Spencer Penrose Award

[Al DeFlorio]

Sometimes I wonder if a coach who spends the entire game hunched over a clipboard behind the bench can really have the "presence" or the "passion" to lead/drive his team to the top.  

Taylor's teams have never reached an ECAC championship game in 30+ years, or whatever it's been.  I suspect he's a good teaching coach, but something just seems to be missing.

[Al DeFlorio]

Yep.  Understand.  That's clearly been Ewell's them in his responses:  trying to uncover that hidden "jewel."

[Greg Berge]

> When was the last time an ECAC team was ranked in the top 4 nationally? Or, more appropriately, when was the last time a non-scholarship team was?

IIRC, there was a press release when Cornell first reached #4 that it was the first time an ECAC team had been that high in the history of the USCHO and USA Today polls.

Son of IIRC, Harvard was ranked #1 in the nation going into the 1989 ECAC tourny.  Since then, the most likely suspects I can think of are Colgate '90, Clarkson '91, Harvard '94, Vermont '96, or St. Lawrence '00.

[RichS]

Clarkson was ranked as high as #2 at the end of the RS in '97 I think it was...I could be wrong by a year.

[adamw]

Clarkson was indeed ranked No. 2 as of March 10, 1997 USA Today poll.  Finished ranked No. 6 after the regionals.  ATR/USCHO had a poll that year, but unfortunately, no records of it exist, as far as I have been able to dig up.

As a result, I believe the ECAC press release earlier this year was wrong, because I don't remember mention of this.  At the time, I believe it was stated that the last time an ECAC team was ranked as high, was Vermont, that same year.  Vermont was ranked No. 2 on Nov. 11, and No. 1 on Nov. 4.

This is as far back the complete records of any poll go back, though polls go back to 1971.

Yale was ranked No. 5 in USA Today / No. 6 in USCHO on March 9, 1998.

St. Lawrence finished the USCHO poll at No. 5 on March 20, 2000, and was No. 4 in a post-Frozen Four USA Today poll.

Source: This year's ECAC Media Guide.

[jtwcornell91]

Adam Wodon wrote:

Clarkson was indeed ranked No. 2 as of March 10, 1997 USA Today poll.  Finished ranked No. 6 after the regionals.  ATR/USCHO had a poll that year, but unfortunately, no records of it exist, as far as I have been able to dig up.

Wasn't it posted to INFO-HOCKEY-L?  If so, it'll be in the HOCKEY-L archives.

[judy]

I like how Gaudet is included in there...::rolleyes::  So, he's picking coaches based on teams that he feels are exceeding expectations? So with Dartmouth's about .500 record, they are exceeding expectations? Did he think that Dartmouth was going to suck (and suck badly) this year? Preseason polls, coaches had them at 9, and media had them at 4. So they are currently exceeding the coaches expectations by 2 (!!!) spots... and they're actually underachieving by the media poll. Sure, they've beaten us but anyone who's paid attention to our games realize that it's not unexpected, or even surprising :-(
Brown...if they can get their act together, then sure, Grillo deserves some recognition seeing how they did act as the doormat for a few years...
Rant over, brain shutting off.

[Al DeFlorio]

What's especially funny is that insidecollegehockey picked Dartmouth to finish fifth in their ECAC preseason poll--while picking Cornell tenth nationally.  

So...who's exceeded and who hasn't?