UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

I dunno what game UNH1932 was at but the visitors side was far from "virtually empty" and had many more than 1000 fans. The stadium had many more than 7000 fans right down to the wire of a hard fought win against a good Holy Cross team. All thanks to your efforts Chuck. I must have missed something because I didn't realize you gave up your day job to promote UNH football but kudos to you!

Ironic, huh? I kinda figured you would find that almost as amusing as I did.

This fight about whether football or hockey is numero uno at UNH is laughable. Who cares?

I'm not sure it's risen to the level of a "fight", but it's at least a fun debate that (in the end) really is meaningless. So long as it doesn't mean that our uber-experienced AD ignores a historically prominent Hockey program to play with his shiny new Football toy across the street. Everyone loves a winner, no doubt, but it's BS35+4's job to make sure BOTH (all) programs are winners. And while I'll give him his due for the current state of the Football facility - although without Coach MacDonnell's decade of success in an embarrassingly decrepit and substandard facility, there may not even have been a Football program to build up around - he has been doing just that, sitting on his hands and watching Hockey slowly circle the drain in recent seasons. Punting the Umile decision down the road isn't looking to have been a real smart decision so far either. If UNH Hockey doesn't blister through the first 3 months of the season, serious thought needs to be given to making a change before 2018. And even if there is some amount of *success* this season, it's possible some (most?) of it will be down to the pathetic scheduling put in place to try to prop up the program.

So I'll say that's the only reason why Football vs. Hockey is a debate. Fighting over limited resources ... or fighting for the attention of the AD, however you see it. What I'm saying now is that with Football having gotten the resources their on-field efforts have deserved for quite awhile now, it's time for BS35+4 to "fix" Hockey. That's all I'm asking.

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Well, UNH1932 came in time for Limerick Monday!

There once was a poster named 'Thirty Two
His opinions are a pile of poo
By other posters he's hated
As much as their team is Umiliated
Come back when you have a clue

 

[e.cat]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Ironic, huh? I kinda figured you would find that almost as amusing as I did.



I'm not sure it's risen to the level of a "fight", but it's at least a fun debate that (in the end) really is meaningless. So long as it doesn't mean that our uber-experienced AD ignores a historically prominent Hockey program to play with his shiny new Football toy across the street. Everyone loves a winner, no doubt, but it's BS35+4's job to make sure BOTH (all) programs are winners. And while I'll give him his due for the current state of the Football facility - although without Coach MacDonnell's decade of success in an embarrassingly decrepit and substandard facility, there may not even have been a Football program to build up around - he has been doing just that, sitting on his hands and watching Hockey slowly circle the drain in recent seasons. Punting the Umile decision down the road isn't looking to have been a real smart decision so far either. If UNH Hockey doesn't blister through the first 3 months of the season, serious thought needs to be given to making a change before 2018. And even if there is some amount of *success* this season, it's possible some (most?) of it will be down to the pathetic scheduling put in place to try to prop up the program.

So I'll say that's the only reason why Football vs. Hockey is a debate. Fighting over limited resources ... or fighting for the attention of the AD, however you see it. What I'm saying now is that with Football having gotten the resources their on-field efforts have deserved for quite awhile now, it's time for BS35+4 to "fix" Hockey. That's all I'm asking.

It's all good stuff from both you and Watcher. I do think you are right though about the ascendancy of football over hockey currently and deservedly so. Let the debate continue

 

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

It's all good stuff from both you and Watcher. I do think you are right though about the ascendancy of football over hockey currently and deservedly so. Let the debate continue

Well debate or not the guys take the ice in 3 or so weeks. Personally I could care less about across the street but love a good football game and wish them the best. We already know that the football team has had many great accomplishments over the past few years and they deserve whatever success they have coming to them (as well as their competent coach)

Thrilled they have a nice new stadium to play in as I'm sure you all were (or not) when the doors to the 'Whitt opened in what, '95? Things have a way of stagnating tho but you don't need a great building to build a great team. Look at Union...I've been in their barn (nothing personal Union fans enjoyed our one game we saw there) and have seen the banner. (believe they have a new space coming soon?)

Have been kind of putting things together and people speak of a decade ago for when the 'decline' started. It would be interesting to see what ELSE happened during that time; players have so many options of where to play now. And they look for teams/programs that are going to help them get their goals and dreams met. (among other things, like $$$, look out AHA)... I still believe UNH is one of these programs. I'm hoping for a team that is competitive, one that has more on nights than off, obvious work ethic. Bring it on! (how about those pats last night...)

 

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Thanks for your thoughts and insight into the outlook for attendance across the street, '32. We'll have to agree to disagree on which program sits atop the UNH Athletics pyramid for now, though. Although I'm obviously enthusiastic and happy for the football program nowadays (and it wasn't always like that - just ask e-cat), I'm still a hockey guy first. But I'm trying to be objective here, and the evidence just seems to be accumulating that Football has overtaken Hockey in the hearts and minds of UNH students at the very least, and with the numbers expected for Homecoming, it sounds like the alums are shifting in favor of Football as well (most likely due to on-field results).

I'll start writing about the hockey side once the games begin. I'm not like some of the recruiting enthusiasts on here who follow that side of the sport more closely, and some of whom even see these guys play in person before they arrive on campus. They provide a great service to the rest of us, and we're all thankful for their efforts. But I can't pretend to be one of them. The last time I did that was circa 2001 when Eddie Caron (a Round 2 draft pick for Edmonton at the time) was skating for PEA, and a few of us from these boards decided to check out his progress on a quiet Saturday afternoon. Scored a pair of goals, looked like a man among boys ... and we all know how that turned out. In retrospect, there were a dozen reasons why it didn't work. But the point is, as much as these guys on here follow the recruiting side - and they provide a great service to us who don't follow that side so closely - you just never know what's going to happen until these guys start playing. Or don't start playing 'cuz that's just not the way Coach does things.

But thankfully the games aren't that far off now, and looking at the 2016 portion of the schedule, UNH really has zero excuses not to put a huge dent in what remains of the "March/Stagger to 600" and hit the break well above .500. I haven't seen so many cupcakes in one place since my last trip to the bakery. But it won't mean jack unless they post a respectable second half of the season, and give the recruiting side some level of success to point to in attempts to get UNH back on the map as a destination for the top recruits going forwards. Let's face it ... over the last decade - the world known by these recruits - UNH and UMaine are the two big negative movers in the league. Watching the program over the last decade has been like watching a car crash in slow motion. And I'm only hoping that last season was the point of impact, and not just the part where we close our eyes before the REAL impact occurs. JMHO.

Chuck as for the numbers expected for home coming I do believe UNH is putting both Parent's weekend AND Homecoming together which should account for the swell in numbers. No mind; UNH is being very cool about not releasing my season's tix before I can scratch up the funds to pay for them...that's all that matters to me! Oct. 2...Oct. 2...Oct. 2...

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Have been kind of putting things together and people speak of a decade ago for when the 'decline' started. It would be interesting to see what ELSE happened during that time; players have so many options of where to play now. And they look for teams/programs that are going to help them get their goals and dreams met. (among other things, like $$$, look out AHA)... I still believe UNH is one of these programs. I'm hoping for a team that is competitive, one that has more on nights than off, obvious work ethic. Bring it on! (how about those pats last night...)

I really don't think the number of available options is all that different since the UNH heyday at the turn of the century. The biggest differences that I see are that (1) Providence and Lowell have displaced UMaine and UNH, and (2) the ECAC has been more competitive in recent years than they were back then. But that's all about a shifting of the wealth - not an increase in the options for the players to pursue (or to be pursued by). Some programs are doing better, others are doing worse, and many are surprisingly in the same place now as they were back then.

Which one of Newton's laws of motion said that an object at rest tends to stay at rest, etc.? That's where UNH had been for a lot of seasons in the late oughts/early teens. But here we are, falling again even further ... and we just can't seem to get up. I guess that makes Coach Souza a MedicAlert bracelet of sorts for the program.

Does anyone want to predict how many wins UNH compiles in '16 before the real grind begins in '17?

 

[UNH1932]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

I dunno what game UNH1932 was at but the visitors side was far from "virtually empty" and had many more than 1000 fans. The stadium had many more than 7000 fans right down to the wire of a hard fought win against a good Holy Cross team. All thanks to your efforts Chuck. I must have missed something because I didn't realize you gave up your day job to promote UNH football but kudos to you!

This fight about whether football or hockey is numero uno at UNH is laughable. Who cares?

ecat, i do not care about numero uno either. I just stated that there were a lot more season tickets sold for hockey and there will be a huge turnout for homecoming as there is every year. Nicole from ticketing changed the dynamics of making money on homecoming over the past few years as all needed a ticket and she jacked up the prices. They also sold a number of parking passes in advance to generate revenues. It is true that people show up for the drunk fest and Parents weekend and homecoming might be a bad mix (or maybe good?). I asked my sister who sat in our long time family seats in section C on the visitors side and she said there was no more than 600 on that side and many of them were Holy Cross fans. From my seat I thought it was 20% full and you are younger and smarter than I. I did ask the kids in class this morning and 16 went to the game and I asked how many were sitting on the visitor's side and they all said it was under 500. I do not care as there are ticket sales and there seems to be some momentum to get more people to games. I do worry about late in season games as they are not as well attended. Only Ricky Santos could get 6000-8000 to actually watch the games. I sit in 105 H1 at football and 104 M 8 at the Whit. I hope to see you at the games. I hope to meet you soon and if you are going to away games for hockey, I hope we can chat sometime on the road.

Chuck, the will call ticket goes for any hockey game at the Whit too and one for the wife and/or kids too. Thanks for being such a big fan and I hope they do not let you down this year.

If Watcher's father is still without his season tickets, I would like to help him get to the games. Please let me know if he wants tickets to any games as we need our longtime fans to stay on the ship.

 

[UNH1932]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Nick

I hope the warden takes away your internet privileges. Thanks for the chuckle and don't go back into your mother's basement when you are paroled. I will be rooting against your crappy overrated team again this year, but I hope you have a great year cheering on your Eagles. One less ring if Johnny G came to UNH. Please root for Umile to win a championship before he retires when your team is out of the tournament. Best to you and your family.

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

If Watcher's father is still without his season tickets, I would like to help him get to the games. Please let me know if he wants tickets to any games as we need our longtime fans to stay on the ship.

Thanks for the offer, but I think you have me confused with another poster. The only game I've ever gotten my father to come to was when that thug Ben Guite nearly paralyzed Mark Mowers along the boards right in front of us.

 

[UNH1932]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Thanks for the offer, but I think you have me confused with another poster. The only game I've ever gotten my father to come to was when that thug Ben Guite nearly paralyzed Mark Mowers along the boards right in front of us.

Sorry watcher I thought Sonar was your dad via info from another poster. Thanks for all of your great posts through the years. Mr K decommitted from Providence was already at UNH last spring. I hope he reconsiders.

 

[scoreboard]

I really don't think the number of available options is all that different since the UNH heyday at the turn of the century. The biggest differences that I see are that (1) Providence and Lowell have displaced UMaine and UNH, and (2) the ECAC has been more competitive in recent years than they were back then. But that's all about a shifting of the wealth - not an increase in the options for the players to pursue (or to be pursued by). Some programs are doing better, others are doing worse, and many are surprisingly in the same place now as they were back then.

Which one of Newton's laws of motion said that an object at rest tends to stay at rest, etc.? That's where UNH had been for a lot of seasons in the late oughts/early teens. But here we are, falling again even further ... and we just can't seem to get up. I guess that makes Coach Souza a MedicAlert bracelet of sorts for the program.

Does anyone want to predict how many wins UNH compiles in '16 before the real grind begins in '17?

I'll take a stab at their 2016 record. 9-8-1.

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Mr K decommitted from Providence was already at UNH last spring. I hope he reconsiders.

Hmmm.
*******http://2.cdn.nhle.com/canucks/v2/photos/mugs/8467857.jpg********

Mr. K, player #28 for Chilliwack, 2nd in scoring for BCJHL as 19 year old

*******http://webpapersadmin.bpnewmedia.co...s/.DIR288/HeadShotJordanKawaguchi.jpg********

Mr. K, player #28 for Chilliwack, 2nd in scoring for BCJHL as 19 year old

 

[Dan]

Hmmm.
*******http://2.cdn.nhle.com/canucks/v2/photos/mugs/8467857.jpg********

Mr. K, player #28 for Chilliwack, 2nd in scoring for BCJHL as 19 year old

*******http://webpapersadmin.bpnewmedia.co...s/.DIR288/HeadShotJordanKawaguchi.jpg********

Mr. K, player #28 for Chilliwack, 2nd in scoring for BCJHL as 19 year old

Not looking good for UNH...

http://www.chilliwackchiefs.net/player?playerId=601&season=29

And Cameron to Dartmouth...

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Not looking good for UNH...

http://www.chilliwackchiefs.net/player?playerId=601&season=29

And Cameron to Dartmouth...

Oh well, another set of Ks, no reflection on the view of UNH in the hockey world. Probably just wanted to be closer to home. Don't worry about the mounting k totals. Remember, Willie Mays started his career 1- for 40 or some such mark. Souza is a great recruiter who has his eye on some new targets. And if those don't come through, there are lots of kids from your old neighbourhood in the GBL who you can plug in.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Amazing to see so many 2000s going off the board. Very few high end players left at that birthdate, considering they're 2-3 years from NCAA.</p>— Jeff Cox (@JeffCoxSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffCoxSports/status/775682963451314176">September 13, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

UNH has none of the 2000s. And the joke will ultimately be on these programs getting all the talented recruits, because they can't play them all. Some players who committed to good teams will decommit or transfer much like Kawaguchi, Cam Lee, Liam Folkes, Jacob Slaker, Vas Kolias, Brandon Duhaimie, Mike O'Leary, Ty Madden, Brinson Pischarik, Brandon Fortunato and Robbie Baillargeon. And when they do decommit or transfer, we will pounce. Wait, .....

So, I forgot my point on that, but I will not lose sight of the most important thing for the program - not the direction going forward, but a look back at all the positives Coach Umile has done in the past. There are lots of available seats to come out and see Bentley while also seeing the legend and thanking him. Like getting to see Willie Mays with the Mets, come out and enjoy your last chance to see Mays hit .211. I personally want to thank Marty Scarano for this well planned process, so that we are not suddenly left without Coach Umile or the opportunity to thank him enough before he calls it quits.

There, better?

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

The games can't begin soon enough. Gonna devour us some cupcakes, while papering over the cracks (chasms?).

Sounds like we are getting it handed to us out on the recruiting front. I know 'Watcher really wants to be wrong about his predictions of doom & gloom on how the Coach Umile endgame was arranged, and its impact on the UNH program long-term ... but everything he'd predicted over a year ago is (sadly) coming to pass so far.

It's not second-guessing when you predict it up front before it happens.

 

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

I know 'Watcher really wants to be wrong about his predictions of doom & gloom on how the Coach Umile endgame was arranged, and its impact on the UNH program long-term ....

As you can see from the time of my post, it literally is waking me up in the middle of the night.

I need to learn that serenity prayer:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

I will be rooting against your crappy overrated team again this year

Please root for Umile to win a championship before he retires when your team is out of the tournament.

Oh ok.

(Actually I will root for Umile because I happen to like the guy)

You're pretty bossy. But I do find some humor in seeing you hand out advice and directions to others. It is admirable as you seem to admire Umile and want to emulate his giving to others ... after all, he is always in a giving mood to opposing teams in the NCAAs.

 

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

(Actually I will root for Umile because I happen to like the guy)

I think that's the hardest part of this whole situation ... in my limited (now fairly long removed) interactions and close up observations of Coach Umile, I always felt he was a good guy, and I wanted the program to succeed to reward all that he'd given to the program and its fans during his tenure.

But I struggle to reconcile the long-standing "good guy" impressions I've had for the man, with the seemingly detached, disengaged and (yes) selfish way he's winding down his career. It has to be hard to walk away from something you've been doing as long as he's been doing, and that's understandable I suppose. But it's not a job for an older man who has had long-standing trust issues with younger coaches doing the legwork for him (at least until very recently). Coach York seems to have figured that out a long time ago, and while he's older that Coach Umile, no one is asking him to step aside, and his program continues to compete at a very high level every year.

You get the feeling that Umile's decisions to bring younger coaches in the mold of Stewart (and then Souza) were almost forced upon him, and not something he had an epiphany about when Tortorella left not that long ago. And unfortunately, this final act of what had to have been self-preservation is looking increasingly too little (way) too late.

-----------------

To answer my own question from a few posts back, I'm going to say UNH wins at least 10 games before New Year's Day. Looking at that schedule, there is really very little reason for them not to hit or exceed that target.

After New Year's Day, I'm afraid they'll be lucky to win half that many games at most.

Here's to hoping I'm right on 2016, and wrong on 2017.

 

[sonar]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

As you can see from the time of my post, it literally is waking me up in the middle of the night.

I need to learn that serenity prayer:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

You think you've got it bad ..... some new poster at 7:17 pm thought I was your Dad.

 

[Dan]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Amazing to see so many 2000s going off the board. Very few high end players left at that birthdate, considering they're 2-3 years from NCAA.</p>— Jeff Cox (@JeffCoxSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffCoxSports/status/775682963451314176">September 13, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

UNH has none of the 2000s...

And here is the problem with Souza's to-date philosophy. You can find the type of guys theyve committed and round out your roster in the years to come (you'll probably even do better in this regard as you're not simply hoping on, but can actually see, development). Meanwhile, the vast majority of the high end kids will be long gone. That leaves UNH supplementing these existing recruiting classes with more of the same, praying on development and icing teams reminiscent of late 80s...

Maybe I'm just a hammer head - but, yeah, I expect UNH to be competitive every year. No, 1932, Im not demanding annual title runs, but I don't think competitive for HE home ice/titles, NCAA tournament trips and a recruit or two is too much to ask.

This coming season will mark the sixth since the long run of UNH success came to an end. Since then, The Wildcats have landed one-home ice playoff series, one trip to the national tournament and a record of 87-88-19. We can all see how far recruiting has fallen whether we wish to admit it or not. But, sure it's all sunshine and we're lucky to even have a program to follow...