• David Duke begins his 14th season overall in the
profession and second at Fordham after coming to Rose Hill with
head coach Tom Pecora.
• Began his basketball coaching career as a graduate
assistant coach at Hofstra University under the tutelage of now
Villanova head Coach Jay Wright.
• Earned his undergraduate in 1997 from SUNY Albany where
he majored in communications and minored in education.
Diary Series: David Duke, Asst. Coach - Fordham
It’s been a busy few months for the Fordham University
men’s basketball team. The theme for the team this season is
“College Basketball… New York Style” as our
roster features eight players from New York City, including six
from Brooklyn. As such, we spent a day in October in Manhattan
taking groups shots at historic New York City landmarks such as
City Hall, the Brooklyn Bridge and Times Square. The photos are
displayed prominently in our media guide and were used for our
2011-12 advertising campaign that included a billboard on
Manhattan’s West Side Highway.
On the court, we kicked things off with a Maroon and White scrimmage on November 2nd that took on a different look as WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton served as guest coaches. We raised money at the game to benefit the Boomer Esiason Foundation, a dynamic partnership of leaders in the medical and business communities, joining with a committed core of volunteers to heighten awareness, education and the quality of life for those affected by cystic fibrosis, while providing financial support to research aimed at finding a cure. It was a fun night and raised money for a good cause.
We also have been busy performing clinics at the local public schools. The entire coaching staff thinks it’s important for the players to give back to the community and this is one small way we can reach some of the younger children in the area.
After a slow start to the schedule, playing three games over the first two weeks, we are in the midst of an NBA-like schedule with six games over a 14-day stretch. We opened the two-week period with home games against Colgate (November 29th), Lehigh (December 1st) and Hampton (December 5th) before our shortest road trip of the year, to Manhattan College, on December 7th. We then traveled to Monmouth on December 10th and Siena on December 12th, completing the six-game, 14-day schedule.
With seven new faces on the roster, we’ve been busy trying to get everyone on the same page which isn’t easy when you have one of the youngest rosters in the nation with seven freshmen and four sophomores. That job has been made even more difficult with injuries to two of the freshmen: Jeff Short and Ryan Canty, who both recently got back into action.
The seven new players aren’t the only difference to our program. During the offseason, our facilities received a major renovation which included a brand new suite of offices for the coaching staff and a new video room. The video room features 21 theatre-style seats with a 70-inch flat screen television along with state-of-the-art technology to allow us to watch and breakdown video much more efficiently than last year when we crammed into a much smaller room.
On the court so far, we are dealing with some issues, mainly shooting percentage. We haven’t been shooting very well over the first few games, especially from the free throw line. We’re focusing on that during practice, having the players shoot before practice, during practice, after practice, before running, after running... you name it. And in practice, they are shooting very well from the charity stripe. But when it comes to game time, something changes and we can’t seem to make our shots. We’ll keep working at it until it improves.
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