On Mar 31, 16:25, Larry Weintraub wrote:
>My interest is picqued ... You finish out of the playoff hunt, fire your
>coach and hire ...
>
>the one coach who finished behind you?
>
>No wonder your program isn't doing well. Not to mention that as far as I
>can tell in Ithaca, Gaudet isn't a particularly highly respected coach by
>the Cornell fans. I can't imagine he has that much more respect elsewhere
>around the league.
>
>I'm puzzled, doesn't look like a great move by the Big Green to me.
I beg to differ -- this could turn out to be a very good move by Dartmouth, if
this is in fact what they are going to announce. In Gaudet, the Big Green would
get themselves a proven rebuilder, which is frankly what they need. Gaudet took
over a Brown team that was going nowhere (and had been going there for several
years) and... well, OK, his first season produced quite possibly the worst
Division I team in college hockey history (1-25), but Gaudet's Bears took off on
a pretty steady climb after that, finishing 8th, 6th, 6th, 4th, 4th, and in
1995, 2nd. Along the way, his Bears copped their first NCAA tournament
appearance in something like 18 years. Now, Brown hasn't stayed at the top, and
in fact, their free-fall from second in 1995 to dead last this year is cause for
concern... but hey, Gaudet has shown he can at least *get* a team to a higher
level, which is a start. (Perhaps there was something going on behind the
scenes in Bruin-land anyway... Gaudet was a finalist for at least one other
coaching position, at Ohio State a few years ago)
As for this "respect" thing, well, there's been plenty of talk about how Gaudet
supposedly yaps at the refs and at opposing players during games. I don't know
how much of this is true... on those few occasions when I've watched Brown, I
haven't seen it, but then I haven't been looking for it. It's possible that
he's not particularly well-liked by his peers (it took forever for him to
finally win the ECAC Coach of the Year award, despite his team's consistant
rise), but again, if Dartmouth wants somebody to rebuild their program, well,
this guy has already done so under somewhat similar circumstances. Plus,
Dartmouth is his alma mater.
And as I'm sure Luiz will point out, Cornell fans aren't doing the hiring here,
so what they (we) think really doesn't matter much.
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
strictly those of:
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95
LET'S GO RED!! DJF 5/27/94
"What are you writing?"
"It's my new self-help book for compulsive shoppers."
"What do *you* know about compulsive shoppers?"
"I know they buy a lot of books."
-- "Dilbert"
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