UMASS Lowell?

[northdakotahusky]

Any idea why we will play Lowell, but not the main campus? Not that I really care, but it seems like a slap in the face to UMASS. Another dumber question, did we play Lowell last year? Have we ever played any of the smaller UMASS locations?

 

[northdakotahusky]

For that matter, it seems like we play a large number of scrubs:

Furman
New Hampshire
Central CT
Lowell

Combine these four with the exhibition schedule and it seems like a lot of warm up games. Hopefully some of these guys are decent. We already have some real easy games in the AAC. Maybe we get a surprise good team like we did against Yale...If we do, hopefully the results are a little better this year.

 

[aman kidwai]

You are correct, this year's schedule featured one too many cupcakes. In terms of RPI, with how low the conference slate is, this is a disappointment. There are plenty of crappy, but still higher rated, teams we could be playing to get easy wins that would be more friendly to the RPI.

 

[northdakotahusky]

In the past I've actually enjoyed playing some small schools. They had good guard oriented teams. It was a good test for guys like boat and bazz. But Brimah has proven to be able to absolutely dominate the smaller teams with ridiculous numbers. Numbers that aren't indicative of how he plays against proper competition. I don't think all these games will help us too much. Also, teams like Central CT are so bad. I like Howie a lot, but his teams have never given us a good game.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

UMass-Lowell has had one of the better hockey programs in the nation the last few years and UConn has been playing them in hockey and developing a hockey rivalry. If memory serves they played UMass-Lowell 2 or 3 times in hockey last year. So we have to keep this in mind. Rivalries can carry over from one sport to the other with the explosive new progression of the hockey team and its schedule. You guys have to look at these things as well.

 

[northdakotahusky]

Is that why we scheduled them? So they would return the favor in hockey?

 

[aman kidwai]

Is that why we scheduled them? So they would return the favor in hockey?

Nope. We play them in hockey because they are members of Hockey East, just like UConn.

It's possible, I guess, that they asked for it as part of the deal to join HE, that UConn play BU, Northeastern, UNH, Maine, Lowell... holy crap maybe that is what happened. We play or have played all those schools in MBB recently, right?

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Guys, there is a quid pro quo here that goes something like this: "we support your entry into HE to bolster your hockey program, but in return you will play us in hoops to bolster our sorry ass hoops program that wants to say UConn is on the schedule to the smaller, unathletic players we recruit." These quid pro quos go down all the time in sports, politics, law, every business there is. Deals are what makes the world go round. Even the Democrats and Republicans in Congress make deals sometimes.

 

[northdakotahusky]

Well, that may explain UMASS and New Hampshire. I'm surprised to see Central again. JC seemed to abandon that match up. KO has them back on the schedule. I don't think there's a team that has given us less competition over the years. They can take a hike as far as I'm concerned.

 

[the Blades]

Also Central ( Howie Dickenman... he flew to LA to recruit Ollie ) and Maine (when Ted Woodward was coach) have had a long running relationship with Uconn as former asst coaches under Calhoun, as you guys probably know. So it seems like they still get thrown a bone every once in awhile. And Uconn Men's hockey ( the Women were already a HE member) never needed any lobbying to get into Hockey East. They've had an open invitation( Uconn kept saying No) for years... and were also the only school ever considered by HE after Notre Dame joined and they needed a 12th.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

We would all like to see better teams on the schedule but some of these cupcake games will not matter if UConn wins BOA and beats Maryland and wins some of the other strong OOC games. You can't schedule 30 or even 12 OOC games of teams in the RPI top 50. It's not possible.

 

[Ozzie3178]

I dont mind the cupcakes. The players need to gel and get better/confidence under the lights so...

These types of games help your game and what you are comfortable doing out there and are expected to do. Plus we never play the opponent. We play ourselves.

UCONN is never been about the opponent whoever wherever.... lace them up!!

 

[UConnFamily]

I seem to recall years ago that the state recommended that UConn play so many games against in state/northeast schools. That could be part of the central angle and the other schools. I see nothing wrong with it. These games are needed as it gives the coaches chances to try different lineups and get players on the court to get in game action before the conference schedule starts when the rotation will be shortened somewhat.