Duquesne Dukes Fan Forum » Game Thread

BluffHunter · 11/03/2025 2:02 pm

Today is the day!!!

Coverage on ESPN+ with Tim Benz and Ellis Cannon
Radio 104.7 HD2 with Ray Goss and Noah Buono

KenPom:
#109 Duquesne (0-0)
#337 Niagara (0-0)
https://kenpom.com

Haslametrics:
#107 Duquesne - 77
#338 Niagara - 60
https://haslametrics.com/preview.php?yr=&tid1=653&tid2=4391&neut=0

BartTorvik:
#111 Duquesne - 80
#343 Niagara - 60
https://barttorvik.com/trank.php?&year=2026&t1l=Niagara&t2l=Duquesne#

Duquesne Preview:
https://goduquesne.com/news/2025/11/2/mens-basketball-dukes-open-110th-season-monday-vs-niagara.aspx

Betting:
Spread: Duquesne -17.5
Moneyline: Duquesne -4000
Over/Under 139.5 (ESPN Bet)

Last edited by BluffHunter (11/03/2025 2:25 pm)

BluffHunter · 11/03/2025 2:28 pm

St. Bonaventure started their season off strong at 11 AM with a win against a solid Bradley team

Duques102 · 11/03/2025 7:50 pm

Oh man halftime and this looks like a REALLY good basketball team. Lot of talent on this roster.

Washparick4 · 11/03/2025 9:10 pm

Dukes did what they were supposed to do so that's a good sign. Looks like we've got a couple good guards and plenty of bigs.

Ifky 07 · 11/03/2025 9:10 pm

Obviously not great competition - but put away an inferior opponent and controlled the game from the jump. If not for that large foul disparity, this may be worse than 20. Also, always good to outperform Vegas expectations (-17.5).

Go Dukes!

DuqBlue · 11/03/2025 9:13 pm

Great game. Good to get the first one in the books. Go Dukes.

BluffHunter · 11/03/2025 9:14 pm

There are many ways to get a season started. I’m happy with this way. Keep improving!

Styles1229 · 11/03/2025 9:41 pm

The defense looks stout. Everybody was on the same page and the energy was impressive. This looks like a team that has aspirations and was not taking anything for granted. I don’t think they’ll call it so tight come A-10 play - too many little bump fouls. They didn’t let them bang. Those weren’t fouls called because guys were out of position and trying to make up for it - they were just contact fouls I think will be let go more in the conference. So all good on that end.

The offensive game play included very little post and inside sets. Surprised me. But I like it. They played very fast and took open shots. They moved the ball well. All positive. It did not look like an unprepared team at all. It also looked like a team that was used to playing together. A stark contrast from last year. Coach Dru gets high marks from me so far for all those points listed above. Feeling really good right now.

FAM · 11/03/2025 9:42 pm

Thoughts from afar...
Offense: A
Defense: A-
Turnovers: Too Many
Fouls: Too Many
Foul Shots: B+
Coaching: A-
Hidden: Though the box score didn't show it, Edwards played an excellent game.
Please Coach, I know you have the point guard take the ball out under our basket...but Aekins was 0 for 2. He is too small to do that. Guinyard is a player.
Student Attendance: C+
Other Attendance: C+
Referees: B-
We have all been to games when we lose to teams like this. It was a nice - relaxing win!

duq.dog · 11/03/2025 10:15 pm

Good start to the season. Always going to be a little sloppy getting used to playing with each other.

FAM wrote:
Hidden: Though the box score didn't show it, Edwards played an excellent game.

Can't say I agree with this one though. Struggled a lot on defense in my eyes.

Does anyone know the score difference in the scrimmage with Cleveland State? They just took Loyola to the last second.

Styles1229 · 11/03/2025 10:16 pm

FAM wrote:
Thoughts from afar...
Offense: A
Defense: A-
Turnovers: Too Many
Fouls: Too Many
Foul Shots: B+
Coaching: A-
Hidden: Though the box score didn't show it, Edwards played an excellent game.
Please Coach, I know you have the point guard take the ball out under our basket...but Aekins was 0 for 2. He is too small to do that. Guinyard is a player.
Student Attendance: C+
Other Attendance: C+
Referees: B-
We have all been to games when we lose to teams like this. It was a nice - relaxing win!

I agree with almost all of this. Only thing I’ll say is: although there were too many turnovers (there were,) with the fast paced offense they seemingly want to run, there will be more than usual turnovers. It’s just going to happen when you play that way. I didn’t like the inept inbounding from Aekins but that aside I didn’t not feel like it was an overly sloppy ball handling day for the Dukes. Despite the final turnover count.

Styles1229 · 11/03/2025 10:17 pm

duq.dog wrote:
Good start to the season. Always going to be a little sloppy getting used to playing with each other.

FAM wrote:
Hidden: Though the box score didn't show it, Edwards played an excellent game.
Can't say I agree with this one though. Struggled a lot on defense in my eyes.

Does anyone know the score difference in the scrimmage with Cleveland State? They just took Loyola to the last second.

I do not. But I think I heard they blew them out

Rayrich · 11/03/2025 10:35 pm

Styles1229 wrote:
duq.dog wrote:
Good start to the season. Always going to be a little sloppy getting used to playing with each other.

FAM wrote:
Hidden: Though the box score didn't show it, Edwards played an excellent game.
Can't say I agree with this one though. Struggled a lot on defense in my eyes.

Does anyone know the score difference in the scrimmage with Cleveland State? They just took Loyola to the last second.

I do not. But I think I heard they blew them out

Dukes beat them 85-60 in the secret scrimmage.

coffee · 11/03/2025 10:42 pm

A-10 won all of their opening day games. Loyola was the last game and went to the last second over Cleveland State.

Rayrich · 11/03/2025 11:05 pm

Decent win. Going to have some growing pains. Think Guinyard and Willliams will get more minutes as they are beasts especially together. Really impressed by those two and Milosivec and Von Brussel as well as Aekins. This team will get better and better as the season goes on. Seemed a bit hesitant and lackadaisical at the start of the second half. Crawford struggled, but Edwards played well especially dishing the ball. Getting DiMichele back will be huge. Need Necas to be a tad more aggressive driving to the hoop and Dixon doesn't need to be pump faking outside the 3 point line lol. They'll figure it out. Hoping to see Lawson next game and liked Hall's play tonight as well.

Styles1229 · 11/03/2025 11:32 pm

Rayrich wrote:
Decent win. Going to have some growing pains. Think Guinyard and Willliams will get more minutes as they are beasts especially together. Really impressed by those two and Milosivec and Von Brussel as well as Aekins. This team will get better and better as the season goes on. Seemed a bit hesitant and lackadaisical at the start of the second half. Crawford struggled, but Edwards played well especially dishing the ball. Getting DiMichele back will be huge. Need Necas to be a tad more aggressive driving to the hoop and Dixon doesn't need to be pump faking outside the 3 point line lol. They'll figure it out. Hoping to see Lawson next game and liked Hall's play tonight as well.

I think Lawson and Jellum are headed for a redshirt. Can’t see a reason not to play them when they played everybody else. Looks like Alex Williams is the odd man out.

Rayrich · 11/03/2025 11:40 pm

Styles1229 wrote:
Rayrich wrote:
Decent win. Going to have some growing pains. Think Guinyard and Willliams will get more minutes as they are beasts especially together. Really impressed by those two and Milosivec and Von Brussel as well as Aekins. This team will get better and better as the season goes on. Seemed a bit hesitant and lackadaisical at the start of the second half. Crawford struggled, but Edwards played well especially dishing the ball. Getting DiMichele back will be huge. Need Necas to be a tad more aggressive driving to the hoop and Dixon doesn't need to be pump faking outside the 3 point line lol. They'll figure it out. Hoping to see Lawson next game and liked Hall's play tonight as well.
I think Lawson and Jellum are headed for a redshirt. Can’t see a reason not to play them when they played everybody else. Looks like Alex Williams is the odd man out.

Very possibly. Makes sense. Williams is playing his way back. He'll be a piece when all said and done. Had a good career for a pretty good Furman team and I think he'll be an impact player as the season goes along, He didn't hang around here to do nothing. He could have been an high impact player at a lot of mid level mid majors. Joyce loves him, so he'll be in the mix at times. Think he'll make an impact when you least expect it.

BluffHunter · 11/04/2025 8:45 am

Haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, Duquesne didn’t allow a single field goal the entire first quarter. It was just after the 10 minute mark when Niagara made their first shot from the field.

BluffHunter · 11/04/2025 9:07 am

Also, last night was Duquesne’s 1,500th win in the program’s 110 year history.

CLK · 11/04/2025 9:42 am

BluffHunter wrote:
Haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, Duquesne didn’t allow a single field goal the entire first quarter. It was just after the 10 minute mark when Niagara made their first shot from the field.

I was really impressed with the defensive intensity of the Dukes to start the game. The Dukes played 15 players last night. The only guys not to see action were Freddy, Lawson and Jake. Hopefully Jake will be ready by conference play. I believe Freddy,is being redshirted. Not sure about Lawson. I am not worried about the turnovers as this was the first game and Dru was shuffling so many players.

The Dukes backcourt of Jimmy and Guinyard are definitely going to be a problem for the teams in the League. I thought our starters played well, and I was impressed with our freshmen Milosevic and Aekins. I think that those two turnovers on Aekins were the fault of improper spacing of our bigs getting the pass. All in all I would rate this opening performance an A+ Go Dukes!

Box Score

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/401813373

BluffHunter · 11/04/2025 9:55 am

CLK wrote:
BluffHunter wrote:
Haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, Duquesne didn’t allow a single field goal the entire first quarter. It was just after the 10 minute mark when Niagara made their first shot from the field.
I was really impressed with the defensive intensity of the Dukes to start the game. The Dukes played 15 players last night. The only guys not to see action were Freddy, Lawson and Jake. Hopefully Jake will be ready by conference play. I believe Freddy,is being redshirted. Not sure about Lawson. I am not worried about the turnovers as this was the first game and Dru was shuffling so many players.

The Dukes backcourt of Jimmy and Guinyard are definitely going to be a problem for the teams in the League. I thought our starters played well, and I was impressed with our freshmen Milosevic and Aekins. I think that those two turnovers on Aekins were the fault of improper spacing of our bigs getting the pass. All in all I would rate this opening performance an A+ Go Dukes!

Box Score

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/401813373

I don’t want to get myself too excited… but that guard duo of Williams and Guinyard makes me can’t help myself from thinking about another beloved duo who took us to the promised land. I wonder if Jimmie and Tarence can get advice from Jimmy and Dae Dae about what it takes to be successful together.

Motor · 11/04/2025 10:24 am

Great opening Night
I loved how the players tried to get others involved in offense.

Things to work on
1. Turnovers despite fast pace let’s try to get that number down to 12
2. Let’s look to get the ball down low even more with the horses down there even the kick outs for threes will improve
3. Defense loved the Intensity but would like to see some zone mixed in maybe a 1-3-1 zone trap and how about some full court pressure
4. Run the high low offense a bit more especially since we are seeing 2 bigs on court frequently

Go Dukes take down Sacred Heart

townsonkid · 11/04/2025 1:56 pm

Good start, better than a loss. That's all I gotta say for now.

BluffHunter · 11/04/2025 7:08 pm

Postgame pressers!

Jimmie Williams and Tarence Guinyard:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbj-w3mmZD0&pp=0gcJCQMKAYcqIYzv

Coach Joyce:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yYMIi5Hzvy8

Styles1229 · Yesterday 11:27 am

Motor wrote:
Great opening Night
I loved how the players tried to get others involved in offense.

Things to work on
1. Turnovers despite fast pace let’s try to get that number down to 12
2. Let’s look to get the ball down low even more with the horses down there even the kick outs for threes will improve
3. Defense loved the Intensity but would like to see some zone mixed in maybe a 1-3-1 zone trap and how about some full court pressure
4. Run the high low offense a bit more especially since we are seeing 2 bigs on court frequently

Go Dukes take down Sacred Heart

Agree with all of this. Especially the zone. We will need to employ one when we get into A-10 play. Need that tool in the box for when matchups and switches are getting beat. Niagara would have been a nice spot to work on those mechanics. Plenty of more opportunities in the non conf I’ll be watching to see if it gets implemented