BU 2020-21 Season: The Road to … Nowhere?

[Friend_of_BU_Hockey]

Who goes from Boston to Houghton, Michigan? Especially someone from Andover. It's not like he grew up in a rural environment and wants to return to the sticks.

DeBoer to Niagara makes sense. He's a fourth liner at BU. He'll be a top-two line guy there.

Instead of graduating with a degree from Boston University, Quercia will now have a degree from Michigan Tech.

I wonder what (if any) other schools Quercia was seeking to transfer to...Or if MTU was truly his best (or only) option from a hockey and/or academic standpoint...

[Harry Cleverly]

Mike McMahon Tweets "Sounds like BU F Matthew Quercia is heading west out of the transfer portal. Told Michigan Tech is the spot. He'll be entering his senior season."

Who goes from Boston to Houghton, Michigan? Especially someone from Andover. It's not like he grew up in a rural environment and wants to return to the sticks.

DeBoer to Niagara makes sense. He's a fourth liner at BU. He'll be a top-two line guy there.

[Terrier86]

What are people's opinions about BU roster composition of 18-20 year old freshmen (i.e. the old fashioned way) versus the latest trends in older freshmen (i.e. 21-22 year olds that are around 25 years old in their Junior/Senior season)?

A) only recruit 18-20 year old freshmen
B) only recruit 21-22 year olds
C) have a 50-50 mix
D) some sort of other mix

I think if the goal is to win and get the fan base excited for in-game attendance and alumni giving, it has to at least be "C" above.

Thoughts?

[brassbonanza]

North Dakota has announced out of conference schedule and BU is not listed

The list of schools I heard was "over the next 4 to 5 years."

[ericredaxe]

Is Denver last "well-known" program to come to Agganis? 17-18.

Minnesota State and Northern Michigan are the two western teams that have visited in that timeframe (Minnesota state the same year) Not sure if they are considered “well known” but both were fairly well ranked and certainly good OOC games as it would relate to the pairwise rankings.

Arizona State also came... new so maybe not well known but also a good game against a ranked team for PWR considerations... and interesting to see a new opponent.

[cridge]

Is Denver last "well-known" program to come to Agganis? 17-18.

[DLG]

North Dakota has announced out of conference schedule and BU is not listed

[brassbonanza]

I believe I remember the Gophers are coming to town this year.

Prior to Covid, I'd heard from multiple places the following teams were lined up for home and homes over the next 4-5 years:
Return trip to NMU
Minnesota (were supposed to go there this past year and them here in 21-22)
St. Cloud
ASU to open their new arena
Potentially North Dakota

I assume that would be in addition to the usual slate of random ECAC/AHA games.
I don't know if Belfast is still going to be a thing, but I know there was mutual agreement after the first one that BU would want to go back.
We're slated for Cornell @ MSG this fall, don't know what the status of that is.
A couple of years back I'd heard talk of BU looking at that Vegas holiday tournament.

Overall, pretty good. Who knows how much of that is still on the table.

[Harry Cleverly]

Well, Maine does have an opening!

Will they finally hire Jim Montgomery, or is he entrenched in the NHL? Maine is not a big payer, so they would need to open their checkbook.

[Rogie21]

Mike McMahon Tweets "Sounds like BU F Matthew Quercia is heading west out of the transfer portal. Told Michigan Tech is the spot. He'll be entering his senior season."

DeBoer tweeted that he's headed to Niagara.

[J.D.]

Is the transfer portal just for players or can head coaches transfer as well?

Well, Maine does have an opening!

[Rover]

Is the transfer portal just for players or can head coaches transfer as well?

[Rogie21]

Mike McMahon Tweets "Sounds like BU F Matthew Quercia is heading west out of the transfer portal. Told Michigan Tech is the spot. He'll be entering his senior season."

[Sean Pickett]

Also don't understand why we play teams twice when they come in with all the local teams available
Obviously have to play two when we travel out west due to distance

Bingo! The western teams have to travel so they want to play two games when they come east. In the past BU has worked with other teams to create a four year scheduling agreement where 2 western team comes east twice to play BU/partner both seasons while BU and their partner each go west to play two games at each western team once over the four seasons. Its great, but a lot of work to schedule. It's much easier to just schedule a 2 game home-and-home series. And the arrangement is still likely tougher on the western team, having to face two different opponents (not something they usually do), some travel, and maybe facing a rested team (Wisconsin played at BC and then MC in 2019-20, but had not partner, so BC and MC both played only one game that weekend). The last time I recall BU having a partner was in 2014-15 through 2017-18 when BU and BC hosted DU twice and DU hosted BU and BC once each, but DU had no partner when they came east. BU and BC both scheduled a game for the Friday before the Saturday they year they hosted DU, so they would not be rested (unlike MC in 2019), but that requires trust on the part of the western team. Immediately before that BU/UML scheduled a 2 year 1 game home-and-home arrangement with Michigan/MSU were BU/UML had to travel between Ann Arbor and East Lansing while Michigan/MSU traveled between Boston and Lowell. BU has scheduled a three year agreement with Michigan from 2007-08 through 2009-10, but I don't see that happening again. In fact I'm not even sure how Coach Parker got Coach Berenson to agree to it since Michigan came to Boston just to play BU for one game twice (and Coach Berenson scheduled Niagara at home 2 days before both seasons, so Michigan had to play a game, then travel to play a very good BU team on the road. That was a very unfavorable schedule for Michigan).

Sean

[buoldtimer]

Do we have any insight into next year's schedule
I saw on another thread that Alaska might be coming
Also I think we owe Northern Michigan two games out there

A couple of years ago I spoke to Albie and Drew (AD) about the lack of brand name teams coming in
Drew indicated that they were talking to Minnesota and Wisconsin
Also don't understand why we play teams twice when they come in with all the local teams available
Obviously have to play two when we travel out west due to distance
Imagine that travel might still be impacted somewhat for next fall

So, you want brand name teams to come into HAA, but you'd rather play them once, not twice. You're a tough person to please.