Email Title:  Jim Ferry has finally succeeded at Duquesne!

Dear Mr. Harper:

 Perhaps you remember me, I was the fan in Texas who wrote you last year, and you took the time to respond to me and even talked with me on the phone for almost an hour and I appreciated that. You told me of a long term plan to make this men's basketball program a success and you informed me that Jim Ferry is "your coach."  You were unequivocal about it. 

Well a year later he has succeeded.  He managed to make me not even care about beating Pitt!  

An event I waited for, hoped for in desperate anticipation every fall only to have my hopes smashed as Pitt dispatched us in about five minutes every time. Well this year, after a loss to a Division II team, not to mention losses to such garbage programs as Tennessee Martin and UMBC.  After those losses, usually as the team blew leads and made mistakes down the stretch, and he failed to make any kind of coaching adjustment, I just stared mutely at my phone, watching the ESPN tracker, while out to play bar trivia with my wife.  I derived no joy from this Pitt win because I knew it wouldn't matter. Instead of that win being a marquee win on the way to a 9-2 or so OOC record, we were around .500, and the league, hopelessly out of any record which would even put us within shouting distance of the NIT, let alone the Big Dance! 

Starting last year I have grown disgusted at Ferry's usual way of losing games, other than when we get blown out of course, is when the team has a lead and he can't call the plays or make the adjustments to protect it. Go back to the Big Swoon last year. We should have beaten Dayton, not to mention a few other top teams but it slipped away. He has this utterly indecipherable method of dispensing playing time. Justin Robinson is the only big man who makes things happen, yet he gets only about four minutes a game. Ferry has sometimes put out 4 guard/1 small forward offenses on the floor against much bigger teams! I could go on but why bother? Oh yes I will make one final point. The way he throws his players under the bus at post game press conferences is disgraceful. I have never seen this man take responsibility for anything!  You are stuck with a head coach who has a grand total of 3 winning seasons in sixteen years, and two of those at an inferior level of basketball. 

Today's utter humiliation at Dayton has just solidified my position.  I have watched every game available to me this year and seeing crowds of under 500 people at games is just soul-crushing!  You said you planned to build with him and Duquesne being Duquesne there is no way you are going to eat  the last year of his ridiculous contract so he will be back and the excuses will continue, alumni interest will fall even more and more checkbooks will close like mine has done.  You will be measuring attendance in the dozens next year. 

Mr. Harper I don't mean to pile on. As I told you last year, I respect that you took on this job of raising the Titanic, and the herculean task ahead of you!  But none of your promises for a long term plan or "Make Dukes games an event" will matter until the Men's basketball program is something we can be proud of. I hope you are not asking the long suffering fans to wait until year 8 for him to figure it out, as he did at LIU. Fans like me have waited for decades and are sick of waiting!  As I also told you I am done when you fire Ferry.  I am 51 years old and am done supporting the next five year plan! You have no idea how broken my spirits are! 

Best Wishes:
"Tejas Duke"

 PS: Last year during the swoon, I told you I would not be one of those pestering alumni constantly filling your in box with complaints.  You notice that I led off with the Pitt comment. That's how long I have been putting this off.  I tried to believe, I tried really, but I just can't watch anymore. 

Last edited by Tejas_Duke (2/04/2017 3:01 pm)