NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament Preview: Who can beat Ohio State?

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.