No one is tougher on the coach, AD, and program more than me, but being objective, looking at the wins and when they came, they have DEFINITELY improved.  As I said before, when they played weaker teams, and not to be a smart a--, St. Louis with all of their freshmen is a weaker team and the Dukes would have lost at home to them at the beginning of the year.   Part of the reason was putting Mason at point, part of it was him not knowing his players which is a SHAME, but they have gotten better and you can see how hard they work.  Yesterday was a game which I believe was as important as the Dayton win and they came through.  There were a number of runs by St. Louis and the Dukes withstood the pressure.  Do I still wish the AD would be replaced...yep.  Do I still think THIS guy shouldn't have been hired...yep (BTW, the reason is because We went from Ron being fired because of the AD - to the AD not being able to get the guy from AKRON and not exploring that) - to hiring this guy who is 3rd at best.  BUT, maybe he can get better too.  On a down note, a guy that was at the game with me said he couldn't believe how empty the Palumbo was.  Hey, when you have a losing program, no one wants to go.  Related to that, the athletes were recognized at half-time - after half-time almost all of them left.  Can you imagine that happening at a school that has a real basketball program?  Okay - back to let's hope the Dukes keep progressing.

Last edited by FAM (2/26/2015 9:01 am)

Kudos to the St. Louis coach for having his team line up and applaud our two senior basketball players while they were being honored. Class act.

Great team win for the Dukes on Senior night. Nice to see them as one of the teams in the league peaking at the right time, similar to last year.

It is too bad that still on JFs 3rd season people still can't let go of the fact he was hired. We all want to see the team sustain success but some continue to harp on past events out of anyone's control. I'm sure plenty of us weren't our wives first choice either. Accept it and move on.

Whether he was the first or last choice is irrelevant at this point. It's his third season. Other posters have pointed out previously that the Duquesne job has never gotten it's first choice of coach in the last 30 years.

There are plenty of passionate fans on this board but a few know it alls attempt to ruin it for everyone. Opinions are part of the fun of message boards, but unless you are around the team every single day, none of us really have a clue. Just like we wouldn't have a clue how to run a business from simply looking at its quarterly numbers.

Fortuneately there are a lot of players who are easy to root for on this team (DC, McKoy, Micah, Darius etc) which speaks to the quality of the character of the core of the team.

Here's to keeping up the momentum to finish the season!

Go Dukes

Happy to read about another win.  Let's not forget that the Quevyn Winters transfer set the process back...it'd be nice to have another junior in the rotation who averaged nearly 10 pts a game, albeit on a bad team, who was decent rated recruit and who has been in the coach's system.

duq81 wrote:

DukesFan79 wrote:

Great team win for the Dukes on Senior night. Nice to see them as one of the teams in the league peaking at the right time, similar to last year.

It is too bad that still on JFs 3rd season people still can't let go of the fact he was hired. We all want to see the team sustain success but some continue to harp on past events out of anyone's control. I'm sure plenty of us weren't our wives first choice either. Accept it and move on.

Whether he was the first or last choice is irrelevant at this point. It's his third season. Other posters have pointed out previously that the Duquesne job has never gotten it's first choice of coach in the last 30 years.

There are plenty of passionate fans on this board but a few know it alls attempt to ruin it for everyone. Opinions are part of the fun of message boards, but unless you are around the team every single day, none of us really have a clue. Just like we wouldn't have a clue how to run a business from simply looking at its quarterly numbers.

Fortuneately there are a lot of players who are easy to root for on this team (DC, McKoy, Micah, Darius etc) which speaks to the quality of the character of the core of the team.

Here's to keeping up the momentum to finish the season!

Go Dukes

Agree with this. Hey, it is absolutely fair to critique Ferry on the job he is doing, although it can get old when the same issue is brought up in every thread. That said, it is very unfair to bash Ferry for taking the job. Some act as though he is the one who fired Ron.

Coaches recruit offense but they coach defense. In other words, you recruit players on their offensive skills, (their high-light film) out of HS or Prep school. After all Micah shoots 3's, coach didn't teach that, but what coaches can do, is develope the defense. We just played the worst team in the league and sat back on zone defense still waiting for the opponent to make a mistake, Instead, I'd like to see Ferry let these guys loose on man to man and see if they can breakdown an offense with some pressure. What did he have to loose? Nothing. He still would have beat this team, but he could have made some progress in making this defense multi-dimensional for next year. Hey, it's just my oppinion. But coaches teach defense, and the better ones win with it.      

I think I have a novel idea.  Tell the kids to play defense of get pine time.  Play offense with your hands and defense with your feet--Larry Bird says it, Magic Johnson says it and so does Michael Jordan.  Move, move, move!! Playing defense is no big secret.,  It's wanting to do it.

FAM wrote:

I don't know why - but wish I did - when the Dukes were up a good bit vs. St. Louis and the game was defintely in hand, I do not understand why he wouldn't let them play man to man for a while - as someone mentioned.  I can understand when the game is close since that is his defense, but why not when we are ahead???  Inquiring minds want to know.

 Based on the SBU and URI games this year, I would say that the StL game was still not "put away" until there were less than 2-minutes remaining.  Do you really think switching defenses at that point would help the team?  StL was really working the ball long and hard to get shots against the zone; they couldn't score until late in the shot clock, making a comeback much more difficult for them.  Coach Ferry seems to be convinced that the zone is the way to go at this juncture for this team.  Would I like to see more variety in the zone, perhaps, but only if it doesn't create confusion.