Report: Mel Pearson To Be Hockey Coach
From John Buccigross himself so likely to be accurate:
Sources tell me Mel Pearson is the new Head Coach of @umichhockey. He succeeds Red Berenson. pic.twitter.com/U09KBnjS8F
— Bucci Mane (@Buccigross) April 23, 2017
Everyone reading this likely has at least a vague idea of who Mel Pearson is, but the Cliffs Notes: long, long time Red Berenson assistant who left to be the head coach at Michigan Tech, his alma mater, several years ago. Michigan immediately dropped off and Tech got a lot better. A lot. In 2015 the Huskies got their first bid to the NCAA tournament since 1981(!), and Tech was a two-seed. They went again this year by winning their conference tourney.
It's a bit hard to tell exactly how much Tech's newfound success comes from Mel and how much is the radical reshaping of Western college hockey occasioned by the creation of Big Ten hockey. The WCHA went from the most powerful league in the country to a mid-major, and Tech's rise is partially due to that.
On the other hand, Tech was top five in ES Corsi the last three years. Mel Pearson can coach, and he knows his way around Ann Arbor. It might work out. From a year ago:
I was going to put a vertical line on the chart when Mel left for Tech and then I realized it was already more or less there. It's the blue uptick and red downtick in 2012. Pearson got Tech in the tourney for the first time since 1981 last year. This year the Huskies won their first conference title since 1976. (I realize this WCHA is not the old WCHA but when you're Tech hockey any hardware is a miracle.) They've currently scrapped their way onto the bubble again. Pearson immediately made Tech much better and now that it's his program they're at a level they haven been at since Pearson was playing in Houghton.
Yes, he's a bit older than is ideal at 57. On the other hand, Red was 57 in 1997. He won a national title the year before and the year after. Michigan has the raw tools to win a national title every year; there need be no building phase. Even if Pearson does retire at around 65, you get almost a decade out of him. That decade is immediately productive. He is obviously a top-level coach who was a linchpin of Michigan's success under Red.
I'd have preferred one of the younger slam dunk guys but the first person to compare this hire to Brady Hoke gets ejected into space.
Glory glory hallelujah - great hire. GO BLUE
Any secondary confirmations? Just curious if anyone besides Bucci and Michael Spath see this as a done deal.
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:56 PM ^
This is wrong.
It's actually a lot more like the Gary Moeller hire: Longtime assistant, has experience elsewhere, known to be quite good, should continue success fine. There is a question of how high the ceiling is--Mo produced some good teams but, had he not been fired, who knows if he would have ever won a national title?
With Mel, a lot of fans attribute Michigan's on-ice success in the later Red years to Mel's influence. The Shawn Hunwick years in particular saw a transformation in Michigan's playing style that evaporated after Mel left. Michigan Tech's first real success in hockey in 30 years provides some influence to back it up.
I'm not sure if he'll be winning us titles, but Michigan is going to be a solid tournament team for 10 years.
Pearson's done better at Tech than Mo did at Illinois though. Mo's tenure there was a disaster but fortunately he got another decade to learn from Bo.
Mo analogy is pretty good. And one thing about Mo - he had the institutional knowledge, but he also brought in a no-huddle offense which was really new at the time. The difference is that the program was not a disaster under Bo as it has been under Red in the recent history. I think it's a great transitional pick from a legend to the next generation, but with a willingness to modernize.
Nice work, Warde!
I'm not sure if he'll be winning us titles, but Michigan is going to be a solid tournament team for 10 years.If you're a solid tournament team, you can be winning titles. See Yale, 2013 or Michigan State, 2007. If you're in the field and you're peaking, you have a very good chance of winning it all, because hockey is weird that way.
The difference?
Hoke never actually achieved any sustained success at mid-major programs. He had one flyer of a season at SDSU and at Ball State he had a record that mirrored the historical norm for the school.
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:55 PM ^
Why do people assume he will retire in his mid 60s? Lots of coaches in all sports are coaching well into their 70s.
Hell, the President of the US is 70 and he just started.
People are living longer and they are active longer. It will bankrupt Social Security, but in this particular case . . . it works in our favor.
Even if he were to retire at 65, if he can give us seven good years that's fine with me.
April 24th, 2017 at 10:21 AM ^
Posting this again here because it is decidedly worthy.
This feels like replacing Bo with Mo. Would have been nice if this was done five years ago... but such is life. Glad Mel is getting his chance.
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:01 PM ^
Luck Mel.
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:06 PM ^
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:27 PM ^
Take a hike.
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:08 PM ^
Nicely done, Warde! I was ready to jump on you with a bad hire, but this is a home run. Maybe not a grand slam, but it's a 3-run walkoff nonetheless...
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:58 PM ^
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:11 PM ^
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:20 PM ^
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:25 PM ^
I consider 57 very young...
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:56 PM ^
Username checks out . . .
April 23rd, 2017 at 10:55 PM ^
Great news. He might not be here forever, but it'll be a nice transition and a coach who can hopefully get this team back to competing for titles. Also, kudos to Warde for going out and getting the guy that makes the most sense.
April 23rd, 2017 at 11:03 PM ^
I think Maizen was right on the money here (btw, not trolling, contributions recently have been quite good). I'm fine with this. If true, it sounds like Michigan wasn't rushing into it, but that they had an idea of what they wanted.
Mel is a very good option. He knows the program and the people. He has proven at Tech that he can coach hockey outside of Red's shadow. There is a lot of thought amongst fans that he was a major reason that Red sustained his successin the 00s, and for what it's worth Tech winning a GLI and making a couple of tournaments (again, this is Michigan Tech we're talking about, they've been absolutely awful for most of our lifetimes and they have no natural assets that would make a turnaround likely) is an impressive resume.
I wanted a splash hire. But in college hockey splash hires of college coaches who are already successful at other colleges are quite rare. There is an occasional Don Lucia, but far more often you get guys from either very low-end schools or guys groomed by programs that step in.
Mel is a good option. I'm fine with this.
I'd like to add that Mel played for the legendaryJohn MacInnes when he was at Tech. It's true that Tech hadn't been anything of note prior to Mel's return to his alma matter, but back in that era, they were a perennial power and won the NCAA 3 times under MacInnes. Welcome back to your second home Mel!
The guy was a top assistant for years at UM and some of their success can be tied to him. He's done a very good job at Tech and I expect him to get Michigan back on the right track and into the tourney again.
April 24th, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^
My only problem with this hire his his age. He's already almost 60. So reasonably you can say he has maybe 10 years left? That is unless he pulls a Red and coaches until his late 70's. IDK, this seems more like a stop-gap until for a few years.
April 24th, 2017 at 10:19 AM ^
April 24th, 2017 at 10:51 AM ^
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