I have always been split on the idea of whether or not McCutcheon is a good coach. On the one hand, during his first four years at Cornell (my time of undergrad) he put together quite an impressive team, one that had enough talent to win the league and maybe make noise in the nation during the last two years, but neither year really panned out. There were a lot of "fire McCutcheon" rumblings, but nothing really serious. After all, the teams were very competitive and while they did not do as well as expected, they still did quite well and it seemed a little foolish to fire a coach who was successful, just not as successful as everyone would like for him to have been. (Similar to Ohio State's football situation with Earle Bruce a few years ago...all he did was coach teams that went 9-3 every year...now we have John Cooper.) At the same time, Cornell just doesn't seem to play with much heart or fire a lot of the time. They play very flat. McCutcheon's teams are usually well-disciplined, but they often play with the demeanor of Mr. Spock instead of showing the occcasional fire and flare of Dr. McCoy (for all you Trekkies out there :-). A little emotion and a little reckless abandon would have gone a long way towards doing some national damage and winning the ECAC when they had the talent a couple years ago. More disturbing to me is a couple of conversations I have had with parents out here who say their kid passed up Cornell because McCutcheon was cold and distant. I am afraid his personality may be creating an environment where players don't want to play and don't get a lot of joy out of playing. I have heard some **rumors** to that effect that supposedly came from team members, but no direct confirmation. As anyone who ever went to Cornell knows, hockey has quite a following and it is a lot of fun to go to games. Lynah used to be a scary place to go play, but I am disheartened by the reports of dwindling attendence and unenthusiastic fans. I am afraid that if Cornell doesn't turn the corner a bit this year, it may lose its other main recruiting advantage, its rink with its fans. Fire McCutcheon? If there is any truth to the rumors that the players don't want to play for him and he is just not personable enough to ever effectively motivate a hockey team, then yes, I agree with firing him. However, I have no confirmation of that so based on performance, the man has coached some very good teams. A couple were underachievers, but did quite well nonetheless, and I am hesitant to call for the firing of a coach just because of a couple of down years, especially after last year with the team so young and so plagued with injuries. I think the jury is still out. **************************************************************** * Dave [log in to unmask] * * Cornell '91 OSU Med '95 * * The only problem with being on call every other * * night is that you miss half the cases * * (my resident was serious when he said this) * ****************************************************************