Preseason Power Rankings: T-No. 58 Brown
Plus: Western Michigan's AD is headed to Michigan State, BC makes an assistant hire, and more
Opening Faceoff
Our team-by-team power rankings continue in this newsletter with an in-depth look at the Brown University Bears. We’ll take a look at storylines, break down the roster position by position, and more.
You can keep up with all of my preseason power rankings and team previews using the link below:
Also in today’s newsletter
— Western Michigan AD Dan Bartholomae is on his way to Michigan State.
— Boston College is hiring Ben Smith to its coaching staff.
— The USHL hired Colby Cohen, and the NCHC awarded its inaugural academic excellence award,
Preseason Power Rankings: T-No. 58 Brown
Storylines
— It’s a new era behind the Brown bench. Tom Upton enters his first season as head coach, his first head coaching job at the college level.
Upton hired two new assistants to join the staff. Tom Peffall, who was set to become the head coach at Mercyhurst before the school discontinued its program, was hired alongside former Quinnipiac goaltender Michael Garteig. They join Matt Plante, who was retained from Brendan Whittet’s staff. Whittet has moved into an administrative role as associate athletic director.
— The Bears went 5-24-2 last season, and the roster was hit hard following the coaching change.
Ivan Zadvernyuk, Brown’s top forward last season, transferred to Cornell. Defenseman Matthew Desiderio is headed to Dartmouth, Alex Pineau transferred to Northeastern, and goaltender Tyler Shea is headed to Alaska.
— Ivy League programs typically have a difficult time adding transfers because of admissions restrictions, but Brown was able to identify some younger players in the portal who should help immediately.
We’ll get into the roster breakdown below, but Brian Lonergan (Bowling Green), Griffin Erdman (Northeastern), and Eli Pulver (Wisconsin) should all have an opportunity to make an impact this season.
