Duquesne and Pitt line up for the National Anthem before tipoff Friday at Consol. — DUQUESNE ATHLETICS
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
The divide between our city’s two Division I basketball programs is not 14 points.
Nor is it the 14 consecutive victories for one over the other.
Yeah, both those figures played out Friday night at Consol Energy Center with James Robinson’s career-high 23 points headlining Pitt’s 76-62 dunking of Duquesne in the 83rd City Game, but that symptomatic snippet doesn’t begin to tell the tale.
Because it isn’t about the Panthers getting a stunning 12-point showing from ultra-spare center Joseph Uchebo, any more than it’s about all the Dukes’ myriad shortcomings cited in a blistering postgame review by Jim Ferry, any more than it’s how the overwhelming majority of the 14,905 in attendance showed to support Pitt.
No, it’s about Ryan Luther.
Stay with me, please, because I will get back to the actual game. But here’s how this really works:
In the summer of 2013, Luther was a 6-8 guard-forward at Hampton High School with some potential but hardly an overload. His primary offers were from Duquesne, Dayton and George Washington, all in the Atlantic 10. And Ferry, in particular, went hardest of all, seeing a chance to not only add to his talent pool but also plant a stake with a prized local recruit. He pushed hard that Luther’s father, Bill, studied at Duquesne, and that his uncle, Brian Shanahan, was a 1,000-point scorer on the Bluff. He told Luther he could play his position of choice. He even offered a full basketball scholarship to his brother, Collin Luther, who was nowhere near the basketball talent.
Then, one day that fall, Jamie Dixon decided he wanted Luther.
And so he snapped his fingers and got him. Never had to push any connections to Pitt because there really weren’t any. Never promised anything about a position or even specified one. Never offered a scholarship to the brother. Just showed up in September with a first scholarship offer and had him signed by October of his senior year at Hampton.
Nobody in town covered this story as meticulously as Mike White, the Post-Gazette’s venerable scholastic writer, so here’s the direct link to White’s original work.
I would say that was the end of that, except that Pitt would prove an even bigger winner on this front: At last year’s City Game, Dixon and I were shooting the breeze in a Consol corridor, mostly about players he has coming into the program. When he mentioned Luther, his eyes absolutely lit up.
“Seen him yet this year?” Dixon asked. “Full inch taller.”
The smile spread to match the eyes.
“No one saw that coming. Even his brother didn’t grow like that.”
Well, of course Luther grew. Because that, if you’re a sap for the symbolic, would only underscore all the more the growing gap between Pitt and Duquesne.
Pitt’s Ryan Luther bolts back on defense as Duquesne’s Eric James dribbles up court. — DUQUESNE ATHLETICS
And there he was, naturally, on the Consol court Friday night, now a 6-foot-9, 215-pound, still-filling-in freshman, performing to a level that Dixon later described as “the best I’ve seen him, especially defending the post.” Luther had three points, three rebounds, a two assists and a block, but all of that is elevator music in Dixon’s world. He wants the defense. And in this case, Luther was so effective that Dixon outright benched Sheldon Jeter to make the most of it.
“We need to get Sheldon going,” was how Dixon phrased it.
Translation: We need to get Sheldon guarding. And in the interim, he can watch Luther and learn.
Nice problem to have, considering Jeter’s own outstanding pedigree. Dixon can casually bench a 6-8 power forward and spell his starting 6-9 forward Michael Young — who looked like he took the Hawaii flight worse than most — with a kid he could nab from Duquesne on a whim.
So pay little mind to the rest, because the City Game won’t change until the city dynamic balances out at least to some degree. That means talent, local or otherwise, will have to see the schools on some semblance of equal footing, and not just at the conference level where the A-10 still stacks up fine. That means the donors Ferry is seeking to bolster Duquesne program — a sad reality at a school where basketball is viewed by the administration as a relic, an albatross or both — will have to step up big-time. That means the public as a whole, even if the Dukes become an A-10 contender again, needs to get over the perception that they don’t matter.
We’re a long, long way from any of that, if it will ever be.
But hey, heck with all that. Cue Ferry popping off, because it’s pretty brutal:
“We were so soft … as a program … that it set the tone.”
As a program?
Ow.
My own observations of the Dukes weren’t anywhere near as harsh as his, but man, think this guy doesn’t get the scope of the challenge he faces?
I know for a fact that Ferry does. And what’s more, I believe he’s doing the right things at Duquesne, not least of which is eschewing the beaten path of endless juco-transfers and constructing his roster with real underclassmen who have real potential to succeed in the program over the next three or four years. All too often over the years, it was about Band-Aids, not building. It was about saving face, not setting a stage.
Exhibit A on this night was 6-6 freshman forward TySean Powell, one of the few Dukes who didn’t look in awe of the Panthers or Consol: He and sophomore center Jordan Robinson each put down 15 points, and Powell added five rebounds and a steal.
“I think this will be good for my confidence,” Powell told me. “I wanted to make a statement.”
I asked Dixon to comment on Duquesne’s progress:
Ferry’s aims will take time to achieve. Probably won’t happen this year. Might not happen the next. But his roster has one senior, forward Dominique McKoy, and the rest have time to learn.
Small wonder, given the local landscape, that the coach is eager to push fast-forward.
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December 6, 2014
Column: The real divide between Duquesne, Pitt
by Dejan Kovacevic • Columns • Duquesne, Pitt
Duquesne and Pitt line up for the National Anthem before tipoff Friday at Consol. — DUQUESNE ATHLETICS
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
The divide between our city’s two Division I basketball programs is not 14 points.
Nor is it the 14 consecutive victories for one over the other.
Yeah, both those figures played out Friday night at Consol Energy Center with James Robinson’s career-high 23 points headlining Pitt’s 76-62 dunking of Duquesne in the 83rd City Game, but that symptomatic snippet doesn’t begin to tell the tale.
Because it isn’t about the Panthers getting a stunning 12-point showing from ultra-spare center Joseph Uchebo, any more than it’s about all the Dukes’ myriad shortcomings cited in a blistering postgame review by Jim Ferry, any more than it’s how the overwhelming majority of the 14,905 in attendance showed to support Pitt.
No, it’s about Ryan Luther.
Stay with me, please, because I will get back to the actual game. But here’s how this really works:
In the summer of 2013, Luther was a 6-8 guard-forward at Hampton High School with some potential but hardly an overload. His primary offers were from Duquesne, Dayton and George Washington, all in the Atlantic 10. And Ferry, in particular, went hardest of all, seeing a chance to not only add to his talent pool but also plant a stake with a prized local recruit. He pushed hard that Luther’s father, Bill, studied at Duquesne, and that his uncle, Brian Shanahan, was a 1,000-point scorer on the Bluff. He told Luther he could play his position of choice. He even offered a full basketball scholarship to his brother, Collin Luther, who was nowhere near the basketball talent.
Then, one day that fall, Jamie Dixon decided he wanted Luther.
And so he snapped his fingers and got him. Never had to push any connections to Pitt because there really weren’t any. Never promised anything about a position or even specified one. Never offered a scholarship to the brother. Just showed up in September with a first scholarship offer and had him signed by October of his senior year at Hampton.
Nobody in town covered this story as meticulously as Mike White, the Post-Gazette’s venerable scholastic writer, so here’s the direct link to White’s original work.
I would say that was the end of that, except that Pitt would prove an even bigger winner on this front: At last year’s City Game, Dixon and I were shooting the breeze in a Consol corridor, mostly about players he has coming into the program. When he mentioned Luther, his eyes absolutely lit up.
“Seen him yet this year?” Dixon asked. “Full inch taller.”
The smile spread to match the eyes.
“No one saw that coming. Even his brother didn’t grow like that.”
Well, of course Luther grew. Because that, if you’re a sap for the symbolic, would only underscore all the more the growing gap between Pitt and Duquesne.
Pitt’s Ryan Luther bolts back on defense as Duquesne’s Eric James dribbles up court. — DUQUESNE ATHLETICS
And there he was, naturally, on the Consol court Friday night, now a 6-foot-9, 215-pound, still-filling-in freshman, performing to a level that Dixon later described as “the best I’ve seen him, especially defending the post.” Luther had three points, three rebounds, a two assists and a block, but all of that is elevator music in Dixon’s world. He wants the defense. And in this case, Luther was so effective that Dixon outright benched Sheldon Jeter to make the most of it.
“We need to get Sheldon going,” was how Dixon phrased it.
Translation: We need to get Sheldon guarding. And in the interim, he can watch Luther and learn.
Nice problem to have, considering Jeter’s own outstanding pedigree. Dixon can casually bench a 6-8 power forward and spell his starting 6-9 forward Michael Young — who looked like he took the Hawaii flight worse than most — with a kid he could nab from Duquesne on a whim.
So pay little mind to the rest, because the City Game won’t change until the city dynamic balances out at least to some degree. That means talent, local or otherwise, will have to see the schools on some semblance of equal footing, and not just at the conference level where the A-10 still stacks up fine. That means the donors Ferry is seeking to bolster Duquesne program — a sad reality at a school where basketball is viewed by the administration as a relic, an albatross or both — will have to step up big-time. That means the public as a whole, even if the Dukes become an A-10 contender again, needs to get over the perception that they don’t matter.
We’re a long, long way from any of that, if it will ever be.
But hey, heck with all that. Cue Ferry popping off, because it’s pretty brutal:
“We were so soft … as a program … that it set the tone.”
As a program?
Ow.
My own observations of the Dukes weren’t anywhere near as harsh as his, but man, think this guy doesn’t get the scope of the challenge he faces?
I know for a fact that Ferry does. And what’s more, I believe he’s doing the right things at Duquesne, not least of which is eschewing the beaten path of endless juco-transfers and constructing his roster with real underclassmen who have real potential to succeed in the program over the next three or four years. All too often over the years, it was about Band-Aids, not building. It was about saving face, not setting a stage.
Exhibit A on this night was 6-6 freshman forward TySean Powell, one of the few Dukes who didn’t look in awe of the Panthers or Consol: He and sophomore center Jordan Robinson each put down 15 points, and Powell added five rebounds and a steal.
“I think this will be good for my confidence,” Powell told me. “I wanted to make a statement.”
I asked Dixon to comment on Duquesne’s progress:
Ferry’s aims will take time to achieve. Probably won’t happen this year. Might not happen the next. But his roster has one senior, forward Dominique McKoy, and the rest have time to learn.
Small wonder, given the local landscape, that the coach is eager to push fast-forward.