Ironduke81 wrote:

Really good and in-depth article.quotes from Jake & Coach Dru. Dave Harper comments to Coach Dru interesting. Thanks for the post. Second point, Tim Benz also did an article in the Trib about tonight’s Lasalle game. Go Trib. The PG could go sail away come this spring for good.bye bye fish rag.

That’s a strong duo, Dave Mackall and Tim Benz, at the Trib who actually cover and report on the Dukes. Dave has been a mainstay for years; respect his writing and basketball knowledge. Tim has worked his way into a reporter of trust for Dru and previously Keith. I’m happy to have them both.

Here’s Tim’s pregame story:

https://triblive.com/sports/a-5-point-plan-for-duquesne-to-win-its-5th-in-a-row/

Also, the PG is starting to ramp up a little coverage now that the Dukes are winning. Nice article on Brandon Hall from Matt “Pittsburgh” Press.
https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/duquesne/2026/02/17/ncaa-duquesne-dukes-brandon-hall/stories/202602170048

Another gutsy performance and road win by the Dukes. Dru has them playing with confidence and without fear. Dukes defense against Simmons (nice job, Brandon Hall) and the 3 point shot was very effective - Bonnies only attempted 9 three point shots (while the Dukes made 11 three’s). Only 6 turnovers by the Dukes, while forcing 14 TO’s by the Bonnies, many at critical times. Rebounding continues to be a concern for the Dukes (2 games in a row where Dukes were out rebounded by double digits).

Regarding the media coverage, some of you are wearing your red and blue tinted glasses. The Dukes are ranked at #111 in KenPom, cracking the top ⅓ of college basketball (BTW - Pitt is ranked #110). The Dukes are 5 games out of 1st place in the A10. The students don’t care and don’t show up (and the students that are juniors and seniors were around for the magic of 2024); 50% of the seats are empty at the Cooper (and I don’t expect to see more than 2,500 on Wednesday night vs La Salle). Against #24 Saint Louis, the attendance was 2,266, Sheesh. For our small number of passionate fans, there’s a nice season and a fun ride that we are on. But it’s going to take a lot more winning before the local media and sports fans get excited.

DuqBlue wrote:

Yes special shout out to those generous people who make the matching donations.  Every sport has a matching sponsor.  Here is my plea to help the Pep Band get new unis.

Thanks for calling attention to the Pep Band. I had to support them; it’s good to have an engaged pep band at the games.

indygjm wrote:

A really good game wire to wire.  I'm curious, did anyone note how many lead changes were in the game?  It seems like 20 or more.

18 lead changes.

phil95 wrote:

Any news on the availability of TG & Necas?

Dressed and going through warmups.

Ironduke81 wrote:

Watched the game on the plus today. Did not now the final last night due to a little medical issue.cant believe the Dukes won at GM without Ginyard  & Necas. Probably the best top 10 Dukes win in the last 5 years. GM 2 loses. Wow. Very impressive effort by the players & coaches. . February is the time to rack up wins. Go Dukes.

Ironduke81, sorry to hear about the medical issue - I know it had to be fairly serious for you to miss watching a Dukes game. Hope you are doing OK. Go Dukes!

After last night's W, here's the Dukes current national rankings and conference standing in some various analytic sites:

Evan Miya #108 nationally; 6th in A10
Haslam #113 nationally; 7th in A10
KenPom #114 nationally; 8th in A10
Team Rankings #116 nationally; 6th in A10
Torvik #117 nationally; 7th in A10
NCAA NET #133 nationally; 8th in A10

Here are the +/- from this game.
JWill +22
Hall +20
Necas +18
Guinyard +15
AWill +8
Dixon +8
Hugley -2
DiMichele -4
Crawford -10

A couple of points....
The Bonnies only go 7 players deep; we need to pressure them all night and use our depth.
Frank Mitchell is a load at 6'8" 270 lbs; the Dukes should have enough size and strength to not let him control the game. The Dukes can't let him get 4 or 5 offensive rebounds.
Beyond Mitchell, the Bonnies start 3 guys that are 5'11", 6'2" and 6'3".  Two of these guys rarely get to the foul line; just hanging on the perimeter.
This is really unlike a Mark Schmidt team in that they are bad on defense (last in conference play with a 121.0 defensive efficiency).  The Dukes will get open looks; just got to knock down a few 3's.
 

applecorps, you pretty much summed it up.  One thing that was a big surprise to me is that the core 4 are only on the court together 40% of the time (119 minutes out of 295).  I think that needs to be ramped up a bit.  If you take out the minutes together at the start of the game and second half, they are being underutilized together.  Dru needs to make sure that this doesn't get lost in all of his substitution shuffle.

CLK wrote:

Thanks for posting this Phoenix. You are really skilled in analytics. I am not sure I fully understand this analysis. Does it include a players ability to play one on one defense? With the platoon style point against speaks more about the team on the floor than a specific player.

In any event, I like Jake as the best option right now. He seems to be the smarter player and while he may get beat on defense sometimes he at least understands his assignment and is not always lost on defense like one player. Moreover on offense he isn't selfish and cares more about the team and takes good shots, even if they are not falling right now. He also provides movements on offense and sets screens. He doesn't just stand in the corner and wait to get the ball to hoist up three.

If we had a better back up for Necas at the 4 I would play Alex more.

I don't want to waste anymore time hoping that guys that are unwilling or unable to play defense, and are selfish offense, will suddenly see the light. Two years of hoping they will understand is enough. Play the guys that care.

CLK, the Efficiency stat is pretty much just a numerical value derived from the box score, a counting stat for an individual player.  The Game Score starts to place some weighted values into the box score stats, but still overall a counting stat for an individual player.

Team stats start to really apply when you get into the WIN Shares; the TEAM Offensive and Defensive Efficiencies start to play a big role in these analytics.  The calculations are based on the number of points your team scores and gives up every 100 possessions when an individual player is on the floor.  Right now, the average D-1 efficiency is 109.4 points scored for every 100 possessions (average possessions per game is 67.3, resulting in an average of 73.6 points scored per team).

The Dukes in conference through 7 games have an offensive efficiency of 107.1 (7th in the conference) and a defensive efficiency of 107.3 (6

Ironduke81 wrote:

Dukes still need to fill the huge void at the #3 spot. I thought Max played well. However after I’ll advised 3 Dru benched him. In fairness to Coach Dru we don’t know what goes on in practice as well as buying into the game scheme. If Max can enter Coach Drus approval the 3 spot  void can be filled. 6 weeks until the A10 tournament and HUGLEY needs to drop 20 lbs & get into playing shape. Hey trainers I am serious Zepbound would do this in 4 weeks. We need the big guy for the February & March run. Go Dukes.

The 3 spot is a disaster that I didn’t see coming. Cam, Max, Alex, Jake and now Hall have failed badly in conference, particularly on the offensive side. Puts way too much pressure on TG and JWill, and allows the defense to pack the paint. Somebody needs to step up.

Loyola missing 5 players today - Moore, Harris, Love, Dotson and Houinsou. All 5 of these players have started at least one game for Loyola.