I forgot to mention this earlier, but Kate Crandall of the Colorado Springs Gazette left the newspaper to work for Teach for America. Kate wasn't at the Gazette for a really long time, but did a nice job getting a lot of information online in blog-form, which was extremely helpful to people like me.
On Frozen Blog had a very nice write-up on Air Force's success.
I hate being the anti-Air Force guy, because I really would like to see them succeed. I think it'd be incredible if they won their league's autobid and made a deep run in the NCAA tournament. But the idea of a team that will play just two games against teams that finish in the top 25 in the country getting an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament doesn't sit well with me at all. Even if they really are one of the best teams in the country, they'll have done little of significance to prove that.
I feel kind of the same way about INCH putting Jacques Lamoureux on their Hobey Tracker. Lamoureux overcame some pretty incredible odds just to make it into the Air Force, and for that alone, at least deserves some consideration. He's like the anti-Gerbe candidate. He's got the off-ice stuff in spades, but does his play merit consideration? After getting shut out last weekend, it's pretty likely he won't score a point against a single top 25 team. You don't hear much about Case Keenum being a candidate for the Heisman Trophy, even though he leads the NCAA in passing yards. Why? Because he plays for Houston.
On the plus side,Air Force joined Bemidji as the only non-WCHA/CCHA teams to get their own tag here, so they've got that going for them.
Denver's Tyler Bozak is one of the best free agents out there for the NHL right now. You could hold a pretty interesting debate on whether Bozak gained or lost money by coming back this year. On one hand, he'll likely be in the NHL from the start, possibly on a one-way contract(EDIT: All rookie contracts are two-way, but he'll likely spend way more time at the NHL level), meaning he'll get NHL dollars the whole year, as opposed to possibly spending a good chunk of time in the AHL. On the other hand, it's going to take him a year longer to reach his second contract, where he won't be bound by rookie salary limitations. Either way, he's got himself in a pretty good position.
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6 comments:
Bozak will not be a on a one way contract. All entry level deals in the NHL are two-way contract. It doesn't matter who you are: Pat Kane, Crosby, etc all started on two-way deals
Just because Air Force doesn't play many "good" teams does not make them a non-"good" team...follow that? If you are whalloping the lower-level teams consistently, you could speculate that they would hang right in there with the top teams in the league, too. By handily beating up on those teams that are on their schedule, doesn't that validate them? They are doing exactly what a "good" team is supposed to do: beat up the lower-echelon teams.
Anon at 2:57pm sure sounds like Franky S and his handily comments. Air Farce should maybe schedule tougher teams, which would help us speculate less.
As for Bozak, he'll sign a 2-way, and I just hope he doesn't turn out to be some of the Junior Lessards out there...
Houston has had two Heisman Trophy winners in Andre Ware and David Klingler. They both put up huge numbers in their seasons too, though at the time Houston was a more successful program, but still an Air Force in comparison to a DU or CC or Texas (in football).
Houston was in the same conference as Texas and Texas A&M while Klingler and Ware were winning those Heisman trophies though.
They were more an equivalent to Texas Tech today. Their big stats had a little more legitimacy because they were playing in a major conference.
I forgot about the SWC...ah the good old days of college football.
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