tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

[Biddco]

UMD comes into Lawson in their 4th week of being ranked #1. We haven't played since Dec 10th at Madison (we had no holiday tournament). Western is coming off a split at SCSU.

Should be a great match up and is on CBS Sports Network on Friday. Funny how we are going to be conference mates and we are playing on the channel that our conference will have hockey games on.

Lastly a couple points:

I am amazed at how much more attention WMU is giving their program. When we last played them they were one of the bottom dwellers of the CCHA. Since then they have fired that head coach, and put tons of money into their program. I believe they had an new AD who supported the program and wanted to make it better.

Going to be a tough series and I expect the WMU crowd to be into the game.

I hope to make the trip to KZoo sometime in the future.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

I think Western showed how tough they can come out and play last March at the Joe which I was there to witness. I only know of Minn-Duluth on what I've read and heard but if Western hasn't gotten rusty over break then they should give the Bulldogs one of their toughest series so far this season. With The Bulldogs being #1 in the polls it should be a packed house of rabid Bronco fans & students which of course is how it should be on any teams home ice (except Ohio State).

 

[Red Cows]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

My hope is that WMU gives them all they want and more while UMD wins a couple of tough squeakers so they arrive emotionally drained for their date(s) in Omaha the following weekend.

UMD is going to have to play in front of a tidy gathering of 16,680 on Friday the 13th in Omaha. They best not be looking ahead.

 

[Runninwiththedogs]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

My hope is that WMU gives them all they want and more while UMD wins a couple of tough squeakers so they arrive emotionally drained for their date(s) in Omaha the following weekend.

UMD is going to have to play in front of a tidy gathering of 16,680 on Friday the 13th in Omaha. They best not be looking ahead.

They won the national championship in front of a larger crowd. It's all good.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

I guess everybody is a hater when you're #1 except your own fans.

 

[Dirty]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

UMD is going to have to play in front of a tidy gathering of 16,680 on Friday the 13th in Omaha. They best not be looking ahead.

I have a question. Did Faulkner help out by selling tickets to residents at his senior living home?

 

[Runninwiththedogs]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

I have a question. Did Faulkner help out by selling tickets to residents at his senior living home?

I'm 800 million years old!

Still considering going. I'm nervous because there are only 6100 tickets left before it sells out. That's cutting it close.

Apparently I'm looking ahead. But only because I haven't found anything about WMU to mock yet. Although unless their school starts really early or the students are all townies, there won't be a full student section.

 

[Dirty]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

On the plus side for Faulkner, if he ever starts losing his hair up top he can just make a comb-over with his eyebrows.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

Still considering going. I'm nervous because there are only 6100 tickets left before it sells out. That's cutting it close.

FWIW, that ticket counter on the special web site UNO set up for the Friday the 13th game that you are obviously looking at has not been updated since last Thursday morning.

Sounds like it's gonna be on in two weeks and in the time leading up to it. I'm gonna refrain here because I don't want to hijack Biddco's thread. Moving on from this. Sounds like we need a new thread for weekend after next already, maybe.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

Although unless their school starts really early or the students are all townies, there won't be a full student section.

They start the 9th so I'd say there may be a good showing for at least the Saturday game. This past year especially it seems their students have shown tremendous support for their team so I'd say being back a day or two early is a definate possibility.

 

[Runninwiththedogs]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

They start the 9th so I'd say there may be a good showing for at least the Saturday game. This past year especially it seems their students have shown tremendous support for their team so I'd say being back a day or two early is a definate possibility.

They do?? Jeez. Remind me not to apply to WMU this fall.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

They do?? Jeez. Remind me not to apply to WMU this fall.

Miami starts the 9th too so all the students will be returning to Oxford this weekend as well.

 

[Biddco]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

I think Western showed how tough they can come out and play last March at the Joe which I was there to witness. I only know of Minn-Duluth on what I've read and heard but if Western hasn't gotten rusty over break then they should give the Bulldogs one of their toughest series so far this season. With The Bulldogs being #1 in the polls it should be a packed house of rabid Bronco fans & students which of course is how it should be on any teams home ice (except Ohio State).

If SCSU can split with WMU, than UMD can sweep. Like all road series I am hopeful for a split, with anything more than that is better.

I have a question. Did Faulkner help out by selling tickets to residents at his senior living home?

No no no silly, he used is AARP card to get discounts on tickets.

They do?? Jeez. Remind me not to apply to WMU this fall.

But it seems like a nice school!

 

[bronconick]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

Well, we still have the same AD that kept extending our 8-12 win per season coach and tried to destroy my liver. We did, however get a President that understands that having athletics that aren't *** are good for marketing your school, so maybe she was handcuffed by lack of funding.

The hardcore students will be back, and about half live off campus, so they probably don't spend the full 3 weeks home anyway. No need to get the stinkeye from Mom and Dad when you walk in tanked at 2:20 am if you can do it in your own apartment. The WMU hockey facebook account has been pushing getting back for this series as well. I have no idea how well that works, given that I'm in my 30's now.

The Broncos give up about 10-12 less shots on goal per game at home, (18 against at home) last I checked, which is the main difference for their road/home splits. Ought to be interesting. Western's got their fate in their own hands, with both UMD and OSU coming to Lawson in the 2nd half and the CCHA being in the mid 2000's WCHA's position in regards to overall non-conference record buoying the entire league in the Pairwise.

 

[Biddco]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

I guess everybody is a hater when you're #1 except your own fans.

We seem to be the exception on this...

Well, we still have the same AD that kept extending our 8-12 win per season coach and tried to destroy my liver. We did, however get a President that understands that having athletics that aren't *** are good for marketing your school, so maybe she was handcuffed by lack of funding.

The hardcore students will be back, and about half live off campus, so they probably don't spend the full 3 weeks home anyway. No need to get the stinkeye from Mom and Dad when you walk in tanked at 2:20 am if you can do it in your own apartment. The WMU hockey facebook account has been pushing getting back for this series as well. I have no idea how well that works, given that I'm in my 30's now.

The Broncos give up about 10-12 less shots on goal per game at home, (18 against at home) last I checked, which is the main difference for their road/home splits. Ought to be interesting. Western's got their fate in their own hands, with both UMD and OSU coming to Lawson in the 2nd half and the CCHA being in the mid 2000's WCHA's position in regards to overall non-conference record buoying the entire league in the Pairwise.

Then why the change of philosophy at WMU?

Is WMU a commuter schol?

 

[bronconick]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

We seem to be the exception on this...
Then why the change of philosophy at WMU?

Is WMU a commuter schol?

Don't suppose you remember Judy Bailey when she was at Northern Michigan?

We had her for most of the 2000's. She's got a community college sort of mindset for a President. First thing she did was announce that sports had to be cut, and never gave anyone a chance to raise money to save them. Beyond that, the hockey boosters were pretty much sending in letters saying "call us when you want to be serious about the sport" since Culhane and his assistants were at the bottom of the CCHA in salary. When they replaced them, the boosters threw in, so here we are. Hopefully they can start looking at upgrading Lawson again. Was next on the "list", but fell through because of the post 9/11 economy and in favor of a IPF for the football team.

Not a commuter school. Just half of the 25,000 students are in apartments and houses around the city.

 

[Biddco]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

Don't suppose you remember Judy Bailey when she was at Northern Michigan?

We had her for most of the 2000's. She's got a community college sort of mindset for a President. First thing she did was announce that sports had to be cut, and never gave anyone a chance to raise money to save them. Beyond that, the hockey boosters were pretty much sending in letters saying "call us when you want to be serious about the sport" since Culhane and his assistants were at the bottom of the CCHA in salary. When they replaced them, the boosters threw in, so here we are. Hopefully they can start looking at upgrading Lawson again. Was next on the "list", but fell through because of the post 9/11 economy and in favor of a IPF for the football team.

Not a commuter school. Just half of the 25,000 students are in apartments and houses around the city.

I don't remember her there, but I had read some complaints about her from Northern and Western fans. Somewhat similar situation that happened at Tech.

What upgrades at Lawson were they attempting to do?

 

[Dirty]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

No no no silly, he used is AARP card to get discounts on tickets.

Well that's just super, Biddy and I thank you for that tidbit of information. It doesn't really answer my question though. Did "Old Hickory" Faulkner sell tickets to his retirement home Bridge Club?

 

[bronconick]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

I don't remember her there, but I had read some complaints about her from Northern and Western fans. Somewhat similar situation that happened at Tech.

What upgrades at Lawson were they attempting to do?

The 1999/2000 plans had a new press box, adding a couple thousand seats extending out on one side and putting new locker rooms under the new seats. They need a new scoreboard/video board but I don't remember if that was in the original plans.

They've already put new locker rooms in, so that old plan is out anyway. Murray wants a training/weight tables and a couple more meeting rooms. He (and the people willing to donate) don't want anything to do with the currently failed effort to put a new arena in downtown, both from the lack of home ice advantage being off campus and because WMU would be secondary tenants to the ECHL K-Wings. The idea of parking downtown with 3-4,000 others makes me shudder.

We let the program lapse for quite a while.

 

[Taz]

Re: tUMD at WMU - Hello future conference foe!

The 1999/2000 plans had a new press box, adding a couple thousand seats extending out on one side and putting new locker rooms under the new seats. They need a new scoreboard/video board but I don't remember if that was in the original plans.

They've already put new locker rooms in, so that old plan is out anyway. Murray wants a training/weight tables and a couple more meeting rooms. He (and the people willing to donate) don't want anything to do with the currently failed effort to put a new arena in downtown, both from the lack of home ice advantage being off campus and because WMU would be secondary tenants to the ECHL K-Wings. The idea of parking downtown with 3-4,000 others makes me shudder.

We let the program lapse for quite a while.

Neither do the donors that provided the funds for the 2006 renovations.

I just hope that Murray and the new donor(s) have a bigger set and more $$$ than the group behind the downtown plan.