City, I think the refereeing last night was fine with one exception. That would have been the foul called on Rozier at the top of the circle in the second half. Sometimes referees anticipate something that really isn’t there. And there wasn’t any contact on that play and a few those play’s happen in every game especially under the hoop. It may have been the angle the referee saw the play. In regards to Leslie Jones, his gate is very awkward but I did not see him out of position or miss any calls. As far as the tied up ball, that occurs all the time in games, when players don’t release the ball on the whistle and the macho instincts kick in. And when this occurs you are told to talk to the players not to intervene. He may have been talking to them on his way over, I don’t know, but no real scuffle. Some referees intervene as I am one, but we are told about it afterwards by the game evaluator. As far as being out of position, that is a preference of each ref. I myself like to stand as far away from the action because it increases my vision scope where I see the lines better and only have to sidestep when a player gets in my vision line. If I see bad referees I will state so that they are horrible but last night that was not the case at all.

Wildwood13 wrote:

City, I think the refereeing last night was fine with one exception. That would have been the foul called on Rozier at the top of the circle in the second half. Sometimes referees anticipate something that really isn’t there. And there wasn’t any contact on that play and a few those play’s happen in every game especially under the hoop. It may have been the angle the referee saw the play. In regards to Leslie Jones, his gate is very awkward but I did not see him out of position or miss any calls. As far as the tied up ball, that occurs all the time in games, when players don’t release the ball on the whistle and the macho instincts kick in. And when this occurs you are told to talk to the players not to intervene. He may have been talking to them on his way over, I don’t know, but no real scuffle. Some referees intervene as I am one, but we are told about it afterwards by the game evaluator. As far as being out of position, that is a preference of each ref. I myself like to stand as far away from the action because it increases my vision scope where I see the lines better and only have to sidestep when a player gets in my vision line. If I see bad referees I will state so that they are horrible but last night that was not the case at all.

Replay and announcer said what you saw. Rozier never made contact? Just a bad call. Just look at the FT's not made by DU. That alone could have won the game? Just why did we shoot so bad this game?

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.

I wasn't talking just about this game, but too many times the set play is to get it in the paint and all of our bigs miss a 2 footer. It's like a turnover that chews clock. Maybe Dixon has the touch next year, but, Tre has to do better in the paint. I like him, he does a lot, but in the paint down low, he is not scoring enough.

CityDuke wrote:

phil95 wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

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.

I have decades long friendships with 6 coaches, assistants & head guys, that have coached against KD in the A-10. Some of them are still working in the A-10 & some have moved out of the conference. All are still active with D-1 teams. None of them fear coaching against KD. Because it would be career suicide, they would never go on record as saying such but, I have personally heard each of them say this. 

Your man lost 3 of his last 4 & got embarrassed in the last 2; nobody else on this board was surprised. I am willing to wager you weren't that surprised either .

16-16, 19-13, 21-9, 9-9, 6-24, 20-12 while never finishing above 5th in the league & going 1-5 in conference tournament games with non-con schedules front loaded with home games full of trash opponents is only winning consistently in your mind & by the low standards of a few of the battered DU faithful. 

Sure, I am okay with you bringing up continuity as something that has worked mightily against the program just as long as you place the blame for that problem squarely on the shoulders of the person most responsible for the issue. Dambrot has been FORCED to start over in 4 of his 6 years because he has failed to create any continuity. I'll give him a pass on the the first season because of the mess he inherited. He also brought back a strong core for 20-21 before screwing that one up by mid-season. (Even so, 8 scholarship players with eligibility remaining left between the end of the 2020 season & January of 21.)

This isn't Rome & it hasn't been a metaphorical day. It has been 6 years with no post season success.

Ironduke81 wrote:

DuqBlue wrote:

Ironduke81 wrote:

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. 

Apparently, they can not hire a basketball coach who can win a first round A-10 game.   And it is quite a stretch to call a 3,500 seat gym state of the art.    Better than Palumbo, state of the art is laughable.   The basketball program is an institutional failure.   The President and Athletic Director the last time I looked worked for Duquesne. 

Oh and enrollment is steadily decreasing (covid aside).  Plus, they are having major problems attracting any out of state students.   Congrats on a rich person handing them $55 million.   

I suspect you were not an entrepreneur. Very Bunyak response & bitter. Have a nice life. Go Duquesne University.

Hardly the response of an idiot.   Gourmley & Harper are entrepreneurs now?    No one can deny that the failure of this program dating back to 1977 is institutional.    Gourmley since 2016, Harper since 2015.   They need to own their parts of the failure.   They are the leaders.   

I’m not an entrepreneur either.  I’m just correct in that fact that this  is an institutional failure.  Any good entrepreneur would know that the buck stops with the leaders.