LSSU Lakers 2014-15

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

When Roque took over from Anzalone he had Anzalone's recruits and Roque actually had his best two years with those recruits. Whitton has taken over with Roque's recruits and has had a very poor season. Roque had a better team going in with and we all thought that would give him an advantage to right the program but Whitton has to start from scatch pretty much and that is going to make it a longer time to rebuild .

[John J. MacInnes]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

You guys do know his name is spelled "Whitten" with an E, not "Whitton" with an O, right?

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

You guys do know his name is spelled "Whitten" with an E, not "Whitton" with an O, right?

O ..E..all we care about at this point is Ws...and Ls

[John J. MacInnes]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

O ..E..all we care about at this point is Ws...and Ls

Well played. I laughed.

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

Yeah, it had me fooled, too. I realized that it wasn't anything close to official the night that Roque got fired.

Michael and I used to run @uahhockey. After we got into a Twitter "war" with folks in Bemidji — all of us were laughing about it — the University asked us for the keys to the account. Shoot, our players didn't realize that it wasn't the University's account. It's painless to change usernames, and they gave me a temporary login for theirs to do it. That LSSU doesn't realize that they can push for the username change worries me a bit.

GFM

Geof, can you elaborate on that a bit. From what I saw on the @LakeStateHockey account before I was blocked (and actually under a prior username for that account), it looked like LSSU (the AD) had pushed Twitter to force a name change for this user, maybe even more than once.

[gfmorris]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

You guys do know his name is spelled "Whitten" with an E, not "Whitton" with an O, right?

So what if Morris Day and the Time is the house band of Laker hockey?

GFM

[gfmorris]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

Geof, can you elaborate on that a bit. From what I saw on the @LakeStateHockey account before I was blocked (and actually under a prior username for that account), it looked like LSSU (the AD) had pushed Twitter to force a name change for this user, maybe even more than once.

The University pushed Twitter to force a name change, but the school was complaining about the display name and not the username, which is the wrong thinking on my part. When UAH complained to us — as I was sure that they eventually would —*we quickly came up with "weloveuahhockey". What's funny to me is that more people reference us than the official account despite the name change. The person behind @LakeStateHockey was afraid that they'd lose all of their users if they changed. Jiminy.

GFM

[Lakers-88-92-94]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

The University pushed Twitter to force a name change, but the school was complaining about the display name and not the username, which is the wrong thinking on my part. When UAH complained to us — as I was sure that they eventually would —*we quickly came up with "weloveuahhockey". What's funny to me is that more people reference us than the official account despite the name change. The person behind @LakeStateHockey was afraid that they'd lose all of their users if they changed. Jiminy. GFM

The school pushed for them to change their display name from "Laker Hockey" since they were negative towards the program and the entire university. There was a time when the university didn't mind them representing the Lakers, but once they turned it into all-out Jim Roque pity party and rag on Kris Dunbar/hate Whitten for being Roque's replacement, I think the athletic department realized they needed to distance themselves. Plus with the way college hockey relies so heavily on Twitter (more so it seems than other social media), Laker Hockey needed to be represented properly in the eyes of the public and potential recruits.
the other account provides some amusement I guess, but they seem to mostly be negative on anything and everything so I don't bother to follow them. It is nice that they can comment on commits, whereas the school can't comment unless someone is officially signed. I just hope their vitriol doesn't cause any potential recruits to second guess the program.

[jnacc]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

When Roque took over from Anzalone he had Anzalone's recruits and Roque actually had his best two years with those recruits. Whitton has taken over with Roque's recruits and has had a very poor season. Roque had a better team going in with and we all thought that would give him an advantage to right the program but Whitton has to start from scatch pretty much and that is going to make it a longer time to rebuild .

Too bad Anzalone had to self destruct because he had the program going in the right direction after a few loooong years in the wilderness...Roque was a very good assistant/recruiter for Frank and together they would have turned the program around to a level where Tech and the Bulldogs are today. Anzalone though, just couldn't help himself in finding trouble and Roque just never had the ability to be a head coach...I still blame Crawford for hiring Jimmy without a full search, interviewing other candidates and vetting process...it nearly killed the program...and who knows maybe it has.

Whitten inherited a terrible terrible team, much like Anzalone did his 2nd time around and it will take a few years to show any meaningful progress but if no progress is realized in year 3, does anybody think this team will be around for year 4 or 5??

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

Too bad Anzalone had to self destruct because he had the program going in the right direction after a few loooong years in the wilderness...Roque was a very good assistant/recruiter for Frank and together they would have turned the program around to a level where Tech and the Bulldogs are today. Anzalone though, just couldn't help himself in finding trouble and Roque just never had the ability to be a head coach...I still blame Crawford for hiring Jimmy without a full search, interviewing other candidates and vetting process...it nearly killed the program...and who knows maybe it has.

Whitten inherited a terrible terrible team, much like Anzalone did his 2nd time around and it will take a few years to show any meaningful progress but if no progress is realized in year 3, does anybody think this team will be around for year 4 or 5??

I expect to see meaningful progress by year 3, and even some progress by year 2, but even for year 3 we'll only be at a point where we have Damon's first 2 true recruiting classes in the lineup and they'll be sophomores and freshmen. I'd give him a year longer than you to see what he can do with the program, but I think we'll see results to our liking before that amount of time.

By the way, The Omaha AAA U16 team won the NAPHL championship today, and we have two commits from that team headed our way in 2 or 3 years

[jnacc]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

I expect to see meaningful progress by year 3, and even some progress by year 2, but even for year 3 we'll only be at a point where we have Damon's first 2 true recruiting classes in the lineup and they'll be sophomores and freshmen. I'd give him a year longer than you to see what he can do with the program, but I think we'll see results to our liking before that amount of time.

By the way, The Omaha AAA U16 team won the NAPHL championship today, and we have two commits from that team headed our way in 2 or 3 years

Certainly do not expect to see the program challenging for a NCAA tourney appearance and league title in year 3 but I do expect to see much better results...as are the remaining fans of this team. Sorry but this program cannot do another 5 year run of losing and expect to survive, it has to show results. The number of paid attendance so far is not enough to keep the program viable, attendance has to increase and I'm sure that it will but Whitten has to start delivering some goods by year 3.

[gfmorris]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

Y'all, if Mike Corbett take last year's UAH team from 2-35-1 to the team that progressed to eight wins and took three points in the Soo just a couple of days ago, all is not lost. Our program was virtually dead.

GFM

[blackswampboy]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

Y'all, if Mike Corbett take last year's UAH team from 2-35-1 to the team that progressed to eight wins and took three points in the Soo just a couple of days ago, all is not lost. Our program was virtually dead.

GFM

heh.

and if C. Bergeron can take BG from 5-25-6 in 2009-2010...
our program was virtually dead.

looking forward to seeing Laker hockey revitalized, and the roquettes disappear.

[jnacc]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

Y'all, if Mike Corbett take last year's UAH team from 2-35-1 to the team that progressed to eight wins and took three points in the Soo just a couple of days ago, all is not lost. Our program was virtually dead.

GFM

I would expect a more competitive Laker squad next season, and I'd expect to see a Laker squad in year 3 fighting tooth and nail for a .500 record....I still have hope but after so many false springs, I for one cannot take any more losing seasons during Whitten's 4th and 5th season as coach....and Lake State is simply too small of a school to bear much more fan apathy.

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014-15

It's talent and the Lakers have a very limited pool of it. Lakers have not loss 23 games because the bounces didn't go their way . They have lost 23 games so far because of a very limited team with talent. Whittens number one goal is to recruit a higher level of talent and regardless who has been recruited so far, we have no idea if they will be able to compete at this level until they step out on the ice . I am sure Whitten is more frustrated than we are and I am also sure a few players that we all thought would step up this year, have done very little in that direction .