Some soft foul calls on our bigs really turned this game around. Also, tarin smith had his worst game in awhile. Gotta regroup for a big home game this weekend.

lilpav30 wrote:

Phoenix. Because he is horrible sometimes. A lot of the times. He played 9 minutes of 40. Stupid fouls.

sure, but every single big has now fouled out in less than 10 minutes in a game.

currentstudent wrote:

Ugh it makes me angry seeing those fans cheer like that when their team honestly may not be the better team.

Gotta put this game on Rene. When VCU started to make a run he didn’t take control of his team and play sound, disaplant office.

After all of our bigs were taken out or handicapped but foul trouble our defense fell apart.

In general happy as a Duquesne fan because it’s shows signs.....but I still think Duquesne should have had this one.

 
Duquesne was out classed in the 2nd half, these guys were gassed in the last 10 min., our good foul shooters were even missing. That place was loud, Dukes will win again, just not tonight.

Brown and Jrob are way too slow.   I’m 45 and have better feet.   

23-15 fouls, their favor obviously.  Not that bad considering 2 of our bigs move like Herman Munster. 

Worst part is the little momentum we had from local media will disappear now.  Students probably wont show saturday, but they should.   This team is tough.   Something to be proud of and support.

Last edited by townsonkid (1/09/2018 10:20 pm)

Decent effort by the Dukes.  Leading by 13 late in the first half with a chance to go up 15 or 16 was more than any of us had a right to expect, especially in such a hostile environment. 

Alas, the officials stepped in and kept the stunned Rams in the game.  Too many ticky-tacky calls on our big guys, yet VCU's Williams is allowed to travel all night long while Tillman lived in the lane where he was given free rein by the refs.

That's okay.  We'll beat 'em in March when it really counts.

Let's Go Duquesne! 

Too many fouls, too many soft fouls, too many second chances for VCU, too many missed FT and missed shots at the rim. Not nearly enough stops in the second half and too much press from VCU.

Quick PGs getting in the lane have given us fits, especially in the losses and Williams really broke down our defense in the half court.

Good to see ML II get going, not that I was concerned with the slow start.

The cheapies on Tydus and J-Rob early were killer. Chas battles and is dealing with an injury that is probably playing a role in a high % the fouls he picks up as they seem to be mostly away from the basket, trying to hedge the pick and roll on defense or getting dinged for an offensive foul, resetting a ball screen.

If Dukes fell behind 50-31 at the half then won the second half 36-28, it'd probably feel better than the tease of being up in the second half by as much as 12, I believe, before vcu got it going.

It'll be a busy weekend, but hopefully there's a good and spirited crowd for Saturday's game on national TV vs LaSalle. 

townsonkid wrote:

Brown and Jrob are way too slow. I’m 45 and have better feet.

23-15 fouls, their favor obviously. Not that bad considering 2 of our bigs move like Herman Munster.

Worst part is the little momentum we had from local media will disappear now. Students probably wont show saturday, but they should. This team is tough. Something to be proud of and support.

Very true. Slow footed big men like Brown and Robinson have always been susceptible to fouls even if they are not committed. Even more so with inadequate refs like the A-10 crew. You want those tall lanky guys like Derrick Alston who have good feet. The older refs can't keep up with guys who have better foot work hence give them the benefit of the doubt short of being embarrassed for thinking they are making the wrong call.

Last edited by Rayrich (1/09/2018 10:38 pm)

CLK wrote:

That was the most "unequal" officiating I have seen in a long time.  Our guys get mugged and no foul.  I am not saying that there were not some deserved (pardon the word here but stupid fouls) on the Dukes, but there were several "mystery" fouls on the Dukes.

 
Defiantly, home team calls all through the first half changed the game completely.

Verhoven is a BIG presence but the stats didn't show all the shots he got a hand on.

Last edited by coffee (1/09/2018 10:37 pm)

Brian wrote:

Too many fouls, too many soft fouls, too many second chances for VCU, too many missed FT and missed shots at the rim. Not nearly enough stops in the second half and too much press from VCU.

Quick PGs getting in the lane have given us fits, especially in the losses and Williams really broke down our defense in the half court.

Good to see ML II get going, not that I was concerned with the slow start.
What do you mean by Williams broke down our defense? It’s a team effort
The cheapies on Tydus and J-Rob early were killer. Chas battles and is dealing with an injury that is probably playing a role in a high % the fouls he picks up as they seem to be mostly away from the basket, trying to hedge the pick and roll on defense or getting dinged for an offensive foul, resetting a ball screen.

If Dukes fell behind 50-31 at the half then won the second half 36-28, it'd probably feel better than the tease of being up in the second half by as much as 12, I believe, before vcu got it going.

It'll be a busy weekend, but hopefully there's a good and spirited crowd for Saturday's game on national TV vs LaSalle. 

Being out rebounded 50-31 didn't help either.

Pretty much in agreement with what everyone said here.  Foul trouble killed us and frankly there were way too many questionable calls against us - especially against the bigs.  Coupled with the bearded VCU guy falling to the floor and no travel and then their guy walks all through Europe, even the announcers noted it, and no call.  That being said, Brown has to stop getting fouls on the hedge too far from the basket, injured foot or not.  If we maintain inside presence we beat them at Tillman was pretty much stuffed until we got in foul trouble.  Further , Rene didn't play his best tonight and we couldn't get  any stops in the second half.  KD had "no comment" when asked about the fouls on our bigs and the foul discrepancy in the radio post-game I was told.  God forbid Du beats VCU on the road, don't think the A-10 likes that this soon.   I am not depressed though, KD has this team going in the direction it needs to be headed, sooner than any of us thought if we are being honest with ourselves.  Just beat LaSalle and win these winnable games at home.  Go Dukes.

Two things I noticed that hadn't been mentioned yet.

Even when we were winning, I was really uncomfortable with the pace of this game. As alluded to above, this was the fastest game since the RMU game in November. Even though we were winning, that pace is never going to do Duquesne any favors. It helped that ML2 and Williams were making many of those shots for a while, but VCU kept getting to the free throw line and layups and just happened to be missing. They missed 6 FTs in the first half, including at least 2 front-ends of 1-and-1s. We kind lucked out through about 24 minutes.

Secondly, it was astounding that the Dukes offense did not have any turnovers for as long as they did. VCU's press is probably their most dangerous aspect of them at home, and they couldn't get anything done for about 24 minutes. You know who really impressed me on the press break was Tydus...inbounding the ball and being the key big man in the middle during the press break to ease off pressure.

There was a sequence where VCU scored then forced two consecutive turnovers in the backcourt. They only converted on one (quickly, within about 3 seconds) and it didn't even tie the game up yet, but after those back-to-back the crowd got really into it  and there was just no going back. ML2's potential 3-and-1 was the last chance to silence them again and it didn't work.

Having said that, me complaining about this game is worth something; I wanted to win this game because I knew we could and the team knew they could, and that's a huge step.
 

yak-rbc wrote:

I think the team is *this close* to contending for that all-important double-bye in the A10. They got (in my eyes) an underrated La Salle team who just got BJ Johnson back, then on the road against a sometimes weak SLU team, then Mason and Richmond who are kinda bad and terrible, respectively. That's the next 4 games. I think 2-2 would be nice, 3-1 would be a great stretch before the gauntlet that is @Rhody @Gw Vs.StB's and @Dayton.

You'd love to go 4-4 over the next 8 games.