Both coaches had early success and have not come anywhere close to that same level of achievement.  We have all seen how frustrated Steeler Nation has become with Tomlin and his lack of winning a playoff game...just listen to the Fan.  

This is why I say that Burt is Duquesne's Tomlin, without the rabid fanbase to actually point out his flaws.  He may be a nice guy, even cure cancer, but his job is to win games...PERIOD!

This year's team had a lot of talent, and more talent than what ended up being a 9th place finish in the league.  We ran a junk style that was completely abandoned during the A10 tournament and good thing we did, otherwise we would have lost to Fordham.

The fact is we had better talent than we saw all season and it was shown in the last 2 games.  Brown was dominant inside and while she didn't play well against Richmond, Hutcherson played a great game against Fordham.  For some reason, Burt decided to play 4 and 5 guard lineups where we were constantly in a disadvantage by not having any kind of size on the floor.  Teams easily dominated us inside by posting up our guards and killed us on the boards...while Brown and Hutcherson were on the bench.

A good coach would have gotten us maybe more conference wins, a better coach has us in top 3 because we had the talent, but it wasn't utilized.  Good coaches scheme to find ways to get the best player matchups and put their players in the best position for success because they have an advantage.  See Richmond's coach Rousell or St. Joe's coach Griffin for examples of good coaches who do this.  Both Rousell and Griffin are clearly superior to Burt when it comes to coaching.

We had more talent on this team this year than a 9-9 record and 9th place finish.  The players on our team deserved better than what Burt gave them from a coaching perspective.  The fact that we under used Brown's post presence or Kiaku's dribble-penetration this year was a huge reason for .500 record in A10 play.  It shows that Burt's coaching was lazy and incompetent until the A10 tournament. 

Burt had no problem playing Meg almost 40 mins a game.  If he would have played Brown, Hutcherson 25+ mins and Kiaku 30+ mins per game, we finish top 3 in the league.  Brown and Hutcherson should have dominated A10 play this year and had the potential to be have double-doubles every game.  Meg was the best guard in tle league and Jerni was probably right behind her, but we didn't use her the way we should have.  We had two of the best dribble-penetrating guards and yet our offense focused on passing the ball on the perimeter and ignoring the paint.

Tomlin likes to say the standard is the standard and Burt set the standard - he got us into the first ever NCAA Tournament and won our first ever NCAA tournament game.  That was an incredible accomplishment and he deserves all of the credit and accolades that come with that type of success, but and this is a big BUT...he has come nowhere close to matching that success.  And that was 9 years ago.

The program is completely stagnant...we are an average team with above average talent and below average coaching.  This is entirely on Burt.  It is time to move on as he peaked early in his career as a coach and did not capitalize on his early success and built what should have been a top tier team in the A10 every year.

We need to move on from Burt and I know it is not going to happen this year, but he needs to win the A10 conference title/tournament or get us back to the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid to keep his job.  If he fails to accomplish that it will be 10 seasons of average/mediocre basketball.

I really hope Dave Harper is paying attention and is developing a list of potential coaching hires because 10 years is enough time to realize the program needs a change.  We should be striving for success and developing our players and putting them in the best position to succeed instead of what is actually happening.  

Burt set the standard and hasn't come close to matching it again.  As the saying goes, what have you done for me lately?  

Last edited by DU90 (3/09/2025 11:50 am)