UConn to apply to Hockey East

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

They'd be better off playing in 2000 seat Freitas. At least conceivably theres a chance the games could be a hot ticket if theres low supply

I saw the thing about Freitas in the Courant link I posted on the other thread. Didn't understand it unless they are talking about adding a weight room to the rink. What else do they need? More offices and bigger trainers' facilities? As it stands now it should be fine for practice. And it could be enlarged fairly quickly in stages. They could probably get it to 2500 or 3000 in the summer of 2013, with a further upgrade on the north side the following year although that might require raising the roof.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

I saw the thing about Freitas in the Courant link I posted on the other thread. Didn't understand it unless they are talking about adding a weight room to the rink. What else do they need? More offices and bigger trainers' facilities? As it stands now it should be fine for practice. And it could be enlarged fairly quickly in stages. They could probably get it to 2500 or 3000 in the summer of 2013, with a further upgrade on the north side the following year although that might require raising the roof.

Fixing the glass and scoreboard so they don't keep breaking wouldn't hurt, either.

 

[MUhawks628]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

This seems LUDICROUS to me. None of the Hockey East teams can even fill an 8,000 arena and UConn is going to play in a 17,000 seat one???

They are just following in the distinguished footsteps of THE Ohio State University.

 

[Jim]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

I saw the thing about Freitas in the Courant link I posted on the other thread. Didn't understand it unless they are talking about adding a weight room to the rink. What else do they need? More offices and bigger trainers' facilities? As it stands now it should be fine for practice. And it could be enlarged fairly quickly in stages. They could probably get it to 2500 or 3000 in the summer of 2013, with a further upgrade on the north side the following year although that might require raising the roof.

Last time I was there I was trying to figure out how you'd do an expansion, and I have to say without relocating Morrone I think it might be tricky. But with the planned upgrading of that facility maybe it wouldn't be that big a deal. As far as other space goes, I have to think that plans to build a new soccer facility would free up a lot of space in Frietas. As I understand it, the mens and womens soccer teams both have their locker rooms in Frietas now. I do think that this will start out in the XL Center, which is really too big not only for UCONN hockey but also for most other uses it gets, excepting the occassional UCONN basketball game. But even there most don't sell out. I guess if it were up to me, I'd try and get up to maybe 3000 in Frietas and play non-conference/lesser known games there and take BC, BU, PC, Maine UNH to Hartford. Merrimack, UML, NOrtheastern in Frietas. (Not knocking any of those programs by the way, just that they won't be the same level of draw at least initially). This was essensially the model UCONN used in its early Big East days for basketball. St Johns, Georgetown, Syracuse in Hartford, Seton Hall, PC and the non-league games in the old field house. In a perfect world, I'd build a new facility in Storrs, and rebuild the civic Center at a smaller capacity witht he ability to close off significant portions.

 

[AspyDad]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Good for the new AD. I believe UCONN can be good very quick. Standards aren't like some other schools (heck they let me in) and will be able to get kids in relatively easy. The football program might be the model. I'm not so interested in where they play but what the coaching staff will look like. Can we take anything that Coach Marshall was unavailable for comment as an indicator of where his future lies? Whatever his fate he should get a landing spot.

 

[TigerFan86-87]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Short term yes, but our president has said several times that RIT is looking at moving atheletics up to D2 so we can offer D1 scholarships.

I've only heard that rumored on here. I've never heard that in any sound bytes or speeches of his.

 

[RITProf]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Short term yes, but our president has said several times that RIT is looking at moving atheletics up to D2 so we can offer D1 scholarships.

I've heard the Pres. say lots of things, but never that one. There was some "looking" into moving the whole athletic program to D1, which would have involved some time at D2, so maybe that's what you're thinking of. The latest (as of the announcement for the women's team going D1) is that there is no longer any consideration of moving everything to D1 in the foreseeable future (things could change someday, of course), but there was some "looking into" getting the NCAA to reverse the rule that only grandfathered playup schools could offer scholarships for their one D1 sport. There was a quote from someone, maybe Lou Spiotti, about that in one of the articles. I was surprised to see it, but the success with introducing NCAA legislation to allow the women's team to move up might be giving RIT some confidence to try on that front as well.

Personally I think we are far more likely to end up with scholarships for the hockey teams by getting an NCAA rules change than by moving the whole program up. That said, the chances of either might be really low!

EDIT: Here's a link to Ed's article with details on the process (scholarships near the end)
http://www.uscho.com/2012/03/20/rit...ens-the-door-for-women-to-move-to-division-i/

 

[kingdobbs]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Fixing the glass and scoreboard so they don't keep breaking wouldn't hurt, either.

In fairness, that did only happen once.

 

[LtPowers]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Our OOC record is improving at the rate far slower than I'd like to see RIT advancing on the national scale.

I'm as eager as you are to see RIT keep moving forward, but I think your expectations here are a bit high.


Powers &8^]

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Can we take anything that Coach Marshall was unavailable for comment as an indicator of where his future lies?

Bruce isn't going anywhere. Believe me.

 

[schiegs]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Sorry but I'm sick of having a season that's realistically only 3 weekends long. I want more than one shot at the NCAA tournament and I want other schools to start looking at RIT with concern instead of "eh, we'll probably win... they may get lucky though." That's only going to happen when we put ourselves in a tougher conference, draw better recruits, and grow as a team.

Sure... the AHA is getting "stronger"... sort of. Our OOC record is improving at the rate far slower than I'd like to see RIT advancing on the national scale. Even if RITs OOC is phenomenal one year, our PWR will still be awful because of all the AHA games.

You sound like the rescued Titanic passenger that complained about the accommodations on The Carpathia.

 

[Jim]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Good for the new AD. I believe UCONN can be good very quick. Standards aren't like some other schools (heck they let me in) and will be able to get kids in relatively easy. The football program might be the model. I'm not so interested in where they play but what the coaching staff will look like. Can we take anything that Coach Marshall was unavailable for comment as an indicator of where his future lies? Whatever his fate he should get a landing spot.

My guess is that if a move is made in the next 2 years, Bruce stays for at least a few years. I think you could argue that he has earned that right, quite frankly. As I said on some other thread on this matter, while I certainly don't think Bruce Marshall is the second coming of Jerry York or Jack Parker, he deserves a shot in a situation where he has comparable resources to his competitors. When you look at his record in D3 days he made the program competitive. And while he hasn't exactly dominated in the D-1 era, UCONN has been reasonably competitive in the league most years. When they have been bad, he has gone out and brought in the guys they needed to get better. 2009 and 2010 are a case in point. they struggled but went out and recruited a group of young scorers who were pretty good and got back to being a competitive team. Again, he isn't Jack Parker, but I'm not convinced he is all that bad.

 

[Chris_NH]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

I think UConn makes the most sense as the 12th team, presuming Hockey East evolves that way. There also seems to be no real reason not to say 'Yes' immediately so that UConn can enter the league when Notre Dame does.

 

[schiegs]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

This will be an interesting case study on the effects of increased funding and conference affiliation on a program's on-ice success. UConn, over the last 10 years, has had a conference record above .500 (in easily the weakest conference in D1) a total of two times, '10-'11 (+1) and '06-'07 (+3). They have never had (in the last ten years) an overall record above .500 or in N/C games. So, the bogey is set really low here. Any modicum of success either in HE, or even OOC games should be proof positive of the level of improvement money and affiliation can bring.

 

[Humanoid]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

This will be an interesting case study on the effects of increased funding and conference affiliation on a program's on-ice success. UConn, over the last 10 years, has had a conference record above .500 (in easily the weakest conference in D1) a total of two times, '10-'11 (+1) and '06-'07 (+3). They have never had (in the last ten years) an overall record above .500 or in N/C games. So, the bogey is set really low here. Any modicum of success either in HE, or even OOC games should be proof positive of the level of improvement money and affiliation can bring.

While I think scholarships and an influx of funding will be key to their success just as a Hockey East team, I look at one major issue - IF this team does not succeed, which they definitely would not right away, and IF the rink is at the XL center 30 miles off campus, what makes everyone so sure that UCOnn would bring fans in for Hartford?

It's the same theory UMass is using by playing home football games at Gillette Stadium; that your brand can outdraw the negative of relocating off campus. Right now, UConn hockey is going to try and bank on the Hockey East and UConn names, not the "UConn hockey" name. That's a very large gamble to be taking with a program that has, as you've pointed out, struggle dmightily outside the conference.

It may take 7 years, but they will improve just with scholarships and money being sunk into the program. It'll need to get a whole crop of scholarship players and thats assuming some don't leave. See also: Schneider, Cole. Who could've trailblazed this program into a new day and instead left for pro hockey.

 

[Jim]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

scheigs,

I think you really have to wait a minimum of 5 years before making any kind of evaluation of on-ice performance. After watching 2 UCONN programs move up in class (football recently and basketball to the big east in the 1980s where they were really not on the same level as most of the programs in the early days) I think it really takes at least that long to hope to become competetive. Remember, even if UCONN's level of talent goes up, the level of the competition does too. Not ot be a wise guy but replacing Bentley with the other BU is something of a different level. As far as out of conference games, I don't know, but have any AHA teams really had better than .500 records? Always playing them on the road makes it pretty tough to begin with. Doing it with a lesser talent pool makes it even harder.

By the way, I don't have anything against Bentley except when UCONN plays them. I jsut think that husky fans in general will be way more interested in games against BC and the other BU.

 

[schiegs]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

By the way, I don't have anything against Bentley except when UCONN plays them. I jsut think that husky fans in general will be way more interested in games against BC and the other BU.

Anyone that is more interested in seeing Bentley over BC/BU probably went to Bentley. Heck, most people that went to Bentley would rather watch BC/BU.

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

Have to make the point that UConn isn't too shabby right now. If they hadn't gone into a slump for a few weeks against the weaker teams in the AHA they played at the end of the season, they would have finished third in the RS. They came the closest to knocking off eventual winner AFA in the AHA tournament (three games with one goal margins in Colorado IIRC), they beat an NCAA berth team UML once, and only lost to them a second time after a 20 minute overtime which would have counted as a tie if it had not been a tournament game. I see the glass of this last year's season as half full, not half empty.

 

[joecct]

Short term yes, but our president has said several times that RIT is looking at moving atheletics up to D2 so we can offer D1 scholarships.

You can't really do that anymore. Your athletic program can move to D-II but you can't playup at D-I. As a D-II school you may play in the D-I championship. But your scholly limit is 15.

 

[OrangeBruin]

Re: UConn to apply to Hockey East

You can't really do that anymore. Your athletic program can move to D-II but you can't playup at D-I. As a D-II school you may play in the D-I championship. But your scholly limit is 15.

But isn't 15 still more than 0?