Minnesotans by the thousands normally head out on vacation at about this time of year, heading to warmer places like Arizona and Florida. Safe in the knowledge that his team would still be in first place no matter what happened last weekend, Don Lucia used the Gophers weekend off to take different approach to this whole get-out-of-town thing. He went to Indiana.
On Saturday, Lucia took in a game at Notre Dame’s new rink and came away impressed with his alma mater’s digs. And on Sunday he went to a football game of some renown in downtown Indianapolis.
Mariucci Arena (Courtesy gophersports.com)
So it makes perfect sense that Lucia returned from the home of the Irish, and from the Super Bowl, thinking about a once-revered but aging structure that can benefit from having some work done to bring it back up to enviable status again.
A lot of people have those same thoughts after seeing Madonna.
On his weekly radio show, Lucia told Wally Shaver and Joe Anderson that in order to keep pace with arena improvements taking place elsewhere, he’d like to see Mariucci Arena get remodeled team areas, a bigger and better weight room, new amenities in the coaches’ offices, a high-definition scoreboard, and an improved sound system.
The rink is less than 20 years old, but since the first puck was dropped there in 1993, it’s gone from being the newest to the fourth-oldest in the 12-team WCHA. And with newer rinks at three of the other four Minnesota-based college hockey schools (St. Cloud State’s rink opened in 1989, and will undergo a sizable remodeling project soon), Lucia knows that he may be at a facilities disadvantage when it comes to recruiting.
“Kids want to see what you have and they’re going to compare it from one school to the next,” Lucia said on 1500 ESPN in the Twin Cities. “You want to have kids come in and look through your area and have a little bit of that ‘wow’ factor. I think that’s important.”
The clamor for new facilities is a familiar one in the Minnesota athletic department. There’s a new football stadium on campus, they’ve been trying to find a way to get a new baseball park for years, and Gopher basketball coach Tubby Smith has been campaigning for a practice facility since arriving in Minneapolis.
MICHIGAN TECH TAKING IT OUTSIDE
For one day anyway, Winter Carnival was not the biggest news on the Michigan Tech campus. Yes, the snow sculptures (2012 theme: “From All Over the State, What Makes Michigan Great”) the pageant and the hockey series with Nebraska-Omaha are all big events in Houghton, but the bigger news is still 11 months and about a 10-hour drive away.
On Wednesday it was announced that in conjunction with the 2013 Winter Classic between the Maple Leafs and Red Wings at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, an outdoor rink at Comerica Park in Detroit will be the home of the 2012 Great Lakes Invitational. Michigan Tech is co-host of the tournament, which will be an all-Michigan affair (Western Michigan, Michigan and Michigan State are the other participants. The tournament will be held Dec. 29-30 at the home of the Detroit Tigers.
Tech last won the GLI in 1980, with current Huskies coach Mel Pearson scoring the game-winner to beat Michigan for the title.
BACK TO BEING THE SIOUX, FOR NOW
The easy joke is that the once-retired Fighting Sioux nickname at North Dakota is taking its retirement advice from Brett Favre. On Jan. 1, the controversial moniker was officially retired by the school, and the teams have been referred to simply as North Dakota for the first five weeks of 2012.
Now, the nickname is back, at least temporarily. On Tuesday petitions were filed in the North Dakota state courts calling for a statewide vote on whether or not the nickname should stay. The petitions being filed reinstated a 2011 state law which requires the school to refer to its athletic teams as the Fighting Sioux.
That law, also controversial, was repealed by the North Dakota state legislature in November at the request of those fearful that NCAA sanctions will hurt the school if the nickname’s use continues.
On the ice, things won’t look much different either way. The hockey team was still playing with sweaters bearing the Sioux name and logo, awaiting new sweaters that are due to arrive later in the season. And the ice surface at Ralph Engelstad Arena still had the Indian head logo and “Home of the Fighting Sioux” on it anyway.
BICKEL A THREAT ON ICE, AND ON SCREEN
Former Gopher Stu Bickel has made a rookie splash with the New York Rangers as their designated fighter, and has quickly become a fan favorite in the Big Apple with his willingness to drop the gloves. And when he’s finished with a bout, the video folks inside Madison Square Garden treat Rangers fans with a clip of Stu’s long-lost relative, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro’s character in “Taxi Driver”) staring at the screen and sneering, “You talkin’ to me?” A classic scene, evoking New York City at its grittiest.
HOBEY QUARTET IN DULUTH
With a campaign promoting Jack Connolly for the Hobey Baker Award in full swing, Minnesota Duluth will honor the four previous Bulldogs to win the trophy this weekend when they host North Dakota. Tom Kurvers (1984), Bill Watson (1985), Chris Marinucci (1994) and Junior Lessard (2004) will be recognized at Friday’s game. Interesting fact to note: Marinucci is the only one of the 31 Hobey winners to play for a sub-.500 team.
GRAND FORKS: CRADLE OF COACHES
Speaking of the Sioux-Bulldogs get-together, credit Sioux assistant coach Cary Eades for pointing out that five of the six coaches on the two benches this weekend are North Dakota alumni. Bulldogs coaches Scott Sandelin and Jason Herter, and Sioux coaches Dave Hakstol, Dane Jackson and Eades all played for North Dakota. Bulldogs assistant coach Derek Plante is the only one behind either bench with no green in his hockey past (unless you count that Stanley Cup he won with the Dallas Stars in 1999).
HAPPY TRAILS TO THE TIGERS
Colorado College’s trip to northern Minnesota for this weekend’s series at Bemidji State went off without a hitch, and there are no severe weather predictions for this weekend. So unlike last year, when a snowstorm grounded their flights home from Minnesota, the Tigers won’t likely need a 1,200-mile bus ride to get back to Colorado Springs.
TRIVIAL MATTERS AT ST. CLOUD STATE
Houghton isn’t the only place where Huskies play, or where there are big doings on campus this weekend. While the St. Cloud State Huskies have the weekend off, we like to think at least a few of Bob Motzko’s players will be pouring through reference books late at night, racing other teams for the right answer.
This weekend marks the 33rd annual edition of SCSU Trivia Weekend where teams from throughout the region compete in a 50-hour round-the-clock marathon to find answers to hundreds of truly obscure and supposedly Google-proof questions. Tom Nelson, the Huskies hockey sports information guru notes that in the run-up to Trivia Weekend, thousands of books (everything from encyclopedias to children’s lit) are checked out of libraries throughout central Minnesota, as competitors seek to load up on any and all reference materials.
The contest was started in 1980 by a campus radio station looking to give students a break from the cabin fever that sets in during a long Minnesota winter. In that spirit, we’ll offer the weekend’s first trivia question (although it’s hardly Google-proof).
Tweet your answer to @JessRMyers. First correct answer gets a RT:
Who is the only St. Cloud State player to take a penalty in overtime of a NCAA tournament game won by the Huskies, and what was the call?
