As I’ve said before, anyone who thinks they can gather up their
10 best friends and be a force at sectionals at any level is delusional. That goes the same for gathering up the same
guys who get beat every year and thinking this year is gonna be different. So whether you like it
or not, kudos to the people who made it to sectionals and some level of appreciation
for the ones that make Sunday seems in order.
Again, you won’t do it but I’m still encouraging you to go out on Sunday
and actually see what you’re complaining about.
You just might watch the biggest thorn in your side get beat.
On the Iron Throne sits King Freeman, fresh off his rampage through 3.5, surveying the unrest
for as far as the eye can see. An adept
leader, he has put down three uprisings over the last four years but now must do
it again. His ability to pull together loyal
troops year after year from the land of 4.5 as well as find new followers from
lands across the sea is unprecedented in Westeros and is the key to his
conquest of the Iron Throne and his dominance of it. But after 4 years of summer in King’s
Landing, winter is coming.
Freeman has been able to put down an uprising from Dallas’
men of the North on several occasions and often faced the sternest challenges
to his throne by insurrections from his own home city, briefly losing the
throne to them once. From the deserts of
West Texas and their horse tribes to the Kingdom of the Mountain and Vale in
Austin, the Kingdom of the Isles and Rivers in San Antonio and all parts in
between, holding together the warring clans has never been more
challenging. But now a new challenge
rises from beyond the wall. To hear the
men of the North tell the tale, these wildlings are lead by one who has brought
together the warring factions beyond the wall and they have already conquered
the Kingdom of the North.
This is not to say the process has been easy. The wildlings lost two mercenaries early in
the battles with the men of the North and lost another in their final conquest
of the North. But their sights are now
set firmly on the Iron Throne. Has King
Freeman lost his edge, now having ruled over the Texas Section for so
long? He has his own mercenaries, but
will they answer the call when it is given or make for other lands? Regardless, he has the most loyal men in
Texas, rejoining him in the fight to retain the Iron Throne every other year
and this one will be no different. They
are veterans of the 4.0 wars, having won several sectionals titles but never
quite finding their way at 4.5. They
will be well armed, well trained and well led.
After four years of summer will Winter finally overtake us
all?
Murray - an impressive post. Great job.
ReplyDeleteThanks, it's been a busy week.
DeleteAs a quick follow up to my thread on fall minimum rosters being due. It looks like the DTA has allowed a few teams to keep gathering players past the deadline but at the moment here's how the field is shaping up.
5.0 went from 8 teams to 10.
4.5 went from 28 teams to 29.
4.0 went from 37 teams to 32 or 33.
3.5 went from 18 teams to 16 or 17.
3.0 went from 5 teams to 3.
All in all it looks like captains rallied by the deadline, or at least not too far past the deadline, and the numbers look pretty similar to last year.
What it takes to be a 3.5 on Freeman's roster.......
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ_Tdl6z9a0
Clearly if he lived in Dallas he would be playing on a mixed team as a 3.0 for Tiny Le.
Deletewow what a D-Bag but since he is on Freeman's Team it is expected. Starts them young down in H-Town
DeleteHe was that good but he still wasn't Freeman's best player last weekend
DeleteThat serve and volley game looks like a young Bill Kaiser!
ReplyDeleteWatching that video and he is better than Tony, Newman, Voss, and maybe Delapaz. Todd Reed better do something or he is going down. He needs to stop allowing Freeman to cheat at will. After his DQing computer rates of high point, he needs to DQ this kid and Freeman's entire team immediately.
ReplyDeleteyeah, dream on...
DeleteGreat post. Do you really think that Freeman allows illegal self rates on his teams. He knows the rules and guidelines better than anyone. Its every Captains right to protest and I hope they do.
ReplyDeleteKind of funny how on Sectionals weekend, you never see Todd or Tosha working the site where the Men's Finals are. They work the ladies site. Just wait and see this weekend. They will be nowhere to be seen when the showdown of Le and Freeman happen. Better not to witness what 4.0 Sectional tennis really looks like.
ReplyDeleteThe ladies site is where the showdown between Le vs Freeman would be. So lets hope for a rumble. Tony always gets caught cheating. He will have players D'qed after sectionals too. Dont you worry about that.
DeleteFound this on a Vegas betting website. Sets the over/under for lines won in pool play for Texas 4.5 Sectionals. Seems to be pretty accurate.
ReplyDeleteFlight 1 lines won (over/under)
San Antonio 9.5
Austin 9.5
Waco 5.5
SETX 5.5
Flight 2
Houston 14
Ft. Worth 10
Corpus 6
San Angelo 0
Flight 3
Dallas 12
NETX 6
Valley 6
NOHO 6
I'm not sure which ones are the best bets. What do you think and why? Maybe take the under on Ft. Worth and the over on NETX and SETX.
Would be curious on the "over/unders" set for the 4.0 league. From what the blog is saying, it should be Dallas at 19.5!
DeleteOver on SETX is a lock. They will win that flight with ease. Vegas didn't do their homework this time. Wanna see ringers, they have them in place.
ReplyDeletemight not be bad projection with ringers like this: http://www.lamarcardinals.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=1703&path=mten
Deletehttp://www.lamarcardinals.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=1714&path=mten
http://www.lamarcardinals.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=1739&path=mten
So TTA now allowing under 30 D1 players into 4.5 and former Jr Davis Cup players?
I am so sure they filled out the self-rates correctly to get their ratings, but Murray of course will defend them like others
I have never defended lying on your self rate form, nor would I. What I have said and will say again is that if people are following the self rate rules and you don't like the outcome, bitch to the USTA not me. I don't make those rules. There is a process called filing a grievance, maybe you've heard of it. It is designed for captains to send their complaints to Todd Reed for investigation and possible disqualification. As we have seen this year, it actually works. There is no defending them if they lied. Just file the grievance with Todd Reed instead of the Dallas Tennis Blog.
DeleteIt is the ol' getting dropped from a 5.5 to a 4.5 computer trick. Someone will have to explain the USTA NTRP computer to me someday. Again. don't hate the player, hate the game. http://tennislink.usta.com/Leagues/Main/StatsAndStandings.aspx?t=R-17&search=Marton%20Horvath#&&s=3%7c%7c0%7c%7c8096004748%7c%7c2015
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DeleteSorry but the SETX team is a joke for what they did clearly forming a joke league to manipulate, if TTA and Reed had a set of balls they would notice what they did in the fall with the 2 team Fall 5.0 league and throw out the players, but $$$ talks and their bullshit walks. 5 guys get their 5.0 ratings down to 4.5 and join together. Can it be anymore obvious what they were doing.
DeleteSorry Murray for coming off rude in initial comment.
How is Tuyen V. Nguyen 4.0 when he went 3 out of 4 in 4.5 fall and his one lost went to a tie breaker? Freeman a smart guy.
ReplyDeleteThe fall doesn't count in Houston.
DeleteFall and Spring leagues doesn't count toward ratings in Houston, so you can only tank in the summer league.
DeleteHouston is unreal.
ReplyDeleteWe slam Houston and Freeman. And while he has made the trip many times, he still has not come home with the hardware. Last Texas teams to win Nats at 4.0 & 4.5 was in 2006, with Waco winning 4.0 and San Antonio winning 4.5.
DeleteNot sure what all the complaining is about Dallas and Houston being cheats when there is nothing to show for it.
SETX at 4.5 will be coming loaded.
While Dallas and Houston are talking trash about each other, Texas is a small dot, when it comes to nationals. The other sections have solid 5.0/5.5 guys playing 4.0 tennis, making all our discussions here look like a joke. This is the reason why Texas hasn't been able to take any hardware home in almost a decade.
DeleteTexans should stick together, so the hardware can come back to the Lone Star State, where it belongs.
Freeman is a cheat and a liar. And it doesn't start with the self rates. Look at the match results for Red Benzon, Robert Rizarri before and after last year. Awfully suspicious going to play on a sham SETX league. Tanking matches. There is a saying for this and it's not Cheater (although that is one that comes to mind). It's an extreme mental disorder the depths that Freeman and his troop take to underrate themselves. Freeman and Mike Tran playing 3.5 what an F'ing joke. They shouldn't be proud of their performance last weekend. They should be embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't you protest then. Sounds like the week of Sectionals is when all the whining and complaining happens. Too late now. Flights are set and its time to play.
ReplyDeleteIn Dallas the whining is a year round, it peaks during summer city payoffs, sectionals, and then again at the end of year ratings.
DeleteIf you've been reading this blog then you would know.
Any update on the whole Kelly,Abruzzee,Davis scenario? Heard its escalated. Why do they like dominating mixed?
ReplyDeleteWaiting on appeal. As far as dominating mixed, we only win Dallas. We Started playing in 2007. We have been to nations 2 times and won once. We only win Dallas. We don't dominate at sectionals.
DeleteNot much you can protest about computer and benchmark players. That's the beauty of it. Self rates have to manage their scores to keep from being DQd. What Freeman, Tran, Benzon, and Rizarri do in Houston is simply sacrifice a season by tanking matches to get their rating dropped.
ReplyDeleteAre we to assume that Tony Le,Ryan De la Paz,Jared Kemp and Hai Nguyen didn't do the exact same thing?!!? Wake up league players. Dallas is notorious for tanking
ReplyDeleteNo argument but what Freeman has done is astonishing. Tony has guys who have been bumped up to 4.5 and gotten back down. Freeman has guys who have been 4.5/5.0 for 5 or 10 years and all of sudden they all got down at the same time. Taking out self rates, Freeman's roster averages five years of 4.5 per player.
DeleteAnd before anyone complains, I don't mean astonishing in a good way.
DeleteLets not kid ourselves. We are no better than Freeman. He is just doing it better.
DeleteDo you think the level is higher in 4.5 and 4.0 this year by looking at rosters? Seems to me its 2 levels down. Not too many deep teams.
ReplyDeleteThe better self rates are playing 3.5 in Houston.
Delete4.0 looks a lot like the Big 12. No depth and doesn't have great results out of conference. Other than a very few teams in the state it was a down year, as was last year. There is still some quality at the top but not a lot.
DeleteActually the best self rates got disqualified from Tony Le's team this season to 5.0
ReplyDeleteShame on him
Actually they were computer rates.
DeleteI thought computer rates could not be DQed ?
DeleteUnfortunately Tiny is not a smart cheater... His 3.5 self rate decided to play in multiple major zones and win open doubles. He put in a couple of 3.5 self-rates on his Mixed 7.0 team and pissed off a couple of captains. One guy played Tennis on Campus at OU and he played him on a 3.5 mixed team and got him DQ. He had a good plan to start "and then he fucked up the end game."
DeleteIs it true that Freeman makes up scores in HIS NOHO leagues to keep his players ratings down? How can he get away with this? At least play the matches!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah - NOHO is a complete sham league for Houston elite players. They don't play the matches - just write in the scores. NOt so much to keep their ratings than to get rated down. Basically take a season off, scam the system, and play down the next year.
ReplyDeleteWhy not do the same with the Ft Worth league....
ReplyDeleteWho says we don't?
DeleteThe other thing Freeman does is put in the wrong player when he enters scores.
ReplyDeleteWhoever mentioned severe mental illness wasn't kidding. You've got some pretty deep rooted issues if you have to go to these extremes in the name of winning. Guess freeman, benzon, tran, and rizarri are trying to compensate for deficiencies in other areas.
ReplyDeleteare you talking about how fat they all are?
DeleteCan we get back to Dallas tennis topics please. Nobody cares about Houston.
ReplyDeleteI thought we had some cheats in dallas. To make up scores and not play matches is unreal.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about Houston but I definitely know some Dallas captains that did it. I also know of a captain that played different players.
DeleteHouston uses the NOHO and SETX leagues to keep ratings and get down, often without playing matches at all. FW hates Dallas playing over there and keeps a close eye on us when we go there to play. NOHO is just Houston players driving 20 minutes North. Or in this case, not driving at all.
ReplyDelete