Hopes for next year?

PegCityFalcon · Post by **PegCityFalcon** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:40 pm

Whitmore was a force for all 4 years. He played with Matzy his junior year who was the focal point of our club. His soph year he played with Svendson who shoots on every possession. We will find it hard to replace a powerforward. Cepis is the opposite of a PWR FWD he plays like a Russian pretty boy. We need one of those, but we need a powerforward more.

DWhite21 · Post by **DWhite21** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 11:17 pm

bgbill wrote:I hope the fastest skater on the team this year gets to play a lot more next season than he did
'07--'08.

Yeah I hope to see him play more next year too. I'm assuming you're referring to Russ Sinkewich, since if I remember right he was the one who won the fastest skater competition last year. I was always kinda confused as to why he didn't play more last year.

Puckhead · Post by **Puckhead** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 3:32 pm

I hear that Russ can graduate in December.
I guess that if he is not good enough to play for Pooch,
he and his size and speed can go play in the AHL.

BG84 · Post by **BG84** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:00 pm

PegCityFalcon wrote:... played with Svendson who shoots on every possession.

Ha! The same thing occurred to me this past season. Skate up the right wing, shoot from the circle. A season or two ago he rang up several goals doing that. This season, not so much. I didn't notice him making mistakes, but I didn't notice him making good things happen, either.

BG84 · Post by **BG84** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:05 pm

I was quite the pessimist heading into 2007-2008. How would we win without Matsumoto? I was pleasantly surprised, so I'll be optimistic heading into 2008-2009 without Whitmore.

bgsufalcon24 · Post by **bgsufalcon24** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:11 pm

BGFan wrote:
bgsufalcon24 wrote:I've been bashed on here countless times for being negative, and this is going to be a rather negative post. I am really fearing a regression back to the CCHA's bottom four next season. Let's face it, without Whitmore, our offense stinks. Period. Cepis looks like a stud in the making, but the other guys have really got to step up and deliver next year. The defense was better this season, but its still only average by CCHA standards. The goaltending is okay too. I have concerns about both Spratt and Eno, but I think either of them can win games for us. I really think next year comes down to two things, our offense and our coaching. I'm still not sold on Paluch as a good head coach. Yes we won a playoff series (FINALLY!!!) this year, but I have my doubts that he can effectively lead us past the CCHA round of 8. To do that, you've got to break into the penthouse of the conference where Michigan, Miami, ND, and MSU currently reside. I don't see any of those teams falling off next year, aside from maybe Miami. Paluch will have to squeeze goals out of this offense without Whitmore in order to make it to Detroit, and I'm just not confident that he'll be able to do that. It'd be easier if the players didn't hate his guts.
Prior to this year did you ever see Whitmore being more than slightly better than average? He's always had a noticeable presence on the ice, but nothing even close to the numbers he put up this year. It will be the same next year....one or more of the players, including Cepis, will step up to fill the void. We're heading in the right direction, and will continue to do so.

BTW, do you ever see the sun in your neighborhood?

It's Ohio, we have more clouds than practically everywhere else. I can't help that.

But I will say, the sun's out in the basketball neck of the woods. It's partly cloudy in the football section of town as well.

BGDrew · Post by **BGDrew** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 11:22 pm

bgsufalcon24 wrote:It's Ohio, we have more clouds than practically everywhere else. I can't help that.

But I will say, the sun's out in the basketball neck of the woods. It's partly cloudy in the football section of town as well.

So...
Basketball losing record: sunny.
Hockey being in the top 20 in the nation: cloudy.

dannysenn · Post by **dannysenn** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:42 am

The biggest problem for the team is the goalie not replacing Whitmore. Jimmy Spratt is unreliable between the pipes and Eno is improving but needs more playing time. It's time to sit Jimmy down and let the better goalie play. The Falcons can skate with any team they just need quality goaltending!

Whaler

bgsufalcon24 · Post by **bgsufalcon24** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:01 pm

BGDrew wrote:
bgsufalcon24 wrote:It's Ohio, we have more clouds than practically everywhere else. I can't help that.

But I will say, the sun's out in the basketball neck of the woods. It's partly cloudy in the football section of town as well.
So...
Basketball losing record: sunny.
Hockey being in the top 20 in the nation: cloudy.

Look at where our men's basketball team has been, and where it is now. We brought in Louis Orr, a coach who is 10x better than Dan Dakich. Under his leadership we went from 3-13 in the MAC to 7-9, beating a bunch of quality teams like Cincy, Ohio, and Miami along the way. The one blemish on the season is that BG couldn't win one in the MAC tournament, losing to Toledo in round 1. The team has EVERYBODY coming back, plus Marschall who was out injured, plus several new recruits that could really help the team. All things considered, BG could be in the MAC Championship hunt next year. And then there's the women, who are winning MAC titles every year it seems. Aside from Achter and a few players transferring out they have most of their players back as well, with coach Curt Miller at the helm.

That's a sunny outlook for sure. Both teams will likely be contending for the MAC Championship.

Compare this with hockey, who started out the year by surprising several teams that underestimated us (coughMiamicough), then stagnated after getting into the rankings early on in the season. The team struggled down the stretch but did hang on to beat Lake Superior in the first round of the CCHA playoffs though, improving to 13-15 in the CCHA a year after going a pathetic 5-22-1. However, hockey will be losing their undisputed best player in Derek Whitmore, as well as several other guys who contributed. I don't know much about the recruits coming in, but I would imagine we're probably middle of the pack in recruiting as far as the CCHA is concerned, certainly not as good as scUM, ND, or MSU. That, and history is not on our side seeing as we still have Scott Paluch as coach, and the last time we had a decent season back in 2004-05, the team regressed greatly the next year. Paluch will have to show that this season was not a fluke like 2004-05 clearly was.

To me, hockey just has a lot more to prove right now. That's mostly because I think Gregg Brandon, Louis Orr, and Curt Miller are all very good coaches and Scott Paluch is not.

svillefalcon · Post by **svillefalcon** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:16 pm

bgsufalcon24 wrote:
BGDrew wrote:
bgsufalcon24 wrote:It's Ohio, we have more clouds than practically everywhere else. I can't help that.

But I will say, the sun's out in the basketball neck of the woods. It's partly cloudy in the football section of town as well.
So...
Basketball losing record: sunny.
Hockey being in the top 20 in the nation: cloudy.
Look at where our men's basketball team has been, and where it is now. We brought in Louis Orr, a coach who is 10x better than Dan Dakich. Under his leadership we went from 3-13 in the MAC to 7-9, beating a bunch of quality teams like Cincy, Ohio, and Miami along the way. The one blemish on the season is that BG couldn't win one in the MAC tournament, losing to Toledo in round 1. The team has EVERYBODY coming back, plus Marschall who was out injured, plus several new recruits that could really help the team. All things considered, BG could be in the MAC Championship hunt next year. And then there's the women, who are winning MAC titles every year it seems. Aside from Achter and a few players transferring out they have most of their players back as well, with coach Curt Miller at the helm.

That's a sunny outlook for sure. Both teams will likely be contending for the MAC Championship.

Compare this with hockey, who started out the year by surprising several teams that underestimated us (coughMiamicough), then stagnated after getting into the rankings early on in the season. The team struggled down the stretch but did hang on to beat Lake Superior in the first round of the CCHA playoffs though, improving to 13-15 in the CCHA a year after going a pathetic 5-22-1. However, hockey will be losing their undisputed best player in Derek Whitmore, as well as several other guys who contributed. I don't know much about the recruits coming in, but I would imagine we're probably middle of the pack in recruiting as far as the CCHA is concerned, certainly not as good as scUM, ND, or MSU. That, and history is not on our side seeing as we still have Scott Paluch as coach, and the last time we had a decent season back in 2004-05, the team regressed greatly the next year. Paluch will have to show that this season was not a fluke like 2004-05 clearly was.

To me, hockey just has a lot more to prove right now. That's mostly because I think Gregg Brandon, Louis Orr, and Curt Miller are all very good coaches and Scott Paluch is not.

You talk about how we are losing Whitmore and how that will kill us. But you arent concerned at all about the women's basketball team losing Achter, who, IMO was waaaay more important to her team than Whitmore was for Hockey. You saw how much the team struggled when Achter was hurting, even though she played through it. In, Hockey, you do not rely on one player. I mean, because in hockey you substitute so much, Whitmore was probably on the Ice for half the game at most. I think that we have guys like Cepis, Perkin, Kantola, Svendsen that will help fill the scoring void that Whitmore left behind. Plus, whatever the recruiting class brings to the table. I would be more concerned with Achter leaving because she is the most important position on the floor in the point and is now gone after starting since she was a freshman. Hockey will be fine.

BGFalconfromCincy · Post by **BGFalconfromCincy** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:18 pm

bgsufalcon24 wrote:beating a bunch of quality teams like Cincy

The Cincinnati Bearcats were not a quality team last season, if they were they wouldn't have packed up and quit on the season with like two weeks to go, they would have bulit off their early Big East upsets and made the NIT. Now if we were to play and beat UC next year, with a very talented freshmen class coming in, talented players with a year now under their belts, and without the JUCO's who wouldn't have even played Big East ball if it weren't for the fact that UC had nothing coming back when Mick Cronin took over, then it would be a quality win.

Now, back to hockey

PegCityFalcon · Post by **PegCityFalcon** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:29 pm

I don't know about anyone else, but all this other sports talk is puting me to sleep. We should finish around anywhere between 6 and 10 next season

bgsufalcon24 · Post by **bgsufalcon24** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:26 pm

svillefalcon wrote:
bgsufalcon24 wrote:
BGDrew wrote:
bgsufalcon24 wrote:It's Ohio, we have more clouds than practically everywhere else. I can't help that.

But I will say, the sun's out in the basketball neck of the woods. It's partly cloudy in the football section of town as well.
So...
Basketball losing record: sunny.
Hockey being in the top 20 in the nation: cloudy.
Look at where our men's basketball team has been, and where it is now. We brought in Louis Orr, a coach who is 10x better than Dan Dakich. Under his leadership we went from 3-13 in the MAC to 7-9, beating a bunch of quality teams like Cincy, Ohio, and Miami along the way. The one blemish on the season is that BG couldn't win one in the MAC tournament, losing to Toledo in round 1. The team has EVERYBODY coming back, plus Marschall who was out injured, plus several new recruits that could really help the team. All things considered, BG could be in the MAC Championship hunt next year. And then there's the women, who are winning MAC titles every year it seems. Aside from Achter and a few players transferring out they have most of their players back as well, with coach Curt Miller at the helm.

That's a sunny outlook for sure. Both teams will likely be contending for the MAC Championship.

Compare this with hockey, who started out the year by surprising several teams that underestimated us (coughMiamicough), then stagnated after getting into the rankings early on in the season. The team struggled down the stretch but did hang on to beat Lake Superior in the first round of the CCHA playoffs though, improving to 13-15 in the CCHA a year after going a pathetic 5-22-1. However, hockey will be losing their undisputed best player in Derek Whitmore, as well as several other guys who contributed. I don't know much about the recruits coming in, but I would imagine we're probably middle of the pack in recruiting as far as the CCHA is concerned, certainly not as good as scUM, ND, or MSU. That, and history is not on our side seeing as we still have Scott Paluch as coach, and the last time we had a decent season back in 2004-05, the team regressed greatly the next year. Paluch will have to show that this season was not a fluke like 2004-05 clearly was.

To me, hockey just has a lot more to prove right now. That's mostly because I think Gregg Brandon, Louis Orr, and Curt Miller are all very good coaches and Scott Paluch is not.
You talk about how we are losing Whitmore and how that will kill us. But you arent concerned at all about the women's basketball team losing Achter, who, IMO was waaaay more important to her team than Whitmore was for Hockey. You saw how much the team struggled when Achter was hurting, even though she played through it. In, Hockey, you do not rely on one player. I mean, because in hockey you substitute so much, Whitmore was probably on the Ice for half the game at most. I think that we have guys like Cepis, Perkin, Kantola, Svendsen that will help fill the scoring void that Whitmore left behind. Plus, whatever the recruiting class brings to the table. I would be more concerned with Achter leaving because she is the most important position on the floor in the point and is now gone after starting since she was a freshman. Hockey will be fine.

Actually Sville, I am quite concerned about Achter leaving the women's team. Maybe I didn't really show it at all in my last post, but I do think about it. She was the glue of that team this year, and certainly when she was hurting the team went into a funk, losing 3 in a row at one point (all 3 of their MAC losses). Maybe I'm just overly confident that Curt Miller and the others can pick things up like they have in the past. Even without Achter, we still have 3 outstanding players in Prochaska, Goldsberry, and Breske, not to mention some other players like Uhl, McCoy and Pontius that will doubtless make contributions. I'd say that losing Achter might put us into a bind early in the season, but let's face it, the MAC blows in women's basketball. I doubt we will be out of the title chase just because of Achter's graduation

You do make a good point about Whitmore not playing as much as Achter and other players playing in other sports though. However, if the substitutions in hockey are so rampant (which they are as you pointed out), why is it that one player has ended up scoring over 20%-25% of our goals in 2 of the last three years? (Matsumoto in 2005-06, Whitmore in 2007-08) Wouldn't you expect the goal scoring to be a little more balanced than that? I could be totally wrong on this but it just seems reasonable to me.

In either case, Kantola, Cepis, McIlrath, Svendsen, Perkin, and the others will need to do their share next year. I have no doubts in their abilities, I'm just a little worried that poor coaching might sabotage the whole effort. PegCity, I agree with your call of finishing 6th-10th next year, that seems like a ballpark range.

freddiethefalconBG · Post by **freddiethefalconBG** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:46 pm

I would hope that nobody would be okay with finishing 6 - 10 in this league. paluch has been the coach of this team for 6 years and has proven nothing but how bad of a coach he is. Bowling Green should be a powerhouse. it is not hard to recruit players to BG becaus it is a great college town and the program has great tradition. the reason we can't recruit better players is because the word is out that Paluch is just flat out a bad coach and recruits shy away from BG because of that. My coach from juniors has already told me that Paluch has a bad reputation around the league.

This guy has been given enough time and he has failed. the only reason why the team had a decent year was beacuase of Rierden. all the players love him. they all said he is the coach of that team and they all play for him, not Scott Paluch.

The Athletic Department needs to get rid of Paluch and make Todd Rierden the head coach of BG and then we will be on our way to becoming a top team in the CCHA and the country for that matter.

MACMAN · Post by **MACMAN** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:45 pm

We will be just fine next year. Scott is a good coach, the assistants are good coaches who are all of the same basic hockey coaching style school. We have chemestry with the Coaches, we have a team chemestry again that was sadly sabotaged by crapass players. Were back and back on track.
what is likely is that in this next season we will again see football start to stumble and in a state of fighting off self destruction, esp with the coaching exodus that is going to take place.
i dont follow basketball, but i hope the womens team maintains, they should they have been able to recruit well from what i have read.
speaking of recruits, we have some damn fine ones in hockey this year! no doubt some big names are leaving, but we have better ones coming in and those who will grow between seasons.