Two articles this week in the Tribune on Duquesne/Dambrot.   Kind of same old words.  What I didn’t like is Dambrot’s insistence on how hard the job is and it’s not easy to win at Duquesne.  He got his building, his players,  his coaches, his salary.  If it is hard to win today, that is on the COACH!

Dukes 5.5 underdogs. Hard not to bet the Bonnie’s especially without Rotroff. Good news is that the Bonnie’s are 7 deep just like the Dukes. However, Schmidt in my opinion gets 3 points based upon his coaching. Secondly, the Bonnie’s are older, more experienced & definitely play as a well oiled cohesive unit. I hate cheering against the Dukes especially since this is a rare national TV game BUT🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔💰💰💰FanDuel account.

FAM wrote:

Two articles this week in the Tribune on Duquesne/Dambrot.   Kind of same old words.  What I didn’t like is Dambrot’s insistence on how hard the job is and it’s not easy to win at Duquesne.  He got his building, his players,  his coaches, his salary.  If it is hard to win today, that is on the COACH!

If it was easy; they wouldn’t have offered him $1-million per year; but why make this point specifically about Duquesne being a tough place to win?  Why not take a few lines of print to list some of the many positive features that Duquesne can offer?  He’s not exactly acting on the best interest of his own program when he makes these comments.  The guy needs a PR man to edit this stuff before it hits the press.

This game was lost before it even started. Dambrot's exudes absolutely no confidence in his team and can't coach. That's pretty obvious at this point. Get out of the way and let the kids run up and down the court. At least they'll lose on their own terms.

CityDuke wrote:

Missed the first part of this game. Figured we were losing because I saw Rayrich posted. Decent end to the half. Really need to attack them when Ossuniyi goes to the bench. Not sure how that wasn’t a goaltend to end the half.

I post when we win also, which isn't often. Ossuniyi goes to the bench about 3 minutes a game, so you might want to attack him when he's in the game as well. Use your body, create contact, go to the line. Basic fundamental basketball. The guy weighs 200 pounds soaking wet. Not exactly Bill Russell. Looks like he's on his way to another 20 rebound performance against the Dukes.
 

Though we lost,  the kids were competitive the second half and played well.  We had no one to match their big guy.  There were a lot of backdoor cuts on our part and drives to the hoop.  I though Dambrot did a good job and it appeared that the assistants were providing input.  Also, the crowd and students were a blast.  It was a positive college atmosphere for the Dukes.

Wonder if Jackie Johnson was injured. Dukes really could have used his offense.  Nice looking crowd last night. Students showed with the help of a 5000 incentive.

FAM wrote:

Though we lost,  the kids were competitive the second half and played well.  We had no one to match their big guy.  There were a lot of backdoor cuts on our part and drives to the hoop.  I though Dambrot did a good job and it appeared that the assistants were providing input.  Also, the crowd and students were a blast.  It was a positive college atmosphere for the Dukes.

Great to hear! I watched on TV and felt very positive vibes from the crowd. Thought the Dukes looked about as good in the second half as they have all season. Ran way more sets and defense looked much better. There is no answer for Osunniyi!! A matchup nightmare. That's the missing part here. No disrespect to Tre ever. He's a good basketball player. Put Osunniyi at the 5 and Tre at the 4 for us and we win the A-10 hands down.  Got to get that kind of player!! Just my nickel's worth and GO DUKES!

Leon was 4-20 last night and 1-8 from the three.  I went back to check on season stats and to my surprise Leon is the second worse three point shooters among the players who played in all sixteen games only behind Trey Williams.  Leon also has shot the most three point shots by far, and played the most minutes.  I am not trying to get down on the kid, just looking at stats. If you are looking for answers on our inability to score or win close games this could be one.  

  2021-2022 Duquesne University Men's Basketball (PDF) - Duquesne University Athletics (goduquesne.com)

Ironduke81 wrote:

CLK wrote:

A lot to digest here. Dambrot not afraid of the "T" WORD.  Read between the lines. 



 

Thanks CLK for the video. I guess Mr Obvious strikes again. The T word. Well Coach Dambrot has next year to hit the portal & strike gold.

The KD B.S. machine strikes again.

Schmidt took over an SBU program in complete disarray. They had won 12 total A-10 games in the 5 years prior to his taking over. That's a lot worse than the Ferry years at DU.

In year 4 they won a CBI game. In year 5, they won the A-10 tournament to go dancing. In year 8 they won the conference regular season. He did this in one of the most difficult places in America to recruit to & with 50 year old crap facilities.

KD's urging the reporters to check Schmidt's first 8 years at SBU is disingenuous or ignorant. You choose.

Just for the record as I had no idea myself,
Schmid's record thru his first 5 years at SBU was 74-80 with one 20 win season.

One thing that Schmidt has had that Dambrot really hasn't is legitimate star players. First it was Andrew Nicholson, remember him? He took the Bonnies from dreadful to somewhat respectable to A10 champions. They went from being dead last in the A10 in Schmidt's first year, to 11th, 8th, 7th and 3rd-place finishes in Nicholson's four years, culminating in an A10 championship and NCAA berth in his senior year, when he was A10 Player of the Year. He was the 19th player taken in the NBA draft that year and spent 5 years in the NBA. 

The Bonnies returned to the A10's second division the next two years (11th and 9th-place finishes), then Jaylen Adams arrived in 2014-15. They finished 6th, 1st, 5th and 2nd in his four years, winning 20+ games the last three years, a regular season championship his second year, and, like Nicholson, made the NCAA tourney in his senior season, when he was, like Nicholson, A10 Player of the Year. He's since spent parts of two seasons in the NBA.

The Lofton-Osunniyi Era began the year after Adams graduated with the Bonnies playing for an A10 championship their freshman year after a 4th-place regular season finish, then winning regular season and conference tourney championships two years later. Both are 2X All-A10 players and Osunniyi has won Defensive Player of the Year and A10 Tourney MVP. They'll remain a top A10 team for as long as those two stay, and they have another year of eligibility left after this season.

Keith simply hasn't had that caliber of player that you can build a program around like Schmidt has had from really his second year at Bonaventure. Whether you fault the recruiting or the player development/retention under Dambrot, that's the reality.