Some good points have already been made, but to reiterate this program will not get any better as long as Parker is the coach. You'll see a team compete for HE home ice and compete for the Beanpot and that's it. Maybe for some people that's good enough, but for me that's way too low of a target.
The test of the program isn't whether we've had a better decade that Colorado College or some other nonsense. The test is if the program is as good and consistant as it should be. By that test this last decade has been a failure. BU has had two good seasons by what should be their standards over the last 10. First, in 2006 when Curry stood on his head to finally win them the HE tournament (which had not happened in almost a decade previous), and then obviously the championship year. Otherwise its been HE quarterfinal and first round flameouts, no noise in the NCAA's and they aren't even 50/50 to win the Beanpot anymore.
BU should be top 5 year in and year out. That's not to say they're going to reach the FF every year, but they should be in the conversation at the end of the year. The advantages the school has for recruiting is tremendous. They have the nicest arena in the East. They have a well regarded strength and conditioning program. A tradition of putting guys in the NHL. They play in the best city you can hope to live in and play for a major program since there aren't any hockey programs in NYC, Chicago, etc. Really, their main competition should be BC in the East and a handful of western programs (Michigan, UND, etc). There's plenty of talented kids to go around for those programs. Instead this year we're looking up at Merrimac. Absolutely inexcusable.
So it come back to (as has been said by the learned and scholarly Brian Gentry) BU isn't getting enough out of its players. That's the fault of coaching, and its been a continual problem. Unless a team is chock full of superstars and has the ability to self motivate it will continue to be early exits. If you want to benchmark the program, just take a look up the road and compare our success to BC's lately. While that comparison certainly bothers me, I wonder if it bothers the coach anymore. The way the team fails to show up for big games, I don't think I want to know.
