Opponent and other news and results of interest 2024-2025

[BearLover]

without even getting in to whether the program should become an active portal shopper as a regular strategy

is there really consensus that Keopple wouldnt be a reasonable backstop to the defense next year
not sure there has been sufficient starts to say he doesnt have what it takes
sure he didnt platoon this year with Shane who was a returning Richter award finalist and senior, that doesnt mean he cant step up next year

Nobody knows the answer to this, other than maybe those watching practice every day. Keopple had good junior numbers, better than Shane's in fact. But we can only infer from his tiny NCAA sample size and the fact the coaches refused to bench Shane even when he was struggling.

[BearLover]

ECAC schools outside of Cornell/Harvard/Quinnipiac  are really getting crushed by the transfer portal/pro signings. It's starting to feel similar to the mid-major—>power 4 trajectory in basketball/football. Have a good year at Brown or Clarkson or RPI and then bolt for Hockey East.

[Trotsky]

With Roest coming in we have three goalies and I would be surprised (not shocked) if we brought another in.  You have to treat guys who have put in the work here well or word will get around.

My instinct is that we won't pull from the portal just because they are available, but guys who fit the profile and really want to come here we will now be allowed to consider because they are in the portal.  It's push not pull.

[BearLover]

With Roest coming in we have three goalies and I would be surprised (not shocked) if we brought another in.  You have to treat guys who have put in the work here well or word will get around.

My instinct is that we won't pull from the portal just because they are available, but guys who fit the profile and really want to come here we will now be allowed to consider because they are in the portal.  It's push not pull.

I agree that it is unlikely for the reasons you stated and mentioned this in my above post too. But we all know what BU and Quinnipiac would do, they'd bring in the fourth goalie. I want to be more like BU and Quinnipiac if it means we will win more. Not full-on BU/Quinnipiac bullshit, but more in that direction. We've done all we can under our current limitations, we need unshackle ourselves from these restrictions if at all possible and do what we can to get over the hump.  I am tired of losing in the regional final, I am tired of feeling haunted by the same stupid game every offseason, and I know the coaches and players feel this ten-fold. We need to try to win.

[upprdeck]

the new roster limits may come into play here

[Al DeFlorio]

With Roest coming in we have three goalies and I would be surprised (not shocked) if we brought another in.  You have to treat guys who have put in the work here well or word will get around.

My instinct is that we won't pull from the portal just because they are available, but guys who fit the profile and really want to come here we will now be allowed to consider because they are in the portal.  It's push not pull.

I agree that it is unlikely for the reasons you stated and mentioned this in my above post too. But we all know what BU and Quinnipiac would do, they'd bring in the fourth goalie. I want to be more like BU and Quinnipiac if it means we will win more. Not full-on BU/Quinnipiac bullshit, but more in that direction. We've done all we can under our current limitations, we need unshackle ourselves from these restrictions if at all possible and do what we can to get over the hump.  I am tired of losing in the regional final, I am tired of feeling haunted by the same stupid game every offseason, and I know the coaches and players feel this ten-fold. We need to try to win.

I am tired of your never-ending bullsbit.

[BearLover]

With Roest coming in we have three goalies and I would be surprised (not shocked) if we brought another in.  You have to treat guys who have put in the work here well or word will get around.

My instinct is that we won't pull from the portal just because they are available, but guys who fit the profile and really want to come here we will now be allowed to consider because they are in the portal.  It's push not pull.

I agree that it is unlikely for the reasons you stated and mentioned this in my above post too. But we all know what BU and Quinnipiac would do, they'd bring in the fourth goalie. I want to be more like BU and Quinnipiac if it means we will win more. Not full-on BU/Quinnipiac bullshit, but more in that direction. We've done all we can under our current limitations, we need unshackle ourselves from these restrictions if at all possible and do what we can to get over the hump.  I am tired of losing in the regional final, I am tired of feeling haunted by the same stupid game every offseason, and I know the coaches and players feel this ten-fold. We need to try to win.

I am tired of your never-ending bullsbit.

If you're so tired, why don't you take a nap? As usual, you have nothing substantive to add, so you just name-call. Don't you have something to complain about on the Cornell Football thread?

[ugarte]

You have to treat guys who have put in the work here well or word will get around.

i don't buy this tbh. in wrestling the most likely places to get recruited over are Penn State and Iowa, who are poaching transfers not only from small school guys that make a run to AA after getting overlooked in high school (which you'd expect) but from other top-tier B1G schools. i don't think we suffer much, if at all, for bringing in a starter-quality player who bumps a guy back to the bench. sports is basically designed to be a meritocracy, red in tooth and claw.

[BearLover]

You have to treat guys who have put in the work here well or word will get around.

i don't buy this tbh. in wrestling the most likely places to get recruited over are Penn State and Iowa, who are poaching transfers not only from small school guys that make a run to AA after getting overlooked in high school (which you'd expect) but from other top-tier B1G schools. i don't think we suffer much, if at all, for bringing in a starter-quality player who bumps a guy back to the bench. sports is basically designed to be a meritocracy, red in tooth and claw.

Right. This is not how other teams operate. Al DeFlorio may not like it, but sports teams try to win. There is a cost-benefit to bringing in transfers and in some cases the benefits outweigh the costs.

[Jim Hyla]

With Roest coming in we have three goalies and I would be surprised (not shocked) if we brought another in.  You have to treat guys who have put in the work here well or word will get around.

My instinct is that we won't pull from the portal just because they are available, but guys who fit the profile and really want to come here we will now be allowed to consider because they are in the portal.  It's push not pull.

I agree that it is unlikely for the reasons you stated and mentioned this in my above post too. But we all know what BU and Quinnipiac would do, they'd bring in the fourth goalie. I want to be more like BU and Quinnipiac if it means we will win more. Not full-on BU/Quinnipiac bullshit, but more in that direction. We've done all we can under our current limitations, we need unshackle ourselves from these restrictions if at all possible and do what we can to get over the hump.  I am tired of losing in the regional final, I am tired of feeling haunted by the same stupid game every offseason, and I know the coaches and players feel this ten-fold. We need to try to win.

I am tired of your never-ending bullsbit.

If you're so tired, why don't you take a nap? As usual, you have nothing substantive to add, so you just name-call. Don't you have something to complain about on the Cornell Football thread?

BearLover, I think the problem is that we know how you feel about Regional losses. You've said it multiple times. After a while it gets annoying to hear it again. You know that I feel differently than you, but I'm not going to keep saying it. And then you end your post with "We need to try to win."

Come on, you probably don't mean it, but this team, as well as the others, really, really tried to win.

Maybe if you tried making your point about getting portal players without again telling us how disappointed you are, maybe then posters would read your posts for your reasons and not get upset about hearing again how you feel.

Maybe yes, maybe no. But trying not to be negative 90% of the time (Sure I don't exactly know how often, but it's a lot) that might unbury (Is that even a word?) your good points.

[BearLover]

With Roest coming in we have three goalies and I would be surprised (not shocked) if we brought another in.  You have to treat guys who have put in the work here well or word will get around.

My instinct is that we won't pull from the portal just because they are available, but guys who fit the profile and really want to come here we will now be allowed to consider because they are in the portal.  It's push not pull.

I agree that it is unlikely for the reasons you stated and mentioned this in my above post too. But we all know what BU and Quinnipiac would do, they'd bring in the fourth goalie. I want to be more like BU and Quinnipiac if it means we will win more. Not full-on BU/Quinnipiac bullshit, but more in that direction. We've done all we can under our current limitations, we need unshackle ourselves from these restrictions if at all possible and do what we can to get over the hump.  I am tired of losing in the regional final, I am tired of feeling haunted by the same stupid game every offseason, and I know the coaches and players feel this ten-fold. We need to try to win.

I am tired of your never-ending bullsbit.

If you're so tired, why don't you take a nap? As usual, you have nothing substantive to add, so you just name-call. Don't you have something to complain about on the Cornell Football thread?

BearLover, I think the problem is that we know how you feel about Regional losses. You've said it multiple times. After a while it gets annoying to hear it again. You know that I feel differently than you, but I'm not going to keep saying it. And then you end your post with "We need to try to win."

Come on, you probably don't mean it, but this team, as well as the others, really, really tried to win.

Maybe if you tried making your point about getting portal players without again telling us how disappointed you are, maybe then posters would read your posts for your reasons and not get upset about hearing again how you feel.

Maybe yes, maybe no. But trying not to be negative 90% of the time (Sure I don't exactly know how often, but it's a lot) that might unbury (Is that even a word?) your good points.

Well first of all, obviously you are correct that people would pay more attention to my good points if I weren't so negative. In this case, I bring up our excruciating regional finals losses because I believe they demonstrate that our ability to win is capped under the current regime. Schafer was one of the best college hockey coaches of all time, but I don't see how we are going to make the frozen four adhering to the same old limitations. Some of them are out of our control: no grad students, no scholarships. But there's no Ivy League rule against carrying four goalies on the roster. There's no rule against bringing in more transfers or NIL. I don't think some of these things (especially NIL) are likely to happen, but I use them as examples of things we can do to (partially) even the playing field against the BUs and Quinnipiac's.

When I said "we need to try to win," it was clearly NOT a judgment of the current team. Instead it means: we need to go farther, within reason, to get over the hump. We shouldn't be content with no frozen fours since 2003. Other teams are doing things within the rules that Cornell is allowed to do too. Cornell isn't getting to the promised land with business as usual.

[abmarks]

the new roster limits may come into play here

I thought those only apply if you opt into the settlement from the lawsuit, which the ivy league did not.

[Trotsky]

You have to treat guys who have put in the work here well or word will get around.

i don't buy this tbh. in wrestling the most likely places to get recruited over are Penn State and Iowa, who are poaching transfers not only from small school guys that make a run to AA after getting overlooked in high school (which you'd expect) but from other top-tier B1G schools. i don't think we suffer much, if at all, for bringing in a starter-quality player who bumps a guy back to the bench. sports is basically designed to be a meritocracy, red in tooth and claw.

You could absolutely be right; I simply don't know.

[Tom Lento]

In this case, I bring up our excruciating regional finals losses because I believe they demonstrate that our ability to win is capped under the current regime. Schafer was one of the best college hockey coaches of all time, but I don't see how we are going to make the frozen four adhering to the same old limitations. Some of them are out of our control: no grad students, no scholarships. But there's no Ivy League rule against carrying four goalies on the roster. There's no rule against bringing in more transfers or NIL. I don't think some of these things (especially NIL) are likely to happen, but I use them as examples of things we can do to (partially) even the playing field against the BUs and Quinnipiac's.

When I said "we need to try to win," it was clearly NOT a judgment of the current team. Instead it means: we need to go farther, within reason, to get over the hump. We shouldn't be content with no frozen fours since 2003. Other teams are doing things within the rules that Cornell is allowed to do too. Cornell isn't getting to the promised land with business as usual.

I don't know if this is by intention, but your comment here suggests you think Schafer wasn't trying to do these things, and that was somehow holding the program back. I think reasonable people can debate whether or not adding more transfers would meaningfully help Cornell - certainly there were a few impact players who went to WMU and Quinnipiac last year that were at least nominally eligible for Cornell, but I don't know that any of them would have been worth he time to pursue, or if Schafer connected with them and they just went elsewhere. Regardless, unless Schafer's on the record saying otherwise I doubt it was unwillingness to entertain transfers that was keeping Cornell off the transfer board. Rather, I suspect the main issue with the transfer portal, and why we haven't seen many guys come through it, is the same issue with recruiting at large - Cornell has limitations that don't apply to the likes of Quinnipiac and WMU. So the pool of available players isn't as big as it might seem with all the movement, and when you put filters in place around quality of play, fit with the needs of the program, interest in Cornell, and ability to get through admissions it's entirely possible a transfer every few years is about as good as it gets for us.

Now, should Jones emphasize the portal more? I have no idea. The thing about coaching is time is the enemy. You must make tradeoffs in terms of how you spend your recruiting efforts. So do you get really good at the transfer portal OR do you open up more recruiting connections to the CHL? Ideally you'd work on both, but if you have to sacrifice time building CHL connections to get a bit better at fishing in the transfer portal, is that worth the trade?

[BearLover]

In this case, I bring up our excruciating regional finals losses because I believe they demonstrate that our ability to win is capped under the current regime. Schafer was one of the best college hockey coaches of all time, but I don't see how we are going to make the frozen four adhering to the same old limitations. Some of them are out of our control: no grad students, no scholarships. But there's no Ivy League rule against carrying four goalies on the roster. There's no rule against bringing in more transfers or NIL. I don't think some of these things (especially NIL) are likely to happen, but I use them as examples of things we can do to (partially) even the playing field against the BUs and Quinnipiac's.

When I said "we need to try to win," it was clearly NOT a judgment of the current team. Instead it means: we need to go farther, within reason, to get over the hump. We shouldn't be content with no frozen fours since 2003. Other teams are doing things within the rules that Cornell is allowed to do too. Cornell isn't getting to the promised land with business as usual.

I don't know if this is by intention, but your comment here suggests you think Schafer wasn't trying to do these things, and that was somehow holding the program back. I think reasonable people can debate whether or not adding more transfers would meaningfully help Cornell - certainly there were a few impact players who went to WMU and Quinnipiac last year that were at least nominally eligible for Cornell, but I don't know that any of them would have been worth he time to pursue, or if Schafer connected with them and they just went elsewhere. Regardless, unless Schafer's on the record saying otherwise I doubt it was unwillingness to entertain transfers that was keeping Cornell off the transfer board. Rather, I suspect the main issue with the transfer portal, and why we haven't seen many guys come through it, is the same issue with recruiting at large - Cornell has limitations that don't apply to the likes of Quinnipiac and WMU. So the pool of available players isn't as big as it might seem with all the movement, and when you put filters in place around quality of play, fit with the needs of the program, interest in Cornell, and ability to get through admissions it's entirely possible a transfer every few years is about as good as it gets for us.

Now, should Jones emphasize the portal more? I have no idea. The thing about coaching is time is the enemy. You must make tradeoffs in terms of how you spend your recruiting efforts. So do you get really good at the transfer portal OR do you open up more recruiting connections to the CHL? Ideally you'd work on both, but if you have to sacrifice time building CHL connections to get a bit better at fishing in the transfer portal, is that worth the trade?

I don't know how much of not using the portal was Schafer and how much of it was structural limitations, as you say. But I think a reasonable assumption is that part of it was a coach who has been successful for 30 years wanting to continue doing things the traditional way. Also I don't think it's a huge time suck to reach out to players in the portal. Often players transfer to teams that previously recruited them, so there may already be a relationship there. Portal transfers take place over a week or two usually so it doesn't take much time away from recruiting etc.