One Frozen Four in eight seasons. Call me crazy, but Minnesota should have the talent base, the resources and the ability to do more than that.
Absolutely GiW, We should never go 1 for 8 and included in that time is several tourney misses. We don't need a coaching search, he's standing right next to Lucia. Time to just hand it over to Guentzel.
There's no question Guentzel is the next head coach, it's just a matter of when.
One Frozen Four in eight seasons. Call me crazy, but Minnesota should have the talent base, the resources and the ability to do more than that.
I don't think too many here would argue that the MN Gopher hockey program is supposed to be one of the premier Div. 1 programs in the nation. With that being said todays loss is really no different than a Duke or a Kansas or a North Carolina losing in the first round of the NCAA BB tourney to a 16th seed such as Oral Roberts or Ball State.
BTW, what is Lucia's salary?
I don't think too many here would argue that the MN Gopher hockey program is supposed to be one of the premier Div. 1 programs in the nation. With that being said todays loss is really no different than a Duke or a Kansas or a North Carolina losing in the first round of the NCAA BB tourney to a 16th seed such as Oral Roberts or Ball State.
BTW, what is Lucia's salary?
I don't know what to think, honestly, a part of me really likes Lucia, but if we are going to fire Tubby for only winning 1 game in the NCAA tourney in 6 years, at a sport we don't support and is about our 10th best sport at the school, winning only 2 games in the NCAA tourney in 8 years in our #1 sport has to be considered unacceptable.
But our situation could be different in that THIS year was our big year for bb, and we gave Tubby a chance, so if we don't lose too many guys to the NHL, shouldn't we maybe give Lucia one more season to deliver?!
I say this because losing several of our current players to the NHL would be a bad sign, but if most or all of them stay, well, that could be a good sign and could bode well for Lucia?!
But like I said, I just don't know what to think, really.
Lucia like it or not has gone all Woog on us. I realize the cancer took some wind out of his sails, but he is over that now but....sometimes a life changing thing like that changes your perspective in ways that might not be conducive to going all-out all the time to win college hockey games. Fire-in-the-gut to win at all costs may have been reevaluated with a life changing episode. However good that may be for him it sucks for us.
It is a simple expectation for the premier program in the most talent laden state in the nation: Elite 8 every other year; Frozen Four every third year; National Championship every five years. Nothing less is acceptable, these are the minimums. It is not like there are 200+ Division 1 programs out there, it is a relatively small pond.
He did have some medical issues but I never heard it was cancer either.Don Lucia had cancer? That would be news to him.
ummm buddy... not even close by a long long stretch.
.......really so what is your logic on this? You must be a Sioux fan??
Now looking at this years NCAA you would guess the east coast is the powerhouse. Very poor showing by the WCHA this year.
.......really so what is your logic on this? You must be a Sioux fan??
Now looking at this years NCAA you would guess the east coast is the powerhouse. Very poor showing by the WCHA this year.
yeah i'm a sioux fan posting 300+ times on a gopher related board... not. i love gopher hockey and hockey in general. but to say yale is like a 16 over a 1 is a long stretch. yale is a good hockey program. they've made the NCAA tourney 4 out of the last 5 years. they were seeded at a 1 seed in the tourney 3 years ago. that's where i'm saying they're nowhere near a 16 seed in terms of status.
should we have lost to them? No way. we were the better team this year but it happens in hockey.
am i mad lucia looks like he didn't have the boys ready? yes. do i think he should be let go? yes i'm kind of in that boat right now, but if the team sticks around to give it one more go (or at least most of them) i'll give him one more year to get it done with what would be the most talented and deep team we've had since we won it all.
also agree on the poor showing by the wcha. hopefully the huskies can keep it rolling. they looked good yesterday in throttling ND
Yeh, obviously Yale is a decent team. I guess I was just upset that for some reason no matter how good the Gopher talent is they can't seem to get up for the big tourney. As mentioned........like they wrap themselves in bubble wrap hoping not to get hurt. Quinni is looking pretty good too. One thing I did notice though is Quinni is loaded with Canadians........like 13 of them. Well at least St. Cloud did their part for the WCHA and made it in. I was hoping for Mankato but oh well.
yeah i was really upset with this loss too. i thought after we made the comeback we were gonna get it done so it hurt even more. all that being said, the team/coaches need to make sure they don't overlook teams. here's to hoping St cloud gets it done for the wcha and the team stays (mostly) intact and we can be absolutely stacked next year. then its national title or bust for lucia
The problem with Lucia is that overlooking teams was not something that this group of players did. It has been a consistent problem that has plagued the Don's team, which I what makes me think it is a coaching issue. I still am not ready to fire him. If we wanted to can the Don, should have done it after back-to-back-to-back missed tournaments, not after back-to-back MacNaughton Cups and one year removed from a Frozen Four appearance.