Unfortunately for us die hard Dukes fans, our coach is going nowhere. When the administration hired Dambrot five ago, they hired him from a successful program. The administration did every thing right when hiring Dambrot. They gave him what he wanted in salary, they gave him the length of time to rebuild a program. They let him bring his entire coaching staff. In addition, they let him get a mental coach, worked creatively with scholarships, changed the D, changed the logo, bring in a brand person, set up a unbelievably easy non conference schedule ( no teams in the top 100),  they bought games for him(even though he couldn’t win some of them), refurbished the Palumbo Center and much more. Unfortunately we can not buy out his contract at this high of a price. What looked good has failed miserably.

Over the past few years I have been the harshest critic of this coach and have been chastised and ridiculed by many on this board. Let us review what this coach has accomplished.
Recruiting
- Brought in over 30 recruits and only one has stayed for his entire eligibility. Excluding grad transfers because they are only here for a year. ( Don’t want to hear the non sense that this is going on everywhere because it is not. All you have to do is look at St Bonnies and Richmond during his time here and they both have retained their starting lineups for four and five years respectively.
- Of the players coach brought in, many of which are not A10 caliber and another 8 who didn’t even go onto play college ball.
- The coach complains about the lack of shooters, big men, defenders, players attitudes and the experience that he has at his disposal. Well coach, you are the one that ultimately gave these players a scholarship and your trusted assistants wanted them as well. So no one to blame but you and your staff.
- Recruiting grade an F
Relationship with players
- Mike Lewis, nice kid with some talent, stayed, did well, some how gets in the dog house and leaves.
-Eric Williams, great find, nice player, performs well gets in dog house and leaves.
-Lamar Norman gives him the starting role, never performs too well at DU, but leaves in the middle of the year and is performing better at new school. Do not want to hear that is a lower level, because he has only played non conference  games so far. Plus, his non conference schedule is tougher than ours.
- Sincere Carey, coach gives him the keys to the team as a frosh, plays nicely but never improves at DU and leaves mid season, performing well for his new team.
- Then the three transfers that stayed a few years, M Hughes goes pro, understandable. Dunn Martin and Weathers go other places, got to make you think.
- I see a lot of head games being played with some of these new ball players and I think they have some talent, but let’s see how this affects them at the end of the year and they have a decision to make about their status.
At best he get a D
In game coaching
- Some games we come out lost and come roaring back.
- Other games we build leads and the other team comes roaring back.
- Coaches substitutions are very questionable,
-Coaches use of or lack of use of timeouts is baffling.
- Our offensive sets, ball movement, player movement, screening are terrible. Mostly play ground basketball.
- Defense is the strength of this coach, quite frankly I do not see it, against poor teams yes, against above poor teams, they have career nights hitting three and get to the hoop relatively easy,
-Coach’s refusal to use a zone at times is mind boggling.
I will be gracious and give coach a C-
Personality of Coach,
I am not a snowflake like some people on this board have insinuated, a coach can swear at me as they have done, but by no means are they going to call me those types of names we discussed earlier, and if you let them, in my book you are the snowflake,  The coach on occasion has not attended the post game interview with Mr Ray Goss. That is not only disrespectful to Mr. Goss but also to the small number of fans, that would like to know what happened in the game from his perspective.

While at DU, I have not seen a player improve his game or his physical body, although most don’t stick around long enough to see the results. As each season has progressed are win loss percentage has regressed. I attribute that to three things, non conference schedule was easy, the players and coach relationships deteriorate, our opponents are better prepared.

In closing, I do not have the money to buy out the coaches contract and if I did, I probably would not, as there are better causes I could assist, But please don’t blame the administration for what is happening to this basketball team, I don’t know what else they could have given this coach except for a buyout which is not in our budget.