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UNH 2024/2025 Goldberg Edition

Do you think it’s possible with the influx of CHL players next year to build a team of ringers that can move the needle just enough to raise the profile of the team and into 7th or 8th place?
Maybe if no other teams pick up any CHL players, but do you really believe that UNH will be only school bringing in these players?
 
Maybe if no other teams pick up any CHL players, but do you really believe that UNH will be only school bringing in these players?
I certainly don’t think UNH wants to miss the boat. It is a rare opportunity to get to recruit such highly rated players that can come in next season. Usually those don’t exist because all of the ncaa teams have gotten commitments from the highly rated ones years in advance. This is absolutely a one year special opportunity. Look at what Bowling Green is doing. They get it. Put it this way, if a team isn’t recruiting these ‘04 available from major juniors then they are accepting that other teams are going to get better by recruiting these players. Not many teams can have that attitude. BC and BU might be able to get away with not recruit8ng these players but all the other hockey east teams can’t.
 
The major junior recruiting opportunity hands everyone a one time opportunity, which is great for a program like UNH. Souza jumped on it immediately, much to his credit. Nevertheless, like a one time bonus, the money doesn’t last and you’re back to square one again.
 
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Do you think its possible with the influx of CHL players next year to build a team of ringers that can move the needle just enough to raise the profile of the team and into 7th or 8th place?

Not with the four current additions. If UNH adds 2-3 more key (CHL or NCAA Transfer) additions and keeps its best current SAs, maybe...
 
UNH has more than enough to offer recruits and student-athletes. They are much closer to the penny-pinching Red Sox of 2020-2024 than they are to the Pittsburgh Pirates. UNH has everything it needs to be successful pending an attitude adjustment.

Everything that originates at the University (school, department, program, boosters, too many fans, etc) has become woe begotten and put upon rationalizations and excuses. If advisors, parents and prospects have a negative attitude about UNH, funding or facilities it is BECAUSE it is all they hear from those coaching and connected to the program!

These people might believe these things. Some of them might even be true. Stop telling the world that you don't believe in your own freaking product! You are not helping the coaches, the administrators or the student-athletes by aggressively diminishing what the program is capable of accomplishing. Spin positive, create excitement. In other words, meet the 'job' description. JFC.

I have so many thoughts on this subject, the past season's disappointment and a path toward the future (including what the team might look like next season) - but the university barely seems to care about (or believe in) any improvement. The boosters will tell you to simply enjoy all the U is capable of - the spirit of competition! And fans will tell you the program should move to Atlantic Hockey (WTF). So, why even waste the energy?

At best, I'd rather just ignore thoughts about UNH Hockey than discuss them. At worst, I'm in the same boat as Watcher - losing my emotional connection to this program bit by bit, day by day...
 
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UNH has more than enough to offer recruits and student-athletes. They are much closer to the penny-pinching Red Sox of 2020-2024 than they are to the Pittsburgh Pirates. UNH has everything it needs to be successful pending an attitude adjustment.

Everything that originates at the University (school, department, program, boosters, too many fans, etc) has become woe begotten and put upon rationalizations and excuses. If advisors, parents and prospects have a negative attitude about UNH, funding or facilities it is BECAUSE it is all they hear from those coaching and connected to the program!

These people might believe these things. Some of them might even be true. Stop telling the world that you don't believe in your own freaking product! You are not helping the coaches, the administrators or the student-athletes by aggressively diminishing what the program is capable of accomplishing. Spin positive, create excitement. In other words, meet the 'job' description. JFC.

I have so many thoughts on this subject, the past season's disappointment and a path toward the future (including what the team might look like next season) - but the university barely seems to care about (or believe in) any improvement. The boosters will tell you to simply enjoy all the U is capable of - the spirit of competition! And fans will tell you the program should move to Atlantic Hockey (WTF). So, why even waste the energy?

At best, I'd rather just ignore thoughts about UNH Hockey than discuss them. At worst, I'm in the same boat as Watcher - losing my emotional connection to this program bit by bit, day by day...
UNH is near the top for annual attendance in Hockey East but certainly isn't selling 6,501 seats every game nor is there a waiting list for season tickets that is years long.

The interest is still there and will only increase if a solid, winning program returns to Durham. That said, the idea that the Whit is tired and is a bottom tier facility is laughable.

Yes, player facilities need to be upgraded as you'd expect from any building approaching 30 years old. As discussed, this should have been planned for a decade ago under the leadership of Blue Skies, but he was hellbent in turning UNH into a I-AA powerhouse for football.

Since the infrastructure wasn't maintained, it becomes an awfully easy (and convenient) excuse for on ice results. Lack of state of the art weight room or team dinners onsite aren't the causes of poor game management or 10th place finishes, but by listening to the AD and school at large, you'd think they were.

It's easy for MS7 to say these are root causes, but for those fans who've followed the team for decades, they are suspect of a coach that hides in the shadows, avoids the media like a prostate exam and won't engage with STHs let alone the community at large.

We know the hiding is to avoid the tough questions and to be held accountable from the fans and donors who expect much, much more. Just because someone was a great player doesn't mean they'll be a good or even average coach.

After seven years, we've all learned that Souza is well below average.
 
I have so many thoughts on this subject, the past season's disappointment and a path toward the future (including what the team might look like next season) - but the university barely seems to care about (or believe in) any improvement. The boosters will tell you to simply enjoy all the U is capable of - the spirit of competition! And fans will tell you the program should move to Atlantic Hockey (WTF). So, why even waste the energy?
And there it is. That's the key and really all that matters. The fans care more than the university. The players care. Souza cares. That's the only point I've been making. No coach can overcome this type of problem, because the coach has very little control over it. Souza's behavior this year has been terrible. He looks physically horrible, and he's turned into a groundhog. I just wonder if his health is being compromised by this mess. I feel terrible for him.

Asking the boosters or fans to motivate and sell a program is no different than expecting restaurant customers to motivate the chef/owner of the restaurant to improve. It simply doesn't work that way.
 
And there it is. That's the key and really all that matters. The fans care more than the university. The players care. Souza cares. That's the only point I've been making. No coach can overcome this type of problem, because the coach has very little control over it. Souza's behavior this year has been terrible. He looks physically horrible, and he's turned into a groundhog. I just wonder if his health is being compromised by this mess. I feel terrible for him.

Not what I'm talking about. UNH investment could be better, but facilities and funding are just fine. UNH can be a winning program. What I want is for the University to care about perception, production and expectation. The problem - is not what they don't have, or what they cannot do - it is that they don't seem to see anything wrong with the last decade of performance...

That is what I mean when I say they don't seem to care.

I disagree with the perspective you've expressed in this thread.

Asking the boosters or fans to motivate and sell a program is no different than expecting restaurant customers to motivate the chef/owner of the restaurant to improve. It simply doesn't work that way.

I am asking them not to walk out of the restaurant and trash the quality and cleanliness of the kitchen and freshness of the ingredients in defense of a chef who cannot cook. The kitchen is good enough. The ingredients are good enough. Expectation for quality food should remain. If the chef can't cook, its not the stove that is the problem...
 
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Not what I'm talking about. UNH investment could be better, but facilities and funding are just fine. UNH can be a winning program. What I want is for the University to care about perception, production and expectation. The problem is they don't seem to see anything wrong with the last decade of performance. Both the coach and the department could easily take action against those issues, simply by being more proactive and more accountable. But instead they excuse the performance...



I am asking them not to walk out of the restaurant and trash the quality and cleanliness of the kitchen and freshness of the ingredients in defense of a chef who cannot cook. The kitchen is good enough. The ingredients are fine. Expectation for quality food should remain. If the chef can't cook, its not the stove that is the problem...
I think that the customers are saying the food sucks. And when they want to tell the chef directly they are cutoff by these manager types who tell them “you are getting good value, and outcomes can’t be guaranteed”.

I think we may be on the verge of a good food fight at the very least.
 
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