On a sheet of ice in Grand Rapids, Mich. and a hardwood court in El Paso, Texas the respective seasons of the men’s hockey team and men’s basketball team came to an end in tournament play. For the hockey team it was a 3-2 loss to Cornell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, while for basketball it was a 75-66 defeat at the hands of UTEP in the second round of the College Basketball Invitational.
Now that the winter sports have ended for the Huskies, we as fans do what is natural and evaluate how each team did. By most accounts the evaluation has to do with each team’s preseason expectations.
This is a tricky aspect of sports. Whose expectations are being used as the benchmark? Everyone has their own expectations, but what’s to say that these are accurate or even realistic? And expectations are likely to change during the season according to injuries, lineup changes, performance, hot and cold streaks and other factors.
Expectations fluctuate so much that they can change from week to week, game to game, even as much as between periods and halves.
‘ It’s all a matter of perspective. For the men’s hockey team, if expectations were a Beanpot Championship and a victory in the NCAA Tournament, then it would appear as though expectations were not met. By the same token, if the Hockey East preseason coaches’ poll is used as the measuring stick then the team’s second-place regular season finish seems to exceed the fourth-place expectations.
The same goes for the basketball team. The CAA preseason coaches’ poll predicted a second-place regular season finish and college basketball expert Andy Katz said the Huskies would make the NCAA Tournament. These expectations never materialized. At the other end of the spectrum few, if any, believed Northeastern would win road games at Providence, Indiana, Old Dominion or VCU. These wins, combined with the team’s first postseason victory since 1984, suggest that the hoops team more than met expectations.
While each team has expectations to face, so too does each player and coach. Brad Thiessen was named Hockey East Player of the Year and Greg Cronin was named Hockey East Coach of the Year. Certainly fine accomplishments for both, yet Thiessen was not able to lead the Huskies to a championship in any of the six tournaments the team played. Meanwhile, Cronin wasn’t able to improve a power play that was in the bottom half of the conference throughout the season as the team lost four of its final six games and relinquished hold of the regular season championship on the season’s final day.
‘ Matt Janning of the basketball team was a first team All-CAA selection and head coach Bill Coen became the only coach this year to lead his team to a victory over every other conference opponent. Janning however saw his scoring average and shooting percentage take a dip from last year, while Coen was unable to prevent a late-season slide with a record of 3-6 down the stretch that dropped the team from their perch atop the conference.
‘ To borrow a line from a popular ’80s television show, ‘You take the good, you take the bad, you take ’em both and there you have’hellip;’ the 2008-09 Northeastern Huskies. There is plenty to be proud about, there is plenty to be disappointed about, yet each person defines success and failure in his or her own way.
How you recall each teams’ season depends on what you expected. Just remember that expectations are dangerous in sports and can either be surpassed or left unfulfilled. There is no middle ground.
With that in mind we can all set our expectations to 2009-10.

‘- Patrick McHugh can be reached at
[email protected].