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UMass Lowell 2025-2026: Youth will be served

Mike McMahon was asked in his mailbag about Bazin:

Hayden (X): How does anyone support Norm Bazin’s coaching to continue at Lowell? How much longer can you keep beating this dead horse before you lose all your talent? The fans don’t care about any success he had over 10 years ago. We care about now.

I don’t think it’s entirely fair to say the program hasn’t had success in the last decade. UMass Lowell made the NCAA Tournament in 2022, and the River Hawks almost certainly would have qualified in 2020 had the tournament not been canceled for COVID.

That said, there’s no denying the last three seasons have been disappointing.

Still, it’s worth remembering the context of what Norm Bazin inherited. When he took over, Lowell had made just three NCAA Tournament appearances in 26 years as a Division I program. Under Bazin, the River Hawks reached the NCAA Tournament seven times in his first 15 seasons.

He’s shown before that he can build a winning program there, and that track record likely earns him some runway to find that formula again.

The landscape of college hockey is also very different today than it was in 2011, particularly with revenue-sharing and other financial dynamics now shaping recruiting. This season also marked the first year with a somewhat restructured staff. Eric Sorenson returned, and the program added Andy Boschetto and Dan Darrow behind the bench. From a recruiting standpoint, those are going to be the guys finding the players.

Looking ahead, the evolving pipeline from the CHL could also benefit a program like UMass Lowell. Access to that player pool may give schools in Lowell’s position another avenue to rebuild the type of roster that helped fuel the program’s success from 2011 through 2017
 
From the freshman class, I'm hoping we're at least able to keep Misskey, Diego, Adaszynski, and Wakely. I thought those four showed the most growth and potential.
 
A poster on the 2026 Coaching Changes thread speculated about Norm possibly retiring. Has anyone on this thread heard any rumblings about this possibility? My understanding is that he has a year left on his contract.
 
Uml79 said:
A poster on the 2026 Coaching Changes thread speculated about Norm possibly retiring. Has anyone on this thread heard any rumblings about this possibility? My understanding is that he has a year left on his contract.
Click to expand...
While I know nothing about Norm's current thoughts on retirement, that poster has been known to either be factually incorrect at times, or just straight-up lie.
He/she claimed "ECAC is sending 3 possibly 4 teams to the tournament this year and sends 3 teams to the tournament every year for the past 10 plus years" and got called out for being wrong on the UNH thread.

S

Post in thread 'UNH- How Far West Do We Go?'

Engineers said:
Drop down to ECAC? Not sure if you know but ECAC is sending 3 possibly 4 teams to the tournament this year and sends 3 teams to the tournament every year for the past 10 plus years. UNH would be a middle pack team in the ECAC most years with some years bottom tier. I agree with everything else tho
Click to expand...
Not true. ECAC sent only two teams to the NCAAs in 2022, 2024, and 2025 and only one team in 2021.

That said, I agree that UNH would be only a middle of the pack team in ECAC.
  • Like
 
Factually incorrect at times yes. Straight up lie..no sir you are incorrect. Yes ecac is sending 3 teams. Qpac, Cornell, Dartmouth. They have a chance to send 4 depending who wins in lake placid. Past 10 years ecac has sent 2-3 teams most years occasionally they send 1 which is not the norm. I’m pretty sure a few people have said bazin might be retiring this year nothing concrete just speculation. No need to get your panties in twist will.
Will said:
While I know nothing about Norm's current thoughts on retirement, that poster has been known to either be factually incorrect at times, or just straight-up lie.
He/she claimed "ECAC is sending 3 possibly 4 teams to the tournament this year and sends 3 teams to the tournament every year for the past 10 plus years" and got called out for being wrong on the UNH thread.

S

Post in thread 'UNH- How Far West Do We Go?'

Engineers said:
Drop down to ECAC? Not sure if you know but ECAC is sending 3 possibly 4 teams to the tournament this year and sends 3 teams to the tournament every year for the past 10 plus years. UNH would be a middle pack team in the ECAC most years with some years bottom tier. I agree with everything else tho
Click to expand...
Not true. ECAC sent only two teams to the NCAAs in 2022, 2024, and 2025 and only one team in 2021.

That said, I agree that UNH would be only a middle of the pack team in ECAC.
  • Like
Click to expand...
 
Engineers said:
Factually incorrect at times yes. Straight up lie..no sir you are incorrect. Yes ecac is sending 3 teams. Qpac, Cornell, Dartmouth. They have a chance to send 4 depending who wins in lake placid. Past 10 years ecac has sent 2-3 teams most years occasionally they send 1 which is not the norm. I’m pretty sure a few people have said bazin might be retiring this year nothing concrete just speculation. No need to get your panties in twist will.
Click to expand...
Yes, they are sending three/four teams this year. But it's also true that they have not sent "3 teams to the tournament every year for the past 10 plus years", and when you get the facts wrong, it doesn't help make rumors more believable.
 
UMLFan said:
Mike McMahon was asked in his mailbag about Bazin:

Hayden (X): How does anyone support Norm Bazin’s coaching to continue at Lowell? How much longer can you keep beating this dead horse before you lose all your talent? The fans don’t care about any success he had over 10 years ago. We care about now.

I don’t think it’s entirely fair to say the program hasn’t had success in the last decade. UMass Lowell made the NCAA Tournament in 2022, and the River Hawks almost certainly would have qualified in 2020 had the tournament not been canceled for COVID.

That said, there’s no denying the last three seasons have been disappointing.

Still, it’s worth remembering the context of what Norm Bazin inherited. When he took over, Lowell had made just three NCAA Tournament appearances in 26 years as a Division I program. Under Bazin, the River Hawks reached the NCAA Tournament seven times in his first 15 seasons.

He’s shown before that he can build a winning program there, and that track record likely earns him some runway to find that formula again.

The landscape of college hockey is also very different today than it was in 2011, particularly with revenue-sharing and other financial dynamics now shaping recruiting. This season also marked the first year with a somewhat restructured staff. Eric Sorenson returned, and the program added Andy Boschetto and Dan Darrow behind the bench. From a recruiting standpoint, those are going to be the guys finding the players.

Looking ahead, the evolving pipeline from the CHL could also benefit a program like UMass Lowell. Access to that player pool may give schools in Lowell’s position another avenue to rebuild the type of roster that helped fuel the program’s success from 2011 through 2017
Click to expand...
Time for a change
 
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