass believes professional tennis players should not be allowed to play college tennis.
As of now, the rule seems to be fuzzy, leaving it open for coaches to police themselves or ignore it.
Both Knoll and Cass have players who have competed in professional tournaments. Their players are allowed to do so as amateurs, the same as college golfers are allowed to play in the U.S. Open or any other professioinal tournament.
The subject exhausts Knoll, but he graciously discussed it after Saturday’s match. In the process, he threw out a decent little idea.
Rather that using his 4-3 victory over Texas A&M and the subsequent Big 12 regular season title to lord it over the conference, Knoll asked the state of Texas to come together and fight the evil empire of college tennis, the four armies of Mordor that will descend upon College Station in the upcoming NCAA men’s championships.
If A&M plays Georgia, root for the Aggies. If Texas plays Stanford, suck it up and root for the Longhorns. If Baylor faces UCLA, swallow some of that Aggie pride and be a Texan by rooting for the Bears. And if Texas Christian or Southern Methodist have to tackle Southern California, don’t be afraid to put your hands together for some old Southwest Conference brethren.
“I’m hoping that we will all cheer for each other,” Knoll said. “When A&M’s [playing], I’m going to hope our fans go out and jump up and down for the Aggies. When Texas is playing, TCU, SMU, whoever’s here, I hope it’s vice-versa because that’s healthy. That’s a championship mentality.”
To beat out Georgia, Stanford, UCLA and USC for a national championship will probably take more than that. The four are the lords of men’s college tennis, and they own every title ring forged under the current team format.
To steal one from them might take some Texas hospitality, spoken in any language.
Robert Premeaux Jr.’s e-mail address is rpremeaux@theeagle.com (rpremeaux@theeagle.com)