Thanks to Rick for his great recaps of the BC-UMA series...I meant to
throw in my congratulations and recognition of the Minutemen for their
first HE win.  I know it wasn't the outcome Rick would have liked to
see, but I thought his recaps were interesting and worth emulating by
others in terms of objectivity.  OK, that's enough...Rick, you can
send me that check any time. :-)
 
This message is really to comment on a comparison Rick raised (one I
have been pondering myself):
 
>Given that most of the UMA
>players are sophomores or freshman, they could be very dangerous in
>the next 2 years as they continue to grow.  They are much better in
>their 2nd year than Merrimack was, and if they can solve the special
>teams play they will give BC and Merrimack (maybe Providence and
>Lowell?) a battle in the second division.
 
I do think this UMA team is certainly better than Merrimack in its
first year in HE, 1989-90, yet I also believe Merrimack improved
enough in the following season that I would easily take that year's
team (1990-91) over UMA right now.  In 1989-90, Merrimack was
basically Andy Heinze, Agostino Casale, and 16 other players plus
whichever goalie played that night.
 
But in the following season, Merrimack would be 4-3-0 and in third
place at Christmas in HE, including a win over 1 team that would gain
an NC$$ berth - BC.  Add to that a second half win over PC, another
NC$$ team; I just don't see UMA beating any teams this year of that
caliber (i.e. BU and, say, UNH or NU).
 
MC would finish 6th in HE at 7-14-0 (13-19-1), in a league so tough
the NC$$ runner-up (BU) finished 3rd and the 5th place team narrowly
missed out on an NC$$ berth after the top 4 teams all received bids.
UMA does have a long way to go to finish 8-16-0 (the equivalent) next
year in its second season.
 
I think the big difference between MC in 1990-91 and UMA now (and,
from what I can see, next year too) is that UMA doesn't have any
forwards of the caliber of Merrimack's top three in 90-91: Dan
Gravelle, Casale, and Howie Rosenblatt.  I would even toss in Teal
Fowler as an MC player back then who has no equal now on UMA; closest
might be Sal Manganaro.  Gravelle and Casale were among the top 25 or
so forwards in the league in terms of talent, and Rosenblatt was a
huge Cam Neely-like wing who just set up in front and banged in feeds
from the other two.
 
On the other hand, I'm more impressed with the Minutemen's defensive
play today, and goaltending is perhaps about even.  I don't think that
any of Regan, Kilduff or Moriarty have distinguished themselves yet.
Merrimack did have Yannick Gosselin, who was quite superb until his
career was basically ended at Thanksgiving with a bad knee injury (a
big reason for the slide from 4-3-0 to 7-14-0).  Otherwise I would
give the edge to MC in that area too.
 
But again, I certainly agree that in comparing the teams' first HE
campaigns, UMA comes out ahead.  I am not sure they will be able to
match Merrimack's 3-18-0 first-year HE mark, but UMA has had more
close games than MC did.  Whether UMA can have a better second HE
season than MC had is for the fortune tellers to know, but it sure
won't be easy.
 
Where I think UMA will really distinguish itself is in establishing
long-term success more quickly than Merrimack will be able to.  I
expect them to be much better in their fourth or fifth year than MC
was.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93