URBANA — It’s 7 a.m. on a Saturday, five hours before Brad Dancer’s third-ranked Illinois men’s tennis team is set to take on Iowa at the Atkins/Khan Tennis Center.
The program’s 10th-year coach sits at his organized mess of a desk, earbuds plugged into his iPhone 5 as it pipes music into his head.
A laptop in the corner, a scheduling folder spread out in the middle, the contents of another folder detailing the team’s European trip this summer and a flyer promoting the upcoming Big Ten championships at the Illini home complex later this month litter his work space.