Season 5 Episodes 37 and 38 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; The Vibe Is Off and Get Off Your Phone! This week Tim Braun, Dustin Lindstrom, Rob Gilreath and Matt Cavender were joined by the former voice of Ferris State Bulldog hockey and friend of THG, Harrison Watt. In this episode they discussed Michigan Tech’s recently completed series against Northern Michigan, Michigan Tech’s upcoming series against Minnesota State, college hockey student sections, silly questions for Harrison and recent NCAA news regarding college athletes becoming university employees.
Matt needs a thesaurus
Matt got on the horn right away and decided that he needed a new word besides “frustrated” to describe how Michigan Tech has been playing in recent weeks. He blamed the lack of system and direction on the coaching staff and talked about the talent that is present on the Michigan Tech roster. Tim talked about Joe Shawhan wanting a player lead team, but Tim couldn’t identify who that leader might be this season. The guys called back to last week’s conversation about Michigan Tech’s lack of team identity.
Harrison brought up some of the distractions to the Michigan Tech locker room this season including Patriks Marcinkevics’ departure and Austen Swankler’s arrival. Harrison talked about how these distractions can linger a long time in a locker room and how the fans may not see that. Tim wondered if there was some player animosity due to Joe Shawhan bringing Swankler onto the team. Harrison agreed that bringing in Swankler was a gamble and that some of Michigan Tech’s players might not like playing with him due to the history of playing against him during his time at Bowling Green.
What’s going on in here?
The guys continued to bang their collective heads against the wall trying to figure out what is the cause of Michigan Tech’s season struggles. Harrison pointed out the number of minutes that some Michigan Tech players have been getting and called it old fashioned. Tim agreed and talked about needing to distribute the playing time more evenly. The guys discussed the change in roster from Friday to Saturday night and Joe’s comments on the reason why. Dustin thought that the coaches needed to look in the mirror if the players aren’t playing hard enough for them.
The guys all agreed that it was painful to lose to Northern Michigan in the way that Michigan Tech did. Harrison wondered if there was a mental aspect to Michigan Tech’s struggles and Tim thought that Joe should bring in a sports psychologist to work with the team. The guys talked about Joe hiring younger assistant coaches and some of the possible reasons he did so, including Joe being aware that he needed assistants who could relate to the younger players better.
Minnesota State series preview
The guys very briefly touched on the upcoming series between Michigan Tech and Minnesota State. The homer of the group (Matt, for those of you not paying attention) picked a Minnesota State sweep. Harrison picked a split simply because he hates Minnesota State’s yellow jerseys. None of the other three provided picks. Tim asked who the Winter Carnival MVP would be. Matt and Dustin both picked whoever is in net for Minnesota State and Tim picked Lucas Sowder.
Old man yells at clouds
To lighten the mood a little, Tim asked Harrison which CCHA school had the second best student section behind Mitch’s Misfits. Harrison’s answer was Bowling Green with Minnesota State being close, but their lack of organization pushed them down a peg. Harrison then decided to go on a rant about college students. It was a multi-faceted rant that started with him talking about students not attending sporting events like they used to. Harrison then went on to voice his displeasure at students always being on their cell phones. He talked about kids needing to have life experiences so that they can be ready for the real world.
Silly question time
As is tradition when Harrison is on the show, there were a slew of silly questions that he was required to answer. These questions included how many pigeons he could carry in a day, how do we know there are no space vampires, the difference between a maze and a labyrinth, whether the Kool-Aid man is the juice or the pitcher, how many grains of sand make a pile and which side of a backpack is the front.
Paying college athletes
The guys pivoted away from hockey and Tim brought up a recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board which indicated that Dartmouth men’s basketball players should be considered university employees. The guys agreed that the decision seemed to pertain only to private university athletes. Harrison thought that the athletes needed to be careful what they wish for because the public doesn’t care about the athletes as much as the athletes think they do. Harrison went on to talk about the inevitable college football super league that will be created and what will happen to the rest of the sports. He didn’t think football would be sharing their profits with the rest of the sports when that happens. The guys talked about coaches going to professional teams and not making their way back to college sports due to the changes that always happen.
Cut for time
This weeks cut time for Patrons is approximately 6 minutes long. Harrison talked about how much faster the hockey season moves when he’s watching from the outside. The guys talked about opposing back up goalies playing amazing against Michigan Tech and Ferris State. Various “end of show” topics were discussed.
Learn More
For additional information and more episode liner notes, check out our episode overview on Tech Hockey Guide. To make sure we can afford all our fancy equipment we purchased for the podcast and the THG website in general, please check out our Patreon page and consider joining. Patrons at our Black Level or above receive an authentic MTU jersey patch and access to extra podcast content including extended versions of our other episodes. This week’s extended version is about 97 minutes.
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Check out Tech Leadership 4.0: Leading in a Technologically Driven World and The Power of Deduction: Failure Modes & Effects Analysis for Design: Second Edition written by our very own Old Dog, Mike Anleitner
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