Gwozdecky Not Interested In Michigan State

From: Denver Post
by Mike Chambers

George Gwozdecky wants to be known as the coach who beat Colorado College this weekend, not the likely next coach at Michigan State.

Gwozdecky, who is four victories shy of producing his 10th consecutive 20-win season at the University of Denver, said he doesn't want to be considered a candidate to replace retiring Spartans coach Rick Comley [read rest of article].

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like every other coach before they decide to bolt. He said he's not interested "right now." Bradley-Dope needs to pay him his money.

Aluuum said...

As much as Gwaz likes it here in Denver there is a fundamental problem that will not go away. Gwaz coaches the schools flagship sport which additionally is the only one to be revenue net positive to the tune of more than a million smackers a year. That fact screams that he should be the highest paid. It is rediculous that he is not and shows an incompetent bias by Peg Doopes.
Eventually we will lose George because of this. This constant erosion in leadership will eventually cause Gwaz to leave. We all have our self esteem and ego and it cannot be continually tramped on without a person saying -that's enough.

puck swami said...

Peg has little to do with 'Bias".
Coaches' pay scales are determined by sport and performance way more than comparison between sports at any given school.

Gwoz was paid top 5 in his sport on his original 2005 contract, and because other hockey coaches have signed bigger deals since 2005, Gwoz' base is probably now top 5 in the WCHA, but perhaps top 10-15 nationally. He's get his payday either at DU or elsewhere.

Basketball has a higher pay scale, because the sport is higher profile nationally than hockey and because hoops coaches under more pressure and tend to have have shorter tenures than other college coaches in most other sports. Joe Scott may get a higher base than Gwoz, but unlike Gwoz, he is well down into the middle tier of NCAA hoops coaches, with a contract that reflects DU's mid-pack standing among national college basketball programs.

The point is that no matter if hockey makes $1 million or $10 million in profit, it still won't pay for all sports at DU, and is only marginally important in comparsion with the importance of coaching pay scales in other sports.

Finally, Gwoz is under contract till 2014. By April 15, DU should be in a good position to see if they want to sign Gwoz to a new deal.

Aluuum said...

Swam-You sound like one of those academic professors. All of your comments are theoretically accurate but operationally beside the point.

D.U. has it's own singular fan base ,student body, and presence in the Colorado community. National basketball statistics and your other statistical stuff are of minimal importance. And yes: I do believe that peg is biased towards basketball.
D.U. hockey has a historical presence in the community. A price tag cannot be placed on that position. D.U. hockey is eminently respected throughout the hockey community from the top N.H.L. league, to all the college hockey community, back east as well as out west, and down through high school programs both in the U.S. and in Canada. As the T.V. add says; that is priceless!

Your comments about Basketball having a higheer pay scale and B. coaches having more pressure have no basis for conparing what a treasure we have here in D.U. hockey
and what D.U. hockey means to the community. I'm sure that Gwaz would find it interesting to find that he is under less pressure than college basketball coaches.
Your comment that D.U.hockey making over one million a year-if I may quote you, "is only marginally important in comparison with the importance of coaching pay scales in other sports" is academic nonsence.

Just to use one example: This Saturday Magness will be a sold out passionate mad house. Compare that to the empty presence at Basketball.We are well into our secod generation of hockey prominence; a goal that will never be attained by any other D.U. sport.
Other colleges would die to have a nationally prominant flag ship sport to bring attention to their school We have one! We should treat it as such.

Anonymous said...

i did not hear I want to stay here and finish my career in Denver. It was I am happy right now...in Feb 2011... heading into a weekend vs CC.
Bigger bucks-- or at least as much as Denver will offer, being fawned over, a daughter off to college and the looming BTHC make me put money on him kicking the tires at MSU

Anonymous said...

@ Aluum 1:18 - You go girl!

Green Hornet said...

The only school DU folks should be concerned about is Minnesota.

Anonymous said...

Simple really...

1) B2B national championships in the last decade

2) perennial national tourney competitor

3) amazing recruiter

4) sticks it to that lame Dakota team every year

5) deserves to retire a DU legend

Step up, Pioneers, and do the only thing. And bring back Boone while you are at it.

Anonymous said...

I expect Boone to show up this weekend. He has not been to a game in the last couple of months. This is a major disappointment. Perhaps we need to find a new student to carry the Boone legacy

Puck Swami said...

Anon 1:18

As someone with 30 years of emotional investment in DU hockey, I totally understand your viewpoint. We all want hockey to continue as the flagship program, and as hockey fans, Gwoz has given us a lot to cheer about. In short, I know DU's history in the game and what it means to our fans.

However, what we want in Denver isn't being evaluated at a local level or even a pure hockey decision. Gwoz' contract is part of a much bigger initiative about bringing DU to a national level in D-I sports as part of the hundreds of millions that DU has spent in the last 15 years on sports.

Some of us may not be hoops fans, but just because we may not like it, it doesn't change the fact that Dan Ritchie and the Board of Trustees had a vision of DU being a prominent national university, and that's why they built the Ritchie Center. Basketball is seen as prominent visibility tool that can take DU places in ways hockey can't. Peg is following her marching rodeos from the Board.

Anonymous said...

I understand what Swami is saying. But what I think what it comes down to is that hockey is realy the only big sport at DU, and they need to keep it operating at the highest level possible.
Sure, try to make the basketball team as good as possible, but don't let hockey suffer as a result. If basketball ends up being a competitive mid-major program like Butler some day (probly unlikely), then maybe you can justify letting a stud coach like Gwozdecky go.
But right now this is all we have, and we need to keep Gwozdecky happy. DU won't have many chances to sign a coach like him in the future, and they'll be wishing they had spent the relatively small amount of money on him in the not too distant future.
Honestly, this isn't UMinnesota, top recruits won't come here without a coach like Gwoz

Anonymous said...

Yep, DU won't attract any good coaching candidates IF Gwoz leaves! Give your head a shake.

Anonymous said...

Swani, you keep talking about this national exposure hoops can bring. I m sorry but there is no Sun Belt or current WAC team that gets this from hoops. Never heard of Utah State til we lost to them. Look at Miami of Ohio. Wally Szerbiac and a sweet 16 run, Roltheisberger and what sport did they decide to make its flagship. They paid Blasi 350K and it's hockey. Are you sure about the goal of the board of trustees? Was it not get us out of the Sun Belt and then Peg took advantage of a current chacelor that doesn't care about sports and has her own agenda. Last time Ritchie was Chancelor he didn't let Gwoz leave for Wisco or Mich St.

Anonymous said...

Exposure? Exposure is watching Matt Carle and his 4 mil $ salary in the stanley cup, Paul Stastny and his 6.6 mil $ salary in the all star game. Tyler Bozak and his 3 mil $ salary is a house hold name in Toronto. Toronto now knows the U of Denver. Last time I checked Toronto is a pretty big city. Exposure is not the 64/65 play in game in NCAA hoops. Wake up people. DU hockey brings Notre Dame, BC and Big Ten schools to our campus and we get associated with them. Hoop will never, never do that.

Aluuum said...

Swam, once more you obfuscate. You obviously must work for the government -federal,state county -whatever. I ran two companies and withinn 3 months got rid of all the theorticians like you and replaced replaced them with operationals like me.
I am a simple man so let me put it in simple terms. There are three highly paid coaches at a university. One makes gobs of money for the school by selling out the arena,gives the school national exposure by constantly fielding a team at the top tier for all college teams . The other two coaches play before mostly empty seats and play games that nobody sees,except for a few devotees. Coaches two and three get a higher salary than number one coach .(I have to keep this simple for you )Futuristic,multi level hopefull planning need not apply.
Is ther any chance in hell that this will not upset coach number one, particularly a top tier coach who knows how good he is and how wanted he is?. Forget the preaching swam,which you are very good at, just answer the question.

Let me enlighten you. Read ,once more, the Chambers interview. Gwaz's two qualifying staements clearly say that he does not want to introduce anything that will cause the team to lose any focus on the present business at hand but when the final wistle blows(lets hope it is in Minniapolis) his outside communication switches to the on position. If you think that he is going to continually walk by those other two guys, day in and day out, knowing they are getting more pay then him for doing hughly less, you are once more wandering into your theoreticall dream land. all of this futuristic planning is for naught.

Here is what will happen. Gwaz will say,enough is enough and leave,taking ace recruiter Miller with him. Doopes will bring in Seth,who is a good coach but a long way from George. Gradually, one by one, future players like Zucker, Donavan, et all will not appear on D.U.'s roster but go elseware. These top level players come here because their eye is on the prize. The prize of N.H.L. George is widly known for being the top N.H.L. ready college coach. THAT IS WHY THESE ACE PLAYERS COME HERE!!
When this happens I look forward to reading your theoretical reasoning and explaining that in the long range plan it is no problem. You will expuond on college basketball statistical potential for the school while our beloved hockey program gradually slides back to what we had in the eighties, good but not great.

P.S. I trump your 30 years of rooting for D.U. by ten more.

Anonymous said...

Zing....dang Aluuum came out swinging and didn't stop! Some love him, some hate him, but he will always be The Swami...

Anonymous said...

You ran companies? You can barely spell?

Anonymous said...

Aluum is right. Get it done. Now. No more bullshit.

Swami brings up a bunch of valid points (as usual) and I sense that he is trying to play a bit of devil's advocate here. He wants Gwoz to be signed as much as any of us, but I think he is trying very hard to let us know that the school has many other agendas, besides the one that we hold as #1.

With that said, they are all bullshit agendas that might look smart in the short-term, but will prove to be long-term failures. Do you want to be the Yankees or the Rockies? When the Yankees find someone good in their organzation they do whatever it takes to keep them. What do the Rockies do? Analyze all of the different bullshit agendas and trade away players to save a buck. It's what separates the from the haves and the have nots. Sure, the Rockies might catch fire every now and then and make a run, but who is there every freaking year? The damn Yankees.

To bring it back to college sports. I'll list some basketball teams and you tell me what they all have in common (besides being cheaters ;-): Duke, UConn, UNC, Kansas, UCLA, Mich St. They all have top notch coaches that players want to play for. Don't kid yourself for a minute that it's the "program" kids come to play for. The program can bridge the gap between coaches (i.e. UND with Blais and Hackstol), but it's the coach that makes the program.

Lake Superior State seemed like a great program until Jeff Jackson left. Notre Dame seemed like a shitty program until Jackson arrived. Blais at UNO. Bowling Green with York and Mason. What happened to BG after they left? What happened to BC and Mich St. after they arrived? Co-incidences?

Puck swami said...

All I am trying to do is get DU hockey fans to see that Gwoz isn't being evaluated or paid against other DU coaches and you simply can't look at this through a hockey-centric lens. This is all part of something much larger. THe DU Board of Trustees wants DU to be the next Gonzaga. Thats why DU took all sports to DI and why they built the Ritchie Center - it isnt about just hockey. Hockey is a good niche sport with a great local history, but it pales in comparison to the national importance of basketball. We can argue about the validity of this vision, but Peg is paid to pursue it because that is what Dan Ritchie, Bob Coombe and the Board want want her to do...

By the way DU has a history of paying coaches well when they hit NCAA level performance and I think Gwoz will get a nice and well deserved raise if DU can go deeper in the NCAAs

Anonymous said...

I side with Aluuum and his spelling deficiencies on this. Pay the coach who brings in the most - period.

Dopes, you have made your investments in basketball and lax. Hopefully they will grow into the revenue producers you are hoping to see. For today and the next 10 years, make the smart move - invest in the ONE program that makes up the current cash cow. Hockey gives you the ability to have the other sport programs. You know it, swami knows it and so does everyone with a brain.

Some final notes:
• Here's to Sue getting swept next weekend

• CC sucks (it).

• Bring back Boone.

Aluuum said...

anon:12:19
I'm an engineer anon.I get a pass on spelling :)

puck swami said...

DU's athletic budget is about $25 million overall, much of which is scholarship costs, which are provided by DU to the athletic dept and back again in soft dollars. Real out-of-pocket costs are about $12-15 million per year for the whole dept.

Hockey's budget is about $1 million and it brings in $2-3 million in revenue, leaving $1-2 million in profit, depending on what you count.

Bottom line: Hockey does makes some money, but nowhere near enough money to pay for the other sports offeers.

In other words, DU will never be self supporting (like 95% of the other college athletic depts). That's ok - we don't ask the music dept or theatre dept to pay for themselves with performances, either.