UNH Hockey 2023 Off Season Thread Turn and Face the Strange

[norbert]

Good stuff. Thanks! Any additional thoughts or comments, even mundane behind-the-scenes stuff is appreciated.

There is no reason a friends type organization can’t exist for hockey as it does for football. https://twitter.com/UNHCatClub. AD Rich, Coach Santos, UNH Athletics and many more UNHers follow them on Twitter so clearly there is a good relationship with UNH Athletics. People need to step up and volunteer (hint).

edit: There are reasons such an organization can’t exist. One reason would be the inability or unwillingness of the organization to communicate and work with the Athletic department and their development staff.

The portal is also a big factor across the landscape. It has provided an opportunity for kids to easily move, especially with the removal of the 1 year penalty for transferring. Additionally there is Cost of Attendence and Alston money out there that some schools are able to offer and it is not something UNH among many other HE schools do not do. The expectations is that the portal will drop in numbers as the Covid year goes away.

[HockeyRef]

The portal is also a big factor across the landscape. It has provided an opportunity for kids to easily move, especially with the removal of the 1 year penalty for transferring. Additionally there is Cost of Attendence and Alston money out there that some schools are able to offer and it is not something UNH among many other HE schools do not do. The expectations is that the portal will drop in numbers as the Covid year goes away.

So after your meeting what's your view on UNH now? Do you still.feel the current HC has many valid points regarding how the team fares / has fared since he took over? Does the current HC deserve a pass?

Ps Did you ask him if he expected to be around in 2024?

[Snively65]

So after your meeting what's your view on UNH now? Do you still.feel the current HC has many valid points regarding how the team fares / has fared since he took over? Does the current HC deserve a pass?

Ps Did you ask him if he expected to be around in 2024?

Sounds like MS7 is now highlighting his latest excuses in not having as fancy training facilities as the other HEA teams. Should be good for at least another contract extension through the 2026/27 season.

[HockeyRef]

Sounds like MS7 is now highlighting his latest excuses in not having as fancy training facilities as the other HEA teams. Should be good for at least another contract extension through the 2026/27 season.

My thoughts exactly....

[norbert]

So after your meeting what's your view on UNH now? Do you still.feel the current HC has many valid points regarding how the team fares / has fared since he took over? Does the current HC deserve a pass?

Ps Did you ask him if he expected to be around in 2024?

Based on today I think there is a significant uphill climb but it is not from lack of effort. There is a lot more behind just what we see that factors in. One point of emphasis I made was these are the items, fundraising, portal impact, ect that would be beneficial to pass along to give STH at a minimum insight.

We did not get into contract talk but he was very personable, forthcoming with information he can talk about, and transparent. As for a pass, that is tough as at the end of the day no matter the sport or the school results do matter.

[norbert]

Sounds like MS7 is now highlighting his latest excuses in not having as fancy training facilities as the other HEA teams. Should be good for at least another contract extension through the 2026/27 season.

I don't really think these are excuses, but a reality that must be factored in when recruiting. The other facilities that I saw were pro level and do make an impact, which is also what the guys I talked to said. For example, kids need to practice, then walk to the field house, then back to the Whit. Where for as much of a dump Lawler is, kids can do this all in one facility, walk down for treatment, jump in a hot tub, grab food and go. They were not presented as excuses and it is understood that this is the hand dealt.

[Felger]

I don't really think these are excuses, but a reality that must be factored in when recruiting. The other facilities that I saw were pro level and do make an impact, which is also what the guys I talked to said. For example, kids need to practice, then walk to the field house, then back to the Whit. Where for as much of a dump Lawler is, kids can do this all in one facility, walk down for treatment, jump in a hot tub, grab food and go. They were not presented as excuses and it is understood that this is the hand dealt.

I consider myself pretty aware of the college hockey universe, but I must admit I was shocked when I watched Ben Barr's fundraising video and saw how far behind Maine also is in terms of facilities. I mean, when Merrimack has a lounge and Maine doesn't? Credit to Barr and his colleague for taking that empty space and doing something with it, but honestly the attic bedroom that Greg and Marcia Brady fought over might have been better. Should such facilities matter to players/recruiting as much as it does? A lot of us on this board might think it shouldn't, but some of us also think there shouldn't be a portal or NIL. Yet wishing doesn't make it so, it is the world live in today.

[NCAA watcher]

The portal is also a big factor across the landscape. It has provided an opportunity for kids to easily move, especially with the removal of the 1 year penalty for transferring.

The portal is mentioned a lot, along with the NLI, but I'm not sure how this is a structural disadvantage to UNH. It's basically recruiting continued after the players commit, but with players having more info on the actual option. My question is why are UNH players like Carfagna and Dunlop leaving after having seen UNH in person. Is it a Big 10 lure, is it the lure of a more successful program, or is it simply a "more money" lure?

Trying to look at the HE landscape, I don't necessarily see any "better conference" lure factors that you could say X left a top HE team (BU, BC, etc) to get to the Big 10, or even Y left a mid-level HE team to get to a mid-level Big 10 team. The closest I come is Logan Terness at U.Conn moving on to Ohio State. Maybe Ellis of U.Mass leaving for Nebraska-Omaha. But you also see some purges like Northeastern and U.Mass where it seems like the coach is casting the players off, rather than it being the players choosing to move on (thinking of Dyck also leaving U.Mass TBD, and Colangelo at Northeastern leaving to Western Mich, Jack Hughes TBD) In other words, I don't see a "move on to a better conference" factor or even "more NLI money" issue within HE (which is why I was curious about if he believes HE is less competitive than in the past)

That leaves "moving on to better/more competitive teams" which seems like the real driving force behind the portal movement I am seeing. But that just mirrors what recruiting is done in the first place, with players wanting to commit to the better teams. Which bring me to the original question, why is the Portal an excuse, rather than a symptom of an issue at UNH, i.e., players want to move upstream, and view UNH as downsteam?

[HockeyRef]

I don't really think these are excuses, but a reality that must be factored in when recruiting. The other facilities that I saw were pro level and do make an impact, which is also what the guys I talked to said. For example, kids need to practice, then walk to the field house, then back to the Whit. Where for as much of a dump Lawler is, kids can do this all in one facility, walk down for treatment, jump in a hot tub, grab food and go. They were not presented as excuses and it is understood that this is the hand dealt.

So agree that facilities matter...and I do believe they impact where a player might play. There is no doubt that Mike is highly personable and has UNHs interest first and foremost that has never been a doubt.

Now I guess we can just move on and be happy...

[Snively65]

So agree that facilities matter...and I do believe they impact where a player might play. There is no doubt that Mike is highly personable and has UNHs interest first and foremost that has never been a doubt.

Now I guess we can just move on and be happy...

No, we cannot move on and be happy. The portal, NIL, facilities (hey, we have a Jumbotron!), etc., are just lame excuses for a total fail in recruiting and coaching over the past eight years. Pure and simple.

[Chuck Murray]

No, we cannot move on and be happy. The portal, NIL, facilities (hey, we have a Jumbotron!), etc., are just lame excuses for a total fail in recruiting and coaching over the past eight years. Pure and simple.

With you 110%, Snives. Sounds like a rehash of the same old excuses and justifications.

Are we simply to believe that Merrimack has overtaken us because they have a players' lounge??

[NCAA watcher]

Not to be to cynical, because of course I'm not cynical, but are we to believe Carfagna committed to UNH believing it had a players lounge, became a super prospect in his two years in the USHL (third-team USHL), still chose to attend UNH (apparently not yet finding out the pictures of the players lounge were doctored), became a near all-HE freshman member, and then chose to exit. All because he realized he'd been duped about having to walk from the weight room to rink.

Or was it that he gained strong affinity for his junior coach who brought him to the USHL championship, and so the ability to play for a coach he likes was appealing, combined with the fact that UNH is now on year 8 of 8th, 9th, 10th and last place finishes?

And are we to believe NH native Jamie Dunlop also was unaware of the UNH facilities? Or is it more plausible that Dunlop wanted to play for a successful program, so committed to U.Mass, until his junior play had U.Mass sour on him and cause him to de-commit. He then began to rehabilitate his status in his 20 year old junior year, and found someone willing to take a chance on him, the home-state team. Then he broke out the rest of his 20 year old USHL season, and combined with a promising freshman year at UNH he was again in a position to move upward to a successful program.

Which is why I wondered if one can attribute these two to "I want to play in the Big 10, and not HE" vs. something specific to UNH.

Either way, complaining about the fact that both players were not shackled to UNH and are now free to choose where they want to play seems.......curious? Hence, my surprise that the "portal" is now being cited as a cause of UNH's situation, rather than a symptom of UNH's situation.

Norbert, I'd love to hear how this was presented, to see if my cynicism is misplaced.
Also, which Unis' facilities were compared? I'm sure one can cherry pick successful teams and their facilities, but how does that track for other teams with comparable facilities being able to overcome that. Barr at Maine comes to mind. Northeastern has an old rink, but I assume better guts inside?

[HockeyRef]

No, we cannot move on and be happy. The portal, NIL, facilities (hey, we have a Jumbotron!), etc., are just lame excuses for a total fail in recruiting and coaching over the past eight years. Pure and simple.

I am being SARCASTIC.....

[Chuck Murray]

Based on today I think there is a significant uphill climb but it is not from lack of effort. There is a lot more behind just what we see that factors in.

I dunno, honestly just reading your account of Souza's comments, it feels like just more of the usual excuses.

I don't doubt he's put a lot of effort into the job. But if he's not focusing on the right things, the effort is wasted.

One point of emphasis I made was these are the items, fundraising, portal impact, ect that would be beneficial to pass along to give STH at a minimum insight.

We can now gauge whether there are improvements made going forward in any of these areas from where they are right now. It's interesting though to observe that while Coach Umile wasn't outwardly a guy noted for his communication skills, he recognized the importance of FOH as part of the program's success, and even protected it when he was in a position to do so. This is a relatively easy fix for MS7, let's see what he does.

And when I say "relatively easy fix", I'm referring to improving communications overall. The hard part - and what would be impressive to me - would be Souza and/or Rich both stepping up and extending an olive branch to the folks at FOH and FOWH, who got shredded and deep-sixed by BS35+ for their extensive and selfless volunteering efforts with the slightest of care and decency. Otherwise, setting up a new FOH/FOWH would be setting up a captive organization basically answering directly to Rich, which I don't think is either necessary OR appropriate.

We did not get into contract talk but he was very personable, forthcoming with information he can talk about, and transparent. As for a pass, that is tough as at the end of the day no matter the sport or the school results do matter.

It's precisely MS7's ability to blow through/set aside the nitty-gritty of tough questioning with his personal charm that worries me most about chances for a further extension. That personal charm should be a weapon in his favor when out on the recruiting trails ... but the problem there is, there are a lot of very personable guys he's up against from other programs AND they all have better records (W-L and player development) than Souza has. And there is a cottage industry of player advisors whose existence is based almost entirely on being able to weed through the pros and cons of those various destinations for the benefit of their player/family clients.

MS7 needs to elevate his reputation there to have any chance at attracting the best players. And unless he can suddenly demonstrate an ability to elevate nondescript players into quality future pros, that's unlikely to happen.

Thanks for giving it a shot, norbert.

[HockeyRef]

With you 110%, Snives. Sounds like a rehash of the same old excuses and justifications.

Are we simply to believe that Merrimack has overtaken us because they have a players' lounge??

Absolutely not.

I don't think it's to anyone's surprise that these things that the hockey program wants, are really, needs but NOT the reason they are in the state they are in.
So what are we looking at now? Getting the funds up to build the stuff asked for, and, needed...then what? Another 5 years of what?

Also, STH's are well aware of what Souza's main concern is, the facilities suck, I can't recruit with these facilities, etc. This isn't new. Coaches with alot
less have done well without a hot tub at every locker stall. Again...I agree that things need major improvement at the 'Whitt.

I remember Marty saying that despite Umile's last couple of seasons, it is the 'body of work' that one has to look at and admire (which I agree) so if you look
at the current HC's 'body of work'...what can you say about it? Heck, I wanted, still want to see Souza succeed, always have.

Personally I think some good recruits are coming our way (at least, from what I see from them). Guess once the facilities are upgraded, more will come, right? Kind of
like 'Field of Dreams'...if you build it, they will come...might only be true in a movie. Guess that remains to be seen...