Though many players remain this is not last years Dukes.

They have a Coach who has shown them how to win, we won’t sneak up on any A10 teams the rest of this year, but we will beat our share!

Things I am giddy about:

1. About 8 months into the job KD & staff have far exceeded my expectations in everything from recruiting, to culture shifting, to in game coaching, to player development, to etc.... Truly remarkable.
2. What fun it must be for Rene & Tarin to be putting it together after years of frustration.
3. Hearing the joy in Ray's voice.
4. Eric Williams passes & defends like a junior while being one of the most productive scoring & rebounding freshmen in the country against real competition!
5. Watching teammates play for each other & hold each other accountable.

Tejas_Duke wrote:

Yeah me too, my favorite sports bar was able to get it on for me. Watched without sound but still fun. Ten wins before the start of the New Year!

​Loving that defense and "never quit attitude."  There were times today when last year's team would have folded like a cheap suitcase and it would have ended up a double digit loss

We were down 7 at one point in the first half. I would love to see the largest deficit we overcame last year at any point in a game. Of course, with only 10 wins, very doubtful we overcame a 7 point or worse deficit.
And again coach apologized for another game in the 60’s. LOL. Somebody tell him we don’t care if we win 10-9.
 

KenOTR73 wrote:

Tejas_Duke wrote:

Yeah me too, my favorite sports bar was able to get it on for me. Watched without sound but still fun. Ten wins before the start of the New Year!

​Loving that defense and "never quit attitude."  There were times today when last year's team would have folded like a cheap suitcase and it would have ended up a double digit loss

We were down 7 at one point in the first half. I would love to see the largest deficit we overcame last year at any point in a game. Of course, with only 10 wins, very doubtful we overcame a 7 point or worse deficit.
And again coach apologized for another game in the 60’s. LOL. Somebody tell him we don’t care if we win 10-9.
 

Duquesne actually trailed by eight (30-22 5:14 1H) but closed the half on a 16-4 run. 
 

I'm very pleased with this win.   We now have a good and improving men's basketball program.  A program that wins games,  This was a game that could have gone either way and we won it.  Over the past 4 decades we most often would have lost.  So many of our wins in recent years weren't because we won the game, but because the other team lost it, because they managed to find a way to play worse than us for 40 minutes.  Now we're going on runs at the end of halves and winning close games.  I've seen enough now to make this prediction - Mike Lewis II will play in the NCAA tournament as a Duquesne Duke.

KenOTR73 wrote:

We were down 7 at one point in the first half. I would love to see the largest deficit we overcame last year at any point in a game. Of course, with only 10 wins, very doubtful we overcame a 7 point or worse deficit.
And again coach apologized for another game in the 60’s. LOL. Somebody tell him we don’t care if we win 10-9.
 

Ken, last year, the Dukes came back from two different 10 point first half deficits to win - Pitt and Saint Francis. In conference, Dukes came back from a 9 point 1st half deficit vs. Saint Louis.

I'm happy because this wasn't the absolute best or anywhere close to it that the Dukes could have played (turnovers, cold outside shooting, conceding a bit too many offensive boards)  and they still found a way to get it done and hopefully it should set a tone for the conference season. They're showing they can take some punches and still fight back and give themselves a chance to win in the end as we've seen since the Lamar game.

I'm also happy because I enjoyed walking out of Palumbo with the W and seeing a lot of dejected sad Dayton faces. That'll never get old 

coffee wrote:

Dukes took a bad detour a few years back letting Ron go, but I have no doubt that this is the start of something very big!

The Dukes need to be a part of keeping the A-10 as one of the best conferences in the nation. They may be only a Juan Bid this year for the first time in a long time.

THE LONG NIGHTMARE IS FINALLY OVER!

I even logged into the A-10 Forum at again at http://www.basketballforum.com/atlantic-10-conference/

********************
Why was Ron Everhart fired??

Funny how the last 2 competent coaches have strong connections to Bob Huggins.
 

Last edited by Dsnyder15 (12/31/2017 5:50 pm)

rosceaux wrote:

Giddy might be an overstatement, but it is great that Duquesne basketball can be fun again. I felt like that was robbed from us the past few years.

Great team win.

 
Not overstating this at all. Enjoyed the heck out of this. Hey, at my age, not much else gets my heart racing like this. 😀

Didn’t Ferry say after arriving that the rebuilding would take 5 years, KD said we came here to win championship’s, and I think we are building in that direction.

We're so lucky to have both Dambrot and Burt coaching here at Duquesne. 

Great article!


http://pittsburghsportsnow.com/2018/01/01/dambrot-on-his-way-to-making-duquesne-matter-again/