DennisC91 wrote:

Tejas_Duke wrote:

People will come to see a winning program. Knock off a few mid majors in OOC and people will come to see Canisius, especially when the Dukes are mentioned as a bubble team.
 

Oh my, Tejas, if that isn't channeling Brian Colleary in 1992, I don't know what is. How did that work out again?

I just can't wrap my head around the idea  that we can't compete in the A-10. How can that possibly be?  It has to be more about the way we do things here than about the competition. If we had done things the right way the last 4 decades we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. Is it really too late to start now? How is it so difficult? If we can't get it right then let basketball die a merciful death like baseball and whatever other sports on the bluff. 

Last edited by El Presidente (2/23/2022 12:32 pm)

El Presidente wrote:

DennisC91 wrote:

Tejas_Duke wrote:

People will come to see a winning program. Knock off a few mid majors in OOC and people will come to see Canisius, especially when the Dukes are mentioned as a bubble team.
 

Oh my, Tejas, if that isn't channeling Brian Colleary in 1992, I don't know what is. How did that work out again?

I just can't wrap my head around the idea  that we can't compete in the A-10. How can that possibly be?  It has to be more about the way we do things here than about the competition. If we had done things the right way the last 4 decades we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. Is it really too late to start now? How is it so difficult? If we can't get it right then let basketball die a merciful death like baseball and whatever other sports on the bluff. 

My suggestion would be hire an assist coach from a A-10 or higher league. Often over-looked. Consider Jamie Dixon was the Assist. Coach and the Admin. didn't want to give him a chance. It took the players to convince them to hire him. Same thing at Butler with Brad Stevens, Admin wanted to look elsewhere, but the players insisted to give him a chance. Both took over winning programs, but left their mark on the program.  DU should start looking at successful major programs and start interviewing Assist. Head Coaches that would just jump at a chance to get the Head Coach job even at DU.  Probably would cost less too.  Just saying. If DU is ever to be competitive again it's going to be the coach first. Think St. Bonnie would be who they are today just by the players, or the coach?

Thanks for the warm welcome! Sorry to say my daughters friends are hockey players. That being said said I will bring up one point that a school like Bona has over DU. That is community support from people that have no ties to the university. The Oleanaders filled the Reilly Center even in bad times and support the program totally. With all that Pittsburgh has, it seems the community support might be a big missing piece.

Even with an embarrassing second half, I think tonight shows the team hasn’t checked out. They want to get better and they want to win. Let’s be honest, there’s nothing left to play for this year. Maybe we beat another bad team in the first round. Perhaps we even pull off an upset in the second round. Anything more than that would take be an absolute shock. Winning the conference tourney might get us a Disney movie. Having said that the team was competing tonight. It’s notable that the lineup was much different than it’s been and I can’t help but think the changes are because of attitude. The bottom line is it worked for a half.

What concerns me more than anything about Dambrot going forward has been the lack of adjustments. As long as he’s been here we’ve been a second half team. It frequently led to frustrations wondering why we couldn’t show up ready to play right from the tip. We regularly made good second half adjustments and they paid off in many second half comebacks though. Those adjustments have been notably absent this year. For those who want to say the game has past Dambrot by I think that is more relevant than just about anything and I haven’t really seen it mentioned.

Churchill........."Never, never surrender!!"

KenOTR73 wrote:

anderson wrote:

Thanks for the warm welcome! Sorry to say my daughters friends are hockey players. That being said said I will bring up one point that a school like Bona has over DU. That is community support from people that have no ties to the university. The Oleanaders filled the Reilly Center even in bad times and support the program totally. With all that Pittsburgh has, it seems the community support might be a big missing piece.

I'm sure I'll get a lot of pushback but Pittsburgh sport fans are terrible. Oh, they will come out to see a winner. But when a team is on the down and out the fans vanish. See Pittsburgh Pirates, Pitt football, Pitt basketball, Steelers in the '80's. You want the non-affiliated fan to attend, go to the dance 5 years in a row...
 

I think it was John Brodie that said of the San Francisco football fans. "These fans are behind us win or tie". If you win, they will come. If you lose maybe not so much.   I like going to Pirate games in the middle of summer.  Great atmosphere, no team is out yet, no one game definds a season, and to keep it in perspective, only one team is going to win the World Series. It take most of the season before you hate your team. College basketball has less games and a shorter season and nearly every game matters. Getting mad starts early. LOL.

Tejas_Duke wrote:

DennisC91 wrote:

Tejas_Duke wrote:

People will come to see a winning program. Knock off a few mid majors in OOC and people will come to see Canisius, especially when the Dukes are mentioned as a bubble team.
 

Oh my, Tejas, if that isn't channeling Brian Colleary in 1992, I don't know what is. How did that work out again?

1.  (not to defend Colleary, but I got it from a good source back in the day) that the big schools WVU, Rutgers and Temple were looking to leave the A 10 then, and Colleary did what he could do to find a decent landing spot!
2. Remember the MCC? Two of those loser programs in that "below the A 10 Conference" were Dayton and Xavier!  Yep those two programs sucked in the almost 30 years since then. Never moved up to better conferences, remained loser programs like Duquesne!!!!    You are so right! Keep beating your head against a wall, in a conference where you can't compete and you will NEVER get any better!!!
 

I am not for leaving the A10 at all.

But the move to the MCC by Colleary was not a bone headed move. Totally agree.   People don’t know that Bonas and St Joes were planning that jump as well in the next season.    Bonas from A10 and Joes from independent like independent LaSalle.  LaSalle and DU  joined together. 

People forget our good friends at Dayton screwed us in that move.   X and Dayton were instrumental in getting DU to join.   And then Dayton bolted mid season to the ill fated Great Midwest conference.    That left X nervous and looking for a new home.  With X nervous, DU was luckily able to get back in A10 the next season.

The MCC was trying to mirror the Big East with a private University “Catholic” conference of teams in the Midwest.   Who knows what happens if Dayton stays?   Maybe they lure in Marquette and St Louis.   Then you get the conference we dream of being in.

Dayton screwed that pooch and has been paying the price ever since.

Great Midwest folds in 4 years and Dayton and X join A10.   

The move to the MCC was in no way a move to a lower conference like the MAAC that a few people want.

Last edited by A83 (2/25/2022 10:47 pm)

DennisC91 wrote:

that he thought Duquesne would have a better record in such a conference and people would therefore come out to see the Dukes because they were winning rather than packing the Palumbo to see a nationally-ranked A10 team. .

And in that misbegotten year, the Palumbo saw one of its five greatest moments, defeating 18th ranked Xavier in front of a packed, screaming house.  I still remember Pete Gihlen and team trudging off the court to roars of "Over-Rated......Over Rated....."