Sticking Together
Under coach John Roddick, the Oklahoma men’s tennis team played in three consecutive national championship games. Now under first-year-coach Nick Crowell, they are back in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. Why did members of the tennis team stay? Why not transfer or go pro?
It’s not uncommon to see OU men’s tennis coach Nick Crowell in the dining hall on campus.
He didn’t get lost, and he doesn’t exactly have a hankering for campus food.
Instead, the first-year head coach made a pledge to eat lunch with members of his team every day in an effort to build an off-the-court rapport with the Sooners.
“We always eat together before matches, after matches, and then, just certain times throughout the year, we would get together, whether it be at my house for an occasional meal or I took the guys to a Thunder game early on in the season,” Crowell said. “We try to spend more time together on the road. I think all those things just help in that process. We did some team building stuff, but I wanted a lot of it to come organically.”
This week, Crowell and his staff aren’t dining with the team in Norman. Instead, they’re sharing meals in Athens, Ga., as the No. 14-seeded Sooners prepare to take on No. 3-seeded Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament.
The Sooners are plenty familiar with deep runs in the postseason and have played for the national championship each of the last three seasons. Each of those trips was under the guidance of former head coach John Roddick, but just because there’s a new face at the helm of OU men’s tennis doesn’t mean that the expectations are changing.
Crowell, who was hired in July when Roddick took the Director of Tennis job at Central Florida, still expects a high level of competition from the players. But along with a fiercely competitive streak, Crowell also values a family atmosphere.
“I think obviously John did an unbelievable job here, a lot of unbelievable things, making the final match three years in a row, very competitive culture, which was really great,” Crowell said. “Guys worked really hard, which was awesome. One thing I really wanted to bring in was a little bit of togetherness, whether it be in the locker room or off the court.”
To create that, he began building relationships with the players as soon as he accepted the job. One of his first calls was to rising senior Andrew Harris, who planned on leaving OU for the professional circuit after his junior season. A knee injury derailed his plans, and he elected to return for his senior season.
“I just think there’s a huge emphasis on team chemistry more this year,” Harris said. “All the guys are a lot closer this year, and we do more things as a team, so we’re a lot closer. That’s the biggest difference this year and the years I was with John.”
As the Sooners enter last phases of the NCAA Tournament, the extra emphasis on togetherness may be the boost that they need to return to the national championship match.
“This kind of culture is just keeping everyone closer together,” junior Spencer Papa said. “(Crowell) emphasizes it more than Roddick did in the past. I think that’ll help us. You’ve got to have a close team when you’re at this point in the season.”