Pistol,
Excellent Post - I think you ought to copy and paste it in an email to Harper...in fact we all should.  He has to be embarrassed.  And to beat a dead horse...we were close in the first half and close in the second half yesterday because their best player was out.  We are all disgusted.  Every Duquesne year over the past 5, except for one has been rebuilding year....same with Ferry.  Doesn't anyone in the administration know what to do?

Last edited by FAM (2/06/2022 12:24 pm)

I think I am done! 

Even though I live in Texas, every year since Dambrot was hired I have bought season tickets and donated them to charity. (Insert stale joke "Hey Tejas, we want to help the disadvantaged not make them suffer more by giving them Dukes tickets"........rim shot........dead silence). I really thought Dambrot was the answer and now it is plainly obvious that he can't recruit, can't retain talent, can't plan, can't condition and can't game coach.  Like Jim Ferry who reached the Peter Principle two levels above his level of competence (note where Ferry is currently coaching and being successful), Dambrot is one level above his. Like they guy who can't hit the curve at the next level of the minors, his ceiling as been reached.

Five years and here we are back to 2012...........2006............2001........1998.....1995......1989....   I am losing track, hey the Duquesne basketball program just woke up and heard Sonny and Cher on the clock radio again.

This and I am really angry about an issue I brought up on the "other things Duquesne" board here.  I am sending a letter to President Gormly and CCing Harper, and a few others I have had contact with in the last few years.

(It's kind of funny. Has anyone noticed that 20 years later we have the identical situation the Pirates were in, where after Kevin McClatchy worked insanely hard, overcoming strong opposition to get the Pirates a new ball park, and they crapped the bed instantly by putting a 100 loss team on the field. And we all know how that ball park was instrumental in the Pirates roaring success in the last two decades.

All these reasons plus I am now dealing with a severe health problem that hits men in my age group  (Not terminal or life threatening, just a lot of daily constant pain) and I used to tune into Dukes games to try and get some joy out of life and that has not been happening.  I need more positives in my life and sadly Duquesne hoops, which I have been waiting for over 40 years to finally figure things out and just make the Big Dance One Time..........ONE "EXPLITIVE" TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My respect and love to all of you who soldier on here, but I think I am finally done.
 

Last edited by Tejas_Duke (2/13/2022 3:19 pm)

PistolPete wrote:

Well we have now been torpedoed midship and are sinking fast, but KD said he is here to win championships!  Hell, in year 5 we are in a fight for last place and can't even sniff the talent level of Dayton, Davidson, St. Lou, St. Bona or  Richmond, but let's not forget that KD said this is his "most talented team".  Someone get me a prescription for whatever he is taking, I could use some time in La La Land.  The roster composition and the recruiting is all on Dambrot and his stale staff.  The inability to cajole talented players to stay on the team is also on KD.  To not bring in one seasoned PG out of the portal going into this year along with a big was inexcusable.  It wasn't hard to project the need and please don't tell me a DII player was going to make all the difference in the world, not buying it fellas. And I don't want to hear about COVID either, every team has had to deal with it.  All we get are excuses and as of now the future doesn't look too bright either with the 2 recruits coming in, including our 5'7" PG savior who only got offered by Midwest Liberty Podunk State for crumb sakes.  Harper you need to mandate some changes to shake up this staff and get someone in there that can recruit!!!  Didn't you say that we wouldn't be recruiting from the bottom shelf any more with all the resources KD has been given????!!!! KD has been given the keys to the Cadillac as Iron Duke noted, but it seems to me he has it in reverse.  Whatever KD is doing is clearly not working so time to shake things up Dave!!!  

P.S. Can someone verify whether or not we actually have signed LOI from the 2 recruits - I certainly hope not.

Pistol A10 Standings update. Duquesne in last place all alone. The good news is that Dambrot is tanking to get the #1 pick in the draft. 😜

Tejas...please stay.  If you do, it will make the physical pain you are going through a lot better!!!!!!!!!!!

I have written the AD and President.  I really believe folks expressing their opinion matters.  I also believe Dambrot isn't going anywhere next year...why would he pass up a million dollars?  What will get me extremely angry is if he somehow blames Duquesne University on his current state of affairs.  He caused this - as many have said - he has been given everything - he is just like Ferry, in over his head.  Wonder who the AD will hire after next year????

CLK I feel your pain, believe me, but you and Tejas need to stay on board.  At least we get to vent to each other.  As I noted, not bringing in what KD needed on the roster after the mass exodus is inexcusable.  This is why I have very little faith with the strategy, evaluation of prospects and the recruiting chops of this staff to get it done.  KD needs to be "TOLD" make some changes - its not an option.  If he doesn't like it he can resign.  The talent gap is painfully obvious and I don't want to hear about we are "young".  Crap all these transfers have already played a couple of years and the only two who are truly young are JJ and Primo.  So they are new to each other, guess what, this is happening on a lot of teams around the country.  Good coaching, and bball IQ, which is missing on some of our players, allow teams to mesh and we are certainly well into the season.  My perspective on some of our recruits (not talking Primo and JJ) and current players are MAC level or would be back-ups on a decent A-10 team.  At this stage I would only see Tre as a possible starter on a good, not even top tier, A-10 team at the 4 spot.  You are the general Dave Harper and you can tell your subordinates what you want done!!  The current state of affairs, all the doing of KD and his staff, cannot continue and is unacceptable. 

levon1975 wrote:

How would this group feel about hiring Ron Everhart as the next Head Coach?

I Liked RE a lot as a person and a coach. Thought he related well to the players in general. Also a fan favorite and did a credible job here given the little support given him. Got a raw deal here at the end IMO. I seriously doubt, at age 60, he would have any interest in the DU job if it became available. Interesting question though.

Last edited by El Presidente (2/06/2022 5:49 pm)

1111 Vickroy wrote:

Sort of out of left field but how does Iona get Rick Pitino? What is his salary there?

Apparently Iona offered Pitino around 1 million dollars a year. Would think he might want to coach a power 5 school again but at 70 years of age the likelihood is not great.

CLK wrote:

I am so disappointed in this coach and staff. Never ever did I expect that in year 5 we would be in sole possession of last place halfway through the season.  So how did we get in this position?  There are a number of reasons that have been mentioned but to me it boils down to recruiting and retention of good players.

Last April when there was the mass walk out of players, or if you prefer KD's version of when he cleaned house, it was clear to most poster that Dambrot needed to recruit a big center and a seasoned point guard.  Some even added that we needed to recruit another shooter.  Dambrot tried but was unsuccessful in recruiting these players from the portal. Instead, he brought players and expected them to play out of their natural position.  Williams is a good player better suited to play the power forward slot in the A10 not as an undersized center.  This team has no rim protector as evidenced of getting pounded all season inside and most recently being outscored 42-26 in the paint yesterday.  Easley is another player. He has done a good job but would probably be better positioned as a small forward.  Instead of bringing in a seasoned point guard to play with TDM he brought in two freshmen neither of whom were ready. One freshman yes, two just managed to push TDM out the door. 

The sad part is that Dambrot promptly hailed this group as his best team ever at Duquesne. I for one drank the Kool-Aid and believed him. My head said we don't have enough, but my heart trusted that KD would not lie.   My only question now as we sit in last place and hearing Dambrot's comments that this group is not good enough to compete, is did he really mean that this was his best team, or was he blowing smoke?   Either way it is an indictment on him and his staff.  The "Danny Nee Duquesne Depression Feeling" has once again set in as my hope for this Program is gone. For sanity purposes have therefore decided to enter "The Fans Transfer Portal" and will be rooting for the Florida Gators for the rest of the season,  

CLK.   I feel badly for you.   I’m 60 and gave up hope actually before Dambrot.   But you have taken a lot of time to run this board and taken a lot of flak.   From jerks like me.   Sorry for all that.

I’m really not angry anymore.   I’m just apathetic.   Which is worse than being angry. 

Tejas -  I dont try to give advice but being angry over this situation is making you upset.  And more upset than anyone at DU.   It really isn’t worth it.   I have said this over and over on this board.  At the end of the day, they all get paid and sleep soundly. 

To the supporters of Harper, the ball is in his court now.   Amodio at least had the balls to pull the plug on RE when he felt things weren’t going well.  That was a disaster but he didn’t stand pat.

This is Nee level disengagement from Dambrot.   And the ball is in Harpers court.  With my earlier 6 win prediction I predict the following.  Soon after the end of the season he will depart.

SteelBowl wrote:

Every 4 or 5 years many of the same reasons that were raised 4 or 5 years earlier come up for making a coaching change. I always have the same questions. 

What  makes some think a different coach is going to change the results? What should the coach have done to recruit “better players”? How is DU supposed to out recruit better programs? Can DU hire someone “better”  than the current coach? Unless DU comes up with crazy money to somehow lure an established big name HC who can recruit on his name alone, which isn’t going to happen, who could be hired that would make the difference? After nearly 50 years of mostly losing, what up and coming coach, “lower tier” head coach , or big program assistant would take the job? Especially since, if you include Dambrot, 10 straight coaches will have failed to win here.  

DU  did increase the coaches’ pay, up the recruiting budget, and upgrade the facilities. No argument KD has the benefit of a better program in that sense than those before him and it’s fair to have expected better results. I wish some of the prior coaches, especially Everhart, had the benefit of the upgrades. I don’t say this to feed into an “Everhart firing” or “Amodio was a jerk” debate, but to point out the upgrades were needed and late in coming.
Some facts about DU’s new commitment to the program - from what I could find, DU is still middle of the pack in the A10 in mens basketball budget. DU’s budget is well behind Dayton and SLU.  A $1m salary for a HC is also middle of the pack. Schmidt, a living coaching legend to some on this board, was apparently making about $850k before his latest extension. BTW, his and KD’s D1 career winning percentages  are damn near the same. The renovations to The Coop, which IMO were well done, decreased capacity making it the second or third smallest arena in the A10. UD, you know, the school KD is a defeatist for saying he can’t out recruit one on one, already had the largest and arguably nicest facility in the A10 and just did $72-75m in renovations. This is not said to be critical of DU’s efforts, just to put things into perspective.

 DU and KD had a plan. Bring in some transfers to help win quick along with some recruits. Coach up the recruits and win enough to get to be in the top 3 or 4 in the A10 to maybe get a bid. Ride that wave into the “new” facility to create a buzz, get backsides in seats, and have something to sell recruits. It looked like they were moving that way. But COVID hit. Yeah, everyone had to deal with COVID. But if you think it affected the Dukes and Daytons the same as the Duquesne’s, I disagree. Any rebuilding team, thinner on guys ready to contribute right away, would be hit harder. Although not COVID related don’t forget losing one of the guys you expected to contribute right away to personal tragedy. Add playing without a home and not having that new home ready for when you expected to peak.  

I'm no expert on Akron, but from what I understand KD won there by signing guys he thought had  potential, coaching them up 2,3 sometimes 4 years before having to rely on them, not by wooing 4 and 5 star guys. Again, since DU was not going to straight up out recruit top tier A10, the best mid-majors , or P5s, that seemed a good route to take here. But the NIL and the portal hit. DU tried to get ahead of the NIL but that is just making recruiting harder on the have nots. And, the portal isn’t making it any easier on keeping under recruited guys or developing players. Once you give a kid a chance and he shows he can play or you coach up a kid and make him better, he doesn’t need you. He no longer needs to be coachable or accept his role. He can just move on. But please convince

DU should make an  eleventh coaching change and can hire the coach who will make all the difference.

 
This is a good post.
Two take-home points I see:
1. We're still not spending enough, and 2. Developing players is a fool's errand because they'll just transfer.
Now I'm really bummed out.

Wildwood,
You are spot on.  No more excuses… the pay, the budget, the facilities, the support are all there. Dambrot isn’t the coach for these times and the A10!

levon1975 wrote:

How would this group feel about hiring Ron Everhart as the next Head Coach?

Ron recruited fast players, and a high scoring offense that tired out teams like KD's style of slow half-court low scoring games. KD even says his player get tired?  Ron's style of play gave him a recruiting edge for players that want to run. I just don't see KD ever winning here with his offensive approach.
 

Its all pointless.   We stink and will stink forever.   There is only one way out this mess, but to do that I refer you to the movie Blue Chips.
We have a better chance of seeing the Pirates win a world series than the Dukes making a NCAA tournament.  At least now the Pirates have a plan.   DU hoops is a plastic bag blowing around in a tornado.  

Last edited by townsonkid (2/07/2022 12:07 pm)