>When Coach Morris said, "Not enough emphasis is placed on the regular
 season....
>I believe he was referring to the fact that it is the tournament champion who
>gets the automatic NCAA bid, not the team who played well all season and won
>the regular season.  This issue is of more importance in the ECAC, because the
>ECAC usually gets two NCAA bids.
 
 If the ECAC is so concerned about the importance of the regular season why
 don't they do what the BIG 10 does in basketball.  Don't have a tournament
 and just let whichever team wins the regular season get the automatic bid.
 
 The Big 10 is one of the most competitive conferences in the country in
 basketball, with teams like Michigan, Ohio St, Indiana, etc.  A post-season
 tournament would generate tons of money for the conference, yet they choose
 to place ALL the emphasis on the regular season.  All the controversy over
 a lesser team getting hot and upsetting the top teams would be eliminated.
 
 Personally, I like giving the underdogs a chance to make it to the "dance".
 Last season Northeastern had a terrible regular season, yet upset top seeded
 BC in the Hockey East Quarterfinals, and then lost an extremely close semi-
 final game to second seeded Maine.  All you heard around the Garden prior
 to the Maine game was that people couldn't believe that if NU won two more
 games they would get the bid to the NCAAs.  Well, that's what the conference
 tournament is there for.  If the top team is supposed to make it to the NCAA
 tourney anyways, why bother with the conference tournaments and just make
 the NCAA selections after the end of the regular season.
 
 -kap