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RPI 2020 Off-season Overtime: In Memory of Turk181

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Do people have a right to be unhappy with the way things have played out this year? Of course.

Should good coaches leave RPI because the presence of one person will make it impossible for them to have success after the pandemic is over? I don't think so.

Here's what five RPI coaches achieved prior to the pandemic.

Coach Smith had the hockey team on the upswing and finished in the top four of the ECAC in 2019-20, the first time that had happened in seven years.

Coach Gilbride's men's basketball team went 24-5 in 2019-20, setting school records for consecutive wins and wins in a season.

Coach Isernia's football team went 6-5 in 2019, which was something of a down year (though I can remember the days when 6-5 would have seemed miraculous), but had gone to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament the year before.

Coach Maisonet's softball team started 2020 12-0.

Coach Clinton's men's soccer team went 16-3-4 in 2019, making it to the fourth round of the NCAA tournament.

All of these things happened while Dr. Jackson was President of the Institute.
 
I think the worry here is lack of clarity and commitment going forward from the admin. Just take a look at any of the ivy sports threads to see the panic. Top athletes will not go there when there are other strong academic institutions that have shown a commitment to athletics during this time. RPI is now in the same boat - why go there when the inevitable "variant" of the virus comes out and the admin pulls the plug on a season when your peer schools (non-Ivy ECAC, Liberty League members) all are making an effort to play? This will crush recruiting.
 
Today is 11 March 2021. There are 205 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 2 October 2021 for the start of next season.
 
I am curious. Will Brown decides to leave UA and a player enters the transfer portal and it’s like front page news in the sports section. What is it like 8 players do the same at RPI hockey and very little. Maybe if TU, the Record, Gazette, Rodger Wyland et al reported that and asked questions, maybe something would change. Couldn’t hurt. Wyland took heat for ignoring college hockey in years past and did more reporting on hockey, but I guess he’s back to his old ways.
 
25+years said:
I am curious. Will Brown decides to leave UA and a player enters the transfer portal and it’s like front page news in the sports section. What is it like 8 players do the same at RPI hockey and very little. Maybe if TU, the Record, Gazette, Rodger Wyland et al reported that and asked questions, maybe something would change. Couldn’t hurt. Wyland took heat for ignoring college hockey in years past and did more reporting on hockey, but I guess he’s back to his old ways.
Click to expand...

Part of it is that basketball has always been king here--compare any Siena game with the Mayor's Cup attendance. Another part is the local media landscape: Times Union has freelancers covering RPI and Union hockey. Ken Schott is formally off the Union/ECAC beat for the Gazette, but he might cover this situation in his podcast. Wyland's friendly conversational format isn't really suited for a deep dive on this. The local education beat reporters have covered RPI pretty well over the years, relative to dedicated resources, but I think a lot of bandwidth is currently taken up covering other colleges and secondary schools COVID policies, which will appeal to a broader audience of subscribers.

But you are right that there is a lot worth understanding about what has unfolded with RPI this year that warrants journalistic attention.
 
https://1045theteam.com/what-is-rpi-...twitter_mobile

Roger Wyland

Someone should tell RPI that it’s time to start playing sports again, or at least practicing. Every college team in the country has it figured it out, but at RPI the athletes are still locked up in their dorm rooms. Makes no sense. The infection numbers are going down, the climate is better than ever, and the top sport and money maker men’s hockey has already lost some of their top players to other schools, and more are headed to the portal. Time to return to the ice, before the program that head coach Dave Smith has done a tremendous job in turning around, takes an even bigger hit. What are they waiting for?
Click to expand...
 
Email tonight From RPI:

Good afternoon RPI Hockey Fans,

We have all missed Engineers Hockey-every part of what makes the hockey season so special.

The RPI Pepband has developed an AI experience, and the 19-20 RPI Hockey Team has been programmed into NHL’21 EA Sports!
Tomorrow at 7PM, please join us at RPITV’s YouTube Channel to check out this RPI Hockey Game simulation.
The RPI Pepband will be performing, and Perry Laskaris will be hosting a couple interviews with RPI’s Men Hockey players and Head Coach Dave Smith!
We look forward to seeing you tomorrow night!

Let’s Go Red!
 
DavidNardolillo said:
Part of it is that basketball has always been king here--compare any Siena game with the Mayor's Cup attendance. Another part is the local media landscape: Times Union has freelancers covering RPI and Union hockey. Ken Schott is formally off the Union/ECAC beat for the Gazette, but he might cover this situation in his podcast. Wyland's friendly conversational format isn't really suited for a deep dive on this. The local education beat reporters have covered RPI pretty well over the years, relative to dedicated resources, but I think a lot of bandwidth is currently taken up covering other colleges and secondary schools COVID policies, which will appeal to a broader audience of subscribers.

But you are right that there is a lot worth understanding about what has unfolded with RPI this year that warrants journalistic attention.
Click to expand...

You are oh so correct. There are currently no TV, radio or print media outlets in the Capital District that will even attempt to engage in any in depth, probing or hard hitting reporting or commentary on the current situation. Perhaps that fact is a main reason why the current situation even exists to begin with.

There once was a radio sports guy around here named John Graney (aka Graynac the Magnificent) who would have done just that but he retired years ago. No chance what so ever the current administration would have got off with so little scrutiny if this guy were still around. Graney would have been on top of the story from the very first sign of any thing being even a bit off, identified both those who bore no blame and the actual culprits including naming names with absolutely no punches pulled. You can bet the ranch that Billy Jerry would have quickly been in a car driving himself or being driven to a studio to be a live in studio guest on the John Graney Show. Guaranteed the narcissists' running that place these days would not have been members of the John Graney fan club and Graney would not have cared less. Trust me on that. I actually met and was around him a couple of times at the Latham watering hole where he often held court and, boy, could he hold court!!!

Today, there are times when I break out in to laughter when checking out the New York sports scene on SNY Sports Night whenever the reporters, commentators and contributors who work there go off on somebody who needs a new one ripped. I sometimes imagine what might happen if there were such a channel in this market with guys like Vacchiano, Martino, Jastremski, Malusis and Licata reporting on and covering Capital District pro and college sports. The very likely results would be that an administration that has exhibited the kind of arrogance, aloofness and contempt this one has would be dealt with very quickly by these guys. In short, they would tearing pieces off of the current administrative people (NOTE: NOT THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF ATHLETIC PEOPLE) as if they were RAW MEAT. Quite possibly, this administrations' "interpretation" of whatever "scientific data" they were "relaying" on would have differed "slightly" had they been in the cross hairs of guys like this on a nightly basis. Perhaps, with these guys "keeping an eye" on them on a nightly basis, the place would not presently be on total, absolute and complete hunker down in place orders because approximately 30 people out of a community of almost 10,000 tested positive!!!

Forget athletics entirely and say this to yourself a few times just as the SNY guys probably would. Around 30 positive tests out of a population of almost 10,000 EQUALS shut everything, lock everything, hunker down in your bunker and do not take a step out of it unless there is a knock on the door for your "allotment" of food and do it for two weeks. Again, say it a few times. Eventually, it should start sounding like wild animals (wild animals paying almost $60,000 a year) locked in a cage at the zoo waiting for the caretaker to make the rounds to periodically feed the animals. Say it a few times. It's nuts!!! It's bats!!! Not to mention inhumane.
 
tony/troy said:
You are oh so correct. There are currently no TV, radio or print media outlets in the Capital District that will even attempt to engage in any in depth, probing or hard hitting reporting or commentary on the current situation. Perhaps that fact is a main reason why the current situation even exists to begin with.

There once was a radio sports guy around here named John Graney (aka Graynac the Magnificent) who would have done just that but he retired years ago. No chance what so ever the current administration would have got off with so little scrutiny if this guy were still around. Graney would have been on top of the story from the very first sign of any thing being even a bit off, identified both those who bore no blame and the actual culprits including naming names with absolutely no punches pulled. You can bet the ranch that Billy Jerry would have quickly been in a car driving himself or being driven to a studio to be a live in studio guest on the John Graney Show. Guaranteed the narcissists' running that place these days would not have been members of the John Graney fan club and Graney would not have cared less. Trust me on that. I actually met and was around him a couple of times at the Latham watering hole where he often held court and, boy, could he hold court!!!

Today, there are times when I break out in to laughter when checking out the New York sports scene on SNY Sports Night whenever the reporters, commentators and contributors who work there go off on somebody who needs a new one ripped. I sometimes imagine what might happen if there were such a channel in this market with guys like Vacchiano, Martino, Jastremski, Malusis and Licata reporting on and covering Capital District pro and college sports. The very likely results would be that an administration that has exhibited the kind of arrogance, aloofness and contempt this one has would be dealt with very quickly by these guys. In short, they would tearing pieces off of the current administrative people (NOTE: NOT THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF ATHLETIC PEOPLE) as if they were RAW MEAT. Quite possibly, this administrations' "interpretation" of whatever "scientific data" they were "relaying" on would have differed "slightly" had they been in the cross hairs of guys like this on a nightly basis. Perhaps, with these guys "keeping an eye" on them on a nightly basis, the place would not presently be on total, absolute and complete hunker down in place orders because approximately 30 people out of a community of almost 10,000 tested positive!!!

Forget athletics entirely and say this to yourself a few times just as the SNY guys probably would. Around 30 positive tests out of a population of almost 10,000 EQUALS shut everything, lock everything, hunker down in your bunker and do not take a step out of it unless there is a knock on the door for your "allotment" of food and do it for two weeks. Again, say it a few times. Eventually, it should start sounding like wild animals (wild animals paying almost $60,000 a year) locked in a cage at the zoo waiting for the caretaker to make the rounds to periodically feed the animals. Say it a few times. It's nuts!!! It's bats!!! Not to mention inhumane.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the post. Great points.

Have to add that as a student you MUST submit to bi-weekly testing if you are ARCH/off campus /online student, whom has not accessed campus this semester, but live within 25 miles of campus.....or face academic disciplinary actions........so SAJ is worried about a .3% positive rate for persons whom have access to campus, but yet are demanding “outside population” to mandatory on campus testing......what about protecting the “RPI Community”.......

“Shut the front door”........
 
Today is 12 March 2021. There are 204 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 2 October 2021 for the start of next season.
 
NAFTA123 said:
Thank you for the post. Great points.

Have to add that as a student you MUST submit to bi-weekly testing if you are ARCH/off campus /online student, whom has not accessed campus this semester, but live within 25 miles of campus.....or face academic disciplinary actions........so SAJ is worried about a .3% positive rate for persons whom have access to campus, but yet are demanding “outside population” to mandatory on campus testing......what about protecting the “RPI Community”.......

“Shut the front door”........
Click to expand...

Do you think that maybe it was SAJ's policy that kept the campus down to only 30 positive cases? Just asking.
 
RPI has unquestionably done a great job of controlling the virus. Taken in isolation the policy could be considered a complete success. However, there are now a few thousand students that have had little or no true collegiate experience. Thousands of others are nearing departure with their strongest memory of Troy being all the challenges of the last year. Losing hockey players is just an indicator of the price for lack of communication. If RPI doesn't want to lose many students and connections to young alumni you would hope that a lot of the thinking in the Troy Building is turning toward how to get things going again and getting the message out about those plans for the summer and fall terms.

I got a chuckle when I heard that the students were quarantied in their rooms for two weeks with meals delivered. No, I'm not a sadist. i just remembered that Colgate did that as part of their reopening plan. Their president took a room in a dorm and lived the same lifestyle for two weeks as a shared experience. The chuckle was over a mental image of Shirley doing the same. It would never happen.
 
Today is 13 March 2021. There are 203 days (29 weeks) until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 2 October 2021 for the start of next season.
 
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