 | | Head men's tennis coach Matt Knoll will chat live with fans Thursday afternoon. |
Chat Live with Matt Knoll Baylor men's tennis coach Matt Knoll, fresh off back-to-back Big 12 and Big 12 Tournament titles, will stop in to chat with fans Thursday at 1:30 p.m. CT. Knoll, who has posted nearly an 80 percent success rate in dual match outings since coming to Baylor in 1996-97, was named Big 12 Coach of the Year earlier this week, marking the third time in six years he has received the honor. Knoll was also named Coach of the Year in the Texas Region by the U.S. Professional Tennis Association last season. He has led BU to three Big 12 men's crowns in the last four years, and under his guidance, the Bears are 28-2 (.933) in league matches since 2000. Knoll paced the Bears to back-to-back 7-0 seasons in conference play, a composite record of 52-3 (.945) and six consecutive NCAA appearances. He was named co-Big 12 Coach of the Year in both 1998 and 2002. |
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 |  | Matt Knoll: I'm here; let's get going. |
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| Frank Ward,(Bakersfield,CA): Congratulations to you and all the team,from an avid alumnus and avid player. Any word on recruits to help keep the high standard going? The very best to all in the NCAA. |
| | Matt Knoll: Thanks for your kind words. Recruiting has gone well; we think we have a talented class coming in. Due to NCAA rules, I can't comment in detail on who they are or what they've done, but I can tell you we won't have a drop off in our talent level next year. |
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| lincoln, ne: Congrats Coach on a wonderful season! My question deals with recruiting. How's it coming along? Should we expect more international students, or with the success of the program, will more U.S. recruits be more interested in playing at Baylor? |
| | Matt Knoll: We'll continue to seek the best student-athletes out there. Based on what we know right now, it looks like we will be bringing in one international student and one American player. |
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| Jaimie (Long Beach): Hi Coach. First, congrats on a great season so far and good luck in the NCAAs. What do you think the biggest challenge will be for your players heading into the NCAA Tournament, especially being a team who's a favorite to win it all? |
| | Matt Knoll: The biggest challenge is that, until you have done something, you don't exactly know how to do it. Stanford has won it all 17 times, so they have a pretty good idea of what to expect. The rest of us are learning as we go. The advantage we have is that our group has been to the final site before, and we've played a great schedule. We think those things will give us a pretty good opportunity to succeed. |
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| Jaimie (Long Beach): I've noticed that you've changed your lineup several times throughout this season. Any prediction on how the lineup will look for the NCAA Tourney? |
| | Matt Knoll: The lineup has been set for the NCAA Tournament. There is a challenge period that ends today; the lineup won't be official until the NCAA approves it, but I can tell you that our lineup will look a lot like it did at the Big 12 Tournament. |
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| "A Big Fan": Last year ended a bit anti-climatic, what is different about this year's team that'll propel them to Nat'l title? |
| | Matt Knoll: Every team except one loses their last match of the season. I think we're more experienced, we have more depth, our doubles has improved, but it will still take a certain amount of luck for us to win out the rest of the season. I do feel that we are as prepared or more prepared than we have ever been. |
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| Jim (Waco): Coach - If you had guys like Johann Jooste, David Hodge and Mark Williams on your current team - where would they each fit in the lineup? |
| | Matt Knoll: It's impossible to say. You're talking about a group of all-Americans. I think certainly in doubles, Mark and David would be No. 1 on virtually any team, as they were ranked highly. Johann was a two-time all-American, so I imagine he'd be in the rotation we've had this season where four guys have played No. 1. Those guys were all great competitors and great players, and I wish we could have them back. |
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| Juan (Waco, TX): How does this year's team compare to your 2000 or 2002 squads? Does this team have what it will take to go deeper in the NCAAs? |
| | Matt Knoll: The 2000 team had four seniors on it, and had come off a year when we made the quarterfinals of the NCAAs, so in terms of their years of college experience, they were ahead of this group. The team in 2002 had a great season, but was a little young, a little inexperienced, and had a couple of spots in the lineup where we weren't nationally competitive. If rankings are an indication of talent, this year's team is the most talented we've had. At times, we've had six guys ranked in the top 100 -- neither of those teams did that. |
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| Lisa (Houston): Coach Knoll - as a coach who has had a lot of success turning around a program, what is the Number One piece of advice you would give to another coach in the same situation? |
| | Matt Knoll: Create a vision for the players, and for your program. Show your players the path to the top. |
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| Big Jon (Michigan): Seems your team gets slighted in the ITA College Rankings... Is it because your aren't playing the powers from the SEC (Georgia, Vandy, Ol Miss) and the Pac-10 (Stanford, UCLA, USC, Cal) in dual meets? |
| | Matt Knoll: The strength of the Pac-10 and the SEC is certainly an advantage for those schools in terms of the strength of their rankings. For example, this year the SEC had 11 of 12 teams make the NCAAs, while the Pac-10 had 4 of the top 16 seeds. What they've done is impressive; that's something for our conference to strive for, to have that kind of depth. |
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| Jason(Temple): Coach - You said after the loss to Illinois at nationals that "the bad news is they are better than we are." Do you think we've closed that gap, and if so, how? |
| | Matt Knoll: I have a lot of confidence in our ability to be competitive throughout the tournament. I can tell you that Illinois has had a fantastic year, and has clearly separated itself from the rest of the country. Their talent level is off the charts. I hope I get a chance to answer that question sometime late in the afternoon on May 20. |
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| Richard L.(Waco): Coach - How in the world do we get packed off to Harvard last year with a top ten seed, and this year Texas AND aTm host with a 10 and 14 seed, respectively? Something smells. |
| | Matt Knoll: There are a lot of factors that go into all those decisions. The NCAA manual has a list of criteria for committees to look at. Geography is important, esp. after 9/11. The NCAA wants to keep people closer to home. I'm not a member of any of those committees, so I can't answer specific questions about why this or that happens. I can tell you that we are very excited to be hosting this year, and we're happy for Texas and TAMU to be hosting. That's good for the Big 12. Looking at the draw, I think there's a reasonable chance we could have four Big 12 schools make it to the final site, and that helps us establish this conference as one of the elite tennis conferences in the country. |
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| Rufus Watkins Class 1987: Do you think the Men's Team can win the National Championship? Do you think the Women's Team can go to the National Championship? |
| | Matt Knoll: Winning the national championship has always been one of our goals here. Our philosophy is that if we can continue to be pretty good, eventually we can break through and take it all the way. The women are thrilled to be playing Clemson in the first round. That is a talented team, and coach Scrivano is doing everything to prepare those teams to advance to the final site. His teams have a history of playing well at the end, and I don't think this year will be any exception. |
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| Rufus Watkins Class 1987: Dear Coach: Do you think there potential pros( Men and Women) on this team, how about the future. How is recruiting going. |
| | Matt Knoll: Sure. I think if some of the men and women in our programs make the kind of full-time commitment that it would take, then they have the talent level to succeed at the highest level. Tennis is unique in that you really have to do it on your own. There's no minor leagues, no guaranteed contracts, and the players we've had before with that kind of talent have eventually decided to pursue other career interests. |
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| Kyle Fitzpatrick: Who is the best baylor tennis fan this year? |
| | Matt Knoll: There are two: Karch and Erik. |
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| Don Haney, Richmond: Congratulations on the #2 seed, the back-to-back regular season and tournament championships, and on hosting the 1st and 2nd rounds. How do you recruit overseas? It seems like you and the players would have to make some decisions sight unseen. |
| | Matt Knoll: Tennis is an international sport. It's more popular in other countries. We have a policy not to sign players that we haven't both watched play and spent time with their families to make sure they are the right fit for Baylor University. |
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| Don Haney, Richmond: How many scholarships do you get for tennis? |
| | Matt Knoll: The NCAA limit is 4.5. |
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| Ken (Highland Park): Coach, your program is all the talk here and we are so proud of you and your outstanding student-athletes. Could you talk alittle about the system you teach? Good luck and Sic'em |
| | Matt Knoll: Assuming that this is a tennis question, we try to recruit guys that are great athletes, particularly guys that can run well. That allows you to play good defense, and make a lot of balls, be consistent. From that base, we work on the attacking game, try to serve aggressively, and move forward to put pressure on the opponent. I don't subscribe to the "directionals". I believe that to play tennis on the highest level, you have to force your opponent to move, so we work on changing direction with the ball, opening the court, and trying to finish balls at the net. |
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| david green, fla: I am just curious about the large number of players you have had leave your program in the past couple of years. It seems as if you bring in players, then they all of a sudden end up other places. Explanation? |
| | Matt Knoll: We've lost relatively few players. We're in a rare sitation right now where we've won the last four Big 12 Freshman of the Year awards; all four of those guys are on our team. Academics at Baylor are tough; we've had some guys not able to handle that. And we've had some guys leave looking for more playing time. I can tell you that we haven't had anybody leave under a cloud of darkness. Everything has been in an effort to find a place where each player can succeed athletically, academically and personally. |
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| KAY WHITLEY - AXTELL, TEXAS: Coach Knoll, Congratulations to the team and coaches on the outstanding year. I noticed that all of the Big 12 teams are on the same side of the bracket. Is that a mistake or will the bracket be redone after the first two rounds? Kay Whitley |
| | Matt Knoll: It's no mistake. The NCAA guidelines require that teams from the same conference aren't paired against each other in the same round. In the case of this year's draw, it's just a coincidence that you see Big 12 teams in the same half of the draw. |
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| JWG & Boys: JW wants to know what is the most Players you have brought to Dallas and how many do you think you will get to bring this fall? |
| | Matt Knoll: I think you're referring to the national indoor tournament that's held at Brookhaven in November. This last season we had three singles players and the year before we had two singles and one doubles. The invitations for that tournament are not determined until the last week of October and they are handed out primarily on the fall results. We are optimistic that we'll get several players in the draw but it's impossible to say at this time. |
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| Walter, Dallas: are you getting alot more applications from top players now that you have had this success? |
| | Matt Knoll: Having a strong team certainly makes recruiting easier. The pool of players that are capable of helping us acheive our goals is pretty small, and the competition for those players is fierce. The traditional tennis powers like Stanford and Georgia and UCLA continue to have a big edge on us in recruiting and that is a gap that will take years of success to close. That said, I feel confident that we can continue to bring in the type of student-athletes that will help us continue to compete at the highest level. |
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| | Matt Knoll: Thanks for your questions. I want to thank everyone for their support of our program. It's been a special year for our players and the love they get from the Baylor family means a great deal to them. To have the opportunity to represent Baylor in the national tournament is something they'll remember for the rest of their lives. The match times for the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament have been set. We're playing Friday at 7 p.m. against UT-Arlington. Should we win we play the winner of TCU-SMU Saturday at 6 p.m. Please come out and support the Bears. Sic 'em. |
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