Dave Hendrickson <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>Here's a Bruce Crowder quote from today's Globe:
...
>"All I know is I don't think people on the committee are going to bat for us.
>There are three Hockey East teams in the tournament and two of them are being
>shipped out."
>
>I couldn't agree more.  ESPECIALLY when Jack Parker (who is on the selection
>committee) was quoted *after* the Hockey East playoffs that "it's impossible
>for Lowell not to be in Albany next weekend."
>
>When all three ECAC teams stay East -- ESPECIALLY two lower ranked ones
>than Lowell -- I can only conclude that the ECAC representative has bigger
>testicles than Parker.  When the going gets tough, then Parker takes his BU
>bye and folds.  Thanks for nothing, Jack.
 
Jack Parker hasn't been the HE rep on the committee for a couple of
years now.  The HE rep is Bob DeGregorio, HE commissioner and
Merrimack AD.
 
I agree with Dave about the lower ranked ECAC teams staying East.
This still doesn't seem right to me.  However, that is because I do
not see a problem with second round matchups between teams from the
same conference, nor do I think that attendance should have been a
factor in this choice.  But according to Rick Comley, these were prime
considerations this year - more important than season-long performance.
 
I can buy letting the host team stay at home (although I would prefer
it wasn't done) because as Rick said, it encourages teams to host
the regional and they're having trouble getting bids as it is.  I
can't buy letting low-ranked non-hosting teams stay near home just
because they are perceived to have good fan support.  If Cornell's fan
base is so great, then they will go anywhere to support their team -
even to Michigan.  So that's where they should have gone.  That's
where they belong.  Getting to play a virtual home game because you're
hosting the tournament is one thing.  But getting to play one when you
squeaked in is another.
 
Lowell really lost out to two teams that seemed to have been ranked
lower than they were.  They lost out to Cornell on the attendance
issue.  And they lost out to Clarkson simply so that a second-round
all-HE matchup could have been avoided.  Yet they were apparently the
third-highest ranked team from the East.
 
BTW, I suspect Jack's comment above is his way of giving his input,
and I also thought he was right about Lowell staying East.  I was
stunned to see that they had been sent to Munn yet again.  I do not
know how much you can blame BobD as the HE rep or the other three
committee members, however.  That's because I notice a correlation
between the hockey committee's "prime directives" (maximize
attendance, minimize conference matchups) and the way the basketball
seedings are done, where those same directives are followed.  Rick
didn't say it, but I tend to believe that it was the NCAA itself and
not the committee members who directed that these two factors carry as
much weight as they did.  I would be interested to learn if this is true.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                 [log in to unmask]           [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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