My short answer to your query is that my presumption is that if we were to eventually be as successful as we hope in CCHA, we’d be competing for and hopefully attaining NCAA berths. Then we’d get our shot at playing the best when it really counts.
In the meantime, as Dick has suggested, perhaps we could get relatively competitive much more quickly in a weaker league, and offer our fans a reason to go to Goggin again.
I was at Miami when Miami started hockey, and honestly I don’t even remember what league we were in…but we got competitive pretty quickly and the little old Goggin was rocking in those days.
But…the locker room smelled like moldy sweat. Truly the stinkiest scent I’ve ever smelled. I can still smell it in my mind’s eye. I only went in the OG locker room because I had friends on the team. Is the new one (newish?) like that? Just curious.
Again, you are in some fantasy world or something. How do you expect to accomplish that??? CC built a beautiful new Arena to get a big boost. We already did that, so it is not an option to do it again.
You post every week about how all we need to do is win like our last 10 games and we might not finish last. Is that your idea of how to get out of this hole which swallows us a little deeper week by week, year after year.
I have never seen any constructive ideas out of you on how you think this improvement might happen. It just seems like you think if you dream it it will happen.
I remember when we joined the league I was told it is the SEC of hockey. Yes for results. But no for everything else. We dont make tons of money for getting our brains beat in. We are never on tv. Nchc.tv is more expensive than espn+.
If we were getting our brains beat in by Michigan and Notre Dame then I would see the value. But getting our brains beat in by Denver and Duluth and North Dakota and St Cloud State and Omaha and Colorado College- those dont even seem like real school names.
I doubt most of our student body appreciates the difference between Minnesota State and Minnesota Duluth.
It’s funny how closely this mirrors the MBB experience starting in about 2008 or so. From the outside, it sure seems like Miami can only really support 2 revenue programs, and we have to assume FB will always be one of those. Funny as MBB has gained some momentum, Hockey is off the cliff. I don’t have answers, but after a while it just feels like something has to give with the way Miami athletics operates.
Speaking of character and identity, something my friends and I were discussing this morning was how we haven’t really had a player or class take ownership of this team’s identity. We’ve been watching what’s going on with Omaha and have noticed how important their senior class has been in changing their narrative and the trajectory of their team and how instrumental their attitudes and personalities have been in doing that.
Mike Gabinet said in the locker room after they swept #3 Nodak for the first time in program history that his first ever recruit for that program was Nolan Sullivan and wow, what a way to build a program. Sullivan lives and breathes Omaha hockey and embodies everything it means to be a leader and is the absolute heart and soul of that program. Gabinet and some other staff have come out and said they weren’t interested in Nolan as a player initially because his play wasn’t great but after meeting him they could just tell instantly how good of a person he was and what he could do for the identity of the program. Their whole senior class has followed his example and their mentality has trickled down to the rest of the team.
I don’t want to bad mouth our guys but I can’t think of who on our team would be our “Nolan”. Or even that “senior class” that is heartbreaking to lose because of how big of an impact on the teams identity and character they’ve had. I’m sure they are all lovely guys; we know they are great students, they work hard in practice and any time I’ve interacted with them they’ve been nice but nobody has really taken it upon themself to be that guy who is the embodiment of Miami hockey. Bonk and I were discussing a bit ago who might be the team captain next year and it was hard to even pick someone who would lead us in that way.
In an interview a while ago Bergeron was talking about how the team isn’t sick of losing yet and how they need to not just be satisfied with being a college athlete and the “big man on campus” here and they need to want more and thats so true. I haven’t personally discussed this with any players so this is just conjecture but if I’m a 20 something year old boy who’s getting girls and popularity and having fun partying even when I’m losing on the ice I’m not sure I care too much to do anything about it (maybe that’s why I’m not a student athlete though).
Im excited to see if/when we get a new coach what kind of recruiting decisions they’ll make. On the one hand we want great guys that have the character it takes to rebuild a 1-23-2 team. On the other can we afford to pass up on super skilled players that may not have the attitude?
Again, when we turn the ship around at Miami we aren’t gonna look like the powerhouses of Nodak and whoever else, we are going to look more like an Omaha who has to use grit and determination to fight for every inch we can get. Or maybe the goon squad would work for us lol.
Sorry I have a lot to say XD And respect to our guys for sticking it out, it’s got to be hard not to get complacent.
I recall listening to a game during our glory years and the color man was just amazed how we played. He said we were “relentless”-- “Even when killing a penalty, they (MU) are relentless”.
That was a hell of a compliment. We desperately need to get that swagger back. And that only comes from at attitude from winning and refusing to lose.
Like to see those years again.
I think they’ve shown more of that this season than they did last season. Especially in the second half. Watching the end of Fridays game and seeing how they could have easily let up that empty netter but instead fought for the puck and got one more shot at tying it up (which they almost did) shows their growth- last season they so would have just let that go in.
In the pregame interview Saturday WMUs captain Luke was saying that Miami is hard to play because they can be all over you and on the puck which I was surprised to hear him say. It’s a good thing for us to be constantly in opps space making it hard for them
I think this weekend will be the ultimate test of their relentlessness- if they can forget the whole regular season (the bad parts at least) and play hard for 2/3 games and overcome the 166484926262 losing streaks they have.
Over the 9 tournaments since the NCHC was founded, on average the NCHC sends 3.9 teams per year, with an average seed of 2 (at the regionals with seeds 1-4) and each team wins on average 1.3 games. Meanwhile in the WCHA/CCHA it’s 1.9 teams per year, an average seed of 2.7 and 0.5 win per year.
If you exclude Minnesota State, it’s 1.1 teams per year, average seed of 3.3 and one third of a win per year.
This remains a dumb talking point. Michigan basketball had their worst season in decades right as football won a natty and hockey is ranked 11th. Maybe they just can’t afford having all three? It’s difficult to have three specific teams all peaking at the same time - doesn’t mean it’s correlated or a lack of funds.
If something has to give (which it very well might with the state of college sports currently), it’s not going to be cutting programs and funneling extra money into basketball.
We won the CCHA our last year in the league,
and in 10 years in the NCHC we have had a winning record only once. We have finished 7th or 8th in last 7 consecutive seasons.
The one thing that gives me hope is that people around here still care. And also we have like 30-40 NHL alums who care. No one likes the state of affairs. But, we can escape the force field of suck. I don’t know how we will because the nuance of building a winning hockey program is lost on me, but I still feel it’s possible. Possibly foolish. But… foolish is my first and middle name. My last name is lover. I digress.
I don’t think my point is difficult to get: Michigan is an example of a program with essentially infinite resources, yet they can’t get all three on top at the same time.
Miami spends at a level matching our peer schools in general. I think the only real knock there would be Millett being in need of a renovation. I just don’t see how someone can look at that and think that we’d definitely just be winning if we didn’t have to spend money on hockey (especially since most or all of that money should probably be funnelled into cutting the student fees instead in that case).
Yes, they are a 2 bid league most of the time but heavily carried by Minnesota State who’d rather be in the NCHC. The other schools just don’t have success at the tournament level, and if we thought we would be at that Minnesota State level, we’d be better off staying in the NCHC.
I still haven’t see anyone who is pro-CCHA explain why seven teams are thriving, ASU has been trying to join for years, and Miami is failing epically. Yeah, CC has a new rink. Goggin Ice Center is a billion times nicer than most in college hockey.
And for the six millionth time, the CCHA isn’t an option for Miami at this time, so we’re wasting time talking about it. It’s expensive to leave the NCHC and I seriously doubt the CCHA would vote to let MU in for old time’s sake. BUGS and St. Thomas would certainly vote ‘no’, and Bemidji and Minn. St. wouldn’t be that eager to add a 12-plus hour trip to pay astronomical Oxford hotel prices.
Why do I think this team will get better? Because kids want to play in this league, and recruiting is actually EASIER being in this league than it is in lesser leagues. I can tell you for an absolute fact that two of the top players on this team came to Miami to play against top talent and get exposure. Better competition, more scouts. More scouts, better chance to turn pro. You think their record is bad now? Take two of the top six scorers out of this lineup and see how many wins Miami has. And I’ve not asked most of the players and families about this.
We talked about this last year: Almost zero drafted players commit to CCHA teams now. Most teams in this league have more NHL draftees than the entire CCHA put together.
By his own admission, Bergeron has regularly struggled to get his teams prepared for opponents and has one year left on his contract, and as Lurker rightly pointed out, great up-and-coming coaches would love to coach in this league. There are only 64 D-1 spots.
So if Bergeron, who has a promising 2024-25 recruiting class, isn’t back next year, there’s no reason Miami shouldn’t be able to find a quality replacement.
Look at Gabinet in Omaha, Mayotte at CC and Ferschweiler at <M.
I just don’t understand why people thinking that winning a few more games against cupcakes improves this program. PairWise would still be 47th.
