Re: Brown Hockey 2013-2014 - Climbing to the Top of the ECAC Ladder
Another thing, Humanoid: 9th place is not acceptable, given the position we were in two months ago. You and I actually had a discussion about competing for a bye, and what that would take. And now we aren't even at home in the first round? That's a disappointment.
You know what, Brown lost a bunch of games after the position they were in two months ago, and that happens. You hit a cold stretch against good teams, you take a couple of bad losses, and all of a sudden a .500 season gets shot to s--t. Brown was 9-8-3 after beating Colgate. Then they ran into the following teams - Cornell, Union, RPI, Princeton, Q'pac. If Brown was who we thought they were, they'd have improved and beaten those teams, shored up a shot at the first round bye and sealed off a first home series. Instead, they did what they do - ironically had a record they would've had if they beat Princeton but instead beat Q'pac.
I look at it this way - the Brown Bears aren't who we thought they were. That doesn't make them a bad team, and it doesn't make them getting dusted. But back to the original point about the tournament - it's a funny thing, getting the tournament bid. They've been in position by making the conference final four twice, but let's look at how ECAC makes the tournament.
You have 2 bad leagues with autobids - the AHA and the nWCHA (it's not like it used to be). You have an extra bid to the Big Ten, which is MInnesota, Michigan, and everyone else. And you have Hockey East automatically getting 4 bids on the "HOckey East is the SEC of hockey" theory. That leaves a few bids for teams that are either really good and didn't win their league or weren't really good and benefitted from playing in a good league from any league. All I'm saying is that it really has to break the right way with a stat to get in, and it needs to be examined within the context of the circumstnaces of a year instead of a blanket statement.
It takes a very long time to compete at a very high level. When Princeton was going to 2 tournaments, the ECAC had a reputation of the EZAC. That's not the case anymore. The ECAC is a very good league, and that means it's harder to compete. For that reason, I don't put as much stock on that statement of "brown didn't make a tournament." Brown doesn't have the resources invested from above in athletics, not the way Harvard or Yale do. Brendan Whittet is building, but that takes time. Like we say, Brown has the Meehan Morgue. That ranks as one of the best venues to play but worst venues to play at the same time. It's harder to recruit at a place like Brown, but he's doing a good job as it is. If it takes teams a decade to build (except in some instances where it happens fast, but that's an anomaly), then Brendan Whittet's at the halfway point and has had one full recruiting cycle to get "his guys" in. He's done a great job getting the team to the point where they're not a 5-20 team year in and year out. In another five years, after being able to sell his system, he'll get better players. He's been getting players. Now he just has to keep them. That takes time. Time a lot of us don't want to invest when we're the only ones not winning big.
