CityDuke wrote:

Rayrich wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

What a shame.  Too many poor individual performances tonight.  Negative impact from our 4-men.  Gunn and Williams were horrendous.  Dambrot cut them out completely the last 10 minutes of the game, but almost wish he did it sooner.  I respect his loyalty to guys that have earned it, but man were they bad.  The moment seemed too big for McGriff tonight.  And with Grant in foul trouble, we needed at least something from him and got nothing. No one on the team has been in this tourney before and it showed.  We lost to a worse team and that hurts.

They beat us with 1on1 park ball.  Brantley and Brickus iso'd and we couldn't contain them tonight.  We could not get a stop in the second half.  The few times we played solid defensive possessions, we either gave up an offensive rebound or the refs (Leslie Jones in particular) bailed out jump shooters and sent them to the line.  Nothing Dambrot can do about players losing individual matchups and missing free throws.  I am 100% certain this staff will plug the holes that showed themselves at the end of the season.  If we can keep the core, I am very excited about next year.  Disappointing end but all in all a great season in the right direction and something to build upon.

It's pretty obvious the guy can't coach at this level and has pretty much more than shown he doesn't know how to  put the right combinations on the court at given times. Constantly pulled guys who had a hot hand or kept guys in way too long who weren't performing. It was hard to watch. Not sure sure this guy can get a team with 13 McDonald All Americans into the tourney let alone win a game in one. Made his millions off of Lebron and his coattails of a team at Akron which had loads of talent, but maybe one NIT win and a 40 plus point NCAA loss. You got to get over this guy if you want  this program to go forward.

I shouldn’t take this bait but I will. 3 ncaa tournaments. 7 straight mac finals. 9 in 10 years. Coattails of a talented akron team? Didn’t realize players had 10 years of eligibility back then haha. I love this team’s foundation. Their inconsistency left us banging our heads against the wall this season, but a team with 10 new players will do that to you. 340th in continuity. Stay the course. This is a very likable bunch and very fun to watch at times this season just never quite put it all together. Desperately needed a more reliable inside game. I’m sure that is the staff’s number one priority.

They had ten new players because he absolutely stopped working the season before.   He created the continuity problem.   Didn’t inherit it.

Marcus and Hughes were far more consistent than our starting big men this year.  That needs to be a point of emphasis in our recruiting.  Dixon is really good.  But why is he always sitting on the bench when Reece and Gunn are having a bad game?  Hopefully, Dixon returns and Barre gets cleared to play next year.  But, we still need to get additional 4s and 5s that can impact the flow of the game.   That, and quit playing slow.  We aren't good when we walk the ball up the court, stand around fairly motionless, pass the ball around the perimeter only to put up a 3, which,  statistically, only has a 1 in 3ish chance of going in.  Live by the 3 and die by the 3.  Late in these games, the team play breaks down and individuals start driving to the hoop, desperately trying to win the game by themselves.  No one else moves to the basket to create opportunities for a pass and easy basket.  Again, get some mobile big men with good hands, and don't waste them taking shots 30 feet from the hoop.
 

NapaDuke wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

What a shame.  Too many poor individual performances tonight.  Negative impact from our 4-men.  Gunn and Williams were horrendous.  Dambrot cut them out completely the last 10 minutes of the game, but almost wish he did it sooner.  I respect his loyalty to guys that have earned it, but man were they bad.  The moment seemed too big for McGriff tonight.  And with Grant in foul trouble, we needed at least something from him and got nothing. No one on the team has been in this tourney before and it showed.  We lost to a worse team and that hurts.

They beat us with 1on1 park ball.  Brantley and Brickus iso'd and we couldn't contain them tonight.  We could not get a stop in the second half.  The few times we played solid defensive possessions, we either gave up an offensive rebound or the refs (Leslie Jones in particular) bailed out jump shooters and sent them to the line.  Nothing Dambrot can do about players losing individual matchups and missing free throws.  I am 100% certain this staff will plug the holes that showed themselves at the end of the season.  If we can keep the core, I am very excited about next year.  Disappointing end but all in all a great season in the right direction and something to build upon.

If Williams comes back, either he learns to finish in the paint, or don't play him. No matter if all these players come back, unless we have some real presence in the paint, we will get nowhere, this coach or a new coach, nowhere.

He didn't take a shot in tonight's game. For me, that's more indicative of a much greater series of problems. I don't recall his even having a great opportunity to take a shot.

It is also worth noting that Tre is a 50% shooter for his career & raised his shooting percentage from last year to this from 45% to 49.4% on 92 less total shots. That is a serious improvement. He shot 54.7% as a freshman & 53.2% as a sophomore on nearly the same volume of shots he had this season.

What I think the team most needs from Tre is a vast improvement of his crap FT shooting percentage. Since his freshman year he has improved from 42.2% to 56.6%. If he could make that 65% for his final season, his value to the team would be much greater.

phil95 wrote:

NapaDuke wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

What a shame.  Too many poor individual performances tonight.  Negative impact from our 4-men.  Gunn and Williams were horrendous.  Dambrot cut them out completely the last 10 minutes of the game, but almost wish he did it sooner.  I respect his loyalty to guys that have earned it, but man were they bad.  The moment seemed too big for McGriff tonight.  And with Grant in foul trouble, we needed at least something from him and got nothing. No one on the team has been in this tourney before and it showed.  We lost to a worse team and that hurts.

They beat us with 1on1 park ball.  Brantley and Brickus iso'd and we couldn't contain them tonight.  We could not get a stop in the second half.  The few times we played solid defensive possessions, we either gave up an offensive rebound or the refs (Leslie Jones in particular) bailed out jump shooters and sent them to the line.  Nothing Dambrot can do about players losing individual matchups and missing free throws.  I am 100% certain this staff will plug the holes that showed themselves at the end of the season.  If we can keep the core, I am very excited about next year.  Disappointing end but all in all a great season in the right direction and something to build upon.

If Williams comes back, either he learns to finish in the paint, or don't play him. No matter if all these players come back, unless we have some real presence in the paint, we will get nowhere, this coach or a new coach, nowhere.

He didn't take a shot in tonight's game. For me, that's more indicative of a much greater series of problems. I don't recall his even having a great opportunity to take a shot.

It is also worth noting that Tre is a 50% shooter for his career & raised his shooting percentage from last year to this from 45% to 49.4% on 92 less total shots. That is a serious improvement. He shot 54.7% as a freshman & 53.2% as a sophomore on nearly the same volume of shots he had this season.

What I think the team most needs from Tre is a vast improvement of his crap FT shooting percentage. Since his freshman year he has improved from 42.2% to 56.6%. If he could make that 65% for his final season, his value to the team would be much greater.

Great point. All the sudden the Dukes stop feeding Williams and instead launch threes to no end. 4-16 in the first half. Thought Reece or Williams were playing pretty well early, but Reece was pulled for Gunn who was abysmal much like he was much of the second half of the A-10 season. Played for the next 12 minutes. Dambrot is lost. Need a young fresh mind as coach. Too many talented young coaches out there who get today's young players and the X's and O's of todays game. Dambrot never had a clue when it came to the ebb and flow of a game. You could visibly see it in his player rotation. Even my wife would say "why is he taking him out, he's on fire'. I'd say "because he wants to let the other team back in the game". Enough with these old washed up coaches stealing money. Give me a young hungry guy.
 

CityDuke wrote:

Rayrich wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

What a shame.  Too many poor individual performances tonight.  Negative impact from our 4-men.  Gunn and Williams were horrendous.  Dambrot cut them out completely the last 10 minutes of the game, but almost wish he did it sooner.  I respect his loyalty to guys that have earned it, but man were they bad.  The moment seemed too big for McGriff tonight.  And with Grant in foul trouble, we needed at least something from him and got nothing. No one on the team has been in this tourney before and it showed.  We lost to a worse team and that hurts.

They beat us with 1on1 park ball.  Brantley and Brickus iso'd and we couldn't contain them tonight.  We could not get a stop in the second half.  The few times we played solid defensive possessions, we either gave up an offensive rebound or the refs (Leslie Jones in particular) bailed out jump shooters and sent them to the line.  Nothing Dambrot can do about players losing individual matchups and missing free throws.  I am 100% certain this staff will plug the holes that showed themselves at the end of the season.  If we can keep the core, I am very excited about next year.  Disappointing end but all in all a great season in the right direction and something to build upon.

It's pretty obvious the guy can't coach at this level and has pretty much more than shown he doesn't know how to  put the right combinations on the court at given times. Constantly pulled guys who had a hot hand or kept guys in way too long who weren't performing. It was hard to watch. Not sure sure this guy can get a team with 13 McDonald All Americans into the tourney let alone win a game in one. Made his millions off of Lebron and his coattails of a team at Akron which had loads of talent, but maybe one NIT win and a 40 plus point NCAA loss. You got to get over this guy if you want  this program to go forward.

I shouldn’t take this bait but I will. 3 ncaa tournaments. 7 straight mac finals. 9 in 10 years. Coattails of a talented akron team? Didn’t realize players had 10 years of eligibility back then haha. I love this team’s foundation. Their inconsistency left us banging our heads against the wall this season, but a team with 10 new players will do that to you. 340th in continuity. Stay the course. This is a very likable bunch and very fun to watch at times this season just never quite put it all together. Desperately needed a more reliable inside game. I’m sure that is the staff’s number one priority.

Did it ever occur to you that  KD's having been fired in disgrace after going 20-34 from his first D-1 coaching job, not being hired again for 11 years, his 3-6 record in Mac final games, his never having won an NCAA tournament game, his a losing record in his NIT appearances, failure to advance past the 2nd round of that tournament, his never having been hired by a Power 5 school whilst doing all that winning at Akron, & inability to finish higher than 5th in the A-10 in 6 tries might indicate that he is not a big time coach?

This coach truly earned a ton of accolades that went with his impressive winning percentage at  Akron. He has 416 wins as a D-1 coach. There is no denying that he had a hell of a run at Akron. 

There is also no denying that his inability to make any notable runs in the national postseason tournaments, his most likely being at the end of his career trajectory, the fact that he has accomplished nothing of note at his D-1 coaching posts both before & after Akron make a pretty good case for the idea that KD was promoted beyond his competency.

It is absolute nonsense for you or KD to point to DU's poor continuity ranking. As I demonstrated, ad nauseum, this coach has lost an average of 7.9 scholarship players per year since he arrived and has never, while at DU, had less than 6 scholarship players leave in an offseason. This began the season he arrived & has not let up. The continuity issue is his & his alone to explain. 

Posters here don't take shots at you because you have a different opinion. They do so because you pretend that all this coach has touched has turned to gold & because you resort to obnoxious zingers when more knowledgeable posters call BS on your fantastical posts & constant (including tonight) blaming poor DU outcomes on the referees.

As I have stated previously, I think KD has earned year 7, I hope the the core of players returns & is improved by a new set of teammates; & I have no belief that KD is the coach to take this program to the upper echelon of the league while earning regular NIT & NCAA bids.
 

As a 50 year long Duquesne fan i'm pissed off to say the least. Went to the 3 day tournament as an 11 year old at the Spectrum in Philly in 1976 when Norm Nixon, Gumby, Moore, Cotten, Thomas, Masur and all those guys bought home the trophy in the innaugral Eastern Eight. Skipped school for two days to witness that. The best Duquesne basketball experience i ever had. High fiving the players out on the floor after the 57-54 win over Villanova. Went to Atlantic City in the 2009 year where they lost to Temple in the finals. Saw them beat URI and Dayton to get there. Great time. Feel sorry for Ray Goss and all of us long time fans. We deserved much better than what this athletic department has delivered us over all these years. These last years have been the worst because we were delivered some real false hopes. Not that I didn't see it coming.

DennisC91 wrote:

Wow. I know I pointed out that Duquesne always loses in the A10 tourney, but I really thought they could win this game. But the 3s weren't falling, that was apparent early on and this team just isn't very good if it's not hitting from outside. Grant scored 13 of the first 17 points then went 0 for the rest of the game. 5 points from our supposedly deep bench? It was like playing 4-on-5 with Gunn or Williams on the court. And the ole' defense, which has been a problem most of the season, reared its ugly head once again. Didn't Dambrot teams used to pride themselves on their defense?

Yes, I like the nucleus coming back, but who knows how many will be back. Sure they won 20 games and that's a lot better than winning 6 games, but the end result was the same as it is almost every year: one and done in the conference tourney. And it's not like this was a rebuilding year with lots of underclassmen. This was a roster with three 6th-year seniors, one 5th-year senior and two 4th-year juniors. It was built to compete right now and for the most part, it did. But going 10-8 in a weak A10 and bowing out in the first conference tourney game for the umpteenth time doesn't really give me much of a sense of satisfaction. We saw flashes of brilliance this season of course but nothing that could ever be sustained.

Yes, Dambrot's earned another year but has he earned an extension? Does he want to continue to coach in a college basketball landscape that has changed so drastically? He'll be 65 before the start of next season and admitted he considered retiring after last season's debacle. As the late great Duq81 would always say, you can't let a coach come back with only one year left on his contract. You either extend him or let him go. So something's gotta give here pretty soon. If he stays, his ceiling appears to be a good MAC roster that can be competitive enough to finish middle of the pack, but won't ever have the athletes to beat the better (or some of the lesser) A10 teams when it counts. I expect a retirement announcement effective next March, while Dru Joyce waits in the wings. No inside sources, but the tea leaves tell me that succession plan's already in place. 

Lets hope he doesn't want to continue. Either way Clark, Dixon, and others will be entering the portal. Not going to die on the vine here and more reputable schools won't let them. Will be starting from scratch, but with hopefully a young innovative new coach and staff. Can only hope.
 

DennisC91 wrote:

I expect a retirement announcement effective next March, while Dru Joyce waits in the wings. No inside sources, but the tea leaves tell me that succession plan's already in place. 

I suspect the same thing as well as some others.   Please explain how a coach with no success here gets a say in his replacement.  I know that you said you have no inside sources, but this would be absolute insanity.   And if you are going to retire next year, just leave now.   The man absolutely mailed in the 2021-2022 season.  

I have not read any stories with any post game quotes from anyone.  Who is he blaming for the loss?   
 

Last edited by DuqBlue (3/09/2023 10:22 am)

FAM wrote:

I don’t want to hear what tournaments or what he did at Akron.  This conference is too much for him.  He can’t be consistent and him playing Gunn that long was ridiculous…and I didn’t expect them to win.  He is in above his head…the proof…no post-tournament.  Don’t waste your money on the CBI Duquesne.

BTW City Duke, his MACC finals...since you like to point things out he did....

His record in those finals was 3 wins, 6 losses.  That's one of the reasons he left Akron.  He was upset that they were just a one bid league.  He lost so many finals he wanted the NCAA to give 2 bids to that conference since he lost so often and couldn't get to the NCAA for winning.  

I didn’t bring this up Fam. Simply correcting a fellow poster who was minimizing (and falsifying) his achievements. Becoming a regular thing around here.

indygjm wrote:

A quote from the Post Gazette following yesterday's loss -

“I mean, we've got a shot to be good next year,” Dambrot said. “We showed we can rally back and that we’re probably one player away from really being a high-level team. A lot of people can say that, but I think I know our weaknesses better than most. I think we have some inconsistency because we rely a lot on the perimeter, and if we could score a little bit better on the inside, I think we would make another big jump. We have some young kids that eventually, I think, can do that. So we just have to keep developing it.”

indygym, just a point of clarification....  the quote came from Monday's pre tournament press conference.  I believe that it was disingenuous by the PG reporter to include this quote in the game store without further context.

Here's the post game press conference from Dambrot:



Here's the full press conference from the A10 with La Salle and Duquesne:
https://www.youtube.com/live/Y_DWu2Sdh24?feature=share



 

phil95 wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

Rayrich wrote:

It's pretty obvious the guy can't coach at this level and has pretty much more than shown he doesn't know how to  put the right combinations on the court at given times. Constantly pulled guys who had a hot hand or kept guys in way too long who weren't performing. It was hard to watch. Not sure sure this guy can get a team with 13 McDonald All Americans into the tourney let alone win a game in one. Made his millions off of Lebron and his coattails of a team at Akron which had loads of talent, but maybe one NIT win and a 40 plus point NCAA loss. You got to get over this guy if you want  this program to go forward.

I shouldn’t take this bait but I will. 3 ncaa tournaments. 7 straight mac finals. 9 in 10 years. Coattails of a talented akron team? Didn’t realize players had 10 years of eligibility back then haha. I love this team’s foundation. Their inconsistency left us banging our heads against the wall this season, but a team with 10 new players will do that to you. 340th in continuity. Stay the course. This is a very likable bunch and very fun to watch at times this season just never quite put it all together. Desperately needed a more reliable inside game. I’m sure that is the staff’s number one priority.

Did it ever occur to you that  KD's having been fired in disgrace after going 20-34 from his first D-1 coaching job, not being hired again for 11 years, his 3-6 record in Mac final games, his never having won an NCAA tournament game, his a losing record in his NIT appearances, failure to advance past the 2nd round of that tournament, his never having been hired by a Power 5 school whilst doing all that winning at Akron, & inability to finish higher than 5th in the A-10 in 6 tries might indicate that he is not a big time coach?

This coach truly earned a ton of accolades that went with his impressive winning percentage at  Akron. He has 416 wins as a D-1 coach. There is no denying that he had a hell of a run at Akron. 

There is also no denying that his inability to make any notable runs in the national postseason tournaments, his most likely being at the end of his career trajectory, the fact that he has accomplished nothing of note at his D-1 coaching posts both before & after Akron make a pretty good case for the idea that KD was promoted beyond his competency.

It is absolute nonsense for you or KD to point to DU's poor continuity ranking. As I demonstrated, ad nauseum, this coach has lost an average of 7.9 scholarship players per year since he arrived and has never, while at DU, had less than 6 scholarship players leave in an offseason. This began the season he arrived & has not let up. The continuity issue is his & his alone to explain. 

Posters here don't take shots at you because you have a different opinion. They do so because you pretend that all this coach has touched has turned to gold & because you resort to obnoxious zingers when more knowledgeable posters call BS on your fantastical posts & constant (including tonight) blaming poor DU outcomes on the referees.

As I have stated previously, I think KD has earned year 7, I hope the the core of players returns & is improved by a new set of teammates; & I have no belief that KD is the coach to take this program to the upper echelon of the league while earning regular NIT & NCAA bids.
 

That does not occur to me at all. I think we got so lucky to hit Dambrot at the perfect time in which he was frustrated with a one bid MAC and lure him to a coaching graveyard that he happened to have an emotional connection to. We got lucky, and I am so happy to have him here. He has brought a consistently competitive team to the bluff with the exception of last year and more national prominence and attention than we have ever had.

The in over his head comments are crazy. He has wins at Slu at VCU against Dayton. We have besten all of the too teams and coaches in this league. The guy hs two losing A10 records in 6 years. I guarantee you nobody in this league wanted to see us in the A10 tourney. We showed glimpses of being a scary scary team, just one or two players from getting over the hump and doing it consistently.

It is not nonsense to point out our lack of continuity. Of course Dambrot is the reason we started over, but it would be foolish to think that Rome could he built in a day. He orchestrated the coming together of this group unbelievably well, but naturally they weren’t perfect. But we took a huge step in the right direction.

Also, for the record. I blamed the result of two games on the officiating. Two. I have been critical of the officiating performances throughout the year in both wins and losses because it is warranted. Last night, did you watch Leslie Jones? He physically cannot move, he is too slow to be in the right positions. He simply cannot keep up with the game. I would love to hear what our ref friend Wildwood would have to say about this because I would be curious. Do you remember the scuffle with Gunn after the jumpball? Jones went running to break it up, but by the time he got there it was already over. It was comical haha. Guys like this have no business attempting to officiate at this level. It affects the product. I illustrated several points in my previous posts as to why we lost. I did not blame the officiating for the result.

DuqBlue wrote:

It’s funny to me that people are upset about this result or act like it’s unexpected. Literally, how could you not know we would be one and out?

So I guess Dambrot retires and the brilliant AD just hands the keys over to Dru Joyce.

This school is an absolute joke. From the President to atheism AD to the coaches. A pathetic joke.

I don’t know about Gormley? Really? 55 million $ given by a Philadelphia Attorney to the lawschool.Do you think Gormley may have had something to do with that. Do you think the Lawschool budget had been substantially eliminated so funds could go to other departments & programs. How about the new Medical DO school with dorms. Have you ever been to the Cooper Center. State of the art. Maybe the AD gets some credit? Cmon man. Give some credit to people who earn it. Duquesne University is in a good place. 

Last edited by Ironduke81 (3/09/2023 11:41 am)

LaSalle did us a favor. Fordham is playing in front of a lot of their fans tonight in their biggest game since Digger Phelps coached for them. They are going to win big.