A hodge-podge of things:
(1) I don't profess to be an expert, but I looked into
several scenarios regarding Bowling Green and
concluded the following:
BGSU doesn't get into the NCAA with a win or loss
versus Michigan in a CCHA consolation game.
(Keith already mentioned this.)
BGSU doesn't get into the NCAA if their NC loss to
Ohio State is switched to a win.
BGSU does get into the NCAA if their two NC games
(win and loss) versus Ohio State are removed from
their schedule.
I say the previous sentence at the risk of causing a
major hassle. PLEASE, PLEASE don't run with this and
scream unfair. Keith pointed it out best...what BGSU could
control was their wins and losses. And, taking away those
games could have altered BGSU's season in other ways.
I'm sure they gained confidence with the early season
blowout of the Bucks, and the mid-December loss may
have taught them not to overlook anyone. I simply removed
those two results from the Division I composite and left
every other result unchanged. It's easy to quantify the
direct effect of two games on the Rating Percentage Index.
It's impossible to quantify the indirect effect of two games
on the remainder of the season.
(2) RE: Why Minnesota gets a higher seed than Wisconsin.
I have a better question: Why does Wisconsin get a higher
seed than Michigan State? The Badgers don't deserve to
be as high as they are! Looking at the numbers, MSU should
be the 4th seed and UW the 5th. No effect on the pairings or
brackets, mind you, but MSU *should* be in front of Wisconsin.
I guess the real effect is that UW gets to wear their home
jerseys at home.
(3) RE: Michigan quarterfinal on TV.
Apologies to everyone that has e-mailed me regarding this.
Rather than answer 12-15 messages, I thought it more
efficient to reply here. At the moment, I don't know of any
TV coverage of the Michigan game. PASS is scheduled
to show a live high school championship (Class D Cow Tipping,
or something like that) on Saturday night. I'm trying to look
into it, though. The minute I hear anything, I'll post it. (I assume
others will do likewise.) From all accounts, it seems primed
(pardon the pun) for broadcast...it's just a matter of someone
picking up the feed. Maybe some oddball channel in Kokomo,
Indiana will have it and we can pick it up via satellite. Given
that it looks like (85% sure) I'm not going to Madison, I'll be
looking for a place to watch the game via satellite (Banfield's?).
If all else fails, I'll be somewhere near Yost huddled to a
radio.
(4) RE: officiating
Since we usually only hear the downside (including complaints
of my own), I'll offer three cheers to the CCHA officials for the
past weekend. For the UM-LSSU semifinal, I couldn't have
asked for a better crew than Steve Piotrowski (ref) with LaDuke
and Dobrzelewski as linesmen. I also thought that Matt Shegos
was terrific in the second semi (I saw part of it live, part of it on
TV). And, given that I think Piotrowski is the best ref in the CCHA,
I was pleased to see him do the LSSU-MSU final. Good choices
and a pretty decent job all around. (Btw...I thought the BGSU stick
to the throat of MSU's Richard Keyes that Ron Mason went on
and on and on about was a good no call. It sure looked like
Keyes was holding it there, trying to draw a call. He probably
got a tug from the BGSU player, but I doubt it was as blatant
as Keyes' head-snapping-back fall to the ice was meant to
have everyone believe.)
(5) Lastly, the CCHA championship Hockey-L gathering turned
out to primarily be a 30-40 minute chit-chat between me and
GM Finniss. Kenneth Baker (UM) was around for, and participated
in, about half of the discussion and Glen Keeney (MSU) snuck
by for a short while after getting a meal. (Glen had the correct
priorities...eat first, socialize later. :-)
John Haeussler
Univ of Michigan
[log in to unmask]
Am I the only one that sees the solution to Ohio State's
coaching vacancy? Hire Eddie Choi! He played there
for eight years...he must knows the ins and outs of the
system and administration. !=^)
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