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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYSeptember 24, 2014Red BerensonDETROIT, MICHIGAN RED BERENSON: It's good to be back here this time of year. It's good to be at Joe Louis. It's nice to see a nice turnout for the Big Ten press conference. It's good to hear the other coaches. It's good to get on the ice, and we're looking to be a better team than we were last year. If you're as good as your last game, we weren't very good last year, but we like the improvement of some of our young players. You hear the coaches talk about young players coming in. We like our freshman class coming in. We're really a freshman‑sophomore dominated team by numbers, but we'll talk about that later. Q. Can you talk about the value of the expanded non‑conference schedule? RED BERENSON: Well, I think I would repeat what the other coaches said, but in our case, the same thing, I can tell you it's difficult to‑‑ you just don't create a perfect non‑conference schedule. It depends who's open when and who will travel and who won't travel and so on. But we enjoyed it last year. Our first game of the year was Boston College. This year we'll play Ferris State, and we consider those schools top ten programs in the country. We'll go out to Boston this year. We went out to UNH last year and Nebraska, and this year‑‑ well, UNH will come to us and we go back out to Boston. But it's good. It's good for our players, good for our fans. But the big thing is I like the Big Ten Network, the Big Ten Conference, and I like the way, like Mike said, you finish your season on a serious conference schedule. I like all of that. Q. Did you get a specific benefit a year ago from being in the Big Ten? RED BERENSON: You know, the one thing I've always said, and this is years ago, is I like to play like schools, and I think our fans do, too. I mean, they'd rather come to a game, and no offense to some of the nearby schools, but they'd much rather see us play a Big Ten school or an Ivy school, whether that's just the attitude of our fans, our university, but they love those games, rather than play maybe some of the schools that we played more in the past. The fans love it. They're the big benefactors, and our players. They go into Wisconsin every year now. That's a good feeling. A Minnesota. This is serious college hockey, as good as it gets, and it's where we'd like to be. I think that's the main benefit. Q. Your program has been so consistent over the years. You guys missed the tournament for the last two years. How has that shaped or changed what you're doing over there? Are there any methods that you guys are putting forward? RED BERENSON: Well, I think all these programs have high expectations, and when you don't meet them, obviously that's a challenge. And for me it wasn't about whether we made the tournament, it was whether or not we deserved to make the tournament; did we have the kind of season, and whether it's wins and losses and tough opponents, your RPI has been brought up, your league, your conference, how it has done and so on, so forth. But it really comes down to your team and what kind of season you've had. And when you deserve to make it, then you expect to make it, and when you don't, then you don't. I mean, I had no complaints about not making the tournament. Our team didn't deserve to, and yet we nearly did if you remember. Shawn Hunwick took us to I think it was the CCHA championship game that year, but we didn't have a record that put us in that company, and that's the way it is. That's college hockey, and I think college hockey is better now than it was 10 years ago. There's more good teams, more good programs. Q. Given your druthers, I think you'd prefer to be a one‑goalie coach with Sharples and Shields and Turco and Blackburn, I think it was 16 years you had one goalie. With the emergence of Zach Nagelvoort last year, should that position be one of strength again now? RED BERENSON: Well, I like the improvement in both of our goalies. I think Steve Racine two years ago went on a 10‑game winning streak at the end of the year and showed he could be better than he was the first half of his freshman year, and last year Nagelvoort came in when Racine got hurt and he picked up the slack. This year I feel like we're going to be strong in that position, and I can't tell you how many games either one will play, but I feel a lot more confident, and I think our team does, as well, in our goalkeeping. It shouldn't be a question. You're always having question marks going into the season, and that shouldn't be one. Q. You just spoke about Nagelvoort. I guess you have Copp and Compher coming back among others and a solid freshman class. Who do you see having to step up in order to return to the tournament? RED BERENSON: Well, if you looked at our season last year, we thought we were competitive offensively, but defensively we weren't, and I think it starts there with our team. We have to be better defensively. We were below the middle of the pack on goals against, and that wasn't just our goalies, that was our team, whether it's your penalty killing or your back checking or your defensemen or whatever. But we have to be better defensively. But I think we have some young players that will be more productive this year, as well, and I hope that we're not a one‑line team. I hope we're a team that has balance in scoring just like Minnesota was last year, and we'll see where that goes. But I think guys like J.T. Compher will be ready to be a bigger role on the team, and Andrew Copp led our team in scoring last year, and he's our captain going in along with Zach Hyman. I think Zach is going to have his best year this year. I really like the way our team is coming together off the ice as well as on the ice, but we haven't played a game yet. Q. Given your résumé, which is hall‑of‑fame caliber, do you feel that you've earned the right to call your shot? If you want to coach to 100, you can coach to 100? RED BERENSON: No, no, I really don't. I feel fortunate to be at Michigan even at my age. I'm older than most of you guys, and I think the only reason I'm there is because I have a real good staff that is in sync with what has to be done. So I think our athletic directors, and I think I'm on my sixth or seventh athletic director, and they've been terrific with supporting the hockey program, and the same thing goes with the president of the university. I work for those people, but I'm proud of what I do and I'm proud of my work, but‑‑ I've told them, I'm really here on a year‑to‑year basis, and when it's not working for our team or our program, then I should get out of the way. Q. As you said, defense remains your biggest question mark. How have guys like low has been and downing who figure to play big factors in improvement, how have they progressed over the off‑season? RED BERENSON: Yeah, that's a great comment. Michael Downing was probably our most improved defenseman last year, and he was a freshman, and he made a real impact, and by the end of the year he was as good as any of our D, and that included our captain Mac Bennett. So Downing is ready to have another strong season. He'll have a huge role on our team. And Kevin Lohan is a big kid who got hurt in the first half of the year, so he never really got going, and those big kids take longer, but I think he's going to be real effective player this year, so there's two sophomores that will be in our top four. Q. J.T. Compher might be one of those guys one day that you'll need to drive to the airport for the NHL. For his game to evolve and take the next step, what do you expect from J.T.? RED BERENSON: I think just a little bit of everything. Younger players, I think everyone gauges them on their offense, but if you're going to be a real pro, you've got to be able to play without the puck, and just like any of our young players, if they're going to be the real deal, they've got to play both ends, and J.T. is one of those players. He works just as hard defensively as he does offensively, but for him to take the next step, I think it's just putting a finishing touch on everything, doing everything a little better. And giving these kids, you know, Don Lucia made some good points about whether these kids are ready for pro or not or ready for that drive to the airport. You just can't fast forward your body or your maturity or your strength, your confidence, and all those things take time, and that's the one great thing about college hockey. I can name you half a dozen players that I've seen in our league or our team that had they not played their senior year, they never would have made it, but they made it because they played their senior year, and really took that step. I know everybody is on an individual situation, but I think these kids, the longer they can stay in school, the longer they have a chance of making a living in hockey. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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