Pitt played a complete game on Friday, and would have beaten many top 20 teams had they been able to play to that level, but that is where it gets tricky.  When they are not the obviously superior team, they often play tight and shoot poorly; i.e. against Purdue.   Pitt played good defense, shot the lights out, rebounded, hustled, and just won every phase of the game.  Add to that our physical limitations, and  that was not a winnable game.  They play very loose against Duquesne and shooting is much easier when you are loose and confident.  There is no pressure on them, because they know that they are the superior team. 

For Duquesne, they know they have a slim margin for error when playing a team like Pitt, a well-coached, deeper, and physically superior team; so they often feel the pressure to be perfect,  That doesn't usually translate into good shooting.  That is not unusual in sports, and it's best to move on, and go on a long winning streak to prove that Friday's game will not define Duquesne as a team.

Well said, CLK. 

The need is for a lot more current resident students to walk down the hill and support the team. The program will never get back without a push to re-establish a student fan base.

Actually, we should not be "waiting" for the new President to do that.  I believe and hope the new athletic director will begin the improvements now.  If we win, the students will come.  That is where we are now.  With that said, my next statement is NOT comparing RE with Ferry, but the timeframe of change.  When the teams RE coached were winning, and I have said this before, the Palumbo was packed for many games and even sold out for a few.  Before that the attendance was terrible.  I know, I was one of about 300 in the stands during Danny Nee time.  If Ferry wins, the students will come back.  Plain old human nature, no one comes when a team loses.  The culture has to be changed.  It will only change if we win.  You can have all of the give aways, pizza's and sandwiches you want.  You have to win.

I am right there with you. If we win, people will show up. But honestly the university needs to do their part too. I am from buffalo and UB is pretty average at football and pretty average at basketball (even though they did make the tournament last year.) However they push so much on athletics that even their sub-par teams get a ton of people in the stands. We literally have less than 30 students in the stands on an average night even though over 3000 of them living less than a city block away from the arena. We get sent 10 different emails a day from the university but not one is telling us about tonight game. 

I was a tour guide last year for DU and we don't even bring potential freshman into AJ Pulmbo! There are no posters of any basketball players anyone around campus. Duquesne owns buses that take kids from campus to south side. The bus are just plan white when they could be decked out in Dquesne basketball graphics. Things like this are easy fixes that would get people at least thinking about Duquesne basketball but the administration has invested ABSOLUTELY NOTHING towards bettering the university through athletics. 

We'll have a better idea of where we stand if we go into league play with a 10-3 record. Even a lot of good teams don't draw great for the ooc season, which is usually filled with unattractive teams. We open the conference schedule with Dayton. This will be a true test, provided we take care of business the next 4 games. Going into a home game vs Dayton, with a 10-3 record finally gives us something to sell.

duqkurt wrote:

Just my two cents. I have been embarrassed a lot of times by the performance of the men's bb team. But never enough to stop wearing a Duquesne hoodie.

I'm not embarrassed at all by the University. I wish they would have done more with athletics over the years, but that's on them not me.

And you will never find me wearing another university's logo. I like Pittsburgh pro sports and college sports as they pertain to Duquesne. Those are my only allegiances. And poor performance will never make me switch to other teams to root for.

I have never understood the entire "subway alumni" of some colleges. And I guess I never will.

Finally, I don't think that what happens here after a loss is embarrassing at all. It is the few fans who still give a damn at this point venting.
And like CLK said, wait and see the what happens here if they lose to RMU again.

I feel the same way.  The only reason I root for Pitt in anything (Football) is because I got my grad degree from there so I consider myself an alumni from Pitt too.  If Duquesne played Division 1 football then I would root for them over Pitt as well.  

newsherriff wrote:

Ah, no painted busses, that's why we are losers for 50 years??

nice