I dont care if we dont play them, there are plenty of fish in the sea.  Actually, few, if anyone cares.  Whats the average attendance for the last 5-10 times we played them, 1200?  
Also, making it sound like its some great loss is like a pitt fan crying about not playing PSU anymore.  They should be happy!  Those programs are miles apart.  At least DU v RMU are similar programs, but I still dont care.  

Lets move on already.

The article is typical of what one would expect from a student newspaper article.  He takes his shots at Duquesne which will please his readership; but makes too many ridiculous statements to mention.

I think DU is rebranding the program..
Non conference games of lesser conferences home only including RMU and SFU.
This raises the program to a higher level  DU will only play
teams of better conferences either on the road or a neutral site.
I approve the change. If RMU wants to 
come to DU only and not want a return game Okay. Otherwise, goodbye.

When we are watching our Dukes at ND, or playing Pitt, PSU or Marshall, or even Radford, will anyone really miss a Tuesday night game in November vs RMU?  And I am not slighting RMU, but it wasnt some great cross town rival of yesteryear.  It was convenient for both teams.

duqkurt wrote:

The author fails to mention it was RM that ended the series with Pitt. Pitt would only play them at home. They could still play Pitt every year by traveling to Oakland.

It was also RM that stopped women’s B.B. series with DU.

I agree with everyone else. DU has to schedule in the best interest of DU. If Pitt drops us, so be it. And I don’t care that RM isn’t on schedule.

That's only partially true. From what I understand, what made RMU drop the series is that they wanted Pitt to pay the standard "cupcake fee", while Pitt wanted to subtract the usual traveling expenses from the payment, since there would be no traveling. Pitt held firm, and RMU decided to stop the series. NEC schools depend on the cupcake money to fund their programs, so they may have decided that being someone else's victim for the full fee, made more financial sense than playing Pitt at a discount.
 

In addition RMU could never be considered the Champion of Pittsburgh because Pitt dropped them several years ago.  Duquesne was kind enough to give them an annual game; and even allowed them to use our arena last season when they had nowhere to play.  Yet, they always seem to act like jerks (stronger language isn’t permitted on this board) in regard to their public statements regarding Duquesne!
We owe them nothing!

duqkurt wrote:

levon1975 wrote:

In addition RMU could never be considered the Champion of Pittsburgh because Pitt dropped them several years ago. Duquesne was kind enough to give them an annual game; and even allowed them to use our arena last season when they had nowhere to play. Yet, they always seem to act like jerks (stronger language isn’t permitted on this board) in regard to their public statements regarding Duquesne!
We owe them nothing!

Has RM made a public statement? There was a Trib or article and this student newspaper article whining.


Here is the exact trib article

https://triblive.com/sports/college/robertmorris/13813267-85/duquesne-rmu-mens-basketball-wont-play-in-2018-19

There are no comments from RM other than the rivalry will be put on hold this season according to an RM official.

There was no public statement damning DU. And we know that RM will be playing this season in their student rec center with temp bleachers holding 500 people.

That is like asking opponents to come and play in the Power Center rec gym.

RM has three D1 OOC games at home this season. MS Valley, YSU and Siena.

My remark was not  in reference to this particular issue, but to the years of trash talk from RMU about wanting to pass Duquesne as #2 in the City because they won a few men's basketball games from Duquesne.  Duquesne has pretty much owned them in every other sport, and the institutions are not really in the same class.  Bye Now!
 

The Dukes under KD will not need RMU. By the way, where is RMU going to play this year? A High School gym?

There is a lot of pettiness in this thread. Bobby Mo knows we don't respect them, and they're throwing results back in our face. We get mad, yet we do the same thing with our women's program, and glory in our dominance over Pitt, despite the handicap of how much better their league is than ours. We sound like Suzie complaining about the Dukes kicking her butt. We should be bigger than that. Let's build our program to a point where games against NEC teams will be speed bumps instead of potholes.

RMU deserves all of the credit in the world for fielding a highly successful basketball program. Year in, year out, RMU competes at the top of their conference and makes regular post season appearances. The icing for them is that they have beat the snot out of the Dukes in recent years.

The Dukes deserved what they got. Over nearly 20 years, RMU had better coaches than the Dukes, excepting the Ron Everhart era (Schmidt/Rice/Toole > Nee/Ferry). RMU Admin placed a strategic emphasis on athletics, specifically basketball and hockey, to build brand image, enhance marketing and attract students. Duquesne did nothing of the sort. Until now.

The hiring of Harper/Dambrot, along with the commitment of President Gormley and the Admin places the Dukes in a massively improved situation. I totally understand the Dukes’ decision to dictate terms of the series; i.e. no games in Moon. Unfortunately, it’s the lay of the land in college basketball today; higher ranked conference teams rarely, if ever, play road games at lower conference schools. You’re not going to see a Power 5/Big East team coming into Palumbo. And you shouldn’t see an A10 school on the road vs. an NEC school, regardless of rivalry/geography/etc.

Duquesne has stepped up to be a big time basketball program. And the Dukes need to behave like one. And the final step will be to win like one.

I don’t see it happening.

Brian wrote:

We didn't play Penn State last year, and I figured we wouldn't see them on the schedule for the near future. Yet, the series resumes at PPG this season after a one year hiatus and the previous meeting taking place in State College. RMU doesn't have an arena for the game this season. I don't think it is totally out of the question that they could play next year at the new Sewell (UPMC Events Center) and resume the series from there.

Brian, I don't think we will ever see Penn St. come into Palumbo.  But they do have a good reason to come into Pittsburgh with their huge alumni base and potential Western PA recruiting. They haven't played in Pittsburgh since the Dukes game in Nov 2015; they played Pitt at neutral sites the last two years.