PhoenixRising2[b wrote:

]I tend to analyze coaching acumen by how many wins over or losses under my perceived talent level on the team. I totally understand that talent is by far and away the single biggest factor in obtaining wins. But, in my analysis, a good coach can get 2-3-4 additional wins out of his talent; and the opposite can occur.[/b]

Based on my definition and subjective opinion, Jim Ferry is the worst coach that I have seen at Duquesne going back to Red Manning. I look at this not as a single season; I.e. Danny Nee's last year, but as a body of work. I thought that Scott Edgar, Darelle Porter, and Nee got about as much out of their limited talent as they could have. Ferr,y on the other hand, has severely gotten less out of his talent.

I look forward to your thoughts.

Getting talent is the biggest part of a coache's job. You get no pass in my book for failing at it. Jim Satalin is by far, the best X and Os coach on the list, outside of the big 3, but he's a failure, because he didn't bring in the talent.
Edgar had a guy who played over a decade in the NBA. Plus he had the Dukes' 3rd all time leading scorer in Tom Pipkins. Had a kid that was good enough to sign with Maryland out of high school in Nick Bosnic. Also had the number 12 scorer in Dukes history in Kevin Price. Easily the worst tenure in Dukes history.

From worst to first.

Edgar
Nee (he didn't even equal Ferry's modest achievements)
Ferry (bye-bye)
DAP (DAP gets a bit of a pass, because he was put in an impossible situation)
Satalin (screwed by the rape case, but had enough time to overcome it)
Carroll (screwed by BC)
Cinicola
Rice (underachieved)
Everhart (screwed by the shooting)
Manning
Moore
Davies (should be in the Hall Of Fame)

 

Last edited by duq81 (11/24/2016 12:55 am)

Good points, duq81. I forgot that Edgar inherited all that talent from Carroll (Pipkins/James/Price/Bosnic); just remembered all of the JC transfers and marginal recruiting. Looking back on it, Edgar should be at the top of the list. And he only coached for 3 years. Ferry has moved rapidly up the chart; took him a little longer to gain traction in his 4th and 5th years.

ED, you are 100% correct.

duq81 wrote:

I want us to bring in a coach who is known for "well coached teams". I don't care if he plays a slow, unexciting style of ball either. We've been hearing this "we'll run, run, run, and kids will want to come" bs since Rice was here, and it hasn't really worked yet. Cincinnati plays the ugliest ball you can imagine, and they don't seem to have trouble getting guys to come. I'd like for the new coach to come in and say that his teams will defend like they were protecting their daughters from Hugh Hefner.

I agree but, unfortunately, who would want to come here at this point? Agreeing with Mulder: I sat through the entire debacle and watched the team totally come unglued with about 10 minutes left. No answer for a press? Geeze! I would've substituted Hugh Hefner for someone else though but I won't since I enjoy posting at my old age and wouldn't want to be banned....
 

If they can't con a good, young coach to come here, they should try to hire Ron back.  If he kept 3/4 of this roster, he would win 16 games next year--no joke.

The only thing I disagree with is I thought Née was worse than Edgar.

FAM wrote:

The only thing I disagree with is I thought Née was worse than Edgar.

Not me. Nee actually brought some good players here. Aaron Jackson, Elijah Palmer, and Kieron Achara were very good players. It's just that he didn't bring enough guys like that in, plus he was never regarded as a great floor coach. Nee was more of a motivator type that got his guys to give effort. Edgar stepped into the best situation of any coach since John Cinicola with regard to inherited talent on the roster. When Carroll was fired, Duquesne was mired in mediocrity. When Edgar left, we were a disaster. His style of play was every bit as clueless as Jim Ferry's. The graduating players had to tell BC to fire him. This has never happened before or since. He was an utter disaster. Nee had the horrible 3-24 season, but this was largely because he had no one to replace Achara when he got hurt at the beginning of the season. With a healthy Achara, they probably have a standard issue crappy Nee season (9-10 wins). As those of you who have been around a long time know, I was never in favor of hiring Nee to begin with. I thought his record at Nebraska was mostly built on beating cupcakes ooc, plus I thought it was classless to steal RMU's coach after only one year. With all of that in mind, the fact that I'm defending Nee with regard to Scott Edgar tells you all you need to know about my opinion of Edgar.
In hindsight, firing John Carroll was the worst move we ever made. Worse than firing Ron, and worse than firing Mike Rice. Yeah, you can make a strong argument for keeping both Rice, and Ron, but both of them were in a tight spot. They had both lost their best players, and were scrambling to rebuild their rosters. They were going to be on the hot seat if they were retained. Carroll had already rebuilt his roster. Carroll wasn't a great floor coach either, but he could get players. After being sabotaged by the MCC move, he deserved another year or two.
 

Econ69 wrote:

I doubt if RE would return to DU unless he was paid in the seven figures per year.  He is an assistant coach at a P5 school probably making what he was making at DU with a winning program. No reason to return to DU.  I would favor another head coach from a lesser conference or a top assistant at a P5 school.

Any top assistant at a P5 power will be strongly discouraged from coming here. It would probably have to be a guy who has already failed as a head coach, and was now an assistant. He'd likely not be attractive to P5 schools, and might be willing to come here.
 

The Dome wrote:

The ability to convince a coach to come will revolve more around what commitment is being prepared by Harper and Gormley. The administration has been placed behind the eight ball by the current implosion and will probably have to excellerate whatever plans they have. Eating Ferrys contract will only made this all the harder financially. I have said this several times on this board I believe the Dukes are close to life or death with the A-10. Zach's article points to IMHO one of Ferry's biggest flaws, his arrogance. It has known no bounds since day one.

You touch on something that I have said before. Not only my own personal point of "Ferry is my last chance" but I have gotten the feeling that I will not be alone in this, several alumni other than me are getting their checkbooks to slam shut on this possibility and the A-10 may be ready to pull our plug.  They must be sick of all the promises to have a good team in the Pittsburgh media market and get this constant revolving door circle jerk that this program is and has been for decades. I think there's a good chance they don't stick around for the next fiver year plan either.

It's funny, a year ago Andy Toole would have been number 1 with a bullet on a list of coaches to replace Ferry, but the wheels seem to have come off for him. If they are competitive in the NEC this year, he would still be a fairly strong candidate, but they're off to a horrible start, though to be fair, they've whored themselves out as fodder during the ooc.

Last edited by duq81 (11/24/2016 10:14 pm)