I think Ferry did an OK job of recruiting, but really, the ceiling for this team would have been middle-of-the-pack at best and given the general lack of defensive commitment in the Ferry system, it's dubious that they ever would have escaped the A10's bottom four. Remember, Keith coaxed a 7-11 A10 record from his first Duquesne team with largely Ferry's recruits plus true freshmen in Eric Williams and Tydus Verhoeven and the Moving Pick himself, Chas Brown. That was a better mark than Jimbo had ever achieved with his own players.

Wheeler would have been a solid, if unspectacular, A10 point guard, Littleson became a quality MAC two guard, so pretty comparable to the level of player Keith has brought to Duquesne. Lewis and Mike were certainly talented, but had their deficiencies, particularly on defense, it's hard to see how they would have developed that side of their game in Ferry's run-and-gun system. Banks would have never gotten here anyway, as he decommitted from Duquesne in November of his senior year, long before Ferry was fired. He had himself a nice career in the CAA, then put up similar numbers in limited action at Chattanooga this past season. Dukes handled the best team from that conference pretty easily back in December. So I don't know that he really ever projected to being that good at the A10 level. Walker was a rail-thin project coming out of high school and had to take a developmental redshirt at Texas A&M. After one unremarkable year there as the 9th player in a 9-man rotation, he transferred down to Texas Southern and took another couple of years to become a key contributor in the SWAC. It's great that he had a nice game against an NEC team in the play-in round, but I don't think he's all that dominant in the A10. 

I'd take our current coach and current roster over this bunch any day, while still hoping Keith can either recruit or develop that next-level talent to make us an elite A10 program.



 

Last edited by DennisC91 (3/19/2021 10:14 am)

Ferry's Record at Duquesne:

Overall:  60-97  (.382 winning percentage)
A-10:      21-65  (.244 winning percentage)

I won't even quote him on all the blame he put on the players he recruited.  Nuf said!
Go Dukes

But he was only 5 years into his 10 year plan
I wonder if he told PSU about their 10 year plan.

Econ69 & Dennis C91 you my friends are hilarious. Your responses is as good as watching Curb Your Enthusiasm. Keep it up.

Levon, not to be disrespectful, but just because he offered...that doesn’t mean he “almost” got them.  Plus, he didn’t get them and almost doesn’t count.  So none of that matters.  Again, not trying to be disrespectful to you but Ferry to Duquesne was a mistake.    

All opinions are welcome, but I am asking please stop with the personal attacks.    

I recall when Morant was drafted, the sports news stories talked about how he had mostly flown under the radar coming out of high school and that Duquesne was one of the schools that had offered him early. We talked about it on this board in fact. Unfortunately, even if Jim Ferry had convinced him that Duquesne was the best fit for him, he'd have never gotten to the Bluff anyway as he would have been a member of the 2017 recruiting class and Ferry was fired after the disastrous 2016-17 season.

LeVert is a more interesting one as he would have been Ferry's first recruiting class and sure, a player of that caliber might have changed the whole direction of the program. Maybe Notice comes the following year and Ferry really ends up building something. Just the same, his recruitment was a bit more complex than you describe it, Levon. LeVert was initially committed to play for John Groce at Ohio U. His only other offers were from Alabama State and St. Francis. so very much an under-the-radar recruit. About a month after Groce was hired to be the new coach at Illinois, LeVert decommitted from Ohio U (his official reason was given as looking for a more challenging academic environment, rather than athletics) and threw open his recruitment. Except he's just had a breakout senior year, leading his high school team to an Ohio state championship where he was the MVP of the high school playoff tournament. He wins an Ohio player of the year award as well. He's no longer an under-the-radar recruit. Jim Ferry, hired just the week before, does indeed go after him, but so do Dayton, Purdue, Xavier and Iowa. He ends up committing to Michigan on May 11, just over three weeks after his April 17 de-commitment from Ohio U. Levert later says his choice came down to Michigan and Dayton. I don't doubt that playing for the newly-hired Ferry at Duquesne might have been compelling to LeVert. Ferry had just coached fun-to-watch up-tempo teams to back-to-back NCAA appearances after all. But once those other schools got involved, well, like you said Levon, a no-brainer.

As Wildwood pointed out in the original post in this thread, Ferry's recruiting wasn't all that bad and he certainly had the right idea with Morant, LeVert and Notice. But at the end of the day, you have to win with the kids you do get. While some pretty good players came through in his five years, he didn't come close to doing that. Keith has come much closer in his four years, with arguably the same level of talent. Here's hoping that he can either find or develop the difference-makers that end our 44-year NCAA tourney drought.