Michigan Wolverines Hockey

[lineygoblue]

The mgoblog article on this begins "for those living under a rock". I guess that means me, because I had no idea this was coming. Can somebody give me the thumbnail version of why Mel Pearson got fired?

He was really mean to the girls in the office, and he said bad stuff to his players.

[Hannibal]

He was really mean to the girls in the office, and he said bad stuff to his players.

So is this a "spirit of the age" firing or is it a legit good move for the program?

[Hannibal]

Brandon Naurato has been named as the interim coach.

[lineygoblue]

So is this a "spirit of the age" firing or is it a legit good move for the program?

There's probably enough there that made the decision to part ways, the right thing to do. I do think M will miss Pearson's recruiting expertise.

[Mike]

Brandon Naurato has been named as the interim coach.

Wow. That came out of left field. Billy Muckalt is very highly thought of and is/was the Associate HC. I wondered if he’d get passed over for being too close to the situation. It’s pretty clear that an interim would be necessary at this late stage.

Hanni, I’ll try to fill in some blanks for you tomorrow.

[Obi-Jon]

"Interim" for the entire 2022-23 season.


https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/202...23-season.html


Muckalt remains on the staff.

[lineygoblue]

I don't get the reason why he has to remain 'interim" for the entire season.

Is Manuel too lazy to find the permanent coach now? Keeping Naurato as an interim seems like Manuel is saying "I think I want you as my HC, but I need a year to think about it".

Not exactly a boost of confidence.

[Mike]

So is this a "spirit of the age" firing or is it a legit good move for the program?

When the report was leaked last week I originally thought he needed to go because despite his ridiculously good recruiting, he was somehow holding the team back from reaching their full potential. Then after reading the Wilmer Hale report I moved more into the "Mel's getting railroaded" opinion. At that point it didn't matter because about 95% of the fanbase, the university president, and every Regent wanted him gone. I've detailed some of the statements made in the WH report up thread but here's a brief timeline of the key issues that led to Mel no longer being coach:

1. Michigan had a strong finish to the 2020-21 season moving from a bubble team to a 2 seed in the NCAA tourney. Recall that this was still during the pandemic with no fans and players isolated and all that fun stuff. The day before Michigan left for the tourney in North Dakota a player tested positive. He had two roommates that were also on the team who tested negative and traveled to North Dakota. Once there, they had to fill out contact tracing forms per NCAA protocols. Players claim they were encouraged to answer "No" about close contacts with positive individuals. The directive came from some underling on the training staff (IIRC) but it is widely believed that the order came from Mel. Subsequently, the two roommates tested positive, one with no symptoms and another that felt sick and they were put in a van and driven 18 hours back to Ann Arbor. Ultimately, Michigan was barred from competing in the tournament due to the positive tests. It's unclear if the NCAA was aware of the issue with the contact tracing forms.

2. Strauss Mann was the first and only goalie to ever be voted captain by his teammates for that 2020-21 season. Shortly after their season abruptly ended with their expulsion from the NCAA tournament, he met with Mel to express some players' concerns/frustrations. That is exactly the sort of thing a captain is supposed to do, BTW. Strauss informed him that a lot of guys were very uncomfortable about the mess with the contract tracing forms and there was a general sense of disrespect among several players. Mel was seemingly very pissed and took offense. This is right around the time Steve Shields started making a ruckus about the Covid forms. Shields, a former All-American goalie for Michigan, worked closely with the goaltenders and had a tight bond with Strauss. Mel, perhaps being a bit paranoid, thought Shields was puppeting Mann in an attempt to get him fired.

Mel ended up "processing" Mann out of the program telling him that he'd lost the trust of his teammates and he'd have to earn it back. In doing so, there's no guarantee that he would remain captain or even the starting goaltender for his senior season. Strauss saw the writing on the wall and signed with a pro team in Sweden for the next season. At the time I was shocked that he would do such a thing when we were knocking on the door for a natty. Mel went even further by badmouthing him to NHL scouts, at least one of them knew Shields and reached out to him, like WTF is going on with Strauss?

3. Toxic work environment for hockey staff. Mel promoted Rick Bancroft, a longtime trainer, to Director of Hockey Operations 3 years ago. Rick is an asshole and always has been. It was he, and not Mel (with one exception), that would berate female staff members. One of them ended up retiring as a result because she could no longer tolerate working there. This is another issue that Shields brought to Mel's attention and he did nothing to reign Bancroft in. This one spelled big trouble for Mel because it elicited a Title IX complaint for gender discrimination (by Shields on behalf of the female staffers) and led to the university hiring Wilmer Hale to conduct an investigation into the hockey program in October 2021.

Around this time it seems Shields was badmouthing Mel to hockey alumni and boosters which made it's way back to Mel. He clearly had an agenda to get Pearson out of there and filed complaints with multiple university agencies in furtherance of that goal.

4. Pearson fires Shields (I posted details of that meeting up thread) and in a formal complaint Shields contends that he was fired in retaliation for bringing these negative issues to light. The Wilmer Hale report attempts to both-sider this complaint by first claiming that Mel did not technically violate university policy with regards to retaliation but they conclude that it is more likely than not that Mel fired Shields because of his whistle blowing. My take on Shields' firing is that he was an unpaid volunteer assistant who didn't have his contract renewed because he was clearly creating waves for the head coach. It was a no-brainer to cut him loose and I posted several comments up thread from people in the know regarding Shields. Red Berenson referred to him as mentally unstable. Yikes.

Then perhaps the final nail that in Mel's coffin came in the form of a recorded conversation between he and Shields of them discussing the Strauss Mann situation. Pearson told WH investigators that he never discussed the Mann situation with Shields and then Shields provided them with the recording. It is never made clear who made the recording or where it came from, just that Shields provided it. I'm not sure of the legality of recording a conversation without the other party's knowledge but I think that is perhaps illegal. Anyhow, it was the classic "do you recall the conversation KNOW?" routine. That obviously made it into the final report and led to blaring headlines about how Mel lied to investigators. Then it became "repeatedly lied". I don't think there was any saving him at that point.

So my own conclusion is that Mel had lost the team, squandered a historically talented roster, and wasn't a good CEO type of coach at a major program. My own research, including a discussion with a former CCHA ref, is that Mel was always a really good guy and thought of highly in the hockey community. I don't know if the pressure got to him or what but he clearly got out over his skis and face-planted. There became too much of a black cloud over the program for him to continue. A lot of the alleged complaints can be explained away if they were isolated incidents but when they start piling up, something is wrong. There were other sketchy things, too, like ducking Western Michigan in the GLI game at Yost this year. He really dragged Michigan's name through the mud with that one.

Given all this, Warde Manuel was ready to sign him to a new contract one week ago today.

[Mike]

I don't get the reason why he has to remain 'interim" for the entire season.

Is Manuel too lazy to find the permanent coach now? Keeping Naurato as an interim seems like Manuel is saying "I think I want you as my HC, but I need a year to think about it".

Not exactly a boost of confidence.

Liney, camp is gonna start in a few weeks, their first exhibition game is Oct. 1. There's no way in hell to conduct a coaching search at this point. It had to be an interim. I just find the choice of Naurato curious. He was there all of 1 season, his only season as a coach, and was the clear #3 guy on the bench... out of 3 guys. I think the calculus was simply: which current member of the staff has the cleanest hands - meaning who has been around the least amount of time.

This does not fill me with great confidence. It reminds me of Brad Ausmus taking over a Tigers team that was in win-or-bust mode and then promptly watching the wheels fall off.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Thanks for the recap, Mike. I've followed M athletics for a long time and my primary interests are not in how baseball, basketball, hockey, etc. are played but rather the inside story of the often self defeating shit that goes down at M when it comes to fielding championship teams. I have followed the football program closely and, at least in my mind, I know a good deal about that game. The rest? No.

Mel was the CEO. That position requires the leadership skills to detect when shit is going on, trouble is brewing and fix it. That's a given if you want to coach championship teams. Secondarily, you have to be clean meaning you start taking short cuts to get ahead (you will be found out), fail to recognize a problem or screw-up a "fix" to a problem you think you have in your organization, you're done. Nobody will trust you to lead, subordinates or superiors. Marine commanders get relieved by their superiors when, they call it, your superior experiences a loss in confidence in your leadership. Doesn't have to be anything specific as relief usually occurs and should occur before the shit-hits the fan......when a superior is engaged and has his ear to the ground.

Mel clearly fucked up with Straus Mann, along with the COVID stuff - taking short cuts - and things went down hill from there. Yes, there was pot stirring by his enemies but by that time he had lost the team. He needed to be out of there.

So, the big ask is, where was Warde Manuel in this evolving shit storm that went on for a while? He's the HMFWIC, right? He should have had an ear to the program and sensed things weren't going well. There were plenty of signs they weren't along the road to Mel's firing that you've laid out here. That, from your account of it, seems Warde was clueless and/or covering for Mel. That marks him as the exact moron we have mostly thought he was since he arrived. I remain astounded at the cluster fuck most of the things that have gone on within the M's AD over the 45+ years I've watched M sports. Based on the insight gained in this particular cluster fuck and seemingly how often they happen, I just won't be astounded anymore.

[lineygoblue]

Liney, camp is gonna start in a few weeks, their first exhibition game is Oct. 1. There's no way in hell to conduct a coaching search at this point. It had to be an interim.

Ok, thanks. I get it now. For some reason, I was thinking that there was more time remaining before the season. We're already running into mid-August.

[Mike]

You mean you haven’t felt “hockey season is in the air” these past couple weeks? Lol

[Obi-Jon]

Good guys play the schmucks on Feb 18th in Cleveland in an outdoor "Mistake on the Lake" game.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2022/08/22/um-outdoor-hockey-game-cleveland-highlights-big-ten-schedule/7871397001/

[lineygoblue]

It should be fine as long as the river doesn't catch fire again.

[lineygoblue]

Question for Mike:

You are the M Hockey expert around here. Is Michigan on track to qualify for the NCAA's, or do they have work to do?