Game 1: Boston University

[Chris20]

For some reason I thought it was Louisiana. Must because my 9 year old just finished a unit on geography and learned the state capitals and abbr.

[MV Digga]

For some reason I thought it was Louisiana. Must because my 9 year old just finished a unit on geography and learned the state capitals and abbr.

I thought Lewiston-Auburn. This is a hockey forum afterall.

[bleedmaroon]

Oh. My. God. How does something like this happen? Not an auspicious start to Mick's critical year 3. Oh. My. God. Hey, at least we have the football team to look forward to.........

Meanwhile, the best state college hockey team pasted Boston College tonight 5-2. Some day I will understand how UMass Lowell blew by us in hockey to become one of the top programs in Hockey East, while we have become a laughing stock. Unreal and so frustrating.

I wouldn't say Lowell passed us. They have consistently had a better hockey program than UMass. Except for 2007 UMass has been pretty meh.

That makes it even worse. There is simply no excuse for a satellite school having a hockey program superior to that at the flagship campus.

It's not too difficult a formula and Rocks/FTT has long said this, even though he says our administration denies it. You can talk about difficulty in recruiting against teams in close proximity to you all you want, but the success starts at the very top. BC, even though it's down the chain at the heights has the administrations full support. Providence less, but more than us. But the Lowell story is the real deal. We want to be #1 is the attitude of our little sister and these links tell a story. It was a pretty short list when the Bazin hire was made, but to have Rick Bennett on that list, even if he had no desire to go to Lowell (which I don't know) shows you someone in Tsongas land did their homework and committed the time to find the right guy.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/201 ... story.html

http://www.uscho.com/2011/04/19/bazin-r ... ts-lowell/

[Rocks22]

Those who enjoy making excuses for the administration will just say it's easy for Lowell to be successful because hockey is their flagship support. What's happening in Providence is interesting though. Like UMass, Providence is a "basketball school" and for a long time ignored their hockey program. But something happened in 2011 and they put attention and resources towards hockey, hiring the best up and coming coach in the country and finally renovating their arena. The result? After getting 8 wins in Tim Army's last year they've gotten 14, 17, and 22 in Nate Leaman's first three years, making the tournament last year for the first time since 2001. This year they were picked to win Hockey East.

And their flagship sport of basketball is in the midst of a similar upward trend, making the NCAA tournament last year for the first time since 2004.

[Marshmont_63]

Those who enjoy making excuses for the administration will just say it's easy for Lowell to be successful because hockey is their flagship support. What's happening in Providence is interesting though. Like UMass, Providence is a "basketball school" and for a long time ignored their hockey program. But something happened in 2011 and they put attention and resources towards hockey, hiring the best up and coming coach in the country and finally renovating their arena. The result? After getting 8 wins in Tim Army's last year they've gotten 14, 17, and 22 in Nate Leaman's first three years, making the tournament last year for the first time since 2001. This year they were picked to win Hockey East.

And their flagship sport of basketball is in the midst of a similar upward trend, making the NCAA tournament last year for the first time since 2004.

Rocks, do you think Mick is the guy to lead UMass in the future? Also, are there any upgrades the program needs in terms of architectural design? Obviously, the Mullins center is as good as it gets as far as Hockey East arenas. However, what are the locker rooms / workout rooms like? Will the hockey team benefit from the addition of the Champions Center next year? I can't understand why the administration doesn't get behind the team more. I was too young to care, but back between '04 and '07 weren't hockey games relatively sold out? I seem to recall someone saying it was a tough ticket to get. I would (like to) think that with all the money the school is putting into improving the basketball team they would put in similar money to create a solid hockey program that is competitive on a national stage. Otherwise, what's the point of having a hockey team if the school is content to let it stall and suffer in the basement of D1 hockey.

[Rocks22]

Enough people have asked me about Mick that I'll likely be writing on the subject on FTT soon just to be a little more organized with my thoughts.

Outside of the locker rooms I've always been told by those around the program and other teams in Hockey East that the hockey facilities and Mullins ice are poor. The hockey team will not directly benefit from the Champions Center, which will be used only by the basketball programs. However, there will be an opportunity to upgrade some of the hockey spaces in the Mullins by using space that will soon be vacated by hoops. I don't believe there are any concrete plans yet however.

Why doesn't the administration get behind hockey? You'll have to ask McCutcheon and Swammy.

[bleedmaroon]

Those who enjoy making excuses for the administration will just say it's easy for Lowell to be successful because hockey is their flagship support. What's happening in Providence is interesting though. Like UMass, Providence is a "basketball school" and for a long time ignored their hockey program. But something happened in 2011 and they put attention and resources towards hockey, hiring the best up and coming coach in the country and finally renovating their arena. The result? After getting 8 wins in Tim Army's last year they've gotten 14, 17, and 22 in Nate Leaman's first three years, making the tournament last year for the first time since 2001. This year they were picked to win Hockey East.

And their flagship sport of basketball is in the midst of a similar upward trend, making the NCAA tournament last year for the first time since 2004.

A big infusion of money happened. PC hockey has always had trouble vs. the Providence Bruins and getting to the Dunk, believe it or not is safer than the area where Scheinder is, especially to it's south. PC is kind of like Northeatsern hockey, an arena tough to access with little parking. Oh wait, there is a garage adjacent to Matthews Arena, it just takes too long to fill out the second mortgage paperwork (parking cost) at the gate.

With that infusion of $$$ at PC, an AD with hockey in his blood is able to help his hockey team, along with some other sports. Upstairs the interest has always been there at PC.



From PC's web site:

"Currently, Driscoll is the First Vice President of the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association. He represents the BIG EAST’s athletic directors on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, serves as a mentor for the Division I-AAA mentoring program and serves on the HOCKEY EAST Television Negotiations and Marketing Committees. He previously served on the NCAA Division I Management Council, the NCAA Ice Hockey Championship Committee (Chair 2010-11) and was the Chair of the Big East Athletic Directors in 2011-12. Driscoll was an NCAA Fellows Programs Executive Mentor."


http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2 ... l_also.php
http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... ension.ece

[Rocks22]

Driscoll was there going back to 2002 though, which included some very bad years, and was at Cal before that. So I don't know if he was necessarily the one that drove it. Maybe it was the money like you say or the school administration decided to put more focus on hockey. Whatever it was a decision was made and the results followed almost immediately.

[bleedmaroon]

After getting 8 wins in Tim Army's last year they've gotten 14, 17, and 22 in Nate Leaman's first three years, making the tournament last year for the first time since 2001. This year they were picked to win Hockey East.

In fairness, for Providence to look more like Lowell and not Merrimack after Mark Dennehy was brought in, losing Da Costa and Cannata within 3 seasons, it will be interesting to see how Leaman does post Jon Gilles. It's been only one game in the Kevin Boyle era some may say, but Bazin passed many tests in his first year with mortal Doug Carr in net and most of the same characters that Blaise MacDonald had left.

[justin]

Gilles is awesome, but PC is loaded outside of the crease as well. Lehman is one of the best young coaches in the country, and he's been recruiting and coaching PC back towards the top.

Of course it took an administration that was committed to hockey to get the likes of him in.

[Rocks22]

Rocks, do you think Mick is the guy to lead UMass in the future? .

Here you go (don't get your hopes up for a definitive answer):

http://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/15/v ... with-mick/

[MajBugman]

^
Great article, thanks.