Acuff has been given Ellis' No. 1 from last year. May just mean that Ellis voluntarily gave up his number and hasn't been given a new number. I do wonder if Ellis is really on athletic scholarship. And why aren't Baker, Hima and Cole-Williams on the roster? Were their commitments for some unspecified time in the future?

Perhaps non- qualifiers

thats still one over the limit.   

Westender wrote:

townsonkid wrote:

thats still one over the limit.   

Yes, if Ellis counts - right ??

I just assume he is.   Who knows!?!????

Definitely agree with that. Other than maybe Hima, I wouldn't have expected any of the three recruits who aren't on this roster to make much of a contribution near-term. On another note, I am reading a lot about kids taking "gap years" next year because of the uncertainty around college campuses reopening in the fall. I wonder if that's what's happening here. That these three have committed to Duquesne, but won't be part of the program this coming year and may not even be enrolling in the school in the fall. I don't know how that jibes with NCAA rules but just a thought. 

BluffHunter wrote:

Out of the new recruits and excluding Cole-Williams because he is a walk-on I believe Hima and Baker are the most raw talent wise. One year practicing with D1 coaches and they can be completely different players. My guess is that those two are on a deal similar to what Ellis had. Not allowed to practice with the team, but there's a spot on the team next year for you.

James Ellis counted as a scholarship player back in 18-19.  So I think your speculation is probably unlikely.  If they were recruited, they are on scholarship (and thus the Dukes would be over the 13 scholarship limit) or not enrolled at Duquesne and perhaps stashed at a prep school for the year.

DennisC91 wrote:

For some reason, I thought Ellis wasn't on scholarship two years ago, but Phoenix is right, the press release on GoDuquesne from May 2018 said he "signed an athletic scholarship" agreement (see: https://goduquesne.com/news/2018/5/8/James_Ellis_Signs_with_DuqMBB.aspx). So we are still one over. Stashed in prep school sounds like the most likely explanation for the other three kids. As they only verbal-ed, they'll be free to sign elsewhere. I'm not really sure why their commitments were announced in the first place, but I guess I'll just trust the process here. 

Chad Baker signed a Letter of Intent. This was announced by the university , along with the other spring signees.

Hima only verballed , I am not certain if he ever formally signed. My initial impression would be that he did not.

ghost wrote:

Chad Baker signed a Letter of Intent. This was announced by the university , along with the other spring signees.

Hima only verballed , I am not certain if he ever formally signed. My initial impression would be that he did not.

My bad, you're right, Baker did sign and was part of the April announcement along with Acuff, Bekelja, Harris, Okani and Roesing. And the school never actually announced the commitments of Hima and Cole-Williams, these were reported on social media and circulated through Pittsburgh Sports Now and elsewhere. It's still early, let's see how this roster shakes out when they publish the preseason prospectus in August. 

Wow, that roster brings us even more questions than the answers I thought it would bring. I wonder why they would take it down after posting it... something has to be off

Last edited by BluffHunter (6/01/2020 5:47 pm)

There are employees in the athletic dept who are either indifferent or incompetent.Folks on this message board are devout fans and waiting for this day to see who is leaving the program and the players that are officially on this years roster.Its real important to this message board for someone working at Duquesne to get the information correct the first time.It sometimes feels like Brian the Brain Colleary is in charge and  we are back in the 90s.WAKE THE HELL UP or find another job.Duquesne sports information should be better than this.No excuse for this bs.










 

Colllearys idea of basketball success at Duquesne ,hosting the first/second round of NCAA tournament.
That way the Duquesne logo was on the playing floor during the games would excite 17 year old recruits
to drop forget the idea of signing with Kentucky.Instead of getting a high level coach and a committment
by administration  for excellence,he opted to go on roadtrips to eye the womens volleyball team up close and personal. Bonehead.

stew wrote:

I drove over to see Dambrots introductory press conference and coach talked about doing everything right,doing the small things right at Duquesne, the locker room,looking neat and clean at all times.
Maybe not getting the 20-21 Roster right is no big deal but it is,it reminds me of all the bs all of us fans
have witnessed in last 40 years.In a small way it tells me if Dambrot dont get us to a NCAA tournament
it will because Duquesne could never get the fan attention in fan interest and better attendance.The athletic dept needs to step it up.Whoever is in charge of increasing ticket sales needs to step it up or you
not be working here.We need passionate people in the athletic department.
Dambrot is too good a coach.He has done everything I could ever hope in a coach.The support he gets in crowd size  to support, to grow this program sucks.This is it,Dambrot fails,the programs success is in jeopardy.Wake the hell up Duquesne.

There is only so much the AD can do to make fans come. We had no home last year. People weren't going to go way out to Bobby Mo to watch games. You can work to get more alums to come, but let's be real, most people in Pittsburgh don't give a damn about Duquesne basketball. You can promote till the cows come home and they won't come. We share our town with an ACC team, and even they don't draw well when they don't win, especially when playing the rinky dinks. Pittsburgh is not going to give a damn about Duquesne until we win big. Winning big is not 19 games. It's not going to the NIT either. Until Duquesne starts going to the NCAAs on a regular basis, and at least occasionally appearing in the Top 25, Pittsburgh won't really give a damn. Sorry, that's just the way it is. Pittsburgh doesn't support minor league sports, and right now, that's what we are. Even if we do begin to win big, don't expect folks to break their necks to come down and watch us play LaSalle. They'll show up for Dayton, and if we're rolling, they'll come out for VCU, and maybe for whoever else in the A10 is having a great year. Pittsburgh loves big events. If you look back 50 years ago, when the Dukes were unquestionably a major team, and the only real game in town, we didn't really draw that well for the run of the mill teams. People came out for Villanova, Notre Dame, Maryland, and Providence, but there were plenty of 3,000 crowds for the lesser teams. Just trying to make people not expect too much. We're the hardcore, we care. It's not a case of the city being mad that we've been bad, it a case of us being so irrelevant for so long, that pretty much no one under 50 is a fan unless they're an alum.