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| Billy Martin |
UCLA coaches and athletes will be on hand throughout the year to answer your questions in our "Ask the Bruins" Q&A sessions.
This week's featured guest was men's tennis coach Billy Martin. After leading UCLA to its first NCAA Men's Tennis title in more than 20 years in 2005, coach Martin has the Bruins in position again for another title run in 2006. Scroll down to see coach Martin's responses.
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| John (Santa Monica): Congratulations on winning the NCAA title last year! After losing so many of those players from last year, what is it going to take to repeat? |
| Billy Martin: Hey John. All we need is good players and good coaching! All kidding aside, we will need our young players to really have a good, mature attitude and to be able to keep their heads up out there on the court. The pressure really builds up during the NCAAs. As long as they don't get too overwhelmed with the experience, I'd say we will have a good shot. |
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| AJ: Oftentimes you will tell a player to hit a serve in a particular direction on a point. And when they execute it the way you ask, they often win on the serve. How are you so good at predicting something so intricate? Congratulations on last year and I hope to see it again. See you around. |
| Billy Martin: I wish it was as good as you think, but unfortunately it back fires many times also. I just try to go with the percentages and my calculation of what I feel is the weakest area of the opponent. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. |
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| Reggie, Miami: Who do you think had the biggest impact on the UCLA mens tennis team team in the last 10 years? |
| Billy Martin: I would say probably Jean-Noel Grinda or Tobias Clemens. Both players did an incredible job for our team for four years and really helped us with recruiting. I don't think our teams would have stayed in the top four or five in the country consistently without them. |
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| Tobias Clemens: Hey Coach,I wish you and the team best of luck for the upcomming tournament.You know how to get the guys ready and I am sure with the fan support up north we have a great chance to Repeat!!!Best wishes from Germany |
| Billy Martin: Speaking of Toby. Hey, thanks for the good wishes. I hope you are doing well and I look forward to seeing you back in LA soon. |
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| Derek (Salt Lake City, UT): Coach, where would you place Benjamin Kohlloeffel in comparison to some of the other UCLA players you have coached. Is he as good as players like Justin Gimelstob, Eric Taino, Kevin Kim, Tobias Clemens and others? |
| Billy Martin: This is an easy question. I would say that Ben is right on par with all of those players you mentioned and possibly the best that we've had in my 13 years as head coach. He's that good. |
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| Jerry (LA): Will the NCAA ever adopt the post-season format of suspending singles matches after the winning team has clinched during the regular season? |
| Billy Martin: I have always been an advocate of stopping matches during the regular season once a team has already won - really for the sake of the fans to be quite honest. But if you do that, there will always be a problem with match results because you might have a player who doesn't have enough completed matches by the end of the season. That would make it hard for ranking purposes and to get into NCAAs. |
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| Alison (Westwood): Who do you consider to be the team's biggest rival? USC hasn't exactly had a good season, so would it be them or Stanford or another team? |
| Billy Martin: I would say probably Stanford has been out No. 1 rival in the last 10 years or so. Mostly because we have had to battle them for the NCAA title and the Pac-10 title almost every year. But to say that our rivalry against USC is anything but fierce would be an understatement. |
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| Andrew Eklov: Coach,
Do you think I should just switch to a lefty forehand instead of my One-handed backhand? |
| Billy Martin: No way! That one-handed backhand is going to be great someday. |
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| Art Vandelay (New York): Have you ever told a player who expressed interest in turning professional that it was the right decision and that they should turn pro. If so, who? |
| Billy Martin: Justin Gimelstob is the only player I've recommended that to. After his sophomore year I really felt that he was ready to turn pro and I backed that decision 100%. |
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| Craig Dye (Sherman Oakes): I remember following your college career. Everyone compared you to Jimmy Connors because he preceded you at UCLA. Did you feel any pressure to be as good as him? |
| Billy Martin: I wouldn't necessarily say it was pressure, but I certainly felt that being compared to Jimmy gave me something to shoot for. I really wanted to try and replicate his accomplishment of winning the NCAA singles title as a freshman. That was a very important goal for me. But to say that I felt like I was going to be as good a pro as he was, I certainly wasn't that confident. With that being said, I did want to strive to be one of the top pros in the world. |
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| Mike Thacher: What new players do you expect to join the team for the 2006-2007 season? |
| Billy Martin: With us having no seniors on our team this year, we will probably only bring in one or two new players for next year. Unfortunately, due to NCAA rules I cannot talk about the players until they have signed a letter of intent. Our big recruiting years will be for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 years. There are a few Southern California juniors that I would love to have join our team. You might know one of them. |
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| Brian (Brentwood, CA): Hey Coach Martin, congrats on the National Title last season, it was well deserved! Obviously you have put an emphasis on recruiting foreign athletes of late. Is that due to the fact that players such as Robert Yim and Zack Fleishman left UCLA early (or in Yim's case never enrolled)? Do you anticipate recruiting top U.S. players as well? |
| Billy Martin: To be honest, I really don't put an emphasis on recruiting foreign players. I try to get the best players every year regardless of where they are from. Recently, we have had the opportunity to get great foreign players. My experience lately has been that the foreign players are committed to staying for four years and getting their degree more so than the top American juniors. |
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| chaker ,TUNISIA: Dear coach Martin. Can you talk about your freshman Haythem Abid and his decision to joint UCLA? |
| Billy Martin: We feel so fortunate that Haythem has joined our team. He has done a fantastic job as a freshman, stepping into our No. 2 singles and doubles positions. I feel he has a great future ahead of him while at UCLA and at the pro level. |
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| Carol (Westwood): How much do you keep up with former Bruins playing on tour? Do you keep in contact with many of your former players? |
| Billy Martin: I try to keep in touch with all of my former payers, not only those who are playing on the pro tour. I think that most anyone will tell you that my former players are like family to me. |
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| Rick (Los Angeles): Is there a clear cut favorite this year? You guys have lost to Georgia, Pepperdine and Baylor by 4-3 scores. Seeing that, I would think UCLA has a good a shot a winning the title as any other team. Would you agree? |
| Billy Martin: I would say that Georgia has to be the absolute favorite even though when we played them this year at the Team Indoors it was very competitive. I'd love to have the chance to play them again at the NCAAs. |
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| OC Bruin: Congratulations on the great job you do and for helping to bring UCLA Men's Tennis back to the traditional prominence we have appreciated for so many years. My question relates to the NCAA Championships: There is no doubt that "home court advantage" plays a big role in college tennis. Even though there has been some equity restored in recent years, there still seems to be some "bias" in the locations chosen for the championships. I know I would love to be able to root the Bruins on during a championship held in S. California more often than once every 10-15 years. Do you think this is a real issue, and what might be done? Thanks again! |
| Billy Martin: I feel it certainly has gotten better in the past five or six years the way the NCAA has begun rotating the championships away form Georgia, which I always felt had an unfair advantage being able to host year in and year out. I think switching it up by having it at Texas A&M, Tulsa and now Stanford, is good for college tennis. But Georgia should always be allowed to host every three or four years because they do such an outstanding job. After hosting the tournament in 1997, I personally realize how much work is involved in running the event. I really felt that it distracted me from being able to do the best job I could do with my team. So unfortunately, I don't think you'll see the NCAAs held at UCLA anytime in the near future. |
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| Layla (San Gabriel): Do you think most junior players should go to college for at least a few years before turning pro? In what cases do you think someone should skip college? |
| Billy Martin: I would certainly say that most kids should think about going to college for a year or two before going out on tour. But I do think it should be judged on a case to case basis. I would say in most cases that at least a few years at the college level would be a benefit to today's junior players. |
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| Reid (Sacramento): Coach Martin, Do you think that having the NCAA Championships at Stanford instead of Texas or Georgia, etc. will give the team a better chance to repeat? |
| Billy Martin: It's absolutely an advantage for us. Besides Stanford, I don't think there is another team that has played on those courts as much as the Bruins. |
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