Brian asks:
>Aside: why is
>this job considered such a plum?  I read Mike Machnik's earlier comments but
>I still don't understand why coaches relish the thought of leading a program
>through a seemingly never-ending series of defeats with their only personal
>reinforcement the mantra that the program is just one blue chip recruit away
>from winning the big one.  And why do coaches leave winning programs to
>establish themselves as the new saviours of some heretofore Division I or II
>non-entity?  Clearly coaches are a strange bunch, enamored with more than
>simply money or university politics.
 
This is a good question.  The reason that the UMass job is so attractive to
so many people is that all of the pieces are there to build a hugely
successful DivI hockey program.  The new rink is the largest in the East,
2nd-largest in all of college hockey.  It will be the only rink in the East
and one of the few in the nation with Olympic-sized ice surfaces, which
should work to the home team's advantage.  Academically, UMass can compete
with nearly any other school, and the campus setting is one of the most
beautiful I've ever seen.  The nearest pro hockey team is in Springfield,
and UMass students support their athletics pretty well, so that rink should
be sold out or close to it most of the time.  UMass hockey will be big in
Amherst.
 
Anyone taking the job will know that almost right from the start, he will
be able to go into the home of a potential BC/BU/Harvard/etc. recruit and
have a solid chance of luring that kid to UMass.  I think the program will
be successful as far as record goes almost right from the start because of
the reasons I gave above.  The key to being successful in Hockey East is
being able to compete with BC/BU/Maine for recruits - or find them
somewhere else that BC/BU/Maine aren't looking.  I think UMass will be
stealing some players away from "the big 3", quite a few in fact.  It won't
be a case of being "just a blue-chip player away" because they'll have
about as many blue-chippers as BC & BU, mark my words.  Boston-area kids,
who make up much of the rosters of the HE teams, especially BC & BU, will
absolutely be attracted to UMass.
 
In short, they may endure a couple of seasons with losing records, but I
think they will do better than, say, Merrimack has in its first 3-4 seasons
in the league, and they will have a faster track to success than Merrimack.
I'll stand by my earlier prediction that they'll make the DivI tourney by
the year 2000.
 
BTW, consider that Maine had a lot of the same things going for it when it
moved to DivI in 1979, and it had a winning record in 1980-81.  By 1986-87,
Maine had made the DivI tourney for the first of what will be 7 straight
seasons counting 1992-93.  I think we'll see an even faster rate of success
at UMass.
---
Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.)    *HMN*