Minus Pitt, this is the weakest non-con offering I've seen.

ElDuque wrote:

Minus Pitt, this is the weakest non-con offering I've seen.

Two years ago was worse. Canisius is the only decent program on the ooc home schedule though. Truthfully, I can't imagine who they can get to come here. They even have to do return games with the dreck they do schedule to get them to come here. I doubt that even offering to do 2 for 1 would convince even an above average mid major to come here. MAAC teams are probably our ceiling.

I went back and looked at our home schedules during the RE, and Nee eras to get a feel for what we were bringing in before Ferry. I always discount Pitt, PSU, and WVU, as they are the ones who decide if those games will be played.

The best home opponents under RE were the following:
Bowling Green 2 times
Green Bay
Louisiana-Lafayette
George Mason
Canisius
Furman
ODU
Rice
Niagara
N Illinois
Oakland
This is better than our current opponents, but still a pretty awful group.
Danny Nee:
Boston College. This had nothing to do with Nee or DU. BC had a local kid on the roster, and they wanted to play a game here. BC was being blackballed by the BE after leaving, so they couldn't play Pitt. They gave us a 2 for 1 deal.
Akron
Siena
GMU
Ohio U  The last 3 were all in one year. That is a great home schedule, considering what we are.
Cleveland St.
Bowling Green
Vermont

This is a slightly better group than what RE brought in, although I give Nee no credit for bringing in BC.  GMU joining the A10 has deprived us of a semi regular game against a usually decent opponent.

The last time we had a decent opponent that wasn't a regional rival, or a situation like BC, was back in 96-97, when Florida, and a good Illinois St. team (coached by Kevin Stallings of all people) came in to play us. Good teams rarely go on the road anymore, and when they do, they don't play schools like Duquesne. Hell, Pitt can barely get anyone decent to come play them at the Pete ooc. It's getting worse and worse, and is one of the things I'm starting to hate about college basketball.

Far cry from the early 70s, when you could pretty much count on your hands the number of teams that we couldn't get to come and play us in Pittsburgh.
 

Interesting thread.  Even in so-called heydays, Dukes' (aka Hilltoppers) basketball had no conference affiliation when DU used to be called an Independent, with the likes of Notre Dame, Villanova, Joe, LaSalle, X, Seton Hall and a bevy of other great schools unattached to the big 5 or 6 conferences, the only ones existing back then.

While so-called cupcakes, UMBC, CCSU etc, probably wont stir the hormones of alumni and fans this year, nevertheless, Dukes used to play a heavy annual schedule of cupcakes in the day as well, vs the likes of Clarion, Westminster, Carnegie Tech etc. Still, the students turned out along with alumni and fans.  As you would expect, turnout was never great for those cupcakes, still, interest and anticipation among students & locals for Dukes' basketball was a given.

Play the games, earn the right to student, alum and fan support and they will come!

 

The Duquesne University Men's Basketball brand is so damaged that it is almost embarrassing to be a fan, and that is pathetic. Truly, a miracle is needed to return the program to real respectability, and I don't think the Almighty cares if the good Spiritan Fathers don't care. Probably doesn't care even if they do.

This is why old b*****ds like me talk about the old days so much. We watched the Dukes play national powers. When I was a young teenager and had an emerging passion for college hoops, I used to watch DU play on the regional game of the week on NBC. I vaguely remember games against Providence and Notre Dame. Providence had Ernie DiGregorio and the Irish had guys like John Shumate and Adrian Dantley.

duq81 wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

Well, I acknowledged that the Dukes played patsies in my time too. But the home schedule my freshman year included Detroit, DePaul (Ray Meyer was the coach), Duke, Hofstra, SIU, South Carolina. The road schedule had Maryland, Syracuse, Cincinnati. Just one team of that caliber at Palumbo would make a big difference. You're right that fans came regardless of the opponent. But the expectation was that the Dukes would be good.

Was easier to get good teams on the road back when there were tons of independents. No one wants to play road games outside of league play anymore. I looked at the home ooc schedules for Pitt, VCU, and a couple of other good solid, but not elite programs, and the schedules were mostly bad. Schools like Pitt do catch a break when their leagues play a challenge series, which gets them a P5 opponent at home every other year. The A10 ought to look into doing one with maybe the MWC, or the AAC. We'd likely get stuck playing a lesser light, but at least it would be a high level lesser light.

As I recall, the agreement that the Barclays Center struck with the A-10 and the ACC in 2014 had the A-10 relinquishing its booked dates for its end-of-regular season conference tournament at the Barclays in 2017 and 2018 and providing those dates to the ACC for the holding of its conference tournament.  The A-10 would return to the Barclays for three years in 2019, 2020, and 2021.  In 2017 the A-10 conference tournament will be held at the Consol in the Burgh and in Washington, D. C. in 2018.  The agreement further called for the ACC and the A-10 to play inter-conference doubleheaders at Barclays Center in 2015, 2016 and 2017.  In addition, the A-10 has secured a spot for its teams to participate in the annual BROOKLYN HOOPS™ events at Barclays Center. 

Although there is no mention of a challenge series between the A-10 and the ACC, it would seem that the doubleheaders would be the vehicle to provide the A-10 teams with opponents from a P-5 conference.  However, it isn't clear how many double headers would be played in each of the three years (2015, 2016, & 2017) so that each one of the 14 A-10 members got to play against an ACC team.  The Brooklyn Hoops event will also provide an opportunity for A-10 teams to play teams with respectable RPIs.  In 2016 Richmond will play Maryland on Nov. 25 in a Brooklyn Hoops event.  I hope that the Dukes don't draw the short straw and not get to play in any of these games.   

http://www.goduquesne.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/032614aac.html
 

Last edited by godukes1970 (7/18/2016 6:08 pm)

This all looks pretty weird. I was told that our RPI going into league play last season was 68 and that it actually helped the league. I can't argue this point because the A-10 RPI was seventh (only behind Power 5 and BE and ahead of Missouri Valley whose strategy the league copied). But to make this "contribution" to the league and to meet its expectations of winning 75% of our OOC games, we have to go down pretty far. Of the OOC home games announced so far, the highest RPI from last season is Jackson State at 210 and the lowest is CCSU at 351–dead last.

Unless Donyell still has eligibility, don't expect it to happen overnight.