I was too busy to tune in last night, but was very pleasantly surprised to see the score this morning. Was anybody there? I’d love to have more than a box score to go on to know what was different about last night. Whatever it was was a long time coming, and hopefully continues. It looks like we led wire to wire and pulled away late.  We dominated the glass too, getting almost half of our misses. 65 points isn’t going to generate any fanfare, but holding them to 47 is a great sign.

I continue to be surprised the Dukes are favored this season. I generally don’t gamble on sports and never on my teams, but it seems like easy money. As I always say, hopefully I’m wrong.

Well for years we all wished the Dukes would at least have a chance at the playoffs. After seeing this one, I'm kind of wishing they didn't since then I might not have been watching. I don't know if I've ever seen 7 INTs in one game, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen one guy with that many. The defense wasn't great today, but with as good as it's been all season long if we can simply switch the turnovers (8 all by Perrantes) and punts (5) we probably win. After the long TD to open the second half we ran 23 plays, gained just 96 yards, and turned the ball over all 5 times we had it. This was an absolutely brutal way to end the season.

I agree with most of what Styles said. I think we do have the players to do well in the league, but if they aren’t playing together it doesn’t matter how talented they are.

Necas seems somewhat lost on the floor because he doesn’t know his role. He excelled in the European championship because he was the unquestioned lead dog. I think he got used to being a role player last year as they worked him into the lineup, and has kind of reverted to that. The talent is undoubtedly there, but his role needs to be defined better.

I’m torn at the point. I think Dinkins is a better player, but the team seems to run better on both sides when Rozier is in. I like the suggestion to lean heavily on Dinkins now to figure out what we’ve got.

The biggest thing we need to do before the A-10 season starts is establish an identity. We really don’t have one right now. Given last year’s team, and the credit Joyce was given for it, I expected this to be a tough defensive team. That certainly has not been the case so far. We need to be better defensively for sure, but that doesn’t need to be our identity. We need to find something we can hang our hats on when things get tough though.

To do that we need leadership both on and off the court. As Styles said, the new guys seem to be trying to do too much. Unfortunately the returning players have all seemed to revert to their roles from last year. That was fine when Grant and Clark could carry the load, but we need new leaders in their absence.

Some may say Duquesne is an easy first job since expectations are low, but I’m realizing that Dru stepped into a difficult position. There actually are expectations for the first time in decades, but the guys mostly responsible are no longer here. Having 13 guys who can all play at this level seems like a good thing, but makes it very difficult to figure out a rotation. I’m trying not to lose confidence in Dru so early, but need to see some positive development quickly.

I lost count of how many times last year (even we’ll before the season-ending run)  I said “this isn’t the Duquesne of old.” Tonight looked like so many Dukes teams we’ve all seen before. I’m trying not to get too far down because I felt there were some positives to take out of even two losses to start the season. I’m struggling to find the thinnest silver lining in this one.

I absolutely credit Holtman; as I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a team change as much as they have in just one year. They may prove to be a good team. They aren’t 26 points better than us though. We got thoroughly outcoached tonight.

I’ll be honest and tell you I don’t know what they were doing to cause it; but there were at least four or five times they managed to get Rozier in the paint alone trying to defend a big guy. I realize mismatches are going to happen on switches, but that’s the kind of thing that cannot happen repeatedly.  I’ll also credit Kareem because I don’t know that they actually scored on any of them. The desire was there all night (that’s the silver lining I struggled to find), but the execution was downright awful.

I don’t know if anyone else saw the beginning (or god forbid was there in person), but I didn’t. Apparently Edwards was dominating while the other game was still being aired. Once they switched over it looked like more of the same though. He takes over too much of the offense when he’s in and then disappears on defense. I was thrilled when he chose Duquesne out of the portal, and am trying not to lose that excitement so early in the season, but he doesn’t seem like a good fit so far.

I’m not surprised by any of these losses individually. I’m not even shocked we’re 0-3. Lipscomb and Princeton are likely NCAA tournament teams and DePaul is a Big East team who looks like they actually belong in the league now. The team just hasn’t looked like I expected a Dru Joyce team would. Luckily we’ll get a breather on either

coffee wrote:

Highest the Dukes ever got in an FCS Poll was #17. Keep climbing Dukes!!

Bonus trivia questions- What was the highest ranking the Dukes ever had in the AP Coach’s National Ranking Poll?

What Major Ranking placed the Dukes #1 in the Nation?

This is not the Club or Mid-Major ranking- Talking in all of college football.

I know the Dukes won the Massey poll in 1941. That team did it just like this one is, with defense. The Iron Dukes led the country in defense and shut out more opponents than scored on them. The Dukes wisely do not claim a national championship for the season, as the schedule was very easy. Alabama does claim to be national champs in that season however, despite losing two games including one to Mississippi State, who the Dukes beat. I'd guess the highest ever AP ranking for the Dukes would be after that season concluding win over the SEC champion Bulldogs, but don't know how high it was other than top 10. 
 

As I said earlier I was terrified by this matchup, but credit the coaching staff for major adjustments in not much time. Princeton certainly isn’t going away, but we’ve been the better team so far and I still don’t think we’ve seen anything close to the best this team has to offer.

Thanks again Bluff. Any idea when we should be getting underway? I didn’t watch the first game.

Great job BluffHunter. I just wish I liked what it said better. Of course the offense isn’t the same, but after getting burned by multiple backdoors by Lipscomb I’m terrified of facing a team like Princeton. This will be a good early test of Dru’s acumen.

BluffHunter wrote:

Please reach out or comment regarding what you would like to be added to the game threads. 

It's probably part of the Duquesne preview, but the only thing I'd add would be series history. I normally look especially for a coach's history against a particular team, but obviously we're not going to have that this year. We've played them once before and dominated them 58-36 in 2019. They have played one A-10 team since then and actually won at Dayton 78-59 in 2021.

Thanks for putting this together. I loved having Phoenix's previews and it looks like you'll pick it right up where he left it off. 

The only team outside the top 10 to lose was #15 William & Mary. On one hand the lose was to another ranked team, #24 Stony Brook. On the other hand it was by 22 points. I wouldn’t say I expect the Dukes to jump them, but it wouldn’t be surprising.

Also working in our favor is the two “receiving votes” behind us both lost this week. I think our biggest impediment to moving up might be getting jumped by other teams just outside the rankings. Interestingly, the only ranked team to lose to an unranked team this week was #7 North Dakota, who lost to Youngstown St. There’s basically no chance we jump them, but it certainly makes our win over the Penguins look that much better. I’d be happy to eat my words of a few weeks ago if the Dukes end up ranked tomorrow.

I didn’t see any of it because of extended technical difficulties with ESPN+. Looking at the box score though, it looks like a good win. The defense dominated again, not allowing a single 3rd or 4th down conversion. The offensive numbers don’t look good, but the 38 points are 21 more than 1-A Kent St. scored against them. Additionally, two teams ahead of us in the receiving votes are in danger of losing. Lafayette got shutout by Georgetown and Butler is losing late to Drake. Perhaps I was a little too pessimistic a few weeks ago.

I expect to see the Dukes playing at Heinz Field next year (I refuse to call it anything else regardless of the official name). Having said that I won’t be surprised if the school down Forbes Ave. schedules someone else. Still it makes too much sense to not happen and next year seems to be as likely as any year as they still have an opening less than 12 months out.