The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

[Snively65]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

My sincere condolences.

Yes, my sincere condolences also, SG. Please hang in there.

[gfmorris]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

That would be me a little preoccupied with my father's dying months and his death last week.

I'll write it if you need me to do so.

GFM

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

We'll try and do the Top 10 next weekend, but to get us there...

#13 – Colorado College Tigers
Points: 146.6793 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: -0.3081 (Rank: 55)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: -2.221 (Rank: 60)
Last Season Ranking: #13

The Tigers had a brutal schedule (2nd toughest in the country) and it resulted in the team’s 5th consecutive losing season, with a record of 8-24-4 and finished last in the NCHC. Some of the numbers told the story – PP was 11.0%, PK was 78.8%, goal differential was nearly -1.4/game. The bright spots were three wins over ranked opponents, including then #1 UMD. It won’t get any easier next season as they play 14 games against ’16-’17 tournament teams, and dropping a spot in these rankings looks quite likely. – Siouxfaninseattle

#12 – Lake Superior State Lakers
Points: 154.6211 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: 0.0990 (Rank: 32)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 0.4945 (Rank: 49)
Last Season Ranking: #12

Lake Superior State had a good start to the season not losing in regulation until November 5th vs Minnesota State (starting 6-2-0). That loss was the start of a 5 game skid and then the Lakers were unable to win a game in regulation in their last ten. Those two stretches led LSSU to a disappointing 7th place finish in the WCHA in Damon Whitten’s third season as Head Coach. The Lakers lost two players to early departures, Kris Bindulis (Freshman) and Mitch Hults (Sophomore) plus it appears they lost a commitment from Michigan 2017 Mr. Hockey, Jacob Crespi.

LSSU will look to rebound and fight for home ice this season but that could be difficult. Other than Hults, they do retain their top 9 scorers but they lose Gordon Defiel in net and don’t appear to have a great option already on the team. They will lean heavily on incoming freshman, Marek Mitens. – Shirtless Guy

#11 – Cornell Big Red
Points: 159.3638 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: 0.5174 (Rank: 22)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 4.1232 (Rank: 27)
Last Season Ranking: #11

- Cornell: The Big Red finished 3rd in the ECAC, and made the final game of the league tournament before losing to Harvard. Cornell received an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011-12, but fell to Massachusetts-Lowell in the first round.

Cornell lost their starting goaltender Mitch Gillam to graduation, and also lost 2 of the 3 (and 3 of the top 6) scorers. So there will need to be some additional contributions from the players that remain, and from their new talent, to stay in the top 3 in the league. – drshoen

[D2D]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

We'll try and do the Top 10 next weekend, but to get us there...

Still waiting for that Top 10.

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

Still waiting for that Top 10.

Yeah, I really need to finish this up. I'm swamped through Sunday afternoon, but I'll try to get them posted then because the following weekend is a non-starter.

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

Well, this should at least whet the whistle...

#10 – Michigan Tech Huskies
Points: 166.6613 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: 0.3906 (Rank: 25)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 5.2933 (Rank: 23)
Last Season Ranking: #10

The Huskies had a strong 2016-2017 campaign, winning the WCHA Tournament title for the first time since 1981. Michigan Tech put together a strong performance against eventual National Champion Denver in the regional semifinal to cap their season, but fell short to the Pioneers. Tech lost its beloved head coach Mel Pearson to the Michigan Wolverines in the offseason, but the Huskies will look to continue their program success over the past three seasons where Tech has made 2 trips to the NCAA Tournament, ending a 35 year drought, winning the MacNaughton for the first time since 1976, and capturing the Broadmoor. The next step is progressing further in the NCAA Tournament, getting back to the Frozen Four for the first time since 1981, and winning the program's fourth national title. - Fighting Sioux 23

#9 – Maine Black Bears
Points: 173.3806 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: -0.7706 (Rank: 59)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 2.939 (Rank: 31)
Last Season Ranking: #9

Maine coach Red Gendron entered this season looking to improve on the 8-24-6 mark his team had put up in 15-16. New contract in hand, Gendron and Maine were looking to take a step forward with a very young group headlined by 10 freshman. Maine started the season hot, with three straight wins over RPI (x2) and Quinnipiac. Maine then went on to lose seven of their next ten going 1-7-2 with a big home win over UMass Lowell. Besides the Lowell and Quinnipiac wins Maine had a rough time against the class of NCAA hockey, with their remaining 7 wins coming against Brown, AIC(x2), UConn, UMass (x2), and NU. Senior Forwards Blaine Byron and Cam Brown scored 80 points between them for the black bears, but the youth of the roster definitely showed in the results throughout the year. Goaltender Rob McGovern surprised many putting up a solid save percentage (0.912) for the Black Bears in his 29 games, while senior Matt Morris did not give his teammates much help in his 11 starts. The Black Bears look forward to next season with hopes of winning a game away from the friendly confines of Alfond Arena, having gone 0-13-4 on the road last season. – UML Puck Hawk

#8 – Michigan State Spartans
Points: 232.5986 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: -0.7616 (Rank: 58)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: -2.0133 (Rank: 59)
Last Season Ranking: #8

The Spartans suffered through the program’s worst season in 39 years in ’16-’17, finishing last in the Big Ten at 3-14-3 and an overall record of 7-24-4. They also lost next season’s would-be captain to the pros. But it seems that the fans found a silver lining in the resignation of Tom Anastos and the hire of Danton Cole (MSU ’89) as head coach. Cole played on a national championship team at MSU and had coached on the NTDP for the past seven years. And talk of renovating Munn Arena is back on the table. – Siouxfaninseattle

#7 – Wisconsin Badgers
Points: 347.2352 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: 3.6087 (Rank: 8)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 6.7005 (Rank: 19)
Last Season Ranking: #7
New coach Tony Granato, along with brother Don and Mark Osiecki, produced an amazing turnaround for the program, going 20-15-1 after winning only 12 games the previous two seasons. Their success came with a price – Don Granato left for an assistant coach job with the Chicago Blackhawks, and was replaced by Mark Strobel (UW ’95). The Badgers are getting a goalie transfer that is generating a lot of buzz – Kyle Hayton from SLU. He brings great numbers - .932 SV% and 2.16 GAA. They also bring back most of last year’s team and have “a couple” players in the pipeline that will look to push the Badgers up these rankings. – Siouxfaninseattle

#6 – Boston University Terriers
Points: 378.9177 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: 5.6184 (Rank: 4)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 33.4333 (Rank: 8)
Last Season Ranking: #5

BU entered the 2016-17 season with some of the highest expectations ever put on a college hockey team. While they were young, as Dave Quinn seems to recruit for, they were loaded with expected NHL talent. If they could gel as a team and contain some of their freshman excuberance they were expected by some to walk away with every major trophy available to them. Freshman Jake Oettinger and Clayton Keller were expected to push this BU team over the edge, while the development of sophomores Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, Charlie McAvoy, and Jordan Greenway were expected to give some leadership to support the Terriers development over the season. A sweep at the hands of Denver early helped quell some of the hype, but it wasn’t until a shutout loss at the hands of UConn that real questions began to arise as to how good this Terriers team would be. Following that loss, BU ran off an 10-1-1 stretch with a sweep of BC and a win over top ranked Harvard, before what could only be described as taking a weekend off, being swept by Merrimack. Down the stretch BU struggled to string together wins, splitting with Lowell, losing the Beanpot final to Harvard, taking only 3 points from UNH, and splitting with Notre Dame to seal the three way tie in Hockey East. In the Hockey East tournament BU won two tight games with Northeastern before falling to Boston College in the Semifinal round. In the NCAA tournament, as a two seed BU won a thrilling double OT game over North Dakota in Fargo before falling again in overtime to Minnesota Duluth. BU lost a fair bit of their best talent to the NHL, but do return Patrick Harper and Jordan Greenway and bring in another loaded freshman class of entirely NHL drafted talent. As long as Quinn keeps recruiting like this BU can expect to find themselves in the tournament and at the top of the Hockey East standings for years to come. – UML Puck Hawk

#5 – Boston College Eagles
Points: 381.8611 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: 2.0071 (Rank: 12)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 32.7295 (Rank: 9)
Last Season Ranking: #4

The Eagles came into this season with tempered expectations. Their roster had been gutted by early departures leading to some late recruiting and forced acceleration of some players timelines as roster spots needed to be filled. Freshman Joseph Woll was expected to do a great deal to make up for this as he came in with some substantial praise from the press. With 15 freshman coming in there should be little surprise the Eagles were expected to relinquish the top spot in Hockey East they had held or shared since 2013. Instead the Eagles came out of the gate fast, winning 11 of their first 14 including wins over Denver and an undefeated conference record until their mid December matchup with the Fighting Irish in Indiana. After the winter break BC was able to tread water, getting swept by BU, then putting together a 4 game stretch with wins over UMass, UConn, Notre Dame, and UNH going into the Beanpot. From that Beanpot Monday on BC did not win another regular season game, suffering their first loss to Merrimack at home in 19(?) years, consecutive ties to UVM, and a sweep at the hands of Lowell. A fourth place finish in the Beanpot highlighted this end of season collapse, though taking even a point at the hands of Lowell the last weekend would have won BC the regular season title outright. BC got their revenge over UVM the second weekend of the Hockey East tournament, followed by a win with some questionable sportsmanship to beat BU at the Garden. Going into the Tournament Final BC found themselves in a unrecognizable position. With 21 wins BC would need to win the Hockey East Championship game to make the NCAA tournament, there was no chance of an at large bid. BC put up a hell of a fight in the game, hitting multiple crossbars in the last minute, but ultimately fell to Lowell. Looking at next season, the Eagles lose the majority of their high skill players, and will be reliant on their freshman taking a substantial jump to remain at the top of Hockey East. – UML Puck Hawk

As a teaser, I will note that Denver earned more points in their 2016-2017 title run than any other team since I put together this formula. Was it enough to challenge the Gophers for the #3 spot? Stay tuned...

[vizoroo]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

I thought we would knock off one of the Boston's but both--a real treat! Just like this weekend.

[FreshFish]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

Stay tuned...

I think FS23 has me on ignore going back to a misunderstanding in a SCOTUS thread from 2014, in which we were talking about two different things but he thought it was the same thing....

anyway, if someone else could please give him a gentle nudge.....

[D2D]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

anyway, if someone else could please give him a gentle nudge.....

How about a big group hug?

[mookie1995]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

oh baby don't it feel like heaven right now
don't it feel like something from a dream

[Snively65]

oh baby don't it feel like heaven right now
don't it feel like something from a dream

Less than 3.0 points separation not much for near the top of this chart?

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

I apologize for the long delay, but I will have the Final Four (or, Frozen Four?? ) up shortly. I should preface the rankings that they are through the end of the 2016-2017 season and do not include any 2017-2018 results. Stay tuned...

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

#4 – Denver Pioneers
Points: 413.4035 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: 47.6355 (Rank: 1)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 59.5618 (Rank: 2)
Last Season Ranking: #6

By all measures, the Pioneers had a very successful season, culminating in winning the National Championship 3-2 over UMD. Along the way they won the NCHC regular season title with 59 points, tying the conference record set the year before. Their record when leading after the first and second periods was 41-0-2. Although they graduated eight seniors, the only big loss was Hobey Baker winner Will Butcher. Everyone else returns, including coach Jim Montgomery, who turned down an offer to go to the NHL. Denver is the heavy favorite to repeat as national champs. – Siouxfaninseattle

#3 – Minnesota Golden Gophers
Points: 444.5372 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: 4.1891 (Rank: 7)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 33.4809 (Rank: 7)
Last Season Ranking: #3

Minnesota maintains its #3 position. The Gophers won the Big Ten Regular Season title, their NCAA record sixth consecutive regular season title. Indeed, only Minnesota even knows what it is like to win the B1G Regular Season championship. The Gophers fell to eventual Frozen Four entrant, Notre Dame, in the Regional Semifinals, and ended their 2016-2017 campaign with a 23-12-3 record. Coach Don Lucia returns behind the bench for Minnesota, his 19th season in charge of the Maroon and Gold. The Gophers return an experienced netminder in Eric Schierhorn, along with leading scorer Tyler Sheehy, and stud recruit Casey Mittelstadt. Minnesota will look to bring more hardware back to 3M Arena this campaign, and they may need to if they wish to hold off hard-charging Denver. - Fighting Sioux 23

#2 – Michigan Wolverines
Points: 504.2659 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: -0.8752 (Rank: 60)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 12.1605 (Rank: 14)
Last Season Ranking: #2

Michigan struggled in 2016-2017, going 13-19-1 in legendary coach Red Berenson's final season. Their 13 wins were the program's fewest since 1985-1986, Berenson's second season in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines have now missed the NCAA Tournament in 4 of the last 5 years, but will look to rebound in 2017-2018. The U of M does return its top 5 scorers and experience in net. If the Wolverines can get back to their winning ways and bring home some hardware, they should push North Dakota for the #1 spot in these rankings. - Fighting Sioux 23

#1 – North Dakota Fighting Hawks
Points: 507.9874 Points
Points Earned in 2016-2017: 1.1858 (Rank: 14)
Points Earned in Past Five Seasons: 68.0516 (Rank: 1)
Last Season Ranking: #1

North Dakota had its share of ups and downs in 2016-2017, but once again found its way to the NCAA Tournament for a school record 15th consecutive season. UND fell to Boston University in double overtime in the Regional Semifinals after a controversial no-goal call in the first overtime after the Hawks appeared to score the game winner. North Dakota failed to make the Regional Final for the first time since 2010, and did not bring home any hardware for only the second time in the past 15 seasons. North Dakota lost three underclassmen who went straight to the NHL in Brock Boeser, Tyson Jost, and Tucker Poolman. UND does bring in another strong recruiting class, and the Hawks will look to bring home some hardware this season to try and maintain their #1 spot in these rankings. - Fighting Sioux 23

[D2D]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

Thanks for doing this once again, Fighting Sioux 23.

[Fighting Sioux 23]

Re: The Greatest Programs of All-Time: #1 - #60

Thought I'd give a quick update here before today's games.

Michigan - Likely will take over the #1 spot after this season. The biggest question will be how big will their lead be?
Minnesota Duluth - They have a shot at cracking the Top 10 if they win their second national title.
Notre Dame - Should crack the Top 20 with a national title.
Ohio State - A championship would likely push the Buckeyes into the Top 25.