Dsnyder15 wrote:

Ironduke81 wrote:

Pistol if as you believe the training facility is top self I so agree. Pistol small group of posters are very critical of Dambrot. Looking back at this season Covid yes the majority of Div I teams got hit. BUT Duquesne had no home gym. Half assed training facility. No opportunity to work on the players shots on their home floor. But yet the Dukes beat Richmond in the A10 tournament. Yes the Bonnie’s soundly beat them but they won the tournament. I really don’t see the criticism of Dambrot who has been winning. Remember he inherited a (profanity) show. Give me something to criticize this guy. How did Bilicheck, Calipari & Coach K do this year? Let the next two years play out. Go Dukes

 
For comparison....how did the Bonnies fair with COVID??.

 
Here is what I found:

1. After start of games on 12/15 the Bonnies had no additional covid issues.  They had 5 games cancelled but none were due to the Bonnies covid issues ... allowing them to continue practice.   From what I could find, they only had 2 players with issues prior to the 12/15 start.

2.  Duq had 2 covid issues after the start of the season.  Although we do not know who had the virus...we do know the at only 6 were able to practice after the second covid shutdown.  So....almost all of the Duq players had the virus and were shut down during the season.  Covid is not like the cold or the flu, we do not know the how it affects each person.  Myles Garret of the Browns took months to fully recover. Not being able to practice and practicing with the affects of covid had to have a negative affect.
https://www.si.com/nfl/browns/news/myles-garrett-struggling-with-virus-effects

3. The Bonnies were a veteran team having only 2 freshman and one sophomore.   The Duqs are very young with 6 freshman and 4 sophomores.  The freshman did not train in summer and had 2 covid interruptions.  That had to affect freshman, who have yet to experience or understand D1 basketball, compared to veteran players.


.....even without the facilities issues, it seems obvious that schools who were hit hard by covid were at a disadvantage...and those relying on freshman even more so.

Last edited by Dsnyder15 (4/27/2021 5:48 am)

Phil and El P I am with you guys!!  Bring in the Big KD!!  Anyway, Iron Duke/CLK advised that if you are going to enter the portal you have to do by the end of this week.  Will make for a very interesting week regarding our existing roster - especially if we bring in another player from the portal.................

Pete the deadline for players to enter the portal to get immediate eligibility for next season without a waiver is July 1.

The NCAA is considering a proposal to allowing this rule to be made permanent going forward but making the deadline date May 1.

Now over 1,500 transfers (1,513) in the Transfer Portal.  An average of 4.24 players from each D-1 school.

Ironduke81 wrote:

Wow 1,500 transfer. I suspect the majority can’t start on most Div 1 Teams. As a coach do you take a fly on a questionable transfer or go HS. If HS recruit is a player he transfers your program. These are new times for college basketball coaches. Can Dambrot navigate these treacherous waters. As Pistol says “time will tell”

My money is on KD and staff to navigate the waters better than many. KD has great experience in sniffing out hidden gems. A very intelligent coach who will adapt well to the new normal IMO. Think time will tell us that we are quite lucky to have KD as HC. GO DUKES and let's get that one more big.

Frankie Hughes back in the portal.

Pathfinder wrote:

Author's note: the following has nothing to do with any nba players from Akron, Ohio. If this is what you think, you are entirely missing the point.

This staff desperately needs a recruiter with the ability for attracting talent taller than 6'7" /6'8". Granted that such pied-pipers are near impossible to lure to mid-level schools in mid-level conferences, however it is not impossible. People like this do inhabit this earth.  It can be done by thinking outside the box. Creative, unorthodox and what-if type of reflection. It's time to look-up heterodox.

This staff has actually been able to bring in a lot of size in all fairness (6’10” plus). Also fair to point out as you did, we are getting the guys you would expect us to get. Projects, maybes, and sometimes guys with size as their only attribute.

I think Mike Hughes was probably closer to 6’8” than 6’9”, and Damian Saunders was probably a similar height. I think you can win/have success with a guy that height in our league, they just need to be a really, really good player. If Mike Hughes was 7 ft he’s probably an NBA player and contributor, and Saunders almost got there himself.

Still don’t see a true Hughes or Weathers replacement on the roster which is concerning. Agree we still have a ton of depth, and maybe this group does collectively what those guys did last year. Would be fun to watch, would mean we would be playing some good team basketball. Still a lot more ? marks than sure things for me.

Bayley Steele had some big schools after him, he was truly a huge coup for the staff. If we could find another guy with the same size and skill set, but a slightly better player, even for just 2 years, I would trade that for almost every other player on this roster sans the freshman point guard.

Kd obviously wants team guys willing to play team ball, this does seem like a roster that supports that philosophy. If you can have a 9 man roster with 4 or 5 averaging 10 points and the rest contributing, you can be impossible to game plan for. That is basically how Bonnies plays (with a shorter bench), anchored by their star big man.

If you think about it it also helps prevent having a guy giving you 20 as a freshman routinely like Baker and Williams who will be gone to bigger and better after the breakout season. This way you can build a competitive team of “nameless great faces” as coach Tomlin would say.....

Time to start embracing the fact that college basketball is becoming a quasi fantasy football league in structure. Your gonna have a new team each year, with new guys we are excited about and guys that surprise us every year. Guys will come and guys will go.

After Mike Lewis, E Williams, Sin, and now Chad Baker I am done falling in love with guys. It’s a waste of time and now it probably makes sense to look at everyone in max two year windows as a prospect.

Major changes, but overall I think I like it. Gives these players an opportunity to participate in a competitive market to monetize their image and likeness for compensation, which is long overdue. It also allows you to be competitive year to year, if you can roster build quickly.

Gone are the depressing years like in the Ferry days when we were obviously “3 years away”. Every year should now basically be viewed in a vacuum. Just need to find a coach who will thrive in this new model, it will take a nimble individual. I think KD can be successful at it, time will tell.....

Amari Kelly to UNCW.

Would not be surprised to see Amari do well there. Might be a better fit. Thought that he could have developed here over the next year or so but that was not to be. Again, best of luck to that guy. He's been through a lot in his short life!

Sadly 35% of the kids that entered  the portal have not yet found a new school. The grass is not always greener.

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1404104106210476035?s=20

I think it also has to do with players being recruited over and trying to find a place to play.  Not all players in the portal left their team because they felt they were better than their team.  A bunch likely left because they knew they would not be retained by their team.  35% seems really high but I think a lot of it has to do with the extra year of eligibility.  Even though last years' seniors are getting an extra year of eligibility there are still the same amount of high school seniors being recruited and offered scholarships and the same amount of playing time being available on each team.  Even though a team can carry more than 13 players they certainly can't play everyone.  the 35% is mostly those players who saw a long season of riding the bench or eventually losing their scholarship - not players who have an inflated sense of self.   I think we are seeing a crop of players being squeezed out of Division I basketball because of this.

Last edited by Styles1229 (6/14/2021 1:05 pm)