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+----- Thread: Keith Dambrot (/thread-869077.html)
Keith Dambrot - Lambert58 - 01-23-2019 11:05 PM
Our nemesis for 13 seasons has turned around the Duquesne program. In his first season, Dambrot’s team went 16-16. This year, they are 14-5 and just beat St. Louis to hand them their first A10 loss. Duquesne hasn’t been to the Big Dance in 42 years. I’m glad he’s no longer at U of A.
RE: Keith Dambrot - fallsdog - 01-25-2019 01:42 PM
So I have three thoughts:
#1 - I felt that Coach Dambrot's team (for the most part) were well built. At the very least they always had an upper echelon MAC guard to go along with an upper echelon MAC post.
#2 - He was great to listen to in post game interviews. I often went back and forth between KSU games on 640 and UA games on 1350...especially if Kent State was in a conference race...and loved his honesty whenever Akron got beat. Dambrot once told Steve French that he takes losses more personally then the coaches do. When the team stunk, Dambrot let you know why.
#3 - I don't know sh#t about coaching a college basketball team. And whether I am reacting to a KSU loss or discussing Keith Dambrot it should be noted that I work in office supplies, not NCAA Basketball. That said, I never thought he was that great of an in game coach. Meaning, his "lesser" Akron teams were not going to beat the best the conference had to offer.
RE: Keith Dambrot - KSU93 - 01-28-2019 08:46 AM
I have been talking to a few akron season ticket holders and they are done after this season. They had one of the best coaches in recent MAC history and the AD basically forced him out. While everyone knows I am not the biggest supporter of Joel I would hope Joel would figure out a way to make things work.
RE: Keith Dambrot - Lambert58 - 01-28-2019 09:50 AM
The University of Akron is a shell of its former self. It was gutted across the board and but for certain areas, it looks more like a community college every day. Dambrot should be happy that he was forced out.
RE: Keith Dambrot - Lambert58 - 01-28-2019 09:55 AM
(01-25-2019 01:42 PM)fallsdog Wrote: So I have three thoughts:
#1 - I felt that Coach Dambrot's team (for the most part) were well built. At the very least they always had an upper echelon MAC guard to go along with an upper echelon MAC post.
#2 - He was great to listen to in post game interviews. I often went back and forth between KSU games on 640 and UA games on 1350...especially if Kent State was in a conference race...and loved his honesty whenever Akron got beat. Dambrot once told Steve French that he takes losses more personally then the coaches do. When the team stunk, Dambrot let you know why.
#3 - I don't know sh#t about coaching a college basketball team. And whether I am reacting to a KSU loss or discussing Keith Dambrot it should be noted that I work in office supplies, not NCAA Basketball. That said, I never thought he was that great of an in game coach. Meaning, his "lesser" Akron teams were not going to beat the best the conference had to offer.
#1 Agree
#2 Agree
#3 Agree, but they were always a threat regardless of talent. He may not have been the best tactician but he always seemed to get more out of his players than what they brought to the table.
RE: Keith Dambrot - Slinkin Street Flash - 01-28-2019 11:03 AM
I'd agree that Dambrot was a very good MAC coach - but the Acorn fans always thought they could do better. I saw a lot of posters that said they thought they were better off with Groce than Dambrot. I'd doubt they believe that now.
RE: Keith Dambrot - fallsdog - 01-28-2019 11:19 AM
Oh yes...the Gonzaga of the Midwest. Too good for the MAC. No Haiku can do that stuff justice.
RE: Keith Dambrot - JimJoyce - 01-28-2019 01:13 PM
I’m not so sure the UA is struggling as much financially as everyone says. Somehow they found a way to terminate Bowden’s contract, pay him off, but out Arth and pay his remaining years along with paying him a base salary higher than Bowden was getting and higher than Lewis gets here.
RE: Keith Dambrot - Lambert58 - 01-28-2019 05:57 PM
(01-28-2019 01:13 PM)JimJoyce Wrote: I’m not so sure the UA is struggling as much financially as everyone says. Somehow they found a way to terminate Bowden’s contract, pay him off, but out Arth and pay his remaining years along with paying him a base salary higher than Bowden was getting and higher than Lewis gets here.
You may be right as there is zero consistency at times. Sometimes they pay attention to the $16 million budget deficit but I’ve witnessed a certain department hire a more expensive competitor on more than one occasion. They seem to pick and choose when to be fiscally conservative.
RE: Keith Dambrot - Muskrat - 01-28-2019 07:35 PM
All I know is that Dambrot's Zips managed to unseat Kent State as the MAC's premier men's basketball program, an honor that is now Buffalo's. It's been a good ten years since Kent State could claim that distinction.
RE: Keith Dambrot - AlphaFlash - 01-28-2019 08:57 PM
(01-28-2019 07:35 PM)Muskrat Wrote: All I know is that Dambrot's Zips managed to unseat Kent State as the MAC's premier men's basketball program, an honor that is now Buffalo's. It's been a good ten years since Kent State could claim that distinction.
Did you forget 2 years ago?
RE: Keith Dambrot - axeme - 01-28-2019 10:09 PM
Akron did benefit from a down period in the MAC. But they really did nothing with the opportunity. They had a number of chances to get some recognition beyond the local footprint and pretty much missed every one. A couple of non-NCAA post-season wins? That’s pretty much what the Dambrot era amounted to. And he did a good job with what he had. He had deep connections in the area and recruited about as well as possible. That may be their biggest loss with KD’s departure: his pipeline to the local schools.
RE: Keith Dambrot - Muskrat - 01-29-2019 08:30 AM
No, AlphaFlash, I didn't. Sure, Kent State won one, but here are the figures for the last ten years:
Appearances in MAC championship game: Akron (7), Buffalo (4), Ohio (3), Kent State (2), Toledo (2), Western (1), Central (1)
MAC tournament championships: Akron (3), Buffalo (3), Ohio (2), Kent State (1), Western (1)
And, so far, Buffalo is the class of the MAC this year. Overall during the previous 10 seasons I think it is fair to say that Akron and Buffalo have been the two top programs, and Buffalo currently is. Buffalo won 3 of the last 4 championships and is now 17th ranked in the nation. A case can be made that Kent State has over the past 10+ years been no better than the fourth best program in the MAC. Kent State held that honor the 10 years previous to the last 10, winning 5 of 10 and being in 7 of 10.
I didn't go into regular season W-L records or titles, or the tournament prior to the championship game. because that would be too time consuming and I'm confident that my contention would not be changed.
RE: Keith Dambrot - JimJoyce - 01-29-2019 10:25 AM
You guys all make some valid points. Now look at it this way. Kent was never going to be able to sustain the success it had in basketball from 1999-2008. No mid-major can. UA didn’t and Buffalo won’t. No one in this league can. Hell our baseball team hasn’t even been able to. It just isn’t possible. That’s why you enjoy the ride when it happens.
What made it tougher on KSU was it allowed the rest of the league to catch up a little bit and we never did anything to re-invest in the program. The arena looks the same (new videoboard and chairbacks notwithstanding) as it did in those years. Other teams have dramatically renovated their facilities or built brand new ones.
But as we’ve seen the rise and fall of other MAC programs like UA, UB, OU and WMU, look at what Kent State has been able to do. Despite five head coaches in an 11-year span, the program has remained a perennial contender for the league. It hasn’t had a sub.-500 season since the nineties. Look at the season WMU is having. Look what’s happened to OU since their 2012 run. Hell, look at that brutal stretch for our women’s program. Nothing even remotely similar has happened to the men’s program.
I know Senderoff has his detractors and isn’t the charasmatic fun press conference guy some others are, but he’s at least kept this program at a pretty darn respectable level for a long time, while also threatening (and winning) the league crown. The hoops program has vastly different expectations than others on campus. And I think that’s fair. It should be held to a higher standard than, say football.
But the program’s consistency over a two-decade stretch deserves and demands respect.
RE: Keith Dambrot - Muskrat - 01-29-2019 12:07 PM
JimJoyce, I agree 100% with of all your points. Very well-stated. Many of us would have liked to have seen the program become like Gonzaga, Butler, Xavier and maybe some others. but many of us realize that the resources and the means just weren't there. I DO appreciate the fact that there have been no losing seasons since 1997/98, and that they actually began playing winning ball in January 1998 - 21 years ago! I get down on Senderoff from time to time, but then I stop and realize that he has obstacles to deal with that many other mid-majors don't. Gary Waters rebuilt the program. McDonald actually built a nice program, but then his last two seasons and Grube's were terrible. But none of us know for sure what Waters, Heath, Christian, or Ford would be doing know had any stayed here. It seemed to me that Waters' recruiting was slipping here and Heath was a one-year guy. He wasn't going to bring in a new Antonio Gates every year. I liked Christian and Ford, but who can really know? I actually feel better about Senderoff than I did five years ago.
RE: Keith Dambrot - dannyb73 - 01-29-2019 12:35 PM
(01-29-2019 10:25 AM)JimJoyce Wrote: You guys all make some valid points. Now look at it this way. Kent was never going to be able to sustain the success it had in basketball from 1999-2008. No mid-major can. UA didn’t and Buffalo won’t. No one in this league can. Hell our baseball team hasn’t even been able to. It just isn’t possible. That’s why you enjoy the ride when it happens.
What made it tougher on KSU was it allowed the rest of the league to catch up a little bit and we never did anything to re-invest in the program. The arena looks the same (new videoboard and chairbacks notwithstanding) as it did in those years. Other teams have dramatically renovated their facilities or built brand new ones.
But as we’ve seen the rise and fall of other MAC programs like UA, UB, OU and WMU, look at what Kent State has been able to do. Despite five head coaches in an 11-year span, the program has remained a perennial contender for the league. It hasn’t had a sub.-500 season since the nineties. Look at the season WMU is having. Look what’s happened to OU since their 2012 run. Hell, look at that brutal stretch for our women’s program. Nothing even remotely similar has happened to the men’s program.
I know Senderoff has his detractors and isn’t the charasmatic fun press conference guy some others are, but he’s at least kept this program at a pretty darn respectable level for a long time, while also threatening (and winning) the league crown. The hoops program has vastly different expectations than others on campus. And I think that’s fair. It should be held to a higher standard than, say football.
But the program’s consistency over a two-decade stretch deserves and demands respect.
+2
RE: Keith Dambrot - anti-zip - 01-29-2019 02:47 PM
(01-29-2019 10:25 AM)JimJoyce Wrote: You guys all make some valid points. Now look at it this way. Kent was never going to be able to sustain the success it had in basketball from 1999-2008. No mid-major can. UA didn’t and Buffalo won’t. No one in this league can. Hell our baseball team hasn’t even been able to. It just isn’t possible. That’s why you enjoy the ride when it happens.
What made it tougher on KSU was it allowed the rest of the league to catch up a little bit and we never did anything to re-invest in the program. The arena looks the same (new videoboard and chairbacks notwithstanding) as it did in those years. Other teams have dramatically renovated their facilities or built brand new ones.
But as we’ve seen the rise and fall of other MAC programs like UA, UB, OU and WMU, look at what Kent State has been able to do. Despite five head coaches in an 11-year span, the program has remained a perennial contender for the league. It hasn’t had a sub.-500 season since the nineties. Look at the season WMU is having. Look what’s happened to OU since their 2012 run. Hell, look at that brutal stretch for our women’s program. Nothing even remotely similar has happened to the men’s program.
I know Senderoff has his detractors and isn’t the charasmatic fun press conference guy some others are, but he’s at least kept this program at a pretty darn respectable level for a long time, while also threatening (and winning) the league crown. The hoops program has vastly different expectations than others on campus. And I think that’s fair. It should be held to a higher standard than, say football.
But the program’s consistency over a two-decade stretch deserves and demands respect.
Preach!