At 4:16 PM -0400 6/20/96, J. Michael Jackson wrote:
>I don't know.  I'm sorry to be the curmudgeon (okay, I'm not sorry at all.  I
>rather enjoy it), but the sports world is littered with cases where an
>individual was a great success at one location and his success didn't follow
>when he moved on.  I'm not disparaging the great things Bruce Crowder
>accommplished at UMass-Lowell, but I think some folks are doing some
>premature chicken counting on the subject of what he's going to mean at
>Northeastern.  It's a different place with different people around him and
>with different problems and conditions.  In all sorts of subtle ways, he
>might not be the right man for the job.  We'll have to wait and see.
 
I might be inclined to agree if it was almost anyone other than Crowder.
I'm convinced that he is one of the top coaches in the country and will be
successful almost anyplace he goes.  It isn't a coincidence that he has
drawn a look from many programs in the last few years that were looking for
a coach.  He's also been mentioned as a possible successor to Shawn Walsh
in Maine if and when Walsh steps down.
 
Sometimes I wonder how many people are able to truly appreciate what
Crowder did at Lowell.  He took a program that was coming off an NCAA
probation, several years of poor play and attendance, and was considered
one of the less attractive places to recruit to.  In just a few years, he
turned it into one that contended  for HE and twice defeated MSU on their
home ice in the NCAA tourney.  He also generated community interest in the
team where little existed before and where few thought it was possible.
But what was most remarkable was the way he took the talent he had and got
his players to greatly exceed what anyone expected of them.  This is
primarily why I think he'll do well at NU.  He has shown that even in a
situation where the recruits don't beat a path to your door - and a coach
can only do so much in this regard, since players also consider factors
that are beyond a coach's control - he is still able to win and do it
consistently.
 
At least at first, the situation he'll face at NU is not that different
from what he had at Lowell.  NU has had the same sort of trouble landing
top players that Lowell has had.  But NU also has some things to offer that
Lowell does not, like the Beanpot and playing in Boston.  I don't know how
long it will take, but Crowder is one of those rare coaches who has the
ability to succeed where others have not.  I expect he'll do the same at NU.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
*****       Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at:       *****
*****   http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html    *****
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.