I was reading the discussion about UMass-Lowell and why they have not
been ranked highly in the polls.  My first thought was, as has already
been pointed out, the consecutive slaughters that they received from
RPI and BU.
 
Then it was pointed out by Nicholas Strangas that Lowell has four wins
over the service academies.  One of these was a win vs Army in the RPI
Xmas tournamnt.  This made me think back to the discussion over the
summer when the field for this tournament was listed.  The teams were
RPI, Lowell, Army, and Mt. Allison (in Canada). For those of you who
weren't there at the time, apparently, Lowell was threatening to pull
out because they wanted to play a better opponent in the first round
than either Army or Mt. Allison.  I don't remember if this was actually
confirmed or was a rumor.  If this was true, Lowell was concerned about
its strength-of-schedule.  Does anyone know why Lowell would have a
harder time then other schools in scheduling quality out-of-conference
opponents?  (The problems the RPI has in filling out its tournament
field was beaten to death over the summer.)
 
Ralph Baer   RPI '68, '70, '74
Only 11 days until I get to watch satellite coverage of the RPI-Vermont
game.