I will state this, I don't believe I have attacked you personally, but you clearly made every effort to belittle me when I brought up the time I spent as a team manager. [REDACTED BY MODERATION] I spent 4 years of my college education DEDICATED to Duquesne men's basketball.  And that was pretty much a year-round job.  Along with the other managers with me and before me, we spent a of time in the old gym preparing the team and coaches for practice.  And when practice ended, we cleaned up the locker room and washed the team's practice gear, while attending to the coaches locker and coaching office as well.  I and the other managers before me and with me, would run up from the old gym to try and get some dinner before they closed the dining hall.  

I gave up a lot of personal time during my college years because I dedicated myself to the basketball team, the coaches, the Athletic Department administration and the unversity itself.  I do not post this looking for any thank-you's or pats on the back, and I thought long and hard to even make mention of it, but I felt it was important to further explain the detailed level of analysis I was provding.  I didn't want people to view my criticism of Burt without understanding the full level of my own personal exprience that I do know what I am talking about.  I was not a coach, but I was in practice every day and I worked with coaches with filming and film acquisition and had numerous conversations with coaches outside of practice about basketball strategy. 

You seemed to think my lived experience was worth belittling and you clearly had a chip on your shoulder that made you want to discredit me.

Here is your rant:
So I guess EVERYONE (student Managers, Trainers, etc)  ARE qualified to make lengthy posts about strategies, playing time etc.  I said YOU . Where did I disrepect anyone else??  By placing them ALL in your post are you implying that they all carry equal weight??  As for Disrespecting COACHES --  WHAT do you call it when in EVERY POST you find something negative manner.about Dan.

You seem to suggest that there is a qualification requirement of making any post regarding the criticism of Dan Burt.  Again you start out stating "I guess everyone..." and then seem to pretty much imply that you are limiting the scope of criticism to, who?  I don't know but once again you make it very clear you don't like me and what I have to say.  Like I said before, don't attack the messenger when you don't like the message. 

Example: 
DU --  In just about every post directed towards me you imply that Dan seems to underachieve -- his winning percentage at DU is in the low 60's  --   Jim Satalin (YOUR Role model) had a career record at DU of 85-120.

So you threw this out there for no other reason but to attack Jim Satalin and called him my role model.  I only brought up Jim as the reference to me being a student manager when he was our coach.  Yes, Dan has a decent record for the overall body, but where you seem to have a problem with his recent track record, and since he has been here a long time, it is worth while to look at the last 5 years.  He is one game above .500 in conference play.  And I will explain here, conference play is weighted more because you play the same teams every year, as opposed to scheduling the opponents you want to play in non-conference season.  And you play the teams in non-conference TO PREPARE YOU FOR CONFERENCE PLAY!!  Once in conference, you play for an in-season title and tournament seeding.  The reason why this is weighted much heavier is because play in the tournament will make or break your chances to win the tournamant championship outright and get the automatic qualifier or possibly earn an at-large bid.  This year the A10 got 2 teams in the big dance.  

Now moving on.

Home court advantage.  I have no idea what case you are trying to make, but I think you were trying to compare it to your original point of the disadvantage of playing at LaRoche.  My only response is this, there is a scene in the movie Hoosiers where Gene Hackman brings out a measuring tape and with his team around the basket, shows that the the distance between the hoop and the floor at Butler (state championship game) is the exact same as their own high school gym.  I bring this up because it doesn't matter if you play at LaRoche, the Pete or Peters Township, every court meets the same regulatory standard.  Yes, lighting and site lines can be distractions, but the reality is visting teams have access to the home floor as long as they want to practice day (or days) before and also for game-day shoot arounds.  I know this because it was the role of the manager to make sure the visiting team had everything they needed, including assisting with helping the other team's managers with laundry if it was necessary - and yeah, it was sometimes.  Again, I am just pointing to the fact that you wanted to belittle me for being a student manager without having the full grasp of the level of commitment required to do that job.

Bottom line, you want to make an excuse for Dan's average record.

Lunch with a member of the Athletic Dept.  I think I was pretty clear when I mentioned this, that it occurred in the fall.  So Al, just so you know, the October 15 official start of practice is pretty much no longer a thing.  In fact, since you seem to be unaware, D-I athletes are committed to their sport, year-round.  They likely get a few weeks off in May, but come back in June for class as well as gym time, where they are doing coordinated workouts and also have the chance for individual instruction from the coaching staff, as long as they are in town.  You may not knows this, but the coaches rely on student managers to assist with the players and their development in the off-season by helping them run drills, like rebounding in a shooting drill.  

Debbie Antonelli has stated so many times the greatest time for player development is in the off-season.  Again, the coaching staff is making observations and level-setting the expectations for the upcoming season with others in the athletic department.  Since you stated you didn't know the level of activity that goes on in a D-I player's life, I will give you the benefit of the doubt, yet you chose to spout off this: He/she must be ONE HELL of a salesperson.. I don't know if Fall Practice still starts October 15th..  I don't know exactly what the "structure" is for off season workouts (staff supervision permitted? etc)   BUT I'm wondering how someone (presumably not a coach "KNEW things would be different. that far in advance 

Richmond game 
Presuming Megan is matched up with their point guard  What is it going to be like when Budnik,Doogan, OR Ullstrom is posted up under the basket on Jerni??  I'm guessing Richmond will steal more points than Jerni could generate beating the Richmond players on the other end.

Another post where I am thinking, where are you going with this...I have stated that at the end of the game, you want your 5 best players to be on the floor to finish the game.  We were protecting a 1-point lead and Dan sent out two freshmen at a very critical moment of the game.  You seem to be implying that Jerni was an easy target for defense to attack, well it was Blackford who was on the floor, probably in place of Jerni.  I actually think Jerni is bigger, but the point you were attemping to make was that having Jerni on the floor it played to Richmond's advantage of size...but as I said, you had probably a smaller defender and less experienced one in Blackford.  

One more thought, there were two freshmen on the floor and you seem to forget that Jerni has a little more athleticism than Blackford and possible may have been able to get a quick steal.  During the FSU-George Mason game yesterday, the announcers were discussing the defensive approach by FSU between this year and last year.  The gist of the conversation is this, FSU transformmed its approach to defense by becoming the aggressor. 

This discussion is perfect to describe my next point.  In the 4th quarter against Longwood, our team defense became the aggressor and forced them out of their comfort zone, got steals and turnovers and allowed us to get the momentum we needed to win the game.  Since Al said he is done responding, I will put on his hat and make the point, well don't you think Dan had something to do with that?  And my counter argument is this, IF Dan made that in-game decision, why the hell did he wait until the 4th quarter to implement that strategy???  I meant its not like Longwood took control of the game by attacking the paint for easy layups and kickouts to wide open 3's!  (pure sacasm here). 

Practice / CCAC.  You made the excuse that Dan and his team were very limited in the ability to have effective practices during the construction.  That is an excuse meant to support we can't be expected to win when we have these poor conditions.  To that my reply was, if that was such a burden, what did Dan do to fix the situation?  I threw out CCAC as an example of an option, that was all that it was meant to be, but you missed the point, Dan was using practice facility as an EXCUSE for the team's performance, in other words, justification for losing games.  

Gabby G-M.  I only brought her up as a point of reference as to why I was questionning her lack of playing time.  I never once brought up her 3-point shooting ability, but you did, as an attack on her to justfiy Dan's lack of playing her.  I think the fact you chose to attack her is inexcusable.  Anyone who saw the game at GW, saw exactly what Gabby brought to the table, athleticism, good size and a solid mid-range game that was necessary for success.  Gabby came in as a freshman with excellent size - she is very well-built and that will translate very well, further in her career when she is in a position to drive and attack the paint because she will be able to absorb contact through the play at the basket.

Keats.  I brought up Keats as an example where a coach can be fired for NOT WINNING enough.  Again, your rant: You CAPITALIZE WINNING GAMES --  When I point out Dan is Superior to Satalin in this you sprout the above NONSENSE.

There you go off down the yellow brick road to nowhere about coaches having a short leash.  The point which obvsiously was missed by you, which, is that I have been looking at Dan's long tenure and highlighted the shortcomings from the last 5 years.  In fact, Keats was brought to NC State to win games.  In big programs, you have a shorter window to win, but at a program like Duquesne, you have to wonder why we extended him given his lack of substantial success within conference play. 

Meg.  Again, here is another gem from you, where I have no idea of what point you are trying to make.  I guess you want to give Burt some extra creditlierally in Dan's backyard, for having successfully recruited her to Duquesne.  My reaction, she was a local player, who was one of the best players in girls high school basketball and came from a family steeped in basketball excellence.  He would have been fool not to recruit her to Duquesne.  But if you are trying to somehow make the claim that Dan is the reason for why she was the BEST player in the conference, I will say that is just pure crap.  I think that credit on the is staff belongs directly to Vanessa Abel and to the McConnell family and most importantly to Meg herself, for how much she developed her game and brought her to the position of being one of the best players in all of mid-major basketball.  

I will state that his recruitment of Kellie McConnell was highly suspect as she was not the best player on her team in high school.  From what I saw of her in the couple of games she played in for North Allegheny, she was a complementary/role player.  She did not standout to me as being worthy of a D-I offer.  I state this, it is not meant to be an attack on her, it is my own observation. I don't know who actually offered her, but I don't think other A10 schools extended one.  I hope she develops her game like Meg and takes everyone by surprise, but from what I saw of her this year on the floor, she was overmatched size and skill-wise.  I hope she develops to be the player her mother was at Duquesne.  My best memory of Sherry Hannan was her game winning shot against St. Joseph from the baseline...at least that's where I think she took the shot from.

My only other point about Meg is that I personally feel she was robbed of being named the A10 POY becase the team finished in 9th place.  I have stated this repeatedly as this again is a pure indictment of Dan's poor coaching.  If Duquesne finishes top 4, Meg is the overwhelming choice for POY.  We had top 4 talent but bottom 4 coaching.  I point again to the Richmond game, we got blown off the floor at home in early February.  About 4 weeks later, we have a 1-point lead with 3 mins. and change to go, forcing Rousell into a timeout to gether his team for the final push.  We blew it with Dan's end of game strategy to put 2 freshmen on the floor against that gave up size and experience to Richmond's taller and more experienced lineup.

What did I hope to accomplish?  Nothing.  I posted my thoughts and observations on a message board dedicated to women's basketball program.  Apparently, that must mean I have some hidden agenda, but I don't.  Do I want to see a change in direction?  ABSOLUTELY.  As a fan and alum and someone who I think, tried hard to show that I was supporting every point and argument I was making, I was just expressing my thoughts in an open forum.

The program has become stale.  For being one of the longest tenured coaches in the A10, he is not one of the best.  He is at best, 9th in the league because that's the average position the team has finished in the last 5 seasons.  Tenured coaches with that lack of success are usually long gone by now, especially after they set the bar for success, earning an at-large bid and winning one NCAAT game.  

Al, you also made the point that the covid-year shouldn't count.  Ok, let's play that game.  Why was the team 11-18 the year after covid with a 6-18 record in the A10 conference play?  And for reference, you can't blame LaRoche or lack of an adequate practice facility for that season.  I firmly believe we are headed to a similar record next season and nothing about this year changes that prediction, as long as Burt is the coach.

Don't hate the messenger when you don't like the message.
 

Last edited by DU90 (3/23/2025 10:52 am)