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Fire Mike Eaves?

Re: Fire Mike Eaves?

tbodin23 said:
Unquestionable underachieving.

How come nobody is bringing up the obvious solution. Fire Eaves and offer Gwozdecky a huge amount of money. I wonder if he would think about it...
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I support this wholeheartedly. Get one of the best coaches in the country out of UND's and into Minnesota's conference. Plus it would hopefully lead to DU going back to sucking. Wonderful!

Fire Eaves! Hire the Dasher Dancer!
 
Re: Fire Mike Eaves?

Onion Man said:
Eaves has had a slow start, but he is just two years removed from a trip to the final and won a ring in 2006. Two trips to the NCAA title game in 6 years and with a championship? I think UW could do worse.
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There's the point Badger fans are making. "Could do worse" is not the tradition they have or want to have. Not by a long shot.

The rest of us who are not Badger fans can't claim to experience the pain, we do all have a similar stake in Wisconsin returning to its elite status. The way I see it, all our teams are diminished by an underperforming Wisconsin program we do not recognize.
 
Re: Fire Mike Eaves?

GB Puck Fan said:
solovsfett and Gurtholfin:

Good points and I get where you are coming from. Other than the NMU games up here in GB - whcih were not impressive efforts - I have only seen them on tv.

Maybe I am too willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The 2010 title game was not that long ago. And I guess I'm not that he can't right the ship. Will it be this season? I agree that's not likely. So, then the question becomes are you willing to let him hire a new assistant/recruiter - which means 2 years to have that pay off (or not).

Getting to the NCAA should be the expectation, I agree. One of the previous posts had a good point - if you fire Eaves, will you get someone better? That may take 3-4 years to find out.

I'm not 100% on keeping, btw, it's more of a 60-40 lean - but I think some of the issues are fixable.
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the problem of 2010 is look at the 2 years prior and now the 3 years post 2010. that is THE STORY. we rightly want and expect a lot more. Given next season's recruiting class, Zengerle possibly leaving, Kerdiles being a 2 and done (likely) Besse taking 2 years to adjust and no-one else of that caliber lined up it appears a major power outage is in the offing here.

imo this ship ain't righting itself until or unless Eaves is replaced or he can get 3 consecutive recruiting classes that match the Suter/Earl class or the Zent/Schier/Fairchild class, or the Byce/Tancill/Shuchuk class, or the Ford/Tuttle/Ranheim/Mellanby class

that puts us *IF* that happens at minimum 4 years away from competing for conference or national hardware.

the question as to who to replace him with is easier imo.

#1 Enrico Blasi
#2 Don Granato
#3 Mike Hastings
#4 Mark Osiecki
EDIT - #5 Tony Granato

George Gwodecky is an alum but years ago he stated "Wisconsin has had their time" when asked if he'd entertain offers. Maybe he had a bad experience in Madison, who knows who cares.
 
Last edited:
Gurtholfin said:
Being inside the bubble since '93 (although a Badger fan since '80 when I was first aware of sports), I can say that most fans just want us to take the next step in all three of the major sports. I moved here on New Year's Eve '93, the day before the first Rose Bowl. My first full day in Madison was spent at the Regent Street Retreat watching that game - pretty cool to drop right in for that scene! I digress...


Basketball - At some point you need to get to the Final Four (at least) again. You also need to find a way to not go cold for 10 minutes at a time shooting brick after brick after brick after complete miss. Have a few plays where you get inside and get fouled for ****'s sake. Gotta generate offense in other ways when the outside shot after 5 passes isn't falling. Have Shooter draw something up!

Every year our tournament ends against either a red-headed coach's son who can't miss, or ends when we don't score for the final 15 minutes of regulation and lose 48-37. It's been almost 20 years of this. I remember the days before '93 and I appreciate that we have it better than those who came before, but eventually you gotta take that next step. 20 years of the same story gets old.


Football - Good Parise, where to start!?! Same place really. A bowl berth isn't as exciting as it was in the mid 90's. Not good enough anymore. At some point you have to get yourself to a title game. Do that and bowl berths in between those years are nice accents. Can't live solely on accents though, which is what we're doing.

Sure, this season, we can potentially go to a Rose Bowl for a third straight year (and lose). Yes, I'd rather watch us in the Rose Bowl than the Outback Bowl, but since the BCS Championship game came about, the Rose Bowl has the exact same importance as the Outback Bowl, or Music City Bowl or Papa John's Thumb In My *** Bowl. Just another exhibition.

20 years of various bowl appearances. No apparent ability to elevate the program above an apex set at the Rose Bowl which we only get to by winning the B1G. Is this better than what came before '93? Sure. Is it enough to keep my attention until the Rapture? Not so much.


Hockey - We've been over and over this in our own threads. Historically, we are one of the elite programs. Towards the end of Sauer's tenure, things were off and everyone could see that he was just running on fumes. We all thought that all that was needed to put us back amongst the top 5-7 programs, our birthright, was to bring in a solid coach with the passion and fire that Sauer had lost.

I still believe that should have been enough when you look at all that a UW coach has to work with. Almost NHL size arena, great academics, great small city to live in, a historically elite program, hookers & cocaine, etc, etc, etc...

Without the title that Burish, Els, Gilbert and the rest willed them to, Eaves' ten seasons are just as bad if not worse than Sauer's last several years.

Simply not good enough and I'm not willing to settle for a mediocre hockey program. I don't see football or basketball ever getting to the next level, so for my hometown teams, hockey is the only one with a legit chance to win titles. I'd like to see them positioned so that it can happen every once in a while. IMO, feast or famine is not the way to go.

Fire Eaves.



EDIT (final thought)

If the three programs cannot ever elevate themselves and if the Athletic Department is okay with that, then they are simply treating those programs as cash cows. I get that. I understand the economics of all this.

I'm not interested in donating my money to the Athletic Department. I want something in return. Being competitive and giving me hope is what I want in exchange for a portion of my disposable income. You don't have to give me an actual title, but you have to make me believe that it's attainable, that we're working towards it.

Giving me a reason to wear something red and allowing me to sing Varsity isn't enough any more when I have so many other things that require my money.
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Do you honestly think Wisconsin fans have any right to expect a title game appearance from their football team? You guys are delusional.

Wisconsin finished in 9th or 10th place last year. The expectations for this team were too high, and I have no idea why people thought they would all of the sudden turn into a top 3 team in the conference after their performance last year. Home ice would have been a more realistic goal this season and that is still acheivable.
 
Re: Fire Mike Eaves?

tbodin23 said:
Unquestionable underachieving.

How come nobody is bringing up the obvious solution. Fire Eaves and offer Gwozdecky a huge amount of money. I wonder if he would think about it...
Click to expand...
This thread was an entertaining read, until you had to spoil it with this comment.

Gwozdecky is 59, but would likely want a 7 year $500,000 per contract.

Guessing it would take $1 million to buy out Eaves.

Is Barry going to commit $5 million to hockey and possibly take that money out out of the football trough? I think we all know the answer to that.

Lets face it, Sconnie doesn't have to spend money to win in the BTHC. Schedule non-conference cupcakes and 12 games a year against OSU, PSU & MSU. 20 wins a year right there.
 
Re: Fire Mike Eaves?

dggoddard said:
Lets face it, Sconnie doesn't have to spend money to win in the BTHC. Schedule non-conference cupcakes and 12 games a year against OSU, PSU & MSU. 20 wins a year right there.
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not really gonna work with pwr (maybe bcs :p)

this is the thing with the upcoming hockey fun. not unlike the SEC in football, there is a prevailing thought that the BTHC will be the tops. strong programs, whatnot.

but like SEC football, there will be haves and have-nots. we can all see UMTC and UM continuing to be the cat's arse. unless they have something crazy like 10 underclassmen leave early at the last minute or have a goalie come down with puckfear we can assume maybe an single odd off-year. but the rest of the time they are going to finish 1-2.

before the sandusky ordeal i would have bet anythin that PSU would become a power in no time. now...... i dunno. wildcard.

tOSU and MSU.... are they destined to be the vandy and kentucky and ole miss of BTHC?!?! i'd bet yes. doing the dg guess and scheduling UAH six times at home and going 6-14 in conference. if only college hockey at a NIT :D

that leaves Bucky as i see it in limbo to bounce around in the middle depending on the decisions they make in the short term.
 
Re: Fire Mike Eaves?

We've had quite a few of these discussions on Maine threads about Tim Whitehead. I think that UW's issues are very similar to Maine in that a lot of the program's 'problems' have to do with systematic changes in college hockey and not with the program itself. For better or worse, college hockey is a lot different than it was 10 or 15 years ago. There is so much parity nowadays that the line between being good and bad has gotten awful thin. I'll throw out a few examples. Maine was one of the top six or eight teams a year ago and is 2-9-1 so far this year. A year ago at this time UNH was absolute rubbish and now this year they are one of the better teams in the country. There are a lot more good programs now than there were in the past and you still only have four teams make the frozen four and one national champion per year.
 
Re: Fire Mike Eaves?

Tipsy McStagger said:
Do you honestly think Wisconsin fans have any right to expect a title game appearance from their football team? You guys are delusional.

.
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Typical Goof fan. If JJ Watt comes back for his senior season last year Wisconsin is in the title game. If Wisconsin beats Michigan in 2006 they would've been in the title game.

My list:
1. Gwoz
2. Don Granato- if he still has something left in the tank
3. Osiecki
4. Jeff Jackson
5. Blasi
 
Re: Fire Mike Eaves?

solovsfett said:
ha ha ha, yeah John Hill with Dean Talafous as the 1st assistant;)
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I would've loved to see what Talafous could do with some better players. He had a great record at UW-River Falls winning a national title then made the big mistake by taking the UAA job.
 
Re: Fire Mike Eaves?

sweatpants said:
Typical Goof fan. If JJ Watt comes back for his senior season last year Wisconsin is in the title game. If Wisconsin beats Michigan in 2006 they would've been in the title game.

My list:
1. Gwoz
2. Don Granato- if he still has something left in the tank
3. Osiecki
4. Jeff Jackson
5. Blasi
Click to expand...

Can't see Jackson leaving ND, but Blasi would be interesting. He's a Miami grad, but I don't know what he's making there.
 
Drew S. said:
We've had quite a few of these discussions on Maine threads about Tim Whitehead. I think that UW's issues are very similar to Maine in that a lot of the program's 'problems' have to do with systematic changes in college hockey and not with the program itself. For better or worse, college hockey is a lot different than it was 10 or 15 years ago. There is so much parity nowadays that the line between being good and bad has gotten awful thin. I'll throw out a few examples. Maine was one of the top six or eight teams a year ago and is 2-9-1 so far this year. A year ago at this time UNH was absolute rubbish and now this year they are one of the better teams in the country. There are a lot more good programs now than there were in the past and you still only have four teams make the frozen four and one national champion per year.
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If UW was winning 20 to 25 games a season, making the WCHA F5, getting an NCAA birth things would be fine because the team would be in a place to make a run. That's a totally different thing to finishing in the bottom half of the conference 4 of the last 7 seasons.
 
Re: Fire Mike Eaves?

sweatpants said:
I would've loved to see what Talafous could do with some better players. He had a great record at UW-River Falls winning a national title then made the big mistake by taking the UAA job.
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No, UAA made a big mistake by hiring him. The players hated him. More than 40 players left the team under his leadership, and that never happened with Brush at the helm.
 
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