Re: >>> RIT Tigers 2010-11 - Part II - The Dream is Still Alive <<<
Well, another season has come to an end. Whether or not you consider it a success or a failure, you can't deny its been "interesting".
Another regular season title and another, in my opinion, hollow banner to hang up in the Ritter. Only 1 of 3 season goals accomplished. Winning regular season titles is nice, its not great, and as we have displayed on numerous occasions, really not particularly important when it comes to the AHA playoffs or beyond. When you line up and they drop the puck, your regular season championship banner means nothing. And when you have enough of them, without the corresponding banner that says tournament champions or NCAA on on them, it begins to say, "well we don't win when it really matters the most".
The most disappointing part of this season isn't just the loss to AFA in the finals, its the fact that this team just basically disappeared after clinching the regular season title at Canisius. They had a great home and home the second week of Feb., sweeping both games and then just basically mailed it in the rest of the way. A road loss at Robert Morris, who was in a full tail spin, a home loss, badly, against Niagara, a sloppy tie at Niagara the next night, 2 playoff wins against a significantly less talented AIC squad (that gave the Tigers far more trouble than they should have), a performance against UConn at the BCA where they got outplayed in virtually every facet of the game and were lucky to get a W out of, and a game where they left a ton on the table against a good, but not great, AFA squad. This team was a shadow of the team that played that second week of Feb. Call it a leadership vacuum, call it youth and inexperience, call it whatever you want, but the situation is both disappointing and disturbing.
There are some positives to take away, the emergance of Madolora as an elite goaltender, the continued growth of Saracino, who built on a very nice NCAA tournament as a freshman last season and who is quickly becoming one of the better defenesmen in the AHA, the re-discovery of Brian Potts after a season and a half of being more or less a spare part, and the promise shown by Ben Lynch in his rookie season.
And there are some negatives, the losses of some significant talent and leadership in guys like Brenner, Favot, Janda and Murphy. Steps backward in terms of the development of players like Hartley and Knowles, who instead of fulfilling the promise they showed the season before, slipped down the depth chart this past season. The seeming lack of a #2 goaltender that Coach Wilson can depend on for an occasional quality spot start to give his #1 a break from time to time, something that has been a theme for several seasons now. An alarming lack of progression from the younger D-men on the squad (aside from some growth shown by Noyes during the season from where he was when the season opened), with Descoteaux being regularly exposed down the stretch and Raibl being a healthy scratch most of the time the later part of the season. Cameron Burt seeming to wallow through what was for him an extremely disappointing and unproductive season. You could see the frustration in his game through most of the season.
How you rate this season really depends on how high you are willing to set the bar. If you are willing to set the bar high, and say getting to the NCAA's and winning at that level of competition is the goal, then this season is a failure. If you are content to set the bar lower and say a regular season championship means the season was a success, then it was, by your definition, a success.
For me, this season was a dismal failure, a failure to build upon the success of last season, to continue to grow the program at the national level, outside of the AHA, and to make a statement to those who doubt the legitimacy of the program that the intention of the program is to be a player on the national level in years to come. Mission not accomplished.
