This is going to be a long one, it you brough up the status of Dambrot.

First, I still believe we should not be disparaging  towards the players and should only reference statistics when describing how good or bad they are.  Calling players or the team garbage and other derogatory terms serves no purpose.

The performance of this team is the responsibility of Dambrot and his newly annotated savior – Dru.  Nearly everything we complain about goes right back to these two as the pair who built this roster and who oversee running the season and coaching the games.  That the team is underperforming expectations is not 100% on these players.  This rests squarely on the coaches.

Some things to consider as we complete year 7:

How many players have come to Duquesne as scholarship players and stayed four years and graduated?  The only player that comes to mind is Rotroff.  Is he working in Pittsburgh?  Probably not.  In fact, how many players that Dambrot has recruited will ever come back to Pittsburgh and become a part of the community?  How many will become active alumni, donate funds, and become part of our alumni family?  Possibly zero.  How many former players come to the games and sit with Dambrot on the sidelines to catch up prior to the games?  What are we getting back from his players as alumni and people who largely love Pittsburgh?  I suspect the answer is zero.  This must change with the next coach.  Now we are being asked to donate our hard-earned money to pay these players to play for the Dukes! For what?  Players come here for a year or so and then get run out by Dambrot, with the blame always on the player.  The next coaching staff needs to be able to demonstrate they have built a culture in their prior positions and are committed to doing so here. 

This team, like most of Dambrot’s other teams, is not playing as well going into the end of the season as they were at the onset.  This is probably because this team practices nearly year-round and is overworked both mentally and physically.  This is well-known by anyone who digs into the program, and even announcers have commented on how intense walk-throughs are, referring to them as practices.  Why are we not allowed to watch practice?  Why does the team almost always practice in the back gym?  Probably so we will not find out how abusive the environment has been both physically and verbally.  By the time conference tournament time comes around, our team is exhausted.  This also may explain why players tend not to improve as the season matures.  How many players have been here and shown dramatic improvement over the course of their career or even a single season?  Again, very few, as virtually none of them stay.  They get worn out mentally and physically or tossed out the door.

I am happy for Jake Demichael.  This is a great story.  However, Dambrot’s decision to make some sort of statement my playing a walk on 30 minutes a game causes some issues. This is a slap in the face to Dru and his other coaches.  What this says is that they did a horrible job recruiting.  So bad in fact, that Dambrot feels the need to play a walk-on over most of his scholarship players.  This is almost never done outside of having to play walk-ons due to injury, as this is a bad look relating to the staff’s recruiting ability. Additionally, it does not sit well with the scholarship players.   KD has stated that Jake is the only player who does not complain and accepts his role.  This may be because he is the only player who was not promised a bunch of things by Dambrot and Dru and then lied to.  Even worse, we have two grad transfers who are not playing any longer.  Andrei Savrasov and Hassan Drame have been banished to the bench.  This is unheard of for grad transfers.  When you bring in a grad transfer, promise them minutes and a role, and then do not live up to it, the culture and attitude of the team suffers.  This brings me back to Dru.  Dambrot has put him in a terrible position by playing a walk-on so much and by bringing in two grad transfers who he is clearly screwing over. How can another grad transfer, or AAU coach trust this staff?  If Dru throws Dambrot under the bus if he becomes the head coach, this will not be a good look and may turn people off.  Keith has in a way poisoned Dru.  Some other things to consider - Dru has 5 years of college coaching experience. Is this sufficient to be handed the keys to an A-10 program? Was he promoted each year at Cleland State? Why did he not get the Cleveland State job?  Did he even get an interview there?  How many Cleveland State players are on our current roster that followed him here and are contributing?  The group of players he helped Dambrot bring in are apparently not good enough to play in front of a freshman walk-on, despite their contributions in prior years, and at other programs. What does this say about our confidence that Dru is going to be a dynamic recruiter and be able to build the culture we need and win games?  The Lebron James connection is not enough.  Dambrot has pitched this for the last seven years and we remain a middle-of-the-pack team or lower.

Below are the BPR ratings of the players on our roster who have played more than just a few possessions:

Dae Dae Grant   3.41
Fousseyri Drame 2.78
Jimmy Clark 2.62
David Dixon 2.33
Andrei Savrasov 2.15
Dusan Mahorcic 1.82
KareemRozier .82
Hassan Drame .59
Jake DiMichele .06
Halil Barre .47
Tre Williams 0
Jakub Necas -.05
Kallon Nicholls -.39
Matus Hronsky -2.47

Not that the BPR rating is the gospel, but it makes no sense that Savasov and the other Drame twin are not playing.  It also makes very little sense that Necas and Hronsky play as much as they do.  Also, we are playing three players so many minutes this year who are not good three-point shooters.  Demichele is shooting 25% while now playing 30+ minutes per game.  Hronsky is also shooting 25% for the season and 30% over two seasons.  Necas is shooting 16% for the season.   We can talk all we want about how they are good shooters and will make shots, and that they made shots in high school.  The math speaks for itself this far into our season.

The previous observation on our three-point shooting leads me to Grant.  His stats and scoring are declining as the conference season matures.  This is not on Grant, but on the staff.  Our opponents scout and devise plans to make it difficult for Grant to get open looks.  We do not counter with different schemes and game plans to get him open looks.  Furthermore, by playing poor three-point-shooters, we do not have the advantage of being able to space the floor, as our opponents don’t need to be too concerned about our three-point shots.  They are better off focusing on grant and rolling the dice that the others will shoot below 30%.  Make DiMichael shoot off the move and his percentage drops significantly. You can see the frustration with Grant on the bench and sidelines with Dambrot and Dru.  Odds are if he had a year or more left, he would leave just like Carry did.  Think about this – Carry went home during the break as one of the best, and possibly the best guard in the conference, and elected to not come back.  Would love to sit down with Carry and get his version of what occurred while he was here.

Before Dambrot reneged on the promises he made the grad transfers and decided to go young with poor shooters, we were 9-4.  Since then, we are 4-6.

The time to move on is now.  Duquesne is a special place, and Pittsburgh is a special place to live and raise a family.  Duquesne needs to bring in a coach and staff that appreciates what we have here, and recruit players who want to be here for reasons other than basketball and NIL money.  There are plenty of programs that win consistently with great coaches who build great cultures, and develop people, not just basketball players, who give back to their school and their community. We have not developed players the last seven years.  Nearly all of them finished their eligibility elsewhere, well preceding the transfer portal and NIL deals.  Dambrot is not one of these coaches and to reward him by turning the key over to his chosen one Dru is not deserved.  Two coaches have left within the last two years, and two remain on staff who are more deserving.  The fact that Dru is in the conversation and Dambrot’s choice to succeed him really sums up his character if you think about it.   
 
 
 
 

Very good incite in the team chemistry lakernixon.  These past 7 years have not seen growth nor development of so many players that moved on. Good coaches do coach up young players. We do need to look for those kind of skills in the next coach. Thank's for your incite. I like that you took in the bigger picture of what the impact a coach has on winning or losing..

Last edited by NapaDuke (2/16/2024 2:07 pm)

While "Portalmania" has changed things drastically for the foreseeable future, there is no getting past 3 facts.

This coach arrived years before the transfer thing went crazy. KD's first 4 seasons were marked by a constant stream of players coming & going. Most importantly, having only 1 player complete their entire 4 years of eligibility in 7 seasons is a terrible indicator of a winning culture.

In starting this thread I was really trying to find out if anyone had an idea when/if an announcement of the coaching situation might happen.

phil95 wrote:

While "Portalmania" has changed things drastically for the foreseeable future, there is no getting past 3 facts.

This coach arrived years before the transfer thing went crazy. KD's first 4 seasons were marked by a constant stream of players coming & going. Most importantly, having only 1 player complete their entire 4 years of eligibility in 7 seasons is a terrible indicator of a winning culture.

Dude. His third season was the year the pandemic cancelled postseason play. Season four was the extremely abbreviated season. Don’t pretend there’s been anything normal about the environment during his tenure or that anyone can draw useful conclusions from it.

Someone will say “well this other school did this and that,” but what comparison is really possible when circumstances were wildly varied everywhere? So some other coaches handled it well. Are part of your coach search requirements that they must be able to handle unprecedented situations flawlessly?

Last edited by Face (2/16/2024 7:49 pm)

Do you want KD to continue coaching the program?

How do account for year 5?

How do you account for last season's bad finish?

How do you account for a really solid core returning from last year, bringing in a strong, experienced recruiting class this season, being picked for a great season by tons of pundits, & having to fight to be a middle of the pack A-10 team?

Face wrote:

phil95 wrote:

While "Portalmania" has changed things drastically for the foreseeable future, there is no getting past 3 facts.

This coach arrived years before the transfer thing went crazy. KD's first 4 seasons were marked by a constant stream of players coming & going. Most importantly, having only 1 player complete their entire 4 years of eligibility in 7 seasons is a terrible indicator of a winning culture.

Dude. His third season was the year the pandemic bri postseason play. Season four was the extremely abbreviated season. Don’t pretend there’s been anything normal about the environment during his tenure or that anyone can draw useful conclusions from it.

Someone will say “well this other school did this and that,” but what comparison is really possible when circumstances were wildly varied everywhere? So some other coaches handled it well. Are part of your coach search requirements that they must be able to handle unprecedented situations flawlessly?

I don’t know how accurate your information is, at the top of my head, your coaching changes is inaccurate. Davidson and St Joes each had one change and George Mason had 2 coaching changes during this time period.

Phil, you are correct. Michael Hughes did have one year of eligibility left, but decided to go pro. Rotroff is the only player to stay from beginning to end at Duquesne under Dambrot in his seven years.

As mentioned in the previous post, this was a quick dive and probably close but not perfect.  The above comments are great and further reinforce my original thoughts. If Hughes and Weathers had eligibility left and went pro as opposed to putting up with Dambrot for another year this is does not make these numbers better.  TDM went down a couple of levels to play at Florida Gulf Coast.  Why would a young man with a year left and apparently in a much-needed leadership and experience role, leave instead of staying with his beloved coach for another year to help build the culture and turn around the program? Probably because he had enough of Dambrot, or Dambrot decided to not be loyal and move on.  Neither case is positive.

Also, if other coaching changes were missed, then our turnover is even worse than depicted in the previous post.

NIL is no excuse for a lack of culture, and we are getting nothing in return as a school and a community from the last seven years of the revolving door, not to mention the money we have spent to get so little in return.  This has nothing to do with NIL and the transfer portal. Anyone sitting opposite the bench, behind the bench, or paying close attention to what is on TV can tell this is a miserable and untrusting environment for the players.  

As the season comes to a conclusion take a look at how many former players are coming to sit with Dambrot, catch up with him, thank him for his mentorship, and hug him as he finishes his coaching career.  
 

Not saying he is a bad coach, and I am very happy we are not at the bottom of the league, and hopeful we destroy St. Louis tomorrow!  500+ wins means he knows how to coach and win basketball games.   But has he developed young men who love Duquesne and will have anything to do with the school and our city after leaving? Winning is important.  However, there many ways to win and do good for others while winning.  As we move on to the next coach, hopefully this is a consideration,  

Ironduke81 wrote:

In my opinion Coach Dambrot did a solid job @ Duquesne. Word is he is done. Good for him take care of his wife. Yes I had expected an NCAA bid but the curse of Dudey Moore prevailed. Today I went on the Billikens board. They want the AD & Travis Ford fired. I go back to the sign posted in Richmond fire Coach Mooney. Hello😱How about the head coach at Chicago Loyola. In my opinion A10 coach of the year. Unfortunately, NIL can change a program overnight. Duquesne has to adapt. The Supreme Court rightfully so opened the barn door thanks to the goof balls at the NCAA. It is what it is.

The Curse of Dudey Moore was broken by Red Manning and John Cinicola, the last two coaches who got us in the NCAA Tournament. However we have another curse as yet unnamed because we have seen this degree of success. So it seems possible but hasn't happened in over 46 years.
 

Some observations before we begin discussing the potential next coach:

We do not suck.
We are not challenged. 
We have a decent fan base. 
While we don’t sell out all of our games, we never have an arena that feels empty. 
Our fans never boo our players. 
We have crazy people like us taking time out of our lives to write on this board. 
We are not a bad job, in fact, we are a great job.  This is a vibrant city, a great school, with a rich history and we are on the rise!  The new medical school is going to be fantastic for Duquesne economically, and when you walk down Forbes Avenue, you feel a sense of excitement.  Things are happening at Duquesne! 

This brings me to a comment by El Presidente this week….
As to Dru Joyce, I have no idea how he would coach the Dukes. There may be more qualified candidates for the head coaching job here but certain there are many of those who would not be interested without a sizable salary increase closer to 2 million per year. Say 1.8 maybe. It's all speculation at this point. Right?
Not necessarily so El Presidente .  It is likely we can get the next coach at or below what we are currently paying Dambrot.  In some cases, well below what we pay him.  And I am not referring to giving the job to Dru because he will take it on the cheap.

The more closely I watch these games on TV, and in the arena, I just don’t see this being our best option. Also, it does not appear that Dru has the experience or resume for this job.  

The relationship between the coaches and our players seems to be one of friction. I can’t remember the last time the Dukes seemed in harmony. Dambrot’s team sometimes go on runs and play great for stretches or even weeks.  However, we never seem to be happy, and the players don’t seem to enjoy playing here.  We can debate this for weeks, but the fact is we have a significant turnover year-after-year.  This is a fact.  Even when someone is Dambrot’s favorite like TDM or Bekelja, they do not stay to play out their eligibility.   This is a huge red flag.  We have debated extensively about Rozier on this board this year.  It now appears the relationship between Rozier and coach is becoming fractured as now all they seem to do argue.  Rest assured, if Dambrot had two years left, we would never see Rozier after this year.  Either he would decide he has had enough of this, or Dambrot would do whatever it is he does when he shows someone the door. 

Back to the next coach.  We need to make sure a committee is put together for this search.  Someone on the committee should interview every player on the current roster, and every player who was here last year.  During this interview, we should find out exactly what has been going on, what the culture is or is not, and get every player’s honest opinion on Dru.  Maybe he is beloved by every player who has been here.  Maybe every player on the current roster with eligibility remaining will endorse him and say the only way they return is if Dru is the coach.  We will never know unless these questions are asked, and if the players have an assurance their interviews will be held in confidence.  

The more I think about the next coach and Dru, he just does not seem to have the qualifications or experience to do this.  He spent 10-12 years playing in Europe and then spent 3 years at Cleveland State.  I’m not even sure how many of the years at Cleveland State he was permitted out on the road recruiting, because he started at the bottom of the staff.  Also, part of this was during COVID when no coaches were permitted to be on the road. Dennis Gates did not take Dru to Missouri, Cleveland State did not interview him and the new staff at Cleveland State did not retain him.  Why should we hire such an inexperienced coach?

How many kitchen tables and living rooms has Dru been in trying to convince young men and their parents to entrust their son’s to Dru and his program?  How deep are his ties into the AAU circles across the country? How can he select his coaching staff like other assistants who have been coaching and clawing their way up the ranks for a decade or several decades?  Having only been at two programs, after going to Europe right after college, it is hard to understand how he could assemble his staff.  He has not worked with anyone long enough to know if he can trust them, how well they recruit, or if they are compatible working together.  He just doe does not have the experience and has not climbed the mountain long enough or high enough to be given an A-10 program.

Over the next two weeks, I will back up this post by providing 10-15 candidates that appear to be well-qualified and who we should be able to hire for at or below what we pay Dambrot.  Read about the experience and the paths these men have taken as they are posted.

We are going to jump right into this with our first candidate. 

Why hire Dru when we can hire Daniyal Robinson.? Cleveland State did an extensive search after coach Gates left and Dru was not in the mix.  We can piggyback off the CSU committee’s hard work and make Daniyal a candidate for Duquesne.  Coach Robinson’s bio from the Cleveland State site is below. You will see a career path that has spanned decades and includes recruiting and coaching at the high major level.  He has spent many nights away from home at kitchen tables and on living room sofas with recruits.  He likely knows someone at virtually every AAU program in the country and has coached with dozens of well-qualified assistant coaches.  He was able to keep his players at CSU and prevented any of them from leaving with Dru.  The profile below if the first example of someone qualified and successful enough to coach the Dukes. Coach Robinson’s base salary according to public records is $325,000.  He is winning and making progress at an institution with a fraction of our budget and has been able to keep players and successfully recruit both high school players and the portal.  Daniyal Robinson is our first candidate! Stay tuned for candidate number two in the days ahead!

Daniyal's profile from CUS is below:

Daniyal Robinson has been named as the 17th head coach of Cleveland State men's basketball, Vice President and Director of Athletics Scott Garrett announced on Wednesday, April 6.
"After a very thorough national search for our next head coach, I am pleased to have Daniyal, his wife Kim and their three children Devyn, Reece and Reid, join our team," shared Garrett. "Daniyal's vision for CSU basketball fully aligns with our foundation of championship success in the classroom, in the community and on the court.  We look forward to fully supporting Coach Robinson's success and to continuing our accelerating momentum under his leadership."

"Daniyal Robinson's core values and lifelong commitment to developing student-athletes both on and off the court embody what we are all about at CSU," Cleveland State President Harlan Sands added. "He is the right leader at the right time for us, and both Scott Garrett and I look forward to working with him on further advancing the upward trajectory of our men's basketball program." 

In his first year at the helm, Robinson led the Vikings to a 21-14 overall record and a 14-6 mark in conference play. The Vikings finished third in the Horizon League standings and recorded a third consecutive season of 20 wins or more. Cleveland State made a run to the Horizon League Touranment Championship Game and finished as the runnner-up. The Vikings reached the postseason for the third consecutive season, earning a spot in the College Basketball Invitational for the first time in school history. 
Cleveland State experienced success on the defensive end of the floor in Robinson's inaugurual season. The Vikings finished in the top five in every major defensive statistical category in Horizon League games. Cleveland State held opponents to just over 70 points per game in conference play, good for third-best in the league.   Robinson mentored three all-league performers in his first season, with Tristan Enaruna earning first-team honors. Enaruna averaged 17.4 points per game in conference play and finished fourth in the league shooting 54 percent from the floor. In addition, Deshon Parker and Deante Johnson were both named to the league's all-defensive team. Cleveland State was the only school with multiple players named to the all-defensive team, and Johnson earned a spot for a third consecutive season. 

Robinson joined the Vikings as a veteran of the coaching ranks with over 21 years of experience at the NCAA Division I level and multiple trips to the NCAA tournament, including a run with Iowa State to this year's Sweet Sixteen. 

"My family and I are very excited about this opportunity here at Cleveland State," Robinson said. "When I met with President Sands and Scott, I knew that this was the place that we wanted to be. The shared values that President Sands and Scott have, the program where it is at, they have done it together the last three years and our goal here is to continue to build on the success that CSU has had and the foundation that was set. We want to build our young men on and off the court. We are very excited for the opportunity. Go Vikes!"

Respected as one of the nation's top assistant coaches, Robinson concluded his second stint at Iowa State where he has seen the Cyclones win two Big 12 Tournaments and advance to the NCAA Tournament four times, which includes runs to the Sweet 16 in 2016 and 2021.  Over his two stops with the Cyclones, Robinson has helped coach 12 student-athletes to the NBA, a list that includes lottery pick Tyrese Haliburton in 2020 and 2019 second-rounder and NBA Champion Talen Horton-Tucker.
The Cyclones have spent much of his tenure nationally ranked, reaching as high as No. 4 in the country, and finishing inside the top-25 three times, which includes a rank of No. 23 in the nation to close the 2021-22 campaign. 

Robinson returned to Iowa State for the 2015-16 year after two seasons at Loyola (Chicago). There he helped lead the Ramblers to 24 wins and the College Basketball Invitational title in 2014-15.

During his first stint at Iowa State, Robinson was a key part in the development of three future NBA players, which includes Craig Brackins, an All-American student-athlete and the No. 21 pick in the 2010 NBA draft, Diante Garrett and Justin Hamilton.

Robinson, a Rock Island, Illinois native also had coaching stops at Houston, Illinois State and his alma mater, Arkansas-Little Rock. 

Off the court, Robinson founded and currently chairs the Black Assistant Coaches Alliance (BACA) and he started the Ramblers for Education program, which linked Loyola student-athletes and the Chicago community. He also served on the Iowa State athletic department's Cultural Humility Committee, a group of employees that participates in educational trainings with a goal of achieving cultural humility within the department. 

Robinson was a student-athlete at Indian Hills Community College before transferring to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He was a Second Team All-Region honoree at Indian Hills, where he helped lead the Warriors to a 35-4 record during the 1995-96 season. Indian Hills finished the regular-season ranked as the No. 1 team in the NJCAA poll that year and advanced to the national championship tournament. He graduated from Arkansas-Little Rock in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in health education.

Robinson is joined in Cleveland by his wife Kim and three children – Devyn, Reece and Reid. Devyn is currently a standout on the Wisconsin women's volleyball team.
 


 

I would hardly call Bekelja a Dambrot favorite. He barely played while he was here. TDM came off the bench while he was here. He won 6th man of the year. Also, TDM and Hughes both dropped what they were doing at Akron and followed Dambrot here. Not sure that fits your narrative. Yes the turnover has been high. I see a team that seems to really like each other and celebrate each other’s successes. This is one of the closest teams I’ve witnessed here in a long time. I’m not seeing the friction.