ED, Robert Morris gets an automatic bid to the NIT as regular season conference champion.  Same as last year when they lost in the NEC Tourney to Mount St. Mary; history repeats itself with this year's loss to Mount St. Mary - final 88-71.

Um. No. But thanks.

By my quick math, against D1 teams the NEC is 45-88 (33.8%).  The A-10 was 127-54 (70.2%), or over twice as good OOC.  Once again, don't trust my quick math, but that's what I got.

apluski wrote:

Little Bobby Mo's conference schedule was similiar to Pitt's pre-conference schedule. Are you kidding me? Will someone do the math for me (I stink at math) but what is the total won-lost totals for that entire conference? What is Mt St Mary's won-lost and they're going to the dance. The media played the eight man card for everything they could get out of it. Most conference winners playing Div One could've won that conference with six players. And that they beat us this year? Play the game today. This is a much different Dukes team than the non-battle hardened Dukes team that Little Bobby played earlier this year. Robert Morris is the second best men's team in Pittsburgh and I'm the Dean of the Mathmatics Department at MIT.

I'm not so sure a win would be guaranteed. Despite the late improvement in the Dukes, let's not forget that some winnable games were lost, and we had trouble closing a couple of close ones. We have to give the devil, and Robert Morris, their due, and stop trying to poke holes in their accomplishments. The only real accomplishment is beating them. Let's prove we can do it next year.  

People here rail on how bad the OOC was, how none of the wins except St Louis impressed them and what a waste of time playing these teams were. Now they want to play in the NEC, I guess because it will be more gratifying to have a chance to win a league that's one of the bottom eight leagues in the country than play in one of the top eight.

Nevermind that if they could, I'm pretty sure RMU would be off to the MAAC at the drop of a hat if the league would have taken them.
 

rittersdiner wrote:

The Dukes need to consider moving to the NEC. Robert Morris was one win from the NCAA Tournament. One win. Duquesne hasn't been one win from the NCAAs in decades.

 
I guess you don't count the 5 point loss to Temple in A-10 finals, winner got automatic bid to NCAA, Dukes went to NIT and lost to Big East Va Tech on Techs home court in double overtime, AJAX but up 46.that was about 5-6' years but to make you feel better, 1/2 decade ago.

rittersdiner wrote:

Phildog wrote:

rittersdiner wrote:

The Dukes need to consider moving to the NEC. Robert Morris was one win from the NCAA Tournament. One win. Duquesne hasn't been one win from the NCAAs in decades.

 
I guess you don't count the 5 point loss to Temple in A-10 finals, winner got automatic bid to NCAA, Dukes went to NIT and lost to Big East Va Tech on Techs home court in double overtime, AJAX but up 46.that was about 5-6' years but to make you feel better, 1/2 decade ago.

OK, half decade ago. How close are we now. Miles away. We've been miles away for so long, but you hang on to that game as some sign of hope. No one from the team or coaching staff is even in the state now. But hey, if the bottom half of the A-10 is good for you, fine.

I don't believe we're miles away. I expect us to have a good team no later than 2 years from now, but if you're happy being the resident "nattering nabob of negativism" (apologies to William Safire), knock yourself out.
 

rittersdiner wrote:

The Dukes need to consider moving to the NEC. Robert Morris was one win from the NCAA Tournament. One win. Duquesne hasn't been one win from the NCAAs in decades.

I sure hope we're not paying Ferry 600k/year and considering a move to the NEC!
 

KenOTR73 wrote:

Duq81, nattering nabobs of negativism was a Spiro Agnew before he was kicked out as Nixon's VP. I'm sure of it. Ritter, if you believe that we can jump to the NEC and still recruit A10 quality players, sorry doesn't work that way. I, along with everyone else, was totally bummed out at the beginning of the season especially after the Bobby Mo loss. However, I do see a glimmer of hope here. Much of next season is riding on Waitkins and Robinson providing some solid play, Gill continuing to develop, and the PG situation righting itself.

Ken, William Safire was Agnew's speech writer. While Agnew spoke those words, they came from the pen of Safire, and he is generally given the credit for it. Agree with you totally about the silly NEC post. Who on our roster would have come here to play for us in the NEC? Not Soko or Mason, that's for sure. Ask St. Francis how life in the NEC is. The A10 has a chance to put 6 teams in the NCAA's. The NEC has never come close to getting an at large bid.
 

KenOTR73 wrote:

duq81 wrote:

KenOTR73 wrote:

Duq81, nattering nabobs of negativism was a Spiro Agnew before he was kicked out as Nixon's VP. I'm sure of it. Ritter, if you believe that we can jump to the NEC and still recruit A10 quality players, sorry doesn't work that way. I, along with everyone else, was totally bummed out at the beginning of the season especially after the Bobby Mo loss. However, I do see a glimmer of hope here. Much of next season is riding on Waitkins and Robinson providing some solid play, Gill continuing to develop, and the PG situation righting itself.

Ken, William Safire was Agnew's speech writer. While Agnew spoke those words, they came from the pen of Safire, and he is generally given the credit for it. Agree with you totally about the silly NEC post. Who on our roster would have come here to play for us in the NEC? Not Soko or Mason, that's for sure. Ask St. Francis how life in the NEC is. The A10 has a chance to put 6 teams in the NCAA's. The NEC has never come close to getting an at large bid.
 

LOL. Thanks 81, I should have known Agnew couldn't come up with 3 and 4 syllable words...
 

Agnew was pugnacious, and was able to deliver those types of lines for good effect. I would equate it to a songwriter who writes a song with a particular singer in mind, and writes to the singer's strengths.

rittersdiner wrote:

duq81 wrote:

KenOTR73 wrote:

Duq81, nattering nabobs of negativism was a Spiro Agnew before he was kicked out as Nixon's VP. I'm sure of it. Ritter, if you believe that we can jump to the NEC and still recruit A10 quality players, sorry doesn't work that way. I, along with everyone else, was totally bummed out at the beginning of the season especially after the Bobby Mo loss. However, I do see a glimmer of hope here. Much of next season is riding on Waitkins and Robinson providing some solid play, Gill continuing to develop, and the PG situation righting itself.

Ken, William Safire was Agnew's speech writer. While Agnew spoke those words, they came from the pen of Safire, and he is generally given the credit for it. Agree with you totally about the silly NEC post. Who on our roster would have come here to play for us in the NEC? Not Soko or Mason, that's for sure. Ask St. Francis how life in the NEC is. The A10 has a chance to put 6 teams in the NCAA's. The NEC has never come close to getting an at large bid.
 

Look at the facilities and situation Duquesne has in the A-10, pretty ordinary. Now compare it to the NEC teams, extraordinary. I'm not saying make the move. I'm saying that before you go making fun of Robert Morris, consider their program is way ahead of ours and more likely to makle the NCAAs with or without an at-large bid available.

Well, I for one didn't make this post to make fun of Bobby Mo. It was more to tweak thos on the board who are bothered by their success. Personally, I'm not bothered a whit by their success, other than when it's against us. In fact, I'm not bothered by Pitt's success either. Too many folks are hung up on outdoing Pitt. We need to take care of our house. We beat Pitt in 2001, and lost to them in 2009. Which season was more fun? Pitt struggled in the decade or so before they began their current run. We beat them twice during that stretch. Did it mean much? No! It was a case of two bad teams going at it.