Agree 1000% CLK !!!!

So that’s not the issue for most (just my opinion).  I am Excited for EVERY season before it starts…that’s why I buy season tickets.  Last year just really did a job on folks (to beat a dead horse) with Dambrots comment of this is his best team ever.  We were sooooo excited and then reality set in…again.  Being excited isn’t the issue.  Having that excitement squashed with no NIT or NCAA tournament year after year is the issue…and 6 wins last year.   Wow.

Sorry, I cant be excited.   On paper it looks ok.  But the coaching staff is the same.

 I was very disappointed in what happened last year, as was most people who read this Board.  I even felt like it was time to make a coaching change because I did not think Dambrot was going to be able to recruit at a high enough level to turn the program around.  Harper, the only person who mattered, had a different opinion and decided that Dambrot deserved another year.  As a Duquesne fan I accepted his decision and moved on hoping for the best.  My hair did not catch fire with every player that left the 6-24 team like some because, well because it was a 6-24 team and the players were not that good. I have to say that despite my doubts  I am very impressed with the team he has put together so far.  I know that being optimistic is not very popular on this Board so consumed with negativity, but it is not in my DNA to despair, lament and even hate so deeply as some of the people on this Board. You guys can dwell in the "Pit of Misery" if you so choose.  I choose not to.  I truly believe that with this class and the addition of an experience quality center {which I think Dambrot is still trying to recruit} that Dambrot will get DU back to the top of the League and earn a contract extension.  I know that wigs some of you out, and if I am wrong I not doubt will be banished.

CLK wrote:

 I was very disappointed in what happened last year, as was most people who read this Board.  I even felt like it was time to make a coaching change because I did not think Dambrot was going to be able to recruit at a high enough level to turn the program around.  Harper, the only person who mattered, had a different opinion and decided that Dambrot deserved another year.  As a Duquesne fan I accepted his decision and moved on hoping for the best.  My hair did not catch fire with every player that left the 6-24 team like some because, well because it was a 6-24 team and the players were not that good. I have to say that despite my doubts  I am very impressed with the team he has put together so far.  I know that being optimistic is not very popular on this Board so consumed with negativity, but it is not in my DNA to despair, lament and even hate so deeply as some of the people on this Board. You guys can dwell in the "Pit of Misery" if you so choose.  I choose not to.  I truly believe that with this class and the addition of an experience quality center {which I think Dambrot is still trying to recruit} that Dambrot will get DU back to the top of the League and earn a contract extension.  I know that wigs some of you out, and if I am wrong I not doubt will be banished.

I agree very much with you on the quality of players coming in. A meaningful center joining the team would make this an exceptional class by DU standards. The coaching staff has done quite well with this. I also admire your optimism.

My excitement for the coming season is tempered by the patterns/results of the last 5 seasons as well as the enormous challenge any coach faces in fielding a cohesive team when 10 of the players, that includes Barba & Gunn, are new to the system, team, & university.

If this team can be win 15-18 games, be much better in March than November, & 70% of the players return for the following season, I will be very excited.

Those posters who think this year's  team is a a big improvement over last year's sinking of the Titanic are still living in the land of OZ.

We were a perimeter shooting team last year and this year's version will continue that hair-pulling, maddening  pattern that drove us all crazy.
I have read a handful of clear thinking posters who understand that a prominent division 1 team must he strong up the middle. Do you honestly think that is the case? We will have two inexperienced freshmen, a six- foot eight perimeter shooter, a 6'10 player who cannot complete a half season, and a 6'7 "big man" who played out of position and had his lunch eaten by most teams.

The rest of the recruits are more perimeter players to take the place of last year's departed perimeter players.
Will they be better? Of course they will. This is the off-season and all recruits are excitable and team-changing studs.
As usual, as in the last 56 years we will wait and see and hope.

But IMO, no prominent big man, no prominent team.  What, even decent Dukes team, did not have a force in the center?

Most of you can now ignore this post and cut your grass, or watch Ghost Hunters on cable. It is traditional that this board only responds to those few veterans that mirror each others tied old notions. 

"Les mêmes qualités qui peuvent faire ressortir une personne peuvent la tenir à l’écart du cercle d’appartenance."

(don't bother with the above, continue the dreary posts of the ordained few)

I believe that the Dukes will be better next year if only because we know that lightening can't strike twice in the same place. Or can it? This team may look similar to last year's team in terms of makeup but the added experience at guard should be enough to add a degree of consistency that we never saw last year. If we get anything out of Tre and at least one other big , and I include Rotroff in that mix, we will be much more likely to win some of those close games that got away from us last season. Not saying that we will be a good solid all around team but I can see us gutting out some wins that we had no chance for last year. That's why I'm looking for 16 or 17 wins as stated in another post elsewhere. In fact, I'll be very disappointed if we have any kind of losing season. Thinking Dru Joyce can be a positive influence from the get go. We have been looking for a shakeup in the coaching staff and here he is. Not expecting miracles but am expecting a better product on the court next season for the aforementioned reasons. Go Dukes!!

Same "what ifs"...what if Tre, what if Rotroff, What if Barre"? Not a reliable A-10 it the " what if" fairy dust list.
Quit raving over the yearly parade of 6'5 to 6'7" wonderkinds who are mostly players that bigger/better schools don't recruit.

Practly every school we play, regardless of level, has at least one decent to dominating big man. Why not Duquesne?

Go back to What "if-ing" and wishing upon a star. 16, 17 wins this year? Maybe when I win the lotto. No strength in the middle... live and die with the streaky perimeter shooting.
Insanity is doing the the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Sound familiar?

Lionel BILLINGSKI wasn't too bad.