Winning down the stretch would do wonders for this board. Sometimes you just lose a basketball game that day. But watching the Dukes as well as coaching rotation is puzzling. However, if you win everybody praises the coach. At this point I do not see an upside to this season. St Joes, Umass, Fordham & GW improving. Just want to see the Dukes improve & peak in March. City Duke best you chill. This board has 50 years of basketball failures. & frustrations. Just my humble opinion.

Ironduke81 wrote:

Winning down the stretch would do wonders for this board. Sometimes you just lose a basketball game that day. But watching the Dukes as well as coaching rotation is puzzling. However, if you win everybody praises the coach. At this point I do not see an upside to this season. St Joes, Umass, Fordham & GW improving. Just want to see the Dukes improve & peak in March. City Duke best you chill. This board has 50 years of basketball failures. & frustrations. Just my humble opinion.

I am chill, my friend. Haha. Just trying to swim against the grain with a positive perspective and big picture analysis.

Six years. One of those included a team with a great deal of potential getting full-stopped as COVID happened and cancelled everything. Also playing effectively every game on the road.

Then there’s needing to adjust to the NCAA transfer portal turning college basketball on its head.

There’s been nothing conventional about the college basketball landscape during his tenure at all.

Two ways to look at that - first would be to get a coach who is less conventional to navigate the new normal. If that’s your reasoning, fine, but tell me who that is and tell me if they would come to Duquesne. Second would be to acknowledge that the circumstances surrounding first six years have been nothing like what anyone could have reasonably anticipated and give him time

Though I’m wondering, who are all the coaches with success in the last 40 years to compare him against? Why do you all seem to think it’s a natural conclusion that Duquesne is some sort of sleeping giant ready to take over their league? There’s no legacy here that most people know about. There’s not a strong alumni base as far as sports go either - they jumped ship for Pitt or elsewhere years ago. This is the same shortsighted attitude that’s blamed the students - none of whom attend Duquesne because of the fun basketball atmosphere - for decades about their level of support.

Again, if the answer is that there’s some other coach out there who can step in and masterfully navigate the modern college basketball landscape year in and out,  then great. But you’d better be right or we’ve just wasted six years showing that Duquesne doesn’t have to be a basketball graveyard.

Last edited by Face (1/29/2023 6:03 pm)

FAM wrote:

Of course we don't know if the AD is going to let Dambrot go or if he will retire.  And of course will these folks come here, but here are some thoughts.

1.  Orlando Antigua, Kentucky (played at Pitt, excellent recruiter.  But of course it's not hard to be a recruiter when you work at Kentucky.). He was also an assistant with Jaime Dixon.
2.  Mike Dunlap, St. Johns - has been around -supposed to be an excellent coach
3.  Jim Corrigan, Old Dominion

 

Antigua's tenure at USF was not very good. I think he's a career assistant. I don't want him.

Nothing about Dunlap's history impresses me.

I guess the question is, what about these guys screams "I can handle the modern NCAA environment"?

I see Ironduke attempted to reference St Peter's in quoting my post, but that was one year and they don't look impressive right now.

I'm not vehemently opposed to a change - but I'm not for it either. A change for the sake of it is useless.

 

I want to see Duquesne win as badly as the next person.  I have never been a basketball coach or player so I hesitate to criticize but I do have an opinion.  You know what they say about opinions!  I think that the young front court players should play much more.  The older guys are getting worked on the boards, play poor defense which leads to fouls and miss too many shots in close.  The freshmen will make their share of mistakes and that is to be expected.  I hope McGriff is available soon.  We need more height in the backcourt and we need scoring from the point.
As for the coach, let's see where we are at the end of the season.  Any coach is as good as his players. No scheme or plan will compensate for a lack of talent.  If he misjudged the ability of some of the players who were brought in, that's on him.  However, maybe he didn't have any better options.  
I'm frustrated too because I really want them to be good. I'm hoping they don't totally implode.  Time will tell.

I have been thinking about this topic, and while I think it is a little premature to draw conclusions, I do believe that Dave Harper knows what he is going to do and has his plan in place. Harper realizes that it would be a PR nightmare to fire Dambrot.  Do you all remember the media circus after Ferry?  Imagine firing a guy that has 500 wins. Speculation on my part, but I believe that there has been a deal already worked out for Drew Joyce to be the next coach.  The only question is when. Which is OK by me because I think he would be a great pick for DU.  I could be 100 percent wrong but shoe money talks.  In the meantime, I am still pulling for KD to turn this around and get us to the Big Dance.  This is our best chance in decades to win the A10, and who know all things are possible.

This is tough. This isn't a lynching party, just a discussion board. I think that CLK may well be onto something here. I truly do hope that Dave Harper has given this some thought. Couldn't imagine otherwise. The question is what does he think? Is he happy with the current situation? Doubt it. You know right now RE's winning percentage at Duquesne is just a bit better that KD's. Really don't wish to open that can of worms but looks like I just did.  We all know what happened back then. Many were happy to see that change made. Well, here we are in a similar situation. I would be more than satisfied to see Drew Joyce succeed KD whenever that is deemed appropriate. I don't get to decide when that may be or if that will even happen. Bad decisions have been made in the past and could be made once again. I just hope that whatever happens will be well thought out and done in a totally professional way. Let's get some more wins and LET'S GO DUKES!

Last edited by El Presidente (1/30/2023 11:43 am)

Not certain about changing conferences but totally agree that $1million doesn't get you what it used to!

I will be insurmountably disappointed if we sack Dambrot for somebody with 0 Division 1 head coaching experience. Something he said at his introductory conference was along the lines of "I just don't understand why people can't win here... Maybe I will feel differently about it in 5 years but now I see no reason why Duquesne cannot be a winning program." I firmly believe even after the train wreck of last year that is true and I think that Dambrot should also still believe that a school like Duquesne in a city like Pittsburgh shouldn't fail. The entire covid situation and the extreme change of players not having to sit out a year when they transfer are huge occurrences that happened in the last 5 years that were giant curveballs. Not to mention not having a home court for two years. Then again in his introductory press conference he also said they will find a way with or without the gym.

Last edited by BluffHunter (1/30/2023 2:44 pm)

SteelBowl wrote:

I really enjoy the at least once annual we need a new coach thread. 
Regardless of what anyone thinks about Dambrot what makes anyone think hiring a new coach is the answer? How well has that worked out with what, 7 of 10 coaches since Red? That’s saying it worked out with Rice, Carroll, and Everhart (NIT bids, but fired) and has not with Dambrot (who has the highest winning percentage).
Duquesne’s best bet is for Dambrot to have something it can sell as success and stepping aside with Joyce taking over to build on it. 
 

Annual? Feels like after every loss it's the end of the world. It's been obvious the only thing that matters is getting the team to perform in the A10 tournament. Yes the double bye would help immensely and it's still a possibility. 

The next coach does not have to come from Division I. I remember Buzz Riddle came from NAIA Westminster and turned a sorry Pitt team around.

SteelBowl wrote:

I really enjoy the at least once annual we need a new coach thread. 
Regardless of what anyone thinks about Dambrot what makes anyone think hiring a new coach is the answer? How well has that worked out with what, 7 of 10 coaches since Red? That’s saying it worked out with Rice, Carroll, and Everhart (NIT bids, but fired) and has not with Dambrot (who has the highest winning percentage).
Duquesne’s best bet is for Dambrot to have something it can sell as success and stepping aside with Joyce taking over to build on it. 
 

To be totally accurate, Mike Rice had the best winning % of the aforementioned coaches followed by RE then KD. John Carroll had a losing record but one winning season I believe.

BluffHunter wrote:

Bilgy wrote:

The next coach does not have to come from Division I. I remember Buzz Riddle came from NAIA Westminster and turned a sorry Pitt team around.

Either way, Dru Joyce does not have any head coaching experience.

Neither did Jamie Dixon when Howland left Pitt for UCLA. That turned out OK. Every D-1 head coach started as an assist.