Texas men's tennis eager to prove it's the country's best team as NCAA Tournament begins

The Texas men's tennis team is not the best in the country.

Well, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, at least. The computer ranking system has Texas (22-3) at No. 2 in its latest update, a rise from fourth and fifth in previous weeks. The Longhorns won the Big 12 championship and earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and they will open the event Friday against Sacramento State at the Texas Tennis Center. Ohio State (27-1) is the top seed, its lone loss a 5-2 defeat by Texas in Austin in March.

Wait. Is Texas the best team in the country?

"In my opinion, yes," Texas' Eliot Spizzirri said. "Coach often says that it's not about who has the best roster. It's about who has the best team."

A change to the lineup is key

What does being the "best team" mean, though? Five Longhorns are among the top 100 in the ITA singles rankings — led by Spizzirri, who's No. 1, and No. 5 Micah Braswell. No. 5 TCU also has five in the top 100, but no one higher than Spizzirri or Braswell.

The Longhorns' main weakness had been doubles, but even that flaw has been patched. Texas coach Bruce Berque swapped the pairings of his top two doubles teams before the dual match win over Ohio State — Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab at No. 1 and Braswell and Cleeve Harper at No. 2.

It turned out to be a critical swap. The Longhorns haven't lost since.

"Just kind of getting those guys (Spizzirri and Braswell) separated, I think really helped us, kind of got us going," Woldeab said. "Me and El (Spizzirri) had already played together too in the past and had a lot of success."

Texas seniors mature into culture changers

So, with the roster as strong as it is, what makes Texas a "good team" or, perhaps, the best team? It all starts with the seniors, Spizzirri said, calling his class "a bunch of lunatics" their freshman year.

Tennis is a sport of individuals. At the pro level, players' motivations must come intrinsically. You win for yourself. Consequences are personal. But it's different in college tennis. Playing for the sake of a school, the unifying theme in college athletics, is a somewhat foreign concept to tennis players. For a while, Texas' roster seemed like a group of players competing for their own benefit, doing the best they could for themselves.

"I didn't feel like there was much more energy coming from the team in general, to push each other," Berque said. "We wanted the whole to be greater than the sum of the parts, and just to have more connection between the players during practice and during the matches. More connection and more response from each other when somebody does reach out to connect in difficult moments."

After Texas' third loss of the season, at TCU on March 2, Berque asked his players whether they wanted to be a good roster or a good team. The coach believed that a more immature group might have struggled with the slip in ranking, a dip in play after expectations were so high before the season.

However, his seniors, the same ones Spizzirri described as freshman lunatics, responded, Berque said, resetting the culture and jump-starting their current winning streak one week later with a dominating performance against Ohio State.

"They were kind of refocused, and (they) made a commitment to each other to just kind of showcase our culture, our team culture, to our advantage a little bit more when we're playing these team matches and play a little bit more as a team," Berque said.

Building for the future

Despite being a veteran team, the Longhorns have a few newcomers who are key contributors. Freshman Gilles-Arnaud Bailly and sophomore Jonah Braswell hold spots on the singles line as the No. 31 and No. 54 players in the country. And they're learning from the seniors, who are making sure that what they've built will live after they leave.

"It's about, kind of I guess, showing your experience to these younger guys," Spizzirri said. "And trying to instill some of the core values of this team and culture. So when we're not here, the culture doesn't get off track."

There might not be a team playing better right now than Texas, which has won 13 straight matches. And the strength of the roster, top to bottom, could very well be the best in college tennis. Berque has know that for a while. But are the Longhorns the best team? They are in place to challenge for the national title.

"I guess who's the best will be decided when the last match of the season is played," Berque said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas men's tennis enters NCAA Championships with No. 2 seed