Charlie Shub wrote:
 
> http://www.gazette.com/daily/spts1.html   (Lynn Zinser's article)
>
> http://www.gazette.com/daily/spts1a.html  (Ralph Routon's column)
 
The Zinser column was very good.  Ralph Routon's, however, is filled with a
bunch of innuendo and charges that don't even qualify as half-baked.  The
general thesis is that it would be better for Don Lucia to stay at CC, a
thesis that may well be true.  It also charges the Gopher hockey program with
a high level of arrogance, which has helped Lucia recruit quality players out
of the state; I'll agree with this, while stating that the number one culprit
resigned yesterday.  If the new coach, whoever it is, doesn't partake of that
arrogance, then the level is going to drop.  The fans will probably remain as
they are, but the coach is probably more influential when it comes to
recruiting.
 
However, I take issue with the following quotes:"But what if Minnesota's
recent basketball scandal involving widespread academic cheating also leads
to allegations and sanctions for hockey,
as many suspect?"
 
Huh?  The only person I've heard suspect anything like this is me.  And what
I suspect is that Doug Woog may have been involved in some other, minor,
violations akin to Chris McAlpine finding money under a hat.  This doesn't
belong in the same category as the basketball scandal; it doesn't even belong
in the same sentence, as Routon used it.  Not only is that *much* more
serious, the academic equivalent of a triple homicide, it came about because
the basketball tutoring program was seperated from that of the rest of the
athletic department.  The hockey tutoring program remained under the
direction of an office outside the athletic department.
 
"What if Minnesota athletic director Mark Dienhart loses his job, which very
well could happen, and his successor doesn't have strong feelings
about hockey?"
 
This one isn't so much aggravating as irrelevent.  I'm hoping that Mark
Dienhart *does* lose his job over the scandal, but can anyone really believe
that Minnesota is going to hire an AD that isn't committed to a strong hockey
program?  What are the chances that the next AD at North Carolina is going to
gut the basketball program?
 
"What if the NCAA nails Minnesota with staggering punishments for the
academic violations, enough to cripple all involved sports for years to
come?"
 
See the answer to the first quote.  This is just fear-mongering.
 
Routon also makes a big point that he thinks Minnesota is lying when it says
that it had no contact with Don Lucia (or Dean Blais, for that matter) prior
to Woog's resignation announcement.  First off, this isn't exactly what Mark
Dienhart or Pat Forceia said; they admit to having talked to Lucia (though
not Blais) Monday night, when Woog made his decision.  Routon agrees with
Dienhart that it would be unethical for Minnesota to have talked to him
before this; I agree, but not for the same reason that he seems to.  Mostly,
it would be unethical because it would mean that Minnesota had already fired
Woog before he'd made his decision.  Since I believe that Woog had already
made his choice before Saturday (or had it made for him; I'm not convinced
that the "choice" was more than a face-saving option and the fund-raising
post much more than a sinecure to ease him out), it becomes a lot less
ethical.  There is also the possibility that it would be unethical to talk to
Lucia before receiving permission from CC.  However, this would hardly be the
first time that such a thing has happened in coaching, or any other field of
business; there are self-interested reasons for all parties (including the
school that might lose a coach) to let things be conducted this way.  It
should be noted, as well, that Routon doesn't provide any evidence for any of
this; he's just suspicious.
 
J. Michael Neal
 
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