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UNH- How Far West Do We Go?

You wonder how quick of a “hook” UML will have with Bazin. He seems to be following a bit of the Umile arc (someone else mentioned it here before, I think Chuck?) albeit his “golden age” was far shorter than Umile. A great coach for most of the 2010s and a few HE titles to boot. He has a lot to be proud of during his tenure at the helm, especially leading a school/program that was historically not very good in HE. As HR noted though, he hasn’t had much success in the big dance.

With his past track record, I think he will get a bit more time, although I don’t know what his contract situation looks like.

If UML moves on from Bazin soon, and UNH continues to stick with MS7, that will be a very sad indictment on UNH, and a true sign of how we have come to accept mediocrity as the new norm…
Bazin’s latest 5-year contract extends through the 2026/27 season. His last 5-year contract paid him $540k for the 2021/22 season. Could not find anything online about size of latest 5-year contract.
 
Speaking on the renovations, why hasn’t the university had any recent publicity on this? They had a lot 1-2 years again when it was first announced, But nothing since?! Why keep this under wraps?

Optics.

With the school navigating a significant financial crisis and, according to a conversation with a UNH professor yesterday, another round of $30m cuts is imminent. This will significantly impact faculty in the classroom.

Not a good look for UNH to promote $19.3 in arena upgrades for an under performing hockey team when budget is being cut across academic departments.
 
Great UML and UNH are (hopefully) potentially looking for a coach at the same time.
Bazin would be a major upgrade from MS7, if he were let go, and was so inclined to take a pay cut into the $300K's to come work as HC for a rival HEA school.

Having said that ... I'm pretty sure Lowell would offer him a fallback option in their Athletics Department somewhere, as opposed to totally cutting ties.
 
Already there.

In the lobby, right on the wall connected to Snively, there is BIG display of what the upgrades will look like.
My big question is, do we actually think they will start next week? I imagine the plans have been in place for some time (I haven’t been to the Whitt in a bit unfortunately, so I don’t know how long this display has been there).

Especially with regard to your other comment about more imminent budget cuts, I wonder if the optics of that will force a delay of sorts. The $19.7m is earmarked for renovations and I can’t imagine they legally could redistribute things around, but I agree the optics of it may really piss some people off (similarly along the lines of the football scoreboard a number of years ago). But again… this is mostly private money so there’s nothing UNH could likely do even if they wanted to regarding moving things around.

Regarding raising money for the state. I saw this article a couple of days ago. Money will mostly go to the turnpike system, but I imagine some will go to the general budget and maybe find its way to the university system. I think this will face major opposition in the house/governors desk, not to mention pissing off a lot of out of state people simply using 95 to get to Maine etc… looks to raise 30-70m in the next couple of years.

 
Great UML and UNH are (hopefully) potentially looking for a coach at the same time.
I sure hope not! But I wouldn’t be surprised if Bazin is given a bit of a leash, maybe with another 2-3 year contract - again given his past success.

Looking underneath the hood a bit more, yes Bazin hasn’t been his old self the last couple of years, BUT the last place finish in 23-24 was heavily driven by many many major injuries (can’t control those too much). Last years 7th, place, but they finished .500 overall with OOC record.

Going back to 21-22, he finished 3rd, and then 22-23 they finished 5th, so right in the top/middle of the pack.

We will see how they do next year. UML made some big gambles with a lot of CHLers and it didn’t pay off for them very well. Let’s see how Bazin counters next year…
 
And the UML position pays double what the UNH one does.
Well.... yes and... UNH is currently paying for what they get

In 2008 when the Whitt was full and the team was on a run Umile made $382k. That is about $575k in todays dollars. So UNH has paid an equivalent rate when they were getting the extra about $1.5M+ in todays $$ from a full building and had a top flight coach.

If I had to guess Bazin has been running on a series of 5 year contracts. So he landed at a new contract in 2016-2017 right at the end of a run that was 4 NCAAs in 5 years, 1 Frozen 4, 1 Regular Season Title and 2 HE Tournament titles. (I am assuming the 2016-17 year was after the contact was all signed, it might have been signed after 2013-14) Want to boost your contract, that is the time to do it. That is what Umile did to get the 2008 pay out.
 
My big question is, do we actually think they will start next week? I imagine the plans have been in place for some time (I haven’t been to the Whitt in a bit unfortunately, so I don’t know how long this display has been there).

Especially with regard to your other comment about more imminent budget cuts, I wonder if the optics of that will force a delay of sorts. The $19.7m is earmarked for renovations and I can’t imagine they legally could redistribute things around, but I agree the optics of it may really piss some people off (similarly along the lines of the football scoreboard a number of years ago). But again… this is mostly private money so there’s nothing UNH could likely do even if they wanted to regarding moving things around.
I share your sense of doubt on this issue, FU17. I agree with the Grouch that optics at this point is likely a big consideration over in Thompson Hall, so an all-out media blitz (lol) on this topic was always going to be extremely unlikely. With the long gap since the original announcement a couple of years ago, I'll be pessimistic until such time as we see work crews on site doing actual work. A further delay would not surprise me in the slightest. Disappointed? Yes.

Regarding raising money for the state. I saw this article a couple of days ago. Money will mostly go to the turnpike system, but I imagine some will go to the general budget and maybe find its way to the university system. I think this will face major opposition in the house/governors desk, not to mention pissing off a lot of out of state people simply using 95 to get to Maine etc… looks to raise 30-70m in the next couple of years.

I saw this one in yesterday's UL. The Senate passed it, despite the Governor's objections. It's an election year, and I suspect she would not want to veto this measure if it clears both the Senate and House, no matter that some flatlanders to the south may be displeased, as this would be a wildly popular measure with the NH populace, who tolerate the obnoxious presence of those city slickers only because it keeps the tourism dollars flowing into the Lakes Region and the North Country.

Fun Facts for those who are not aware ... tolls over the Tobin Bridge (Rte. 1 north of Boston) charges out of state drivers much more than resident Ma$$holes pay to get in AND out of their favorite he11hole, so this concept of a premium toll charge to non-residents would hardly be unprecedented. Further example is the Tappan Zee/Mario Cuomo NYC bypass north of the city, which does the same as the Tobin with premium charges to out of state drivers. NH tolls are still relatively tame compared to everywhere else, ranging from $0.75 per car at the Hampton/Rte. 101 tolls off Rte. 95, and the same charges at Dover and Rochester along the Spaulding/Rte. 16 ... moving up to $1.00 per car in Merrimack (DW Highway) and at Hooksett (Rte. 93) ... and topping off at $2.00 per car staying on Rte. 95 in Hampton. Doubling all of those for out of staters probably only registers to a degree for the Rte. 95 crowd, but most of those folks will already be paying about the same amount again if they're continuing on until the Portland area.

The undisputed kings of "hostage tolls" reside in Delaware, where if you are coming from/going to the swamps of the Potomac to the swamps of New Jersey (and beyond), and wish to skirt the unpleasantness of the slog through Philly, the good folks of Delaware will charge you approx. $10/each way for the great privilege of navigating their nondescript and anti-scenic 25 mile gap between Maryland and the Delaware Memorial Bridge into South Jersey. Yowzah ...
 
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