Hope you are correct!  I would think they can pull this together and improve rather than regress as the season wears on.  There is still plenty of time to recover, but I think Friday against Dayton must be a “statement” game at home.  They need to show they can play a tight competitive game against a quality opponent and eliminate the poor decisions and mistakes we have seen on both ends of the court. 
Dayton showed UMASS a fair amount of 1-3-1 zone on Saturday and it caused UMASS to pause a bit and re-adjust; so Duquesne should be prepared to attack the 1-3-1.  The zone can’t puzzle the Dukes or it can create a scoring draught that can blow open the game.  Please be ready!

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

In this road loss, I think the Dukes played their best game since the Bradley win (yes, Jimmy Clark had a horrible day with poor shooting and 7 turnovers; yes, Dae Dae had another poor shooting effort from 3, we got 2 points from the 4 position, etc.).  In spite of all of that, they lost by 5 on the road. The most glaring issue that has not been solved is the hole at the 4 position, both offensively and defensively.  Savrasov, F. Drame and Williams have not provided any consistency here.

I'm hoping that they hit bottom in the UMass game and now have an upward trajectory.  4 of their next 5 conference games are at home; the Dukes can't squander this opportunity if they hope to finish in the top 5 of the conference.

I didn't record the game and was unable to rewatch like I normally do when I have a cooler head... but I have been very disappointed with the start of conference play. I hope you are right about UMASS being rock bottom. I have hope we can turn this around in the 5 game stretch ahead. I have faith the team can use the energy from both fanbases to their advantage Friday. LET'S GO DUKES. Dayton was the first team out of the AP top 25 this week.
 

phil95 wrote:

While I don't think Tre Williams is going to blow anybody's mind with his performance, I do think it would be impossible for him to have shown any consistency in the very limited minutes & sporadic sub-ins since he returned from his injury. He has always been a guy who needs to play 5-7-minute stints to be at his best. Maybe he would do more if he had 3 of those per game with at least one of them being with Savarasov at the 3?

I really liked the way & amount he was playing before he hurt his hand. He was active on defense, boxing out, offering some mature rim protection, & moving the ball well out of the post.


Trey 

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

In this road loss, I think the Dukes played their best game since the Bradley win (yes, Jimmy Clark had a horrible day with poor shooting and 7 turnovers; yes, Dae Dae had another poor shooting effort from 3, we got 2 points from the 4 position, etc.).  In spite of all of that, they lost by 5 on the road. The most glaring issue that has not been solved is the hole at the 4 position, both offensively and defensively.  Savrasov, F. Drame and Williams have not provided any consistency here.

I'm hoping that they hit bottom in the UMass game and now have an upward trajectory.  4 of their next 5 conference games are at home; the Dukes can't squander this opportunity if they hope to finish in the top 5 of the conference.

 

phil95, good observation. It does take Tre some time to get into the flow of the game. I think the same holds true with Savrasov. I think the Drames are just the opposite; they come into the game with a lot of energy but whether that translates into positive team results remains very uncertain.