>>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

[Ed Trefzger]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Ed, do you know where the media will be located in the arena?

On the right side of the interior rendering is a media area near center ice at the top of the seating. There's not a lot of detail yet but we're told there will be radio and TV booths there. I would suspect cameras on the top.

 

[Downstate_RIT_Fan]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Just got home from the long drive home from Rochester (300 + miles and a stop at RPI) and wanted to share my thoughts on last nights game. In the last eight days I've been to three college hockey games, last Friday I was at RPI for their 3-1 win against Ferris State, this past Friday I saw Army beat Sacred Heart 5-2 at Tate Rink in West Point and then last night at the Blue Cross Arena. As a long time fan of RIT and Army (and a new RPI fan as well), I have to say that last nights loss was the most painful to watch of the three games not only because of the score but the flow of the game.

I am certainly no expert of the game and the frequent posters here make much more astute observations than I do (that's why I read their posts and normally do not post myself), but the RIT play to me just seemed off. How many odd man rushes did RIT give up? I lost count. On offense, did they have a plan to bring the puck up the ice? It seemed to me if they tried to skate the puck up ice, the Penn State defense did a great job to stand up the RIT offense. I was hoping that a team who beat Michigan would slice through the Penn State defense, nope. If that wasn't working I was hoping for a consistent dump the puck into the offensive zone followed with an aggressive fore-check. That seemed to work better but wasn't consistent across all lines. Just very frustrating... I mention the other games only because RPI could consistently skate the puck into the Ferris State side of the ice, clean crisp passes, so that worked for them, and Army, dressing 13 freshman, had all lines committed to dumping the puck into the offensive zone and using their aggressiveness and stamina to fore-check and generate quality scoring chances for their sharp shooters poaching out front. That worked for Army, and it seemed to work for Penn State too, two teams that, at least for this weekend, made up for their preconceived inferior skills (at least on paper) with lots of heart, guts and smarts. As I said, just very frustrating...maybe I'm just tired after the long drive.

On the positive side, maybe this result was the result that RIT needed to come out with a little more passion for this Thursday's contest against RoMo. On Friday I'll see Penn State again at Army in West Point.

 

[kerwing7]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Just got home from the long drive home from Rochester (300 + miles and a stop at RPI) and wanted to share my thoughts on last nights game. In the last eight days I've been to three college hockey games, last Friday I was at RPI for their 3-1 win against Ferris State, this past Friday I saw Army beat Sacred Heart 5-2 at Tate Rink in West Point and then last night at the Blue Cross Arena. As a long time fan of RIT and Army (and a new RPI fan as well), I have to say that last nights loss was the most painful to watch of the three games not only because of the score but the flow of the game.

I am certainly no expert of the game and the frequent posters here make much more astute observations than I do (that's why I read their posts and normally do not post myself), but the RIT play to me just seemed off. How many odd man rushes did RIT give up? I lost count. On offense, did they have a plan to bring the puck up the ice? It seemed to me if they tried to skate the puck up ice, the Penn State defense did a great job to stand up the RIT offense. I was hoping that a team who beat Michigan would slice through the Penn State defense, nope. If that wasn't working I was hoping for a consistent dump the puck into the offensive zone followed with an aggressive fore-check. That seemed to work better but wasn't consistent across all lines. Just very frustrating... I mention the other games only because RPI could consistently skate the puck into the Ferris State side of the ice, clean crisp passes, so that worked for them, and Army, dressing 13 freshman, had all lines committed to dumping the puck into the offensive zone and using their aggressiveness and stamina to fore-check and generate quality scoring chances for their sharp shooters poaching out front. That worked for Army, and it seemed to work for Penn State too, two teams that, at least for this weekend, made up for their preconceived inferior skills (at least on paper) with lots of heart, guts and smarts. As I said, just very frustrating...maybe I'm just tired after the long drive.

On the positive side, maybe this result was the result that RIT needed to come out with a little more passion for this Thursday's contest against RoMo. On Friday I'll see Penn State again at Army in West Point.

Great observations Downstate! Many of your points could be made about RIT last year and the year before too. I'm "hoping" this year it has to do with all the freshmen we have on offense, though as you mention about Army, maybe that's just an excuse. Your point about the number of odd man rushes that RIT gave up definitely has a very familiar and troubling ring to it. In previous years that was usually the result of RIT moving a defenseman into the offensive zone in an effort to generate more scoring (or simply a result of just plain sloppy passing). The offense has seemed unorganized and uncoordinated on many occasions over the past few years. Again, I'm hoping that changes as we get the freshmen up to speed and players get used to playing with line-mates that compliment their skills.

 

[RIT Winters]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Any word on Hamburg following that ridiculous hit? Haven't seen anything on the twitterverse.

 

[kerwing7]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

It's more like a 'Financial Reality'

From the D&C:
The new arena will cost about $37 million. Destler says the original estimate was $51 million, then $41 million. RIT has cut and trimmed the design to get it down to its current figure, which is still $7 million more than originally estimated.

Unless somebody were to come up with a 15 million dollar donation quickly, they won't be able to build what you saw in those early renderings.

The renderings are also a little mis-leading though.
Looking at the left side, the seating appears, to me any way, to be steep and will give some good sight lines while the image makes the right side seems flatter. I think that illusion is throwing people off.

Regarless, a new barn is going to be nice for the fans and the school.


Couple of passing thoughts on the weekend game......

Glad it was a OOC game and while it was a loss, it wasn't a beat down.
Glad to see another BCW game sold-out and the women take one this weekend.

Looking forward to confrerence play this Thursday as AHA teams need to "win it to be in it".

Thanks for the info! Makes sense now. A new and bigger barn will definitely be nice. Too bad it won't be the college hockey palace I had envisioned.

 

[RIT Winters]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Thanks for the info! Makes sense now. A new and bigger barn will definitely be nice. Too bad it won't be the college hockey palace I had envisioned.

I think that's a little unfair. It's still a large, attractive, state of the art facility far far beyond what we have now. Not to mention far and away the best facility in AHA and better than many other schools outside of the AHA.

 

[LtPowers]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

I think that's a little unfair. It's still a large, attractive, state of the art facility far far beyond what we have now. Not to mention far and away the best facility in AHA and better than many other schools outside of the AHA.

Well, when the menu showed you filet mignon, you're bound to be a bit disappointed by the ribeye. Even if it's a really nice ribeye and everyone else's ribeye is overcooked and gristly.

That "press box" looks kinda lame; you're gonna have people walking/standing in front of you the whole time. Sure, it's at center-ice, but that looks like its only advantage over the Pike Press Box.

Maybe we should compare to the two newest arenas in D-I: Pegula in State College and Compton Family in South Bend. How does the Polisseni Center match up?

I'm still concerned about the acoustics of those rafters (though Pegula and Compton both have similar superstructures). And shouldn't one of the corners have benches?


Powers &8^]

 

[mar7967]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Well, when the menu showed you filet mignon, you're bound to be a bit disappointed by the ribeye. Even if it's a really nice ribeye and everyone else's ribeye is overcooked and gristly.

That "press box" looks kinda lame; you're gonna have people walking/standing in front of you the whole time. Sure, it's at center-ice, but that looks like its only advantage over the Pike Press Box.

Maybe we should compare to the two newest arenas in D-I: Pegula in State College and Compton Family in South Bend. How does the Polisseni Center match up?

I'm still concerned about the acoustics of those rafters (though Pegula and Compton both have similar superstructures). And shouldn't one of the corners have benches?


Powers &8^]

It is still likely an early rendering...It doesn't show anything about restrooms and concessions in each corner, which are in the floorplans. The floorplans I have seen have the press area elevated.

The latest I have heard is that there is still debate about bleachers in the Corner Crew. I have heard that the administration does not want bleachers in the Corner (likely because that could limit it's use as a multi-purpose arena). I believe the fight is ongoing.

I want to take bets on how long before Dr. Destler tries to put basketball in there too.

 

[cplinford]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

I think its pretty early to read anything into these renderings other than a real general idea... but I could be wrong

My only complaint, to this point, is the location

 

[kerwing7]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

I think that's a little unfair. It's still a large, attractive, state of the art facility far far beyond what we have now. Not to mention far and away the best facility in AHA and better than many other schools outside of the AHA.

Apologies if I came across as unfair. I was just confused and a little disappointed about what happened to the original drawings that I saw last year. The original drawings were more impressive in my opinion. As Blazer777 explained so well, there were financial realities at work which necessitated a scaling back of the original budget and therefore the original plans.

I'm sure the new arena will be very nice and a big upgrade over the Ritter. Not that the Ritter is bad either. Heck the 40+ year old Ritter is already better than probably 90% of AHA facilities - at least from what I can tell from games on TV and what the WITR guys say.

 

[cplinford]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

As far as the BCA game does this mean that monkey is back on RIT's back?

 

[RITFan67]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

As far as the BCA game does this mean that monkey is back on RIT's back?

I suspect that we will see a very different team on Thursday night this week for the conference opener against RoMo. The Penn State game was a wake-up call that nobody can ignore. Coach Wilson is no doubt conveying his message in no uncertain terms to our Tigers at this week's practices.

 

[RIT Winters]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Maybe we should compare to the two newest arenas in D-I: Pegula in State College and Compton Family in South Bend. How does the Polisseni Center match up?
Powers &8^]

I'm unfamiliar with Compton Family but as far as Pegula goes, I'm sure if RIT got that volume of money donated by a single person, they too could consider a grander scheme. However, Golisano prefers to spend his multi-millions in academics instead. Penn State is also a much larger school with a much larger endowment, not to mention an established D1 force in other sports, so the comparison is not all together fair.

As far as the BCA game does this mean that monkey is back on RIT's back?

I don't think it's the building, it's the team. Go back to the last couple years worth of threads. This team has been called out time and time again for playing up to good teams (Hello Michigan, Ferris State, New Hampshire, and Denver) and down to bad teams. It surprised me that we played down so hard for so long on Saturday. I expected the atmosphere (and being down after the 1st and 2nd) would help awaken them, but it didn't. At some point the onus is on Coach Wilson to fix this problem. It's clearly been a team culture for multiple recruiting classes now (every one since I've been a fan) so it seems the blame lies at the top.

We've done fine at BCA with the exception of Air Force, whom we always struggle with out in Colorado, in Ritter, or BCA. Look at our record and GF/GA against them. It's always, always close.

 

[WestsideTigersFan]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Well, after waiting a couple of days to reflect on Saturday's game....I still feel the same way. That performance was absolutely gutless, and quite possibly the worst performance by an RIT team in the DI era. It was beyond shameful. Every single one of those guys should have been embarrassed by their performance. A first year DI team that lost to a mediocre DIII team the night before came in and quite frankly owned the game until the last 5 minutes of the contest. There wasn't an aspect of the game I thought RIT won up until the last 5 minutes. They were outhit, out worked, out chanced, out coached, and quite frankly out classed.

There is no question in my mind that RIT has superior individual talent. However, when that talent doesn't play up to its individual potential and to the team potential it does not matter one bit.

It's been raised before, and its not the first time I've agreed with it, but there is a serious problem with RIT playing down to the level of inferior teams. It's been going on far too long to say it was just one or 2 recruiting classes that did this, it goes all the way back to the DIII era. I am starting to think its not the players, but something with the coaching. I don't know if the coaching staff doesn't scout and prep for certain opponents the way they do for others, if they allow the players to get complacent, or what the deal is. But it needs to get fixed. And fixed quickly.

I certainly hope that they had a mandatory practice bright and early on Sunday morning and I sincerely hope there wasn't a puck in sight for the entire practice. They needed to get some work in, because they sure as hell didn't get any work in on Saturday. I've seen morning skates with more intensity than the team showed in the game Saturday night.

 

[Zyklon]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

It's been raised before, and its not the first time I've agreed with it, but there is a serious problem with RIT playing down to the level of inferior teams. It's been going on far too long to say it was just one or 2 recruiting classes that did this, it goes all the way back to the DIII era. I am starting to think its not the players, but something with the coaching. I don't know if the coaching staff doesn't scout and prep for certain opponents the way they do for others, if they allow the players to get complacent, or what the deal is. But it needs to get fixed. And fixed quickly.

I've been reflecting on this specifically the past few days and everytime I think of it I feel bad.... but is it possible that the real issue recently with RIT hockey isn't the players but the coaches? When is it time/appropriate to start bashing/attacking/complaining about the coach in college hockey?

 

[PSUChamps2001]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Well, after waiting a couple of days to reflect on Saturday's game....I still feel the same way. That performance was absolutely gutless, and quite possibly the worst performance by an RIT team in the DI era. It was beyond shameful. Every single one of those guys should have been embarrassed by their performance. A first year DI team that lost to a mediocre DIII team the night before came in and quite frankly owned the game until the last 5 minutes of the contest. There wasn't an aspect of the game I thought RIT won up until the last 5 minutes. They were outhit, out worked, out chanced, out coached, and quite frankly out classed.

There is no question in my mind that RIT has superior individual talent. However, when that talent doesn't play up to its individual potential and to the team potential it does not matter one bit.

It's been raised before, and its not the first time I've agreed with it, but there is a serious problem with RIT playing down to the level of inferior teams. It's been going on far too long to say it was just one or 2 recruiting classes that did this, it goes all the way back to the DIII era. I am starting to think its not the players, but something with the coaching. I don't know if the coaching staff doesn't scout and prep for certain opponents the way they do for others, if they allow the players to get complacent, or what the deal is. But it needs to get fixed. And fixed quickly.

I certainly hope that they had a mandatory practice bright and early on Sunday morning and I sincerely hope there wasn't a puck in sight for the entire practice. They needed to get some work in, because they sure as hell didn't get any work in on Saturday. I've seen morning skates with more intensity than the team showed in the game Saturday night.

A. Buff State is not the same DIII Buff State team of years past, and if it wasn't for Kevin Carr in the first period, Penn State blows Buff State away. Plain and simple. They also start Schoff who by the looks of things is the back up. There was 29 penalties for 83 minutes and 20 power plays total in the game. Buff State (who is one of the best in D3 on the PP) scored all three goals on the PP. 5 on 5 Penn State was the much better team.

Point 1: Penn State is not a mid tier DIII team.

B. RIT held Penn State to 10 total shots the last two period combined, they simply could not solve Musico. At times RIT dominated. This was a HUGE game for Penn State way more then RIT. Overlooked? Playing down to the opponent? Could be the reason they gave up 12 shots on goal in the first and then just 10 combined the final two periods.

Point 2: Now you know how Michigan felt losing to an inferior hockey team.

C. Norwich took Dartmouth to the brink again this year. Face it, the lower DI teams are not that far off from the upper DIII teams. Plain and simple. Like Dartmouth, RIT is not in the upper tier of DI hockey, period. Taking these type of loses will happen. If they played a bunch of games against Oswego, Norwich, Plattsburgh, SNC, ect they wouldn't go undefeated.

 

[RITProf]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

and quite frankly out classed.

I was with you up to this one phrase ... can't agree with that one. Everything else, yes.

And to Remy, I'd take RIT to sweep 2-game series with all of Oswego, Norwich, Plattsburgh, SNC. With enough games in the "bunch", yes, one of the DIII teams would pull off a win, but it would take a lot. Night and day.

I think the two biggest points about PSU's relative performance on Fri. and Sat. are the change in goalie and the motivation to ruin RIT's big party. Even Gadowsky said that.

As for questioning Wilson, I'd say he doesn't deserve too much grief (some is always fair game) until the Tigers don't make the BCA playoffs for 2-3 years in a row.

 

[Loki]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

RIT sent out four PDFs to the media. There's a larger scale rendering of the interior, two exterior renderings and a site plan. There's some better detail of the interior on the PDF because it's larger than these images.

I have them in a public Dropbox folder and will leave them up for a few days:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/542135/2012-10-17 - GPC Board 4.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/542135/2012-10-17 - GPC Boards BBB Outside 1.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/542135/2012-10-17 - GPC Boards BBB Outside 2.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/542135/2012-10-17 - GPC Boards Inside 3.pdf

The renderings remind me a lot of the look that the field house has. Inside and out. curved roof, lots of glass/brick, and the white flat walls. It also looks like ritter 2.0, single bowl all the way around, low ceiling, and rails all the way around to stand against. I think I like it better than the mini pro rink, with 2 bowls and boxes it was pictured to be. It keeps it intimate and rockin.

 

[jflory81]

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

Re: >>>>> RIT TIGERS 2012-2013 - Locked, Loaded, And Ready To Roar <<<<<

A. Buff State is not the same DIII Buff State team of years past, and if it wasn't for Kevin Carr in the first period, Penn State blows Buff State away. Plain and simple. They also start Schoff who by the looks of things is the back up. There was 29 penalties for 83 minutes and 20 power plays total in the game. Buff State (who is one of the best in D3 on the PP) scored all three goals on the PP. 5 on 5 Penn State was the much better team.

Point 1: Penn State is not a mid tier DIII team.

B. RIT held Penn State to 10 total shots the last two period combined, they simply could not solve Musico. At times RIT dominated. This was a HUGE game for Penn State way more then RIT. Overlooked? Playing down to the opponent? Could be the reason they gave up 12 shots on goal in the first and then just 10 combined the final two periods.

Point 2: Now you know how Michigan felt losing to an inferior hockey team.

C. Norwich took Dartmouth to the brink again this year. Face it, the lower DI teams are not that far off from the upper DIII teams. Plain and simple. Like Dartmouth, RIT is not in the upper tier of DI hockey, period. Taking these type of loses will happen. If they played a bunch of games against Oswego, Norwich, Plattsburgh, SNC, ect they wouldn't go undefeated.

Considering this senior class has gone 29-2-10 in all regular season home conference games, I'd say that there is quite a gap between "lower D-1" teams and RIT.

 

[kbranch]

I've been reflecting on this specifically the past few days and everytime I think of it I feel bad.... but is it possible that the real issue recently with RIT hockey isn't the players but the coaches? When is it time/appropriate to start bashing/attacking/complaining about the coach in college hockey?

Considering there is only one team RIT can't solve when it matters (Air Force) we are a very long way from having a legitimate complaint about the coaches.