I saw that.  I am surprised she didn't take the Robert Morris offer, but I expect she will be in the portal next year and will move up.

We still need a PG and I would take Wade over Kellie McConnell in a heartbeat.  I don't mean to knock McConnell here, but she wasn't the best player on her team when she was a senior in her high school year.  In my opinion, I see what Wade has accomplished (4-time all-state performer) and she is about the same size as McConnell, but more sturdy and is probably more effective at driving the paint than McConnell.  McConnell was honorable mention all-section as a senior, which basically means she was not good enough for first or second-team honors.  I think Kellie would be better suited playing for her aunt Kathy at CMU than to be playing in the A10.

I hope to be proven wrong and McConnell may prove to be a better player than I see now, but I don't ever see her playing significant minutes in college and Wade will likely start day on at SRU and be in the portal next year and may be looking to move up to DI.

Speaking of Maja Rohkohl, her sister committed to BYU this week, but was at Duquesne this weekend.  

It would seem if both players were here, then Lara Rohkohl's commitment to BYU must not be solid.

Based on limited highlights of both players, if we are able to sign them, they are both very good additions to the team.

One more item, to go back to lack of talent in the area.  Richmond has signed Ava Persichetti as part of their upcoming class and has secured the commitment of Erica Gribble from GCC for next year's class.

Ava is from River Valley, in Blairsville, PA and is outside of the WPIAL.  

Apparently Richmond seems to agree that Pittsburgh area is fertile ground for recruiting and we all saw how their season turned out.  Again, is Burt asleep at the wheel for not recruiting local players?  In addition to Richmond, Ava had offers from St. Joseph, UMass, Penn, Stony Brook, Eastern Michigan, but not Duquesne - and I checked her twitter page hoping to see an offer from Duquesne but didn't find it.  Ava, like Erica and so many other local players play for the WPABruins AAU team, which had 6 players sign DI scholarships this year.

It is a fair question, what is Burt doing with recruiting???  Only one player is signed for next year and 6 players from the local and successful girls basketball AAU program going to schools other than Duquesne.  

So yeah, what is going on with recruiting????
 

 

McBride is from Erie Cathedral Prep and the sister of Kayla (Notre Dame) and Karlee McBride (Indiana).

She is the perfect complement to fit into this team, and pairing her up with GGM we would have two guards that could attack the paint and score, or kick open to a 3-point shooter.  These type of guards would open up the offense and if anything, we need players that can open up the offense.

We lost the Cleveland State game because we didn't know how to attack the zone.

Burt should be familiar with her, as Karlee was on his staff a few years ago.  I only wonder if she steered her sister away from Duquesne after being on the staff.

From the Post-Gazette Fab 5: https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/highschool/2025/04/06/fabulous-5-post-gazette-natalie-wetzel-rylee-kalocay-iyanna-wade-karis-thomas/stories/202504060051

IYANNA WADEClairton • 5-4 • Senior • Guard


 

Iyanna WadeThe scoop: She’s not big, but is one of the biggest scorers in the history of Pennsylvania girls basketball. Finished career as the WPIAL’s second all-time leading scorer with 3,119 points. Scored a WPIAL-record 65 points in a game last season and 60 in a game this season. For 2024-25, averaged 38.8 points, 6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 5 steals and led team to WPIAL Class 1A championship game.College: Has yet to make decision. Robert Morris recently offered a scholarship. Made visits to NCAA Slippery Rock and Valdosta State (Ga.), and North Carolina Asheville is showing interest.

With Jerni in the portal, we need a quick, penetrating guard and she is perfect.

I think this a must-get of a recruit that is still available as you will see.  Why Burt hasn't offered yet baffles me, then again, why are the local players avoiding Duquesne??

Emma is from Moon high school and is back in the portal, out of Loyola, Chicago.  

At Loyola, she finished the season averaging 9.4 ppg and 4.4 rebs.

She was very productive at Bucknell - here is her bio: https://bucknellbison.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/emma-theodorsson/9221

She would be an excellent addition to the team, she has size and guard-like skills and provides much needed experience to a team that is going to be lacking it next year.
 

Thank you lucky!  So, does this mean we will have a revenue-sharing situation similar to MLB to fund our payments in the future?  I am assuming that will be part of it, and another part will be driven by NIL fundraising contributions.

The big schools win again and the rich get richer and there is no level playing field.

Maddie announced she is headed to Illinois.

Another player from Penn State, Ali Campbell announced she is transferring to Fairfield.  

It doesn't look like we are even looking at the portal to bring in any players.  I didn't see us connected to any of the local players that have entered the portal and made their decisions.  I would think that we should have made an effort to Ava Leroux from South Fayette, who started 14 games at Elon.  At 6-4, she has the size we need as we currently don't have any players above 6-1 on the roster for next year.

I won't beat the dead horse, but again, what is Burt doing????  We have only one recruit signed from the fall that is officially coming to Duquesne.  Apparently, Burt mentioned in a radio interview about having players that are in the size range of 6-5/6-6, and implied there was an imminent commitment from another big recruit, not sure if "big" is a reference to her size or if she is a top-level recruit.  

Either way, since then there has been nothing but crickets.  If you look at some of the sites for transfer portals, I see a lot of player movement, but no mention of Duquesne. 

We need size and experience for next year as the team is going to be loaded with sophomores and just one freshman. Jerni and Angela are the only returning upper classman.  If we do bring in these players that Burt has eluded to, they are likely going to be inexperienced freshmen, and apparently one of them may be a project that will need years to develop.  

I will withold further criticism until we start seeing something official.  As it stands now, we are looking at a massive rebuild season next year.  With only one regular season finish above 9th place in the last 5 years and for a coach to be entering his 13th season, it is not to hard to see how hot Burt's seat is going to be next year.  Yes, winning still matters.

Maddie Webber is in the portal - she is from South Fayette high school.

https://www.on3.com/db/maddie-webber-245094/

We've already missed out on her former high school teammate Ava Leroux, who transferred to Robert Morris from Elon.  Leroux is 6-4, and provides size we desperately need for next year.  She started 14 games this year at Elon.

https://www.unionprogress.com/2025/04/01/piaa-championship-notebook-surprise-south-fayettes-juju-leroux-has-an-unexpected-visitor-sister-ava-for-championship-win/

I do hope we are trying get the commitment of some of these players in the portal, especially ones with local ties.  

Hook Shot, thank you for posting this information as it is very helpful.

I don't know when this became the mission, because as anyone who was around during the Brian Colleary years, this was not in place or adhered to.  I won't get into the Colleary debacle but let's say that the appropriate changes in how athletics is overseen has changed for the best.  It was also during the Colleary years where I had the opportunity to get to know Dan Durkin, when he was our women's head coach.  I don't think I have ever met a more honorable individual and representative of Duquesne than Dan.  He was an exceptional individual, but by the same token, the women's program was not moving in a positive direction.  I fully believe that it was time to move on and that led us to Suzie McConnell-Serio.  

I do agree with everything that has been posted as the mission statement, but where I will go to the section of RELENTLESS COMPETITORS: We continue to attract and retain top-performing coaches, staff and student-athletes to consistently elevate our performance on the field, court, track and in the pool.

I believe this section is open to interpretation, especially when we define "top-performing" coaches and staff.  I don't see anything that is specific in defining what constitutes as "top-performing", but at the end of the day, the one criteria that can measured is success which is stated at the end - elevating performance on the court.  The criteria ultimately comes down to wins and losses.

My point of contention is that we didn't have superior coaching that elevated performance on the court this year and as evidence, I point to the fact that in A10 play, we finished in 9th place.  We also had the best player in the league, one who is a once in a generation-type player in Meg McConnell.  The fact that she didn't win A10 POY is because of that 9th place finish.  

So going back to the mission statement, our coaching st

Thanks for the comments, but I don’t understand your point that I somehow shut down discussion with my “tone” and I don’t recall ever stating that anything to the effect that “I must be right” if no one posts a different point of view.  That has never been my intention with my posts.
 
My whole approach has been to bring discussion to this forum, which for the most part had little interest in the women’s team.  For most of the season, there was very little activity or discussion.  I am a “basketball junkie” and have become increasingly frustrated with the direction of the women’s program, and since this is the only forum where we do discuss our team, I post my observations.
 
By no means am I an expert, nor do I feel that I am shutting down discussion.  In fact, I have stated on multiple occasions that I welcome more discussion and hope that others would be willing to join in.  I’ve stated my background as it relates to the foundation for the points I am trying to make.  I try to be precise with the level of detail so that it is easily understood by those who wish to comment on my analysis and observations.  I don’t think it is beneficial to anyone to just make a generic, negative comment without backing it up with evidence to why the comment was made.  I want to provide as much detail so that anyone who reads the message is informed and understands why I am making the statement to begin with.
 
 

FAM, I disagree.

We led by 13 early in 2nd half.  This was a huge opportunity lost and we should have won this game.  We didn't win because our offense stopped being aggressive, we made no adjustments and as we did all year, we passed the ball on the perimter.  

We had no idea of how to attack the zone, the player at the foul line was not ready to do anything with the ball.  Outside of the two cuts to the hoop, we just stood around and passed the ball on the perimter while the shot clock wound down.  

The game was won because CSU attacked the basket in the 4th quarter and drew fouls.  If you don't drive the paint, you can't draw a foul.  We were too passive in the 2nd half, CSU was not.

This comes down to coaching.  One coach figured out how to have his team beat the defense and the other coach made no adjustments despite having a lead most of the game.