This is a dubious distinction, at best. How on Earth can anyone possibly judge the best player in the NCAA? If all players were to play head-to-head a more plausible case could be made. However, as teams to not play all other NCAA teams, this is a nearly impossible case to make. Of all the players in the CCHA I've watched the past couple of years, two stick out in my mind. Both showed me things Morrison did not. Though Brendan is a gifted player, and is undoubtedly among the best. Sean Tallaire and his brother both showed me flashes of absolute brilliance every time they touched the puck. They completely dominated on both ends of the ice, knew how to move the puck, and led their team both on and off the bench. This was obvious. Anson Carter also did not have a good season. His skating is breathtaking, and his presence is awesome. You know when he's on the ice. And there's one more guy that explodes out there: Curtis Fry. He's a one man wrecking machine. Never mind Keith Aldridge, who is also quite a dominant player. But how can we compare these players to players in the other conferences? Perhaps I'm naive, but such judgements are terribly hard to make. As someone who plays, coaches and just loves this game, I can't possibly say one player is better than another at that level. This becomes even more difficult when I think that many of these players' skills are not yet fully developed. College play is much different than NHL or pro play. And that's the real proving ground for their potential. If every team played every other team, and these guys went head-to-head, we'd have a great showing of who's got the goods. But these are young men playing a game they love. And when they touch the ice it's not who the better player is, it's what the better team it is. This year it is Michigan who will carry the torch. But that does not necessarily mean that the individual parts are as great as the sum of their efforts. And Cody Bowtell is one of the fastest skaters I've seen in the NCAA. He was terrific against Notre Dame in their '94-'95 matchups. How often do we get to see some of the other players like Bowtell in CCHA land? Once every two years? This is the quandary. In the NHL, every team plays every other team and we get a good idea of who can do what. We get to see them all play against each other; unlike college where the chances of Notre Dame facing Colorado College, for example, is very slim. Peace, John-Andrew Murphy Coordinator International Studies Resource Center University of Notre Dame HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.