Let's Point And Laugh At Michigan State Hockey
If you thought hiring Brady Hoke's 47-50 career record was an iffy move, you've got company. Not amongst your company is Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis, who just hired Tom Anastos to be Michigan State's head coach. Who is Tom Anastos? Exactly.
Anastos's career record is 0-0. He's spent the last 13 years taking the CCHA nowhere in particular as its commissioner. Before that he was president of the NAHL, which crumbled shortly after his departure and has been almost entirely supplanted by the USHL. According to HockeyDB his coaching credentials consist of a single season as a Michigan State assistant 20 years ago; before that he spent four years coaching UM-Dearborn's club(!) team.
To describe this as a shock doesn't do it justice. This is the equivalent of Michigan hiring Miami (Not That Miami) athletic director Brad Bates, a former Bo player, to coach the football team. If State had any hockey fans they'd be livid right now. They just hired a suit with literally zero track record to pick up the pieces left by Comley, thus proving their Corey Tropp curse isn't broken yet.
Aaron Rodgers is beautiful. Approaching Brett Favre level.
amen cheesheadwolverine.....go blue and go pack!
Had I known they weren't really looking for a hockey coach, I would have applied for the job. I have watched many hockey games. Thus, I am also qualified.
Me too. I am like Jack Adams on NHL 10 for the ps3.
I also shook hands with Mike Babcock and Ken Holland once! Double qualified! (or am I now over qualified for the State job??)
you got me. Screw msu hockey, you should shoot higher than MSU hockey and see if the Ann Arbor Wolve's would hire you.
Sparty NO-iest of Sparty NO! moments in recent memory. Unless "Tom Anastos" is the Clark Kent identity of Scotty Bowman, this is as bizarre as it gets.
Slash a man's head while he lays motionless on the ice, and this is what you get.
The NAHL didn't really crumble did it? It still exists, I know some kids in it. It's not competative with the USHL but it never was.
But seriously. Like seriously? How. Did. This. Happen? Who is coaching Union right now? Yale? UNO? There have got to be smaller program coaches with great track records who would beat down walls to get the State job.
Agreed. Except the UNO part -- their coach is Dean Blais -- a hockey genius (see NoDak teams from the 90s and early 00s and the USA WJC gold medal winning team from 2010)..but yes, they needed to hire a small school coach -- hell even RIT does a ton with virtually nothing.
#HALOL
Ohio State even got a coach that was somewhat decent and their team has resided somewhere between mid-major and kind of good-ish their entire existence.
Are they just planning on dropping the sport in its entirety, because this would be step one on the road to that end.
commissioner of the CCHA, maybe this is a step towards starting the MSU Hockey Conference.
LMAO
If they did form the MSU Hockey Conference and were the sole team, they would still find a way to finish second place with Anastos at the helm!
I seriously hope Michigan doesn't lose the first game to the Spartans next season. That would be tough to live through...
MSU, as the founder of the MSU Hockey Conference, would only admit schools with the word "State" or a compass direction in the title into the conference. The only team Sparty tricked into showing up was a very confused curling squad from NMU, who then proceeded to yell at all the Spartans to get off the rink.
Is this Hollis' effort to make the Comely era look not-so-bad-after-all? I realize that this is funny for us because it's State, but it's shocking that a program in a top level conference with a fair amount of history would make such an absolute reach for a hire.
I really thought they were going to hire Danton Cole who coached the USA U-17 team this past season and before that coached Alabama - Huntsville.
This is a huge shock and in my opinion MSU will not be good at hockey anytime soon.
The sparty's are holding out hope dc will be an assistant. Please tell me this is not an April fools day joke.
Dantonio makes "Pride comes before the fall comment."
MSU enjoys brief stay atop the landscape in this state.
Basketball reverses itself into a complete opposite dimension, completely opposite of football.
Pride comes before the fall comment takes itself out on State's own teams, but starts off with basketball and hockey.
Then in 2011 the football program at MSU gets hit in a weird karma-like reality, joining the basketball and hockey teams in what will become their own self-created purgatory.
Indeed, Pride WILL come before the fall, Spartans!
P.S. Does anyone know if State is announcing any new uniforms for football or basketball? Seems like it's been about a year or so since they've changed.
Anyone else see who was a teammate of Anastos's on the 85-86 Sherbrooke Canadiens? One Claude Lemieux. Let's hope Anastos learned the turtle move for when we beat his team into submission!
This makes no sense unless MSU's new goal for the program is "make Penn State feel welcome by sucking as much as they will in their first couple of years as a D-1 program"
I think Yinka DD hit it right on the head: This is a "Welcome to Division I hockey, we don't want you to lose to EVERYONE" move.
Classy and considerate by Hollis.
/extreme s
Have I told you lately that you're awesome?
That '80s helmet hair is awesome. I hereby endorse that hire.
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In a logically ordered universe, Hollis would be selling tractors and sheep manure in St. John's.
he's not as bad of a hire as it looks. coached under ron mason and has ran a league for 13 years
Does your mom also like the hire?
Welcome to the blog, Mrs. Anastos!
Is your son looking forward to coaching Michigan State?
you're saying the new MSU hockey coach is a "has-ran".
For two seasons he was an assistant. Looks to me like he is skipping the sinking ship that is the ccha.
No, it is every bit as bad a hire as it looks.
Mark Hollis is probably extremely proud of himself.
So he's doing everything he can to avoid having a good team.
Eternal life...for Michigan hockey.
I am shocked. No really, I am.
I'm going to reserve my laughter until I am sure he is a terrible coach and MSU beats out Bolwing Green for last next year, but I'm not worried about it.
This is incredible, and the dark blue part of my grand image of Penn State being the Big Ten doormat just took a radical shift into the green spectrum.
Even if he doesn't turn out to be a complete dud, how in the world do they expect to sell tickets next year? You can't convince me for all the tea in China that MSU couldn't do better than that. MICHIGAN TECH WILL PROBABLY BE HIRING A BETTER CANDIDATE THAN MSU JUST DID!
Anastos recently coached his daughters'(I believe he has two) Honeybaked U-12 team to a state title! If that doesn't tell you how good of a coach he really is, then something is surely the matter with you...
So he is like Gordon Bombay.
Oh man, that is almost too much. That is some funny shit right there. (I have nothing against youth teams, but jumping from U12, to msu, is almost too funny.)
I'm no expert when it comes to junior and college hockey; I was only dimly aware of possible candidates and make no pretense about being able to make a better hire myself. But I love the sport, I love the school, and my son plays. I spent my whole life being fed the idea that MSU is a national power, but today feels like the day that's over forever.
Of course it figures that this morning I let my son open his birthday present a day early, so he could wear it to practice tonight:
Peace
Ty
in your kid. Looks like you effectively corrupted him in other aspects though.
The State thing is in the blood; can't shake that--but yeah, on the Red Wings we have accord.
Peace
Ty
I don't think you have to be an expert when it comes to junior and college hockey to reasonably expect your school to hire a a new hockey coach who actually coaches hockey.
Apparently Anastos's been coaching his daughters' club teams this whole time, so it's not like he literally has not coached hockey in 20 years . . . plus, the world of hockey is inbred enough that powerful insiders of any stripe are powerful insiders, so he should theoretically be able to recruit.
That all having been said, I hope there are a couple of home-run X-and-O/game coach assistants involved in this, and it turns out to be a crazy-like-a-fox hire instead of just a flat-out crazy hire.
Peace
Ty
He's been asking for a Mohawk for months. Finally caved.
Peace
Ty
Some things you shouldn't cave on.
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<br>But great posts. :-)
Thanks.
Peace
Ty
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