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RIT is leading the Atlantic. 3 points ahead of the second place team, with 2 games left in the regular season.
Way to go, Wayner. You too, Hillsy.

Only their second season in D1 and they lead their league. What do you think has lead to their early success?

The Key:(perhaps Pooch could read this).

"We consider all 26 players our blue-chip players. Maybe we'll never have a first line like a BC or Wisconsin, but we hope to have 26 second-line players. We have great balance through our entire roster. We have three good goalies. Maybe we have more balance and that makes for better chemistry. All of our guys are on equal footing. No one is saying to themselves, 'Well, I am better than this kid and he is getting a scholarship and I'm not.'"

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2 ... itting.php

This sounds exactly the opposite of BG. Here certain guys can grow long hair, certain guys pick which sticks they want, certain guys can booze and get arrested while others get tossed off the team for similar or less offenses.

RIT seems like a model program in how to win with less talent, maybe we should take a look. We definetly have the less talent part down.

bgbill wrote:RIT is leading the Atlantic. 3 points ahead of the second place team, with 2 games left in the regular season.
Way to go, Wayner. You too, Hillsy.

bgbill, what are your thoughts about Brian Hill. How was his time here as an assistant under BP? Could he come back and turn the program around? He did great during his short stint as a DIV III coach.

I have posted other places about bring him back.

Hills seemed like a good guy in my rather limited interaction with him. Watching the man warm up a goalie was impressive. The way he'd snap those wristers without looking like he was trying.

The thing that makes me nervous about him is the way we struggled to recruit while he was here with Buddy. Obviously that's continued to be an issue since then. I think we need someone that can sell kids on the opportunity to come here as well as actually coach them once they get here.

hockey fan wrote:The thing that makes me nervous about him is the way we struggled to recruit while he was here with Buddy ............ I think we need someone that can sell kids on the opportunity to come here as well as actually coach them once they get here.

Exactly my question for bgbill who is one of our best and knowledgible fans. Hill might not have been in charge of recruiting during his BP days, but did he "learn" bad things from BP. I hunch is no - looking at his record in DIV III.

Brian Hills is a straight shooter. Had this been back when Buddy was on the way out, I would have said that Brian Hills and Scott Paluch have pretty much the same style, as it relates to the public and their rather taciturn manner. I have no idea how they relate to the players. I can recall Brian playing pool with some of the guys at the hotel during a road trip, if that means anything.
You don't know what you've got 'til you've got it. I was sure Buddy was the best choice when Jerry went home to BC. I doubt that there's anyone in college hockey who knows the game better than Buddy.
What's a school to do? The only sure thing out there a couple years ago was Jeff Jackson. If BG truly wants to have a contender, can they afford to take a chance on anyone less than a coach who's been at the top?
I've seen pretty much all of BG's games for a lot of years. This year's team has made progress (well, except for last weekend). They work hard, they have skills, they're starting to learn each other's moves. They just haven't learned how to win. Sound familiar? Think football on the eve of Urban Renewal.

So BGBill being one of the more knowlegable minds around the program Im assuming you would stay with Pooch then at least for another year if you were the AD?

I dont think under any circumstance I would buy out a coach at BG unless I could bring in Scotty Bowman at 125k per year

That's the thing, isn't it?
If Pooch were AD, he would have gotten rid of a coach with this record, probably a couple of years ago.
But what's the alternative?
We can hope that the change in assistant coaches will begin to turn things around. We can hope for lots of things.
This is more a classic case study of business management than it is of sport.
I've had lots of ideas about what I would do were I in Scott's position. I will not air them here, and I wouldn't presume to offer unsolicited advice to anyone.

Bill,

Thanks. I appreciate your willingness to answer my question.

We will either get someone who is looking to build their coaching career, or a former player who wants to be part of his alma mater and build it back to greatness. (regardless of money) The latter being what Ron Mason and Jerry York did heading back to their alma maters.

We can hope for the best.

actually, Ron Mason played at and got his BS from St. Lawrence

btw, I'm participating in the highjacking of my own thread....

It is no accident that Hills and Wilson are having success.
They are both first class people, who command and get the respect of the players, and all involved in any program they are involved in.
Their players always know where they stand.

In defese of Scott Paulich, we are playing in a "Big Ten" league, with a minor league facility, and budget. Yes, their is no excuse for being where the program is, at this point in time, but at best, we could only expect to get to fourth or fifth place with what we are up against. Band Aids do not work when you are playing against the "Big Boys".

You can bash Powers and Paulich all you want, but the problem started before York even left....the administration stayed put while everyone else got serious about hockey, and we all watched new arenas going up, budgets increasing, and on and on......and we are still watching.

that is the best point anybody has made in the last 2 months

Gee, and I thought this thread was going to be about me and the spectacular job I'm doing!!

I don't really have anything else to add at the moment, except that I thought Dave Smith was a good recruiter. He wasn't here very long though.

Meanwhile, in Rochester, no one seems to care. We're the largest city in the country without a major league team or D-1 college (football or hoops) and there is very little buzz on RIT's success.

Looking forward to the Falcon's visit next season.