STrib: Coyle's challenges are many as Gophers AD (5. Decision on Lucia)

per STrib:

5. Decision on Lucia

Two NCAA hockey championship trophies have Don Lucia’s fingerprints on them, but the Gophers didn’t qualify for the NCAA tournament this year. The 57-year-old coach has only one season remaining and has said he expects contract negotiations to begin this summer. Coyle said Wednesday he has great memories of attending games at Mariucci Arena, and now the decision to re-up Lucia or make a change looms as one of his first big decisions.

http://www.startribune.com/coyle-s-challenges-are-many-as-gophers-ad/379071291/

Go Gophers!!

Take your time on this one. Is the program heading the right direction? Sure you won the Big 10 two years in a row, but they were barely a top 20 team if that. Not good.

They've won the conference regular season five years in a row.

But yes, the last two years have not lived up to what we should expect from this program. The passion is not there from the players in so many of the games and it starts with the staff. Lots of flat out embarrassing performances. Despite piling up wins, sometimes you have to shake things up. Whether you do that this summer or later, I don't know.

bonin21 said:

They've won the conference regular season five years in a row.

But yes, the last two years have not lived up to what we should expect from this program. The passion is not there from the players in so many of the games and it starts with the staff. Lots of flat out embarrassing performances. Despite piling up wins, sometimes you have to shake things up. Whether you do that this summer or later, I don't know.

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I'd agree with the bold point, but given that the last five years also included two Frozen Four trips, I think Lucia has earned the right to show us whether those two years were (1) a rut we will bounce back from, (2) evidence of a downward trajectory that we haven't hit the bottom of, or (3) a new normal. If it is 2 or 3, he will be gone soon enough, but if it is 1, I think Lucia still has some great seasons left in him.