UNH 2020 Off-Season Thread: That Rinky-Shrinky Thang And Other Lively Banter :D

[Darius]

It is hard to think other than one and done, if we even play. Why do I suggest that? No idea, although HEA not having a playoff schedule posted is odd.

I was searching “college softball television” today which is an indication of where I am at. Didn’t find anything. Dan?

[Sean Pickett]

So here's a quick recap of the Who's Who of HEA Coaching, broken out into three tiers:

Transformative: *York (BC), Leaman (PC), *Madigan (NU), Carvel (UMass - latest entry)
On The Bubble: *Bazin (UML - trending down?); O'Connell (BU - TBD); Woodcroft (UVM - TBD)
Long Term Mediocrity: *Canaan (UConn); *Borek (MC); Gendron (UMaine); *MS7 (UNH)

Instead of being a snarky d-bag, why don't you post and tell me how I'm wrong about your guy?

I think it is too soon to evaluate the coaching of Coaches O'Connell, Woodcroft (both which you show as TBD), Borek and Souza (however, early returns don't look promising), especially as you put Coach Madigan in the transformative group. After three seasons Coach Madigan was only slightly better than Coach Souza and behind Coach O'Connell, as well as behind Coach Carvel after five seasons. Furthermore, he took 7 seasons to barely pass Coach Sneddon and and still lags behind Coaches Bazin, Leaman, and York after ten seasons.

Likewise, having Coach Bazin on the bubble and not transformative is not reflective of the facts. He has the highest cumulative winning percentage of all current Hockey East coaches (plus Sneddon) for his first ten seasons. As for postseason success, he has 2 RS titles, 3 tournament titles, 5 NCAA bids and a FF appearance. Coach Madigan has 2 tournament titles and 3 NCAA bids, while Coach Carvel has 1 RS title, 1 NCAA bid and 1 FF appearance. Below is a chart showing each of the current coaches' (plus Sneddon) cumulative winning percentage after each season to date.



Sean

[Runsub5]

Game time will either be 4:30 or 7:00 with final ruling from league.

[Felger]

Can't the four of us just dust off the Governor's Cup format and punt on the HE tourney?

[Dan]

It is hard to think other than one and done, if we even play. Why do I suggest that? No idea, although HEA not having a playoff schedule posted is odd.

I was searching “college softball television” today which is an indication of where I am at. Didn’t find anything. Dan?

A day that lacked a premier match-up I guess - highest profile would have been North Carolina/South Carolina and Oklahoma/Missouri, and both were blow outs. Also, lots of tournaments.

UNH still playing? Interesting.

Gildon +5 and 0-2-2, in his first three professional games...

[Chuck Murray]

I think it is too soon to evaluate the coaching of Coaches O'Connell, Woodcroft (both which you show as TBD), Borek and Souza (however, early returns don't look promising), especially as you put Coach Madigan in the transformative group. After three seasons Coach Madigan was only slightly better than Coach Souza and behind Coach O'Connell, as well as behind Coach Carvel after five seasons. Furthermore, he took 7 seasons to barely pass Coach Sneddon and and still lags behind Coaches Bazin, Leaman, and York after ten seasons.

Likewise, having Coach Bazin on the bubble and not transformative is not reflective of the facts. He has the highest cumulative winning percentage of all current Hockey East coaches (plus Sneddon) for his first ten seasons. As for postseason success, he has 2 RS titles, 3 tournament titles, 5 NCAA bids and a FF appearance. Coach Madigan has 2 tournament titles and 3 NCAA bids, while Coach Carvel has 1 RS title, 1 NCAA bid and 1 FF appearance. Below is a chart showing each of the current coaches' (plus Sneddon) cumulative winning percentage after each season to date.



Sean

Sean, I appreciate the thoughtful and analytical response. I struggled the most with Coach Bazin unquestionably, but the difference between my take and yours might be at least partially due to the trending of the programs in recent seasons. I've been a huge fan of Bazin on here over the years, but there has been some slippage from the program's previous highs, and the similarities to UNH's pre-Souza trend probably colored my thinking a little too strongly? Madigan, on the other hand, has moved his program steadily ahead, and maybe I'm giving him too much credit for 3 Beanpots in a row. He's also up against two high profile programs in the city, whereas Bazin is a little removed from their shadow. I'll concede that Bazin probably belongs in the transformative category as well - arguably neck-and-neck with Madigan. But Bazin's program is slipping a bit, and never quite got there nationally. If his career ended tomorrow, there's a good chance he is viewed as "Umile Light" on overall accomplishments, but gets some points back for not overstaying his welcome, which could be a long-term concern.

Souza is where he is because he had a three year head start, so lots of us up here consider he is on Year Six, and with that assumption, he starts looking more and more like the guy in Storrs that he used to work for. Borek probably suffers with UNH fans like myself from his closeness to the second half of Umile's career, which was the one that looked like the gradual fall-off we see in recent years with Bazin, so I'm probably tainted that way in my assessment of him.

Overall, we appear to agree on York and Leaman at the high end (easy ones), and with Luce and Gendron at the other end (ditto). It will be fascinating to see what BC does when Jerry decides it's time to step aside, and it would be a fun contest maybe to do a "HEA Next Coach Out" pool, as I suspect York will be preceded out the door by several other guys elsewhere.

[Sean Pickett]

Sean, I appreciate the thoughtful and analytical response. I struggled the most with Coach Bazin unquestionably, but the difference between my take and yours might be at least partially due to the trending of the programs in recent seasons. I've been a huge fan of Bazin on here over the years, but there has been some slippage from the program's previous highs, and the similarities to UNH's pre-Souza trend probably colored my thinking a little too strongly? Madigan, on the other hand, has moved his program steadily ahead, and maybe I'm giving him too much credit for 3 Beanpots in a row. He's also up against two high profile programs in the city, whereas Bazin is a little removed from their shadow. I'll concede that Bazin probably belongs in the transformative category as well - arguably neck-and-neck with Madigan. But Bazin's program is slipping a bit, and never quite got there nationally. If his career ended tomorrow, there's a good chance he is viewed as "Umile Light" on overall accomplishments, but gets some points back for not overstaying his welcome, which could be a long-term concern.

Souza is where he is because he had a three year head start, so lots of us up here consider he is on Year Six, and with that assumption, he starts looking more and more like the guy in Storrs that he used to work for. Borek probably suffers with UNH fans like myself from his closeness to the second half of Umile's career, which was the one that looked like the gradual fall-off we see in recent years with Bazin, so I'm probably tainted that way in my assessment of him.

Overall, we appear to agree on York and Leaman at the high end (easy ones), and with Luce and Gendron at the other end (ditto). It will be fascinating to see what BC does when Jerry decides it's time to step aside, and it would be a fun contest maybe to do a "HEA Next Coach Out" pool, as I suspect York will be preceded out the door by several other guys elsewhere.

Thanks for the reply. Since you brought up Coach Umile I decided to compare the first ten seasons* of your transformative coaches against him and Coach Bazin.



As you can see Coach Bazin had the best cumulative percentage for for each coaches 2nd through 8th seasons, with Coach Umile having the best for the 1st, 9th and 10th seasons. When hardware and post-season success is factored in Coach Umile had yet to win the Hockey East tournament while Coach Bazin already has 3 championships. However, as you mention Coach Bazin hasn't won the regular season title in the past four seasons, nor had post season success during that time, while Coach Umile was just a year removed from his best post-season to date (and better to come shortly). So I agree that Coach Bazin might be on a downward trajectory, but even if he is, I think he is a transformative coach. Before he took over at UML the only other coach with a winning record at the DI level was Coach Crowder, who left for NU after five seasons. At worst I see him like Coach Parker, who had a torrid start to his coaching career before a fallow decade followed by a golden decade.

Looking at all the head coaches all time in Hockey East I would say that the transformative ones were/are: Coaches York, Walsh, Bazin, Umile, Madigan, Leaman, and Carvel (although it is too soon to tell if he will be closer to Coach Umile or Coach York on the transformative scale. I'm now researching every DI head coach for the past 50 years, but just looking at the Hockey East coaches it appears that the transformative and very good ones make themselves known by the end of their fifth season). The coaches I would say were very good were: Coaches Ceglarski, Parker, Quinn, Semler, Whitehead (at Maine) and Crowder (at UML).

Sean

* Coach Carvel only has five seasons at UMass

[Chuck Murray]

. The coaches I would say were very good were: Coaches Ceglarski, Parker, Quinn, Semler, Whitehead (at Maine) and Crowder (at UML).

Semler is a stretch. His best days at UMaine were when they were still technically a D-2 start-up.

Weird seeing Parker in the "very good" category, but since you're a BU guy, you know well that he walked into a pretty good gig to start with.

Maybe someday Merrimack gets their transformative coach ... but I sense Dennehy might be as close as it ever gets, at least while I'm still here on God's green earth.

[Scott]

UNH honors senior Benton Maass on social media (and describes him as 'our NEXT senior', not FINAL)...

....and today, Captain Charlie Kelleher was honored. That's all of 'em.

[Snively65]

Breaking news! UNH will be at Alfond Arena on Wednesday. Governor must have caved in on appeal by athletic department.

An opportunity for lots of redemption.

[Chuck Murray]

Looks like Red Gendron has set UMaine's bar of expectations fairly low, in his own take on "we're just happy to be here", as it appears in the latest Bangor Daily News piece:

Wednesday will mark the first home contest all season for Maine (3-10-2), which has been playing on the road because of state regulations limiting gatherings. Maine was the only Hockey East team to not play a home game.

“We are all really excited and grateful for this opportunity,” Maine coach Red Gendron, a Berlin native, told the Bangor Daily News. “We have an attitude of gratitude.”

Tough read on the outcome ... two underperforming programs, one which will not have played in almost 3 weeks, and hasn't won a game without a shootout in over a month ... the other playing on a foreign surface (i.e. its home ice) for the first time in over a year, which has won one (1) game without a shootout in almost two months, and a coach "just happy to he here".

If MS7 can avoid airing his own "attitude of gratitude" (blech), WIS predicts:

UNH 4 UMaine 2

From his penthouse office high atop the Encore Boston Harbor Casino in picturesque Everett MA, WIS bookmaker Michel "Mikey" Nostradamus has also set a secondary line, where you can get 3:1 odds on the losing coach being relieved of his duties by Memorial Day. More adventurous bettors can get 9:1 odds on the winning coach also being relieved of his duties.

We'll be hearing more from Mikey on the Effingwoods Hockey Almanac thread after UNH's next loss ...

[Chuck Murray]

....and today, Captain Charlie Kelleher was honored. That's all of 'em.

I guess it wasn't just BvR who wasn't excited about spending any "bonus" time in Durham then.

Unless there is a miracle UNH-UVM final, they've all already played their last home game, too.

With this development, I believe there are no remaining Umile Era players left on the roster.

It also doesn't feel like this mass exodus is a ringing endorsement of his successor, either.

Can't imagine Crookshank returning to this. Wonder if Pierson is exploring other options?

If the cupboard isn't totally barren quite yet, it's looking a lot more bare than at any time I can recall in my 40+ years of following the program. Hard to think it can get much worse, but we may find out otherwise by this time next season. Ugh.

[HockeyRef]

I guess it wasn't just BvR who wasn't excited about spending any "bonus" time in Durham then.

Unless there is a miracle UNH-UVM final, they've all already played their last home game, too.

With this development, I believe there are no remaining Umile Era players left on the roster.

It also doesn't feel like this mass exodus is a ringing endorsement of his successor, either.

Can't imagine Crookshank returning to this. Wonder if Pierson is exploring other options?

If the cupboard isn't totally barren quite yet, it's looking a lot more bare than at any time I can recall in my 40+ years of following the program. Hard to think it can get much worse, but we may find out otherwise by this time next season. Ugh.

Wonder if they (departing Srs) got the 'we loved you but...time to move on...' kind of message? I don't know why they would want to stay another year if I'm being honest in the first place, anywhere, not just UNH. Of course it will be interesting to see / find out if possible (not too hard to do with HE schools) how many 2021 Seniors anywhere decide to stay that extra year? I imagine some will. Personally with the last year and a half being what it is/was...I'd be moving on too.

[NCAA watcher]

Wonder if they (departing Srs) got the 'we loved you but...time to move on...' kind of message? I don't know why they would want to stay another year if I'm being honest in the first place, anywhere, not just UNH. Of course it will be interesting to see / find out if possible (not too hard to do with HE schools) how many 2021 Seniors anywhere decide to stay that extra year? I imagine some will. Personally with the last year and a half being what it is/was...I'd be moving on too.

Here's a tweet on that

Powers, by the way, says every Sun Devil from this year's team that wants to use their fifth year at ASU will have the chance to do so.

Greg Cameron (@gregdcam)
It's a point that's been tip-toed around, largely because there's still games being played, but coaches know full well that this offseason could get messy. Here's what Arizona State head coach Greg Powers said about the upcoming summer, and how the Sun Devils are prepared for it:
article says NCAA will probably allow one-time transfer, and that when combined with 5th year for everyone, there will be a flood of players on market.

[HockeyRef]

...And with the Sr. postings (the farewells) how do we know they didn't just do that out of courtesy/expectation? Hmmm....and with your post 'Watcher could be some interesting players to be snapped up, just sayin'. All of that said UNH has quite a few slated to come in next year, if I have that right. Will be interesting!