January 17, 2024 • 26 mins
St. Thomas head coach Rico Blasi joins hosts Jim Connelly (@jimmyconnelly) and Ed Trefzger (@EdTrefzger) to talk about this season's Tommies, developing a program during the new transfer portal era, cultivating values, a new facility under construction, the CCHA, and more.
This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Division I Men's Frozen Four, April 11 and 13 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Visit ncaa.com/mfrozenfour
This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Division I Men's Frozen Four, April 11 and 13 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Visit ncaa.com/mfrozenfour
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Usccho dot com. Welcome to usccho'sSpotlight for Wednesday, January seventeenth, twenty
twenty four. I'm Ed Trevsker alongsideJim Connolly. This podcast is sponsored by
(00:24):
the NCAA Men's Division one Frozen fourApril eleventh and thirteenth at Excel Energy Center
in Saint Paul, Minnesota. VisitNCAA dot com slash m Frozen four to
get your tickets today. Speaking ofSaint Paul, it's the home of one
of the newest programs in Division oneand joining us now in us CHO Spotlight,
(00:45):
the head coach of Saint Thomas,Rico Blasi, Welcome to the show.
Welcome back, I guess because youwere a frequent guest back in your
days at Miami. We're glad tohave you back. Rica. So a
great season so far to date ina very young program at Saint Thomas.
(01:07):
What's it been like getting this programgoing and having a little bit of early
success here. Thanks for having me, Jim, And it's great to be
back. And even though I've beengone for a little bit, doesn't feel
like I have. But no,it's been a lot of fun. You
know, from day one when wearrived on campus, just building from really
(01:30):
the ground zero to where we aretoday. There's been a few challenges and
some hard work, but our staff, our administration, our alumni, our
players have done a great job andjust buying into what we're trying to build
here and the culture that we're buildingand the identity that we have as a
(01:57):
program. It's really exciting for usto be a part of it. And
you know, we've been I thinkfrom last Christmas to this point, we've
been pretty competitive with with what we'vedone on the ice. But the most
thing, the most proud I amof of our program is just how we've
really embraced this culture that we've builtof faith and brother and getting everybody to
(02:23):
buy into what we need to doon a day to day basis to be
successful. You use the words culture, identity, very important words you hear
in the culture in the coaching world. I want to go to a different
one. Philosophy is coaching philosophy somethingthat really matters when you come into the
(02:44):
day to day of working with youngplayers. At this point, so I
mean you coaching is an art.I think you have to be in tune
with with your surroundings. You haveto have a basis of what you believe
in and how you want things touh kind of evolve from from day to
(03:04):
day. Especially in college hockey,we practiced so much. You've got to
you gotta have some sort of processto to to building your building your team
so that they can perform at ahigh level on the weekends. And so
I think it's an important piece ofwhat we do, and and so our
staff really focuses a lot on thatto make sure that we stay true to
(03:28):
that philosophy. To me, identityand philosophy are probably the same thing,
uh and cultures overriding all those things. But you you really have to have
those checks and balances so that you'renot getting away from from the process,
getting away from that the what's reallyimportant to your program and to your student
(03:49):
athletes, which is ultimately developing themto be the best version of themselves.
And and so if you have agood philosophy on that and you're holding each
other accountable, you're able to navigatethrough some of the adversity and some of
the things that will probably go onin your program that might you know,
(04:12):
derail it if you will. Andso it's an important piece, no doubt
The other common read we hear withcoaches is core values, and that doesn't
always mean what's off the ice ofhow you act and stuff like that.
Sometimes it's just going to the hardon the power play and making sure that
you have you know, guys screening, are there core values that you kind
(04:34):
of have to always kind of harpon with guys that you want to just
see them do in their game everyday, whether it's on the ice off
the ice. I think sometimes youknow, core values are thrown around and
and they're loosely thrown around. Peoplejust throw them on a wall and expect
(04:55):
them to come to fruition if youif if you just put them on a
wall. But I think it's Ithink what you're talking about are the details,
the details of your game, thedetails of developing you as a hockey
player, developing you as a humanbeing, and so the daily behaviors that
go on in terms of of thatdevelopment and that growth that maturity are really
(05:20):
important. You talk about the stuffon the ice right, going harder than
net, stopping in front, makingsure that you hit the net when you're
taking a shot, that you're you'readvancing the puck to somebody that's open,
that you're driving the middle lane,that you you have your stick in a
good position when you're when you're forchecking, or when you're on the penalty
(05:40):
kill, or you're moving the puckand getting traffic in front of power play,
whatever it may be. That goestrue for off the ice as well.
Are you going to class or you'remaking your bed. Are you being
a good person? Are you ingood relationships with your with your with your
peers, Are you in good relationshipswith your family? Are you are you
speaking? Are you doing what youspeak of? Are you true to yourself?
(06:05):
Or you trustworthy? All those things, to me are combined in what
we do, and usually it translateson the ice, right And so you
know, I always laugh when everyonesays, wow, you're you know,
you're a hockey coach, But whatelse do you do? You know?
I mean, I do what Ido because everything in my life is geared
(06:27):
towards being a good person and beingthe best version of myself. So hopefully
that carries over your student athletes.I want to get into some of the
players on your team right now.Goaltending pretty much to split down the middle
of between Aaron Totter and Jake's igel. What do you like about your goaltending
right now? At this point,both of them are playing really well and
(06:51):
they're very competitive in practice, andyou know, the days where you run
one guy I think are few andfar between. Certainly some teams are able
to do that. I've always been, you know, part of my philosophy
has always been that you have tohave two guys that are going for a
(07:15):
lot of different reasons, injuries,knock on wood, just not performing to
the level that you expect to perform. Sometimes a team plays better in front
of one or the other, butwe owe it to our goaltenders to develop
them. That's no different than adefenseman or a forward, and the best
way to do that at any positionis to have competition. It brings out
(07:39):
the best in everybody, and certainlythose two guys have embraced it and they're
doing a really good job of it. Luclas Wall and Matt Macbuyer is both
with nine goals at this point.Offense is a big part of it.
What you have to do, Imean, how have you seen those two
players start to develop this season?Well, Lucas was injured for a little
(08:01):
bit last year, so he reallykind of you know, when he came
back at the end of the year, he wasn't probably one hundred percent,
but started off certainly started off lastyear really really good. He's our captain,
he's our heart and soul. He'she's our identity driver. When he's
playing on his toes and and uhsometimes reckless, he's very effective and so
(08:28):
the puck kind of follows him arounda little bit. Mac is that net
front guy that you know, Iwould say ninety five percent of the goals
and in all of hockey, nomatter what level or scored in front of
the net, and Mac has aknack for that. He's he's really good
getting himself inside guys and getting secondopportunities and making the most of them.
(08:50):
Rico, you had the opportunity buildingthis team to draw from the transfer portal,
which didn't exist a few years ago, at least not with the more
rule rules it has now, andyou've put together team with a mixture of
transfers and recruits. How have youapproached bringing in transfers and how do you
see that working in the future foryour program? Well, I think,
(09:15):
first and foremost, the way we'vewe've designed this build is kind of unique.
It's not the same as as someof the other programs that have started.
We went with the approach that wewere going to unveil scholarships in a
four year increment, and so we'rein year one. We only gave out
(09:37):
two scholarships. I didn't feel likeit was I didn't feel comfortable giving out
more than that, And so wereally played with a team of Division three
guys and and two scholarship players,and it was a great year. I
forget about the outcomes that that teamreally started the build and the identity and
the culture that we see today andthat is still a and then year two
(10:01):
we moved to ten scholarships and thenthis year we're at fifteen. So utilizing
the portal for us was really importantbecause we had to we had to kind
of fill the gaps a little bit. But at the same time, I
think when you're talking about the portal, you really have to do a really
important deep dive on who you're goingto recruit from the portal to make sure
(10:24):
that they fit into the to theculture, to the program the way you
want to play. You know,for us, we're lucky in Saint Paul
because you know, as I don'tknow the exact number, but there's over
two hundred players from Minnesota playing Divisionone hockey and so a lot of those
guys in the portal are from theTwin Cities, and so that is an
(10:48):
advantage to us that we want tomake sure that we explore from year to
year to see if that to seeif we have an opportunity to make our
team better and somebody that really wantsto be here. And so far we've
been really fortunate and lucky to havethose guys that have really fit in.
You mentioned a lot of things aboutthe team that are really timeless qualities for
(11:11):
a hockey program, and somebody couldhave said that fifty years ago about building
hockey. But then there are somethings that have changed even from when you
began coaching. The technology that's atyour hands now, the skill level and
the skating ability of players, trainingand nutrition, all of that. What
kind of things have made the mostimpact, say, compared to twenty years
(11:33):
ago? And now I think youmentioned really all of them. The athlete
himself or herself is way more skilled, faster, bigger, stronger. You
know, these guys come into shapein the fall. You know, maybe
(11:54):
thirty five years ago, we wouldhave worked out a little bit in the
summer, but we had a wholemonth of September to get ourselves ready to
go. But these guys are youknow, they go twelve months of the
year, and so I think that'sa huge change to Obviously, the technology,
the analytics, all those things comeinto play, the sports science.
(12:16):
You know, we we collaborate withour sports science department here at Saint Thomas,
and we have students at our practicetracking you know, their workloads,
and I know exactly how hard we'reworking based on the numbers. And that's
a new thing for us here incollege hockey. And in the old days,
(12:37):
we used to spitball. You know, hey, Ed looks a little
tired, Maybe we should take aday off. Now I can calculate really
when we need a day off,just based on the workloads. So a
lot has changed, a lot forthe better. At the end of the
day, though, you still gotto play the game the right way,
and the fundamentals of hockey haven't changed. I was joking with the guys a
(12:58):
couple of weeks ago because we werea little loose in practice and guys were
trying to do too much and forcethe puck, And I'm like, why
do you guys think that you guysknow better? This game has been around
for over one hundred years. Youpass the puck, you shoot the puck,
you play hard when you don't havethe puck. So some of the
basic things are still really really importantin our game today. More with Rico
(13:24):
Blasi in a moment. This podcastis sponsored by the NCAA Men's Division one
Frozen four April eleventh and thirteenth atXL Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Where are my hockey fans at?Welcome to fandom one oh one.
It's NCAA Ice Hockey Championship time,when the hottest teams in the country face
(13:48):
off under one group. Be thereto see your squad hoist the ultimate trophy
overhead the NCAA Men's Frozen Pool,April eleventh and thirteenth in Saint Paul,
Minnesota. Attendance is encouraged. Passionis mandatur viruses Today at NCAA dot Com,
Slash improves people Class dismissed. We'reback now with St. Thomas head
(14:18):
coach Rico Blasi. You're part ofan athletic department that really had to rather
quickly move everything from Division three toDivision one. What's that been like for
the whole athletic department at Saint Thomas. I couldn't even tell you how crazy
it's been here in the last twoand a half years, three years.
(14:41):
All the credit goes to doctor Aston. Phil Aston, our athletic director and
his administration is has worked tiresly toget us up to speed at the Division
one level. Thankfully he's been He'sbeen at some pretty good places with some
pretty good teams at Minnesota as anassociate ad at cal Berkeley, as a
(15:05):
deputy at Penn State as a deputy, so he understands what we need at
the Division one level, what needsto be done. But you're talking about
going from a Division three budget toa Division one budget and in a short
period of time and having to hireI don't know, over one hundred people.
We didn't have an academic office,we didn't have marketing office, we
(15:26):
didn't have social media. Our mediarelations was one person. We didn't have
assistant coaches in most sports, soyou can imagine we're we have a lot
of cubicles right now, and youknow, when our new building comes online
here in the next year and ahalf, hopefully everybody starts to get an
(15:48):
office so they can so they canwork without being disturbed. And it's a
big building project coming up the Leeand Penny Anderson Arena. Yeah, it's
awesome. The utility work's going onright now as we speak. I try
not to drive over there every daybecause you don't want to get too excited
because it's still a little bit away. But it's a lot of fun to
(16:11):
be part of another building, andyou know, being in those meetings with
the design team and the market youknow, the building crew and the construction
crew. I should say it's beenit's been a lot of fun. Having
been through it a few times now. As an assistant at Denver, I
(16:32):
knew a little bit from what coachwas DECKI would tell us as assistant coaches,
But that was fun. To bea part of it and watch it
grow, and then to be abig part of it at Miami was awesome.
And now here it's one hundred andseventy one million dollar building, multi
purpose basketball hockey practice facility for notonly hockey but for both basketball teams,
(16:56):
and state of the art locker roomsand training room and weight room, so
it's crazy time, but fun.I want to ask you one more question
related to the c CHA where Iguess c h A two point zero it
was put together pretty much with teamsthat seem to fit a fit much of
(17:18):
the same footprint. And then DonLuccia as the commissioner with a lot of
coaching experience and certainly hockey experience.What's uh, what's your view now a
few years, three years into thec CHA. Yeah, we started before
I got the job at Saint Thomas, so obviously I was the new guy
on c C at the c ch A two point zero. But listen,
(17:41):
we have great coaches in our league, some really historic programs that really
support their hockey programs, and thebuildings are full. It's it's a lot
of fun to play on the road, I can tell you that. And
and Donnie's you know, well respectedhockey person that understands some of the things
(18:03):
that we go through. So we'revery lucky to have that. As you
know, in the West, thelandscape is a little bit crazy in terms
of travel and stuff like that.But it's been an excitingly very competitive It's
a grind every weekend. There's noeasy games. Not that you want it
(18:25):
to be, but it's been.It's been quite an experience for us.
And you know what the grind andthe the competitiveness and because you have to
be ready at a high level everyweekend has made our program better every weekend.
The only unfortunate fact of this seasonfor Saint Thomas that if you were
(18:47):
to win the c CHA, youcan knot get into the NCAA tournament,
but the NCAA Frozen Four will beplayed in your backyard of Saint Paul,
Minnesota. I guess the color hockeyworld will under stand what it's like to
be in Saint Paul at that point. But what is it? What is
that city like? I mean,we know it as ed and I as
people that have been there many times. But if you haven't been to Saint
(19:10):
Paul, how crazy is that cityfor this for this sport? Well,
just Minnesota in general, where wecall ourselves the state of Hockey for a
reason. It's it's nuts. Uh. You drive around Saint Paul right now,
I can. I can see arink out outdoor rink right here from
my office. Everybody's playing hockey.Everybody loves hockey. The city of Saint
(19:33):
Paul embraces the wild, embraces highschool hockey. Our game against the University
of Minnesota was just an electric atmosphereearlier in October with Saint Thomas and Gopher
fans, and no matter what whathockey is being played in Saint Paul,
you know you're going to have knowledgeablefans and excited fans about about the game.
(19:59):
The city itself has so much todo, You have so much to
do. It's great restaurants, justa great feel in Minnesota. Nice,
that's real. And so we're gonnahave We're gonna have the Frozen four here
in Saint Paul. I can tellyou it'll be a great time and h
and everybody will welcome everyone from fromout of town with open arms, a
(20:22):
little bit of brass tacks here.You do go to Western Michigan, I'm
sorry, Northern Michigan this weekend.Obviously a team that has had some great
success in that league over the lastthree four years. Big challenges. What
are the biggest challenges on the roadthis weekend? Well, anytime you play
on the road, it's a challenge, from the travel to playing in hostile
(20:47):
environment. Grants done an unbelievable jobat Northern. He's uh. He always
has his team playing at the playingwell at the right time. And you
know, we had a series earlyin October with them, or early in
November, i should say, withthem, and it was it was a
grind, it was a battle,and I expect the same thing this weekend.
(21:10):
Well, it has been a funwatch from AFAR, I will tell
you, Rico. Uh, youknow, watching a new program come into
Division one college hockey. I've beenaround, It's been around a long enough
time to see new programs come along, and we want to see this,
uh, the sport continue expand.So congratulations to where you've gotten so far,
(21:32):
and certainly best of luck, notjust the rest of the way this
year, but as you grow,continue to grow your program. It's Jim,
Thanks, Ed, I really appreciatelook forward to being on again sometime
soon. That's Saint Thomas head coachRico Blasei. Jim, it was fun
to hear Rico talk about and it'scertainly good to catch up with him again
(21:53):
as we followed his career basically fromthe beginning. But what an opportunity and
unique one too, in a schoolwhere you're moving the whole program from Division
three right past Division two, rightstraight to Division one and building a team
from the ground up. Listen,there's nothing easy about that, and he
(22:14):
kind of highlighted that in that interview. You know, I've seen a lot
of teams go from D two toD one. I've been around g Mass
Little and Merrimack and Merrimacks in theprocess. Now, it's not easy to
do that. But to go fromdivision three, there's a big difference.
I don't know if people understand thefinancial difference between Division three and Division two.
(22:36):
You were talking about basically, gofrom a nonprofit institution two of somewhat
for profit sport to a major forprofit sport in division one. That's the
three levels. Like you're going froma Division three where you don't even think
about financials, to Division two whereyou just find a way to skate by,
you give a little bit of scholarshiphere and there, you make some
(22:57):
money here and there, to Divisionone where you have to have revenue,
and revenue then drives your athletic department. It is so different. And to
go from three to one quickly,and that's the only way to do it.
If you're doing a transition and that'swhat Saint Thomas is going through.
That is very difficult. So youhave to give a lot of credit to
(23:19):
the administration. As he said,you're adding one hundred positions at least.
I mean it's quick too. You'rejust you know, you're building facilities,
you're building offices. As he said, you're going from cubicles to hopefully offices
at some point, because that's theonly way you can move in that that
type of space. I think thedifficulty of it requires some great leadership and
(23:45):
it certainly requires people who understand howto move forward. That's not always something
that is a skill set of theaverage person. Uh. And you have
to have everybody focused on that.So you have a guy like Rico in
there to help with the hockey sideof it. Obviously that's moving their program
to Division one. He's done avery good job of that. But you
(24:08):
have to be able to all workin concert with one another to understand the
overall mission, which is to notjust be an athletic department, but you
have to be a profitable athletic departmentat the center of the university. I
think just about any coach in theCCHA would describe it much the way Rico
did as a grind, and hockey'salways been a grind. And Rico seems
(24:33):
to have one foot standing solidly onthe foundations of hockey from the last fifty
to one hundred years, while alsobeing able to embrace what's different now,
whether it's the players or technology ornutrition. Yeah, I'm not sure he
wants to go back fifty to onehundred years, but he certainly has been
around for a good number of yearsbetween his days in Denver as an assistant
(24:56):
as at Miami as a head coach. Now, I would Saint Thomas.
He understands the way that players havetransformed, and that's the most important thing.
I go back a dozen years toworking with Jerry Yorke a lot when
I was covering him, and onething that Mike Kavanaugh, who's now the
(25:17):
Yukon head coach, said, thisis a while ago. He said,
the one thing is that Jerry alwayskind of kept up with the players.
He always understood what their music was, he always understood what their personality was,
He always understood what they were doing. He could find out and I
will tell you like he was aguy that was ahead of the texting,
you know, thing twenty years agohe was texting people. And that's what
(25:40):
it takes. That's what it takesas a coach, is to stay a
little bit ahead of your players,or stay at least with them. You
don't have to be on the cuttingedge. You don't have to be out
at the fratthauses and bars with themand understanding everything they do. But you
have to learn what your players relateto. I think that you know,
(26:00):
you see a guy like Frego,he as many years as he's spent in
this game, he still looks youngand he sounds young, and I think
that's very critical to being a greathead coach at this point in the game,
is that you have to find away to relate to your players.
He seems to do that really wellin the matter where he goes. Saint
(26:22):
Thomas has shown us just one moreway that programs can be added to Division
one hockey, and we certainly watchwhat's happening there with great interest. This
podcast has been sponsored by the NCAAMen's Division One Frozen Fourth, April eleventh,
and thirteenth at Xcel Energy Center inSaint Paul, Minnesota. Visit NCAA
dot com, slash m Frozen fourto get your seats for Jim Connolly.
(26:45):
I'm Ed Trefsker and this has beenus Echo spotlight
Usccho dot com. Welcome to usccho'sSpotlight for Wednesday, January seventeenth, twenty
twenty four. I'm Ed Trevsker alongsideJim Connolly. This podcast is sponsored by
(00:24):
the NCAA Men's Division one Frozen fourApril eleventh and thirteenth at Excel Energy Center
in Saint Paul, Minnesota. VisitNCAA dot com slash m Frozen four to
get your tickets today. Speaking ofSaint Paul, it's the home of one
of the newest programs in Division oneand joining us now in us CHO Spotlight,
(00:45):
the head coach of Saint Thomas,Rico Blasi, Welcome to the show.
Welcome back, I guess because youwere a frequent guest back in your
days at Miami. We're glad tohave you back. Rica. So a
great season so far to date ina very young program at Saint Thomas.
(01:07):
What's it been like getting this programgoing and having a little bit of early
success here. Thanks for having me, Jim, And it's great to be
back. And even though I've beengone for a little bit, doesn't feel
like I have. But no,it's been a lot of fun. You
know, from day one when wearrived on campus, just building from really
(01:30):
the ground zero to where we aretoday. There's been a few challenges and
some hard work, but our staff, our administration, our alumni, our
players have done a great job andjust buying into what we're trying to build
here and the culture that we're buildingand the identity that we have as a
(01:57):
program. It's really exciting for usto be a part of it. And
you know, we've been I thinkfrom last Christmas to this point, we've
been pretty competitive with with what we'vedone on the ice. But the most
thing, the most proud I amof of our program is just how we've
really embraced this culture that we've builtof faith and brother and getting everybody to
(02:23):
buy into what we need to doon a day to day basis to be
successful. You use the words culture, identity, very important words you hear
in the culture in the coaching world. I want to go to a different
one. Philosophy is coaching philosophy somethingthat really matters when you come into the
(02:44):
day to day of working with youngplayers. At this point, so I
mean you coaching is an art.I think you have to be in tune
with with your surroundings. You haveto have a basis of what you believe
in and how you want things touh kind of evolve from from day to
(03:04):
day. Especially in college hockey,we practiced so much. You've got to
you gotta have some sort of processto to to building your building your team
so that they can perform at ahigh level on the weekends. And so
I think it's an important piece ofwhat we do, and and so our
staff really focuses a lot on thatto make sure that we stay true to
(03:28):
that philosophy. To me, identityand philosophy are probably the same thing,
uh and cultures overriding all those things. But you you really have to have
those checks and balances so that you'renot getting away from from the process,
getting away from that the what's reallyimportant to your program and to your student
(03:49):
athletes, which is ultimately developing themto be the best version of themselves.
And and so if you have agood philosophy on that and you're holding each
other accountable, you're able to navigatethrough some of the adversity and some of
the things that will probably go onin your program that might you know,
(04:12):
derail it if you will. Andso it's an important piece, no doubt
The other common read we hear withcoaches is core values, and that doesn't
always mean what's off the ice ofhow you act and stuff like that.
Sometimes it's just going to the hardon the power play and making sure that
you have you know, guys screening, are there core values that you kind
(04:34):
of have to always kind of harpon with guys that you want to just
see them do in their game everyday, whether it's on the ice off
the ice. I think sometimes youknow, core values are thrown around and
and they're loosely thrown around. Peoplejust throw them on a wall and expect
(04:55):
them to come to fruition if youif if you just put them on a
wall. But I think it's Ithink what you're talking about are the details,
the details of your game, thedetails of developing you as a hockey
player, developing you as a humanbeing, and so the daily behaviors that
go on in terms of of thatdevelopment and that growth that maturity are really
(05:20):
important. You talk about the stuffon the ice right, going harder than
net, stopping in front, makingsure that you hit the net when you're
taking a shot, that you're you'readvancing the puck to somebody that's open,
that you're driving the middle lane,that you you have your stick in a
good position when you're when you're forchecking, or when you're on the penalty
(05:40):
kill, or you're moving the puckand getting traffic in front of power play,
whatever it may be. That goestrue for off the ice as well.
Are you going to class or you'remaking your bed. Are you being
a good person? Are you ingood relationships with your with your with your
peers, Are you in good relationshipswith your family? Are you are you
speaking? Are you doing what youspeak of? Are you true to yourself?
(06:05):
Or you trustworthy? All those things, to me are combined in what
we do, and usually it translateson the ice, right And so you
know, I always laugh when everyonesays, wow, you're you know,
you're a hockey coach, But whatelse do you do? You know?
I mean, I do what Ido because everything in my life is geared
(06:27):
towards being a good person and beingthe best version of myself. So hopefully
that carries over your student athletes.I want to get into some of the
players on your team right now.Goaltending pretty much to split down the middle
of between Aaron Totter and Jake's igel. What do you like about your goaltending
right now? At this point,both of them are playing really well and
(06:51):
they're very competitive in practice, andyou know, the days where you run
one guy I think are few andfar between. Certainly some teams are able
to do that. I've always been, you know, part of my philosophy
has always been that you have tohave two guys that are going for a
(07:15):
lot of different reasons, injuries,knock on wood, just not performing to
the level that you expect to perform. Sometimes a team plays better in front
of one or the other, butwe owe it to our goaltenders to develop
them. That's no different than adefenseman or a forward, and the best
way to do that at any positionis to have competition. It brings out
(07:39):
the best in everybody, and certainlythose two guys have embraced it and they're
doing a really good job of it. Luclas Wall and Matt Macbuyer is both
with nine goals at this point.Offense is a big part of it.
What you have to do, Imean, how have you seen those two
players start to develop this season?Well, Lucas was injured for a little
(08:01):
bit last year, so he reallykind of you know, when he came
back at the end of the year, he wasn't probably one hundred percent,
but started off certainly started off lastyear really really good. He's our captain,
he's our heart and soul. He'she's our identity driver. When he's
playing on his toes and and uhsometimes reckless, he's very effective and so
(08:28):
the puck kind of follows him arounda little bit. Mac is that net
front guy that you know, Iwould say ninety five percent of the goals
and in all of hockey, nomatter what level or scored in front of
the net, and Mac has aknack for that. He's he's really good
getting himself inside guys and getting secondopportunities and making the most of them.
(08:50):
Rico, you had the opportunity buildingthis team to draw from the transfer portal,
which didn't exist a few years ago, at least not with the more
rule rules it has now, andyou've put together team with a mixture of
transfers and recruits. How have youapproached bringing in transfers and how do you
see that working in the future foryour program? Well, I think,
(09:15):
first and foremost, the way we'vewe've designed this build is kind of unique.
It's not the same as as someof the other programs that have started.
We went with the approach that wewere going to unveil scholarships in a
four year increment, and so we'rein year one. We only gave out
(09:37):
two scholarships. I didn't feel likeit was I didn't feel comfortable giving out
more than that, And so wereally played with a team of Division three
guys and and two scholarship players,and it was a great year. I
forget about the outcomes that that teamreally started the build and the identity and
the culture that we see today andthat is still a and then year two
(10:01):
we moved to ten scholarships and thenthis year we're at fifteen. So utilizing
the portal for us was really importantbecause we had to we had to kind
of fill the gaps a little bit. But at the same time, I
think when you're talking about the portal, you really have to do a really
important deep dive on who you're goingto recruit from the portal to make sure
(10:24):
that they fit into the to theculture, to the program the way you
want to play. You know,for us, we're lucky in Saint Paul
because you know, as I don'tknow the exact number, but there's over
two hundred players from Minnesota playing Divisionone hockey and so a lot of those
guys in the portal are from theTwin Cities, and so that is an
(10:48):
advantage to us that we want tomake sure that we explore from year to
year to see if that to seeif we have an opportunity to make our
team better and somebody that really wantsto be here. And so far we've
been really fortunate and lucky to havethose guys that have really fit in.
You mentioned a lot of things aboutthe team that are really timeless qualities for
(11:11):
a hockey program, and somebody couldhave said that fifty years ago about building
hockey. But then there are somethings that have changed even from when you
began coaching. The technology that's atyour hands now, the skill level and
the skating ability of players, trainingand nutrition, all of that. What
kind of things have made the mostimpact, say, compared to twenty years
(11:33):
ago? And now I think youmentioned really all of them. The athlete
himself or herself is way more skilled, faster, bigger, stronger. You
know, these guys come into shapein the fall. You know, maybe
(11:54):
thirty five years ago, we wouldhave worked out a little bit in the
summer, but we had a wholemonth of September to get ourselves ready to
go. But these guys are youknow, they go twelve months of the
year, and so I think that'sa huge change to Obviously, the technology,
the analytics, all those things comeinto play, the sports science.
(12:16):
You know, we we collaborate withour sports science department here at Saint Thomas,
and we have students at our practicetracking you know, their workloads,
and I know exactly how hard we'reworking based on the numbers. And that's
a new thing for us here incollege hockey. And in the old days,
(12:37):
we used to spitball. You know, hey, Ed looks a little
tired, Maybe we should take aday off. Now I can calculate really
when we need a day off,just based on the workloads. So a
lot has changed, a lot forthe better. At the end of the
day, though, you still gotto play the game the right way,
and the fundamentals of hockey haven't changed. I was joking with the guys a
(12:58):
couple of weeks ago because we werea little loose in practice and guys were
trying to do too much and forcethe puck, And I'm like, why
do you guys think that you guysknow better? This game has been around
for over one hundred years. Youpass the puck, you shoot the puck,
you play hard when you don't havethe puck. So some of the
basic things are still really really importantin our game today. More with Rico
(13:24):
Blasi in a moment. This podcastis sponsored by the NCAA Men's Division one
Frozen four April eleventh and thirteenth atXL Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Where are my hockey fans at?Welcome to fandom one oh one.
It's NCAA Ice Hockey Championship time,when the hottest teams in the country face
(13:48):
off under one group. Be thereto see your squad hoist the ultimate trophy
overhead the NCAA Men's Frozen Pool,April eleventh and thirteenth in Saint Paul,
Minnesota. Attendance is encouraged. Passionis mandatur viruses Today at NCAA dot Com,
Slash improves people Class dismissed. We'reback now with St. Thomas head
(14:18):
coach Rico Blasi. You're part ofan athletic department that really had to rather
quickly move everything from Division three toDivision one. What's that been like for
the whole athletic department at Saint Thomas. I couldn't even tell you how crazy
it's been here in the last twoand a half years, three years.
(14:41):
All the credit goes to doctor Aston. Phil Aston, our athletic director and
his administration is has worked tiresly toget us up to speed at the Division
one level. Thankfully he's been He'sbeen at some pretty good places with some
pretty good teams at Minnesota as anassociate ad at cal Berkeley, as a
(15:05):
deputy at Penn State as a deputy, so he understands what we need at
the Division one level, what needsto be done. But you're talking about
going from a Division three budget toa Division one budget and in a short
period of time and having to hireI don't know, over one hundred people.
We didn't have an academic office,we didn't have marketing office, we
(15:26):
didn't have social media. Our mediarelations was one person. We didn't have
assistant coaches in most sports, soyou can imagine we're we have a lot
of cubicles right now, and youknow, when our new building comes online
here in the next year and ahalf, hopefully everybody starts to get an
(15:48):
office so they can so they canwork without being disturbed. And it's a
big building project coming up the Leeand Penny Anderson Arena. Yeah, it's
awesome. The utility work's going onright now as we speak. I try
not to drive over there every daybecause you don't want to get too excited
because it's still a little bit away. But it's a lot of fun to
(16:11):
be part of another building, andyou know, being in those meetings with
the design team and the market youknow, the building crew and the construction
crew. I should say it's beenit's been a lot of fun. Having
been through it a few times now. As an assistant at Denver, I
(16:32):
knew a little bit from what coachwas DECKI would tell us as assistant coaches,
But that was fun. To bea part of it and watch it
grow, and then to be abig part of it at Miami was awesome.
And now here it's one hundred andseventy one million dollar building, multi
purpose basketball hockey practice facility for notonly hockey but for both basketball teams,
(16:56):
and state of the art locker roomsand training room and weight room, so
it's crazy time, but fun.I want to ask you one more question
related to the c CHA where Iguess c h A two point zero it
was put together pretty much with teamsthat seem to fit a fit much of
(17:18):
the same footprint. And then DonLuccia as the commissioner with a lot of
coaching experience and certainly hockey experience.What's uh, what's your view now a
few years, three years into thec CHA. Yeah, we started before
I got the job at Saint Thomas, so obviously I was the new guy
on c C at the c ch A two point zero. But listen,
(17:41):
we have great coaches in our league, some really historic programs that really
support their hockey programs, and thebuildings are full. It's it's a lot
of fun to play on the road, I can tell you that. And
and Donnie's you know, well respectedhockey person that understands some of the things
(18:03):
that we go through. So we'revery lucky to have that. As you
know, in the West, thelandscape is a little bit crazy in terms
of travel and stuff like that.But it's been an excitingly very competitive It's
a grind every weekend. There's noeasy games. Not that you want it
(18:25):
to be, but it's been.It's been quite an experience for us.
And you know what the grind andthe the competitiveness and because you have to
be ready at a high level everyweekend has made our program better every weekend.
The only unfortunate fact of this seasonfor Saint Thomas that if you were
(18:47):
to win the c CHA, youcan knot get into the NCAA tournament,
but the NCAA Frozen Four will beplayed in your backyard of Saint Paul,
Minnesota. I guess the color hockeyworld will under stand what it's like to
be in Saint Paul at that point. But what is it? What is
that city like? I mean,we know it as ed and I as
people that have been there many times. But if you haven't been to Saint
(19:10):
Paul, how crazy is that cityfor this for this sport? Well,
just Minnesota in general, where wecall ourselves the state of Hockey for a
reason. It's it's nuts. Uh. You drive around Saint Paul right now,
I can. I can see arink out outdoor rink right here from
my office. Everybody's playing hockey.Everybody loves hockey. The city of Saint
(19:33):
Paul embraces the wild, embraces highschool hockey. Our game against the University
of Minnesota was just an electric atmosphereearlier in October with Saint Thomas and Gopher
fans, and no matter what whathockey is being played in Saint Paul,
you know you're going to have knowledgeablefans and excited fans about about the game.
(19:59):
The city itself has so much todo, You have so much to
do. It's great restaurants, justa great feel in Minnesota. Nice,
that's real. And so we're gonnahave We're gonna have the Frozen four here
in Saint Paul. I can tellyou it'll be a great time and h
and everybody will welcome everyone from fromout of town with open arms, a
(20:22):
little bit of brass tacks here.You do go to Western Michigan, I'm
sorry, Northern Michigan this weekend.Obviously a team that has had some great
success in that league over the lastthree four years. Big challenges. What
are the biggest challenges on the roadthis weekend? Well, anytime you play
on the road, it's a challenge, from the travel to playing in hostile
(20:47):
environment. Grants done an unbelievable jobat Northern. He's uh. He always
has his team playing at the playingwell at the right time. And you
know, we had a series earlyin October with them, or early in
November, i should say, withthem, and it was it was a
grind, it was a battle,and I expect the same thing this weekend.
(21:10):
Well, it has been a funwatch from AFAR, I will tell
you, Rico. Uh, youknow, watching a new program come into
Division one college hockey. I've beenaround, It's been around a long enough
time to see new programs come along, and we want to see this,
uh, the sport continue expand.So congratulations to where you've gotten so far,
(21:32):
and certainly best of luck, notjust the rest of the way this
year, but as you grow,continue to grow your program. It's Jim,
Thanks, Ed, I really appreciatelook forward to being on again sometime
soon. That's Saint Thomas head coachRico Blasei. Jim, it was fun
to hear Rico talk about and it'scertainly good to catch up with him again
(21:53):
as we followed his career basically fromthe beginning. But what an opportunity and
unique one too, in a schoolwhere you're moving the whole program from Division
three right past Division two, rightstraight to Division one and building a team
from the ground up. Listen,there's nothing easy about that, and he
(22:14):
kind of highlighted that in that interview. You know, I've seen a lot
of teams go from D two toD one. I've been around g Mass
Little and Merrimack and Merrimacks in theprocess. Now, it's not easy to
do that. But to go fromdivision three, there's a big difference.
I don't know if people understand thefinancial difference between Division three and Division two.
(22:36):
You were talking about basically, gofrom a nonprofit institution two of somewhat
for profit sport to a major forprofit sport in division one. That's the
three levels. Like you're going froma Division three where you don't even think
about financials, to Division two whereyou just find a way to skate by,
you give a little bit of scholarshiphere and there, you make some
(22:57):
money here and there, to Divisionone where you have to have revenue,
and revenue then drives your athletic department. It is so different. And to
go from three to one quickly,and that's the only way to do it.
If you're doing a transition and that'swhat Saint Thomas is going through.
That is very difficult. So youhave to give a lot of credit to
(23:19):
the administration. As he said,you're adding one hundred positions at least.
I mean it's quick too. You'rejust you know, you're building facilities,
you're building offices. As he said, you're going from cubicles to hopefully offices
at some point, because that's theonly way you can move in that that
type of space. I think thedifficulty of it requires some great leadership and
(23:45):
it certainly requires people who understand howto move forward. That's not always something
that is a skill set of theaverage person. Uh. And you have
to have everybody focused on that.So you have a guy like Rico in
there to help with the hockey sideof it. Obviously that's moving their program
to Division one. He's done avery good job of that. But you
(24:08):
have to be able to all workin concert with one another to understand the
overall mission, which is to notjust be an athletic department, but you
have to be a profitable athletic departmentat the center of the university. I
think just about any coach in theCCHA would describe it much the way Rico
did as a grind, and hockey'salways been a grind. And Rico seems
(24:33):
to have one foot standing solidly onthe foundations of hockey from the last fifty
to one hundred years, while alsobeing able to embrace what's different now,
whether it's the players or technology ornutrition. Yeah, I'm not sure he
wants to go back fifty to onehundred years, but he certainly has been
around for a good number of yearsbetween his days in Denver as an assistant
(24:56):
as at Miami as a head coach. Now, I would Saint Thomas.
He understands the way that players havetransformed, and that's the most important thing.
I go back a dozen years toworking with Jerry Yorke a lot when
I was covering him, and onething that Mike Kavanaugh, who's now the
(25:17):
Yukon head coach, said, thisis a while ago. He said,
the one thing is that Jerry alwayskind of kept up with the players.
He always understood what their music was, he always understood what their personality was,
He always understood what they were doing. He could find out and I
will tell you like he was aguy that was ahead of the texting,
you know, thing twenty years agohe was texting people. And that's what
(25:40):
it takes. That's what it takesas a coach, is to stay a
little bit ahead of your players,or stay at least with them. You
don't have to be on the cuttingedge. You don't have to be out
at the fratthauses and bars with themand understanding everything they do. But you
have to learn what your players relateto. I think that you know,
(26:00):
you see a guy like Frego,he as many years as he's spent in
this game, he still looks youngand he sounds young, and I think
that's very critical to being a greathead coach at this point in the game,
is that you have to find away to relate to your players.
He seems to do that really wellin the matter where he goes. Saint
(26:22):
Thomas has shown us just one moreway that programs can be added to Division
one hockey, and we certainly watchwhat's happening there with great interest. This
podcast has been sponsored by the NCAAMen's Division One Frozen Fourth, April eleventh,
and thirteenth at Xcel Energy Center inSaint Paul, Minnesota. Visit NCAA
dot com, slash m Frozen fourto get your seats for Jim Connolly.
(26:45):
I'm Ed Trefsker and this has beenus Echo spotlight
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