Last year before the ACC tournament, deputy sports editor Langdon Morris caught up with men’s tennis coach Jon Choboy, whose team was 11-13 overall and 4-7 in ACC play this season. He spoke with him again Wednesday for this, the second installment of “Holla at Choboy.”

Technician: Given that you went to the Elite Eight last season and expectations were high, has there has been a bit of a letdown with this regular season?Choboy: Yeah, I think all the players had pretty high expectations. Obviously, we’re still alive and kicking here, but especially since all of our players have winning records in singles, which that hasn’t happened since I’ve been here…and we have been leading teams and losing those leads and coming up on the wrong end of these 4-3 matches, it is frustrating. That’s disappointing that we’ve come up on the losing end, but when you look at how hard these guys have competed and the positions they’ve put in, it shows that no one, including Virginia, the No. 1 team in the nation, has put a beating on us. That shows how good our team actually is, our record notwithstanding.

Technician: Even after losing in the first round of the ACC tournament last season, you made a big run in the NCAAs. How has playing in the toughest tennis conference in the country prepared you for postseason play?Choboy: I think that if you’re cutting your teeth in the ACC, you can do it in the nation. Out of the ACC, any team in the top five or six in the conference can make a run like that. To be at that level, you’re pretty good. That kind of puts everything into perspective for anybody that looks at college tennis. That will tell you how strong the ACC is. Any of us can beat anybody on any given day; it’s just a strong conference…Getting on a run is a strong possibility for any team in this conference and certainly ours.

Technician: I’m sure the Dejon Bivens situation would be tough for any coach to face, but it seems you did a good job of not letting it become a distraction. Can you talk about if that affected your team in any way and just how you all dealt with that?Choboy: I think it affected the team in the sense that we had a good thing going and quite a bit of momentum in terms of building off last year. We pride ourselves in building a lot of respect for ourselves on the court and off the court, and a lot of guys put in a lot of work to get the program to that point…I think that kind of stung our team a bit because this is a guy that was really new to the team and wanted to come in and make his mark, too, but unfortunately he didn’t do it in a positive way. And unfortunately, whether we like it or not, it’s been something we have to deal with.

Technician: You kind of handled Georgia Tech in the regular season, winning 6-1. How much confidence does that give the team going into its opening-round match in the ACC tournament?Choboy: Looks can be a little deceiving. We certainly know that they are going to come into the match kind of loose and maybe feeling like, ‘Hey, let’s go after these guys. We’ve got nothing to lose.’ We’re kind of being chased a little bit, but I think our players are showing up and playing everyday. Since the Indiana match where we didn’t show up and play, we’ve shown up every single time. I think if we do that, it gives our team a lot of confidence. But, certainly, they’re a very good team, and it will be a tough match. It doesn’t matter what anyone is ranked, it’s going to be tough…but I wouldn’t say because we beat them before [that] we’re overconfident, because we’ve lost some close matches. I think the character of this team will prevail and allow us to perform to our capabilities.