NCAA D-1 NCAA Tournament: Six Degrees of 'Cac Separation

The NCAA announced its field of 16 Sunday night for the D-I men's ice hockey tournament.  Though NESCAC hockey ended with Bowdoin's 4-2 loss to Utica on March 9th in the Quarterfinal Round of the D-III tournament, 'CAC connections run deep throughout the rosters and coaching staffs of the 16 D-I championship hopefuls.

The strongest tie comes from the UMass-Lowell River Hawks, Hockey East regular and postseason champions and the number one seed in the Northeast Regional. Lowell is coached by former Hamilton head man (2008-11) and 2010 and 2011 NESCAC Coach of the Year Norm Bazin. After leading Hamilton to its first ever regular season NESCAC crown in 2011, Bazin left for his alma mater to take over a 5-25-4 Lowell club in the basement of the powerful Hockey East conference. In two years, Bazin has resurrected the program to a 50-23-3 record, including back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history and the River Hawks' first ever Hockey East regular and postseason championships in 2012. Bazin has now received his conference's Coach of the Year Award four years in a row (NESCAC in 10-11 and HE in 12,13).

Bazin was followed to Lowell by his star at Hamilton, 2011 NESCAC Player of the year Joe Houk (D, Jr.). The switch was unsolicited by Bazin and Houk had to sit out the 2011-12 season per NCAA transfer rules. Though he didn't score in his first year in Division-I hockey, the 6'0" 204 lb defender received regular playing time and reached double digit in points (0-10-10). For more on Bazin and Houk, check out the Word Press blog post about the duo.

Bazin took over Lowell from Blaise MacDonald, who was relieved of his duties as River Hawks head coach in March 2011 after amassing a 150-178-2 record in 10 seasons. After spending a year as a UMass-Amherst assistant, MacDonald ended up in the NESCAC as the head coach of the Colby Mules.

Other 'Cac coaching connnections in the NCAA tournament include Rand Pecknold, head coach of the 1st overall seed Qunnipiac Bobcats and Connecticut College alum ('90). Former longtime Colby coach (1995-2011) and brother of New York Rangers coach John Tortorella, Jim Tortorella serves as an assistant coach for the New Hampshire Wildcats, who will take on Denver in the NorthEast regional (same bracket as Lowell).  Former Williams assistant (2007-08) Dan Muse is an assistant on the Yale staff. The fourth seeded Bulldogs will play Minnesota, the top seed in the West Region.

This is to say nothing of the players. Many of the D-1 puckers who will compete for the ultimate prize at the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh grew up playing with or against many of the current NESCAC players. To take one example, Lowell's Terrence Wallin (F, So.) and Boston College's Danny Linell (F, So.) played on a 2009 Long Island Gulls Midget National team with Brian McNamara (D, So.) and Sean Dougherty (G, So.) of Williams and Joseph Rausch (F, So.) of Hamilton.

The Gulls made it all the way to the National semifinals, where they lost, 9-6, to national runner-up Team

Comcast.  Comcast had current Wesleyan Cardinal Adam DeSanctis (D, So.) and Trinity Bantam Paul Burns (D, So.), as well as several D-1 players from teams in the upcoming tournament; current University of New Hampshire Wildcats Kyle Smith (F, Fr.) and Jamie Hill (F, Fr.), as well as  Nick Cruice (F, Fr.) of Union.

In prep school hockey, DeSanctis would go on to co-captain The Gunnery's 2010-11 varsity team with Lowell's Wallin. That Gunnery team had a trio of players that just finished up their rookie campaigns in the 'Cac: Trinity's Ben Hjalmarrson (D, Fr.), Wesleyan's Jaren Taenaka (F, Fr.) and Middlebury's Ron Fishman (D, Fr.).

The leading scorer for Team Comcast, Kyle Criscuolo (F, Fr.), now plays for Harvard. Before ending up in Cambridge, MA, he joined former LI Gull and current BC Eagle Linell at Choate Rosemary Hall with a slew of NESCAC players. The Gulls McNamara/Rausch laced up the skates for the Wild Boars, as well as Middlebury's Nick BonDurant (G, Jr.) and Conn College's Mike Doyle (D, So.) and Adam Patel (F, So.).

And all those tangential NESCAC/D1 connections come from one example. You could take almost any successful AAA youth hockey team or junior team or prep school team and most likely find similar connections. The bottom line is that NESCAC players grew up playing the highest level of competitive youth hockey alongside D-I players.

Map of the 59 D-1 men's hockey teams (source; click to englarge)

Some were too small to be recruited for D-I, some had a specific hole in their game, but sometimes it was just a numbers game. With the addition of Penn State to the D-I ranks in 2012, 59 schools now have NCAA Division-I men's ice hockey. In comparison, the other popular winter team sport, basketball, has 347 schools that sponsor D-I programs.

If we add in the 79 D-II/III men's hockey programs, that is still only 138 opportunities to play NCAA hockey, or 209 less NCAA hockey programs than D-I basketball programs. While hockey rosters have more players and more kids growing up play basketball than hockey, it still remains that collegiate hockey opportunities are scarcer than those in hoops.

In the press conference earlier this month announcing his retirement, legendary Boston University hockey coach Jack Parker lamented the increased age of collegiate players from when he took over the Terriers 40 years ago.  NESCAC players don't get scholarships or play on national - or even regional- television, but they delay their entrance into college  for PG years and junior hockey just as their D-I counterparts do.

That's not to say NESCAC or D-III players/teams are on the same plane as the boys vying to make it to Pittsburgh. Division I is Division I. Players are better and they often hone their skills in juniors longer. But the gap between D-I and D-III may be smaller than many think. As Bowdoin assistant coach and recruiting director Jamie Dumont said in a recent Maine Hockey Journal article:

 “We make our living here in the NESCAC and at some of the other top Division III schools, we make our living on those ‘in-betweeners,’ who probably could play Division I in a year’s time, or don’t want to go walk on, they want to go to a school where they will be a four-year contributor.”

So as you watch the field of 16 fight over the next few weeks for the ultimate prize in college hockey, just remember that many of those involved in the conflict once played or coached on the same level as the NESCAC coaches and players. And if you are bored, you can always try to play the game, Six Degrees of 'Cac Separation.

It's easy. Just choose a player in the NCAA Tournament and try to connect him in six players or less to a NESCAC player. Take for example Erik Haula (F, Jr.), the point leader (16-33-49) for second ranked Minnesota. The Finnish born Golden Gopher played on the 2009-10 Omaha Lancers with Stefan Demopoulos (F, So.) of the Providence Friars. Demopoulous played on the 2008-09 Avon Old Farms team with six 2012-13 NESCACers: Connor Doyle (F, Fr.) and Eric Naclerio (D, So.) of Conn College, Spike Smigelski (F, Sr.) and Mike Debello (F, Fr.) of Colby, Michael Flynn (D, So.) of Trinity and Dylan Shamburger (F, Fr.) of Bowdoin.

See it's fun. Now you try.

Note: If you want a chance to win a NESCACHockey.com shirt (pictured below), you can enter our D-I men's hockey tournament bracket challenge here. Sign up and join the group "NESCACHockey". The password: inthecac. Fill out our bracket and enjoy the tournament. The winner gets a shirt and 'Cac bragging rights. 

Bracket Challenge: http://www.pickemhockey.com/bracket/index.php