Duques102 wrote:

townsonkid wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

I have been extremely impressed with Noah Buono on the color commentary so far. What a knowledgable and well-spoken young man!

DU needs to step in, offer him Cannon’s job.  Easy voice to listen to, and knows what he is talking about.

At risk of agreeing and once again sounding like the guy always bashing on Cannon, this was my biggest pleasant surprise to come out of this game. Objectively, Cannon is from my memory the worst “color analyst” I can ever remember hearing in any sport. Buono absolutely wiped the floor with him from an in-game analysis perspective and the fact that they were doing color side by side created an embarrassingly stark contrast to the two’s basketball acumen that I believe HAS to be the beginning of the end to the Ellis cannon ESPN+ era. Noah is fresh off a D1 basketball career playing for this coach and program, and is young and hungry to get into the business. He is the ideal person for the role, and his new inclusion is no random happenstance and in my opinion giving him the runway to take over full time next year.

Hearing Buono would be joining at halftime and for the second half I started making notes on each’s comments as I knew I would be coming to post this after and didn’t want to sound like I was just being negative towards Ellis.

I noted that during the broadcast, rather than going into detail about technical aspects of basketball at any point, Cannon used metaphors, stories, and jokes related to Mike Tomlin, Kenny Pickett, Bill Belichick and Mario Lemuix to describe and relate to what was going on in a COLLEGE BASKETBALL GAME. Buono gets on there and starts talking about Chi State initiating a 2-1-2 half court pressure, a 5-1 switch on defense, and breaking down why the Chicago state guard was a legit NBA prospect.

Cannon later went back to his greatest hits of reading the most basic level stats as if that was analysis, or repeating things Dambrot said in his coaches show as if that was analysis, all while Buono continued to break down the game and give us insights on how Dambrot coaches his team.

What especially made me angry was when Cannon tried to belittle Buonos career in the petty manner as he did on air. After sounding audibly embarrassed to have Noah in the booth schooling him on what was going on, Ellis says, “so when you go into the college basketball hall of fame, are you going to go in with Duquesne or Rider?” Buono sheepishly jokes that he would more likely be in the scout team hall of fame, and that his scout team exploits were amazing. Ellis responds, “weren’t you on the scout team for the 6-24 season? Yeah amazing” and laughs at the kid. Really low rent.

This is probably the thing that matters least but I am also sick of hearing Cannon praise the other teams and players, and going bat **** crazy when the opposition makes a 3 or gets a breakaway dunk in our house. Cannon went to Pitt and never played college basketball, or any other sport at the college level. Bouno represented this team and program and has so much to offer the broadcast, this is an easy decision.

I think next year we see Joyce succeed Dambrot and Buono replace Cannon.

I like this idea. Nice points.

PistolPete wrote:

Iron Duke, I'd like to know who you think should be getting the most minutes at PG?

Pistol if you watched Dambrots post game interview he noted the first 7 minutes of a game is a cluster f##k. As long as Jimmy Clark plays the point I have no problem. I can’t disagree with your criticisms but I love this kid. If I was him study hard, get good grades go to law school & he may be in Congress some day. . Everybody can’t be Steph Curry. Next year get a transfer portal point guard. This season crunch time Jimmy Clark at point.Go Dukes👍

Rayrich wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

I wondered when the “hating” as my daughter would say would re-commence. I’m busy watching us hold another team to 60 or less points on our way to our third straight win. Go Dukes! We believe!

Relax its not hating. Stop looking for a fight. I know you love to bait. When your boy Dambrot gets us to the tourney I'd love for you to throw into my face believe me. Been waiting for 48 years now. I was courtside three days straight for the Eastern Eight tourney as a 12 year old skipping school and watching the Dukes beat Penn State, UMass, and Villanova at the Philadelphia spectrum to get to the NCAA tourney in 76. Sat next to Norm Nixon and Debbie Allen watching the West Va and UMass game after the Dukes beat PSU in the first round. Norm had the flu, but was gracious enough to autograph a 3X5 card and let me and my brothers down in the locker room when they beat Villanova in the final. Very cool time.

I question that you sat next to Debbie Allen during the 
Eastern Eight tournament. In 1977 when the tournament happened (not 76) she was busy in NY and LA with a tv, movie and stage career. She was also married to a Win Wilford at the time. Norm. was a full time student/athlete at Duquesne. When exactl;y did they hook up? At 12 years old did you really know who Debbie Allen was? Maybe you remembered her from the two part episode of Good Times playing J J's fiancee, diana.
 

Today's Breakfast with Benz column in the Trib discusses KD's commentary about the first 4 minutes of games.

When I heard KD talk about this in the post-game, I thought his first 4 minutes analysis was a bit dubious. After thinking about it some & reading Benz's column, I find that the coach's commentary on the subject approaches absurdity.

There is nothing inherently wrong with bringing Dixon off the bench to minimize exposure to foul trouble and/or provide a big spark as a strategic plan. However, a coach that doesn't have or at least preach the massive value of getting off to a great start from the opening tip strikes me as one that is not demanding enough of his players or staff. It's no wonder his team's have so many slow starts.

Ironduke81 wrote:

PistolPete wrote:

Iron Duke, I'd like to know who you think should be getting the most minutes at PG?

Pistol if you watched Dambrots post game interview he noted the first 7 minutes of a game is a cluster f##k. As long as Jimmy Clark plays the point I have no problem. I can’t disagree with your criticisms but I love this kid. If I was him study hard, get good grades go to law school & he may be in Congress some day. . Everybody can’t be Steph Curry. Next year get a transfer portal point guard. This season crunch time Jimmy Clark at point.Go Dukes👍

CityDuke wrote:

This is a stretch Phil. Do you actually believe Dambrot doesn’t want his team to get off to a good start? I watched the postgame as well, I think he was simply pointing out the chaotic nature that the first few minutes of games seem to have. He was not saying they are unimportant, just chaotic.

KD’s teams come out cold and out of sync. That is not a “basketball” thing. That is a “KD” thing. I think he “wants” his team to have good starts but clearly he is not preaching it when he dismisses it in his pressers as “chaotic nature” of the game. If I was coaching against him I would certainly preach  to my team that you can really jump on this team and take advantage of their lesser personnel and propensity to feels things out in the first 4 minutes.  Come to think of it, it is clear that coaches ARE doing this!

When heading into the first media timeout in games this season the Dukes have lead in 10 of 20 of the games. Could we start games better? Sure. Are slow starts a problem of this team or this coach? No.

Last edited by CityDuke (2/02/2024 1:02 pm)

CityDuke wrote:

When heading into the first media timeout in games this season the Dukes have lead in 10 of 20 of the games. Could we start games better? Sure. Are slow starts a problem of this team or this coach? No.

How many A-10 games have we led at the first media timeout?  I don’t know. I’m curious.

CityDuke wrote:

When heading into the first media timeout in games this season the Dukes have lead in 10 of 20 of the games. Could we start games better? Sure. Are slow starts a problem of this team or this coach? No.

Yeah, if there is a problem we should be working on, I nominate the last 4 minutes.

MikeR wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

When heading into the first media timeout in games this season the Dukes have lead in 10 of 20 of the games. Could we start games better? Sure. Are slow starts a problem of this team or this coach? No.

Yeah, if there is a problem we should be working on, I nominate the last 4 minutes.

I nominate both

Mike Ignelsi wrote:

factcheck wrote:

Rayrich wrote:

Relax its not hating. Stop looking for a fight. I know you love to bait. When your boy Dambrot gets us to the tourney I'd love for you to throw into my face believe me. Been waiting for 48 years now. I was courtside three days straight for the Eastern Eight tourney as a 12 year old skipping school and watching the Dukes beat Penn State, UMass, and Villanova at the Philadelphia spectrum to get to the NCAA tourney in 76. Sat next to Norm Nixon and Debbie Allen watching the West Va and UMass game after the Dukes beat PSU in the first round. Norm had the flu, but was gracious enough to autograph a 3X5 card and let me and my brothers down in the locker room when they beat Villanova in the final. Very cool time.

I question that you sat next to Debbie Allen during the 
Eastern Eight tournament. In 1977 when the tournament happened (not 76) she was busy in NY and LA with a tv, movie and stage career. She was also married to a Win Wilford at the time. Norm. was a full time student/athlete at Duquesne. When exactl;y did they hook up? At 12 years old did you really know who Debbie Allen was? Maybe you remembered her from the two part episode of Good Times playing J J's fiancee, diana.
 

Ms. Allen met Mr. Nixon years later during the filming of “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.” I know this because I was there; moreover, I introduced them.

My bad. Guess I just assumed it was Debbie Allen. Could have been Norm's sister for all I knew, but whoever she was she was a very kind person. Anyway, did anybody else attend those three games at the Philly Spectrum? What an awesome experience that was and by far the greatest DU basketball experience i've ever had. BTW, great research 'fact checker' aka 'some weird dude who researches this stuff at 4 in the morning in his parent's basement'