Sooo... any further word on the Dartmouth "situation"? Over the weekend, I had a few thoughts about the whole mess, which I'll throw out for consider- ation: 1. Under most circumstances, I would holler mightily about Ben Smith leaving the Big Green for Northeastern and not honoring his contract (which I'm guessing was for longer than one season). Similar actions in the "real" (non-coaching) world would probably have landed him in court. But let's face it -- the world of college athletics is one in which contracts, commitments, and so forth don't seem to offer too much security, either for the college or the coach. Every year, there are any number of college coaches who are fired or who "resign" from their positions, and there are also many others who jump ship for what they consider "better opportunities". This kind of thing might be happening more often in football and basketball than in hockey, but it is by no means confined to the Big Two. I know this is small consolation to the Dartmouth players and fans, but Smith's decision wasn't really anything out of the ordinary. With Smith's strong ties to the Boston area, it is no big surprise that his "dream" was to coach at a college in or near Boston, such as North- eastern. I suspect that if he had had similar ties to New Hampshire instead, he would probably not have been so interested in the job at Northeastern, and they might not have been interested in him either. I hope things work out well for him with the Huskies. 2. I have to be impressed with Dartmouth athletic director Dick Jaeger's handling of the situation. Here's a fellow who is interested in rebuilding Dartmouth's hockey team (unlike the previous AD, who from what I've heard didn't particularly care about the team) and who watches his rookie head coach build up the morale among the players -- only to have the guy come to him after the season is over and ask if he can interview for a job somewhere else. I'm sure Jaeger was not happy about that, and he could have raised a big stink, but he didn't. It sounds like the whole thing was very civil. And while Smith certainly could have handled the situation better, at least he didn't come out and publicly deny that he was interested in the Northeastern job before he went and accepted it. That type of hypocrisy is also common in college athletics, as Wayne's recent posting about the Maine women's basketball coach shows. 3. Hopefully, Dartmouth's search committee will be able to get a coach quickly, since whoever comes in is going to have a lot of work to do. I agree with Bob that assistant coach Roger Demment would be a good choice -- probably the best choice, since his knowledge of and experience with the program under Smith could only help next year's team. But it also might be a good idea for the committee to try to get someone who has some ties to the area, like a Dartmouth graduate (I don't know if Demment is one or not). Brown coach Bob Gaudet would have been a coup -- a former Dartmouth goalie who has already shown that he can point a team in the right direction. It sounds like he won't be leaving Brown (at least, he has publicly denied it -- uh-oh!), but it was pretty nice of him to suggest his own assistant coaches as candidates. Maybe Dartmouth should consider one or both of them. I'm not saying that a Dartmouth alum would necessarily be a better coach for the Big Green than a non-alum, but the team might be a little less likely to find themselves in the situation they are in right now if they get someone who went through the program as a player, like Gaudet did. At any rate, I'm betting that Dartmouth will put a HUGE buyout clause into the contract of whoever they hire. And as far as Elvis and Billy Martin are concerned, well, Elvis would sell more tickets... 4. Despite their 1-24-3 season, Dartmouth is not a completely talent-bare team. Last year's freshman class produced some high-quality players, among them center Tony DelCarmine and goaltender Mike Bracco. Del- Carmine looks like a solid and dangerous skater, and I think he led the Big Green in scoring, while Bracco showed a lot of promise between the pipes and will be tough to beat if Dartmouth puts together a coherent defense in front of him. These two and winger Scott Fraser all made the ECAC 1990-91 All Rookie team, and for what it's worth, Dartmouth's three All-Rookie selections were the most of any team in the ECAC last season. The Big Green also showed that they were able to disrupt a more talented team by clogging up the neutral ice area and forcing their opponents to slow down. This was especially true late in the season in a 2-0 loss to Cornell and a 3-3 tie with Clarkson. If their offense had been able to generate a little more pressure, Dartmouth might very well have won those two games, as well as a few other close ones. 5. Having said that, let me add that I do not believe Dartmouth will climb out of the ECAC cellar next season. I know this does not exactly qualify as going out on a limb, but I don't think the Big Green will be able to rebound too well from the turmoil generated by Smith's sudden departure. Dartmouth will also be fielding a young team next season, and the veteran players that they do have will be adjusting to their third coach in three years. I suspect Dartmouth will surprise a few teams next year, but I don't see them making a move in the standings. However, if they are fortunate enough to get a coach who can keep up the morale and team spirit the way Smith did, they should be able to build on that for future seasons, assuming the coach stays around. -- Bill Fenwick Cornell '86 LET'S GO RED!! "I want a smart kid, like Mozart. He was a genius... he wrote an opera when he was seven. An opera! Of course, you never hear that one." -- Matt Weinhold