Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

[Timothy A]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

I hope she can keep it in the 70's.......73

[ARM]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

I hope she can keep it in the 70's.......73

Add in five postseason games, and she is on pace for mid-80s. Or the Badgers could decide to slough enough games to finish second in the WCHA in order to play a league quarterfinal series and add a couple more games. No? It was worth a try.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

Add in five postseason games, and she is on pace for mid-80s. Or the Badgers could decide to slough enough games to finish second in the WCHA in order to play a league quarterfinal series and add a couple more games. No? It was worth a try.

Actually Timothy A might be the one to say Yes to #2.

IIRC, Tim's the guy who laments the 1st Round Bye when it goes the Badgers -- believing the weekend off is a disadvantage.

[Timothy A]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

Actually Timothy A might be the one to say Yes to #2.

IIRC, Tim's the guy who laments the 1st Round Bye when it goes the Badgers -- believing the weekend off is a disadvantage.

I HATE THE FIRST ROUND BYE. It deprives me of 2 games to attend. I don't think it bothers the players or the coaches too much. The issue is this league needs an 8th team badly.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

I HATE THE FIRST ROUND BYE. It deprives me of 2 games to attend. I don't think it bothers the players or the coaches too much. The issue is this league needs an 8th team badly.

As does the Men's Hockey B1G.

If the University of Illinois actually does step up & add Men's & Women's D-1 teams, it could be a very nice solution all around. But we've waiting for that for... well, forever. And of course there's no guarantee that the Illini Women would join the WCHA. But we can hope.

[Timothy A]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

As does the Men's Hockey B1G.

If the University of Illinois actually does step up & add Men's & Women's D-1 teams, it could be a very nice solution all around. But we've waiting for that for... well, forever. And of course there's no guarantee that the Illini Women would join the WCHA. But we can hope.

Would they look at the cha instead?

[Still Eeyore]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

The most likely candidate is the University of St Thomas when their athletic department moves up a division or two.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

Would they look at the cha instead?

They might. I could imagine them following Penn State's game plan. Short time as independents, then B1G for the Men's team & CHA for the Women's team.

I'm sure that the CHA would be pleased to have them, and the travel wouldn't be that much more. Just mostly East, instead of mostly West.

The most likely candidate is the University of St Thomas when their athletic department moves up a division or two.

Good point. The St. Paul location would make them good geographic fit, and undoubtedly a popular choice.

And just think. Gophers vs. Tommies: The Green Line War. Biggest thing since Millers vs. Saints.

[Still Eeyore]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

They might. I could imagine them following Penn State's game plan. Short time as independents, then B1G for the Men's team & CHA for the Women's team.

The men's team would not spend any time as an independent. It's a Big 10 rule that, if you play a varsity sport in which there is a conference league, you must play as a part of the conference. When Penn State started their team, men's hockey was not yet a Big 10 sport.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

The men's team would not spend any time as an independent. It's a Big 10 rule that, if you play a varsity sport in which there is a conference league, you must play as a part of the conference.

Yeah, I suppose that's right. Penn State launched their program before B1G Hockey existed, which presumably gave them the independent option at the beginning.
{EDIT: Which I now see you've added to your comment.}

Still, it seems like a lose-lose situation to rigidly enforce that rule for a brand new program. Is it really in anyone's best interest if a team of mostly freshman goes 0-28 in their first year of conference play? You'd think a new program could be granted a year or two for incubation, in exchange for a binding commitment to join the league in Year 2 or 3.

Fortunately in Women's Hockey there's more flexibility in this regard.

[Still Eeyore]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

Yeah, I suppose that's right. Penn State launched their program before B1G Hockey existed, which presumably gave them the independent option at the beginning.
{EDIT: Which I now see you've added to your comment.}

Still, it seems like a lose-lose situation to rigidly enforce that rule for a brand new program. Is it really in anyone's best interest if a team of mostly freshman goes 0-28 in their first year of conference play? You'd think a new program could be granted a year or two for incubation, in exchange for a binding commitment to join the league in Year 2 or 3.

That said, the conference has real interests in not having teams play outside the league. The rules are written this way for good reasons, and I would not expect the bylaws to be amended for an edge case like this.

However, this is an irrelevant point. I stand by my opinion that the probability of Illinois adding hockey rounds to zero, absent their own Pegula popping up.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

That said, the conference has real interests in not having teams play outside the league. The rules are written this way for good reasons, and I would not expect the bylaws to be amended for an edge case like this.

Of course there are good reasons for the general rule. But that doesn't mean that being rigid and self-defeating is an inevitable result. Perhaps a new team could be a member from Day 1, but be given a short term waiver on playing a full conference schedule. Presumably that would make them ineligible for the conference title during the waiver period. Ineligible for a title they have no chance of winning anyway.

However, this is an irrelevant point. I stand by my opinion that the probability of Illinois adding hockey rounds to zero, absent their own Pegula popping up.

I'm skeptical, and will believe it when it I see it. But I don't agree with zero probability.

In any event it's not irrelevant. The issue at hand goes beyond the Illinois case. If the conference demands lemming-like scheduling behavior from prospective new programs, that makes attracting new teams even tougher than it already is. Operating $$ & facility needs make the mountain plenty tall enough. If B1G Men's Hockey wants an 8th Member -- and it should -- then the conference should be looking for ways to facilitate that, not throwing up additional obstacles.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

Well, since I've been hanging around the polling place, I felt obligated to cast a ballot.

Went with 66+. Since she already has 55 points, the choice isn't particularly courageous.

[Timothy A]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

Whew...back up to 78. Looks like breaking up the superline hasn't had a negative affect on her performance. I think it's more the quality which is understandable.

[robertearle]

Re: Watt Will Her Point Total This This Season?

Whew...back up to 78. Looks like breaking up the superline hasn't had a negative affect on her performance. I think it's more the quality which is understandable.

(mostly 'immaterial', but I wonder what happened...)

After Saturday's game, they made a big deal on twitter, etc., about Watts being the first Badger to make it to 60 points in a season since Decker, Knight and Ammerman all did it in 2011-2012. But then on the video board prior to Sunday's game, they had her listed as having 59 points. I don't know if they had simply 'counted wrong' or an assist from Saturday had been 'taken away', but your post this morning reminded me to look at the stats page. Sure enough, it shows right now that she only at 59 going into Sunday. Obviously, Sunday put her over the 60 point mark.

(I actually felt bad for Polusny on Sunday; she is obviously a MUCH better goalie than Sunday would indicate. Yeah, Roque beat her clean on the first goal, but a lot of the others were just bad luck for her; every deflection found the net, every rebound found a waiting Badger stick, a trickler that might not go in another day sneaks just over the line. As far as I can tell, when Polusny was replaced in the 3rd period, it was the first time in her college career that St Cloud goalie Karlie Reis had ever been on the ice. Where was Alder? Is she injured?)