OU Makes History with No. 1 Ranking - Oklahoma Sooners (http://www.soonersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31000&ATCLID=209438146)

They play at Pepperdine tomorrow afternoon and I'm going to try and go by and catch part of the matches.

Currently, OU's in-season athletic teams are ranked: 1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 13 ,16, 17, 20, 30. Just one in-season team is not ranked.

Pretty unbelievable.

It looks like Andy's brother was another very good hire by Joe C.

Currently, OU's in-season athletic teams are ranked: 1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 13 ,16, 17, 20, 30. Just one in-season team is not ranked.

Pretty unbelievable.
Hey Dan, it's a good thing you don't have sooner as part of your username. If you did, someone would accuse you of or insinuate something about this post.

Correct me if I'm wrong (please), but it's my sense and recollection that Dan is quite the fan of both universities' sports programs (and the Thunder) without hating any of 'em.

Correct me if I'm wrong (please), but it's my sense and recollection that Dan is quite the fan of both universities' sports programs (and the Thunder) without hating any of 'em.

I'm not sure what this is about and I am probably not interested in any on-going Bedlam scrum. Lol.

I grew up in Tulsa liking both schools (and TU), but attended OU - bachelors through doctorate. I definitely root for OU, but I have no ill-will, or desire to put down, OSU in any way. As a professor, I particularly find the academic smack talk nauseating. To me, education (specifically teacher education) is about cooperation and collaboration, not winning. Is that a politically-correct enough answer? ;)

I went to the OU / Pepperdine men's tennis matches today and OU won, even though their usual #1 doubles and #2 singles entrants were given the day off.

Pepperdine has a gorgeous tennis facility as you can imagine and actually won a national championship in the sport when I was there for graduate school in the 90's. They are still good but no longer great.

Also met John Roddick's (OU's coach and Andy Roddick's brother and former coach) girlfriend and found out they live in Jefferson Park of all places. Funny to talk about the Pump Bar and Bleu Garten with someone I met in Malibu. :)

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/pepou.jpg

Sooners (#2 seed overall behind USC) just beat Kentucky to advance to the Elite 8 in the NCAA championships.

The matches are being played in Athens, Georgia.

Will now play the winner of #7 North Carolina and the host, #10 Georgia. If we win that round, likely to play #2 Ohio State or #5 UCLA in the Final Four. USC awaits on the far side of the bracket and has become the pretty big favorite.

Sooners just beat North Carolina to move into the Final Four.

Will play either Ohio State or UCLA tomorrow, as that match is still in progress.

On the other side of the bracket USC and Virginia easily dispatched the Big 12's Texas and Baylor respectively.

If we win on Monday, we'll play for the championship on Tuesday.


All the matches are in Athens, GA.

The OU Women's softball team also advanced to the Super Regional Round today, they will play Tennessee in Norman next weekend.

UCLA just won their match, so we play them tomorrow at 4PM Oklahoma time.

If we win, we'll play for the championship on Tuesday at 4PM.

Sooners just beat UCLA in a pulsating match that came down to tie breakers in the last two matches.

OU plays USC tomorrow at 4PM CT for the national championship.


USC is the #1 seed, OU the #2.

The national championship can be streamed live at NCAA.com ? The Official Website of NCAA Championships (http://www.ncaa.com/).

Sooners just lost a very tight match to USC, 4-2.

It's USC's 5th title in the last 6 years; Virginia won it last year.


OU won the doubles point and then won at #3 to take a 2-0 lead, but then USC stormed back to win the rest of the singles matches.


Absolutely fantastic season for OU and they'll have 5 of their top 6 back next year.

I suspect that John Roddick will be in for a nice pay raise.

Watched a few of the matches last night. OU was in every match and could have just as easily won the NC. BIG CONGRATULATIONS to the OU Mens Tennis Team, you guys fought your hearts out!!

OU Tennis continues to evolve to a national power under John Reddick.

OU tennis claims first ITA men's indoor national championship | NewsOK.com (http://m.newsok.com/ou-tennis-claims-first-ita-mens-indoor-national-championship/article/5394029)


The Oklahoma men's tennis team claimed its first men's indoor national championship Monday with a 4-2 victory over No. 1 USC in Chicago.

The Sooners receieved doubles wins from the fifth-ranked pair of Axel Alvarez and Dane Webb, and Jose Salazare and Alex Ghilea; and singles wins from No. 3 Webb, No. 2 Alvarez, No. 26 Andrew Harris, and No. 5 Ghilea for the title. Ghilea, a sophomore, came through with the clinching point for the second day in a row for the Sooners to give them their first tennis national championship.

It's so interesting to see OU fans care about something other than football. Any time an OSU fan brings up any other sport OSU dominates at (wrestling, XC, Golf) we're told that they don't matter.

OU fans don't say the other sports aren't important, just that they aren't as important to a school's athletic standing and profile as football or basketball. It has been when OSU fans say that wrestling equals football that OU fans point out the difference.

Ask any Sooner if they think this NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP in tennis rates as more important than even a B12 Championship in football and I think we all know what they would say.

Big Congratulations to the Tennis Team. I am a proud Sooner Alum :) Tennis is on top and I hope will be a top tier program for awhile

I'm a huge tennis buff and have been following the team closely the last few years. In fact, I went to see them play last season at Pepperdine and met John Roddick and his girlfriend. They own a house in Jefferson Park.

OU were runners-up to perennial power USC last season, falling in the finals. For those that don't know, there are three doubles matches and the school that wins at least two of those gets one point. Then there are six singles matches each worth a point. First school to get to 4 points (of possible seven) wins the contest and the matches in progress are stopped.

The Sooners only graduated one from their top 6; but it was their #1 player Alcorta.

This year, the jumped Andrew Harris from #4 to #1. He was a freshman last year and is a former Wimbledon boys champion from Australia. He's been more than holding his own as the new #1.

Our #2 (Alvarez) and #3 (Cook) are the best 2 & 3 in the country. Each will win almost every match they play this year.

Our new #4 is Spencer Papa, a freshman who was the top recruit in the U.S. last year. He's from Edmond but you've probably never heard of him because he was so good, he's been living in Florida as part of the USTA national junior program. He's by far the best male tennis player Oklahoma has ever produced.

#5 is the same from last year, Ghilea. He was great there as a freshman and now as a soph looks like one of the best 5's in the country.

#6 is a freshman, Salazar. He's been our weak link this season but should get much better.


Last year when we lost to USC, we won the doubles point but then they blew us away in singles. This year, we once again won the doubles point but overpowered them in singles. They are certainly the next best team in the country and will be OU's main competition when it comes to the NCAA finals this spring.

I highly encourage people to go watch them play. It's world class tennis and a great format where 3 doubles or 6 singles matches are all happening at once. And both the indoor and outdoor facilities in Norman are awesome.

BTW, of OU's top six, there is only one senior and one junior. The school is now a legitimate tennis powerhouse.

I haven't looked at the compensation, but I hope Joe C & the OU regents will do their part to ensure we can keep Coach Roddick in Norman.

Roddick got a good raise last year.

As you can imagine, tennis coaches don't get paid that well as compared to revenue sports.

Roddick is now among the best paid in college for his sport.

I went to the OU / Pepperdine men's tennis matches today and OU won, even though their usual #1 doubles and #2 singles entrants were given the day off.

Pepperdine has a gorgeous tennis facility as you can imagine and actually won a national championship in the sport when I was there for graduate school in the 90's. They are still good but no longer great.

Also met John Roddick's (OU's coach and Andy Roddick's brother and former coach) girlfriend and found out they live in Jefferson Park of all places. Funny to talk about the Pump Bar and Bleu Garten with someone I met in Malibu. :)

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/pepou.jpg
When your university is in such a beautiful location and in view of the beach, how can it help but be gorgeous.

As an update for this year. OU has advanced to the semi-finals of the NCAA tournament against TCU as the number one seed. With Baylor also in the semi-finals, the Big 12 has shown to be the dominant tennis conference in 2015.

#1 OU plays #5 TCU in the semi-finals today at 1PM.

If they win, they'll play the winner of #2 Baylor and #Virginia tomorrow at 1PM.

The championships are being played in Waco.

Sooners just edged out #5 TCU to advance to tomorrow's national championship match against Virginia, who beat home-standing Baylor.

Matches start at 1PM tomorrow afternoon.

Any live radio for this on the internet?

You can follow live scoring here:

Baylor Official Athletic Site - Men's Tennis (http://www.baylorbears.com/sports/m-tennis/live-stats.html?DB_OEM_ID=31000)

There are also live video feeds for all the courts (but no commentary or scores shown):

Baylor Official Athletic Site - Men's Tennis (http://www.baylorbears.com/sports/m-tennis/live-stats-video.html)

Wow, that is outstanding. Thank you so much, Pete.

I've followed OU tennis closely the last few years; even seen them play in person a couple of times.

Here's how this all works... There are 3 doubles teams for each school and they each play one 'super set'; first to 7 games, must win by 2. First team to take two doubles matches wins one point.

Then, there are six singles matches all worth one point. So, first team to win 4 of the 7 overall points wins the contest.

The singles matches are ranked #1-#6. The schools submit their lineups before the tournament and can't switch them to avoid anyone trying to play the game of favorable match-ups. You merely send your six best players out in order to face the other school.


OU is the #1 seed and Virginia is #3. OU won a close match in Norman earlier this season, 4-3.

However, that was pretty early on and there have been some important shifts since.

In that earlier win, OU lost the doubles point but then won four of six in singles. OU had been very poor in doubles (relative to their ranking) all season but just before post-season shook up their lineup and have since gone 6-1 in doubles against the toughest competition.

Also, OU's #2 -- ranked #7 in the country overall -- has been struggling with a back ailment. Don't like OU's chances if his match goes to a third set.

Additionally, OU's #3 has come completely off the rails in the last month and lost very badly yesterday. That was a match OU won earlier in the year but I'd be shocked if it didn't go the other way this time.

But in addition to the good doubles trend, Freshman Spencer Papa is on a very good run at #5 and that's an improvement.


Long way of saying this will almost certainly be very close and tense. Whoever wins the doubles point will start with a great advantage, but either team could overcome that in the singles matches.

It's actually very exciting to follow, because all the matches are happening simultaneously.

That is interesting Pete. I didn't really understand how it worked with the doubles/singles but I'm glad the doubles only count for a point

I actually started going to OU when they built the new tennis facility, so I was able to watch OU's rise to national power first hand. Somebody powerful must have had a huge influence on the Tennis department, because the investment in those facilities & to attract the level of coach they did is incredible.

Small story, I took a tennis class @ OU & my playing partner was Blake Griffin. We were both novices, but his athleticism usually got the better of me lol

OU is starting off pretty slow in these doubles matches....

Slight momentum shift in OU's favor. Still trailing overall. Crowd is for sure pro OU.

Sorry, that was a mis-type about doubles scoring earlier...

They play to 8 games, not 7. Just one set.

Virginia takes the doubles point and leads 1-0.

OU will have to win 4 of 6 singles matches, which they did when these two teams met earlier in the season.

Not looking good....

I forgot it was first to 2 sets. That is good. Lets keep rolling men!

Slipping away. Very improbable at this point. Good season, but should've won it all being ranked #1 as long as they were.

:(

Congratulations to Virginia.

They were the better team today.


Fantastic season for the Sooners, and we return 5 of our top 6 for next year. John Roddick has built a tremendous program and we'll have more shots down the road.