That was the question, why did they let a winning obviously well respected coach go? Money? Losing season? Lost the locker room? Diddling the ass't trainer? Telling a Trustee to go poke during a drunken fundraiser. Has to be a reason they ate the rest of his contract.
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PITA, and push for more .I'll see if I can find it but I read he had just become a PITA/thorn in the side of the AD regarding an early contract renewal (still had year left) and other issues.
I wonder if Maine reached out to Gwozdecky.
Not sure what to make of this... Gwoz was highly complimentary of UConn (I know... before he didn't get job). Gotta wonder if it was $, fit or contract length.
ChipMalafronte 2:06pm via Web
Sources say Dave Berard is UConn's second choice, if deal can't be made with Mike Cavanaugh. George Gwozdecky no longer under consideration.
Five plus years out of Cav would be a good thing. Realistically, getting more than five out of Gwoz was well below 50/50, with him being at age 59. He's not a shoe-in for the BC job when York leaves, though I imagine he'll definitely be looking at it. What I'd be more interested in is if, in those five years, he's able to bring in a solid coaching staff, teach them how to recruit at the HE level, get the facilities built, and get the wheels moving on the program so that if by chance he does leave for BC, the cement is in place to continue a solid program.
Gwozdecky is also 59. If I had to draw a basketball parallel, I'd pick someone like Tubby Smith. Won a national title, been sort of running in place in recent years. The falling-out in Denver revolved around a contract extension. UConn needs to add another assistant. Gwozdecky would have cost more money. Facilities still need to be built. And remember that football and basketball will remain bigger in Storrs. At this point in UConn history, the hard truth is that Gwozdecky might have been too big for the job. And who knows how long his hunger to build a program would have lasted?
I don't completely buy that comparison between Berard at PC and Cavanaugh at BC. In part its about where you're recuiting and who the head coach is. And there is no comparison between BC and PC under Army. No comparison on the quality of the schools, the cities the head coaches and the facilities. And over the last decade at least, you could argue that a monkey with a cell phone could recruit guys to BC. It was sort of like recruiting in womens basketball. If your cell phone says UConn basketball and your home phone says PC Womens basketball, you're probably taking the call from Geno and letting poor Susan Fruchtl go to voice mail.Cav was my distant number 2 to Gwozdecky...only because of Gwozdecky's body of work as a hc. When I looked at body of work comparison between Cav and Berard while he was at PC it was easy for me to put Cav in the 2 spot. And PC has some pretty good hockey history. I wish DB well as I think he will be moving on.