I appreciate the link being posted. Thanks to all that post & provide great info on recruiting, game stories, & social media posts.

As for the article, this is the same hastily written, misinformed garbage piece the local pundits take turns writing every time there is a glimmer of hope on The Bluff. This is mostly an opportunity to be snarky while bashing past performance & offering no original research or insight. Lazy, lazy, lazy....

Coach Dambrot is a great change! This article is the same old crap.

Hilltopper wrote:

Classic Steigerwald!  Right up there with Dave Barry's recap of 2017 in TRIB.  So, as a 16 year-old Dad took him to see Willie Somerset score 48 - before 3's allowed.  Got to see Willie too and at 5-9 nobody could figure out how to stop him, including Duke v DU at old Pitt Fieldhouse or even when Cincinnati Bearcats with Oscar Robertson came to town.
 

Somerset never faced the Big O. He actually played against the UC teams that won National Championships after Oscar left. UC was in the title game three years in a row, winning in 61, and 62 over Ohio St., and losing to Loyola in 63. The Big O joined the NBA in 1960.

I’m with you, levon. When you get some positive coverage just 14 games into a coaching change from a knowledgeable and admitted skeptic like Steigerwald, it’s a good thing in my opinion.

duq81 wrote:

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

I’m with you, levon. When you get some positive coverage just 14 games into a coaching change from a knowledgeable and admitted skeptic like Steigerwald, it’s a good thing in my opinion.

Agree 100%. We earned the disdain of the local media. Imagine having to cover the Dukes during the Edgar-DAP-Nee years. Yuck! It took many years to earn that disdain. It will take a while to erase it.
 

​Agreed, as I have said numerous times, we deserve every bit of disdain, scorn, ridicule and derision that we get, until we prove otherwise.  Personally I have always felt Steigerwald was a light weight.  BTW is Bob Smizik still alive? Wonder what his take is?
 

I could spend hours on my response to this piece and I don't have time. With all due respect to coffee, I wouldn't call this a great or even a good piece. If someone wrote it for TPOP, Kevin and I would probably have a conversation about it.

Two big problems:

1) when you write columns on the internet, people don't keep reading 1000 words till you get to your point. Most people will engage for less than 30 seconds unless you grab them. They'll read a few paragraphs and go on to something else. If they do that with this piece, it will come across as just another smear.

2) he provides no context for why Duquesne is worth watching ten wins into Dambrot's tenure other than Duquesne was bad for most of the past 35 years, they beat a team that has been very good  and the new coach has a good attitude (which he gleaned from a video of a press conference from a question asked by a young journalist probably not being paid much if anything to be there that night). It's a weak, maybe lazy argument and all someone in the comments section needs to do to undermine it is cite strength of schedule even after the Dayton win. There are a lot of other positives that might have a greater indicator than wins right now like 5 players sitting out, the incoming class, the focus on defense, toughness and winning attitude. We knew about those things before a minute of basketball was played.

Steigerwald is a bitter man, who respects nothing but hockey(Penguins).  He can fall off a cliff today and no one would miss him.  I dont like him, or anything that comes out of his mouth or pen.  He wrote this cause the Pens stink and Pitt is awful.  Had DU lost to Dayton by 4 pts, he'd be talking trash on KD.  Steigerwald is a simple minded man who wishes it was 1976.

duq81 wrote:

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

I’m with you, levon. When you get some positive coverage just 14 games into a coaching change from a knowledgeable and admitted skeptic like Steigerwald, it’s a good thing in my opinion.

Agree 100%. We earned the disdain of the local media. Imagine having to cover the Dukes during the Edgar-DAP-Nee years. Yuck! It took many years to earn that disdain. It will take a while to erase it.
 

If reporters are doing their jobs, there shouldn't be any disdain regardless of our record. They should simply cover us. Their job is to report what is happening, no? (That's rhetorical)

The problem is that the two traditional media outlets don't cover road games, and all but disappear during conference play. OK, in a day and age in which these outlets are falling by the wayside, I get that there are budget restrictions for travel and stuff, but in every city in which Duquesne plays there are local folks who would gladly pick up a few bucks as stringers to provide a game report. Not to mention wire service coverage. I mean, do you think if the Penguins had a 10-win season or the Pirates a 40-win season that there would be no coverage? If Pitt were to suck in football and basketball -- OK, right now they do -- does coverage stop? Beyond that, there are a couple arse clowns in the media who like to take potshots at the program. Think about how some of these "reporters" ran with conjecture, rumors, and speculation being ginned up by out-of-towners with no legitimate sources. If anything, some of these folks earned my disdain.

That's why I'm glad for the new content providers: DYST (Zac), Pittsburgh Sports Now, Point of Pittsburgh, etc., and I hope all of these outlets succeed.

 

Pitt stinks and the Pens are down, and the steelers have a bye.  If any of that wasnt true, there wouldnt be a peep from these outlets.  

But, pitt does really stink, and their coach might be starting to crack, yelling at L'ville players during the game???  It opens up an opportunity for DU to get some of the light that has been solely on pitt for the last 15+ years.  

Like Adrian told Rocky...."there's just one thing I need you to do for me......WIN!"

ElDuque wrote:

I thought he was yelling at a fan. Telling the fan what a pittance the Louisville players make compared to the Pitt players.

Pittsburgh sports radio has been saying he twice repeated at a fan who was trash talking his players,

"yeah and at least we don't pay our players $100,000 a year"

Then, they’ll go after Burt !!!   Eat 💩 pitt

Duques102 wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

I thought he was yelling at a fan. Telling the fan what a pittance the Louisville players make compared to the Pitt players.

Pittsburgh sports radio has been saying he twice repeated at a fan who was trash talking his players,

"yeah and at least we don't pay our players $100,000 a year"

We're saying the same thing, I think.

 

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

I’m with you, levon. When you get some positive coverage just 14 games into a coaching change from a knowledgeable and admitted skeptic like Steigerwald, it’s a good thing in my opinion.

 
I didn't see one untrue thing in that article.  We have to own the bad choices to correct them.  He showed the positive in Ron's years and confusion over his firing without any clue as to who would come in next.  They probably thought Dambrot would have come in then.

Positive conclusion... I agree.  Keep your eye on this team.  It will not disappoint!