By Steve DiMiceli
I don't feel like writing a narrative today so you're getting mostly bullet points. Everyone cool with that.
The Bad
- The Dukes are without a star quality player for the first time since Ron has been the coach at Duquesne.
- We lost our likely leader and a player with several elite skills.
- We lost a player that could have helped reinvigorate the Duquesne brand in Western Pa better than any in recent memory.
The Overhyped
- We lost a player who could be "the guy" for this program
After watching him fade again down the stretch and fade when games were on the line, I was beginning to think that TJ may not develop into that 18-20 point a game player who can take over a game that the program has so desperately needed. He looks more and more like a star role player or a top notch side kick.
- We're going to get destroyed next year without TJ
Let's be honest, we weren't setting the world on fire with TJ either. We probably over hyped him and he didn't have the supporting cast around him to get to the next level anyway. I think Ron will be able to bring enough talent in to get us back to the point where we were with TJ, right around .500 mediocre though I'd be hard pressed to predict another winning season at this point.
- The program will go back to the way they were before Ron without TJ
A lot of conditions that caused us to be a terrible program have been fixed by the administration and in order for us to truly go all the way back, it would have to come from the administration not TJ. The budget is would need to decrease, they'd need to change their policies regarding the facilities, they'd need to end their relationship with the CEC, they'd need to stop paying coaches a market rate in the A-10.
- We should move to a worse league now that TJ is gone
If you're saying this, you're an idiot on so many levels. There is no point in even responding to you.
The Good
TJ leaving is the culminating event in the Ron Everhart cycle of turnover. I think it opened a lot of people's eyes to the fact that he may not be a coach who will take us to the next level and that his hard lined approach and stiff arming players out of here has not helped us.
