This losing streak for Duquesne has been tough on everyone – the players, coaches, administration, fans – heck it is even hard to cover a team that is mired in losing because the reality is, how many different ways can you write “this team is not good” and how many different ways can you ask the question “why did you lose this game?”

That being said, I think I would be remiss if I didn’t attempt to offer some slim glimmer of hope for the rest of this season and beyond.

  I mean, it is well documented that this team is not very talented, that there are some real holes on this roster and that it is a youthful roster. It is well documented that many of the best players left and the recruits the previous coach had lined up went elsewhere so the roster is short handed and unfortunately the Atlantic 10 is extremely strong this year so there aren’t many breaks for a struggling team.

So I am not sure what more can be said about that – the team isn’t very good, it will struggle to win against anyone who is even mediocre left on its schedule.

But here is what I will say:

1.) The team hasn’t quit. I know, I know – not much of a consolation but here is the thing – with a first-year coach there are always transition growing pains, especially when the team starts to lose. The upper classmen think the coach doesn’t care because he didn’t recruit them, sometimes the seniors turn it off and coast to the finish line and the younger classmen are generally guys who were a bit of a stretch in recruiting because the class had to be thrown together at the final hour. So what happens is the team just shuts down midway through the season and it takes a year or two until some of the upper classmen graduate for the team to truly transition to the new coach and system. That doesn’t seem to be the case here – Andre Marhold and Sean Johnson played as hard as I’ve seen them play on Saturday and the younger guys – beyond the freshmen – like Derrick Martin and like Jerry Jones – seem to really want to get better and seem to have a pretty good work ethic. That’s a great start – a team that wants to get better and works hard at it, eventually will. Maybe not this year but this group will get better.

2.) Nobody is more bothered by this losing than Jim Ferry. I know, I know he has said all the right things about how “he knew what he signed up for” and that’s what he should do. He has been patient with this group and he is working as hard as he can to make them better. But he is a coach, a competitor and you don’t become a Division I coach if losing doesn’t bother you. As a coach I am sure he is questioning himself, he is wondering if he is doing enough, he is wondering if the team will ever win again – I guarantee the losing is bothering him and it bothers him that he hasn’t been able to come up with a magical formula to break this streak.  That being said – he has done all the right things behind the scenes to try and lay a foundation for the future of the program. He has gotten on planes and trains to go recruit on every single off day this season, he has worked overtime and burned the midnight candle to try and find whatever edge he can find to get this thing right.

He is also building a philosophy that is a proven winner – defend hard, rebound harder, be tougher than your opponents and protect the basketball and value possessions on offense. You know how I know this is successful – because I see an example of how that basic philosophy works right up Forbes Avenue at Pitt under Jamie Dixon. Pitt has won a ton of games, has won the Big East a few times and has been to the Sweet 16 a bunch and you  know what, go back and look at the starting lineups of some of those teams and tell me if you think they had any business winning as much as they did.  If you defend, rebound and are tough that is half the battle.

3.) The players care. They are trying. I could see it Saturday night in the postgame – both Jerry Jones and Quevyn Winters were not in the mood to deal with us.  It bothered them that they lost that game and it bothered the rest of the team as well as you could tell when they walked off the floor. That’s a great sign – winning and losing has to matter and these kids want to get better. And Derrick Colter, from what I can tell, is going to be a success not because God handed him a bunch of talent but because God handed him enough talent to get in the door and he is going to work harder than about 98 percent of the other people he plays against and that will be his edge. You can say the same about a few of them.

4.) The Atlantic 10 is tough but there are a few of the softer touches coming in the next few weeks and my guess is the Dukes will get at least one of them if not a few. And there have been some good looking recruits at these games and if Ferry can sign a few of them  and improve the talent level every year this team will get better and better and start to perhaps even contend for the league title.

5.)  Finally let me say this – one thing that makes it a little tough to build a program at Pitt and/or Duquesne or Robert Morris is that there isn’t much help from the local recruiting base. The WPIAL and City League just aren’t that strong and don’t produce enough players to fuel three big-time programs. However, as we have seen at both Pitt and Robert Morris – you can still go out and recruit guys and get them to come to Pittsburgh because it is a great city and if you are selling the right things, people will buy it. Now, that being said, there are some players coming up through the ranks in the next few years – a kid like Ryan Luther at Hampton could be a very good player for Duquesne – so Ferry will have some opportunities to build one some local players if he continues to work as hard as he has in recruiting.

Well that’s about it – like I said, I wish I could give you a bright sunny day tomorrow but I really can’t – all I can tell you is that this staff and these players are working hard and working hard in the right ways and that more than anything else will put them in the ballpark of having a chance to be successful. 

I know it sounds like a broken record, but there isn't much more to say right now with this team - the Dukes made a valiiant effort against St. Louis tonight but just couldn't quite find a way to finish and lost.

And it is the same story - the Dukes are just one or two players short which is why they can fight so hard and play so well to get to a tie -- 55-55 -- with 4 minutes and some change to play - then give up a 14-1 run and get blown out in the final four minutes.

They do so many good things and then they take a step back because to quote Jim Ferry "the margin for error is so small" and he is right -- it is hard to win games when you are outmanned almost every night and you have to do everything right just to get to a point where you can think about winning.

I thought the difference in the game was St. Louis's guard Kwamain Mitchell was able to drive and make some critical plays down the stretch while the Dukes made some turnovers and missed some shots.

SOME of this is due to inexperience, especially when you consider the Dukes best player right now is probably Derrick Colter a true freshman and freshmen Quevyn Winters and Jeremiah Jones are playing  a lot of minutes as well but this deep into the season some of these guys also need to step up and be accountable and make plays at the end of these games.

One thing that is clear - Ferry is not putting up with any nonsense and he is going to get these younger kids a lot of minutes.

Tonight, for instance, Andre Marhold played ZERO minutes and after the game and Ferry made it clear "Andre Marhold was not hurt, he was not hurt at all...." and then proceeded to say that Marhold will be on the bench until he shows leadership and accountability the way an upperclassman should.

In other words, he doesn't like Marhold's work ethic and he doesn't like his inconsistency and he is not going to play him just because he is a senior and one of the few returning starters.

That is how you set the tone in the program - there is a certain level of expectations for how the players must act and if they don't meet it, they don't get to play.

This team will get better, this team will put it all together a few times and surprise a few teams in the Atlantic 10 but these are growing pains and while it is no fun for you, the fans, it is the only way to improve.

These younger players need to fight through this, learn the tough lessons now and get tougher and better in the process and if they do, they will be better off for it down the road.

Colter, by the way, has scored in double figures 11 games in a row now and tonight he logged 33 minutes - so he is clearly learning on the job but is getting plenty of opportunities to learn.

There is not much really to say about this 90-63 destruction of the Dukes by No. 22 VCU at Consol tonight.

VCU is really good, they are experience, they have a great coach, they have become a premier program - Duquesne has a long way to go and is in the first year of a sizeable rebuilding project, what more needs to be said?

Still, there are some observations that I'd like to offer about the program and the team - which has lost six in a row now -- as I don't think things are as bad as they appear...

1.) Jim Ferry inherited a program that was devoid of much leftover talent and the guys who were leftover are better suited to play a completely different game than Ferry wants to play. This is not an excuse for losing games, it is reality. Ron Everhart supposedly had a great recruiting class coming in, when he was fired they all scattered and since many of his best players have left over the years, it left a roster that frankly from where I sit doesn't have many legitimate Atlantic 10 players on it. I know that is harsh, I think that for the most part these guys work hard and play hard but the reality is this team is undermanned. And we saw that tonight - VCU came at them in waves and really looked like a varsity team scrimmaging junior varisty team. And my larger point here is this - there are going to be some nights like this when even the Dukes best effort (and I am not at all saying this was their best effort) won't be good enough.

2.) That being said, there are a few guys on this team who may need to look at the mirror tonight and ask themselves if they gave Duquesne everything they had in this game because I think if they are honest the answer will be "no". That is not to say this team dogged it or laid down or quit, I just look at body language on the court a lot and from what I saw, this Duquesne team had far too many guys standing around watching and acting like they were powerless to stop what VCU was doing. You want to know what makes the Rams difficult to play agianst? There was a sequence in the second half when they were up 33 points where the ball hit the floor and they had guys diving on it like possession of the ball was the difference between breathing and not --- and this was when they were ahead 33 points. Fans sometimes shriek when you use the term "lack of effort" to describe the way a team played because they think it means you are saying a team quit or isn't trying or is lazy. That's not it at all - it is that "extra, all-out, laying it on the line with no fear" effort that sets the good teams apart. If a team like VCU, with all that talent, can play that hard on every possession, they are nearly impossible to beat. Ferry wants Duquesne to play that way and we have seen that in stretches -- but until we see it for 40 minutes on every possession these games are going to be tough to win.

3.) Derrick Colter is fearless, he is a great leader and he is frankly the guy who is driving this team right now. I like the kid a lot because he plays so hard and he is a winner. But I also like that he at times is the only one who is capable of creating things on offense and he isn't afraid to do it. His shot selection is good for the most part and he can drive and dish extremely well. You  take him and the other two freshmen - Queyvn Winters, another fearless gunslinger, and Jeremiah Jones, who is tough as nails, and now all of the sudden you have a group of players to try and build around. But they aren't nearly enough and frankly, the way Duquesne will build a better program quickly is that every year, Ferry has to recruit better players than those three. It would be a great thing if the Dukes have two or three freshmen starting next year - because it means they are really, really good players. And that's what it takes - the talent base here is not good yet, but I believe Ferry is the guy to go get those kinds of player.

4.) A word about VCU - what a nightmare it is to play against a team like that. Not only do they pressure you the whole game, they pressure you in every aspect - on the glass, on the floor, on offense, on defense -- heck I am starting to think that Shaka Smart has his cheerleaders making runs at his opponents cheerleaders in the hallway outside of their dressing room. They just keep coming, and coming, and coming, and coming and just when you think that you have it figured out, your guys are exhausted and he is putting in five fresh sets of legs. It is like watching a swarm of little knats attack the dude wearing too much cologne at sunrise on the golf course - he can keep swatting them off his neck and legs but they keep attacking him and sucking his blood....This team is ridiculous. I know other teams out there can handle this pressure to an extent but the bottom line is they just keep coming and wear you down until you really don't even want to play any more. A fabulous team to watch and they are very well coached - as evidenced by the fact that Shaka Smart won his 100th game tonight against the Dukes in a little less than four seasons as the coach. This is a fun team to watch, no doubt and a great addition for the Atlantic 10.

5.) The Atlantic 10 is a real, well to quote Ferry, beast...One of the best leagues in America no doubt and this year especially, with Butler and VCU joining and Temple still hanging around, it is a grind. And for a young team like Duquesne that means there aren't going to be many happy nights. That is just reality. Duquesne will win some games because we have seen some really good stretches of basketball from them and we will see it again and they will have a few nights where they put together two halves, but this is not going to be an easy or fun season and a lot of it has to do with the fact that the scheudle is brutal. 

6.) I understand why games are moved to Consol -- and I like the concept and like the idea of trying to play a few games in a big-time atmosphere. But I question the wisdom this year when, everybody knew this team would struggle and that means there aren't going to be huge crowds. Tonight's crowd would have been a very nice crowd at Palumbo, at Consol the smallish crowd was swallowed up and there was no atmosphere. I think Pitt and WVU games against Duquesne should always be at Consol but I'd wait another year or two to start moving Atlnatic 10 games there because this team isn't really ready to start filling it.

And Finally, 7.) Ferry is preaching all the right things, he has a track record of succcess but it isn't going to happen overnight so you need to be a little patient. I think from what I have seen he has put these guys in positions where they can succeed - they just don't have quite enough to get it done yet. But his philosophies are sound, his defensive philosophy is very sound and he will get the most out of his teams and that is really all you can ask for from a coach rebuilding a program.

St. Louis comes to town Wednesday and then it is off to lovely Dayton, Ohio so things don't get any easier for the Dukes.