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>Ralph Baer writes:
>>Joseph A. Gherlone Jr., LT, USN wrote:
>>>        i concur heartily about the new desire to win, but i'd caution
>>> that it seems to be a long-standing tradition for the Engineers to be
>>> overconfident and goof up in games they (and everyone else) expect them
>>> to win.  words of warning to Coach Fridgen :-).
>>Losing to significantly inferior teams has been a tradition for RPI
>>ever since I was there, and probably before that.
>I hate to say it, but all through this thread, I have been thinking
>that you folks are all guilty of one thing: thinking that RPI is
>better than they really are.  I can count on one hand the number of
>teams in the last 10 years who went an entire season without losing
>games they were "expected" to win.
[commentary on RPI's expected play and the loss to Army elided]
>Please note I'm not taking shots at RPI or their fans, just trying to
>give a different perspective from an unbiased observer of the scene.
>I believe that this feeling RPI followers seem to have, that their team
>often loses to inferior teams, is peculiar to them - rather than there
>being a problem peculiar to the team.  I don't hear it from followers
>of other teams, at least not nearly as often.  RPI followers might
>need to consider whether they expect and/or demand too much from their
>team - something I have believed has been going on in the Capital
>District for years, ever since I was there - and whether those demands
>create pressure that is inevitably going to affect RPI in ways it
>doesn't affect other teams.
 
I'm not an unbiased observer; I'm an RPI alumnus who did two years on Hockey
Line, so take anything I say with a shaker of salt.  However, I feel you have
hit the nail on the head with the expectations placed on the RPI team.
The RPI hockey team, as the only team on campus that anyone cares about, is
under a lot of pressure to perform.  Because of this, the years RPI is
expected to do well in the preseason (last year, for example, or the 90-91
season that was Joe Juneau's senior year) tend to be disappointing years for
Engineer fans; too much pressure is put on the team, with bad results.
 
There is a very strong feeling that RPI has choked in games they were expected
to win, and played far beyond their normal level in games they should have
lost.  Most of this is an observation effect; nobody remembers losing the
games you're expected to lose, or winning the games you're expected to win.
Nobody remembers how RPI did in the 90-91 ECAC playoffs, when they lost to
Harvard in the quarterfinals after coming in seeded 5th (I had to check
the Hockey-L archives to get the info on that), but people remember coming in
to the playoffs seeded 10th in 91-92 and taking St. Lawrence to 2 overtimes in
the semifinals.
 
This causes the pressure referenced above; people remember how RPI "always"
does well against good teams, so they expect RPI to beat good teams, and
people remember how RPI "always" loses to bad teams, so they expect them to
make sure that doesn't happen.  I don't know if this is a self-fulfilling
prophecy, or just more of the observational effect.  I also don't know what
can be done about it.
 
Sorry to ramble on so long.
--
Brad Jones ([log in to unmask])
In the unlikely event that Oracle has opinions, these aren't them.
"The line between good and evil, hope and despair, does not divide the world
between 'us' and 'them.'  It runs down the middle of each one of us."
                                              -- Robert Fulghum