I would not be surprised if he resigned. 

As I said in an earlier post, next year will tell me more about KD and staff than this one will. I too have great respect for him as he spent time with his father. My dad and I were very close so I get that totally. As for the basketball part of it all, I can't overlook KD's body of work at Akron. He had mostly 20+ win seasons, only one that wasn't. That's not easy to do anywhere. Plus his first 4 years here were more than acceptable to me. Sure this year is as big of a surprise to KD as it is to most supporters on this board. If we look anything close to this next year my thinking may do a 180 on the subject.GO DUKES!

Last edited by El Presidente (2/17/2022 9:24 am)

KD didnt get stupid overnight and hes back next year,hes not going to quit and hes not going to be fired.I
believe hes going to fight like hell and find some players this spring.KD isnt Danny Nee,so I try to be 
patient and its extremely difficult watching this season.I worry about KD  because I sense he hates losing
and this is a terribly stressful situation for him. and we all know what stress does when you are older.So I
pray for him and his family and wish him to be focused and have peace in his heart trying to revive this
program.

I have to admit, I was pretty satisfied with the first three years. In year 1, Keith won more conference games (7) with mostly Jim Ferry's recruits than Jim Ferry ever did in 5 years. Years 2 and 3 showed steady improvement and finishes in the top half of the conference, where Duquesne doesn't typically end up. It's a valid point though that the A10 was down in those years. Even in year 3, the conference numbers were a bit skewed by Dayton being one of the best teams in the country. But the A10 in the Dambrot Era is a far cry from its heyday in most of the 1990s and early 2010s. Just the same, you can only be judged against your peers in that given season and in those years, Duquesne did alright.

But even in those mostly positive first three years, cracks were showing. The top two recruits in Keith's first class (Verhoeven and Williams), who both would have had nice careers at Duquesne, left after one and two years respectively. Mike Lewis, a kid Keith tried very hard to retain from the previous regime, saw his playing time drastically reduced in year 2 and wanted out after a year and a half, transferring mid-season. Highly-touted year 2 recruits (Bizeau, Swingle, Wade) were all flops.

Year 3's recruiting class brought in Maceo Austin and one year of Baylee Steele, but also three non-A10 players in Buckley, Ellis and Miller. And some things were clearly beyond Keith's control, like the devastating knee injuries to Rotroff and Kelly. We watched Carry's play decline from freshman to sophomore year, and then he too would leave the program mid-season in his junior year, along with Austin (again, beyond Keith's control) and Norman, and a team that might have contended for a league championship stumbled to a 9th-place finish amid the pandemic instead.

The three cornerstones of the program for the previous three seasons (Hughes, Weathers, TDM) all moved on as did two more promising recruits (Baker, Harris), leaving an almost completely bare talent cupboard and necessitating the now disastrous reboot. That reboot was supposed to give us what Keith promised would be his best team yet, but we're left with a roster that can't really compete in an A10 that still isn't all that strong ratings-wise compared to the rest of the NCAA and prior seasons. 

The most optimistic view is that we're just a true point guard and maybe true center away from all the pieces falling into place, players not playing out of position and a sudden turnaround. That would be wonderful. But I think Wildwood makes a pretty valid point that this season can also be seen as the chickens coming home to roost after four years of poor recruiting and player development and retention, along with some bad luck. Keith's outlandish claims about this roster in the preseason have made him seem much less credible and it's hard for me to see right now that he's the one to turn this around.

Whether he stays or goes, I suspect we'll be looking at a drastically retooled roster once again next year. Who would be best to oversee that? A new coach with fresh ideas and approach or a veteran coach at the end of his career with one year left on his contract who just presided over a colossal failure of a season after claiming it would be his best yet? 

I was firmly a KD guy but these last 4 weeks have really turned me around.  I think his great track record at Akron, without looking too deeply into the numbers, has has actually set him up for failure here.  He's never had to handle this type of adversity?  He's never had to turn over a roster to this extent?  Perhaps KD became so entrenched in his way of doing things that these new variables (portal/transfers, extended losing streaks, better competition, recruiting to a perennially losing program) are just something he does not have the knowledge/experience to handle?  He was on cruise control for the several previous seasons at Akron.  He had players that stayed in his system and had the luxury of learning slowly then eventually taking over as the older guys graduated.  He recruited players into a program that was winning 20+ games a year so he had an easier time getting them to commit.  The challenges that Duquesne as a program present to him are ones that he has no experience dealing with.  Maybe he turned Akron around 15 years ago but he hasn't had to do that since.  From what I've seen of him, I do not see him doing it over the next 13 months.  It's time to move on with a coach who has experience either as an assistant or as a head coach dealing and succeeding with the challenges stated above.

I felt that coming in, KD was a plus in that he may just bring better recruits. But his approach to offense would require him to out-recruit the top teams in the A-10 for his kind of half court game.  That's turning out to be unlikely.  His defense doesn't generate points from pressure, steals, press, nor traps.  He doesn't seem to appreciate the transition game that generates points off of turnovers. We seldom score on transition and when we do, it is an individual effort, not the kind of 2 or 3 player pattern you see our opponents run down the court on us.  Hima was effective to a point last game, but he should have been in the mix all season to have an experienced "Big" coming back next season. I would play him at least 20 minutes or more in the remaining games. I would also play an aggressive defense and traps because we can't win if we don't score off of defensive plays too.  Maybe it's a tall order, but the best KD could do the rest of this season is generate more offense and make an attempt to play aggressive defense.  I see no way to keep starting over with a big turnover of players with this coach. I have my doubts that KD can coach up inexperienced players each year.     
 

1111 Vickroy wrote:

I think one thing among many that is sad is that here you have a guy with that Duquesne connection through his father. What a story it would make. I can remember sitting in Palumbo in year 2 talking to a fellow fan who was more or less stating that in 3 years they were going to be something. I think a lot of people felt that way at that time. I really haven't had the time to pay attention all these comments and I know this has probably been addressed but last year with covid and the transfer of sincere carry was a huge blow. Yes, everybody had to deal with covid but I think that the Duke's really were knocked off by the virus and that kind of set things up for where we are now. Obviously, let's not forget the two years ago they played dating on to the wire at the Consol and then a few weeks later covid came in and that was the end. The following year just never got any traction.

Correction Dayton

I think Tony84 really makes a crucial point about KD's recruiting -  "he has failed to "recruit-over" the 3 Akron transfers....."  The only correction Tony is I think that Marcus Weathers transferred from Miami of Ohio - another MAC school, but again your point is well taken.  It is even more evident when one considers the nice recruiting history provided by DennisC91.  Once again I will point out that Harper has said with the commitment provided by the University (budget, facilities, housing etc.) KD would be recruiting on a higher level, but that clearly hasn't happened.  My belief is that Harper should be telling KD that he and his staff have failed to get the job done on the recruiting front and changes are necessary to shake things up.  The proof is in the pudding boys and if KD is too stubborn to make some staffing changes then Harper should mandate that he does.  We need a recruiter added to this staff, plain and simple.

IMO the A10 is not that big a step up from the MAC. There are years the top tier A10 teams are better than anyone in the MAC. But I don’t think any difference in the conferences or coaching is enough that Dambrot is over his head.  I do think recruiting to DU is tougher than recruiting to Akron once he got Akron rolling. So maybe, maybe, the recruiting has been tougher than Dambrot expected. But I disagree with the “his staff can’t recruit, he can’t evaluate players” line. He had too many good players and teams at Akron and found enough good players  that he got here for me to buy into that. Yes too many guys have left for my liking. But I’m not sure what Dambrot could have done about that.  I have heard the same rumors others have but have no inside info to know why certain guys left. Maybe Dambrot had good reason to part ways with some. One thing cannot be disputed  transfer numbers are all over D1 basketball and the portal has to be a big part of why. I think there’s reasons why more guys leave the DUs than more established programs. If a guy is good enough to go to a tourney bound team, how do you stop him? If a guys a role player or clearly behind a guy, why would he stay? He can transfer down and play right away. And, maybe if your Dambrot you want a bench guy to go so you can use the schollie.  I think it’s fair to question why DU didn’t have guys ready to step in for Hughes, Weathers, and TDM. Maybe the guys expected to were problems. Based on the way this team has played I understand questioning whether this staff will be able to use the portal well enough to replace guys the way teams are going to have to. But I’m not ready to conclude they won’t be able to. So, I’m still here supporting Dambrot.