Re: UNH Wildcats 2014/2015 - Wait 'Til Next Year!!!
Walsh is actually the opposite of Bazin. He built Maine by out recruiting everyone. He was a cult of personality who developed BC connections while building Michigan State for Ron Mason from 79 to 83. (Imagine that, a 28 year old assistant). When he got the after the season he got a couple of BChLers who would have gone to Michigan state, and the first full recruiting year he convinced Jack Capuano to leave his chosen path to Bu, and got lucky that the second best defensive recruit that year was a Maine kid (weinruch) who also spurred BC and Bu. Once you get a couple like that you're a hot shot, and it helps when capuanos brother issue top recruit two years later and Mike Golden flunks out of UNH and you sell him on how he can do well at Maine. Sprinkle in his BC kids who we easterners never heard if but who were national talents (mike Barkley, etc) and Maine's affinity for non-English speaking french kids (robitaille, thyer) and you have the Maine teams from 85 to 95.
The culmination was selling Kariya on passing on Harvard and national champ BU
(Roll eyes)
He later proved his coaching chops when the sanctions cut his recruiting.
He was a one if a kind which means Maine will never be top 4 again
But his model is not unique to him.
Agree that Walsh could sell ice to the Eskimos. However, his success post sanction was due in part to the Swedish-Albany Academy (Jim Salfi) connection. You know the details better than me, but my recollection is that Walsh, as always, found a way to skirt around the less than vigilant NCAA enforcement people. You have to agree that Walshy always skated right up to the line when it came to NCAA rules violations. The great thing about him is that his ego was so big that he felt that he could thumb his nose at the NCAA and just keep going. Mea culpas, if any, only came after he got sick.
The larger point after scrolling through the last few pages of comments is how much the conversation is reminiscent of the Maine thread the last couple of years. Just like them with Whitehead, I just don't see things getting appreciably better in the near future. I know the commits coming the next couple of years are supposed to be pretty good, but even if that is so, it reminds me of the mid-80's when Kullen was able to recruit the likes of Leach, Rossetti and Douris but did not have enough supporting pieces around them. Leach and Douris, of course, left when they saw the pretty grim future. Even if Stewart is able to bring in the equivalent of those three, in a much more competitive recruiting environment, I don't think it is going to be enough if the current regime stays in place.
As you all know, I have been a big defender of Umile over the years. Without his fierce commitment to the blue and white UNH would not have had the success in bringing in the folks they did through around 2004. Yes, McCloskey and Lassonde were good salesmen, but the thing they were selling was the aura of the coach, a graduate of the school, a fiery competitor both on and off the ice. The coach is now 66. As one who has reached that milestone i can tell you that it is very difficult to maintain that edge when competing. You get comfortable doing things the way you always did them because they were successful. Then all of a sudden it seems that there is more competition, new techniques for selling, and more roadblocks put up that prevent you from achieving the success you had in the past. Over the last few years I saw it in my business which I recently sold. My decision was based largely on being tired of the day-to-day bs that I felt was creating obstacles to my goal of continued success.
I can't say that Umile's head is in the same place as mine. Knowing him, I am sure he still feels the passion, still likes coaching and, most importantly, still likes creating the relationships with the kids that are brought in. And on top of all that, he is pretty loyal to his coaches and his players, past and present. Personally I think that is the biggest problem here and has been over the past several years. Even if he wanted to, I think at this point it is too late to reinvent himself. The wheels have already fallen off the wagon and, even if repairs get it moving again, it probably won't be moving fast enough or in the right direction.
As a fan of college sports for a long, long time, I have seen this situation play out several times. I think of guys like Woody Hayes who was forced to resign after he punched a Clemson player during a bowl game. I remember John Chaney, the basketball coach at Temple, who had a couple of meltdowns on the sideline before he realized it was time to call it quits. And in hockey we have Jack Parker, who had to resign because of institutional control issues in the latter years of his tenure. Now, Umile hasn't punched anyone, had a meltdown, or let the inmates run the asylum. But what he has done, almost unknowingly, is created a franchise in recent years that looks tired, unimaginative and lacking any luster. To top it off, hockey is now second banana at UNH to football, with outside resources being wooed to support it rather than hockey. To me it means Umile is on his own and unless he can recapture that fire he had 25 years ago, I don't see any sustained improvement sad to say.
Thanks for the response. Trying to learn all about the ins and outs of this recruiting stuff. In 4-5 years time when Farabee joins, who knows who will be behind the bench? Hoping he sticks; he looks dynamic at his age...plus, I'll be retired from teaching hopefully by then (wishful thinking).
Seriously best wishes on your first NCAA start DT!
Character win