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UConn Hockey Coach Marshall Update
- Thread starter huskymedic
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That's what I was saying. But on the bright side, somehow, he helped get us into Hockey East. Or maybe he just sat there and watched the university grow and knew the upside was huge.
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I remember goung to games at the old rink when he was playing, the as an Asst. to Ben Kirtland. I remember when he was named coach by Perkins as well. Back then we played a D-3 schedule...and you wondered why with the Whalers then in Hartford and CT LOADED with prep school talent UConn played at that level. He persevered and got to witness first hand the fruits of his labor when HE announced us as it's next expansion candidate. He may not have had the wins but I truely believe that if it wasn't for Bruce Marshall there would be no HE bid. I'm glad he is taking care of his personal life...that comes first before anything!
zls44
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...no.
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I hope things work out for him, too. I don't completely agree with you on the terrible coach thing, though. I'm not saying he is Jerry York or Jack Parker, but if you look at his career, he took a program that was a sub-.500 program, and built it into a regional power at the D3 level. In the early days of D1 in the MAAC, he had very competitive teams, and won the league one year. But as one of the few non-scholarship programs he had a few problems. As the other non scholarship/limited scholarship programs fell by the wayside, the Ionas, Fairfields and so on, the level of competition became tougher and he had to sell a program against scholarship teams. Then if you look at the schedule, he went into the season facing very few non-conference wins. To his credit he didn't shy away from playing Hockey East and ECAC schools, mostly on the road. And with a no scholarship program he has had to recruit over guys every season. I know that doesn't help in the locker room. Given UConn's situation, he did about what you could expect. So I think you need to evaluate him in light of the circumsances, and when you do that he wasn't too bad.
zls44
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Regional powers make the NCAA at the D3 level at least once. Just saying. Didnt shy away from playing ECAC and HE teams in the road? That's not bravery, its a job requirement. There was nobody else to play!!!
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zl,
UConn was prohibited by NCAA rules from playing in the NCAA tourney. The rule has long been in place that higher ranked schools playing in a lower division cannot play in the tournament at the lower level. Sicne its impossible for a D1 school to play D3 anymore, the rule only applies to D2 teams now. The only D2 league that Northeast 10 I think, has a bunch of teams who play the regualr season in a D3 league, Stonehill, Assumption, ST Anslems, and a couple of others. There is no NCAA D2 hockey title, and those schools can't compete for the D3 title even though they play essentially a D3 schedule (excpet when they play each other). That is what happened to UConn when it played D3 hockey. I'll concede the point on the HEA/ECAC schools. But on the other point, if you look at UConn's record before Bruce, Ben Kirkland had 1 winning season over his 7 year career. His best year was 14-10. Bruce went 6-21 in year 1, then had 7 straight winning seasons including a 19 win season, an 18 win season and a 22 win season. His first 2 years in D1 UConn won 20 and 19 games. As other teams began to add scholarship players, the MAAC allowed 11 then 12 I think, he struggled but that was a function of the playing field at least to some degree. I'm not saying the guy was jack Parker or Jerry York. Just that he was a decent coach in a less than ideal situation. Give him 12 scholarships like everyone else and I think we'd have been looking at a much better D1 record.
UConn was prohibited by NCAA rules from playing in the NCAA tourney. The rule has long been in place that higher ranked schools playing in a lower division cannot play in the tournament at the lower level. Sicne its impossible for a D1 school to play D3 anymore, the rule only applies to D2 teams now. The only D2 league that Northeast 10 I think, has a bunch of teams who play the regualr season in a D3 league, Stonehill, Assumption, ST Anslems, and a couple of others. There is no NCAA D2 hockey title, and those schools can't compete for the D3 title even though they play essentially a D3 schedule (excpet when they play each other). That is what happened to UConn when it played D3 hockey. I'll concede the point on the HEA/ECAC schools. But on the other point, if you look at UConn's record before Bruce, Ben Kirkland had 1 winning season over his 7 year career. His best year was 14-10. Bruce went 6-21 in year 1, then had 7 straight winning seasons including a 19 win season, an 18 win season and a 22 win season. His first 2 years in D1 UConn won 20 and 19 games. As other teams began to add scholarship players, the MAAC allowed 11 then 12 I think, he struggled but that was a function of the playing field at least to some degree. I'm not saying the guy was jack Parker or Jerry York. Just that he was a decent coach in a less than ideal situation. Give him 12 scholarships like everyone else and I think we'd have been looking at a much better D1 record.
Freescooter, I don't often agree with you (see Kevin Ollie) but in this case I couldn't agree more.
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