What’s Going On Needs Five More Years

Wisconsin hired Tony Granato to be their next hockey coach and his brother Don and Mark Osiecki to be his assistants. That’s a fantastic hire for the Badgers, who have been atrocious in recent years. I don’t see them turning the program around overnight just because it’s in such bad shape, but give it a few years, and Wisconsin should be back to being a serious competitor. That’s what you do when your program is in shambles and it’s clear the guy in charge of said program is a dope – you fire him and find a competent replacement. Unless, of course, you are Mark Hollis, who decided, for whatever reason, to keep Tom Anastos.

“I feel really good about where we’re at,” Hollis said. “I’m like anyone else, I get frustrated as a fan as we’re going through the year and you have games where you feel like you’re being challenged a little bit as a spectator. But I’m also an AD that has to look at, ‘OK, what’s the next five years going to look like, based upon the past five years?’ And from all the assessments I’ve put into this and all the folks I’ve talked to, I’m very confident we’re going to have success here next year and in the immediate future.”

HOW SWAY? Rick Comley didn’t do that program any favors at the end of his tenure there. I’m not saying Anastos should have them in the national title picture, but he should at least have shown something. He has not. He made the tournament once, in his first year and has only had one other season with a record above .500, which was only by one game.

“The roster is something that is very difficult to manage,” Hollis said, “because of the different aspects where kids are coming from and where they’re going to. And by that I mean, the competition that you have with Canadian junior hockey, with individuals going pro. We’ve gone through and we’ve mapped out the past 10 years on our entire roster and how we’ve gotten to the place that we’ve gotten to and what’s practical in putting on coach Anastos and, frankly, coach (Rick) Comley before that.”

This is not unique to Michigan State. Everyone has to deal with this and plenty of coaches have been able to. What’s your problem, Tom?

Comley left the program bare, though Anastos has been careful not be be overly critical publicly. Most of the players he inherited were not highly recruited.

And now the players Anastos himself is bringing in are not highly-recruited, so what’s your point, Graham?

“I feel like we’ve got a good system in place to build the type of student-athletes you want to have here,” Hollis said. “Unfortunately you can’t do that in five years. Penn State had a great advantage in having no roster (when it started its program) and being able to build from ground zero. Tom fulfilled all of the commitments put out there prior to him (by Comley). And as you know, in hockey, you start recruiting kids at the age of 14 and maybe in some cases don’t get them until they’re 20. It’s uniquely different than football, uniquely different than basketball.”

If Anastos is still bringing in players who committed to Comley who he does not think are going to be good, he is an idiot. Couch goes on to criticize Anastos for this practice, too, just in significantly less harsh terms and not before praising Anastos for honoring commitments, which, yeah, okay, that is admirable in a coach, but if you don’t think a guy can play at the next level, five years is more than enough time to tell them that and have both parties move on.

“We knew it was going to take five years to start the process of laying ship,” Hollis said. “That’s where we’re at right now.”

If I’m not reading this wrong, and Mark Hollis is actually saying it was going to take five years to start rebuilding, then he should be fired right after Anastos.

“I feel really good about where we’re headed going into next year,” Hollis said. “At the same time, our program needs to win hockey games. I look at how games were played — there were concerns in the season about how games were played, not just the losses. I think there was some vast improvement in that area. I don’t think (Anastos) lost the team in any shape or form. He’s an outstanding leader and always has been. He’s never failed at anything he’s ever done, and I don’t think he’s going to fail on this one.”

There is absolutely nothing MSU should feel good about in regards to their hockey program right now. Not one thing. There was no improvement. They won ten games last year. Ten. This is not football. That is not good. They finished 46th in RPI, 6 spots behind Wisconsin, who just fired their coach for being god-awful at his job. Anastos has had five years to get the MSU program on track and has somehow gotten them in an even deeper mess than they were in when he took over. When Shayne and I do our “Fire This Coach” series in the fall, expect a note from me every week to the effect of “And Michigan State should fire Tom Anastos.” Because Michigan State should fire Tom Anastos. They should also fire Mark Hollis, because anyone who thinks giving Tom Anastos more time is going to yield anything but the garbage it’s yielded thus far is a complete idiot.

Also: Chris Dilks on the situation at MSU. Worth the read.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com