Reaching any post season tournament would be fantastic this year. Would be great experience for the young guys. While I think that this team is "overachieving" based on the collective experience level and number of scholarship players, the seemingly down A10 leads me to believe that there is an outside shot at a 20-win season.

steve19981 wrote:

duq81 wrote:

Sure it will only be the CBI, but all things considered, that would be a great outcome this year.

Non-conference SOS is going to hurt the Dukes chances as 5 wins would still likely require them to buy a home game,
Given they bought one in 2016, I'd be very surprised if they didn't if they get 5 more this year. 
 

The CBI doesn't care about RPI and such. The NIT does, which is why we have almost no chance at an NIT bid. We'd have to go something like 15-3 in league play, and then reach the A10 Final to get our rating up in NIT territory.
 

I'm not at all concerned about the NIT.  You're right, duq81, there's virtually no chance we could get into it and I must say I'd be thrilled to get into one of those other tournaments.

I think we have a decent shot at a 9-9 record at this point.  The defensive play we're seeing is unlike anything I've seen from a Duquesne team.  The Dukes denied GW tonight.  Tight defense kept the Colonials off balance all night.  When they did go on a 6-0 run to end the half an adjustment was made and we went on to turn a close game into a comfortable win. With the quick start we could stumble a couple of times at home and with this kind of defensive effort get a couple of road wins and .500 record. 

An improving team at a neutral site that plays the type of defense we're seeing from the Dukes just could win 4 games in 4 days and then we won't care about the other tournaments.

Here's another idea: Win the A10 Tournament and not worry about RPI, KenPom, Sagarin, etc.

​Yep. Pipe dream. Would take a top 4 finish in the conference, probably, because the defensive intensity would make it tough to play a couple days in a row. But let's see how it plays out.

townsonkid wrote:

Lets not put the cart ahead of the horse. 
 

Yeah funny how some of the guys here who were predicting 10-15 wins, or less, and saying they would be happy with double digit wins as a sign of "progress," are now pipe dreaming about the Big Dance.

As others have said,  

1) The Big Dance:  We only get there by winning the A !0 Tourney. Period, end of statement.

2)  Even pulling a 2009 and making it to, and losing the championship game, doesn't get us an at large due to our incredibly light OOC schedule.

3)  20 wins and the above situation probably doesn't get us to the NIT.

4)  17 - 20 wins will get us into the CBI.

townsonkid wrote:

I said 10 wins would be nice if the team showed signs of getting better.  I never expected 10 wins before 2018, and a pretty good, all in, effort on defense.  The foundation is being laid brick by brick right now, so far so good.
I am sold on KD. I'm all in.
I wont get into predicting 20 wins, 18, 16, 25 whatever, CBI or NIT.  16 more games is a long ways to go.
A DU winning season would be nice, no injuries, and renovations on the AJP to begin as soon as possible, DU needs to show us they are all in too.  Those happen, and me is a happy boy!
Oh, and see pitt go winless in the ACC 

My comment about ten wins was not aimed at your directly.  Just in general. My apologies
 

ElDuque wrote:

Here's another idea: Win the A10 Tournament and not worry about RPI, KenPom, Sagarin, etc.

​Yep. Pipe dream. Would take a top 4 finish in the conference, probably, because the defensive intensity would make it tough to play a couple days in a row. But let's see how it plays out.

Yoi. I'm guessing people didn't quite read this. It's pretty straightforward. There's no prediction. There's no high hopes. It's the only path I think we have to the NCAA Tournament. I call it a pipe dream, I outline the difficulty, and I end with "let's see how it plays out."

Verstehen?


 

Tejas_Duke wrote:

Rayrich wrote:

There's not a team in this league the Dukes couldn't beat on a given night. They'll take a few lumps, but I expect a first round bye in the A-10 tourney which means a 19-20 win season at worst.

​Hell at this point, I will still be happy to avoid the "Disgrace Day" game  ;-)
 

That would actually be a notable accomplishment in the eyes of those who all picked the Dukes for last place. We have higher hopes than that now, as we have seen what a difference a great coach makes.