levon1975 wrote:

You will never get anything positive about Duquesne from Mike DeCourcy, period.  He was a Pittsburgh writer who covered Pitt and never had a fair-minded comment about Duquesne; so consider the source.  I understand that Duquesne would need to take major strides forward to be invited, but the potential is definitely there, if the right moves are made.  The City is becoming more inviting to young professionals, and the per capita income has been rising.  The Consol would love to have Duquesne as a tenant for some big opponents. We already proved three years ago against Xavier at Consol that we can put 11,000 people in the building based on a successful season and a good opponent.  That team was still pretty limited, so I guess that we could draw even more with a legitimate team.  We just need to make a move soon.

It's not his job to be a cheerleader for us. We can't hope for the BE to come rescue us, we have to become such a valuable asset, that they will want to take us. Xavier and Butler built their programs while members of the Horizon League. SLU has thrived as a member of the A10. Let's be honest, you would be hard pressed to find a team in one of the top 10 leagues that has done less than us over the last 40 years. We have contributed virtually nothing to the A10 since it's founding, and are lucky they haven't asked us to leave. If we have the potential we say we do, we ought to be able to show it while a member of what is, and has been, a very good league. It's time to put up, or shut up.

duq81 wrote:

levon1975 wrote:

You will never get anything positive about Duquesne from Mike DeCourcy, period.  He was a Pittsburgh writer who covered Pitt and never had a fair-minded comment about Duquesne; so consider the source.  I understand that Duquesne would need to take major strides forward to be invited, but the potential is definitely there, if the right moves are made.  The City is becoming more inviting to young professionals, and the per capita income has been rising.  The Consol would love to have Duquesne as a tenant for some big opponents. We already proved three years ago against Xavier at Consol that we can put 11,000 people in the building based on a successful season and a good opponent.  That team was still pretty limited, so I guess that we could draw even more with a legitimate team.  We just need to make a move soon.

It's not his job to be a cheerleader for us. We can't hope for the BE to come rescue us, we have to become such a valuable asset, that they will want to take us. Xavier and Butler built their programs while members of the Horizon League. SLU has thrived as a member of the A10. Let's be honest, you would be hard pressed to find a team in one of the top 10 leagues that has done less than us over the last 40 years. We have contributed virtually nothing to the A10 since it's founding, and are lucky they haven't asked us to leave. If we have the potential we say we do, we ought to be able to show it while a member of what is, and has been, a very good league. It's time to put up, or shut up.

 
Agree with every point. The question becomes does the Duquesne athletic dept have the right captin to navigate this ship into the Big East waters? I hope so for the viable future of this program in a great Catholic conference with an off the chart tv package.I hope GA can pull this off. Go Dukes

I'm going to watch and see if this new Big East will be as great as everyone says.  I will also watch the A-10 to see how they do with Mason and Davidson.

Very interesting reading. Both articles. To Murray's credit, he did make some strong moves, bringing in John Carroll, who was the top assistant at then powerhouse Seton Hall. Carroll just couldn't get over the hump. The MCC move was a huge mistake that stopped the momentum Carroll had been building. (Thanks, BC)

ElDuque wrote:

Did you see the list of candidates to replace Satalin?

 http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2Fnewspapers%3Fnid%3D1144%26dat%3D19890307%26id%3D-QsdAAAAIBAJ%26sjid%3D6ZYEAAAAIBAJ%26pg%3D6380%2C4653945&ei=LPh3Uq7UCqKysAT2ioCYBA&usg=AFQjCNGIdLpTxlLJNKUOl7XJNO7q764M4A&sig2=00LlHlaH5G4RXisap4-HsQ

Obviously Rickma would have been the choice. I can't remember how it all played out, but that the search committee recomended the coach at Delaware, and that Murray rejected that. Carroll was in fact, a high profile hire at the time. Not sure what happened with Rickma, but once Cincy expressed interest in Huggins, Duquesne wasn't going to win that battle. I remember reading that Grg's family didn't want to come back to Pittsburgh. The timing was never right for Jarrett. His best years at Bobby Mo occured right after Carroll was hired. If we'd had an opening in 1992, he'd have been a no brainer hire. That said, he should have been offered the job when Edgar got canned.

ElDuque wrote:

Mulder, what I meant by that is that DeCourcey broke the stories about the alleged problems with the program that ultimately led to his downfall. I used "ratted out" as a slang term; Satalin of course deserved to be fired if only for his record. He was brought in to "clean up" after Mike Rice. Also, I am not now nor have I ever been an insider. I knew some stuff from what guys have told me over the years, or better said heard some stuff. The closest I got to the program was the student newspaper and knowing some of the players from class. But no, I was never an insider, not with my $5 donation (this is a reference to what said about me on one of the message boards a few years ago).

duq81, imagine how different things would have been with Majerus. Grgurich would have been a horrible choice because he was helping Tark cheat at UNLV. I liked the Carroll hire at the time and I would have liked Jarrett any time. He's a classy guy and he really knows the game. Carroll recruited well early but didn't seem to grasp the Xs and Os, and then after his initial rich haul of big men (Lopes, Alston, Ladsen) couldn't attract anyone over 6-5.

Lack of good big guys was the downfall of Carroll, and RE, the two best coaches of the last 30 years. This is why I was so happy about Watkins, and Robinson, and why I'm nervous now. Good big guys are very hard to get.

ElDuque wrote:

Mulder, what I meant by that is that DeCourcey broke the stories about the alleged problems with the program that ultimately led to his downfall. I used "ratted out" as a slang term; Satalin of course deserved to be fired if only for his record. He was brought in to "clean up" after Mike Rice. Also, I am not now nor have I ever been an insider. I knew some stuff from what guys have told me over the years, or better said heard some stuff. The closest I got to the program was the student newspaper and knowing some of the players from class. But no, I was never an insider, not with my $5 donation (this is a reference to what said about me on one of the message boards a few years ago).

duq81, imagine how different things would have been with Majerus. Grgurich would have been a horrible choice because he was helping Tark cheat at UNLV. I liked the Carroll hire at the time and I would have liked Jarrett any time. He's a classy guy and he really knows the game. Carroll recruited well early but didn't seem to grasp the Xs and Os, and then after his initial rich haul of big men (Lopes, Alston, Ladsen) couldn't attract anyone over 6-5.

Well, you are more in or at least knowledgeable than I am.  I guess looking back I don't see DeCourcey as hating DU any more than anyone else has over the years in print (or on TV/Radio).  Certainly that continues today but then we don't deserve to be much more than an afterthought right now until we actually do something very positive (e.g, couple beating Pitt with a strong season; getting to the NCAA in multiple years, etc.).  That's not to say they are all like that.  I think the new PG beat guy (Nesbitt) has gotten off to a good start and Paul Zeise did a fine job last year.  Stan Savran on radio usually will talk about Duquesne positively and will criticize but constructively.  That's about it.

Satalin deserved to go for a number of reasons, not the least of which to me was his comment to me shortly after he was hired.  I attended some kind of reception for him for ticket holders, alums or somebody and we each got the chance to shake his hand and welcome him.  When I asked him about returning to the NCAA his response was somewhat tepid to say the least - we may get there sometime and once in a while is essentially what he said.  Didn't sound too enthusiastic to me.

I too recall Carroll as being a great hire - he was considered one of the top assistants nationally at the time he was hired if I recall.

Mulder wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

Mulder, what I meant by that is that DeCourcey broke the stories about the alleged problems with the program that ultimately led to his downfall. I used "ratted out" as a slang term; Satalin of course deserved to be fired if only for his record. He was brought in to "clean up" after Mike Rice. Also, I am not now nor have I ever been an insider. I knew some stuff from what guys have told me over the years, or better said heard some stuff. The closest I got to the program was the student newspaper and knowing some of the players from class. But no, I was never an insider, not with my $5 donation (this is a reference to what said about me on one of the message boards a few years ago).

duq81, imagine how different things would have been with Majerus. Grgurich would have been a horrible choice because he was helping Tark cheat at UNLV. I liked the Carroll hire at the time and I would have liked Jarrett any time. He's a classy guy and he really knows the game. Carroll recruited well early but didn't seem to grasp the Xs and Os, and then after his initial rich haul of big men (Lopes, Alston, Ladsen) couldn't attract anyone over 6-5.

Well, you are more in or at least knowledgeable than I am.  I guess looking back I don't see DeCourcey as hating DU any more than anyone else has over the years in print (or on TV/Radio).  Certainly that continues today but then we don't deserve to be much more than an afterthought right now until we actually do something very positive (e.g, couple beating Pitt with a strong season; getting to the NCAA in multiple years, etc.).  That's not to say they are all like that.  I think the new PG beat guy (Nesbitt) has gotten off to a good start and Paul Zeise did a fine job last year.  Stan Savran on radio usually will talk about Duquesne positively and will criticize but constructively.  That's about it.

Satalin deserved to go for a number of reasons, not the least of which to me was his comment to me shortly after he was hired.  I attended some kind of reception for him for ticket holders, alums or somebody and we each got the chance to shake his hand and welcome him.  When I asked him about returning to the NCAA his response was somewhat tepid to say the least - we may get there sometime and once in a while is essentially what he said.  Didn't sound too enthusiastic to me.

I too recall Carroll as being a great hire - he was considered one of the top assistants nationally at the time he was hired if I recall.

Couldn't agree with you more about Satalin, Mulder. For years, stretching back to the last year or so of Manning's coaching career, I used to unofficially send reports or meet with the coaches about players they might want to look at. Over the years they actually brought in four or five for recruiting visits and signed one. A week after Satalin was hired he wrote me a letter in which he stated that my services were no longer welcomed stating that, if I was good at what I do then the school wouldn't have needed to hire him. For the record, two of the five went on to earn honorable mention All-American status at other schools. Satilin and his moron brother were obnoxious and too wrapped up in their own self importance to have had the passion necessary to run a consistently successful program at Duquesne. 
 

Don't feel bad apluski. At one point, I think Mossie Murphy was also shown the door WRT his recruiting counsel.

I don't know how the NCAA$$holes govern such things, but at the start of Satalin's regime, the type of service you offered may have been frowned upon at institutions outside of the Big East, Big 10 and PAC 10.