One of the greatest aspects about the Michigan hockey program is that Berenson has a way to keep his players around until his senior year. However Bob Griebel's statement that "Whether he's right or wrong in suggesting that's a different profile than the Spartan recruit, I think that's his motivation." makes me wonder why a coach would expect a freshman recruit to know what major he wants. Michigan State has programs far superior to Michigan's (any agricultural major, most engineering, Economics, any environmental studies or policy major, etc.) just as Michigan has some better than State (law and medicine, though those are graduate programs). Yet when Sports Illustrated did its issue on cheating in athletics, it was the University of Michigan that was the flagship institution. Besides, which 18 to 20 year old isn't going to be more impressed with the weightroom and arena than with the academics. Maybe that was what Berenson was referring to --- maybe he thinks Yost is a better arena than Munn and so the choice should be obvious.  

Nathan Hampton


 -----Original Message-----
From:   Bob Griebel [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Thu 3/27/2003 2:59 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Cc:	
Subject:        Re: Longest Odds to Win Tournament

Jeff Jackson wrote:

> Not much doubt about that...  Red Berenson has been quoted in at least one of the Detroit papers as saying that if a recruit couldn't decide between attending MSU or Michigan, he didn't want him playing at Michigan.  I think it did give him extra satisfaction that his 500th victory was against MSU - even though it took him 2 games to get it!

That's a pretty accurate paraphrase, Jeff, but I'm a little surprised he actually said it said and I don't take it as the equivalent of the conventional "love us, hate our competition" attitude.  Red was an extremely serious and capable student even after he went into the NHL.  He didn't waste any time polishing off an MBA while playing pro
hockey.  He chose Michigan for the academics despite the pro GM's threat that he'd never play in the NHL if he made that foolish mistake and he prefers to recruit players who come for the same reason and want to see their educations through.  The majors of the seniors on his last national championship team were awesome.  Whether he's right or
wrong in suggesting that's a different profile than the Spartan recruit, I think that's his motivation.  There's no question he and Ron Mason have great respect for each other and I doubt Red has other than respect for any good competitor.

I'm just curious about whom he referred to as the recruit (now in the NHL) who coukln't decide if he wanted to visit State until Red told him that's the school he should choose.

Bob Griebel