Can't really argue with the valid points you cite Wildwood - what a sad state of affairs.  

A83 wrote:

Look for Harper to leave after the NCAA Tournament. The primary objective is for our athletic directors to host the NCAA tournament and then look for another job. He will have hosted twice. Plus, he fund raised for a remodel of a gym.

He is not concerned about the men’s basketball program here. He is concerned with his next job.

A83, you could not be more wrong about Harper. Please explain what else he could do to help the basketball program, He paid a coach a million dollars, let him bring his entire staff, changed uniforms, logos, branding, brought in a mental coach, brought in the this new person for players to make money, he was creative with scholarships and he set up the out of conference schedule from day one that was ridiculously easy to getting progressively getting a little more difficult. Please explain what else he could do, I have to be missing something.

Wildwood13 wrote:

A83 wrote:

Look for Harper to leave after the NCAA Tournament. The primary objective is for our athletic directors to host the NCAA tournament and then look for another job. He will have hosted twice. Plus, he fund raised for a remodel of a gym.

He is not concerned about the men’s basketball program here. He is concerned with his next job.

A83, you could not be more wrong about Harper. Please explain what else he could do to help the basketball program, He paid a coach a million dollars, let him bring his entire staff, changed uniforms, logos, branding, brought in a mental coach, brought in the this new person for players to make money, he was creative with scholarships and he set up the out of conference schedule from day one that was ridiculously easy to getting progressively getting a little more difficult. Please explain what else he could do, I have to be missing something.

Wildwood13 I completely agree. Harper has done above & beyond the call of duty as the AD. When he was first hired my good friend had lunch with him. He told me Harper said no problem to raise the money to rebuild Palumbo. My response to my friend was “ Oh really, I guess a pig will soon fly out of my arse. Well Harper was Not a bull-S###### & that Pig is still flying. Harper is not the problem neither is the President.

Last edited by Ironduke81 (1/27/2022 4:02 pm)

I have to admit, I felt pretty good about where the program was at after year 3 (though maybe not as much as after Ron's year 3). We finished in fifth place in the conference, a year after finishing 6th (finishing in the top half of the A10 is an accomplishment that no Duquesne fan should ever take lightly), thrilling OT road wins against Bonaventure and VCU in the last two weeks of the season. Like to think that team could have made the NIT with a few wins in the conference tourney, though not a given as our NET rating was still in the 90s.

All downhill from there unfortunately. A return to second-division mediocrity last year thanks to the in-season player departures. Almost a complete tear-down and rebuild this year which has returned us to the bottom-tier of the league, as the coaches and media poll predicted, even as our own coach gushed that this was his best team at Duquesne. And grad assistant-turned-transfer Davis Larson was the best of the bunch. Yeah. On the bright side, kids on the team are actually going to class this year.

Talented individual players that don't fit that well together, no depth, not enough size, and halfcourt sets that amount to, "whoever has the ball, try to score." With all due respect, if our whole season relied on a four-year D2 player staying healthy, then we're really in trouble as a program. Gunn profiles as a stretch 4 with a nice shooting touch, but was never a dominant inside player, even at the D2 level. Still a mystery whether he can hit the outside jumper against A10 defenders that are taller, quicker and much more athletic that what he played against at Lenoir-Rhyne.

Keith has another year to show that he can get things moving in the right direction again, and that's really it. I still think he'll retire before he gets extended. 

Harper is VP of Athletics not the Athletic Director.
Based on the title, Harper probably has a place at
the table when Gormsley has his staff meeting with the other VPs..
At Xavier, they have an AD no VP.
I don't know the money difference if any between the titles,
but if Harper left DU to say Xavier he would, at least in title, take a step down.

Leave the A10,,the building we have now is a great fit in the MAAC.The energy feel the program has is near 
death.The schools in MAAC have a lower interest and arent so much committed to basketball . They arent
spending millions to build new facilities.Our program is borderline pathetic.Winning a A10championship is
a terrible joke and its time to look in the mirror and  realize  we have lost  our looks and accept it.

The students could care less and in 10 years all the alumni who cared will be dead.

I keep waiting and every 5-6 years waiting for another coach,then waiting again for last 50 years.WPIAL talent,its like a desert,and the City League is non existent.Pittsburgh area stagnating economically and population.Mckeesport is a dump just like Altoona,Johnstown and Erie.Its a recruiting desert.Same
with eastern Ohio,and all these areas 60 years ago rich in hs talent and Duquesne prosperred.Reality
has hit me and Dukes are a joke .We got a 5ft5inch point guard so man super excited,lightly recruited 
and hes the next hope.
 

Watch the attendance for home games coming up and then describe the excitement in a 3,500 seat gym
with 2,500 empty seats and 1,000 old men from the 1950s who watched Sihugo and the Ricketts brothers.
They still believe that around the corner Jim Tucker from Paris Ky is leaving  Ky to play for Dooques knee,

Interesting comparison FAM.

Adding some #’s, attempting to add a like for like comparison using completed season Conference records.  I.E. ignore non-conference “quality” impacts.  + a highest finish in conference.

KD 2017-18 to 2020-21
Overall 35-33 across 4 seasons
20-21   7-7
19-20* 11-7 (5th place finish)
18-19   10-8
17-18    7-11
*COVID cancelled A-10 & all post season tourney’s

JF 2012-13 to 2016-17
Overall 21-65 across 5 seasons
1 post season tourney - CBI
16-17     3-15
15-16     6-12 (10th place finish)
14-15     6-12
13-14     5-11
12-13     1-15

RE 2006-07 to 2011-12
Overall 46-50 across 6 seasons
3 post season tourney’s - NIT, CBI(2)
11-12    7-9
10-11    10-6 (4th place finish)
09-10    7-9
08-09    9-7
07-08    7-9
06-07    6-10

DN 2001-02 to 2005-06
Overall 19-61 across 5 seasons
05-06   1-15
04-05    5-11
03-04    6-10 (8th place finish of 12 teams)
02-03    3-13
01-02     4-12

My take - None of these guys have much of a positive  legacy really at this point, as none of them have won the A10, the A10 tourney, or made it to the NCAAs. I am going to leave Nee out of this because I do not recall very much about his time at Duquesne.

RE - 
Virtues - Flexibility -He  was always able to figure out how best to use the players he had. While he always favored a PG first system, he always tried to put his players in a position where they'd be used most effectively.  He was very good at developing game plans ahead of big games, often getting out to big early leads. Really good at developing PG. Ron is also by all accounts, a good man. 
 
Vices - Vision - He seemed to have no plan from year to year, no system he believed in at large to build to. It made it impossible to build the program from year to year. He was not good at all at midgame adjustments (lots of blown leads, no wins in OT.) Poor record when playing a team the second time in a season. Bad at developing big men. Some shady (minor) recruiting issues/questions (Kojo transfer, the Florida shoes sanction, Bill Barton.)

Extra -
While I think that the NIT run itself was more due to AJax than Ron, I do think Ron was snakebit with the Melquan Bolding injury. That team had a lot of potential, possibly . He should have given Jason Duty a  scholarship sooner or recruited over him.

JF -
Virtues - Good recruiter. A players coach - not a lot of transfers lost. Brought in a lot of really likeable players and typically kept them. Beat Pitt. Had a system year to year.

Vices - Coaching wasn't up to par with the A10. Took numerous embarrassing losses. Had a system, but it may have been outdated by some of the rules changes regarding hand checking that occurred when he took the job. Despite having good players, he seemed to get less out of them as a total than the sum of their talents. Annoyed fan base with lack of accountability. 

Extra - Not the same as Melquan but the Jeremiah Johnson injury did really hurt that team. I don't think they were an NCAA team that year, but I think that it definitely effected that team. A few of his big men also where injured throughout his tenure, but it is difficult to plot how that would have changed things.

KD -
Virtues - A very good coach strategy wise. Team competes, plays defense. Record outperforms roster typically. Good/lucky at finding underrecruited players. Keith managed the lack of a home court and Covid pretty well last season.

Vices - Far too stubborn, and possibly too old school to succeed in the changing game. It's a reasonable suspicion that he would rather lose his way than win a different way, but that's only conjecture. Not a great recruiter, and not seemingly overly interested in it. Not a lot of player development year to year (to my eyes.) Lots of roster upheaval year after year (the transfer rule changes definitely come into play here but  prior to that as well.) Preaches no excuses but seems more of a semantics exercise than a philosophy.

Extra - Team from 2019-2020 could have possibly made it to the NCAA/NIT. Would have been at least a CBI team if such a thing existed that year. I do wonder though, assuming the team doesn't turn it around - how will KD react if the administration asks him to make some staffing changes in the offseason?  

i was on 4th floor st anne's
Dukes had fun players then, Whithead, Alston, Pipkins, Watkins, Hunter, etc.   The NIT bid was fun, actually won a game vs UNC Charlotte, hosted 2 NIT games that year(1993-94).