Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Episode 16: Talking NCAA tournament selections with committee chair Jeremy Gibson

Transcript

Episode 16: Talking NCAA tournament selections with committee chair Jeremy Gibson · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

0:03
Usccho dot com. Hi everyone, Welcome to the podcast. This is the
0:14
busy time of the season for everyone in women's hockey because ten games left before
0:20
selection Sunday, as we record here on Tuesday for this Wednesday edition. Ten
0:26
games after that in the NCAA tournament, and then it's all over. So
0:30
get enjoying hockey right now. I'm Todd Maleski here with Nicole Hasey. Nicole,
0:36
I set the over under I think last week on the number of games
0:39
you were going to watch at twelve and a half or something like that.
0:42
I'm guessing it went way over it did. We'll apologize to the listeners.
0:47
I have a pretty bad respiratory infection, so sorry if my voice is a
0:51
little enough to listen to this week. But it does mean that I stayed
0:54
home this weekend and didn't go cover anything in person, so I watched pretty
0:58
much every game on Saturday, not to mention the stuff that I watched Friday
1:02
night. So yeah, I didn't actually count, but I don't think there
1:06
was a game played that it didn't turn on for at least a little bit,
1:07
particularly on Saturday, so definitely should have taken the over. Yeah,
1:14
a lot of good stuff happened over the weekend. I should mention before we
1:17
get too far into this that our second segment tonight will have Jeremy Gibson,
1:22
the chair of the NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Committee and the athletic director at Merrimack,
1:26
joining us for an interview. I think that's gonna be a good listen
1:30
for everyone. But let's let's get into things from last week, starting with
1:37
Hockey East because they've got a couple of games right away this week Wednesday night,
1:42
their semi finals happening Wednesday night. What stood out to you from last
1:49
week? There were a couple of road upsets in the first round and then
1:53
everything went chalk after that. Yeah, but you know, we had overtime
1:57
Friday night at Boston College taking down Providence, which you know we've talked about
2:02
in the past. Boston College played a lot of overtime games this week this
2:06
season and it didn't often come out in their favor and went to a lot
2:08
of shootouts. So good for them for pulling that out when that when that
2:13
mattered. But yeah, from there it was, you know, it was
2:15
pretty much the game that we the games we expected, though I think holy
2:19
Cross gave you know, Connecticut a little bit more of a fight than I
2:22
think maybe we expected, and I think I thought Vermont would give New Hampshire
2:24
a little bit more of a fight. So uh, you know, looking
2:29
at some of these games and some of these teams like these are these are
2:30
like team wins, right like these are. In Hockey East, you have
2:34
a lot of squads that are or you know, have close records, like
2:38
they're their team offits and their team defense are very close together like that.
2:43
They're dealing with thin margins and it doesn't take a lot to flip these games
2:47
in either direction. So I mean, I think that's what makes them fun.
2:51
And then because they're in this single elimination format, it just really does
2:54
feel like every game is up for grabs, and that's that's what's exciting.
3:00
Sammy Tabor had the overtime goal for Boston College and that two to one win
3:04
over the Provident night Friday, yeah uh. And then Saturday Yukon over Holy
3:08
Cross for two, Northeastern for to one over Merrimack, and New Hampshire three
3:13
nothing against Vermont. So that sets up the top four teams in Hockey East
3:15
playing off in Wednesday night semi finals. Boston College at Yukon, New Hampshire
3:22
at Northeastern. Once again, Hockey's does single elimination all the way through in
3:28
uh does four rounds over two weeks, so a really kind of exciting format
3:32
when you know there's no leeway getting into any best of three series or anything
3:38
like that. One one loss in your you're done. And that comes up
3:42
again for for everyone on on Wednesday night because Hockey East is one bid league
3:46
this season. The the only team that's getting in is the winner of the
3:51
championship when I mean getting into the NCAA tournament. Uh, So everything's on
3:55
the line Wednesday night. Yeah, that one's really interesting to me because Northeastern
4:00
and New Hampshire played three games. They were all one goal games, and
4:02
Northeastern won them all, two of them in overtime. So those are closer
4:06
games than I think maybe people would have expected. Again, both of those
4:11
teams have, you know, kind of really thin margins in terms of just
4:15
particularly Northeastern not scoring as much, but the obviously Northeastern has more experience.
4:18
I think if you're gonna take any of these four teams in a one game
4:23
runoff, you take Northeastern, right like they've got several of those players on
4:27
that team have the postseason experience of playing in the NCAA tournament and things like
4:31
that. And then in the other matchup, I mean BC and Yukon haven't
4:34
played since December. Like, they played two games, one in October,
4:39
I think, one in December, so and BC won both of them.
4:41
That was sort of before Yukon really went on their run. So in terms
4:45
of like looking at what happened, you know, this season and trying to
4:48
just like pick compare these two teams, these four teams, and the two
4:51
matchups, I'm not entirely sure how to pick who's coming out of there.
4:56
Yeah, it's gonna be a I think everyone you know sees Yukon as the
5:02
one seed has home ice as long as they're you know, they're playing because
5:09
the winners play on Saturday at the highest seed, and uh boy, if
5:15
that ends up being, you know, as the the rankings would go.
5:18
If that's Northeastern at Yukon, which you know, no, no guarantee we're
5:23
saying that that's the way it's going to be, but that's going to be.
5:26
I would look forward to seeing that one because no one everything that's on
5:30
the line there with with the way Northeaster has played really in the second half
5:33
and the way Yukon has built over the whole season, that that should be
5:36
a good one if if if that's what it ends up being. Of course,
5:40
now that I said that, it's going to be completely Yeah, I
5:44
mean, and you're you're talking like, you know, some of the scoring
5:46
power of players like like Skyler Irving and Katie Nolan and the players that the
5:49
Northeastern has, but the really really stiggy goal tending that Yukon has, like
5:54
that would yeah, I think, as you said, not counting out any
5:58
of the other two teams, because I also think anybody can take these semifinals,
6:01
but that would certainly be something to watch. The games tomorrow Wednesday night
6:06
in Hockey East are both on Nesson, so for focus on the East Coast
6:11
that those will be broadcast on television, So that's pretty exciting people not on
6:15
the East Coast, they'll still be on ESPN. Plus. Well, let's
6:18
take a look around other conferences where we have our first official entrant into the
6:25
NCAA Tournament. After last Saturday, Penn State defeating Mercyhurst in the CHA Tournament.
6:30
Championship game for their second straight CHA tournament title. They will be in
6:34
the tournament as a CHA auto bid. Maya Vastlet with the only goal of
6:40
the game four eleven into the first period and then it just held up from
6:45
there. Katie Dessau with twenty four saves for the shoutout for the Nitney Lions.
6:48
And you know, really, you know, they won the regular season,
6:53
they won the tournament. Kind of a deserved auto bid in the in
6:56
the NCAA tournament the way I see it, Yeah, absolutely, I can
7:02
be convinced either direction in terms of who the who should get the autobid in
7:05
which one's more important in terms of the regular season and conference champion. I
7:10
like that argument. It's a fun one to have in cycle. But yeah,
7:13
I mean that was Penn State's conference kind of from start to finish,
7:15
and so that does feel very satisfactory and that well earned by them. Before
7:20
we get to ECAC and w c CHA, Holy New Ha ladies, and
7:26
New Hall was the best this weekend? Goodness did I have fun watching those
7:30
games? Two semi final games, two overtime games, two road winners.
7:40
That's Franklin Pierce four to three over long Island, the number one seed Long
7:44
Island was Claire Casey getting the overtime goal after Grace Schuck with a hat trick
7:49
in regulation for Franklin Piers two goals in the third period after Franklin Pierce or
7:55
sorry after lau led three one going to the third lu Is twenty one.
8:00
Then oh this season when leading after two periods and then they lose in the
8:03
semi finals after holding a two goal lead. And the other game Stonehill three,
8:09
Sat Anselm two in overtime Alexis Petford her second goal of the game and
8:13
the power play in overtime that one after a too many players call on Saint
8:18
Anselm in overtime. Tough too many players because she was already in the box
8:26
and the box opened early and she stepped out and immediately got a too many
8:30
players penalty, so they killed the first penalty and then gave up the goal.
8:35
Tough, tough way to have your season, a tough one. But
8:39
so that leaves us with Franklin Pierce at stone Hill in the New HA championship
8:45
game on Saturday. Wow, I don't know if I would have thought I
8:50
would have been saying that a few weeks ago. No, absolutely not,
8:54
but man was Frankly, honestly, the Franklin Piers at Lau game was probably
8:58
the favorite game that I watched this weekend. They're just it was two evenly
9:03
matched teams. I'm Franklin Pierce has done this to LU like several times,
9:07
including in last year's semi final, in terms of coming back late. They're
9:11
like the cardiac kids. They're just they find that that extra little bit in
9:16
the third period, like we're not going out like this, and man,
9:18
it just they I expected media in the overtime like there would be one of
9:24
the teams would dominate Mede, like whether it was LU remembering how they've played
9:28
all season or Franklin Pierce just like on the biggest high. But it was
9:31
so back and forth, and the one that scored U was the puck was
9:35
stopped at the post so it was kind of technically behind the goal a little
9:39
and Tinderholm wasn't able to cover it up, and the player just kind of
9:43
kept whacking at it until it like popped up and over hern In for for
9:46
Claire Casey, and then we had a review sh off sides, so which
9:52
was like, of course we did super close because I'd say for like the
9:56
first three reviews, the commentator thought it was going to be called back and
10:01
then we got it slowed down a little b ler anyway, the most drama,
10:05
so much fun, you know, a real tough loss for l I
10:09
U, but just yeah, I have you know, I say it always,
10:13
I am team Chaos and when they you know, kudos to Franklin Pierce
10:18
for in their goalie pretty early and then LU is very like their their weakest
10:22
part is was on penalty kill, which is essentially what that is when you
10:26
pull the goalie. So it was the right thing to do for Franklin Pierce
10:28
and they absolutely took advantage. So I definitely yelled when they score at the
10:33
game tire just because I was like, I can't, like, all of
10:37
the things had to go right for this to work, and it just it
10:39
just kept falling for them. So couldn't believe. But I was watching.
10:43
So Franklin Pearson stone Hill have a pretty high bar to uh to reach in
10:48
terms of the chaos factor. When you're talking about the championship game on Saturday,
10:54
right, and either one of them that wins, will that will be
10:56
their first NCAA bit Franklin Pierce has won the tournament before, but it was
11:01
before the tournament had an autobid, right, and they're both, you know,
11:09
in the bottom quarter close to the bottom quarter of the of the pairwise
11:16
as a total. As a whole, I have stone Hill at thirty one,
11:20
Franklin Pierce at thirty two out of forty four teams. So that's you
11:24
know, one of them is going to be the the eleven seed, I
11:28
guess, if you want to look at it that way. In the NCAA
11:31
tournament this season. Moving on to ECAC four home sweeps in the best of
11:39
three quarterfinal series there, although two of the games on Friday went overtime,
11:43
Clarkson beating Princeton in double overtime three to two, Alexi Gay with the winning
11:50
goal there After, Princeton led to one after two periods, Cornwall three,
11:54
Quinnipiac two in overtime Correll Prefontaine overtime goal there for or Nell. So nothing
12:01
too surprising out of ECAC hockey, although I guess I expected Cornell and Quinnipiac
12:11
be close, and we saw that on Friday where they had to go to
12:13
overtime to decide that one. Well, yes, and that was a mistake
12:16
by by Golie Logan angers that that. I'm not sure if she didn't see
12:20
prefonting, but she she came out of the net and gave Prefontain an opportunity.
12:26
Now she scored from a ridiculous angle. It was a heck of a
12:28
goal. But yeah, that was such a rough way to lose that game
12:31
for Quinnipiac. Felt pretty bad for them. But yes, I was surprised
12:35
we didn't see three games in any of these these series. But you know,
12:39
Princeton really pushed back and Sarah Philliate Sarah Phillia and that game had like
12:46
just got chaotic at the end, that overtime game. Yeah, and uh,
12:52
that sets up the ECAC Championship at Colgate as the highest seed. Cornell
13:00
playing at Colgate in the first game on Friday, then Saint Lawrence against Clarkson
13:05
in the second semi final winners play on Saturday for the ec a C Championship.
13:09
All four of those teams are I don't want to say it feels like
13:16
we can flip a coin, but yeah, I mean it's it's gonna it's
13:20
gonna generate some some pretty good action there. They all know they've got played
13:24
after this weekend. They're all pretty solidly in the tournament NCAA tournament, so
13:30
all know each other really well. They all are very talented. I mean,
13:35
you know, I think there's teams that have the edge, but I
13:37
also think that that anybody can win any of those games. So yeah,
13:41
I think that's gonna be some some real high, high level, high level
13:43
hockey, a lot of fun to watch. Top four teams also advanced in
13:48
the w c h A, but Minnesota needed three games to get past Minnesota
13:52
State because the Mavericks won Friday's game game one, five to four in a
13:56
really kind of a Yeah, that was an interesting one to watch because Gophers
14:03
are up to nothing. Then Minnesota State came back to make it three to
14:05
two in the third three goals in a row, then the Gophers tied it,
14:07
then Minnesota State went up again, then Minnesota tied it in Minnesota State
14:11
finally went up again for good. With a minute thirty eight left, Cameron
14:16
van Batavia it gets the goal ahead goal that finally puts Minnesota State ahead.
14:22
Even though Ella Hubert had a head trick for the Gophers. They lose game
14:26
one, but then come back to win games two and three, seven to
14:30
one, and then three to zero on Sunday to advance into the WHCHA final
14:35
face off this weekend, which of course they host at Ritor Arena in Minneapolis.
14:41
I don't know what stood out to you about any of the games in
14:45
the WHA, but I think we expected. I think we got what we
14:52
expected out of the top the top three seeds, the four or five series.
14:56
For me, Minnesota against Saint Cloud. I wasn't expecting that. The
15:00
finish, No, not at all. I mean they they just played each
15:05
other to two low scoring games. Yeah, I don't think anybody expected that.
15:09
So what I'd say is good on Duluth for like finding that extra year
15:13
and knowing that, like their tournament life depended on them having a good weekend.
15:20
And really what I love about Minnesota Duluth is that, like I mean,
15:26
obviously maybe Gabby who's aside like there hasn't really been like the person for
15:30
them. I feel like when you watch them in a tight game, you
15:31
never quite know who it is that's going to step up and make the big
15:35
plays and score the goals. And I think that makes them very hard to
15:39
defend against, and I think it makes them interesting and fun to watch as
15:41
a fan, So you know, each day it was was someone different for
15:45
them, and they they have a lot of offensive talent that isn't necessarily like
15:50
standing out to people among some of the other players in the WHA. And
15:54
so I was impressed that they went out and really sort of put their heads
15:58
down and one those were do or die games for them. They needed them,
16:02
and so they made sure that they got them. I was gonna say
16:06
too in the Minnesota State game, I thought was interesting for that Friday night
16:08
game against Minnesota, it felt like Minnesota State had them figured out, like
16:12
they were getting breakaways, they like they were picking apart that defense. And
16:15
so you know, props to Minnesota for fixing that in the second game and
16:21
really taking better care of the puck when they have the puck, then that
16:25
makes a huge difference and gave them the opportunity to get all those goals.
16:27
And I would say too that like in this sort of last few weeks,
16:30
we've really seen Ella Huber really step up. We've seen you know, some
16:34
of the it had been kind of the Abbie Murphy Show with supporting cast,
16:40
and we're seeing some more of those players really pick it up here in the
16:44
in the later part of the season, so that definitely changes the dynamic for
16:48
them as well. Yeah, one more note on Saint Cloud tough finish to
16:52
the season for the Huskies. They were seventh in the pair wise at the
16:56
break and then finished four eleven and one. After that point, it's it
17:02
seemed like it at some points it felt like it was there for them,
17:04
and then it just you know, they got into a stretch where they had
17:07
to play Ohio State, Minnesota Wisconsin back to back, and that, you
17:11
know, after having some stumbles earlier in the second half, really really was
17:18
the point where it looked like it wasn't going to they come through for them
17:22
this season. But I think all in all that, you know, that's
17:27
still you know, the told package. They have to look at it as
17:30
a learning season and something that they use as a point to move forward with
17:37
from taking some of those lessons that they got in the first half of what
17:38
it's like what they can do and then try and you know, have the
17:42
consistency to do that over an entire season. Yeah, and I hope that
17:48
like with a little bit of time, that that perspective. I think,
17:52
you know, once they get a little bit away from the tough season that
17:55
they just went through and how how hard you know, how long and hard
17:57
a season is, honesteen athlete anyway that those that really can come through for
18:02
them, because yeah, it was tough to watch, tough to be around
18:07
and see how difficult it was for them. So the WAHA final face off
18:11
at Ritter Arena in Arena in Minneapolis, that was kind of weird. Minnesota
18:18
dal with at Minnesota Daleth against Ohio State in the first semifinal on Friday,
18:22
Minnesota against Wisconsin in the second semi final. Winners then play Saturday afternoon for
18:29
the championship. All this is leading into what we'll get to later in the
18:36
show. We'll talk about some of the pairwise implications and things like that,
18:38
but there's these these ten games that happened between Wednesday and Saturday are going to
18:44
bounce things around quite a bit. Even though we know pretty much the teams
18:48
that the at large teams, we don't necessarily know where they're going to finish.
18:53
We'll get to that later. But this is going to be exciting this
18:56
whole weekend coming up, don't you think? Yeah, Considering like you said,
19:00
we know who's gonna make the tournament, we think, and I mean,
19:03
I guess there's always gonna be the possibility for some curve balls, but
19:07
yeah, teams can finish anywhere from like second to fit some of them.
19:11
And so yeah, that's the difference between hosting a lower seed and having to
19:15
go on the road. So it could it could be a lot of fun.
19:18
I'm excited, and it's you know, we don't get to see many
19:22
of these teams play each other very often, so the sort of cross country
19:26
stuff, that's what will be fun and to see how they match up against
19:30
each other. When we come back, we will talk about some of those
19:33
potentials for curveballs in the selection process with Jeremy Gibson, the chair of the
19:37
NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Committee and athletic director at Merrimack. So stay with us
19:42
on the podcast. Hi, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Nicole Hasey
19:53
and that's Todd Maleski and we are thrilled to be here with Jeremy Gibson,
19:57
who is the chair of the end See Women's Ice Hockey Championship Committee. He's
20:03
also director of flet of Athletics at Merrimack and he's here to talk to us
20:07
about selection and postseason four. Well, it's not D one, it's the
20:11
National Championship Women's ice hockey. Yeah, not D three, right, everyone
20:19
else, everyone is not D three exactly right. Until we grow the sport
20:23
more, right, until we can grow the and then maybe it will be
20:29
Thanks so much for being here. We're thrilled to talk to you. Yeah,
20:32
great, thank you for having me, Nicole and Todd. Can we
20:36
maybe start with like how you got one? About getting this role, why
20:38
it was an interest to you, and and maybe what you know? Yeah,
20:42
you know, So I think the answer to the first question is I
20:45
don't really have any idea how I got this. In actuality, well,
20:51
I think that a lot of times what happens is they're different people. And
20:53
so I had joined the committee. I was in my first year, and
20:57
we went through this evolution where different people were kind of moving around into different
21:02
spots and rotating off of the committee just from having served their time. And
21:07
Josh Burlow actually who's out of Denver now and had been at Duluth, was
21:11
slated to be the chair of the committee, and he went out to Denver
21:14
and Denver doesn't have women's hockey, and so I was the only remaining person
21:18
on the committee, but fortunately have been around the sport for most of my
21:23
career, for the last eleven years at Merrimack, and actually the first position
21:30
that I hired when I don't think I had actually even started yet, and
21:32
I hired Aaron Hamlin to be the first coach of our women's program back in
21:36
twenty thirteen, but had been at Harvard for a long time before that,
21:41
So I've been around the sport for quite some time. I wonder if you
21:44
can kind of clue us in to maybe some of the background your time when
21:48
the committee goes back to when it was still an eighteen tournament, correct,
21:52
it does. So my first year coming on was the evolution to the eleven
21:56
teams. Yeah, okay, right, and so that had some changes to
22:00
the brackets, and I'm sure we'll get into that a little bit more in
22:03
terms of what leeway and what flexibility and what discretion really does the committee have
22:07
as we're making these selections. But yeah, we went through the process of
22:12
moving from eight teams to the eleven teams. What was that I guess that
22:18
first year of kind of the unknowns of how it was going to work.
22:21
Did that what kind of challenges did that present to you guys? You know,
22:25
I think it just it kind of created the platform for figuring out what
22:29
the challenges we're going to be, right, and as we're looking at what
22:32
discretions we would ultimately have, what are the priorities that we're trying to establish
22:37
through all of this, right, and going through the notion, I think
22:41
the overarching sentiment going from eight to eleven is well, that's three more right,
22:48
and so be able to expand the championship and provide more access and more
22:52
opportunities for more women playing the sport. I think that above all else.
22:56
It was just it was great to see the the increase in participation and access
23:03
to the championship. So that was a great piece of it. But then
23:06
kind of figuring out all of the other components of you know, the the
23:11
efforts for regionality, right, the efforts for bracket integrity, and and what
23:15
are the really the priorities going to be as we go into setting the setting
23:23
the assignments and making the determination of where the priorities lie. And then there
23:32
was the change I mean when we you know, when we first did this,
23:34
bracket integrity was nowhere in your instructions. No, you know, but
23:40
I think that's that's a credit to the sport, right, And we want
23:44
to make sure that what we're doing is positioning the teams appropriately based on a
23:49
very long season of competition, right. And when it was when things were
23:56
being done more regionally and focusing on that element of it, it was valid
24:00
reasons, right, And there are important things we want to make sure there's
24:03
great participant experience, both from the people who are the women who are on
24:07
the ice and for the fans. And sometimes those regional opponents can be more
24:11
of a draw. But we wanted to make sure that the best teams are
24:15
rewarded for the success that they've had over the course of the long season,
24:18
right, And so messing around too much with the bracket integrity takes away from
24:23
that, and I think that was really the primary focus of the committee coming
24:27
out of that first season of moving to eleven teams. I want to maybe
24:33
get back to that in a minute, but it's the committee is a five
24:37
person group. Now it's five people instead of four when the new representative joined
24:41
when that league got full admission. I guess if you want to get it
24:45
that way, and it's different people you know, people come on, people
24:51
go off, it cycles out, but you're all it seems like you're all
24:57
you all have to face the co you know, you're not his body.
25:02
Yeah, well two of them are coaches, so that helps a little bit,
25:03
right, And I think that's one of the important things about having five.
25:07
We've got two coaches on the committee and that's been been consistent, and
25:11
then we rolled off. In my my first years, we had coaches from
25:15
Boston College in lynden Wood, and now we've got it from Princeton and Syracuse
25:21
and and you know, it's it's a pretty close knit community. And whether
25:23
it's coaches or administrators who are associated with the sport, I think that that
25:26
we all tend to know each other anyway through this process. But the more
25:33
the merrier, you know. I think that that having five and having especially
25:36
the two coaches and then representatives along with you know, the coaches that I
25:41
mentioned Bill Martin off from down at l a U and you know Janine from
25:45
out at at Ohio State. You know, we're covering some regionality and different
25:49
people who get to see different different teams play over the course of the year.
25:56
But it's it's it's fun group, So can you kind of walk us
26:00
through like when when do your conversations start coming together, what what does what
26:06
leads up to selection Sunday. Yeah, So, you know, we we
26:10
we talk periodically over the course of the year, and a lot of it
26:12
is around the coordination that we have with the Competition Committee and trying and trying
26:19
to figure out, you know, what are points of emphasis, what have
26:22
we seen over the course of the year. Officiating falls within that conversation too,
26:26
and I think it's an opportunity for us to get feedback from coaches and
26:30
players and really try to do some things that can advance the game right.
26:36
And a point of emphasis two years ago was to allow more physical play,
26:41
right, just to put it candidly, and to try to pull back on
26:44
the body checking penalties and have it really reflect the way that the highest level
26:51
of the game is being played and frankly, to respect the athleticism of the
26:55
women on the ice right. And so I think that was was really some
27:00
progress that we made and we saw consistency come from that by really pushing to
27:06
have the game be officiated all around the country much more in the same way
27:11
as opposed to having you know, one region that never blows a whistle and
27:15
in another reason, they blow it if anyone breeds on you, Right.
27:18
I think that's been the reputation around this sport, and we've seen that consistency
27:23
evolve over especially the last two years. I think one of the things that
27:29
people maybe confuse the committee with is in basketball, they're locked into a room
27:34
they get for a week, the weekend or a week and they they don't
27:38
really come out until they've got a decision at the end. It's it's different
27:41
with the hockey group crowd. Yeah, it is. Look, I think
27:45
that that you know, there are questions about how much discretion does the committee
27:49
have and you know, is it all formulaic And the reality is it is
27:53
now right, and so it all ties into the NPI and that's an evolution
27:57
from r PIM from a year prior. And you know, you may have
28:00
questions on that. The answer to the question is it's just better math.
28:04
And so we can go into that a little bit more. But you know,
28:10
the discretion comes at the beginning of the year, right, And so
28:12
while it's all mathematical equations, there are decisions that can be made in terms
28:17
of what are the points of emphasis and do we to need to move different
28:19
levers different amounts in terms of you know, whether whether you're going to get
28:25
more or less credit for a home rent win or road win. All the
28:27
different pieces that go into calculating the RPI, they can you know, be
28:32
adjusted in different ways based on whether we look at the end of the season
28:37
and think that we got it right. So there are subjective conversations that happen,
28:41
right, and so we'll look at it. We are not going to
28:45
stray from the the math that has been established as how it's going to be
28:48
calculated over the course of the year, right, because we set the rules
28:52
and that's how everyone's going to know that they're playing over the course of the
28:55
year. But we can reevaluate it, right, and we have reevaluated it
29:00
to put different weight on different factors. I just wanted to real follow up
29:06
on that real quickly because there's two lines in the manual, the pre tournament
29:11
guide that kind of do seem to give the committee some latitude when talking about
29:18
things. Yeah, is that ever or is that just it is right?
29:22
And we so we you know, going back to the PRIK questroom that they
29:25
didn't finish answering as we probably get into February, we start talking a lot
29:30
more. Right, We're taking a look at at where where the rankings sit,
29:33
and you know, over time there's just less and less fluctuation based on
29:37
the the wins and losses that happen every weekend. But the way that it
29:42
is set up, the top five are going to be one through five,
29:48
right, and so one, two and three are going to be the host
29:51
Sites four and five are going to play each other at number four, and
29:55
then we're we're going to look at the next groupings as really it's four brackets
29:59
of three team teams, and so numbers six, seven, and eight are
30:03
all considered the two seed, right, and then or nine, ten and
30:08
eleven are all considered the three seed. We have the flexibility to move those
30:15
around within that band. So again one through five are going to stay the
30:18
same, Six through eight we can adjust, and nine through eleven we can
30:23
adjust. We're really careful about making sure that we within those bands recognize you
30:30
know, sometimes those can be really close together and within a band, and
30:34
sometimes there can be a real disparity, and we tend to see that now
30:37
with the automatic qualifier, So last year, l AU coming in and this
30:42
year we've got a game left with Franklin Pearson stone Hill, right, and
30:47
so there RPI is going to be significantly lower than the other teams. And
30:52
I love everyone in all those schools, but that's just the reality of the
30:56
math. And so I would say we'd probably look at that as being less
31:00
flexibility so that we don't we don't unnecessarily upset whoever finishes six, right,
31:11
whoever's finished six deserves to have that probably lower seed. And not to say
31:18
that it will ultimately happen, but that's probably the most likely this scenario.
31:21
But within the other ones, you know, part of it is about making
31:23
sure that we're doing everything that we can if we have the ability to do
31:26
so, to avoid conference opponents playing in that first round. Right, So
31:32
there might be a little bit of maneuvering to make sure that that doesn't happen
31:34
when it's possible, and then trying to take a look at how can we
31:40
enhance that experience. Right, going back to what probably happened several years ago,
31:45
there is still benefit to being able to have teams playing at locations where
31:51
they're likely to draw more fans. Right, It's a better experience in the
31:55
arena for everyone participating in it, so we're we're not ignorant to that that
32:00
notion. I just want to check because you have said r p I a
32:05
couple of times, but I figured on the committee it's hard for everything.
32:13
Yeah, it's hard for us on the committee. There's too many letters and
32:15
too many acronyms, but n p I and it's not a problem. I
32:19
just was like, I feel like we should clarify this for no worries.
32:22
I'm like, oh, I feel bad, but what I guess what are
32:30
so what Basically what you're saying is in those different tiers that like other than
32:35
one, like you had mentioned l A you last year, like other when
32:37
there's a big distarcity those you're kind of seeing those three teams as like essentially
32:44
interchangeable or Yeah. That that is really going back to Todd's question, that's
32:49
that that discretion that we get within the how the selection process is written,
32:54
and it's everyone wants to talk about because of it because of the and p
33:00
I rankings one through eleven or you know, factoring in obviously the automatic qualifiers
33:07
that go into there, but it's really not ranking them as one through eleven.
33:12
We're ranking one seeds, two seeds and three seeds, and so one
33:19
through four automatically fit into that. Five slides in automatically with the buy going
33:23
against four and the rest of them. It's really not that they're six through
33:27
eleven. They are two seeds and three seeds. I wonder if you can
33:30
take us into the maybe what some of the discussions might have been around back
33:36
in twenty two we saw some of these things move around with Minnesota, Duluth
33:42
and I believe they were playing Quinnipiac or No Harp in the first round.
33:45
That was the eight and nine as that set up, and normally the eight
33:52
and nine would go to play the number one or at the number one seed,
33:55
just as the bracket shakes out. Well, it got moved to have
34:00
Duluth and Harvard play at Minnesota the number two seed. So not a great
34:06
change, great change in terms of numbers, just you know, flipping a
34:09
couple either way. How much discussion went into that, knowing you're setting precedent
34:15
when you do those kind of things as well, this is something we might
34:17
have to consider again if this thing comes up. Yeah, without remembering every
34:23
detail associated with that conversation, I think part of it goes back to those
34:29
opportunities to create a great experience. And when we look at the Duluth and
34:35
Harvard in that year, you know, the if I'm remembering right, the
34:40
gaps between some of those teams at six through eight and nine through eleven were
34:45
not massive, and so I wish we were clever enough to kind of go
34:52
through all the different scenarios of the relationships. Obviously, Minnesota against Duluth is
34:55
a rivalry, and we had Mora out at Duluth who had you know,
34:59
coached at Heart before and so you know, maybe we were smart enough to
35:02
think about that at the time, but I don't think that was actually the
35:06
case. But yeah, look, I think that that here's part of the
35:10
challenge is you've got, especially this year, there's there's two conferences that are
35:15
really dominating the top ten, right, and so that creates a little bit
35:17
of a unique challenge, and so that might lend itself to having to look
35:23
at that regionality a little bit more. We sit here today and I think
35:28
that that quinnipe X now probably out of the mix, but what do we
35:31
have five other ECAC teams that are are left in it at this point?
35:37
And so I have that right for you, that's right, so for but
35:43
but again very heavy on two conferences and within that some regionality of it.
35:46
And look, there is also a notion for me of you know, I
35:51
kind of half joked about it before, but it would be great to grow
35:54
the game, right, and we don't see as much out of region travel
35:59
for competition on the women's side as we do on the men's side of the
36:01
sport, right, And so for there's really good hockey out west, and
36:07
there's really good hockey up in Minnesota, and there's really good hockey in the
36:09
Northeast, and a lot of these fans and frankly, teams don't get to
36:14
see one another very often over the course of the year. And so to
36:17
me, there actually is a little bit more benefit of some exposure that might
36:22
help grow the game a little bit more. You get a chance to watch
36:27
a lot of games this weekend, or you just kind of wait and see
36:30
what the results are. You know, it's funny because I've got yeah,
36:32
we mostly just watched the results. Right, it's at the end of the
36:36
day where there's not discretion in terms of watching to see how a team really
36:39
played or any of that. You mentioned basketball it is different, right,
36:42
We're looking at it differently. And then the reality is that that two of
36:46
the members of the committee are out coaching their own teams, right and the
36:50
rest of us, you know, I'll be chasing around hockey games and basketball
36:54
playoffs and lacrosse games and it's just kind of that crazy time of year where
36:59
every comes together and you know, this year, I feel really good that
37:04
that the Frozen four is up in Durham because that's about forty minutes away from
37:07
me here and north andover at Merrimack, and that's a lot easier than treking
37:12
out to Duluth was last year. But it's yeah, so I don't know
37:15
that we really see that much of it, and we rely on on certainly.
37:21
Mark Betox with the NCAA does an amazing job along with Jackie from from
37:25
his office. But they they really put us in a position where we don't
37:34
have to really strain too hard on it. Right. All the information's pulled
37:37
together for us, and you know, we just we deliberate about that and
37:43
then then frankly talk a little bit about officiating assignments and all that sort of
37:49
fun stuff, just to make sure again that we've got it's not just about
37:52
balancing the teams, but but making sure that we've got the right officials on
37:55
the ice toot and things. We've moved now so that the tournaments aren't ending
38:02
on Sunday, and having you guys have the selection show shortly thereafter that does
38:07
give you all a little bit more room for some of this. And like
38:10
Todd and I have talked about, there's there can be a lot of movement.
38:15
We know our eight teams right those the we know that the eight teams
38:20
that can get bids, but in terms of where they could finish, So
38:22
you guys can't that conversation can't be had yet for some of them, No,
38:25
it can't, and well it can't be in depth. And I think
38:30
that part of what we do now is, you know, there's some things
38:32
that are seeming most likely to happen, right, and so we'll look at
38:38
probably eight or ten different scenarios over the next couple of days, and you
38:43
know, as every game happens, that those number of possible scenarios dwindles a
38:47
little bit more, and then we can usually come pretty close to landing the
38:52
plane before the final games are are over. There's some really big surprises and
39:00
that happens too, right, and then all the plans that we think we've
39:05
got set. You know, those calls when we do the final selection.
39:07
They can either be really faster they can take a long time. And I
39:12
remember it was last year or two years ago we were waiting for an overtime
39:15
game to resolve, and it just it just kept on going. And anyway,
39:22
at least by then we had it down to two scenarios and we just
39:24
have to wait for the right one to play out. Right, you could
39:28
start with twenty twenty four that there are right now before the Hockey East.
39:30
Yeah, exactly, but I think that'd prive you a little much. Yeah,
39:34
yeah, yeah. You talked before about Jeannine and Jeanine Oman is on
39:38
the committee. She's senior Deputy athletic director on Ohio State, and so Ohio
39:44
State has obviously some say in the tournament here. How does that work when
39:51
I've always heard that, you know, when there's something involving Ohio State,
39:53
that anyone from that school has to drop off and not be part of the
39:58
discussion. How does that work though? In I guess yeah, Look,
40:01
I think how how it works in practice is that you know, we all
40:07
wear our different logos and whatever school we're representing it. But at the same
40:12
time, I think we try to be decent human beings and you know,
40:15
do things that are in the best interest of the sport and do it in
40:19
an unbiased way. And certainly Jeanine is phenomenal with that, as are other
40:22
people who have served on the committee who might have a stake in different situations.
40:27
And that's part of marchural right, just to make sure that that anytime
40:31
there's something that could be contentious or controversial. But I think one of the
40:36
great things about this committee or committee is our ability to be candid with one
40:40
another just about you know, you got to get off the call because we're
40:45
going to talk about you now, or we're going to talk about your facility,
40:47
or we're going to do whatever the case may be. But now,
40:52
I you know, Jeanine's been great. Everyone that I've interacted with, frankly
40:57
from Ohio State has been fantastic and in any of these sorts, and I
41:00
think that's true pretty much any any school. You know, Karra down at
41:07
Princeton. You know, look, we all represent different people. And while
41:09
I'm Merrimac and NCAA committee. I'm also you know, I'm part of Hockey
41:15
East, right, and so you could also make the argument that I've got
41:19
a vested interest in Hockey East's interests, and you know, so I think
41:22
we're all really good at putting that aside and just trying to make the right
41:25
decisions for the sport when it comes to like sort of narrowing down when you're
41:32
you're if we're talking about sort of the eight, if we're talking about the
41:36
three autobids that are maybe below in pairwise, you're talking sort of that top
41:39
eight, is there a point where like eight through another, like if those
41:45
numbers are virtually equal, if there are NPI numbers end up very close together,
41:51
how does that conversation go? What is the leeway there? Like it's
41:53
a hypothetical, but I was just curious when you're coming to like a virtual
41:57
tie between like eight and nine or eight, nine and ten. Yeah,
42:00
I think that that we draw the line between eight and nine right between five
42:07
and six and eight and nine, and we're not going to move off of
42:12
that. And as I say that, you know, maybe that's one of
42:15
the things that as we go into next year, if we run into situations
42:21
where things are so close, and it feels like there should be discretion.
42:23
But you know, I think we heard loud and clear that the number one
42:30
priority of the coaches and all the people around the sport is maintaining bracket equity
42:35
or integrity. And you know, the math is so refined on it that
42:43
I don't even know if if with some of these things there's any statistical difference
42:46
really between numbers seven and eleven a lot of times, right, So,
42:53
but when the decision was made to move from subjectivity to math, then we
43:00
go with the math. And if the number is higher than another number,
43:06
then that's the direction we're going to go in. And until the really smart
43:12
people who put all these equations together and explain them all to us, if
43:16
they realize they've done something wrong, then we'll go back and we'll look at
43:20
it again. Right. But I think we did the eyeball test too,
43:22
and when we made the move to the MPI versus the RPI, we ran
43:27
the scenarios of you know, what would have been different from the past years
43:31
where they've really moved the needle a lot, and there were some fluctuations,
43:36
and frankly, the fluctuations felt right right. It kind of reflected the things
43:40
that the eyeball test would have told you, you know, the I don't
43:45
know how much time you've spent talking about the difference between the RPI and the
43:51
MPI, but the way that I've explained it to other people is like the
43:54
RPI was like taking the number PI and rounding it to three point one four,
44:00
right, and the NPI takes it all the way out. It just
44:04
just keeps going down the line, all right, So it's just more refined.
44:07
That's helpful. Actually, I'm a not math person and people are like
44:14
expleted to me, and I'm like friends. I wrote an article that I
44:15
just read and I don't know what it says. I wrote it, so
44:20
that's what it is. It's just deeper math, right, whereas the RPI
44:24
took upon its opponents and this just keeps going. The last question I have
44:29
for you, Nicole may have more, but the last one I have is
44:32
about you mentioned this year's Frozen Fours and Durham, and I think a lot
44:37
of people are excited about New Hampshire getting back in the mix. There a
44:39
smaller rink now there than last time it was there, so a lot of
44:44
exciting things happening at the arena there. The selection process for the next round
44:52
of Frozen Fours, I believe twenty seven and twenty eight is coming up.
44:55
Bidding has been closed now for about a month. I think, how much
45:01
do you guys, I guess, have you know your what's your input there?
45:07
And do you guys make the decision on where these tournaments get placed?
45:13
Well, that's a good question. This first time I've been around since the
45:15
bid process has been opened, so we'll be going through it. We certainly
45:19
have input into that process and leading up to that process too, right,
45:23
just to make sure that we're putting into the requests for the bids all the
45:30
information that we think is going to be most necessary to make it a great
45:32
championship. And you know, we've seen it work very well in very different
45:37
ways at different places, right, But it really is about making sure that
45:43
we're providing these women with a great experience. And I think one of the
45:45
really good things that happens around the sport of hockey is the collaboration that happens
45:52
between the men's committee and the women's committee. Right, maybe it's just a
45:57
Hockey East thing, and the fact that Jeff Schulman on the men side is
46:00
you know, we've got a close relationship and so but there are really strong
46:05
connections in collaboration from that standpoint, and so those are I think really helpful
46:09
and important things to make sure that we continue to do. Is again,
46:13
we're trying to enhance the game on the women's side and grow the game.
46:15
And you know, and and who knows, different hosts bring different things to
46:21
the table. Dluth did this amazing thing. The arena's next door to the
46:23
aquarium and they had like scuba divers in feeding the things where in the hockey
46:28
sweaters meat of the team is one of the coolest things I've seen. And
46:31
you know, the kids got to kick out of it. So who knows,
46:35
right, But obviously trying to make sure that we're going to a place
46:37
that has a strong community around hockey, because it is we really do rely
46:45
on on the local community and especially a lot of the the youth programs,
46:50
boys and girls right coming out for these games and drawing from all of those
46:53
programs with the sort of focus on equity and the reports that came out and
47:00
sort of all of the ways that we got to see, you know,
47:02
all the differences between you know, a woman's frozen for and a men's frozen
47:07
for and that sort of thing. How much has that, you know,
47:09
sort of played into what you guys have talked about and that kind of happened
47:13
around the same time when you came on the committee, and I was just
47:15
curious how much that is a part of the conversation for you. Yeah,
47:20
well, it's it's an important part of it, right, And so whether
47:22
it's just kind of the recurring and somewhat informal conversations that happened between us on
47:30
the or we on the Women's Committee and the folks on the men's committee,
47:34
or the more structured and formalized things that happen, you know, when we
47:37
all do get together at the Hockey Convention done in Florida. You know,
47:42
it's I would say it's intentional, right, I think that's the key where
47:46
we've been successful. And I walked into that, right. I don't I
47:52
don't mean to portray as it's anything other than the fact that, you know,
47:54
again, i'd probably call back on Mark Medocks and Jackie as the two
48:01
people associated with both the men's and women's side and their involvement with Ty Helpen
48:07
and other folks at the NCAAA who just do a really really good job of
48:10
making sure that we're all communicating with one another, we're all thinking about the
48:15
right things, We're comparing our notes, and again doing everything with the mindset
48:20
of whether it's on the men's side or on the women's side, we're trying
48:22
to just provide a great experience for the participants. Has there been anything that
48:27
just totally surprised you about being a part of this committee or the process,
48:30
or just something you never thought was gonna be part of it. No,
48:37
I don't know that there are there are surprises. I think one of the
48:39
great things about these types of committees are just the relationships and connections that you
48:44
make and where they tend to resurface at different places. Right, So,
48:50
Janine, we talked about a little bit, and we developed our relationship through
48:52
being part of this committee. But then, you know, our men's basketball
48:57
team played out Ohio State earlier this season, and you know, it's fun
49:01
to be able to get out there and kind of leverage some of those connections
49:05
so that I could bring some of the folks from Merrimack out to kind of
49:07
see some of the things at Ohio State. Right, we're talking about huge
49:13
university and and you know, a growing school at Merrimack. But we're you
49:19
know, we're all in the same business one way or another, despite despite
49:22
everything else that's being talked about right now in the NCA world. You know,
49:25
it's a I do think there's a lot of great camaraderie and collaboration that
49:30
happens across all the different schools, and these committees foster that really well.
49:36
And then I was just is there any like big misconception or something you think
49:38
would surprise people, Like what what is the thing that you would want people
49:42
most to know that there's there's no smoking mirrors. You know, there's you
49:46
know, it's really there are no there are no vendettas, there's no agendas,
49:52
there's no anything that goes along with it other than look because again we're
49:57
all we're doing this committee, but we're either coaches or administrators for our own
50:00
school, right and and so you know, none of us are going to
50:06
do anything that jeopardizes the integrity of this event, right and the participants in
50:12
this event. So you know, we don't tweak the numbers, we don't
50:15
play around with any of the other stuff. We look at the same reports
50:19
that everyone else can figure out, and and we just try to apply common
50:24
sense, and invariably someone will wish that something else happened, and someone will
50:29
wish that, you know, maybe we had instead of having this be twenty
50:32
five percent weight, what if it were twenty eight percent weight? Would that
50:35
be enough to make it so that I would have been in there? And
50:38
those conversations will happen. But you know, sometimes I feel like the role
50:43
of this committee is to be like the the stern parent that enforces like this
50:47
is how we said it's going to be, and this is how it's going
50:50
to be right, and eat your peas right, they're good for you.
50:57
Well, we thank you so much for coming and talking about today. You
51:00
know that lots of fans don't know much about this, so we're glad that
51:04
you were able to come on and explain kind of the process and bring people
51:07
in a little more. Oh my pleasure, Nicole, Todd, it's great
51:12
to see you. Good luck this week. Thank you very much appreciated.
51:15
We look forward to seeing what you guys come up with. Welcome back to
51:27
the podcast. I'm Todd Muleski. She is Nicole Hasey and she has some
51:34
thoughts I know about the Attikaz Top ten coming out on Thursday, Patty Kasimirawar
51:39
presented by USA Hockey honors the top player in women's college hockey. And we
51:46
will know by the end of the week, like I mentioned, who's in
51:50
the top ten, and then who the committee will be voting on. Nicole,
51:54
as you've mentioned before, is one of the voters in that committee this
51:58
season again. And what are you looking forward to there and what I guess
52:05
what kind of things do you think we'll see out of a top ten,
52:07
because it's it's always kind of gone a certain way, hasn't it. Yeah,
52:13
I mean, usually you're gonna build the top ten out of players that
52:16
were Player of the Year and their conference defender of the year, Goalie of
52:21
the year, or at least made their conference first team, you know,
52:24
all conference selection. And so we're already we mean, we've talked about in
52:31
the past with the changing goalies this year and so many split split nets and
52:37
the fact that you know, some of the goalies that are winning awards or
52:39
winning them having played half the games of a season, which is just really
52:45
different and kind of I mean we've still only had you know, a couple
52:49
of goalies win Patty Kaz and you had to basically bust all of the goalie
52:53
awards in order to do that. You know, Sophie Jakes had to stand
52:57
on her head to win it as a defender, Like there've just been these
53:00
really like sort of hard and fast. You have to score a lot of
53:02
goals to win the Patty Kaz and you have to be you know, you
53:06
have to be the goalie on one of the top teams in your conference to
53:12
win that award. And so I think we're going to continue to see that
53:15
not be the case as some of these awards start rolling out, as we
53:20
see you know, top three lists coming out and things like that, and
53:22
so there's there, Yeah, there are these unwritten rules and like you have
53:27
to align with the conference rules, and this is how it's always been.
53:30
And so I think it's good that we're we're probably talking outside some of that.
53:35
You know, I think things like talking about KK Harvey who missed you
53:37
know what it was at seven eight games for injury. But like it's going
53:43
to be is like a finalist for a Defender of the Year award in the
53:46
w c h A. I yeah, I don't I'm happy about it.
53:51
I think things do need to change. I think it's never good to say
53:53
that's how he's always done it. I think rules are dumb. I have
53:58
a lot of a lot of sports have been and some things like that.
54:00
But yeah, we we will talk as the Patti Cass Committee on Monday,
54:04
so we have a conference call, we talk over all ten. Everybody has
54:07
an opportunity. We usually have a statement from like the coach of the player
54:12
that we talked about, We talk about him in alphabetical order, and that,
54:16
like you know, gives their their reason why they're a good candidate.
54:20
And then people who are familiar with the player will give their you know,
54:23
who've watched them, a bunch who've coached against them, things like that,
54:27
will give their opinions, and then we will choose and we have to vote
54:30
by that night. So we vote on all ten and they take those votes
54:38
and narrow it down to the three and then the one out of that one
54:42
vote. So one of the things I'm looking forward to is so you do
54:45
a two year stint on the Patty Caz Committee. The last time around,
54:52
Anne Renee Daviien was one of the was the winner. One of my years,
54:55
and that was a I think a pretty straightforward vote in terms of most
55:00
people went in deciding that she was the winner. I would say the last
55:02
this mostly the same last year with Sophie Jakes. I feel like she was
55:07
the front runner. We do, obviously do discuss everyone. I'm not saying
55:12
nobody else was up for it, but it did feel like there was a
55:15
true front runner, and I personally don't have a front runner this year.
55:20
Like I'm not entirely sure. I shouldn't even say entirely I have no idea
55:22
what I'm voting for on Monday, So it will be I think it'd be
55:28
very cool to be that invested in the conversation and really needing to hear what
55:31
other people have to say about players that they've watched and how they have felt
55:36
coaching against them, and you know, are they the best player in their
55:38
league and that things like that. So in terms of just being a member
55:44
of the committee and voting this year, it's unique for me in that way,
55:46
and I'm excited about it. That's interesting because there's also then that potential
55:51
for some recency bias to get in, right for sure, everyone's gonna,
55:55
you know, all these games are available to watch this weekend, and so
56:00
that the players that are still playing that are going to be on that top
56:04
ten list are going to have a couple of chances, some of them to
56:08
show why they're they should be getting a top vote. And so that's that
56:15
adds another dynamic to this this weekend of you know, we know it's really
56:19
important for the teams, it's going to be kind of important for the players
56:22
too, the ones that are looking for the Patty Kaz for sure. But
56:24
I also think, you know, like we're talking like this this year's crop
56:29
of players, right, like Kirsten Simms, like one of the Knox against
56:31
her is a lot of the points have come against some of the weaker opponents
56:35
that that Wisconsin played, right, But then if you turn around and have
56:38
a huge whether it's her or somebody else, Like if you look at how
56:42
well they're playing against the top teams in the highest pressure situations, like,
56:46
yeah, that to me, that should stand out. That should I'm not
56:50
saying that's going to like turn the tide for anybody, but I do think
56:52
like somebody that is playing their best when their team needs them to be the
56:57
best player, the best players go and are on another level in games like
57:01
that, And so yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't
57:05
have any hard and fest rules for how I vote or how I choose,
57:08
and I'm never like fully decided when I go in on something. But you
57:15
usually, you know, we get all of their stats, and we look
57:16
at their body of work and you know, just for example, like the
57:20
Annerny year when she had break broke so many goalie records and it was like
57:23
if this goalie doesn't win, right when we've only had at that time one
57:28
other, then like whoo, who is like who's ever getting this award?
57:32
And so you know that did make it hard to but then you're talking about
57:37
like I believe Lara Stolder was also that year, and like how Lara elevated
57:40
all the play around her and really like made um D as a whole a
57:45
better team because they had her at the core. And so you know,
57:49
it wasn't just like yep, handed over to the one person, like there
57:52
is always a discussion, and those were like, you know, the things
57:54
that I was weighing on my mind and what I was thinking about. And
57:58
so yeah, I do think to some extent recency bias plays in but to
58:02
me, it's more about clutch being and some of those intangible things when you're
58:07
talking about like trying to parse goals versus assists, vers points for game versus
58:12
one, the points for scored versus like you could you could run yourself in
58:15
circles for days trying to parse you know, the top ten forwards that way
58:20
and then decide what it means for a defender and does a fender have to
58:23
points like do they have to be scoring goals? And so yeah, I
58:27
think whatever whatever you can use and whatever metric that will help, you know,
58:32
feel like this person. To me, one of the big things is
58:36
like how important is that person to their roster? Yeah, you know,
58:40
I like, I'm like, I don't want to talk too much about the
58:45
current players because it's not fear to them, and I don't know what will
58:46
happen in our conversation on Monday, but you know, just looking at different
58:50
rosters in terms of like what happens if that person isn't on that team,
58:53
how does that team still play? And so like, if it's if we're
58:57
talking an MVP, if they are the most value you will player to their
59:00
team, how important is that value portion of the discussion. Yeah, and
59:07
there's there's a bunch of factors that go into it, right, It's it's
59:12
your play on the ice. Like we've mentioned before on this show, there's
59:15
a character component to it that you can choose to assess however you want.
59:21
I guess as as a voter, I mean, they ask you to consider
59:24
that. But how you do that, I think that's up to you.
59:28
We usually get like what their GPA is, what volunteer work they do.
59:31
That's usually how character plays in. Yeah, so, uh, you know,
59:36
factor that in however you want to. But it's it's it's gonna be
59:40
fascinating to see what that top ten is and how how you know who doesn't
59:46
make it? I guess is usually one of the considerations because there's always a
59:51
number eleven on that vote, and usually I mean it's pretty clear that the
59:57
ones that are going to be at the top of the list are going to
1:00:00
be in there. Obviously that's going to happen. Right then you get in
1:00:02
the the the you know, the people for whom being in the top ten
1:00:07
is really kind of their award just for recognizing that, yes, you had
1:00:14
a season that it is worth being honored. Probably not going to win the
1:00:19
award, but hey, you know, good on you for having this season
1:00:23
that you did. Yeah you stood out yep, which you know in forty
1:00:29
some teams and twenty some girls on each trust like that's it's significant. So
1:00:35
definitely don't mean to imply it it's not, but it's Yeah, it's going
1:00:37
to be super interesting. Like I said, I mean, I've had this
1:00:40
where the conference call doesn't last super long. I don't like, not like
1:00:45
they're five minutes or anything, but like I've been in some that are shorter
1:00:49
and some that are longer, and I don't necessarily know what to expect on
1:00:51
Monday, but it'll be fun and it is a different experience for me to
1:00:54
go in feeling like I could be convinced in a lot of different directions.
1:01:00
And as I've always said, I think it's really hard to parse some of
1:01:02
this by watching people on not necessarily great feeds streams and so hearing from coaches
1:01:10
that like somebody you know in the ECAC that plays against several of the players,
1:01:15
like this is this is the toughest player. You know. There's several
1:01:19
ranked teams in there, and this is the best player of all those rinked
1:01:21
teams and same thing. You know, wha like I have faced you know,
1:01:25
several of these players and this is the one that gives us fits Like
1:01:29
that makes a difference. I think, Yeah, that lets you maybe narrow
1:01:31
down some comparisons, because you're going to have to compare with people that have
1:01:36
probably haven't played or haven't been on the same ice. And you know,
1:01:38
so at least if you have a ranking of saying, I need to compare
1:01:43
this person to this person, that's a little bit easier to do than than
1:01:46
comparing this person to nine others and kind of going down the line. And
1:01:52
that's why it's fun to have a committee that is made up of coaches and
1:01:54
folksm across the country and so there'll be representative that can kind of speak to
1:02:00
someone from every conference. Yep. Well that's coming Thursday, the top ten
1:02:05
for Patty Kaz and so that's the look forward to this week. The other
1:02:10
thing to look forward to this week we've mentioned before and the show is you
1:02:15
know, the championship weekend and the movements of the pairwise rankings that are going
1:02:19
to happen as a result of all these games that are happening this week.
1:02:24
As we go in we think we know the cutoff line is at number eight
1:02:30
and that's Minnesota Duluth and doesn't look like they're dropping below number eight because Quinnipiac
1:02:35
is number nine. They're done. Minnesota Luth can can lose one game and
1:02:39
be out, but it doesn't look like that would drop them in the NPI
1:02:45
far enough to fall below Quinnipiac. And the interesting thing to me is that
1:02:49
you know, Duluth and Quinnipiac played this season. I believe it was a
1:02:53
it was Quinnipiac won one and then tied the other. And so if that
1:02:59
tie would have been a win for Quinnipiac, I wonder if that would have
1:03:05
changed, you know, where things are right now, and because that's an
1:03:08
extra pair wise win and uh, that's uh, that might be the difference
1:03:15
right there. Yeah, and we so rarely get that. Where the two
1:03:21
teams were talking about played head to head right right, So, Ohio State's
1:03:25
pretty much locked into the number one overall. See they've they've got a higher
1:03:30
NPI, much higher MPI than anyone else, so they'll be the number one
1:03:34
you get into. Then then the two, three and four right now,
1:03:37
Wisconsin Clarkson and Colgate We're gonna have some movement there obviously, because uh,
1:03:42
you know, Wisconsin plays Clarkson and Colgate can't both win the ECA scene.
1:03:47
So one of those teams could stay up there, one of them could move
1:03:51
down a little bit. Minnesota is at five. They're looking to if they
1:03:55
win the w C tournament, they're looking to try and get up into that
1:04:02
four spot to be able to host in the regionals. A lot of things
1:04:06
happening here, and I need to shout out Grant Salzano's predictor at BC interruption
1:04:12
dot com. He's done great work in putting something together. Lets you put
1:04:15
in the results and see what happens out of the pair wise to tell us
1:04:20
at least what the pairwise would say, not necessarily what the committee's going to
1:04:25
say, but what the pairwise is going to say for what the order is
1:04:29
with all of those results. From what I've been able to tell, I
1:04:33
spent way too much time on this this week. I should say that right
1:04:35
now. But it looks like Wisconsin is going to be either the number two
1:04:40
or number three. Colgate or Clarkson could pass them, but not both because
1:04:46
like I said, they both can't win two games this week. Wisconsin is
1:04:54
so Wisconsin will be two or three. Coldgate can be anywhere from two to
1:04:58
five. From what I can tell, they can fall to five with a
1:05:01
loss to Saint Lawrence in the I have this right, what I what I
1:05:10
wrote down is lose the Saint Lawrence in the championship game. That doesn't seem
1:05:13
like the right thing. But Minnesota beating Ohio State in the w c h
1:05:16
A championship game. So yeah, there's a lot of things that can happen
1:05:20
here. I guess is what I'm getting at, and it's up in the
1:05:26
air. Minnesota can get up into the top three with a win and then
1:05:32
beating Ohio State in the championship game. That the interesting thing is if they
1:05:39
if Ohio State loses the Luth and Minnesota has to beat the luth I don't
1:05:44
think they could get up to three anymore. They points right of beating Ohio
1:05:47
State. That would also require Clarkson and Colgate to both lose semi finals for
1:05:53
the Gophers to get up into that high spot. Did you say they could
1:05:58
also fall down to six. I believe I found something would mean then they
1:06:01
have that extra Yeah, they have to play in the quarter final or the
1:06:05
regional final round. How I still think we haven't decided what we're calling that
1:06:10
regional semi final first round. I don't know, something like that. But
1:06:14
yeah, so Cornell I have a chance of Cornell getting the five, knocking
1:06:18
Minnesota to six. Cornell beats and the scenarios. Colgate beats Colgate and Clarkson,
1:06:25
Minnesota loses Tonell and Clarkson. I'm sorry, what did I say?
1:06:29
You said Colbat beats Colgate. Yeah, that so Cornell beats Colgate and Clarkson.
1:06:35
There we go, and then Minnesota loses to Wisconsin in the WHA semifinal,
1:06:42
but Wisconsin then loses the championship game. It's a weird scenario there,
1:06:45
but that ended up with Cornell five Minnesota six. Yeah. It's one of
1:06:50
those where most of these teams have beat each other, right, so like
1:06:54
there you expect that Ohio State is going to continue their dominance, but you
1:07:00
know they have lost, so they lost two weeks ago to Wisconsin. So
1:07:05
we're at a point where it's it's some really good teams left in the in
1:07:12
these you know, these or semi final games, and the way that they
1:07:15
hash out can just really change things quite a bit. And I know that
1:07:19
there is frustration I think kind of overall for folks, particularly not fans of
1:07:26
of these teams, fans of other teams that like it feels like we go
1:07:30
through a whole season and it ends up with the same the same teams,
1:07:32
no matter what. But I do think it, you know, it's the
1:07:36
needle moves a little when it means that it's not just chalk that everybody,
1:07:41
you know, w C H A teams X Y and Z get this,
1:07:44
e C A, TC teams X Y and Z get that like this,
1:07:46
there's still quite a lot of movement that can happen. And I think,
1:07:49
you know that's you know, Saint Lawrence being here is good, Cornell being
1:07:54
here is good, and we're we're gonna keep seeing a little bit of needle
1:08:00
movement. And I like that's probably not like balm to anybody's soul, but
1:08:04
I think it's nice that nothing is set in stone at this point when the
1:08:09
selection show is in a couple of days. Yeah, and then even when
1:08:14
the teams we know and their spots we don't necessarily know for sure until Sunday,
1:08:17
the Selection Show New Eastern eleven am Central on on ESPN News what those
1:08:24
first round and regional matchups are going to be because they have some leeway with
1:08:30
some uh some factors there to take into account. So I guess that's the
1:08:39
We wait and see what the final decision is. We might have some ideas,
1:08:42
but we you know, unless it's really obvious the way that it goes.
1:08:47
And I think that's what it was last year, if I'm remembering right,
1:08:50
it was a pretty we're no changes, seem would have fixed quote unquote
1:08:56
fixed any of the quote unquote problems. I will put lots of friends.
1:09:00
There are so many air quotes. I don't know why that it can't just
1:09:03
be very obvious that there still has to be. But I mean, I
1:09:08
will just remind everybody that we are not that far removed from it being a
1:09:12
given. Well, that bracket integrity was nowhere in the instructions for creating the
1:09:16
Woman's NCAA Tournament bracket less than two years ago, and that saving money was
1:09:23
a priority in the selection committee's yeah, directions for creating for creating the bracket,
1:09:32
so things could happen. We have no idea, there's all. It's
1:09:39
fun to do some bracketology and to speculate about moves that might be made,
1:09:45
but I will, I will before we all get up in arms, remind
1:09:47
everybody that it used to be much worse and not that long ago. Well
1:09:54
on those On that note, we will have the story about the selection show
1:09:59
on Sunday on Usho dot com. We'll have the brackets posted. Make sure
1:10:03
you check those out. Any final thoughts, Nicole before we get into this
1:10:08
one of the most exciting weekends of the season. Yeah, I just watched
1:10:12
hockey guys. Those stuff's going to be televised, Stuff's going to be on
1:10:15
ESPN plus, BTN plus. ESPN plus is pretty reasonably priced. The BTN.
1:10:23
You can buy one school for ten dollars for the month, I believe,
1:10:28
and that would give you access to quite a bit. So, you
1:10:30
know, I just support these players. They deserve it. This is high
1:10:34
level hockey we're talking about here. We're talking the top eight teams in the
1:10:38
country are playing in four of the semifinals of WCHA and ECAC, and then
1:10:45
you know, there's the as we talked about already, the possibility for chaos
1:10:47
and the Hockey East Tournament, which is going to be a lot of fun.
1:10:50
But there are games pretty much all weekend, and you should make make
1:10:56
it a priority to make time and watch them. Well. When we're back
1:11:00
week, we will talk about the NCAA tournament field, look ahead to the
1:11:02
first round, and we'll look at the Patty Cast top ten. And you
1:11:08
know, I don't think Nicole is gonna tell us how she voted, but
1:11:12
maybe we'll get something out of her in terms of how that call was.
1:11:15
I don't know, but for Nicole Hasey, I'm Todd Moleski. Thanks for
1:11:17
joining us on the podcast. Enjoy the hockey this week, everyone,