The Sicatoka Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 I don't think Lucia is gone (the U is buying out Brewster), but his assistants should be concerned. The stat that is mindboggling to me (from http://undhockey.areavoices.com/ ): Nobody on next year
Cratter Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 It's a lot kinder here than on GPL, who else do you blame for their play the last few years? The players? Lucia and Hill handpicked them, aren't they responsible for the level of play? With UM's hockey legacy they can recruit as well as anybody else in college hockey including us, they just haven't got the job done lately. The gophers problem is they are so arragant they believe they can be competitive with just players from one state. Groupthink sets in. Thank gosh the Sioux go after the best players in the world no matter where they are from. 1 1
siouxforeverbaby Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 I also don't see Lucia being gone next year. 1. The U can't afford to keep buying out contracts. 2. He is not a horrible coach, he is in fact a good coach. I also don't see them getting rid of Grant as I think the players/staff generally like him.... Hill, on the other hand, should be fired.....he is the iceberg that is sinking their ship.
Sioux-cia Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 The only Gopher back to backs that mean anything today are the Friday and Saturday losses to UAA, how humbling is is it to get swept by Anchorage. Moron and Gold, the heads must be hanging, hey those losses belong to the players, not just Lucia.
yzerman19 Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 First of all $250,000 is nothing, absolutely nothing in the context of a business decision like this. It certainly isn't enough to swing a decision. The head coach is responsible for his staff and for the overall success of the on-ice product. You don't send your underlings to slaughter when you're in charge.
Sioux-cia Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 I don't know or really care who the assistant coaches are for the Goofs but am curious as to why Hill keeps getting blamed for their failures. What's he done? Does the old adage the 'fish rots from the head down' not apply to Goofy hockey?
siouxkid12 Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 I hate the gophers just as much as the next person and love to see them lose but why are we talking about the gophers choking? Shouldn't we be talking about winning the WCHA and moving on? Everyone is making it seem like UAA is an awful team, we went 2-0-1 against them. I think UAA is a team to look out for in the final five, they are some big boys and they can clog up some lanes and cause trouble for most teams. People can say that we are chokers to, I mean we did get bounced 4 straight years out of the Frozen Four. I know this is a forum so anything goes but when we discuss this it makes us look arrogant, especially after we just won a record 15th WCHA championship and all we can talk about is the gophers failures? Every team goes threw bad years and it just so happens to be the gophers time, hopefully they will right the ship because the program is too rich in history and too good to let fall into the bottom tier of the league. 5 1
Teeder11 Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 The gophers problem is they are so arragant they believe they can be competitive with just players from one state. Groupthink sets in. Thank gosh the Sioux go after the best players in the world no matter where they are from. +1 for you. That is exactly right! We recruit the best in the nation and the world. Why limit yourself just because you "think" you can? I don't see Ohio State or Michigan or Texas or any of the SEC teams in football recruiting only from their home states. Same for in basketball. Why should hockey be any different?
siouxforeverbaby Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 I don't know or really care who the assistant coaches are for the Goofs but am curious as to why Hill keeps getting blamed for their failures. What's he done? Does the old adage the 'fish rots from the head down' not apply to Goofy hockey? I am not entirely sure why they blame him, but Gopher fans were calling for his head all last year and again this year. Former Gopher players were actually on a radio show last year talking about how he needs to go and basically just badmouthing him while loving on Lucia.
Wilbur Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 Another parallel could be that both were loyal to their assistant coaches, probably to their ultimate downfall. Gasparini basically had two goalie coaches in Craig Perry and Jim Scanlan. Not saying either of them were bad coaches, but with the name recognition of the program and the head coach, perhaps a defensive specialist or an offensive coach could have been thrown it there. A good point. I think someone said it here a couple of posts ago, but people around the Minnesota program HATE John Hill. I guess I'll plead ignorance as to why so many people dislike the guy. He did have some success at Anchorage, but I can't believe the fall of the program gets associated with him a lot of the time. Potulny is basically the players coach in the equation. The former player that a lot of the current guys can relate to and in turn he can relate back to. I just can't believe that some sort of a change isn't coming. A lot of boosters give a lot of money to the U of M, and you'd think if they were able to axe Brewer, they'd be able to get Lucia out the door as well. Gopher fans will always beat their chests about back to back, but at the same time they've started a 3-peat that needs to be addressed.
johndahl Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 I seem to remember hearing that the players liked him, and that he was kind of their liaison to Lucia. Players shouldn't need a "liason" to their coach. Especially someone like Hill.
tho0505 Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 First of all $250,000 is nothing, absolutely nothing in the context of a business decision like this. It certainly isn't enough to swing a decision. The head coach is responsible for his staff and for the overall success of the on-ice product. You don't send your underlings to slaughter when you're in charge. Certainly isn't anything in an amount of a buyout. Look at Georgia Tech's coaches buyout, 7.5 million!!!!!!!!
tnt Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 The gophers problem is they are so arragant they believe they can be competitive with just players from one state. Groupthink sets in. Thank gosh the Sioux go after the best players in the world no matter where they are from. Obviously you can be competitive with players from one state if you pick the right ones. Look at all the great players from Minnesota at UND, St. Cloud, Bemidji, Omaha, etc. The gophers just need a better mix of players and ones that are going to give it all every game. The gophers can get most of the good recruits out of Minnesota, if they have a bigger problem, it is that they sometimes right out of high school. They do recruit out of state players, but if you were a recruit from elsewhere, would you go to a place where you will be the "non-Minnesotan, or a place with diversity like UND where you get good-natured ribbing if you are Canadian, Minnesotan, or what have you. Maybe it is a better educational opportunity to live through experiences of a more diverse group of guys, and the Sioux will be very geographically widespread over the next few years.
Cratter Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 Obviously you can be competitive with players from one state if you pick the right ones. Look at all the great players from Minnesota at UND, St. Cloud, Bemidji, Omaha, etc. The gophers just need a better mix of players and ones that are going to give it all every game. The gophers can get most of the good recruits out of Minnesota, if they have a bigger problem, it is that they sometimes right out of high school. They do recruit out of state players, but if you were a recruit from elsewhere, would you go to a place where you will be the "non-Minnesotan, or a place with diversity like UND where you get good-natured ribbing if you are Canadian, Minnesotan, or what have you. Maybe it is a better educational opportunity to live through experiences of a more diverse group of guys, and the Sioux will be very geographically widespread over the next few years. If the Gophers recruited the best in USA and Canada and not just from Minnesota they should realistically have just as many National Championships as UND if not more.
LeftyZL Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 Obviously you can be competitive with players from one state if you pick the right ones. Look at all the great players from Minnesota at UND, St. Cloud, Bemidji, Omaha, etc. The gophers just need a better mix of players and ones that are going to give it all every game. The gophers can get most of the good recruits out of Minnesota, if they have a bigger problem, it is that they sometimes right out of high school. They do recruit out of state players, but if you were a recruit from elsewhere, would you go to a place where you will be the "non-Minnesotan, or a place with diversity like UND where you get good-natured ribbing if you are Canadian, Minnesotan, or what have you. Maybe it is a better educational opportunity to live through experiences of a more diverse group of guys, and the Sioux will be very geographically widespread over the next few years. Maybe that's part of Minnesota's problem as well. Guaranteeing recruits they can come in straight out of high school without a year or 2 in juniors. If a top recruit had his choice of schools, he would most likely go to the school telling him he could play right now instead of a year from now. Maybe Minnesota get's some of the best in MN, but you can tell some just aren't ready for the WCHA physicalness.
iramurphy Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 Maybe that's part of Minnesota's problem as well. Guaranteeing recruits they can come in straight out of high school without a year or 2 in juniors. If a top recruit had his choice of schools, he would most likely go to the school telling him he could play right now instead of a year from now. Maybe Minnesota get's some of the best in MN, but you can tell some just aren't ready for the WCHA physicalness. Spoke with Gino Gasparini at the Bemidji series and he stated just that same opinion. The Gophers tend to get many of the best Mn. kids (they should) but many are not physically ready and should play a year or sometimes two of juniors after high school. I always thought Mike Forney would have benefitted from a year or even two in the USHL after high school (I don't believe any kid should leave his home and high school to play Juniors because they can always play after HS). Gino also laughed when I asked if he thought the Gophers would dump Lucia. He said he thought it was funny that the people think after winning two national titles he just got dumb. He also said Lucia's players support him but some of the older pre Lucia guys want to dump him.
Cratter Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 Gopher99 on gopherpucklive talking to a AA player after they swept the gophers: He tells me this: there's a difference when we play North Dakota and when we play Minnesota. While both have arguably the most talented players in the league year in and year out, ND plays for the symbol on their chest. MN right now plays for the name on their back. He told me that their team has only 1 guy drafted and that they know many will never sniff the NHL. He says with 19 drafted guys on MN, how many really care about that "M" on their chest? But I think this is old news?
Air Force One Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 Those last two posts are just painful if I was a Goopher fan
Siouxman Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 Gopher fans are pretty upset about losing to UAA. Look at the pairwise, UM at 19 and UAA at 20. Maybe not that much of an upset, if at all.
Goon Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 Players shouldn't need a "liason" to their coach. Especially someone like Hill. Yeah I agree... Last weekend Lucia was trying to draw something up for his player to look at the kid just turned his head away and went back to watching the game.
Goon Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 Gopher fans are pretty upset about losing to UAA. Look at the pairwise, UM at 19 and UAA at 20. Maybe not that much of an upset, if at all. Entitlement hockey for you... I was watching the end of the Gopher game with UAA this afternoon and there was no life in the stands and the players were just going through the motion only C-Piss was really putting out an effort. 1
Siouxman Posted March 14, 2011 Posted March 14, 2011 Gopher99 on gopherpucklive talking to a AA player after they swept the gophers: But I think this is old news? It has been evident for several years now, and I am totally surprised the Gopher fans have not picked up on it. You watch the interviews of Sioux players over the past few years and then watch interviews of Gopher players of the past few years and the difference is telling. The Eric Johnson interviews were especially bad, never saying we, or our, it was always me or my. The type of leadership that instills that in the players has to come from the captains primarily. Coaches can help, but it is tough unless the coaches were a part of that culture (the entire UND coaching staff is from the culture). Once that culture is lost, it is extremely difficult to get it back because the captains have never experienced it. That is where the Sioux stand out, current and past players. Their love of the Fighting Sioux spirit, teamwork, nickname, emblem, culture, etc. is consistent across the decades. We, as fans, owe a great deal to the captains who have carried on the tradition over the years. That is what is missing from the Gophers.
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