LIVE: Michigan Football v. Nebraska

LISTEN LIVE at noon as Michigan welcomes Nebraska to the Big House for the first time since 1962. Michigan holds a 3-2-1 advantage in the all-time series between these storied programs.

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Andrew Goddeeris, Bill Rothwell, Kevin Carpenter, and Seth Goldman on the call.

LISTEN LIVE to Michigan take the Ohio State Buckeyes at 7:35 Mike Lewandowski, Andrew Goddeeris, and Adam Brewster on the call.

Michigan Football vs. Illinois

Listen to the broadcast of the Michigan Illinois game here.

Michigan football vs. University of Illinois (Broadcasting live athttp://ustre.am/lEOi)

LIVE: Michigan Football v. Iowa

LISTEN LIVE at noon eastern as Michigan looks to take down the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.

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Andrew Goddeeris, Adam Wilensky, and Iowa's own Sam Kavalier on the call.

LISTEN: Michigan Football v. Purdue

LISTEN LIVE at noon as Michigan comes off a bye and looks to get back to its winning ways against the Purdue Boilermakers.

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Andrew Goddeeris, Bill Rothwell, Jeff Turner, and Michael Fienberg on the call.

LISTEN LIVE to Michigan hockey vs Ferris State at 7:35 pm. Mike Lewandowski and Jeff Turner on the call.

LIVE: Michigan Football v. Little Brother

LISTEN LIVE at NOON as 6-0 Michigan takes on the Michigan State Spartans and looks to break a three game losing streak against their rivals to the North.

Andrew Goddeeris, Bill Rothwell, Matt Bernstein, and Seth Goldman on the call.

LISTEN LIVE to Michigan hockey vs. St. Lawrence. Mike Lewandowski and Kevin Capenter on the call.

LIVE: Michigan Football v. Minnesota

LISTEN LIVE at noon as Michigan opens Big Ten play against the Minnesota Golden Gophers! Brady Hoke looks to keep the Brown Jug in Ann Arbor in his B1G debut.

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Bill Rothwell, Andrew Goddeeris, and Michael Fienberg on the call.

Michigan Hockey Preview 2011

Once the puck didn’t get dumped into the Duluth zone, you knew. Once you saw Chad Langlais scramble to get back into defensive position to continue what was already almost a three-minute shift, you knew. Once Travis Oleksuk threw a pass across the front of the net to Kyle Schmidt and Shawn Hunwick couldn’t quite get back to the far post you really knew. It was over, a run made as the last effort of an impressive, if slightly underperforming, recruiting class ground to a screeching halt just inches from the their ultimate goal.

In what can only be described as a heart-breaking defeat the University of Michigan Wolverines lost 3-2 in overtime to the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul to fall just short of the NCAA Championship in Men’s Ice Hockey. We waved goodbye to Langlais, Carl Hagelin, Louie Caporusso, Scooter Vaughn, Matt Rust, Ben Winnett and the too often street-clothed Bryan Hogan. This was a class that could have, and probably should have, produced more than a loss at all four levels of the NCAA Tournament. The early departures of Aaron Palushaj and Max Pacioretty didn’t help and they did manage to lose each of those games in a different fantastic fashion: an OT almost comeback after pulling a starting goalie for a freshman(Hogan) against Notre Dame; one of the more ridiculous goaltending displays against the Air Force’s Andrew Volkening; a game stolen away and again lost in overtime to Miami(OH), and finally the closest they came to the ultimate prize in a contest that provoked even the most mild mannered of coaches to criticize the officiating. Each of these hurt in its own way mixing together shock, anger, and the emptiness that comes with ending a season without a trophy being held overhead. It has been a very unstable time to be a fan of Red Berenson’s program.

But this is a new season and a new team that will once again be setting their sights on not just another NCAA tournament appearance (they have 21 straight), or a Frozen Four trip (24 of those, the most all time) or even another shot at big one (11 title games played). No the Wolverines will accept nothing less than a tenth National Championship as a successful season, as a program with the tradition of U of M should. Whether or not this is a realistic goal for this specific group remains to be seen, but looking at what Coach Berenson is going put out on the ice there is potential for greatness, but there are also a significant amount of question marks.

The front line of the Wolverines consists of a lot of unproven talent and talent that has yet to live up to expectations. This could be one of the strongest offensive forces Michigan has seen in a long time or it could be a complete bust, we know that little about the Wolverine attack. Of the fourteen forwards on the roster only five were guaranteed to be in the lineup when healthy last season. That is not a lot of experience even for a college team – for example last year’s team had nine. There are also five freshman forwards on the roster, at least three of whom are expected to play regularly. This lack of real experience makes it very difficult to predict what kind of offense we will see at Yost this year but the veteran players have a lot on their shoulders. None more than second-year captain Luke Glendening who will most likely anchor Michigan’s top line. Glendening is certainly the most experienced returning forward if not the most prolific. The senior’s talents are more defensive and he will be the team’s best penalty killer and is the unquestioned leader in the locker room. If there is one player that might want to return to the national title game more than any other it has to be senior alternate captain David Wohlberg, who watched from the stands as his teammates fell to Duluth after suffering a broken collar bone against Bowling Green in the second round of the CCHA Tournament last year. Despite missing the last 7 games of the season, he was still second on the team in goals, so the Wolverines will be depending on him to keep putting the puck in the net. A source of goals that hasn’t seemed to ever find its groove is Chris Brown. The junior scored only nine goals last year while taking the third most shots on the team. Brown will hope to see more of the Texas flag flying in the Michigan student section this season. Other than those three players Coach Berenson will be expecting his forwards to start living up to their potential. Kevin Lynch scored eleven goals last year but was in a deep scoring slump for too much of last year. AJ Treais was fantastic at times last year and provides a spark when Michigan gets sluggish but he was still too undisciplined and needs to have more control over his finesse game if he wants to become a top end scorer. Luke Moffat has the potential to fire a lot of pucks home for the Wolverines as well but as a freshman he sometimes looked lost out on the ice and had a problem regaining composure after a couple bad plays. The rest of the bunch has to see more playing time before any real determination can be made, but look out for freshman Zach Hyman to make a big impact. The Panthers draft pick was a dominant force in the Ontario Junior Hockey League on his way to being named the Canadian Junior A player of the year, an honor he shares with Mike Comrie and Jeff Tambellini. That’s some good company.

The blue line is a little more stable than the front end but still provides a few question marks. At least one freshman will have to play but I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point we saw three new kids suit up in the same game. In any case the blue line will be built on youth, with only one returning senior and one returning junior. Underclassmen will carry the load on this defensive corps. One of the underclassmen happens to be John Merrill who might have been the best defenseman on this team a year ago and now is unquestionably the top defender the Wolverines have. They were lucky to keep him away from the New Jersey Devils and if not for a poor performance in the national title game last year and a lackluster tournament overall, Merrill probably would have made the jump. He certainly looked like an NHL ready defenseman for the majority of last season next to Chad Langlais but now Langlais is gone and Merrill is the guy. Whether or not he has the ability to lead this group and even the whole team remains to be seen. The leadership load should be shared with senior Greg Pateryn who, despite coming into the team as a freshman having already been drafted, has never been able to establish himself firmly in the lineup. Pateryn played in 40 of the Wolverines’ 44 games last year but still was always teetering on the edge of being dropped. That won’t be a problem this year and the most defensive-minded defenseman on this team will be an integral part of the team on the ice and off. Mac Bennett and Lee Moffie could be two of the most exciting defensemen in the CCHA but last year I never wanted to see them on the ice together. Both are fantastic at moving up into the play offensively and can create problems for opposing defenses but also have the tendency to leave the their partner exposed, creating the potential for odd man rushes the other way. If they can play with more discipline they could be fantastic. The freshman to watch in this group has to be Brennan Serville, the Winnipeg Jets pick. He tallied 30 points in 36 games in the OJHL as a defenseman and with his size could be one of Michigan’s top defenseman right out of the gate.

The goaltending situation will look very familiar to any fans of the Wolverines over the last two years. Shawn Hunwick returns to his place between the pipes as a fifth-year senior and for the first time in his career he should be the unquestionable starter. Having to wait until Bryan Hogan got injured two years ago and then battling again with Hogan for playing time last year until the injury bug struck again has given Hunwick a chip on his shoulder. That coupled with his less than average size for a goalie gives him a “me against the world” type of attitude that can be great for a goalie when he is hot. When he has to compete for time however, like he did for the beginning of last season, that confidence can erode quickly. This is why the most important player to Michigan’s goaltending won’t actually be suiting up for the Wolverines this year, former commit John Gibson. Gibson bolted for the OHL after giving fans another false hope that a top Goalie would join the long line that included Al Montoya, Marty Turco, and Steve Shields. Like Jack Campbell before him Gibson could have come in and gotten solid time as a freshman but decided that college wasn’t for him so Hunwick returns to the crease. It is possible that this is the best thing that could have happened when you take just this year into account because now Hunwick doesn’t have to worry about his job and history tells us that he will play better in that situation. The problem for the future is that Hunwick will not be granted a sixth year of eligibility and backup Adam Janecyk has about as much time in competition at Yost as the people who play score-o in between periods.

So what is a realistic goal for this team? It is very difficult to say but I can’t see this team missing out on the NCAA tournament no matter how inexperienced they are. Another trip to the Frozen Four is a legitimate possibility if the right pieces fall into place. But for Wolverine fans, the wait for that tenth national title will, in all likelihood, last at least one more year.

LISTEN: Michigan v. SDSU

LISTEN LIVE as Michigan takes on SDSU at 12 pm in Brady Hoke's first matchup with his former team. The Wolverines look to stay perfect in September the last three years.

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Andrew Goddeeris, Bill Rothwell, Adam Wilensky, and Kevin Carpenter on the call.

Figuring Out The Madness

With the official defections of Pitt and Syracuse from the Big East to the ACC, a new round of re-alignment madness is officially touched off. Everyone expected the Big 12 to be the first domino to fall, but it seems now as if the Big East will be the conference that initiates the armageddon that has seemed certain since Texas A&M announced its intent to leave the Big 12 for the SEC.

Now all that's left is to see how the dominoes will fall. Which conferences will become Super Conferences and which will be enveloped in the madness? Below are my personal predictions for how everything will end up, eventually. Some of these changes will be in effect for the 2012 football season, while some likely won't be finalized for another season or two after that. This is especially true in the Big 10, which may wait until its TV deal runs out to expand.

Moves:

1. Pitt, Syracuse, UConn, and Rutgers leave the Big East, join the ACC.

This move destroys the Big East as a football conference, something that has seemed inevitable ever since Miami, BC, and Va Tech left the conference in 2005 for the ACC. This move would leave the ACC with 16 teams, 2 divisions of 8. I believe these divisions will be as follows:

North: Boston College, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Syracuse, UConn, Rutgers
South: Wake Forest, Clemson, Florida State, Miami, UNC, NC State, Duke, Georgia Tech

2. Texas A&M and West Virginia leave the Big 12 and Big East, join the SEC.

This move is already in motion, as Texas A&M has already accepted their invitation to join the SEC, while West Virginia is a logical 14th team with the Big East in shambles after Move 1. I see the SEC holding firm with 14 teams rather than moving to 16, as no other teams outside of the ACC make good sense to join the SEC (although I have heard rumbles about some of the Big 12, such as Mizzou). I don't see the SEC divisional alignment changing much, with A&M joining the West division, and West Virginia joining the East division.

3. Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma St leave the Big 12, join the Pac-12

This has been the most heavily publicized and debated move, and with the other pieces in motion, the two big boys in the Big 12 (Texas and Oklahoma) abandon ship and take their little brothers with them to the newly christened Pac-16. This essentially dooms the Big 12, and I see it folding, with the leftovers scrambling to find Major conferences to join. I see the divisions shaping up like this:

Pacific: UCLA, USC, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon St, Washington, Washington St
Southwest: Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, OK St, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, ASU

Interesting wrinkle here is that the new divisions could be the old Pac-8 teams versus the new additions (the new conference may split up the newcomers for revenue reasons, but this alignment makes the most geographic sense IMO).

4. Missouri and Notre Dame join the Big 10.

Missouri is left on the sinking ship of the Big 12 and is forced into joining the Big 10. Notre Dame finally agrees that it's time to join a conference and picks the obvious choice as well. Here's how I see a 14 team Big 10 looking:

Lakes: Michigan, MSU, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Minnesota, Illinois, Penn State
Plains: OSU, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Wiconsin, Indiana, Purdue


5. Kansas, KSU, Baylor, Iowa St (from Big 12), TCU (from Big East), BYU (Independent), and Nevada, Hawaii, and Fresno State (from WAC) join Mountain West.

With the Big 12 and Big East ceasing to exist (at least as football conferences), the leftovers will be left scrambling. I see the Big 12 remainders ending up in a new, super Mountain West, in addition to some teams that were already scheduled to join (WAC teams) and the re-addition of TCU and BYU, who probably should have never left in the first place. That would leave the new Mountain West with 16 teams, two 8-team divisions that would be as follows:

West: Hawaii, Nevada, Fresno St, BYU, Boise St, UNLV, SD St, Wyoming
East: Colorado St, TCU, Air Force, New Mexico, Kansas, KSU, Baylor, Iowa St

6. Louisville, Cincinnati, and South Florida (from Big East) and Louisiana Tech(from WAC) join Conference USA.

The Big East leftovers join the C-USA, which is a kind of geographic mash-up, and wouldn't mind adding former members such as Louisville to form a 16 team conference with two 8-team divisions, with La Tech and Louisville going West and Cincinnati and USF going East.

7. WAC, Big East, and Big 12 fold as football conferences, remaining WAC teams go down to FCS level or join Sun Belt.

Most of the WAC plays at a D1-AA level anyway, wouldn't be a huge change for the leftovers of that conference (Idaho, Utah State, SJ State, NM State).



The Final Consequences

2 BCS AQ conferences (Big East and Big 12) would be kaput as football conferences, meaning that their auto-bids would have to go elsewhere. I would vote that one become and at-large bid and the other go to the new Mountain West. That would leave the ACC, Big 10, Mountain West, Pac-16, and SEC as the new AQ conferences. A ton of other issues would still need to be resolved, such as conference scheduling (9 in-conference games for sure, more than 2 BCS bids per conference most likely), but this new alignment works for the most part. It isn't as ideal as the old setup maybe, but the times they are a'changing, and we need the best possible solution.


Comments/questions/other plans are welcome.

LIVE: Michigan Football v. Eastern Michigan

LISTEN LIVE at noon as Michigan takes on the Eagles of Eastern Michigan in the Battle of Washtenaw County. Brady Hoke looks to move to 3-0 in the 2011 campaign.

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Andrew Goddeeris, Bill Rothwell, Jack Warner on the call.

Instant Classic

Wow...what a finish. The Wolverines win one of the wildest games in Big House history in a fantastic way to christen night games here in Ann Arbor. Denard started 2/11, then finished 9/13 to lead a thrilling come-from-behind victory. Denard put up 446 yards of offense, 338 in the air with 4 TDs and 3 INTs and 108 yards rushing with one TD (that's 948 yards alone in the last two games against Notre Dame for Shoelace). Hemingway had a massive 165 yards on three receptions, and one 43 yard TD. Tommy Rees was Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, with 315 yards passing and 3 TDs, but 3 TOs (2 INT, 1 fumble). But the most stunning aspect of the game was the final 1:12: 21 yard TD pass to Vincent Smith for Michigan's first lead of the game, 28-24, then at :30 Notre Dame re-takes the lead with a 29 yard TD pass to Theo Riddick to make it 31-28, before Denard finds Jeremy Gallon for a 64 yard pass to put Michigan on the 16 with 0:09, and then with 0:02 left

finds Roy Roundtree for the 16 yard TD pass to win the game. More to come this week on Extra points and Daily Sports Reports...

LIVE: Michigan Football v. Notre Dame

Tune in at 8:00 pm as the Michigan Wolverines take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish under the lights in the first ever night game at the University of Michigan.

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Bill Rothwell, Chris Kudialis, and Jeff Turner on the call.

Notre Dame starting QB

Just a quick update before the Michigan-Notre Dame game this Saturday night, as Brian Kelly has announced that sophomore QB Tommy Rees will start the game against the Wolverines. Rees was the superior quarterback over Senior QB Dayne Crist in last week's game against South Florida, going 24/34 for 296 yards with 2 TDs and 2 INTs while Crist produced a mediocre line of 7/15 for 95 yards, 0 TDs, and 1 INT. Rees saw very little action in last year's Denard emergence, going 0/2 with an INT. Much more to come about Michigan Stadium's first night game as the week progresses...

LIVE: Michigan Football v. Western Michigan

Tune in at 3:30 pm as the Michigan Wolverines take on the Western Michigan Broncos to open the 2011 season and Coach Brady Hoke's tenure.

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Andrew Goddeeris, Bill Rothwell, and Kevin Carpenter on the call.

Podcast: 2011 Michigan Schedule Breakdown

The WCBN crew breaks down the 2011 Michigan football schedule. Special guest Tim Rohan, Sports Editor at the Michigan Daily, joins us in studio. Follow him at @TimRohan on Twitter.

PODCAST LINK

Unfortunately we lost the part of the preview in which we broke down the roster, but it may have been for the best. Stay tuned for more podcasts throughout the year.

2011 Michigan Volleyball Preview

After a 23-10 effort and a program-best fourth-place Big Ten finish in 2010, the Michigan volleyball team returns to action ranked #24 in the country in 2011, but with a major hole to fill. The Wolverines lose their all-time greatest player in four-time AVCA All-America setter Lexi Zimmerman, and will have to replace her while turning to senior captains Alex Hunt and Sloane Donhoff to lead the team through the toughest conference in the NCAA.

Senior captain Alex Hunt.

Senior captain Sloane Donhoff.

Roster

Lexi Zimmerman, defensive specialist Maggie Busch, and right side hitter Amanda Yerke are gone from the 2010 Wolverines. Zimmerman is clearly the major loss here, as Yerke played sparingly, and while a solid contributor, Maggie Busch can be replaced by Ally Sabol and Brittany Lee.

Michigan has three incoming freshmen in 2011. Walk-on middle blocker Olivia Reed will almost certainly see very limited playing time this season, as the Wolverines are solid at her position. Under Armor All-American Lauren Teknipp, a 6-2 MB from McDonough, GA should have a better chance of seeing the court, and she comes in as one of Michigan's higher rated recruits in recent years. The most important incoming freshman, though, is the confusingly-named Lexi Dannemiller, a 5-11 setter from West Chester, OH. An Under Armor All-American in 2010, she is the odds-on favorite to win the setting job this season, a job she'll compete for with junior Catherine Yager. Expectations are sky-high for Dannemiller, who perhaps cruelly will be asked to live up to the bar set by the Lexi she replaces.

As mentioned, Michigan should be solid up the middle this season. Sophomore Jennifer Cross, a unanimous 2010 All-Big Ten Freshman selection, led the squad with 111 blocks last season, and will also look to improve upon her impressive 2.31 kills/set and .316 hitting percentage marks. Cross' development will be key for the Wolverines this season - she's already in my estimation Michigan's third-best player, and is far from reaching her potential. Cross is joined by 6-3 fifth-year senior Karlee Bruck, who hit an impressive .328% last season. 6-4 senior Courtney Fletcher rounds out a very solid MB stable for Michigan. Fletcher hit .280% last season and registered 68 total blocks.

The outside and right side hitting positions will be critical for Michigan this season. With a new setter in the middle, developing a rhythm and relationship will be crucial, and outside of Alex Hunt, question marks abound. Hunt, a unanimous 2011 All-Big Ten Preseason selection and 2010 All-American, will be once again asked to carry the load from the OH position. She registered 503 kills in 2010, good for 4.41 K/S, and will look to improve upon her .255 hitting percentage. She has the potential to go down as one of Michigan's all-time greats with another big year. On the right side, redshirt junior Claire McElheny needs to have another strong campaign, following up on her 2.25 K/S mark and .262 hitting percentage from last season. How well Michigan performs this year may well turn on the ability of sophomores Molly Toon and Lexi Erwin to make big leaps from last year. Each hit at disappointing low clips, and their development will be something to watch. So much of the success of this season depends on the ability of the new setter to click with her hitters, something we won't really be able to gauge until a few matches into the season.

Senior captain Sloane Donhoff started all 33 games last season at libero for Michigan, and all expectations are that she'll do the same this season. Donhoff is fifth all-time at Michigan in digs, and like Hunt, could end her 2011 campaign amongst Michigan's best ever. Sophomore Ally Sabol will continue to serve as Donhoff's back-up, and will come on as a substitute to serve frequently.

Old Lexi.

New Lexi.

Coaching

2011 will mark coach Mark Rosen's 13th year behind the helm for Michigan. 239-152 in his career in Ann Arbor, Rosen is Michigan's all-time winningest coach, taking the Wolverine program to new heights during his tenure. Assistant coach Amanda Ault left after last season to take the head coaching position at George Washington University, and she has been replaced by former Cincinnati assistant Erin Virtue, who coached liberos and setters for the Bearcats.

Schedule

Full schedule lives here.

Michigan's 2010 season was a tale of two teams. 12-1 at Cliff Keen, Michigan struggled to a 5-9 mark away from Ann Arbor, so of course Michigan begins the season with three straight tournaments on the road. The Wolverines will be tested by Morehead State and Cal Poly early on, and a good early season indicator of where the team stands will come at the Dayton Marriott Flyer Classic, with a solid field headlined by #19 Dayton, and rounded out by #26 Pepperdine and #30 Florida State. Michigan returns home to host the Michigan/adidas Invitational September 16-17, and B1G play begins the following weekend in Indiana at the Hoosiers and Boilermakers.

The Big Ten will be stronger than it ever has been before, boasting seven teams ranked in the preseason Top 25, including #1 and four-time defending national champions Penn State, and B1G newcomers in #5 Nebraska. Illinois (#8), Minnesota (#12), Purdue (#13), Ohio State (#21), and Michigan (#24) are also ranked. Last season Michigan went 12-8 in conference for a fourth-place finish, but they'll face an uphill battle to repeat or surpass that mark this season. Marquee games will be Nebraska's first trip to Ann Arbor on October 1, and trips to Illinois, Penn State, and Minnesota.

Nebraska will find Cliff Keen, er, quaint.

Predictions

Optimism abounds!

Though they lose a heck of a lot with the departure of Lexi Zimmerman, the Wolverines return tons of talent in 2011. The question is how well Coach Rosen and Co. can harness that talent while breaking in a new setter, all the while facing an extremely tough conference slate.

I think Lexi Dannemiller will cement herself as the starting setter for this squad, much like Zimmerman did her freshman year, and while she may not equal the AVCA All-America Honorable Mention the Great One posted in her first year in Ann Arbor, we should expect a very strong showing for the touted frosh. Molly Toon will have a breakout year as a compliment to Alex Hunt, and Jennifer Cross will have an All-Big Ten-type season as a sophomore. My gut says that Michigan will emerge from non-conference play with an 11-1 record - expect a loss somewhere in the Dayton tournament.

Here's where I go out on a massive limb, and maybe's it's because I'm a senior, and maybe it's because I fashion myself as the "Official Voice" of Michigan volleyball and want a fun season ahead, but I'm going to boldly predict that this Michigan team registers its finest Big Ten campaign yet and goes 13-7 in conference. Michigan only plays 5 conference road games against teams ranked higher than them, and I expect the Cliff Keen dominance to continue in 2011. A 13-7 mark won't win them the Big Ten, but it will make for the best B1G regular season finish in program history, and serve as a springboard from which to dive into the NCAA tournament with a 24-8 overall record.

Be sure to get out to Cliff Keen this season and support Michigan volleyball!

Déjà vu sans Goaltender

Fool me once but you won’t fool me twice. Well John, you fooled us twice. The recent de-commitment of incoming freshmen goalie, John Gibson, reminds Michigan fans that an eighteen-year-olds-mind can change in a flash. This is the second straight year Michigan hockey has lost a high profile goalie prospect to the Ontario Hockey League after Jack Campbell went to Windsor last year. Gibson’s de-commitment is even worse because it comes about a month before school starts. When Campbell left to sign elsewhere, it at least left Michigan almost a full season to recruit a new player. Now the coaching staff must scramble if they want to replace Gibson. Most likely Red Berenson will seek a third string goalie (maybe Patrick Summers or someone from the United States Hockey Leagues) then recruit a top prospect for next season. For the time being, Michigan’s NCAA tournament hopes hinge on Hunwick’s health. If that fails, we should hope Adam Janecyk is the second coming of Shawn.

One might (reasonably) ask what is to stop this happening for a third year in a row next year. The reason why is playing time. With Shawn Hunwick graduating at the end of the season, the starting job will be open to any top prospect who wants it. But wouldn’t Gibson get those minutes if he came? Yes, but not until next season. That, and several reasons are why Gibson signed with the Kitchener Rangers. Gibson would have had to fight for playing time with a fifth year senior this year. Kitchener offer more playing time with a better chance of becoming the starter this year. Since being draft by Anaheim in the 2nd round this year’s draft, the NHL dream probably feels closer now. Anaheim probably talked to him about how the OHL has many things to prepare him for the major league: the story of more games, a more NHL-like style of play, more focus on hockey and less on academics, and lastly, he can sign with the Ducks and still play for his junior team, something he couldn’t do in the NCAA.

Gibson should have known all these facts before his commitment to a college program. He knew what Michigan had to offer and what the OHL was all about. He knew he was going to be a high draft choice too. Yes, the USA development program prevents players from signing with an OHL team while they are on the team but his season was over in May. Granted May isn’t much more time to find a replacement but it is better than now. If Gibson thought he wanted to do juniors, he should have de-committed like Campbell back in November before signing day. It is more disheartening that Gibson signed a letter of intent to play for Michigan; a promise to close his recruiting to other colleges and indirectly OHL teams. In the past two weeks 5 players including Gibson have chosen to join OHL teams over their respective college commitments. The alarming part is not the defects; there are a handful of players every year, but the number of top prospects in a short period. It is well over a month past the draft where most de-commitments occur. A player is taken higher than expected, feels the need to fast track to the NHL then jumps to juniors. In all five cases, these players were drafted in their expected range.

The frustrating part: how to stop these poachers. Answer: there really isn't a way yet. The NCAA considers the Canadian junior leagues professional leagues. Athletes playing a second in a OHL game are automatically ineligible to play in the NCAA, but Athletes can leave anytime from the NCAA to join the junior ranks. Once a college loses the recruit, he is lost. Michigan can just sell their school in the best possible way and recruit honest and respectful players. One area college hockey can work on is NHL executives. There is this growing impression that if you are a highly drafted American prospect, you have to play juniors to develop quicker. NHL general managers are encouraging these de-commitments late in the off season. Canadian juniors do not fast track one to the NHL. It just gives an earlier time for NHL teams to sign the player for cheaper, and it gives the young star a nice signing bonus. Very few players, even first rounders make it to the NHL at 18 or 19 years. They are usually signed at age 20 and spend a couple of years in the minor league. Many players are 22 or 23 by the time they are in the NHL full time. An age where college players have or are about to graduate. If you google Josh Unice or Brandon Maxwell, you will find two former American goalies who committed to colleges then backed out to sign with Kitchener. They are no closer to the NHL than John Gibson is. On the other hand, John Gibson is no closer to a world class education than Unice and Maxwell.

by John Zaccardelli