If you look at Jimmy Clark's body of work while at Duquesne (passing, defense, three point shooting, rebounding, steals), it sure seems a case could be made that he could be drafted.  I'm curious what others think.

I am really tired of the Big East poaching our conference whenever they feel the need.  I would rather see the two conferences merge completely and produce a super conference spread across the east coast and Midwest.

Congrats to these amazing Dukes! 

Sorry to disappoint you BYU Dad.

I believe Dru deserves the chance to prove himself as a head coach.  I would not look anywhere else.  Phil95 referenced KD's coaching tree which includes Shaka Smart and Lamont Paris.  KD never passes up an opportunity to praise Dru.   That's good enough for me.  Go elsewhere for a high profile coach and you most likely will take a step back for a year or two.  Looking for a big name proven winner?  How about Will Wade?  It wouldn't be the first coach we hired from McNeese State.  But, hires like that can bring a lot of risk.  No thanks.  Stick with Dru.

Duquesne could best help those 8100 by reigning in the cost of their education.  The last time Duquesne went to the NCAA, tuition was about 12K for a four-year degree and starting salaries were probably around 12-14K per year.  Today, tuition for that same four-year degree would be around 180K and starting salaries would be around 60K.  So, starting salaries are up about 4X and tuition is up about 15X.
Solving that is a much more complex task than the cost of funding a basketball team.   Downgrading to a lower conference or eliminating the sport entirely would make as much sense as cutting funding to the team to raise more money for the Tamburitzans.  Wait.. didn’t we try that once before?  

In the post game conference, there was a reference by Dae Dae about some bad blood with a coach on the opposing team.  I assume that might be Carl Thomas.  Does anyone know what that might be about?

Interesting case now developing in Tennessee.  Evidently, NCAA rules forbid schools from discussing NIL money during the recruiting process.  The University of Tennessee is under investigation for numerous violations.  Resulting from this, the AG in Tennessee has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA to stop its enforcement of this ban.  It appears many other SEC schools would support the suit.  The wild west of NIL  is about to get a lot wilder.

https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-news/tennessee-sues-ncaa-over-anticompetitive-nil-recruiting-bans/
 

Almost did it again (lose).  Duquesne's new med school should start a promotion of passing out blood thinners at the 5 minute mark of every game.  

FAM wrote:

The MOST OBNOXIOUS FANS in the A10 will be here tonight. Stew, we may need a No Super Bowls for Buffalo chant!!

A better chant would be "WIDE RIGHT!"

Here is what they are posting about the Dukes on the Rambler's message board.  

[i]Saturday, January 6, 2024 3:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.

The Ramblers are seeking their first four-game winning streak since January 2022 when the Duquesne Dukes come to Gentile Arena Saturday afternoon. The Ramblers are coming off a gutsy 80-73 win over Saint Louis on the road, boosting their record to 9-5 and their KenPom ranking to 125. Duquesne lost their conference season opener at UMass Wednesday night, 80-61.

The Ramblers and Dukes have been playing each other since 1929, with the Dukes holding a 12-6 lead in the all-time series. Last year Duquesne beat the Ramblers 72-58 after coming back from a 40-31 Loyola lead at halftime. Four Dukes scored in double figures in that game, while Loyola’s Phil Alston led all scorers with 25 points. No other Rambler had more than 7 points and Loyola committed 18 turnovers and 19 fouls.

Dukes Coach Keith Dambrot is in his seventh season in Pittsburgh, and has already notched twice as many .500 or above conference seasons in his six completed campaigns as in the previous 21 seasons at Duquesne. The Dukes were picked to finish fourth in this year’s preseason poll, and come into the game in Rogers Park with a 9-4 record and a KenPom at 101.

[color=#211919]The probable starters for Duquesne are 6’2” senior guard Dae Dae Grant, 6’3” senior guard Jimmy Clark III, 5’9” sophomore point guard Kareem Rozier, 6’7” senior forward Fousseyni Drame, and 6’9” sophomore forward David Dixon. Grant played his first two seasons at Miami OH, and then exploded as an offensive force last year at Duquesne. Grant leads the A-10 in scoring at 19.0 ppg, and adds 3.5 rebounds, and 2.1 assists on average. One of the best there is in the league at getting to the free throw line, Grant knocks them down at a conference best

The comments on the Ram Nation message board are mixed, but do seem to lean toward leaving the conference.  Generally, a lot of their fans view the A10 as a dying conference.  There was, however, one observation that stuck out - from a Temple fan commenting on the rumor:

"Temple fan here to tell you guys VCU would be crazy to come to the AAC. From a fan interest perspective, it's horrible - filled with schools that don't care about or spend money on basketball, with zero pedigree or history in the sport whatsoever. Every basketball focused school that's ended up in the AAC has seen basketball decline and suffer. The schools that saw an improvement were all in the Sunbelt, because that's the part of the country the league is built around.

Trust me, you do not want to be traveling to Alabama, Texas and Florida to play in front of 500 people. Recruiting will fall off a cliff. I know the A10 has struggled, but current members have WAY more NCAA bids over the last decade than current AAC schools. Basketball budgets are consistently much higher than the American. And do you want to travel to some parking lot in Texas for a conference tournament no one goes to?

FAU is a nice little story, but eventually they'll regress back to their irrelevant mean. Besides Memphis and WSU, there's nothing here. It's a wasteland and we've watched Temple basketball wither away in the AAC. It's not worth a million and a half extra dollars that you'll blow on travel anyway. The A10 has always been an up and down league, it'll recover because its schools commit to men's hoops. It won't ever be the Big East, but it will have consistently better metrics than the American." 

Good God, this board should apply for a group discount for Prozac.  Stay in the A10.  I would never advocate stepping down to a lower conference.  The A10 had a down year, but it will be back.  Our presence in this league provides a recognition that we wouldn't have in a lesser conference.  Irrespective of where we finish in basketball, the question for me is where the university is in 10 years. Enrollments are nationally down 8% across the country.  There is a trend where students are opting for alternatives to college degrees for careers.  Tuitions are out of control.  Stepping back will only make things more difficult for the university in the long term.  

A quote from the Post Gazette following yesterday's loss -

“I mean, we've got a shot to be good next year,” Dambrot said. “We showed we can rally back and that we’re probably one player away from really being a high-level team. A lot of people can say that, but I think I know our weaknesses better than most. I think we have some inconsistency because we rely a lot on the perimeter, and if we could score a little bit better on the inside, I think we would make another big jump. We have some young kids that eventually, I think, can do that. So we just have to keep developing it.”