81 that didn't show up on the link I found ('75). I knew the NCAA/NIT story from Chuck Cooper, but the site didn't list NIT appearances.

duq81 wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

81 that didn't show up on the link I found ('75). I knew the NCAA/NIT story from Chuck Cooper, but the site didn't list NIT appearances.

I stayed up late and listened to all three games. Some guy named Rick Bullock just destroyed us in the semi final against Texas Tech. We then lost to Northwestern.
 

duq81, that was an odd season. If I recall, the Oregon win was the only Dukes win that season away from the Civic Arena - goose eggs on the road. Texas Tech was a really good team, coached by Gerald Myers, who made the NCAA's that year and won a first round game. Northwestern was not a good team, but they had a very good guard by the name of Billy McKinney who was able to match up/neutralize Norman. Billy had a nice NBA playing career, and stayed in NBA front offices to this day. Tex Winter was the coach of Northwestern; Tex is credited as being the innovator of the triangle offense. As the assistant to Phil Jackson with the Chicago Bulls, Tex was instrumental in installing and teaching that offense to Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippin, etc.

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

ElDuque, doesn't make me feel any better, but there are also 5 teams that were playing D-1 since our last NCAA appearance that NEVER have made the tournament: Army, Northwestern, St. Francis (NY), The Citadel and William & Mary.

It's also depressing to note that the Dukes at one time, I think it was in the 70's, were one of five teams in the country with over a 1,000 wins as a program.

No, it was a top 5 wining percentage. Western Ky was also in the top 5 back then. Four losing seasons in 60 years through 1975.
 

By 1976-77 the top 5 all-time were:
1. Kentucky, 1,007-256, .797
2. St. John's, 922-335, .733
3. North Carolina, 947-364, .722
4. Western Kentucky, 952-379, .715
5. Duquesne, 766-332, .698

Those stats were for the past 51 years to that point.

At that point we had played 200+ fewer games than those schools, possibly because we suspended the sport during WWII.

Imagine, we won 766 games in 51 years. When did we get our 1,000th win? Just a couple years ago? Shows how long and miserable the decline has been.

ElDuque wrote:

By 1976-77 the top 5 all-time were:
1. Kentucky, 1,007-256, .797
2. St. John's, 922-335, .733
3. North Carolina, 947-364, .722
4. Western Kentucky, 952-379, .715
5. Duquesne, 766-332, .698

Those stats were for the past 51 years to that point.

At that point we had played 200+ fewer games than those schools, possibly because we suspended the sport during WWII.

Imagine, we won 766 games in 51 years. When did we get our 1,000th win? Just a couple years ago? Shows how long and miserable the decline has been.

Thanks, ElDuque, for pulling out that stat that I was trying to remember.  Just a quick back of envelope calculation. After last season, the Dukes all-time record is now 1360-1072, a .559 winning percentage.  So in the last 39 years (since 1977), the Dukes record has been 594-740, a .445 winning percentage.  Quite a downward trend.

ElDuque wrote:

We've lost 140+ percentage points off of our winning percentage. Ugh.

There is a bright side Phoenix and El Duque. I can humbly say for certain that at my current 65 years of age, I will not witness our all-time winning percentage slip below .500. "Always look on the bright side of life!" (Monty Python).
 

Phildog wrote:

The new book about the 54-55 NIT Champs Duquesne really gives the flavor of Duquesne's power in that era. The NCAA had conference champs and that filled up most of the slots, most independent teams went to the NIT, it was considered Big Time. In 1955 there were two teams with losing records in the NCAA's,

Bradley (9-20) and Oklahoma City ( 9-18) were invited while others with winning records were left out softening the field. Would our Dukes Green and Ricketts beaten San Francisco with Bill Russell?
I think it would have been a toss up.

I liked my first Duquesne team as a fan so much, 1961-62 NIT final four team(22-7), I remember players such as Willie Somerset, Clyde Arnold, John Cicebo, Billy Stromple, Mike Rice as being great team players, I think Willie Ross, Denny Cuff and Ron Willard were also on that team but can't confirm.

Kings on the Bluff also includes a plausible explanation of the Duquesne program fall from the elite in college basketball.

That USF team was probably the best team up until UCLA came along. I'd pick them to beat Duquesne, and every other team in the 1950s. Actually, pretty much everyone agrees that the 1954 Dukes were the best team we ever had. 26-3, and spent 2 weeks ranked #1 in the nation. I think they were better than the Tom Gola team that won the NCAAs that year. Unfortunately, they lost to Holy Cross in the NIT final. Myron Cope had Fletcher Johnson on his show back in the late 70s, and they talked about that game. Tommy Heinsohn was killing the Dukes inside, and Johnson, who had the bulk to be able to battle him, was sitting on the bench. With Green, Rickets, and Tucker in the game, Johnson said that Dudey Moore couldn't put him in without pulling one of the stars, because he couldn't put 4 black players on the court at one time, since the alums had been giving him hell about having so many black players. This is why Maurice Stokes ended up at St. Francis, when he desperately wanted to play for Duquesne. You just couldn't have that many black players in the early 50s. It's likely that the complaints are what caused the fathers to put the brakes on the program. The team was filled with guys from outside of Pittsburgh. They pretty much stuck close to home after this. Ironically, the brakes were taken off after the great season in 1969, which led to the disaster that set our decline in motion. Red Manning decided to take advantage of our return to prominence by reestablishing recruiting in NYC. Because of this, he declined to offer a spot to Carl Morris, a kid from Braddock, who had been coached by Dukes legend Moe Becker. Braddock had a rising junior named Billy Knight, and Becker told manning that Knight and Morris were very close, and that if Manning took Morris, Knight would follow the next year. Seeing that Morris only figured to be a role player, and with his eye on bigger fish, Manning declined. Pitt quickly offered, and Morris accepted. He also failed to offer Jim Bolla, and Mickey Martin, both of whom would have signed in a heartbeat, as Pitt was as bad as they'd ever been at the time. Knight, Martin, and Bolla formed the heart of the Pitt team that displaced the Dukes as Pittsburgh's favorite, while the NYC thing became a disaster. If the fathers had forbidden Manning from going into NYC, he might have taken the local kids instead. OUCH!