UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

[FDNY99]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

Not a good loss today to Brown...time to move on and focus on Wed night against UMASS-Lowell. Cav sat Richardson again today and had Koonas at left wing on the 2nd line with Ojantkanen in the middle and Ronan on the right side.

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

Not surprising. Lack of consistency and playing at the level of the competition has been a UConn hallmark for the last decade.

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

Losing to SHU and Brown were disappointments. Losing last night to UMass Lowell, while also a disappointment, was not discouraging. A goal and an empty netter playing in the other guy's barn, a team that may be the best in the league. UConn will be OK. They are developing. There were some positives. The Courant made it sound like they under-performed. Not at all in my opinion. They could easily have been blown out by a team of that caliber. They weren't. And they scored some goals. What more does the Courant want this year?

 

[HuskyfanDan]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

The courant is such garbage its hard not to notice. They go out of there way to either devalue UConn in results or bash when they find something negative. Don't read them. The football fan base is about 60% turned off by them and begging others to stop giving them quarters and hits. The worst is Dez Connor the football writer. If all of UConn fans in general turn them off maybe they will finally hire some actual beat writers and not snotty jerks or Cuse grads who are desperate to move out of that concrete broken down jail cell they Syracuse.

Its been a refreshing year watching this team compete. I get on Warde more than anyone about how he's not changing the football experience, but he's doing a great job with hockey and the staff. Its going to be another year or 2 before we are really a every night top 25 contender but we are on the way. In hockey with only 60 something teams and half of those being small private schools in niche towns/areas, the sport is ripe for big brand name publics who have the base and brand to compete immediately. With football being so down this has become a fun follow for UConn fans in general. We needed something positive. IF anything, I think you could call this years team the wildcard in the league. We can skate any night with you.

They are sleeping on us in the city of Boston.

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

Dan, which nickname do you like better: Bob Fiasco or Bob Debacle?

 

[claver2010]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

Dan, which nickname do you like better: Bob Fiasco or Bob Debacle?

Wait he's not B1G Bob?????

Thrilled Bates didn't hire that disaster. Takes a special type of coach to lose to Army, SMU, Tulane & Temple

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

The courant is such garbage its hard not to notice. They go out of there way to either devalue UConn in results or bash when they find something negative. Don't read them. The football fan base is about 60% turned off by them and begging others to stop giving them quarters and hits. The worst is Dez Connor the football writer. If all of UConn fans in general turn them off maybe they will finally hire some actual beat writers and not snotty jerks or Cuse grads who are desperate to move out of that concrete broken down jail cell they Syracuse.

I beg to differ. Conner and Jacobs are nowhere near tough enough on the FB coaching. Diaco is CLEARLY in over his head and is doing his OJT at UConn. He has been an unmitigated disaster. Another year of no season tix for us in 2015.

Anthony, on the other hand has been too tough on the hockey team. Does he think every game is going to be like opening night? I am proud of the way the hockey team competes and goes toe to toe. They don't back down. Yeah, it may take a couple more recruiting classes to get to a good record, but such is life. I love this team and their grittiness right now.

 

[Patronick]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

The courant is such garbage its hard not to notice. They go out of there way to either devalue UConn in results or bash when they find something negative. Don't read them. The football fan base is about 60% turned off by them and begging others to stop giving them quarters and hits. The worst is Dez Connor the football writer. If all of UConn fans in general turn them off maybe they will finally hire some actual beat writers and not snotty jerks or Cuse grads who are desperate to move out of that concrete broken down jail cell they Syracuse.

Its been a refreshing year watching this team compete. I get on Warde more than anyone about how he's not changing the football experience, but he's doing a great job with hockey and the staff. Its going to be another year or 2 before we are really a every night top 25 contender but we are on the way. In hockey with only 60 something teams and half of those being small private schools in niche towns/areas, the sport is ripe for big brand name publics who have the base and brand to compete immediately. With football being so down this has become a fun follow for UConn fans in general. We needed something positive. IF anything, I think you could call this years team the wildcard in the league. We can skate any night with you.

They are sleeping on us in the city of Boston.

This is my favorite account on USCHO.

Please, never change.

 

[Patman]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

I beg to differ. Conner and Jacobs are nowhere near tough enough on the FB coaching. Diaco is CLEARLY in over his head and is doing his OJT at UConn. He has been an unmitigated disaster. Another year of no season tix for us in 2015.

Anthony, on the other hand has been too tough on the hockey team. Does he think every game is going to be like opening night? I am proud of the way the hockey team competes and goes toe to toe. They don't back down. Yeah, it may take a couple more recruiting classes to get to a good record, but such is life. I love this team and their grittiness right now.

In a different era UConn fans would still be bagging on Jacobs for not giving proper deference to the basketball team. Been awhile since I've paid attention but IIRC Dez is decent. I agree the fire needs to be lit under Diaco but the way I see it, things just seem like panic on panic. If anything I'd ask the football fans to settle the BLEEP down.

 

[HuskyfanDan]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

I'm not going to turn this into a thread about B1G Bob, but my 2 cents is that he will be a great hire 3 years from now. This year was horrible. I don't expect anyone to pay for that product, heck I stopped paying for what FHCPP was putting on display. People on th BY have no clue what a "fan" is. They act tough and think if you don't fork over cash every weekend then your not a fan. I have both gotten season tickets and sat at home and watched Games over the years. I'm a fan. I make decisions based on entertainment, money and life issues. The reason UConn has the best besides BYU TV ratings is because thousands agree with what I just said. I predict a bit under 20k in season tix next year. It will be the official rock bottom for the program. Until we hear about the players leaving between now and game 1 next year and the season tix numbers the attitude will be negative about things from many. But this will end very well in the future. My interest in UConn sports is family ties, entertainment and winning. So I will take on field results personally above grades and behavior to a degree that others won't. I'm not asking for us to turn into "The U...Conn" but I don't mind the nonsense. B1G Bob broke it down the long term way and Warde cares about the process just as much. I have killed Warde for many things, but he has made it clear he moves slowly and the results are starting to show. He is competent, but it doesn't look like it because of the time crunch I and other fans feel due to CR.

An example is BC. They took the Dazzler as coach, I wanted Warde to fire FHCPP after the Lville win years ago for perception purposes in ACC CR and also to hopefully beat BC to the hire. Didn't happen. I know what the Dazzler does, he's crazy and he wins. Then he moves on and does the same again. I was perfectly fine with that. Remember how I view it, Warde has a more longterm eye. The Dazzler took a BC roster that was arguably just as bad as UConns and he got some transfers ASAP to plug holes and be competitive. Fans are happy because of that. But his long term strategy isn't so solid. He's not developing young guys which up north you need to do and have depth to compete with southern or B1G top schools if you want a 9+ win season. Anyway, Diaco is rebuilding purely with youth and not going to sacrafice that for a Murphy type to get 2 extra wins now.

Sure, the play calling wasn't great and some other things were questionable, I don't deny that. Diaco will clean the management things up as he learns. I actually think he going to develope mentally into a bit of a gambler as he gets more wisdom under him. Les Miles a bit. The staff knew none of its QBs(including Casey) fit the system they wanted to run. So they decided to run some bs all year and put the OL in bad spots constantly to see who would grow and improve. Next year wil be different. B1G Bob will turn out to be a great hire after a rough beginning. Don't get me started on small things like game day experience. Hopefully by year 3 we are talking season tix back up in the mid 20s sold but it's going to take Warde committing to it like he has bball wise pumping and marketing the program. There is no way you can go experience the midnight madness night and then a football game and thinks it's the same Ath Dept putting the show on. Night and day. I have come to the conclusion that he's just letting it go and saving the money this year to do a full press long term and have more resources.

Anyway

The Courant is garbage. I would rather no newspaper then what they put out. The only reason some people think it's good is because they have clowns like the New London guy to compare it to. The football guys are never tough until it's to later, the basketball guys are lazy a lot of the time. The hockey guy is tough on us all of a sudden. What about that makes the place good to its home market fans? If you burnt the place down it would be doing a favor to the locals keeping there heat bills down this winter.

Back to hockey....

Based on what my sources have told me over the past 2 years, this league while fun won't be our longterm home and we won't be the only one moving. But for now, I love it and it's fun to play in such a storied league.

How good is our goalie and based on the recruit news I see from time to time it seems we are atleast being competitive with the upper middle pack of programs among D1. Is that fair to say? I don't know enough about hockey recruiting, just enough to be dangerous.

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

If Diaco was rebuilding entirely with youth, then why did Whitmer take almost all the snaps? That was just his excuse of the day when he call got called for some questionable game management stuff. I fail to see how winning only two games is going to help him. Recruits are going to want to come to UConn after that? Anyway, Diaco isn't going to get four full years after this incompetent display, so three years from now will be a moot point.

 

[claver2010]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

hfd, it's too bad the boneyard can't appreciate greatness like yourself and decided to silence you. that place is unreadable

btw you owe me royalties on b1g bob. i accept payments in the form of blue solo cus

But his long term strategy isn't so solid. He's not developing young guys which up north you need to do and have depth to compete with southern or B1G top schools if you want a 9+ win season.

no

 

[HuskyfanDan]

If Diaco was rebuilding entirely with youth, then why did Whitmer take almost all the snaps? That was just his excuse of the day when he call got called for some questionable game management stuff. I fail to see how winning only two games is going to help him. Recruits are going to want to come to UConn after that? Anyway, Diaco isn't going to get four full years after this incompetent display, so three years from now will be a moot point.

Diaco played youth when ever he could. It happened at literally every position. What happened at QB was simple. None of the 3 fit the system. So Diaco needed Whitmer to come back becuase even after all the beating he took, he was the most ballzy runner of the 3 and none of them were good lets be honest. It was a depth issue. The plan was to split Casey and Whitmer. That would be a reward for Whitmer coming back to help the program(literally we needed qbs just to practice), it would allow Casey a significant amount of tape to form so he could use that to transfer to a p5 type and lastly Boyle was never going to red shirt. The plan for him was when we get random chances we will get you a couple series so you have some tape to transfer also. It was going to be mostly end game score out of reach either way.

The Casey got hurt. Now things change. You give Whitmer most of the snaps and you try to manage the crap out of the game. He doesn't need tape, he's purely school. So throwing all over the place is no good for you(his int issue) or him. So you try to have him just manage the game by putting the young guys at different positions in situations they can gain experience. Diaco many times left his tight ends and tackles on islands when pressure came to see who would respond. Guys like Rutherford stepped up and sometimes guys like Myers got ran over(cough goal line one game I forget which).

At the same time you get Boyle some more snaps now as result of the injury to give Whitmer a break from the dad babysitting roll and let him throw a bunch of balls up to see what sticks. Unfortunately he didn't do to well. It's a combo of young WR, a strong arm he has and his inexperience reading dbs.

So it's all a wash becuase none of the, are the long haul. So the qb position is a complete miss this year and it's hard to do anything considering it all.

So Diaco then trying to give the diehards a bit of a glimpse into the future has Foz run the offense a bit. It was mostly wildcat type stuff but the blocking scheme and moves were what we will be doing next year. It was a small taste of what having a qb for the su stem will do. It's not fair to Foxx to play that role the whole year nor does it help development in any way becuase he's not around either. So you swallow the year and let the kids run around and learn everywhere possible.

As for "B1G Bob" Claver, I would be careful trademarking that. Could really come back to bite you when it comes true. I have temporarily given up on blue cups and now am just drinking straight out of bottles. You could call it a throwback to college memories or I can just be honest and say this past season is at fault.

 

[J.D.]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

Based on what my sources have told me over the past 2 years, this league while fun won't be our longterm home and we won't be the only one moving. But for now, I love it and it's fun to play in such a storied league.

Oh now this is gold. Please enlighten us on what league UConn will be in...

 

[HuskyfanDan]

oh now this is gold. Please enlighten us on what league uconn will be in...

b1g

 

[claver2010]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

can you please give us some slashes of future hockey conferences for old time's sake?

As for "B1G Bob" Claver, I would be careful trademarking that. Could really come back to bite you when it comes true.

I'll be rolling in the $

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

b1g

Well you may be right, but for now this idea seems a bit preposterous. FB drives the bus, and this year -- and most likely for many years to come -- FB would not even have been competitive at the FCS level let alone FBS. And I do not know how that gets turned around in less than a decade, if ever, with all the red ink that a losing FB program will generate over that time period. So for now, I would have to say highly unlikely.

Nonetheless they are dramatically improving their external research funding to the point that an AAU invite is not preposterous. In fact. almost likely.

 

[HuskyfanDan]

can you please give us some slashes of future hockey conferences for old time's sake?



I'll be rolling in the $

Some reshuffling
WC-Alasks, AA, Denver, AF, CC, ASU, AH, NO
NC-BS, MD, MS, SCS, ND, MT, LSS, NM, FS, WM, Miami, BG
B1G-Mich, Minn, PSU, Wisc, tOSU, MSU, UConn, BU
HE-BC, ND, UMass, UVM, UNH, Maine, Prov, NE, Mer, UL
AH-RM, SHU, Army, Bent, AIC, RIt, Can, Mer, Niagara, URI(it's time)
ECAC- adds Holy Cross for 12

 

[HuskyfanDan]

Well you may be right, but for now this idea seems a bit preposterous. FB drives the bus, and this year -- and most likely for many years to come -- FB would not even have been competitive at the FCS level let alone FBS. And I do not know how that gets turned around in less than a decade, if ever, with all the red ink that a losing FB program will generate over that time period. So for now, I would have to say highly unlikely.

Nonetheless they are dramatically improving their external research funding to the point that an AAU invite is not preposterous. In fact. almost likely.

Football does drive the bus but not literally. It's not the football, it's everything that goes along with it.

Uconn can sell out a basketball game vs a random team. That 15k in the seats and thousands watching on TV. When uconn football is bad we get 20-30k in the stands and sell out 40k when good. It's about base size. Big fanbase means good sales, merch, ratings, market capturing etc. it's all based off the game of football but it's not the football itself. It's a size thing. Solid conferences who are in it for the long haul can add who they want for specific longterm cohesion. Likeminded institutions. Culture etc. They don't make moves based on a few years of anything. Look at what the PAC and B1G added. Heck, the SEC added two ok programs who fit the profile, now both took that bump and are doing great but the point stands. The B12 and ACC were feeling uneasy, I think the ACC will be ok longterm. They took a academic hit, should have added WVU years ago 2nd look at it, But uconn football is going to swing up and down, most schools do. It happens in bball also for anyone not in that top top tier.

The b1g is in play, it's not as much about AAU as it is about being HIGH research. The AAU a couple years from now won't be the same, the CIC will rival it and there will be a split. A money grab. The question is do the B1G schools and friends invite the Ivy schools to join them or do those schools stay in the AAU. A ton of politics at play.

Here is a gem for you, look around the research world and find the other school who is currently moving up charts, hiring and all that jazz like uconn is working to improve its research profile. 2018 is going to be a lot of fun my friend. A B1g schedule and a party at MSG in March. My god it can't come soon enough.

 

[claver2010]

Re: UConn 2014-2015: Let the Hockey East Era Begin

Some reshuffling
WC-Alasks, AA, Denver, AF, CC, ASU, AH, NO
NC-BS, MD, MS, SCS, ND, MT, LSS, NM, FS, WM, Miami, BG
B1G-Mich, Minn, PSU, Wisc, tOSU, MSU, UConn, BU
HE-BC, ND, UMass, UVM, UNH, Maine, Prov, NE, Mer, UL
AH-RM, SHU, Army, Bent, AIC, RIt, Can, Mer, Niagara, URI(it's time)
ECAC- adds Holy Cross for 12

since when did you find the shift key & not enough slashes

When uconn football is bad we get 20-30k in the stands .

i don't think there were 100 people at the SMU game even if you include the uconn team