UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

You can believe it or not[.] what if when Borek turned in his recruiting keys he had to write who the recruits were and how to contact them and what amount of scholarship they were offered?

I can't or don't want to believe that an organization is so compartmentalized that even a co-recruiter (Stewart) would not know this. (Although I did joke in October that the recruiting lull was caused by the fact that Borek took the rolodex and nobody knew who UNH was recruiting or how to contact them.)

However, if true, or closer to the truth, I'm not sure it reflects well on Borek. You can blame the boss for not overseeing you, and you also can blame him not being present to help impress the recruits. But the monitoring scholastic deficiencies, the poor decisions on deferring kids, etc. then rest solely on Borek.

I have long suspected (and I think written) that Umile is pretty bad at recruiting. I wrote that his success from 88-92 was built on Kullen's 87 and 88 classes, where Umile's own 89-93 classes were weak and heavily reliant on his own Boston suburb, Southie roots. Only when McCloskey came aboard did Umile expand beyond that and achieve success. Therefore, hearing Bomber's view that Umile was a hinderance rather than help in recruiting does not surprise me. Greg, this plays into my "Chauncey Gardner" antipathy for Umile, who stumbled into Kullen's recruiting success, and his poor results prior to 94 were saved by the good fortune of McCloskey's recruiting. He then parlayed that into an overly generous lifetime contract. I failed to see the same effort in other fronts.

Whatever the allocation of blame, I'm glad/hopeful of a clean sweep of that disfunctional organization. I'm glad Souza is at least talking a bolder game, rather than waiting for his boss to decide he's done. I know nothing about Souza, so will watch with baited breath how effective he is recruiting, and also what style he wants for the team (depth vs. top end talent).

but when the AD is aware of the reasons for the program's decline and sits on his hands and let's it continue then the real blame goes to him ultimately. It would have been brutal on the AD to put pressure on the winningest coach in program history, to pick up the pace or pick his check, but that should have happened at least 4 years ago but probably longer. You can place blame where you want and I'll place blame where I feel bad it belongs.

I think Greg's confusion about my view on Umile being fired earlier misinterprets my blame. I certainly have complained about Umile's lack of invovlement in recruiting (see my 2012 post). I also had complained about the recruiting mistakes, which I attributed to Umile/Borek, assuming they were joined at the hip/cronyism, and his refusal to make changes in staff to help Borek. Rather than a joint view, Bomber's posts suggest friction between them, based in part on Umile's disinterest in this aspect and lack of support. If that view is true, then shame on Umile for not realizing how much he could have helped himself by a little more effort.

And lastly, if the hints were visibile to us on the outside, you would think the larger organization boss would have seen this and at least questioned Umile about it and what his plans were ("respectful of your right to hire your assistants, is your buddy Torts really the best hire here?"). Once again, shame on Umile for not realizing where his organization needed improvement, recruiting vs. on-ice coaching.

Bottom line, while it is interesting from an organizational perspective to dissect the poor decisions and bad management skills, the important thing for the organization is to sweep out the old, and begin with the new. Let's hope Souza is up for it.

Credentials -- UNH fan since 1978.

footnotes
Kullen's classes
87
Pat Szturm
Chris Thayer
Matt Trenovich
Reil Bellegarde
Bill Lacouture
Bruce MacDonald
Pat Morrison
Adrien Plavsic
David MacIntyre
Kevin Dean
Domenic Amodeo
Chris Winnes

88
Adam Hayes
Scott Morrow
Steve Morrow
Frank Messina
Mark McGinn
Joe Flanagan
Savo Mitrovic

Umile's classes
89
Greg Blow
Jeff St.Laurent
Bret Abel
Greg Klym
Jesse Cooper
Kevin Thomson
Jim McGrath
90
Mike Guilbert
Rob Chebator
Jeff Levy
Rob Donovan
Scott Malone
Glenn Stewart
Jason Dexter
91
Pat Norton
Nick Poole
Jeff Lenz
Eric Royal
Kent Schmidtke
Eric Flinton
Ted Russell
92
Trent Cavicchi
Scott Robison
Erik Fitzgerald
Brian Putnam
Mike McCready
Sean Perry
Steve Pleau
Bryan Muir
Tom O'Brien
Mike Sullivan

 

[Greg Ambrose]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Greg - I don't doubt for a second what you heard or even that the coach truly believed they were blindsided, but what does blindsided mean? I've coached at four different NCAA institutions of varying athletic and academic levels. They all had two things in common...

First, each athletic department had regular meetings with admissions (and a direct athletic admissions contact) to address any changes, updates or questions.

Second, at the very beginning of the recruiting process (and yes, that includes FR and SO in high school - hockey is not the only sport that commits early) coaches were required to turn in transcripts and complete paperwork to ensure that prospective recruits were on track to earn admission. This also allowed coaches to inform prospects of what their courseload needed to include moving forward.

These processes make it hard to screw up - if UNH wasn't/isn't doing this they would be in a SMALL minority.

UNHs admission criteria changed dramatically when the new and current director took over - I would be SHOCKED if there was not a meeting within weeks of any changed criteria between admissions and athletics to outline new policy. I would be shocked because that is how it's done everywhere else.

Now, that meeting may have surprised or "blindsided" some people - but there is no way admissions changed policy and quietly applied those policies during reviews, with athletic programs only discovering new policies when their athletes were denied...

For me, the admissions mistakes with White and Reid are unforgivable in and of themselves. From the day they committed, someone (I don't care who) should have been reviewing their transcripts, tracking admissions policies and paperwork and ensuring their admissibility. The fact that these same issues have arisen again is inexcusable and infuriating.

The lack of attention to detail and inability to learn from/correct past mistakes is a huge reason why the program is where it is - and it is/was TOTALLY controllable. Masonious would be the second-best defenseman on this roster and he's playing at UConn because of staff laziness and sloppiness.

I hope Souza and Stewart are willing and able to change staff policy on their own, because Umile, himself, has seemingly done nothing to stop the bleeding or rectify prior mistakes regarding academics or deferrals. We've talked about his stubborness - he won't change, will he allow his underlings to make changes over the next two years or are we in a holding pattern?

Dan, did you work at UNH? Back in the Colin White situation I sat with Umile prior to a FOH meeting. This was after White had already been announced as a member of the incoming class and then had been denied admission. To put it mildly, Umile was upset, very upset, not only because he had lost the kid (to St Cloud, is that right?) but because it made him look like a fool. I took this to mean that he felt that someone in the admissions department had flat out lied to either him or someone else (Marty?) in the athletic department. It was not a happy time. So then we'll fast forward a few years to the Gaudreau situation, the one that triggered Lassonde's departure. Here's a kid who could just fall into their lap and admissions wouldn't even look at the transcript. This is the version of events I was told by a close friend of Lassonde's. Again, Umile is not blameless in all this but I have to wonder what the protocol is at UNH. It's very, very touchy for a coach to interfere directly with the admissions process. I do not know this for a fact, my gut tells me that the relationship between hockey (and other programs) and admissions was a lot smoother back in the good old days. I agree that Umile should be on top of things but his failure to do so is based, unfortunately, on his trust in others. And this extends to the LaLeggia and Vecchione situations, which I put squarely on Borek.

 

[Greg Ambrose]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Greg
I get it you're a friend of Richie's and you'll defend no matter what and I admire that. Dick Umile is a admirable man, gracious, humble, and giving I won't deny that. He Parker, York and Walsh were the Mount Rushmore of HE. What I'm arguing is that Coach Umile was a great coach when he was involved in all aspects of the program. You put all the blame on an assistant coach (Borek) for the downfall of this program "after initial success". There are two perspectives here your's is that Borek stopped being effective doing his job, and mine is that Borek was effective when he had the support of the head coach. Imagine being a recruit, in your living room is York, Parker, Leaman, and Borek wooing you to come be part of their program, wouldn't you say what's wrong with this picture? I'm an elite recruit being recruited by all the elite programs and Most of the HCs from those program came into my living room and watched me play dozens of times.
You can believe it or not what if when Borek turned in his recruiting keys he had to write who the recruits were and how to contact them and what amount of scholarship they were offered? Why would the HC of a national championship team hire sure an inept recruiter to join his staff? Promises were made that never came to fruition and that's ok but when the AD is aware of the reasons for the program's decline and sits on his hands and let's it continue then the real blame goes to him ultimately. It would have been brutal on the AD to put pressure on the winningest coach in program history, to pick up the pace or pick his check, but that should have happened at least 4 years ago but probably longer. You can place blame where you want and I'll place blame where I feel bad it belongs.
I don't think that Dick Umile should have retired 5-7 years ago, I think he should stay as long as he wanted however, he shouldn't have talked about a 5 year plan for over a decade and he should still be involved in all aspects of HIS program. There is no one behind the curtain for the great Oz now and it shows. Just my opinion based on a few facts and observations I've made.
To qualify myself as a Cat fan I saw and started following in 1965 if that had anything to do with anything.

Only his closes friends call him Richie, I don't. For a lot of years we had a very respectful coach to booster/whacko fan relationship, that's it. And you got five years on me as a fan. Only go back to December, 1970. As for Borek, he's not Brian McCloskey, that's all I"ll say.

 

[Greg Ambrose]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Watcher, who were Kullen's recruiters in 1987? Who were Charlie Holt's recruiters in 1984?

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

I know we've disagreed on this point before

Coady/O'Connor 1987, Coady/Wayne Wilson 1988.

Kullen and O'Connor in 1984.

My takeaway is that its a lot easier for Kullen to recruit as a new HC. No doubt it helped that they added young energetic guys like Coady and Wilson, but I would say the biggest factor was a "new era" for the program.

There are a lot of parralels to the final two Holt years. The team still got a couple of marquis players: Leach, Douris, Richmond, but the overall depth (and 4 starting freshmen defensemen, most of whom were bad) was fatal.

 

[norbert]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Fun game to watch. Well played, no TV, few penalties, nice pace. The better team won, fittingly on a dirty goal. We did play better defensively, few (no?) glaring D zone turnovers, but there were significant stretches where we could not gain possession of the puck in our end. Smith's line started the game. Nice to see Eiserman back. Give UML credit for their play against Pots' line. The other 3 lines played disciplined hockey, were juggled in the 3rd period coinciding with a territorial and SOG advantage. Hard to be overly disappointed.

It was nice to see the D play a solid game and rush the puck when they had space. The glaring D turnover was by Miller along the boards which eventually lead to the UML goal. The interesting part was he was out there after Umile moved the lines around and moved Miller up and dropped Hill to the 4th line.

I feel he over coached in the line juggling. Instead of changing three lines, I would have moved Eiserman up with Gaudreault/Smith and left the Nazarian/Miller/Vela line intact.

 

[Felger]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

ps And Snively, to do that, (home ice in the first round) you have to be in the top 8, correct?

Top eight gets you home games, but there is a HUGE difference between 1-4 (with bye) and 5-8

 

[bomberhockey]

Only his closes friends call him Richie, I don't. For a lot of years we had a very respectful coach to booster/whacko fan relationship, that's it. And you got five years on me as a fan. Only go back to December, 1970. As for Borek, he's not Brian McCloskey, that's all I"ll say.

I'll respectfully disagree with your opinion, how many all Americans and UNH players in the NHL under Borek's time recruiting and hopefully a couple more to come. He missed badly on a few sure, I know one was from strong encouragement from another coach by the way.
I was a friend of Borek's when he was here and I can tell you from what I saw his work ethic is beyond ridiculous, and a great salesman! Brian May have been very good at one time, maybe because of the program's they were in but I can comfortably say Brian worked less than 50% of the time Borek did. If the HC's work ethic at Providence is close to Borek's I don't see them falling from the elite four anytime soon. My frustration now is we're in a lame duck period right now, we're falling behind!! Coach Souza better be **** good bringing in recruits because I know he isn't out work one guy in HE!

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

I've chopped and highlighted some of this post from bomber, just to focus on some well-stated points ...

Imagine being a recruit, in your living room is York, Parker, Leaman, and Borek wooing you to come be part of their program, wouldn't you say what's wrong with this picture? I'm an elite recruit being recruited by all the elite programs and Most of the HCs from those program came into my living room and watched me play dozens of times.

You can believe it or not what if when Borek turned in his recruiting keys he had to write who the recruits were and how to contact them and what amount of scholarship they were offered? Why would the HC of a national championship team hire sure an inept recruiter to join his staff? Promises were made that never came to fruition and that's ok but when the AD is aware of the reasons for the program's decline and sits on his hands and let's it continue then the real blame goes to him ultimately. It would have been brutal on the AD to put pressure on the winningest coach in program history, to pick up the pace or pick his check, but that should have happened at least 4 years ago but probably longer. You can place blame where you want and I'll place blame where I feel bad it belongs.

I don't think that Dick Umile should have retired 5-7 years ago, I think he should stay as long as he wanted however, he shouldn't have talked about a 5 year plan for over a decade and he should still be involved in all aspects of HIS program. There is no one behind the curtain for the great Oz now and it shows. Just my opinion based on a few facts and observations I've made.

Hardly the actions of a D-1 head coach who can claim to be "all in" on the on-ice success of his program.

And if even half of what bomber says is true - and I think at a bare minimum the anecdotal evidence supports most (if not all) of this - it's easy to see why Coach Borek may have been under the impression he would at least receive serious consideration for the top job if/when Coach Umile decided to step aside.

I suddenly find myself being impatient for the official start date of the Coach Souza regime. First of no doubt many questions I have, is Coach Stewart "all in" or "out" when that day finally arrives?



If it's anything but "all in", then Coach Souza (not Umile) should be planning on a new assistant ASAP ...

 

[Dan]

Dan, did you work at UNH? Back in the Colin White situation I sat with Umile prior to a FOH meeting. This was after White had already been announced as a member of the incoming class and then had been denied admission. To put it mildly, Umile was upset, very upset, not only because he had lost the kid (to St Cloud, is that right?) but because it made him look like a fool. I took this to mean that he felt that someone in the admissions department had flat out lied to either him or someone else (Marty?) in the athletic department. It was not a happy time. So then we'll fast forward a few years to the Gaudreau situation, the one that triggered Lassonde's departure. Here's a kid who could just fall into their lap and admissions wouldn't even look at the transcript. This is the version of events I was told by a close friend of Lassonde's. Again, Umile is not blameless in all this but I have to wonder what the protocol is at UNH. It's very, very touchy for a coach to interfere directly with the admissions process. I do not know this for a fact, my gut tells me that the relationship between hockey (and other programs) and admissions was a lot smoother back in the good old days..

No, UNH is not one of the schools I've worked for - so it may be that there is/was no system in place. I'd find it hard to believe but it isn't outside of the realm of possibility. If that is the case it is a colossal F up by the AD, primarily.

That said, the hockey coaching staff still dropped the ball. Umile would be at fault for not making sure his operation is on top of things, delegated or otherwise. Borek would be at fault for being given all of the responsibility and not consistently checking on transcripts. Admissions would certainly be at fault for screwing over athletics in an effort to portray itself in a more competitive light.

Remember, White's issue was an early chemistry grade and Reid was the transfer of early credits and a foreign language requirement. If UNHs coaching staff and admissions departments would have just communicated how could these small (early HS career) issues not have been worked out?!

So, who's fault do I think it is? All of them. It sounds to me that once again, athletics became about adult egos, politics and a lack of communication or compromise and the kids paid the price.

Now, for it to happen again with Masonious. All on the coaching staff.

If my mother still worked at admissions when White/Reid/etc were being evaluated or when Gaudreau was supposed to be evaluated - none of this would have happened. I would have burst into the directors office and made sure of it personally!!! Haha, he said only half joking...

 

[bomberhockey]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

However, if true, or closer to the truth, I'm not sure it reflects well on Borek. You can blame the boss for not overseeing you, and you also can blame him not being present to help impress the recruits. But the monitoring scholastic deficiencies, the poor decisions on deferring kids, etc. then rest solely on Borek.

I disagree with you that it was Borek's decisions on PSAs with questionable scholastics is on him. If he were bringing in high school drop out yeah but most if not all the kids were very close to being admitted. An example was an NHL defenseman that committed to UNH, after a long drawn out process he was denied admission to UNH. Immediately he was accepted at all but one HE school. It's admirable UNH wants to keep up their standards, but the player was close enough to be considered and then admitted to some pretty good schools immediately after his denial here, I don't think this can be blamed on Borek. This was during the time when things were good, the program had plenty of stock in the university, why the AD or HC didn't march down main street to rattle some cages is curious. Dick Umile owned the state at that time, politically it may not have been a good idea to not give him some slack on his groceries, after all he was a gourmet chef at that point. And Gaudreault was unacceptable, unfortunately it was at the height of the summer and Admissions couldn't be bothered and Coach Umile was probably unavailable so a Hobey slipped through their hands. Is that Borek's fault? his job was to GET Players under certain guidelines that I'm sure he worked within. It really shouldn't be the hockey program's duty at all, how does a 2nd semester senior become academically ineligible? There's no compliance people whose job is to make sure ANY player stays eligible never mind a senior captain, a huge embarrassment for certain.
When Borek came to UNH and I first spoke to him in semi-confidence he repeated three things. 1 He was very happy in Henniker but couldn't pass up
an opportunity to head a D1 program in about 5 years. 2 His job was to get Players! While we were eating Turkey, watching Fireworks, going to the beach, or enjoying Christmas he would be in another time zone in a rink either giving love to an elite recruit or possibly find someone flying under the radar, i.e. McFlicker. I found it funny that someone mentioned Stewie or Souza wasn't on the bench in a late semester game, Borek was rarely around for the month of December, he was on the road not on the bench. 3 His job was to make the HC look good. Although he liked Chip Kelly, he was somewhat bothered by his self promotion. Borek felt he should be pumping up Sean not himself. That was his mantra drilled into him by a UNH alum he first worked for 30 years ago.
I guess Im carrying Borek's water here and I will continue to do it. At the start it was very good both Umile and Borek were closing the deal on players. Then I saw Borek get more frustrated at making decisions alone (with the exception of Stewie). Then he was frustrated that the "boss was unavailable to meet an elite recruit for a campus visit. The frustration grew and grew until finally he'd had enough and went to talk to the AD, who was very well aware of both the initial agreement and what was going on at the rink! Marty told him, as he did later Stewie that there would be a national search. In and around the same time the national champions were looking for a new Associate Head coach, Leaman was thrilled to have "another head coach" on his bench.
I truly hope that the new regime is up to speed here and was gone Christmas day to be on the road, and tonight they're watching a recruit on "their night off".
I'm disappointed about a few of things, an asset left the Cats, that a friend left the area, and that 2 really close friends only interaction will be at the post game handshake probably forever.

 

[Dan]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

I agree that Umile should be on top of things but his failure to do so is based, unfortunately, on his trust in others. And this extends to the LaLeggia and Vecchione situations, which I put squarely on Borek.

Loyalty has always been his biggest strength and weakness - its hard to criticize him for such an admirable trait, but it has definitely hurt the program at times. Both in term of assistants and upperclassmen.

Borek was empowered the recruiting responsibility and his success and decision making really tailed off over the years. I'm not upset to see him at Providence even with the loss of Ryzcek and Farrabee, but Umile clearly should have been more involved in the recruiting process. My question would be did Borek ask Umile to be more involved and get rebuffed or did Umile recognize his passion for recruiting and explicitly trust him to handle it?

I'm not privy to who made deferral decisions. I'm just hopeful that those decisions are left to Souza and Stewart now - not Umile (and not Borek). LaLeggia and Vecchione were HUGE mistakes. You can show me any number of articles where Poturalski and Blackburn trumpet their returns to junior hockey, but you won't convince me they weren't simply deferred for lesser talent. They just happened to be OK with it. That's more proof to me that lessons weren't learned by either Borek or Umile (as was the case with academics).

Hopefully, the Souza transition means, at the very least, that different people will be making recruiting/deferral decisions. Still, it'd be nice to see some commitments and get an idea if those decisions will be any different/better...

 

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Loyalty has always been his biggest strength and weakness - its hard to criticize him for such an admirable trait, but it has definitely hurt the program at times. Both in term of assistants and upperclassmen.

Borek was empowered the recruiting responsibility and his success and decision making really tailed off over the years. I'm not upset to see him at Providence even with the loss of Ryzcek and Farrabee, but Umile clearly should have been more involved in the recruiting process. My question would be did Borek ask Umile to be more involved and get rebuffed or did Umile recognize his passion for recruiting and explicitly trust him to handle it?

I'm not privy to who made deferral decisions. I'm just hopeful that those decisions are left to Souza and Stewart now - not Umile (and not Borek). LaLeggia and Vecchione were HUGE mistakes. You can show me any number of articles where Poturalski and Blackburn trumpet their returns to junior hockey, but you won't convince me they weren't simply deferred for lesser talent. They just happened to be OK with it. That's more proof to me that lessons weren't learned by either Borek or Umile (as was the case with academics).

Hopefully, the Souza transition means, at the very least, that different people will be making recruiting/deferral decisions. Still, it'd be nice to see some commitments and get an idea if those decisions will be any different/better...

Didn't Pots have a broken leg which is why he opted for another year at Jrs? Like many of us, I eagerly await to see who commits next. And for God's sake, after reading all of this, someone has to be in charge of bringing them totally onto the ice and a jersey on their back that has 3 letters: U.N.H. Sigh....

 

[e.cat]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

In the words of our esteemed former Madam Secretary, and future President (God help us!), "At this point, what does it matter?" If Umile and Clinton were in the private sector and asleep at the switch like they apparently were/are, then they both would have been shown the door and right quick! I have been a Umile supporter since I saw him play at UNH and then later as the coach at his and my alma mater. Not to rehash a previously debated issue, but if bomber is correct, that Scarano told Borek and Stewie a national search would be conducted to replace Umile, then either Scarano lied or bomber got the story wrong ? For some reason I think bomber got the story right!

 

[bomberhockey]

In the words of our esteemed former Madam Secretary, and future President (God help us!), "At this point, what does it matter?" If Umile and Clinton were in the private sector and asleep at the switch like they apparently were/are, then they both would have been shown the door and right quick! I have been a Umile supporter since I saw him play at UNH and then later as the coach at his and my alma mater. Not to rehash a previously debated issue, but if bomber is correct, that Scarano told Borek and Stewie a national search would be conducted to replace Umile, then either Scarano lied or bomber got the story wrong ? For some reason I think bomber got the story right![/
It is water over the dam I agree, but we have the rest of this year and 2 more who's at the helm! Will the boss go on the road to hel recruit players he'll have nothing to do with, he didn't for the kids he did coach. The very least Marty needs to do is name Souza the next HC so that he has teeth in recruit's living rooms, if not like a President at the end of their term, the boss will be a lame duck.

 

[e.cat]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

It is water over the dam I agree, but we have the rest of this year and 2 more who's at the helm! Will the boss go on the road to hel recruit players he'll have nothing to do with, he didn't for the kids he did coach. The very least Marty needs to do is name Souza the next HC so that he has teeth in recruit's living rooms, if not like a President at the end of their term, the boss will be a lame duck.

Right, absolutely agree with that. A couple of great recruits early on for Souza could turn this thing around quick IMHO and recruits need to have the confidence that MS is the HC in waiting.

 

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

Right, absolutely agree with that. A couple of great recruits early on for Souza could turn this thing around quick IMHO and recruits need to have the confidence that MS is the HC in waiting.

I believe he's out there selling two things: The storied history of the past/facilities etc but most of all, that he is the HC that recruit will play for. I foresee good things!

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

OK so with all of the discussion over the last couple of days, I'm now asking myself the following question:

"What motivation does Souza have to bring in a hidden gem this season or next?"

- or put another way - why make the current boss look good on his way out IF the plan is to establish your own value as HC of the UNH Hockey program starting with the 2018/2019 season?

Here's the baseline - the UNH program has been moored at the .500 level (give or take) for the last few seasons, up to the present. If left to his own devices, let's say Coach Umile's last two teams continue to mosey around at or around the .500 level for the rest of his time in charge.

* IF Souza finds a hidden gem or two between now and the time he officially takes over, *maybe* UNH can push forward to a .600 team while Umile is still in charge, and actually get themselves back into the NCAA's; OR

* IF Souza punts on the next two classes, the program stays at .500, and Souza tries to load up for a big push in his first year in charge ... then guess who gets the credit for pushing the team forward/back into the NCAA's?

I know there's not a lot of room left in the next two incoming classes, and a lot of the otherwise available talent in those classes is going elsewhere. But the silence recruiting-wise since Borek left is deafening.

Just sayin' ...

 

[Darius]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Two) - Managing Decreasing Expectations

"What motivation does Souza have to bring in a hidden gem this season or next?"

His desire to be a professional, his desire to be a class act, his love for UNH.

 

[Snively65]

His desire to be a professional, his desire to be a class act, his love for UNH.

And, I would add that JS needs a hidden gem or two as soon as can get 'em, especially if Pots leaves after this season. Then, by the time the gem(s) is/are junior(s), perhaps the team can make the NCAAs in JS's first season as HC. Who cares who gets credit for the recruiting, which has been abysmal for years? If Pots leaves, sorry, this team is not making the NCAAs the next two years, no matter who comes in. Wow, this thread has become incredibly depressing; I need some meds.