It's Miami State Week!

[jbakerifm]

Good weekend of hockey. I think Berge and co are going to regret leaving. Their fans are already disgruntled. His rebuild scheme takes a long time and they have shown basically zero improvement yet. If they aren't making waves next year I bet the calls for change get deafening. It's not all their fault but not being able to schedule us or osu is going to hurt them too.

[mbenecke]

Good weekend of hockey. I think Berge and co are going to regret leaving. Their fans are already disgruntled. His rebuild scheme takes a long time and they have shown basically zero improvement yet. If they aren't making waves next year I bet the calls for change get deafening. It's not all their fault but not being able to schedule us or osu is going to hurt them too.

Barry was in the hall chatting with some BG fans he must’ve known as I was walking to my seat when the gates opened. I overheard him mentioning that they’d be “pretty good by year 5 or 6.”

I thought that was hilarious. Because I don’t think they get to year 5 or 6 with zero improvement out there. Not at that school, and not in that conference.

[jpfalcon09]

Good weekend of hockey. I think Berge and co are going to regret leaving. Their fans are already disgruntled. His rebuild scheme takes a long time and they have shown basically zero improvement yet. If they aren't making waves next year I bet the calls for change get deafening. It's not all their fault but not being able to schedule us or osu is going to hurt them too.

Barry was in the hall chatting with some BG fans he must’ve known as I was walking to my seat when the gates opened. I overheard him mentioning that they’d be “pretty good by year 5 or 6.”

I thought that was hilarious. Because I don’t think they get to year 5 or 6 with zero improvement out there. Not at that school, and not in that conference.

They brought in nine transfers this year. Really it's the only way they're going to compete quickly if the folks in Oxford want any success. Unfortunately I think Berge's style of hockey isn't meant for that conference and they will still struggle.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Couple thoughts from last night. The Swankler/Norris/Burke line is fun to watch and it's clear those three enjoy playing with each other. Swankler is a shoot first, shoot second, shoot third then maybe think about a pass kind of player. I'm OK with that for now. Breakouts need work, there were times where we were a hot mess coming out of our zone but Miami is so bad it didn't bite us. Bemidji, Mankato, and Tech will make us pay for those mistakes. There were a couple of times our defense was out-to-lunch, but that's not any different from last year. Hard to tell much from our PP as we only had one and converted. That 5 min kill with 7 min left in the game was awesome. This team has had four close games and hasn't blown any of them yet. To early to tell if this is a trend, but it sure is good to see us close out a close game!

I saw a lot of reaching/lack of skating. Reminds me of those McLain teams. Need to do a better job staying tight with your man. There was a scout in our section, couldn't tell who he was watching but it was a BG roster he was using for his notes. I expect we'll get 2 years out of Swankler before he either turns pro or hits the portal for the Nachos.

All in all it was a very fun evening. I don't think we're very good right now and it's going to be a long season. But there were positives and things to build on. Contrast that with what Berge has. Even with nine transfers and flushing out Rico's effluent they still aren't any better than when he took over three years ago. BTW, Ty is 2-1-1 against his former bench boss.

[jbakerifm]

Some comments from Berge and Barry have stuck out to me. Alot about waiting for buy in, trying to get "their guys in" etc. Very similar to what they did and said here. Which took a long time. Obviously it worked out in the long run because, well it's not like the team had been any good in so long, people were willing to be patient. That doesn't seem to be the case in Oxford.

I also generally disagree with that approach in almost any coaching takeover (our football team being an exception). When you walk in the door, all those players are your guys, and you need to go all out to get their "buy in". Too often its a convenient excuse to treat upper class players poorly, go all out on sucking up to the freshmen, and waste a bunch of seasons while you wait to get "your guys" to run "your system".

[jpfalcon09]

Some comments from Berge and Barry have stuck out to me. Alot about waiting for buy in, trying to get "their guys in" etc. Very similar to what they did and said here. Which took a long time. Obviously it worked out in the long run because, well it's not like the team had been any good in so long, people were willing to be patient. That doesn't seem to be the case in Oxford.

I also generally disagree with that approach in almost any coaching takeover (our football team being an exception). When you walk in the door, all those players are your guys, and you need to go all out to get their "buy in". Too often its a convenient excuse to treat upper class players poorly, go all out on sucking up to the freshmen, and waste a bunch of seasons while you wait to get "your guys" to run "your system".

It's a convenient excuse to use. If you're a good coach and willing to work with people, the current players should be buying in. Basically excluding them from that, or making them feel like they're not wanted is simply not the way to go.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Recap of the weekend games from the perspective of the losing team.

Friday
Saturday