You have to take these lists with a grain of salt. For example, this site has UConn #16. Joel Welser has them #66. This site has URI winning the A10, Welser has them NIT bound. They're fun to look at, but mean nothing in reality.

Another voice heard from.  From A-10 Talk 10/13/2015 Edition:
No.9 – DUQUESNE

Duquesne is basically the opposite of Saint Joseph’s and what I call “Davidson Lite”, meaning all offense with next to no defense. Here’s the thing about Duquesne that could give Dukes fans hope: they have a top-100 efficient offense (No.72 to be precise). The problem is defensively they are even worse than Saint Joseph’s, ranking 322 nationally this past season. But when you really look at Duquesne’s conference schedule last season you can maybe start to see what I see. They had one bad loss (at Saint Louis), a loss they would redeem twice later in the season including in the A-10 tournament and even threw in some spoiler wins over George Washington and Dayton. Against teams that return most of their players among this group, they faired very well, going 5-1 against everyone outside of La Salle and UMass (meaning SLU, Mason, Saint Joseph’s and Fordham), finishing their final 12 games of the season at 6-6. I think they get better because La Salle and UMass get worse.  

Last edited by grammudder (10/14/2015 2:41 pm)

That is twisted. Half of 366 is 183. So for the made up offensive stat, we're in the top quartile. But ... We don't shoot FTs, take too many bad shots, have big guys shooting 3s instead of scoring on higher percentage shots in the paint, and we play NO defense. Winning in basketball is simple: score more than the other team. This stuff doesn't add up.

SI Rankings

http://www.si.com/college-basketball...d-davidson-vcu

PROJECTED RANK

1 Rhode Island
2 Davidson
3 VCU
4 Dayton
5 Richmond
6 George Washington
7 St. Bonaventure
8 Saint Joseph's
9 Duquesne
10 Massachusetts
11 La Salle
12 Fordham
13 George Mason
 

ElDuque wrote:

That would equal about 5-6 conference wins if it plays out.

Not quite. LaSalle finished 9th last year, and won 8 games. With the old 16 game schedule, 7 wins was the usual total for 9th place. The Dukes finished 9th Ron's last year, and won 7 games in a 16 game schedule. If the Dukes finish 9th, only 6 wins is unlikely, and 5 would be nearly impossible.

Ninth place seems to be the consensus from the "experts". If they finish 9th with 8 wins, that would put them in range to post an overall record pretty close to what has been predicted on this board, which is 16-18 wins. Any team that can win 8 games in A10 play, ought to be able to win 8-9 games against the Dukes' ooc schedule.
 

Last edited by duq81 (10/17/2015 12:17 pm)

CLK wrote:

The link to the SI article does not seem to be working, but they had DU, SBU, and SJU tied with 8 conference wins. 

That is pretty much spot on with what I expect.
 

ElDuque wrote:

There are certainly mathematical scenarios in which the 9th place team wins 5-6 games. Imagine the top team running the table, teams 2-3 not losing more than twice each, the last place team goes 0-16, yadda yadda. 8-10 is not exactly a banner season, nor is ninth place.

Certainly nothing that can be labeled as "next level."

Ugh.

I don't think anyone is calling for a "banner season", just a return to what we usually got under Ron, which is what a 17-18 win season would be. We're looking for progess. We want to see signs that the program is improving, that the young guys are getting better. This would be an indication that Ferry has figured things out, and has us heading in the right direction, and that maybe he will indeed be able to get us to that "next level". Where we are in year 5, and 6 is much more important than what we did over the first few years of the Ferry regime. PJ Carelesimo was a dismal failure 5 and a half years into his run at Seton Hall, and fans were calling for him to be fired. A year later his team was playing for the National Championship. If that can happen, it's hardly a stretch to think that Ferry could have us at least in contention for an NCAA bid by year six. This year is important, not because we might earn a lousy CBI bid, but because a "Ron type" season would install a bit of hope in some of the fan base. You can't call the firing of Ron a travesty, and then act like it's garbage if Ferry has a similar season. Of course if Ferry wins 17-18 games, and then gets stuck at that level, he'd be fair game for criticism.
 

Last edited by duq81 (10/18/2015 7:23 pm)

CLK,
Please tell me I am wrong.  Didn't they extend his contract that he now has 3 more years?
 

CLK wrote:

duq81 while I agree we need to see some signs of life from Ferry,  but you are off base in your comparison of Ron and Ferry.  Ferry has not shown he can be a pimple on Ron's behind yet.  Ferry has two more years to prove himself, this year to turn the corner and next year to near the top of the league.  If he fails he needs to go. 

Not comparing Ferry to Ron at this point. Just speculating in the event he starts producing Ron-like seasons, which is what we pretty much expect this year. 17-18 wins is a Ron type season. Throwing out Ron's first season, the team averaged 17.8 wins a year during the last 5 seasons he was here. That is what we are looking for this year. Not down the road, just this year. What would be tough, is if Ferry reached that level, and stayed there. What do you do if the team averages 18-19 wins over the next 3 years? Some would be pissed, and want his head for not reaching the "next level", but if you actually thought that Ron being fired was BS, could you honestly support Ferry being fired if he started producing similar results? It's easy to fire your coach when the results are awful. It becomes difficult when your coach is winning, but not quite at the level you'd like. There are Steeler fans who'd like to see Mike Tomlin fired. This is a coach that has won a Super Bowl, been to another, and has never had a losing season. To a lesser degree, this is what Duquesne did. The final chapter hasn't been written, but so far, the results have been unsatisfactory. That's why this season is pivotal. Ferry has his ducks in a row, it's time to show us what he can do. Coach what looks to be a pretty decent team to a winning record. Do that, and we might have some confidence that he can get the job done. If he can't win17-18 with this group, he's probably not going to work out.

I do get the feeling that a few posters want Ferry to fail, because they don't want GA's decision to be validated by Ferry winning at a high level.
 

ElDuque wrote:

duq81 wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

There are certainly mathematical scenarios in which the 9th place team wins 5-6 games. Imagine the top team running the table, teams 2-3 not losing more than twice each, the last place team goes 0-16, yadda yadda. 8-10 is not exactly a banner season, nor is ninth place.

Certainly nothing that can be labeled as "next level."

Ugh.

I don't think anyone is calling for a "banner season", just a return to what we usually got under Ron, which is what a 17-18 win season would be. We're looking for progess. We want to see signs that the program is improving, that the young guys are getting better. This would be an indication that Ferry has figured things out, and has us heading in the right direction, and that maybe he will indeed be able to get us to that "next level". Where we are in year 5, and 6 is much more important than what we did over the first few years of the Ferry regime. PJ Carelesimo was a dismal failure 5 and a half years into his run at Seton Hall, and fans were calling for him to be fired. A year later his team was playing for the National Championship. If that can happen, it's hardly a stretch to think that Ferry could have us at least in contention for an NCAA bid by year six. This year is important, not because we might earn a lousy CBI bid, but because a "Ron type" season would install a bit of hope in some of the fan base. You can't call the firing of Ron a travesty, and then act like it's garbage if Ferry has a similar season. Of course if Ferry wins 17-18 games, and then gets stuck at that level, he'd be fair game for criticism.
 

PJ had already stocked his roster with future NBA talent when he signed Andrew Gaze, who had played profesisonally in Australia.

Bit of a talent gap vs. Ferry.  

Andrew Gaze? Good player, but you better try Terry Dehere, who was the one who made SH go. Even with those guys, the team stunk until midway through his sixth year. Who's to say that one of the guys on our roster won't blow up. You didn't have much love for AJax during his first couple of years here. You, and others were calling for first Kojo, and then Eric Evans (lol) to take his minutes, yet he's the best player we've had since Mike James. Time will tell. There will be plenty of room on the bandwagon if the team starts winning.
 

ElDuque wrote:

duq81 wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

PJ had already stocked his roster with future NBA talent when he signed Andrew Gaze, who had played profesisonally in Australia.

Bit of a talent gap vs. Ferry.  

Andrew Gaze? Good player, but you better try Terry Dehere, who was the one who made SH go. Even with those guys, the team stunk until midway through his sixth year. Who's to say that one of the guys on our roster won't blow up. You didn't have much love for AJax during his first couple of years here. You, and others were calling for first Kojo, and then Eric Evans (lol) to take his minutes, yet he's the best player we've had since Mike James. Time will tell. There will be plenty of room on the bandwagon if the team starts winning.
 

Terry Dehere? You mean the guy they signed four years after the Final Four appearance? LOL. You might want to factcheck the other stuff now, too.

Got me on that one, but I got you on your NBA roster quote. Not a whole lot of NBA talent on that roster. Two guys who had a cup of coffee in the league. Not like PJ had gone out and loaded up on a bunch of studs. He put together a team of guys who weren't coveted by the Dukes and Georgetowns of that era, and he coached them up. Took a while to get where he wanted to go. Patience can be a good thing. Duquesne showed a lack of patience with both Ron, and John Carroll, and it bit them in the rear.

By the way, Seton Hall lost in the 1989 Final. Dehere joined the team that fall, not 4 years later.

Last edited by duq81 (10/20/2015 12:05 pm)

ElDuque wrote:

Andrew Gaze and his contribution to Seton Hall's Final Four appearance:http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/sports/gaze-is-gone-but-questions-arise.html?pagewanted=all

This is particularly interesting: "Gaze was named the most valuable player of the West Regional in the N.C.A.A. tournament, and his 20 points against Duke in the national semifinal game led Seton Hall into the championship game."

A couple of those Seton Hall guys were NBA draft picks. I think Joey Meyers was the last Duquesne player to be drafted, back when the draft was seven rounds.

PS, happy birthday, ya big lug.

Thanks! LOL!!  I'm getting so old. When you see guys you know who are 15 years younger than you, and they're greying, and going bald, you know it's getting late in the game. You know I enjoy sparring with you. You take it the right way, punch back, and don't get mad. Everyone can't do that. Not much else we can do until the season starts. I'm hoping to see us at a big dinner of crow this March. If we don't move forward this year, I might have to come over to the dark side.

Speaking of Gaze, there was something very slimy about that whole deal. He shows up after classes began, and was gone after the last game. We'd probably get the death penalty if we tried something like that.