Dukes2012 wrote:

I know a previous poster mentioned that the Bahamas tournament may not be happening, and that we will play in Las Vegas instead. I just saw a tweet that San Francisco will be playing Duquesne and Nevada in Vegas on Decemeber 22 and 23.

Looks like better competition than what we saw for the Bahamas.
 

https://twitter.com/happeninghoops/status/887868819649290243

https://twitter.com/pantherrich/status/887872587707101184

Per these tweets... "Looks like this tournament is the Las Vegas Classic, hosts USF, Nevada, SIU and Duquesne. Other teams Lamar, UC Davis, NC A&T and TBD"


 

Very nice representation of mid-major conferences. I thought some one mentioned a "Challenge" ala ACC vs B10. Does anyone have any info on that? Would the Big East be interested in A-10 vs Big East? Providence already plays R.I. I believe 'Nova plays St. Joe's. Of course, we would have nothing to lose and they would have everything to lose recruiting wise.

LOL. I get it. NEC Challenge. Patriot Challenge. MVC Challenge. That's where the A-10 is.

Of course the Big Least teams play vo-tech high schools in noncon games, and their teams get booted early from the tournament. Besides which, they always seem to have an ex-commissioner on the committee willing to let every Big Least team in.

Their alumni are boorish todds who work their way up the management ladder at McDonald's.

I know, there's some hyperbole here. Just venting. Those guys can kiss my Irish ...

ElDuque wrote:

Of course the Big Least teams play vo-tech high schools in noncon games, and their teams get booted early from the tournament. Besides which, they always seem to have an ex-commissioner on the committee willing to let every Big Least team in.

Their alumni are boorish todds who work their way up the management ladder at McDonald's.

I know, there's some hyperbole here. Just venting. Those guys can kiss my Irish ...

Reading their board is enough to make you gag. To put it in perspective, I'd root for Pitt against every single member of their league.
 

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

Here's the ticket info for Las Vegas:
http://www.orleanscasino.com/event-calendar/continental-tire-las-vegas-classic

Going to guess that we will have Palumbo games vs. Radford and North Carolina A&T as part of this tourney.

Makes sense to me. I wonder if we're still in the Bahamas tournament. If I'm reading the rules correctly, there's no prohibition against teams playing in two exempt tournaments, as long as they don't schedule more than 31 games total before their conference tournament. As the Dukes play an 18-game conference slate, then if they play 3 in the Bahamas and 4 in the Las Vegas Classic (2 at home, 2 in Vegas), they'd only be able to schedule 6 other non-conference games. Could help explain why Penn State and St. Francis are off the schedule this year. Still no official confirmation that this Bahamas tournament exists though Vermont and Weber State have both announced it as part of their non-conference schedules. Supposedly, teams are to be seeded according to their RPI rankings from last year. That would make the Dukes the 8th seed and playing Vermont in the first round, either Coastal Carolina or Weber State in the second round, FWIW. . 

I don't think it is overly optimistic to say that with Coach Dambrot, we should not see anything close to 20 losses this year.  A overall record over .500 is not out of reach.

Expecting a way better year than last but not too sure that this team will be able to compete this year in the A-10 beyond winning 5 or 6 games. Hoping for better than that but trying to stay grounded in reality. At the end of the day, this year's record means very little in the big picture. Looking for quantum leap in year 2.