VBC wrote:

After Mossie passed away I had discussions with a number of people about doing the cheer.  Every single one of them, including a former player with season tickets who has since moved south, said that they were not worthy to lead the cheer.  I know that I certainly don't feel worthy of such a task.  My thought at this point is perhaps the captain of the cheerleaders with the rest of the cheerleading squad around her could come out to center court and shout "ARE YOU READY?!?!?!" with the rest of the cheerleaders then joining in with Ahoya, Ahoya, Shoo Shoo, Rah Rah, Shoo Shoo, Rah Rah, Ahoya, Let's Go Duquesne!!!

Sure, the cheer will never be quite the same without Mossie, but I would love to see it become part of the Cooper Fieldhouse experience.  Having the cheerleaders do so would be a good place to start.
 

As one of the many who could not attend personally, I wish to congratulate all the Duquesne fans in Omaha and thank you for cheering on our Dukes.  That's not to diminish the importance of all the fans watching from home, but to appreciate the lift it must give the team to see DU colors in the stands  Outstanding game by coaches and players. Is this nine W's in a row?

The perfect St. Patrick's day present for me.  Kudos to our players and coaches for a great A10 tournament and NCAA bid 

Fantastic finish and a great night to be a Duquesne fan

My thanks to the mods for this board as well.  And a special thanks to Phoenix for the game previews..  I so look forwarrd to those.  Let's Go Dukes

Dare I say we won this one at the free throw line?  Very nice road win and should help our A-10 toruney seed.

That was depressing to watch.  We were good at the free throw line is about the only compliment i can give the Dukes for this 1.  Hope they can put this behind them and compete the rest of the way.

I agree that Dayton played better down the stretch, but that free throw discrepancy is hard to ignore, especially when a couple of those calls don't pass the eye test.  We did give one of the country's best teams a real test in a difficult place to play.  Probably outplayed the Flyers for 34 minutes. This one was lost at the charity stripe.  Gotta get over it and beat St Joe's at home.  Hope to see you there.

Finally got to to watch this game . The Dukes seemed to be well prepared and I feel they played their best fundamental basketball of this season.. Just plain fun to watch. Congrats to coaches and players on a needed road win.  Does this team have s strong finish in store?  Let's Go Dukes!

This game was mostly enjoyable to watch for the first 38 minutes or so,but painful to see at the end. I don't know how Richmond can do a better job of tackling Clark near game's  end than the Steelers did yesterday trying to tackle the Bills, without it being a flagrant foul.  It still shouldn't come down to that. As stated above, better execution and a smarter inbounds play would have salted this away as a W.  Let's get the next one

Wow!, was this the same team that only lost in Nebraska because they faced both theCornhuskers and the officiating crew?  I don't want to overact either, but this was ugly and provided the blueprint for how to beat the Dukes.  I know Amherst is always a tough out for us, but expect more of the same if nothing changes.  The bigs need to attack the basket and finish or get to the free throw line, less reliance on Clark and Grant.  We keep talking about how much "depth" we have in the frontcourt, but in A-10 play last night, not one of them looked better than pedestrian. Who will step up ?  

DennisC91 wrote:

Yes, Dambrot's earned another year but has he earned an extension? Does he want to continue to coach in a college basketball landscape that has changed so drastically? He'll be 65 before the start of next season and admitted he considered retiring after last season's debacle. As the late great Duq81 would always say, you can't let a coach come back with only one year left on his contract. You either extend him or let him go. So something's gotta give here pretty soon. If he stays, his ceiling appears to be a good MAC roster that can be competitive enough to finish middle of the pack, but won't ever have the athletes to beat the better (or some of the lesser) A10 teams when it counts. I expect a retirement announcement effective next March, while Dru Joyce waits in the wings. No inside sources, but the tea leaves tell me that succession plan's already in place. 

First off, I want to congratulate Coach Dambrot on doing what I thought he had no chance to do. A year ago, I said I did not see a scenario where he redeems himself after a season with just 6 wins.  He deserves recognition for that and probably did earn another year if he wants it.  I think this would be a great time for him to retire and leave on a "high note", having returned the Dukes to respectability.  If he decides to stay, I'll be OK with it and hope he surprises me again.  But, after 6 years and 5 opportunites in the A-10 tourney, I think it's time to conclude he's a "middle of the pack" A-10 coach overall and I don't expect that to change, A million $ a year sounds like a lot of money to me, but apparently that's also middle of the pack for A-10 head coaches, so I guess DU is getting decent value.  So, DU is left with the quandry Dennis references above. If coach doesn't decide for himself to  move on, I would rather take a chance on another coach who might get us to the next level, rather than offer an extension at this time.  I know not whether Dru Joyce is the guy

CityDuke wrote:

Tony84 wrote:

I appreciate your optimism, City, regarding a 3rd meeting, but honestly, what are you seeing that suggests we can handle them in a 3rd try on a neutral court?  Heck, right now I am worried w'll be one and done after this beatdown.

The first 37 minutes of the first matchup and the first 13 of this one. Wish we didn’t crumble today, but I really have a hard time blaming them this time. We have been ridiculously resilient all year in these situations, but a 7 point possession and a 14 to 2 free throw discrepancy was the straw that broke the camels back. Emotions are amplified in meaningful games as well. Was just too much for us today. I would LOVE to see them again.

Thanks for your perspective there, City.  I'm now convinced this team is just a bit better than mediocre. I hope we get a 3rd match up with them also, but I bet Fordham would LOVE to face the Dukes as well. let's hope we get that far.