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How could Lucia miss these three players that all went to Wisconson and are all now playing pro hockey. Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan, and as of last night Jake Gardiner. It's time for the Don to go!!!! He has not produced one player in the last 3-4 years that will have careers that these three will have. These three players were right here for the taking. How does this happen?

Raider Nation Guy wrote:How could Lucia miss these three players that all went to Wisconson and are all now playing pro hockey. Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan, and as of last night Jake Gardiner. It's time for the Don to go!!!! He has not produced one player in the last 3-4 years that will have careers that these three will have. These three players were right here for the taking. How does this happen?

First, this could go to the College Hockey Forum, but whatever.

Second, I do agree with you on how Lucia missed out on these guys; however, not every player that lives in MN desires to be a Gopher.

Third, there are only so many scholarships the Rodents (MOF all schools) can hand out in one year, and unfortunately these players you listed decided to go another way while the others were taken in.

Fourth, you are right the Don made some bad pick-ups for the team; missing 3 straight NCAA Tourneys just goes to show.

Keep the Don in office!

-Sincerely

A Sioux fan.

*Shrug* Maybe they weren't smart enough (grade-point wise) to go to the U?

Weekend_Warrior wrote:*Shrug* Maybe they weren't smart enough (grade-point wise) to go to the U?

Not in Gardiner's case, I remember he didn't get a sniff from Minnesota and I know he was a good student. Then Lucia offers his brother Max a scholarship one year later in his junior year I believe.

Every d1 school has a select about of scholarships to hand out per year. Sure, maybe Jake Gardiner didn't get a sniff. Maybe he wasn't the type of player they wanted at the time. Obviously he is a fabulous player. No disrespect towards him what so ever. Coaches like different players. Lucia was aware of Jake. Wasn't he AP player of the year? He tends to get these players. Mr. Hockey etc. There was most likely an underlying reason for why he supposedly did not get a sniff.

As for the other players, I am clueless

Get used to him missing players like that for the next few years from the sounds of it.

http://www.uscho.com/2011/03/15/lucia-g ... minnesota/

Could be Hill also. He coaches the d-man and maybe he could not see that Gardiner and McDonagh would be better players than all of the Gopher D-man in the same time period?

Forget the Don-- Joe Maturi needs to go. The fundamental attitude in the ath dept needs to change. Eventually the U will realize in all its sports that it is not the only option for MN kids and they will hire some folks that work hard at recruiting quality student athletes that can succeed at the D-1 level. At leasat the hockey players aren't watching the game while waiting for thier court dates.

pucker52 wrote:Forget the Don-- Joe Maturi needs to go. The fundamental attitude in the ath dept needs to change. Eventually the U will realize in all its sports that it is not the only option for MN kids and they will hire some folks that work hard at recruiting quality student athletes that can succeed at the D-1 level. At leasat the hockey players aren't watching the game while waiting for thier court dates.

Both the Don and Maturi should be terminated.

As PuckU stated, not every Minnesota kid wants to put on the Brown and piss yellow sweater. Gardiner was arguably the best player in the state in 2008. He would rather play for a better coach, play in front of a packed Kohl Center (instead of a half-empty Olympic size Mariucci) and live on a better campus. The U of M is turning into a joke in every sport except Wrestling it would seem.

MNHockey75 wrote:As PuckU stated, not every Minnesota kid wants to put on the Brown and piss yellow sweater. Gardiner was arguably the best player in the state in 2008. He would rather play for a better coach, play in front of a packed Kohl Center (instead of a half-empty Olympic size Mariucci) and live on a better campus. The U of M is turning into a joke in every sport except Wrestling it would seem.

Very well stated. If you are a D and want to play at the next level it is hard to beat Wis. Gardiner only played 1 year of D in HS and became a very complete player at Wis. Look at the last few years the D that have come out of Wis. A real credit to Mark Osecki and now Bill Butters. Now who has developed under John Hill?

mulefarm wrote:

MNHockey75 wrote:As PuckU stated, not every Minnesota kid wants to put on the Brown and piss yellow sweater. Gardiner was arguably the best player in the state in 2008. He would rather play for a better coach, play in front of a packed Kohl Center (instead of a half-empty Olympic size Mariucci) and live on a better campus. The U of M is turning into a joke in every sport except Wrestling it would seem.

Very well stated. If you are a D and want to play at the next level it is hard to beat Wis. Gardiner only played 1 year of D in HS and became a very complete player at Wis. Look at the last few years the D that have come out of Wis. A real credit to Mark Osecki and now Bill Butters. Now who has developed under John Hill?

No one? Is that the correct answer?

Since Mike Guentzel left, the defense has gone straight downhill.

You'd think the coaching staff and AD would have picked up on this by now...

mulefarm wrote:

MNHockey75 wrote:As PuckU stated, not every Minnesota kid wants to put on the Brown and piss yellow sweater. Gardiner was arguably the best player in the state in 2008. He would rather play for a better coach, play in front of a packed Kohl Center (instead of a half-empty Olympic size Mariucci) and live on a better campus. The U of M is turning into a joke in every sport except Wrestling it would seem.

Very well stated. If you are a D and want to play at the next level it is hard to beat Wis. Gardiner only played 1 year of D in HS and became a very complete player at Wis. Look at the last few years the D that have come out of Wis. A real credit to Mark Osecki and now Bill Butters. Now who has developed under John Hill?

David Fischer

BodyShots wrote:

mulefarm wrote:

MNHockey75 wrote:As PuckU stated, not every Minnesota kid wants to put on the Brown and piss yellow sweater. Gardiner was arguably the best player in the state in 2008. He would rather play for a better coach, play in front of a packed Kohl Center (instead of a half-empty Olympic size Mariucci) and live on a better campus. The U of M is turning into a joke in every sport except Wrestling it would seem.

Very well stated. If you are a D and want to play at the next level it is hard to beat Wis. Gardiner only played 1 year of D in HS and became a very complete player at Wis. Look at the last few years the D that have come out of Wis. A real credit to Mark Osecki and now Bill Butters. Now who has developed under John Hill?

David Fischer

What a flop he was. "Mr. Hockey"

Weekend_Warrior wrote:*Shrug* Maybe they weren't smart enough (grade-point wise) to go to the U?

Wisconsin's admission standards are more stringent than the U of Mn's.... so obviously that is not the reason

JSR wrote:Wisconsin's admission standards are more stringent than the U of Mn's....

I can tell you from personal experience this is not always true. Our daughter, with a 30 ACT score, had no problem getting accepted to Wisconsin (and to the U of Michigan plus others) but was initially wait-listed at the U of MN.

MNHockeyFan wrote:

JSR wrote:Wisconsin's admission standards are more stringent than the U of Mn's....

I can tell you from personal experience this is not always true. Our daughter, with a 30 ACT score, had no problem getting accepted to Wisconsin (and to the U of Michigan plus others) but was initially wait-listed at the U of MN.

Because of the reciprocity agreement between the two states WI is required to take a certain number of MN resident applicants that in some cases have lower scores etc.. than in state students who are wait listed. In turn UofM does the same as part of the recprocity agreement. My sister-in-law had a 31 ACT and was waitlisted at WI because she is a WI resident, she was accepted at MN and Iowa. Both were probably fell into that window so to speak. This is common for most good state Universities as they try and get a "diverse" group of students in each accepted class.

JSR wrote:

Weekend_Warrior wrote:*Shrug* Maybe they weren't smart enough (grade-point wise) to go to the U?

Wisconsin's admission standards are more stringent than the U of Mn's.... so obviously that is not the reason

Yea madison is a little harder to get in to. I didnt want to say it because i am a bulldog but... wisonsin is a PLEASE BAN ME state and they hate teachers so who would want to go their anyways.

I feel like a lot of high school hockey players want to play for the U but lately it could be a different story because they suck. I know Bemidji and UMD have almost all of their starters from the Calgary area and have others from Oh Canada on their team. Maybe that is where the gophs should look? The Dogs have had a few players go pro and in the pro systems of late (Sharp, Stalock, Oberg, Bordson, others) and a few have been semi successful (Raymond, Niskanen).

Maybe in the case of players such as Gardiner and McDonagh there just wasnt room for them. Keep in mind that when these two were being recruited the Gophers had Alex Goligoski RJ Anderson and Derek Peltier already there, and highly touted incoming defensemen Erik Johnson and David Fischer. Thats 5 defenseman who would have been committed for McDonaghs freshman year and Cade Fairchild out of Ann Arbor waiting to come in during Gardiners Freshman year.

Now if you're a young and sought after defenseman, does the prospect of stepping into a situation as crowded as that; where there are already several upperclassmen returning and a highly recruiting batch of incoming defenseman, sound like it would be an ideal situation?

On top of available ice time, perhaps there werent any scholarships to be given. Many of the players Lucia has recruited have fooled not only him, but NHL clubs as well. Players such as Patrick White, David Fischer, Nico Sachetti, Aaron Ness were all high draft picks as well.

UMD has 17 players from the state of Minnesota...

I jsut remember hearing the dogs starting lineups one night
"On defense, from Calgary Alberta...his partner, from Calgary Alberta, starting at center, from Calgary Alberta, his wings, from Duluth, Minnesota, and from Calgary Alberta!"

EHSHack wrote:I jsut remember hearing the dogs starting lineups one night
"On defense, from Calgary Alberta...his partner, from Calgary Alberta, starting at center, from Calgary Alberta, his wings, from Duluth, Minnesota, and from Calgary Alberta!"

And look who's in the frozen four. It's not rocket science. Canada shouldn't be forbidden fruit. They are in fact the best at hockey and always will be. Whatever the Gophers are doing isn't working, so keep it up!