Re: Spencer Penrose Award Finalists named
It is hard to argue with the job Bazin did. It was a spectacular one-year turnaround.
However, just to be clear on Rick Bennett, his one-year performance was extremely impressive. Look at what Union lost from last season -- Keith Kinkaid, the most highly touted player from a professional standpoint in the history of the program (a goalie, compounding the loss), the coach who built the program (with a huge assist from Bennett) from dust, and the program's all-time leading scorer (Adam Presizniuk). We all know Troy Grosenick now, but coming into the season he was untested (started one game last season, against UConn). Also, folks close to the program will tell you that Rick Bennett's calm demeanor is a vital part of this team's character, and that the team entered the post-season with an entirely different attitude than last year. Part of that is experience, but a good part is the business-as-usual way that Bennett handles himself. He also had to make the enormous jump from the friendly assistant's role to the more discilpinarian head coach role. All this without ever having been a head coach before.
The real story at Union is that it may well be the most extraordinary job of program building in the hisotry of NCAA Division I hockey. When one considers not only where this program was for virtaully all of its Division 1 history, but what they had to work with, which was pretty much a vision and a great academic school, I cannot think of a comparable example. This is not a one-year fliuke, but something that has been built from the ground up over the past several years. Rick Bennett was front and center throughout that process. He won this year with HIS guys.
