Tejas_Duke wrote:

godukes1970 wrote:

Don't be so dead sure that AD Dave Harper won't pull the plug on Ferry if this season continues to sour as it has up to this point.  He's more pissed that you are of the pathetic results shown by the men's team.   

Any proof to back up this supposition?
 

Info that I gathered from a person who is an alumnus of Duquesne, a big fan of the Dukes, and has connections to the athletic department.  

PistolPete wrote:

Zach, very good editorial and to that as further food for thought I would ask Mr. Harper and Dr. Gormley to consider this.  In what business or field do you have no organization changes despite constant failure?  I am referring to the Athletic Department staff.  Since Colleary it strikes me that the same people are in the same positions and for what?  The school's marque program is, and has been (excluding Ron's success to a certain degree) a disaster.  What has been done to stimulate any student interest?  I know winning solves a lot, but there is about a 1% student population interest and with kids rotating through every 4 years that should not happen.  Where is the marketing to the students?  What has the fund raising arm of the Athletic Department done?  Same people in place and I just don't see the improvement.  Amodio was new and he kept the same Colleary staff.  Harper replaces Amodio and he keeps the same staff.  You sometimes need to make changes just to get fresh ideas in, infuse some new blood.  This AD staff in my view has no real accountability.  What are their goals?  How are they benchmarked?  Commitment?  Start showing us that by shaking up the AD staff, getting a Coach who doesn't thrive on excuses and get one who makes a concerted effort to become involved in the community - not one who doesn't even live here full time!  And probably of the most importance, make a financial commitment that demonstrates our desire to be the best.  Any chance of this happening Mr. Harper, Dr. Gormley??????? 

To the extent Harper retains dead wood in his Department that is on him. It certainly appears that not much has changed, but maybe he is going slow in his evaluation of his staff.  We will see.

Speaking of ADs did anyone notice that RMU is distributing free tickets to student, and arranged for a 50% discount on tickets for their fans for  12/6 game against the Dukes . 
 

First, I have seen nothing from Harper so far that gives me a clue that he  understands anything - about MBB, season ticket holders, donors, alums, the department, etc.  Maybe he is still studying?  Maybe he needs to go through a season?

Second, sorry but no one is more pissed off than me, Harper included

Third, if this is truly what we have from Ferry and he can't turn it around now I don't give a damn what other coaches think about coming here.  I mean, there isn't enough baggage and crap here that dismissing Ferry supposedly early would be the one thing that would prevent a top coach from coming here?  A top coach isn't going to come here unless  you are going to pay a boatload of money or find someone who was dismissed from their job  due to some scandal and is looking to make it back into coaching (a Mike Rice type for example).   But I wouldn't necessarily consider that a top coach.   The damage is already done, the mushroom cloud has dissipated, the program looks worse than just about any program out there right now, the stench is terrible, people have evacuated and aren't coming back due to the radiation left from the past 40 plus years of ineptitude etc.

By the way, someone somewhere maybe not here said something about Nesti being not so bad - he built AJP etc.  Nesti was as a big a problem as anyone for the reputation of the school in general and the MBB program in particular. 

Maybe these criticisms are unfair. At this point I'm not sure where that line should be drawn.