Thanks and don't take this wrong, but some of us can roughly figure out your age by the quote about Canada being the newest recruiting hotbed. Scott Edgar and Darelle Porter brought Kevin Shand and Wayne Smith here. Smith was one of our better players in the decades since. Shand was a talented big who ran afoul of DAP and was booted off the team. Porter also brought a PG here who was supposed to be the second coming of Nash. Kid turned out to be slower than a 40 year old backup catcher. We've gone after other Canadian kids, including Robinson.

Like any market, it ebbs and wanes. I'm from NJ and I'm prejudiced about it, but the Garden State cranks out as much talent pound for pound as California, NC, Philly, and Texas, and can compete with NYC some years. Tarin Smith, Derrick Alston, James Hargrave and Emmitt Sellers among our NJ gems.

ElDuque wrote:

Thanks and don't take this wrong, but some of us can roughly figure out your age by the quote about Canada being the newest recruiting hotbed. Scott Edgar and Darelle Porter brought Kevin Shand and Wayne Smith here. Smith was one of our better players in the decades since. Shand was a talented big who ran afoul of DAP and was booted off the team. Porter also brought a PG here who was supposed to be the second coming of Nash. Kid turned out to be slower than a 40 year old backup catcher. We've gone after other Canadian kids, including Robinson.

Like any market, it ebbs and wanes. I'm from NJ and I'm prejudiced about it, but the Garden State cranks out as much talent pound for pound as California, NC, Philly, and Texas, and can compete with NYC some years. Tarin Smith, Derrick Alston, James Hargrave and Emmitt Sellers among our NJ gems.

No offense taken. I've clearly stated many a time I graduated in 2014, you do the math. Been following Duquesne basketball ever since signing my national letter of intent to play soccer there 7 years ago. I honestly had never even heard of Duquesne before that, even though my whole family is from Pittsburgh and my Dad even did a summer semester here between transferring from Penn State to Notre Dame.

And I know all about one of the areas you mentioned, I grew up in North Carolina. No offense, but it also shows your age that you didn't understand what I meant by the comment about Canada. Yes they have always put out good players, Steve Nash, Rick Fox, etc., but as you are obviously unaware and can read anywhere on the inteenrt, there has been an absolute explosion in terms of talent, guys playing in college in America, and players that are consistently ranked near the top of their class over the last 4-5 years, to a level that has never existed before. I could provide you with some links, but as you've already told me, you won't read them.

Instead how about a list of names of guys that are current NBA players and top level college guys:
Emmanuel Mudiay, Andrew Wiggins(1st Overall Pick), Anthony Bennet (1st Overall Pick), Cory Joseph, Tristan Thompson, Kelly Olynyk, Tyler Ennis, Andrew Nicholson, Trey Lyles, Robert Sacre, Nik Stauskaus, Joel Anthony. All Currently PLaying in the NBA. Then you have guys like Jamaal Murray (Projected Top 3 Pick) and Thon Maker (Projected 1st round pick, 19 Years old)

Want to tell me it's always been that way again? There's been 23 NBA Players from Canada since 1946. 13 are active players. This statistic alone proves that isn't the case. Canada has become the new recruiting hotbed in the sense that some of the best players in the world are consistently coming from there now. I don't see how it's relevant to that point that DU has brought in a couple guys over the years.

 

Last edited by Duques102 (6/01/2016 8:45 am)

Something I wanted to point out. The link from CLK shows the top 5 prospects coming out of Canada, with Mike being #3. Thought it'd be interesting to look at the other guy's offers to give us a better perspective on Mike's Talent.

1. Thon Maker: I've been hearing about this kid since he was a sophomore and if you look up some of his highlight tape it's ridiculous. 7'1", can dribble, pass, and shoot like a guard. Would have been number 1 college prospect but found a loophole to attend a prep school for a year after high school and qualify for NBA draft. Compared to Kevin Durant. Lot of differing expert opinions but projected as a late 1st round pick by most.

2. Justin Jackson: 6'7" Small forward. Same position and an inch shorter than Mike. Consensus 4 star and top 100 prospect. Offers: Arizona, Baylor, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisville, Oregon, Pittsburgh, UNLV. Signed with Maryland.

3. Isiaha Mike

4. Koby McEwen: 6'3" Point Guard # 21 ranked Point Guard in the class. Offers: Baylor, Ole Miss, Wake Forest. Signed with Utah State.

5. Eddie Ekiyor: 6'8" Power Forward #29 ranked Power Forward In the class. Offers: Duquesne, Kansas State, UMASS, Miami (FL), Oregon, Providence, Vanderbilt, Villanova, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest. Signed with Xavier, who was #1 in the country for a stretch last seaon.


Does that get anybody excited yet? And for everyone that does click the links I post, you will hear throughout the first half broadcast of that game (only watched the first quarter and most of the second last night) between talking about how he was the clear MVP of the first half and how good he was, they mentioned numerous times about how he talked about how he wanted to come to Duquesne and make a difference, that he wanted to be a key part of turning the program around. You gotta love hearing that. They also talked about how he plays with a ton of desire, love for the game, and is a really tough kid.

He dominated that first half on the boards and offensively. Also looked like he could step in and instantly be one of the best ball handlers on the team. Pretty big deal when you're 6'8".

Last edited by Duques102 (6/01/2016 9:18 am)

I would be happy if any of the special players Dukes bring in would just stay 4 years and become as accomplished as Ajax!😎

Loved what I saw out of Mike. Also love to hear he wants to part of the "fix" because he for sure can play at a higher level. 
Also Howard Washington went to my high school so it's a great to see where he's at now. The kid got a offer from VT his freshman year.

Double Ditto from me.

Maybe give the pessimism a rest for a day or too huh? This kid is obviously a much higher level guy than we usually get, I get that. Just don't see why you'd make a comment about a guy leaving before he's ever played one minute for this team. Especially after the positive comments HE himself made.

Do you really think he'd say he wants to come and make a difference and be part of turning this program around if he was thinking about leaving in a year or two? I know you don't like answering my direct questions but that wasn't rhetorical, like do you really think that?

I never saw a single quote from either of them saying anything of the sort, and as you know, I look. Gill was self made, he came here, put on a ton of muscle and developed his game to the point where he was an above average rebounder and can get hot shooting at times. He developed his game to a level where he had become desirable to BCS programs looking to fill a stop gap type of a need for a year. That kid had two offers coming out of high school, us and jmu his hometown school. I'll never knock a guy who put in the hard work and became good enough to pursue an ncaa tourney run, especially when a. He busted his ass here for 3 years, played hard game in and game out, and contributed in a big way to whatever this program is and b. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure none of us expect to be dancing next year.

That kid grew up taking that buzzer beater to win an ncaa game at the local playground hoping he'd be there someday, like many of us probably did. Congrats to him. Not gonna waste any of our time talking about Powell. He was a Chump.

This kid is the real deal, we have some other pieces that God willing, could maybe mesh together and start to turn this ship around. Would anyone on this board not say this is the most talented team we've had in years (on paper)???? Q was a four star and top 150 recruit, so was abrahamson. Him and Blackman have hard evidence they can put up some numbers in d1 ball. All three of the freshman look very talented and promising and cumulatively should help out. Talked to Lewis a month ago and he seemd hungry and focused. Steele for me is a big wild card next year, could really help this team. Nakye and Robinson will give us minutes and Rebs at least (if they can stay out of foul trouble). And don't forget ya boy, Tarin smith who we've hearing about since he got here. We'll see what happens

So neither Powell nor Gill came here with the mindset that they were going to turn things around and help build something here. Interesting. I guess they came because the cafeteria food was good on their recruitment trip.

(happy)

Please, I have enough knuckleheads who try to invalidate anything I say if it doesn't fall within party lines. There's nothing I've said that isn't true. Ferry needs to keep kids here long enough to develop, not only as individuals, but to build some desperately needed chemistry and continuity. I can't believe you don't agree with that.

For this team to be .500 or better, Smith has to play up to his potential, James and the transfers have to provide consistent scoring, and Lewis and Sanders have to get some rebounds for us. To be good enough for the NIT, this team has to learn how to play perimeter defense. To be better than that, we need one guard and one big to emerge as all-conference players. It's not pessimism to say this is all good on paper, but Ferry needs to get it done on the court.

And that's where everything starts. He has to prove he can coach at this level.

Hah!  Grannies are usually very wise; we just didn't understand when we were young.

president wrote:

This coming season makes me scratch my head. This team could be batter than last year or fall well below last year's record. Don't forget, no matter what the talent level may be, they still need good solid coaching to make anything good happen. Here's hoping for the best!

Agreed on both fronts. While last season was an improvement from a strictly win total perspective, this team could and realistically should have been a 20 win team last year with all the late leads we had in conference games that we pissed away over and over. While the guys on the court were the ones who lost the lead, Ferry was the one doing nothing and making no adjustments when guys were launching deep threes 4 seconds into the shot clock, unnecessarily trying to push the tempo and fly down the court resulting in turnovers, all while holding double digit leads with so little time left, mathematically it would be almost impossible to lose unless you did stuff that was literally that careless, reckless, and downright dumb. Happened in at least 4 A10 games last year. And then there was La Salle in Brooklyn, another one I put on Ferry for not having that team focused and ready enough to beat what was a garbage team that we blew the doors off of earlier in the season.

It's time for Ferry's coaching ability to catch up with what he's been able to accomplish recruiting wise, or he may be out of a job this time next year.
 

I think Ovie Soko possesed said traits, he was just on an absolutely awful team. If you look at his progression and current ascension over in Europe's pro leagues, he seems to be on a similar trajectory to Jackson. His senior year Ovie probably single-handedly won us 3 or 4 games by himself.