brassbonanza
Super Serial
Re: Boston University 2012-13 Season Thread -- Part II
Absolutely the last 10-15 years have been on the whole substandard by where the BU program has been and should be. My contention only was that measuring it up against BC is unhelpful to evaluating BU because no one else in the country measures up to them, thus it's not a valuable representation where BU stands among the other historic powerhouse programs. Put us up against Minnesota, Michigan, UND, Wisconsin, DU and the like to get the best understanding of where we stand over the last 10-15 years. I haven't looked specifically, but I'd bet we're not ahead of any of those five.
This is the best representation of the case against Parker I've seen on these boards in a long, long time. It's not about what Jerry York has done, or the run BC has been on for the past decade. It's the consistently puzzling results, frequent lack of change in effort and desire from game to game, week to week, and year to year; of course the revolving door of players leaving is disconcerting, even if Myron and Cisse were just whining about lack of playing time when they weren't producing, along with some puzzling lineup changes along the way that seemed to stymie some momentum.
I reject the criticisms of Parker that come in the form of 2009 was an aberration and that team won in spite of him, or, he doesn't care about the players anymore, or it's his fault that they lose all these games, but it was Matt Gilroy who was the only reason they won all those games in 2009 because he got himself thrown out of practice, or Parker had to be forced by David Quinn to pull Millan with three minutes to go against Miami. It's those who will only assign blame to Parker when he does something wrong and be completely absent from here when the team is doing well, or even the select few who've actively rooted against the program so he'd get fired/retire and rued our national title because it meant he'd be around longer. There's something about that as a sports fan that just bothers me immensely. Disagree with the guy all you want, but rooting against the team and being upset by success is dumb.
I'm squarely on the fence about Parker. Of course, a coaching change brings with it a lot of risk and questions with regard to recruiting. Do future recruits flee somewhere else? Other programs inevitably will start recruiting against BU by saying "Well, Jack's not there anymore, how can you know you'll develop correctly there?" The off ice issues last year were extremely embarrassing to the program and school, though at some level it's not Jack's job to drill into his players not to sexually assault anyone, that's common sense. But the fault lies with him as to who he's bringing into the program. This is also where I would think some level of blame can be placed on him for the Myron/Cisse issues. Of course, he did the right thing sitting Myron who was not playing well, and Cisse being moved down after not producing, so wanting more playing time and having delusional thoughts about what they deserve is on them, but it's on Parker that he brought those types into the program to begin with. Recruiting is a crap shoot and you can't know everything there is to know about a 16 or 17 year old, but having it happen more than once raises questions. The results have been below standard for BU, as I noted, and there have been far too many "Harvard" games, and far too many instances where on ice player behavior has not changed when it should have. I don't quite know for sure if I feel this means he should be fired (or forced into retirement, as it would happen), and I'd only be OK with such a thing if there was a 100% definitely ready on day one candidate on top, Quinn being the most obvious example of this. It's foolish to talk about now as nothing would happen before the end of the season, though, so **** it, go win later this afternoon.
I agree that you can't compare him to york but there isn't a single BU fan who can say with a straight face that you shouldn't have better results over the last 10-15 years considering the dominant program you were, new arena, quality recruits...that's what parker should be judged on. Not to mention the off the ice crap, players being booted/leaving, etc.
Absolutely the last 10-15 years have been on the whole substandard by where the BU program has been and should be. My contention only was that measuring it up against BC is unhelpful to evaluating BU because no one else in the country measures up to them, thus it's not a valuable representation where BU stands among the other historic powerhouse programs. Put us up against Minnesota, Michigan, UND, Wisconsin, DU and the like to get the best understanding of where we stand over the last 10-15 years. I haven't looked specifically, but I'd bet we're not ahead of any of those five.
Frequent reader, infrequent poster, 23-season-ticket holder, did not renew for 2011-12 and haven't looked back. All due respect to posters about premier, signature, Jackpa, the good old 90s, etc. But here's why I left: the players stopped playing like every single game was the most important game of their lives. That was never a problem in the 90s, which made the losses more palatable when they did happen...they went out with pride. How many times have BU fans left Agganis Arena after an "inexplicable loss" in the last 5-7 years? WAY too many. IMHO it's a perfect blend of blame on players and coaches, which makes it a program problem. Nobody fears BU anymore. They don't play hard all the time, and it's not an aberration anymore to lose to Harvard, Holy Cross, whatever. I got tired of too many nights of the Terriers throwing their sticks and shirts on the ice and hoping for the best (I began to think "Proud to be a Terrier" on the video screen was a motivational tool for the players, not a money grab from the fans). So I root for them, I attend 2-4 games a year, but my money has been much better spent on the ski hills for the past two winters -- I always try hard there, and I always go home happy with the effort. Go BU, and get well soon.
This is the best representation of the case against Parker I've seen on these boards in a long, long time. It's not about what Jerry York has done, or the run BC has been on for the past decade. It's the consistently puzzling results, frequent lack of change in effort and desire from game to game, week to week, and year to year; of course the revolving door of players leaving is disconcerting, even if Myron and Cisse were just whining about lack of playing time when they weren't producing, along with some puzzling lineup changes along the way that seemed to stymie some momentum.
I reject the criticisms of Parker that come in the form of 2009 was an aberration and that team won in spite of him, or, he doesn't care about the players anymore, or it's his fault that they lose all these games, but it was Matt Gilroy who was the only reason they won all those games in 2009 because he got himself thrown out of practice, or Parker had to be forced by David Quinn to pull Millan with three minutes to go against Miami. It's those who will only assign blame to Parker when he does something wrong and be completely absent from here when the team is doing well, or even the select few who've actively rooted against the program so he'd get fired/retire and rued our national title because it meant he'd be around longer. There's something about that as a sports fan that just bothers me immensely. Disagree with the guy all you want, but rooting against the team and being upset by success is dumb.
I'm squarely on the fence about Parker. Of course, a coaching change brings with it a lot of risk and questions with regard to recruiting. Do future recruits flee somewhere else? Other programs inevitably will start recruiting against BU by saying "Well, Jack's not there anymore, how can you know you'll develop correctly there?" The off ice issues last year were extremely embarrassing to the program and school, though at some level it's not Jack's job to drill into his players not to sexually assault anyone, that's common sense. But the fault lies with him as to who he's bringing into the program. This is also where I would think some level of blame can be placed on him for the Myron/Cisse issues. Of course, he did the right thing sitting Myron who was not playing well, and Cisse being moved down after not producing, so wanting more playing time and having delusional thoughts about what they deserve is on them, but it's on Parker that he brought those types into the program to begin with. Recruiting is a crap shoot and you can't know everything there is to know about a 16 or 17 year old, but having it happen more than once raises questions. The results have been below standard for BU, as I noted, and there have been far too many "Harvard" games, and far too many instances where on ice player behavior has not changed when it should have. I don't quite know for sure if I feel this means he should be fired (or forced into retirement, as it would happen), and I'd only be OK with such a thing if there was a 100% definitely ready on day one candidate on top, Quinn being the most obvious example of this. It's foolish to talk about now as nothing would happen before the end of the season, though, so **** it, go win later this afternoon.