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Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

Mike Hutter said:
Any thoughts on this weekend?
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Not really. There's not much to play for. If we sweep the weekend, we could MAYBE move into the 11 seed. We've had success at Baker in recent years (but ironically have been poor against Princeton at Meehan), so maybe we can pick up a point or two. Looks like we'll be in Hamden two weekends in a row, as Quinnipiac is currently in fifth place.

I hope Whittet plays Tim Ernst this weekend. Taking him out after 20 minutes on Senior Night down three to the best team in the league in the midst of a four-win season was shameful. Tim is not a great player, but he has given Brown his all for four years (and has entertained us all with his pads).

In the meantime, I'll be over at Stevenson on Saturday enjoying what is sure to be another exciting lacrosse game.
 
Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

Say it isn't so. ;)

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Good read on the Brown Bears and the recent decision to cease operations at the end of this season <a href="https://t.co/g26fDfFK53">https://t.co/g26fDfFK53</a></p>— Akhockey.com (@Akhockey01) <a href="https://twitter.com/Akhockey01/status/836588186826485760">February 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

Ralph Baer said:
Say it isn't so. ;)

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Good read on the Brown Bears and the recent decision to cease operations at the end of this season <a href="https://t.co/g26fDfFK53">https://t.co/g26fDfFK53</a></p>— Akhockey.com (@Akhockey01) <a href="https://twitter.com/Akhockey01/status/836588186826485760">February 28, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Jeez, Ralph...this almost gave me a heart attack! :eek: :o

I'm pretty down on the program at the moment, but I certainly don't want it to fold.
 
Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

kdiff77 said:
Jeez, Ralph...this almost gave me a heart attack! :eek: :o

I'm pretty down on the program at the moment, but I certainly don't want it to fold.
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Sorry about that. :) It almost gave me a heart attack too, and I don't root for Brown. It's what happens when one receives tweets from numerous sources and just reads through them all at a rapid rate.

It is not relevant to Brown, the university, but I think that it is showing that due to the oil glut, hockey teams at all levels are in trouble in Alaska. The Alaska Aces (ECHL) are also folding, and both UA_ and UAA have had recent financial trouble as reported here on USCHO. Lastly, with the Kenai River Brown Bears folding, I wonder of the other NAHL team in Alaska, the Fairbanks Ice Dogs, will stay afloat.
 
Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

kdiff77 said:
Jeez, Ralph...this almost gave me a heart attack! :eek: :o

I'm pretty down on the program at the moment, but I certainly don't want it to fold.
Click to expand...

Sad when a program folds. I remember when Penn dropped hockey due to finances and low attendance.
 
Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

You have until 7PM tonight to get your 1st round picks into the ECAC Pick the Playoffs 2017 Contest
 
Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

25 losses. There is no justification for Brendan Whittet having a job next fall. None whatsoever. He's had eight seasons at the helm now and the team has gotten exponentially worse since reaching its apex in 2013.

The program is a joke. People are laughing at us. I saw a writer refer to us as "one of the worst college teams in recent memory" on Twitter today. You'd have to do some serious mental gymnastics to convince yourself otherwise.
 
Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

kdiff77 said:
25 losses. There is no justification for Brendan Whittet having a job next fall. None whatsoever. He's had eight seasons at the helm now and the team has gotten exponentially worse since reaching its apex in 2013.

The program is a joke. People are laughing at us. I saw a writer refer to us as "one of the worst college teams in recent memory" on Twitter today. You'd have to do some serious mental gymnastics to convince yourself otherwise.
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Do you think it is his fault or is it that he has no backing from the administration/alums, while I feel it's time for Whittet as well because 8 years is plenty to form your program into something I don't think it's all his fault and in order to be a successful Ivy League coach I feel you need to have established recruiting relationships and something to sell. I think Whittet is a good recruiter but the school he's at it's not possible to be a good recruiter when you have very little to show for with the on ice product coupling that with the academic stress. I'm with you because if you look at Princeton who was in a similar spot after Gadowsky and then Fogarty got a few good classes in and they should be up around the top half in future years.
 
techtodenver said:
Do you think it is his fault or is it that he has no backing from the administration/alums, while I feel it's time for Whittet as well because 8 years is plenty to form your program into something I don't think it's all his fault and in order to be a successful Ivy League coach I feel you need to have established recruiting relationships and something to sell. I think Whittet is a good recruiter but the school he's at it's not possible to be a good recruiter when you have very little to show for with the on ice product coupling that with the academic stress. I'm with you because if you look at Princeton who was in a similar spot after Gadowsky and then Fogarty got a few good classes in and they should be up around the top half in future years.
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I've made previous posts about the administration's lack of support for the program/overal ineptitude. I certainly don't blame Whittet entirely, and I emphathize with him in many ways. He seems like a truly great person, and is a great representative for Brown who loves his alma mater.

But that doesn't absolve him of his failure to elevate this program. He needs to go, and the athletics department needs to commit more resources to the program to A. Find the right coach, and B. Give him what he needs to compete.

Certainly, Whittet has proven himself to be an apt recruiter. He was undoubtedly hurt by the MANY players who either decommitted from Brown (Kevin Roy and Phil Kemp), didn't get in to Brown (Miles Wood) or didn't receive a desirable financial aid package due to the Ivy League's rule against scholarships (Blake Weyrick).

But he's also had a team with THREE NHL draft picks on it for three years now and has seen his win total depreciate each season. A number of his former players play professionally but achieved no success while at Brown. He gets talent. But he doesn't get it to perform. That should be a dealbreaker for any coach.

Firing Whittet won't heal all wounds. But it's a start. And it needs to happen immediately.
 
Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

I'm not sure how to begin but I'm very sure of how to end. For four years we have all witnessed the demise of the Brown hockey program. I will refer to him as Whittit as coach does not belong in front of his name. We have watched him yell on the bench, throw his arms to the air (when they are not crossed which is 90% of the time) and whisper to his assistants as another play goes bad. The humiliation he tried to put on the players only shines on him.

I wrote a post three years ago when you saw the pattern of his coaching of sitting seniors and living and dying with his freshman class. I mentioned in the post " it will never work out playing your freshman class and to give the juniors and seniors their team back". My comment was not warmly received but I am content to witness my words played out. In this senior class alone - how do you sporadically play Rossi for four years, Doane for three, sit Wood for his senior and destroy Bryzbeck, Middleton and Ernst along the way. All recruited and talented players that never felt the development of the game but only the passion of the sport taken from them. To sit Rossi and Wood in the stands as seniors when you are 59th in the country out of 60 is disturbing.

So man up AD and watch the films of the past four seasons and the embarrassing body language of your hockey coach as 22 players sat destroyed in front of him. Stop the humiliation of Brown hockey and the student athlete. End the bleeding.
 
Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

I'm not ready to quit on Brendan. He can coach as shown by what he did his first year with players such as Harry, Volpatti, Pietrus that were underperforming with Grillo. He developed Lorito, Lappin, Hathaway, Farnham, harry Z and Robertson. Sure, we have been going downhill but I would like to know what support he is getting from Brown, admissions, financial support for the program and asst coaches. (Brown sports overall over the past few years, except lacrosse), have declined. I really liked Mark White as his asst but it looked like he couldn't afford to stay on. He has been hurt by poor goalie play over the past few years; his only goalie recruit that worked out was Borelli and he sat for 3 years before he started to play. The team has been hurt by taking poor penalties. But I am troubled by the play of the special teams this year and the loss of players over the past few years, Doherty, Scherer, the Dman from Northwoods 4 years ago whom I though was a keeper.

Maye the key is whether he has the support of his team. I don't know the answere to that.
 
Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

I've seen a fair share of Brown games over the years and there just doesn't seem to be an identity, year in year out you have some productive players but no depth. The defense is troubling for sure, I thought Nieto looked great in juniors and I don't believe he is as bad as his numbers show but the defense lets up grade As left and right. While the 3 draft picks are great to have they also were young coming in and the ECAC has a lot of older teams, Brown struggles to find bottom 6 talent that can skate play a tough hard two-way game, I always see it with Brown teams 3-4 guys with 30-40 points and then a significant drop off after that, Lafferty, Willman, Corcoran are solid players, Bird as well I'd say but the production isn't there, the others produce but it's not enough, I never see a Brown team being tough to play against they always seem to want to go north south. I am a Clarkson fan and under Casey Jones we have been a bigger physical team that likes to grind it out in the corners so that always seems to trouble a team like Brown but still you would figure things would change over the years, Casey has transitioned Clarkson and we are starting to become a balanced team with some top end skill and it all starts with recruiting.

This is one thing that always has shocked me with Whittet as when he burst onto the scene as a young coach I thought of Brown as a potential sleeper and that he will really be able to make an impact on the recruiting trail and relate to these younger guys and get them to commit in the program. I was dead wrong on that and I will admit it, he has found a bit of success with getting top end guys in Nieto, Lappin, Lorito, and the guys now and I'm sure there are others over the years I can't remember but the role/character guys that will do anything for the team, that can win a important face-off, block an important shot, kill an important penalty just aren't there. Going forward Luke Kania seems like he has the potential to push Nieto and hopefully solidify things in net and then Chris Berger looks like a promising recruit along with Colin Burston who is putting up good numbers on a good Wenatchee team, I also see there are a few USHL 97/98s that could be for next year so that's always promising because the pace in the USHL is the best simulation to the college game, the recent get of Dorian Dawson will help in terms of being tougher to play against, who knows maybe it just has taken Whittet a long time to establish recruiting connections but he has to be on thin ice.
 
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