Fam, that is a fair question and I will say this, two things can be true at the same time.

I am highly critical of Burt and his coaching because he has been at Duquesne a long time.  I find his coaching to be sub-par and I offer proof of that - his record in the last 5 years.  Overall, 76-66 (includes last night's win) and 40-39 in league play.  I will say that if Dru Joyce has a similar record after his 5th year, than we need to seriously look at the progress and direction of the program.

Looking at the past 5 years with Burt, the women's team has finished 9th, 10th, 10th, 5th and 9th in the A10.  I would be willing to accept the program was possibly moving in a positive direction by going from 10th place to 5th place, but when you backslide to 9th place, it becomes obvious, last year's 5th place finish is the outlier and the average performance is 9th place. 

This isn't Dan's first year, so this needs to be weighted much heavier, IMO than if you were comparing Burt to a hypothetical same record for Dru Joyce, after his 5th year.  The lack of success is stark.

Next, I have been hammering Burt for his illogical substitution patterns.  The fact that we didn't start the 5 best players on the team for most of the season is absolutely insane.  Add to it, he implemented a junk system that he abandoned at the end of the season.  Here is my point: you play the 5 best players because they give you the best chance to win games.  You add depth by seeing which players can step in and provide offense/good defense.  

You also need to manage the game by keeping in mind you need to have your 5 best players in at the end of the game.  I point to the end of the Richmond game.  We had a 1 point lead with 3+ mins. left in the game and we had 2 freshmen on the floor and sat 2 of our best 5 players - not because of foul trouble - but because Burt chose not to play them.  We lost the game because we lacked the size and experience of Hutcherson on the defensive end and because we had Kiaku on the bench.  The use of players in terms of who was on the floor and how they were not used, is why we lost.

Point is, as a coach, you should do everything to prevent your team from being in a situation where you are relying on the official to bail you out. 

I firmly believe Burt's poor coaching directly led to the loss against Richmond, but other games as well. The road game at Rhode Island is another example of a game that comes to mind that end of game scenario blew up in his face.  

I also believe if we had better coaching, Meg McConnell is the A10 POY, so yes, he cost her that title.  You don't give the POY to a team that finishes in 9th place, despite the fact she was the best player in the league and by a mile.  He completely wasted the talents of Kiaku, Hutcherson and Brown.  Again, I will point to the Richmond game.  Brown was an unstoppable force inside and kept us in the game because of her inside dominance.  The other element was that Richmond couldn't guard Kiaku's dribble-drive penetration.  

A good coach takes advantage of those trends identifies his strengths and attacks the opposing team's weaknesses.  We should have beaten Richmond going away becasuse they would have likely been in deep foul trouble due to the inability to stop both Brown and Kiaku.  Remember the posession where Brown threw up a prayer at the end of the shot clock and was fouled but, did not get the call?  That posession stalled because we passed the ball around the perimter and instead of having Brown inside, she was at the top of the key.  A good coach would have had Kiaku attack the paint and either feed to Brown or possibly force the defense to move and causing a shift that could lead to a kickout to an open player with a wide open look for a shot.

Basketball sometime is pretty simple, you dribble, pass, move without the ball and take the best shot available.  This is can only happen when you drill this concept into your team daily in practice.  Passing around the perimter and completely ignoring the paint is not a winning strategy, but hey, Burt loves that because he uses it all the time.

I will get back to your original question, which in a way is can two things be true at the same time?  YES: Burt is a bad coach and the team can win in spite of him. I firmly believe I provided my reasoning why he is a bad coach.

My reasoning for why the players deserve the credit, I will just point to last night.  Duquesne doesn't win that game without Jerni and Meg stepping up the pressure on defense as soon as Longwood got into the front court.  The Longwood guards struggeled and Jerni/Meg's defensive pressure sped them up resulting in a complete disruption of their offense.  There was no obvious change to me by either team in the offensive or defensive strategy, the difference was all the result of the players stepping up.  

The immediate counter could be the coaching staff may have stressed pressuring the ball.  My response is, if that was the case, why did it take all the way to the 4th quarter when you are getting dominated in the third quarter?  You call a timeout and make adjustments.  Burt is failure when it comes to making adjustments.

Point 2, Brown's play vs. Richmond in 2nd half.  I think this was likely to come more from Meg being a coach on the floor than from Burt.  Again, my point is, if Burt came up with that decision, then why wasn't it the game plan from the beginning the game and for that matter all year long?

I also say, you need to look at this through the prism of a veteran coach who has been at Duquesne as long as Burt has been.  The program is stagnant and Burt is just coasting by.  

I welcome feedback to anything that I have posted that spurs productive conversation.  Posts from Blue and Al that just whine about me attacking Burt are pointless without any substantive commentary defending their position.  

I will state it now, we are delaying the inevitbable by not making a change after the WNIT.  He will fail miserably because he brought in 6 freshmen this year, and has only 1 signed for next year.  He has a built-in excuse for failure - his team lacks size and experience.  I would LOVE to see us bring in a big, strong post player who is a space eater, defends and rebounds.  Burt doesn't recruit those players at all.  He only recruits players that can shoot the 3.  

The program needs to make a change.

 

Last edited by DU90 (3/21/2025 2:00 pm)

I completely understand DU90s concerns. I was unable to get into the women as much this year as last year, and I think the rotations are a major reason for that. Somebody like Jerni needs to be on the floor as long as she can run. At the end of the day all that really matters to me is I’m happy the athletic department was able to get this game scheduled on short notice for Megan to have one last home game.