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Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

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Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

Shirtless Guy said:
7 exempt games, 4 at Alaska schools, icebreaker and HOF game
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holy ****. That's insane.

I see that this is a trend for Tech, scheduling tons of games (like most in teh country last year) each year. Wonder why Mel did that?
 
Biddco said:
holy ****. That's insane.

I see that this is a trend for Tech, scheduling tons of games (like most in teh country last year) each year. Wonder why Mel did that?
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Exposure. Doing anything and everything to get MTU's name out there.
 
Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

Biddco said:
holy ****. That's insane.

I see that this is a trend for Tech, scheduling tons of games (like most in teh country last year) each year. Wonder why Mel did that?
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Mel wanted to catch John MacInnes' win total. He knew he could because he was planning to stay at Tech for the long haul.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

Maybe y'all can play at UAH over a break and play a neutral-site game on Tue/Wed in Huntsville and get in four games in six games.

GFM
 
Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

Biddco said:
I see that this is a trend for Tech, scheduling tons of games (like most in teh country last year) each year. Wonder why Mel did that?
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Check his contract. It may include a bonus if he wins X number of games or percentage of games. FWIW, Bemidji played only 2 non-conference games while Tech played 8.

Speaking of contracts, does anyone have any info on Mel's UofM compensation package?
 
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Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

Burnt Orange Husky said:
Check his contract. It may include a bonus if he wins X number of games or percentage of games. FWIW, Bemidji played only 2 non-conference games while Tech played 8.

Speaking of contracts, does anyone have any info on Mel's UofM compensation package?
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Mel's contract did not have any explicitly documented bonuses.
We're working on the Michigan contract.
 
Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

Burnt Orange Husky said:
Check his contract. It may include a bonus if he wins X number of games or percentage of games. FWIW, Bemidji played only 2 non-conference games while Tech played 8.

Speaking of contracts, does anyone have any info on Mel's UofM compensation package?
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Just curious, what year did Bemidji only play two non-conference games? They have always been at the 6 or 8 non-conference game threshold. There were two years they did the "double Alaska", but Tom Serratore feels that the bye week is better for his team than the two extra games.
 
Burnt Orange Husky said:
Check his contract. It may include a bonus if he wins X number of games or percentage of games. FWIW, Bemidji played only 2 non-conference games while Tech played 8.

Speaking of contracts, does anyone have any info on Mel's UofM compensation package?
Click to expand...

Bemidji played 2 games at North Dakota, 2 home against Princeton, Home & Away vs UMD and also played St. Cloud & Minnesota in the North Star Cup in St. Paul in non-conference play in the 2016-17 season. Bemidji also played 8 non-conference games in each of the 3 prior seasons since the formation of the "new" WCHA.
 
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Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

I think the number of non-conference games being scheduled recently, especially tourneys where you can face two different teams in two days, simply underscored Mel's understanding of how the NCAA tourney bids really worked. Being on the committee I am sure he was quite familiar of how to give yourself an edge to make the field. Getting a variety of opportunities for quality win bonuses against NC teams is key, something we've all seen the last two season the WCHA as a whole was sorely lacking. Just look at the NCHC - they are getting teams in the tourney that are barely over 0.500 because they get a few key wins over teams that also have a lot of wins. Meanwhile the WCHA teams with 0.600+ win percentage are sitting out. When you really look at the formula, the NCAA tourney for hockey has very little to do with number of wins, but rather WHO did you beat.

One of the Red's post-retirement interviews discussed why Michigan never played Tech for so many years, other than at the GLI. Red mentioned that Mel was in charge of scheduling all those years. So that tells me, Mel saw no value in Michigan playing Tech when they were a dumpster fire because there was no upside for Michigan, even if they beat Tech.

As for the 7 exempt games in 2017-18, I think Tech would be foolish to increase the number of games played over what they've already done the last couple seasons. At some point, the guys need a week off to refocus and just get away from the rink, especially once in the last month of the regular season like we had last year. Ideally I think that slot is the weekend after the emotional high of Winter Carnival. That following weekend always seems to be an opportunity to be a let down and not be ready to go the following week.

Ryan J
 
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Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

JohnsonsJerseys said:
One of the Red's post-retirement interviews discussed why Michigan never played Tech for so many years, other than at the GLI. Red mentioned that Mel was in charge of scheduling all those years. So that tells me, Mel saw no value in Michigan playing Tech when they were a dumpster fire because there was no upside for Michigan, even if they beat Tech.
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Understandable.

There aren't a lot of practices among college hockey coaches that Mel has criticized. He certainly doesn't like the poaching of verbally committed recruits, so I wouldn't expect any of ours to bolt for Michigan unless they decommitted before approaching Mel. On the other hand, I've never heard him complain about the 2-for-1 deals we had to make with bigger schools. So I don't expect 1-for-1s with Michigan now that one of "our" guys is their coach.
 
Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

JohnsonsJerseys said:
I think the number of non-conference games being scheduled recently, especially tourneys where you can face two different teams in two days, simply underscored Mel's understanding of how the NCAA tourney bids really worked. Being on the committee I am sure he was quite familiar of how to give yourself an edge to make the field. Getting a variety of opportunities for quality win bonuses against NC teams is key, something we've all seen the last two season the WCHA as a whole was sorely lacking. Just look at the NCHC - they are getting teams in the tourney that are barely over 0.500 because they get a few key wins over teams that also have a lot of wins. Meanwhile the WCHA teams with 0.600+ win percentage are sitting out. When you really look at the formula, the NCAA tourney for hockey has very little to do with number of wins, but rather WHO did you beat.
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Honestly, that's the best indicator of quality. The issue is that we don't have a ton of interactions.

GFM
 
Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

redwing61 said:
Understandable.

There aren't a lot of practices among college hockey coaches that Mel has criticized. He certainly doesn't like the poaching of verbally committed recruits, so I wouldn't expect any of ours to bolt for Michigan unless they decommitted before approaching Mel. On the other hand, I've never heard him complain about the 2-for-1 deals we had to make with bigger schools. So I don't expect 1-for-1s with Michigan now that one of "our" guys is their coach.
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Personally I'd be happy with the GLi as our only big ten games vs Michigan..... and i'm against scheduling 2 for 1's with anyone.

The GLi is at little Ceaser's arena.
 
Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

JohnsonsJerseys said:
So that tells me, Mel saw no value in Michigan playing Tech when they were a dumpster fire because there was no upside for Michigan, even if they beat Tech.
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This is silly. He didn't play them because he was already playing them or Michigan State at the GLI, which was enough to get a PWR comparison win against the Big Ten.
 
Biddco said:
This is silly. He didn't play them because he was already playing them or Michigan State at the GLI, which was enough to get a PWR comparison win against the Big Ten.
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I'd have to agree with you, this is a more reasonable assessment. The fact that the ugly helmets didn't have to fly to "the middle of nowhere" (they can stay the eff out for all I care, downstate sucks compared to Gods Country) was just an added bonus for them.
 
Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

Not to mention. That during that time, Michigan was traveling to NMU and LSSU...don't need 3 up trips.
 
Re: Michigan Tech Off-season Revised - Onward and Upward

THG has confirmed that Bill Muckalt is in Houghton, likely for an interview.
 
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