What is absolutely amazing and unbelievable is how the Pittsburgh media, almost without exception, continue to talk and write about Ron’s dismissal 3 years later. That speaks volumes about how strongly the media disagreed with it and who are still upset about it. And it's not limited to just one radio or TV station or one or two publications. It's pretty much accross the board. And most mention the personal animosity component in the firing.

Last edited by Westender (3/22/2015 8:04 pm)

This is the second article stating the sad current state of the poor program. The message is hopefully having an impact on the DU admin. I look for another article by another reporter who covers the Dukes.

Westender wrote:

What is absolutely amazing and unbelievable is how the Pittsburgh media, almost without exception, continue to talk and write about Ron’s dismissal 3 years later. That speaks volumes about how strongly the media disagreed with it and who are still upset about it. And it's not limited to just one radio or TV station or one or two publications. It's pretty much accross the board. And most mention the personal animosity component in the firing.

Westender, you hit the nail on the head. This article follows on the heels of several very positive articles of Robert Morris and their administration and plans for the future.  The media views Amodio as a complete Baffoon. Given how Ferry's team have performed in his first three years just reinforces that view. In my opinion this is not going to end until either Amodio is fired or Ferry proves he can get the Dukes to the NCAA. 

Last edited by CLK (3/23/2015 7:36 am)

WEB wrote:

The article brings up some interesting points by Rossi:

1)  Ron Everhart finally made it to (and won games in) the NCAA Tournament.
2)  He is an assistant coach.
3)  Never appeared in the NCAA tournament as a head coach.
4)  Dukes haven't made the dance since 1977. 
5)  Infers or insinuates that Everhart would have ended the Dukes drought.

Oh wait, he forgot to mention note 3. 

You never let an oppoprtunity pass to slam Ron Everhart. Here's my prediction: If Ron Everhart was given 9 years like it took Jim Ferry and the financial resources that Ferry has been given, he would have gotten Duquesne into the NCAA tournament. Now, I can say that my prediction is as preposterous as yours!!

duqkurt wrote:

I honestly don't think Web was slamming RE as much as pointing out the laziness in the article.

Chico Harlan, formerly of the PG, did a scathing article on Nee before they let him go. Brutally honest but fair. And that was the final nail in the Nee's coffin

Comparing Everharts accomplishment as an assistant coach and Ferry lack of accomplishment as DU head coach are apples and oranges.

Why doesn't a Pittsburgh reporter do a piece on Ga who is the cause of these woes? Whether because it was for firing RE too early or hiring Ferry or his many shortcomings as AD?

I don't mean to speak for him but his pints were an accurate depiction of the article.

kurt - no I'm pretty sure WEB was slamming Ron. He made the point about Ron never making the NCAA'S in another thread. This is the 2nd time he mentioned it. And in a past post, he proudly states the he recommended that Ron be fired a year before it actually happened.
 

http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2015/03/23/west-virginia-maryland-ncaa-tournament-bob-huggins

Huggins give former Cleveland State coach Kevin Mackey credit for his pressing defense, not any coaches on his coaching staff.

DukesFan79 wrote:

http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2015/03/23/west-virginia-maryland-ncaa-tournament-bob-huggins

Huggins give former Cleveland State coach Kevin Mackey credit for his pressing defense, not any coaches on his coaching staff.

Maybe Amodio should tell Ferry to give that guy a call.  Clearly what Ferry has done defensively to date has not worked.
 

Mulder you are not on Koolaid and you make a sound point. There arehowever individuals who respond to CLK that forward their views without any sound basis. Me personally I know how difficult it is for coaches to succeed in order to satisfy the fans and alumni. A.K.A Herb Sendeck Ariz. St. Me I don't know Ferry nor will I trash a 18-23 year old kid. My point is this you could Fire Ferry today bring in Coach K, Coach Huggins or Cal & they  would fail. It starts with the AD & the current state of the program is in disarray. No need to list GA's list of failures. New AD brings new hope & maybe coach Ferry can save his career by turning this around. If status quo remains this program is 7-10 years away from any hope. At this stage there is no rallying cry to support this mess from the alumni. Ron got a raw deal. Looking back I think you will agree everyone was surprised by his firing. Look at Pitt in regard to Pederson is anyone @ Oakland shedding tears for Chancellor Gallaghers decision. Hail To Pitt & Go Mountaineers beat Kentucky!!!!

NapaDuke wrote:

WEB wrote:

NapaDuke wrote:

WEB slams RE, but at every opportunity?  Hey, WEB, notice WV's defense?? Never looked that way til RE got there?  Oddly, looks likes Ron's old defense at Duquesne?  Ron never got to the Dance WEB? He's dancing now, WEB, you just don't know it?    

If you think for one second that WVU's defense is the product of Ron Everhart, then I don't even know where to begin.  Bob Huggins didn't, hasn't and won't give him a single piece of credit for that because it wasn't Ron who came up with that.  Some other guy Huggs refers to is credited for that re-invention at WVU. 

I thought Duquesne should have terminated Ron one year before they did.  But I at least backed it up by saying I'd hire Mike Lonergan.  I was laughed at. 

After 18 years of not making the NCAA's as a head coach, its time to give someone else a try.  Thats all.  I'm not going to blame Duquesne for taking a shot at firing a coach who has proven he cannot make the NCAAs and hiring one who has proven he can.  That's beyond absurd. 


 

Think what you want to think, first, the article said Hugs was thinking about using a pressure,trap defense ahead of time, and asked Mackey about  the idea since Mackey use it back in the 80"s when  he was a coach (he's not one now) Mackey watched 2 hours of one practice and thought the WVU team had the speed to do it. Note: Mackey never coached the WVU defense, nor did he put the idea in Hugs head ahead of time. You read what you want, but someone else showed Huggins that type of defense could work.  

Also; while Ron was here, the Dukes lead the nation in steals and dominated teams stats in forced turnovers? Ferry any were near that? Ron ran a similar pressure defense with similar results. Web don't care to remember? Well, you just see what you want to see.  Duquesne will never be a Big program in these days of State run programs spending hugh amounts of tax dollars to run their programs. And most of those programs did less that Ron produced on a nothing budget with a 30 year loosing record to recruit from and managed to get a little above  500, but people like WEB don't se it that way. To WEB, RE didn't do anything with nothing, (mind you Ferry is , RIGHT WEB???)  In D-1 ball, you recruit player by their offensive skills, but you coach and teach defense once they get here. Hey WEB? Simple question?  Who played better defense? RE's Dukes, or Ferry's Dukes ? Can't wait for your spin on this one?  I'm sure it's coming!!

WEB wrote:

NapaDuke wrote:

NapaDuke wrote:

Think what you want to think, first, the article said Hugs was thinking about using a pressure,trap defense ahead of time, and asked Mackey about  the idea since Mackey use it back in the 80"s when  he was a coach (he's not one now) Mackey watched 2 hours of one practice and thought the WVU team had the speed to do it. Note: Mackey never coached the WVU defense, nor did he put the idea in Hugs head ahead of time. You read what you want, but someone else showed Huggins that type of defense could work.  

Also; while Ron was here, the Dukes lead the nation in steals and dominated teams stats in forced turnovers? Ferry any were near that? Ron ran a similar pressure defense with similar results. Web don't care to remember? Well, you just see what you want to see.  Duquesne will never be a Big program in these days of State run programs spending hugh amounts of tax dollars to run their programs. And most of those programs did less that Ron produced on a nothing budget with a 30 year loosing record to recruit from and managed to get a little above  500, but people like WEB don't se it that way. To WEB, RE didn't do anything with nothing, (mind you Ferry is , RIGHT WEB???)  In D-1 ball, you recruit player by their offensive skills, but you coach and teach defense once they get here. Hey WEB? Simple question?  Who played better defense? RE's Dukes, or Ferry's Dukes ? Can't wait for your spin on this one?  I'm sure it's coming!!

Ron Everhart - 18 Seasons as a D-1 Head Coach
Jim Ferry - 13 Seasons as a D-1 Head Coach
Ron Everhart - 0 NCAA Tournament Appearances
Jim Ferry - 2 NCAA Tournament Appearances

The question that needs answered is why can't Ron make the NCAA's?  If I was 0 for 18 at my job, I'd be fired. 

I'm not calling anyone out in particular, but I truly believe there are members of this fan base who are rooting for Jim Ferry to fail because it will somehow validate in their minds their belief that Everhart should still be the coach. 



 

Danny Nee made it more times than Ferry. I'm not calling anyone out, but some people on this board help to drive Rob out? With these same bad statistics,   Hey, Web, like Ferry's High-Powered Defense??? Let's keep him here a few decades and hope he lucks out and makes 500?????? You can play with stats all day long, WEB, and kid yourself, forever, but you still didn't answer the question, Who's Dukes played better defense? RON or Ferry??? 

Last edited by NapaDuke (3/25/2015 7:41 pm)

One more thing needs to be said, Ferry can't coach!  Sadly he's not even Ron.  WEB can spin (and he will) more BS why RE didn't do this and  that ( all BS) the fact remains, we are left with a HIGH PRICED DANNY NEE. Thanks WEB. 

NapaDuke wrote:

Also; while Ron was here, the Dukes lead the nation in steals and dominated teams stats in forced turnovers? Ferry any were near that? Ron ran a similar pressure defense with similar results. Web don't care to remember? Well, you just see what you want to see.  Duquesne will never be a Big program in these days of State run programs spending hugh amounts of tax dollars to run their programs. And most of those programs did less that Ron produced on a nothing budget with a 30 year loosing record to recruit from and managed to get a little above  500, but people like WEB don't se it that way. To WEB, RE didn't do anything with nothing, (mind you Ferry is , RIGHT WEB???)  In D-1 ball, you recruit player by their offensive skills, but you coach and teach defense once they get here. Hey WEB? Simple question?  Who played better defense? RE's Dukes, or Ferry's Dukes ? Can't wait for your spin on this one?  I'm sure it's coming!!

I believe RE's defensive system that relied on steals and forced turnovers was part of the problem with winning big games that was talked about during RE's tenure.  Against teams with good guard play that didn't turn it over, RE's system reliant on forcing turnovers (that didn't happen often against teams that took care of the ball) wasn't as effective as others may have been in a guard-oriented Atlantic 10 (only five top 50 wins with RE on the bench in six seasons).  It was very effective against middling and bad teams, though, and was one of the reasons RE's teams rarely had bad losses.

NapaDuke wrote:

Way more than just defense, Ron let the nation in most offensive stats at the same time, in fact 6 on the 10 highest scoring games in over 100 years of DU BB were Ron's DUKES !!!!

It helped to run 10/40 and be the fastest paced team in the history of Duquesne basketball here.

Mulder wrote:

I don't recall the sequence of events that happened that led to a decision to fire Ron - had TJ left before that time?  I had heard there were other players that were upset with the coach and the school at the time.

TJ decided to leave after Talley already announced his decision to transfer, leaving RE without a PG.  It was within two or three days that RE was fired.

---

CLK, you are right in calling RE a class act.  Hopefully his release was because of basketball reasons.  What I see a problem with is that RE was left with more in AJax and Achara than Ferry was left with from RE.  Yet, people want to see Ferry's team on the NCAA bubble in year five - understandably so - but it's something a RE team never did in six years and likely wouldn't have been able to do in year seven as he would have been completely rebuilding (his best team was on the NIT bubble and made it as the next-to-last team in).  Then again, what I'll always be thankful for in RE is that he got the program back to respectability...

As for Ferry, I do fully agree Ferry hasn't done enough and needs to show a lot more.  It also needs to be done fairly quickly, as he is going into his fourth year already.  I disagree Ferry is Nee.  I highly doubt Ferry will sink to those levels.  Ferry is quietly stockpiling some talent.  Whether Ferry can coach adequate defense - something he hasn't shown the ability to do to this point - along with how good Castro and Jackson are will likely define his fate at Duquesne.