BU Coach in the Portal… | The Boneyard

BU Coach in the Portal…

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Dude is over .500 in an increasingly competitive league and he’s out? Gotta be more to this story.
Nothing more. Over .500 doesn't come close to cutting it at BU. This is his resume:

  • 0 20-win seasons
  • 0 Hockey East RS/Tournament titles
  • 0 Hockey East victories at the Garden
  • 0 NCAA Tournament victories
  • 1 NCAA Tournament appearance
  • 1 Beanpot and .500 overall Beanpot record
  • 1 full season over .500
  • 5-8-1 overall record in the month of March
  • 0-6-1 overall record against the NCHC and WCHA/CCHA (no B1G games played)
  • 2-4 overall record in the Hockey East Tournament and one total round victory. And there's no indication the 19-20 team would've won at Lowell.

Mike Cavanaugh, in this season's HE Tournament alone, has more HE Tournament wins than Albie does in his time at BU.

Albie is a phenomenal recruiter and roster builder, but he's a subpar head coach. He was in over his head at BU. This was Matt Doherty at UNC. BU needed to move on.

I do not believe Joe Pereira is a candidate for the head coach job, he doesn't have enough experience yet. But I do believe whoever is hired as the HC may make a serious run to get him to become BU's associate. Joe turned down BU a few years back when they offered the assistant job. I don't know if he'd make the move, he's doing an awesome job at UConn and it's his home state. BU might be able to offer more money, but that alone wouldn't pry him away.
 

Bomber36

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Nothing more. Over .500 doesn't come close to cutting it at BU. This is his resume:

  • 0 20-win seasons
  • 0 Hockey East RS/Tournament titles
  • 0 Hockey East victories at the Garden
  • 0 NCAA Tournament victories
  • 1 NCAA Tournament appearance
  • 1 Beanpot and .500 overall Beanpot record
  • 1 full season over .500
  • 5-8-1 overall record in the month of March
  • 0-6-1 overall record against the NCHC and WCHA/CCHA (no B1G games played)
  • 2-4 overall record in the Hockey East Tournament and one total round victory. And there's no indication the 19-20 team would've won at Lowell.

Mike Cavanaugh, in this season's HE Tournament alone, has more HE Tournament wins than Albie does in his time at BU.

Albie is a phenomenal recruiter and roster builder, but he's a subpar head coach. He was in over his head at BU. This was Matt Doherty at UNC. BU needed to move on.

I do not believe Joe Pereira is a candidate for the head coach job, he doesn't have enough experience yet. But I do believe whoever is hired as the HC may make a serious run to get him to become BU's associate. Joe turned down BU a few years back when they offered the assistant job. I don't know if he'd make the move, he's doing an awesome job at UConn and it's his home state. BU might be able to offer more money, but that alone wouldn't pry him away.
Thanks for putting it into perspective.
 
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I don’t mean to be negative. How long does Uconn stick with Cav. In some ways I am happy with where we are. But he has been at Uconn for 8 plus years and this year, although solid, was his best and it was not exactly a banner year. I feel like we could be a premium job but maybe I am smoking the funny stuff. 8! Years feels like more than enough time to be consistently good at least. We are not that.
 
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I don’t mean to be negative. How long does Uconn stick with Cav. In some ways I am happy with where we are. But he has been at Uconn for 8 plus years and this year, although solid, was his best and it was not exactly a banner year. I feel like we could be a premium job but maybe I am smoking the funny stuff. 8! Years feels like more than enough time to be consistently good at least. We are not that.
You're smoking the funny stuff.
 
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You're smoking the funny stuff.
I don’t know. UMass was in no way a destination job foe decades. Heck, they had a hard time finding a guy to take the time before last. The Quinnipiac and Holy Cross coaches turned them down. Not so sure anyone but Jerry York would say no if it opened today. Things can change and like in other sports, the portal is going to make it easier for teams to become competitive. Where BU, BC, PC were able to get and almost stockpile talent, even if they didn’t use it, Merrimack and UConn couldn’t get it—those days are gone.

But BU is royalty in college hockey. You can’t finish in the second half of the league, struggle in the Beanpot, struggle against BC and not even be a factor at the national level and expect to last too long. Doherty to UNC is a good comparison.
 
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I don’t mean to be negative. How long does Uconn stick with Cav. In some ways I am happy with where we are. But he has been at Uconn for 8 plus years and this year, although solid, was his best and it was not exactly a banner year. I feel like we could be a premium job but maybe I am smoking the funny stuff. 8! Years feels like more than enough time to be consistently good at least. We are not that.
What are you talking about. This was a great year. UConn made it to the hockey East championship game and lost in OT.
 
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I’m not a fire Cav guy, but I do get what he is saying. We need to be in the hunt every year and get to the tournament soon too. Hockey East is at something of an inflection point right now with BU down and showing just how difficult it is to replace a legend, and BC facing that same task in the very near future. UNH, While not quite at the same level, was always a contender UMass has emerged as one contender for the top of the league. But there will be other chances. UNH was a major power under Umile but has struggled in his final few seasons and not recovered under Sousa. We need to do what we must to seize the opportunity.
 
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I guess I am just wondering how long is fair for us to get to the next level. It has been a slow climb for sure. And as “good” as this year was the two wins in the tournament masked a year that had a chance to be great but was still marked by inconsistent play with a lot of bad losses and losses in big spots. We were basically a .500 team. His career record is not very good.

So I am not of the opinion we should move on, I think I am just trying to figure out what is a fair expectation for the program. Umass was horrific 4 years ago. Apparently things can change quickly. It’s been a long ride with Cav and a lot of mediocrity. I do not “understand” hockey recruiting and what we have coming in, but next year feels like we may be hard pressed to improve.
 
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I’m not a fire Cav guy, but I do get what he is saying. We need to be in the hunt every year and get to the tournament soon too. Hockey East is at something of an inflection point right now with BU down and showing just how difficult it is to replace a legend, and BC facing that same task in the very near future. UNH, While not quite at the same level, was always a contender UMass has emerged as one contender for the top of the league. But there will be other chances. UNH was a major power under Umile but has struggled in his final few seasons and not recovered under Sousa. We need to do what we must to seize the opportunity.
With regard to BU, there's a bit of revisionist history here. We had no trouble replacing Parker. Quinn made the tournament 4 of his 5 years, made three regional finals, a national championship game, won the HE regular season twice and tournament once. BU still has the best facilities in the league. The dip in the program is directly the result of Albie turning out to be a poor head coach. Extraordinary recruiter and operational guy - just bad Xs and Os.

You're spot on with UNH though, them and Maine have fallen to the bottom half of the league at the expense of the rise of PC, UML, and UMass.

UConn can absolutely move up to the top half of the league - unfortunately as long as they play some or most of their games in Hartford, their recruiting will be hamstrung. The Eichel/Makar/Zegras-level recruits will never go for that.

If UConn built an Agganis/Pegula-style rink on campus, they'd have every tool at their disposal to become a national contender each year. And they'd have advantages over UMass/UML with the full backing of the state and the biggest established brand-name in the league. They really are that close. They can be successful with the new place on campus and in Hartford, but not as much as if they went fully on campus.
 
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With regard to BU, there's a bit of revisionist history here. We had no trouble replacing Parker. Quinn made the tournament 4 of his 5 years, made three regional finals, a national championship game, won the HE regular season twice and tournament once. BU still has the best facilities in the league. The dip in the program is directly the result of Albie turning out to be a poor head coach. Extraordinary recruiter and operational guy - just bad Xs and Os.

You're spot on with UNH though, them and Maine have fallen to the bottom half of the league at the expense of the rise of PC, UML, and UMass.

UConn can absolutely move up to the top half of the league - unfortunately as long as they play some or most of their games in Hartford, their recruiting will be hamstrung. The Eichel/Makar/Zegras-level recruits will never go for that.

If UConn built an Agganis/Pegula-style rink on campus, they'd have every tool at their disposal to become a national contender each year. And they'd have advantages over UMass/UML with the full backing of the state and the biggest established brand-name in the league. They really are that close. They can be successful with the new place on campus and in Hartford, but not as much as if they went fully on campus.
Fair enough on Quinn. But finding the right guy is still not easy. Maine is another one, as you say. And York will retire at some day probably sooner rather than later and who knows. Can Brown be a head coach or is he a great assistant?
 
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Fair enough on Quinn. But finding the right guy is still not easy. Maine is another one, as you say. And York will retire at some day probably sooner rather than later and who knows. Can Brown be a head coach or is he a great assistant?
That's the $64,000 question for a lot of guys. I imagine Albie is now a cautionary tale for schools looking to promote their associate. BU is facing that a bit, the most apparent candidate is the current associate but some are concerned he's Albie 2.0.

Ultimately, schools have to look at what responsibilities the current assistants own and what they excel at. Albie was an exceptional recruiter as BU's associate HC but didn't have as much chops as an Xs and Os guy. When thinking about someone like Joe Pereira, who'll soon be looked at for some head coach jobs, the question will be was he just a recruiter or a leader and schemer. From the outside, Joe seems like more the latter - which is a good thing for him.
 

zls44

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I think Maine made a great hire in Barr. Incredibly tough job, but that team had absolutely no talent and played their butts off for him.
 

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