Box Score Observations:  Hopefully someone who attended can elaborate on some items in here

1 - Lewis, 8-8 on FTs.  Also 4-4 of shooting.  Were these dunks?
2 - Gill with 1 trey attempt
3 - Colter with 7 assists.  We have talked about this at length and his development.  7 assists from your scoring PG is spectacular to see
4 - I read that Robinson and Sanders were the first two guys off of the bench.  What happens when Powell returns? 
5 - Seems like a nice line from Robinson, 3-4, 5 rebs, 6pts; How does he look?
6 - Ferry seems to be talking up Sanders...I guess at this point we just play him like a bowl in a china shop to get in there and be physical?  I like that...
7 - Castro, 2-4, but 4 assists? 
8 - Was there ever a time when Mason, Colter and Castro were out there together?  If so, who were the bigs?
9 - I think I may be underestimating what we can get out of Jeremiah.  As a senior, it's entirely possible he takes a nice step forward. 

Just a off the wall question was anyone even a bit concerned by the fact that a horrible DII team pressed you in the second half and your guards looked a bit flustered?  I still believe this is a huge problem for this team.

duq81 wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

Urbana is a bad DII team with no height and only one senior and one junior. We have some folks picking Duquesne to win 20 games. So, yeah, I think whatever Ferry is trying should work. Exhibition game or not you have a bunch of new players and a bunch of guys who mover got off the bench last season. No reason they couldn't have gone further. And the score should have been more lopsided. But hey, unlike last year when they almost lost, at least they won.

Good to see Lewis get points in the paint. SkepticAl of course is right about the FTs.

I'm sure the insider perception is different, but I'd be concerned about Powell. Three suspensions? Something there not right.

Next game is Seton Hill, not Seton Hall. Pirates of course would have been a much better game than the annual DII cupcake.

Pretty much every team opens with a cupcake. I'd love to play Seton Hall too, but they'd never lower themselves to play us here. I doubt they'd even play us if the game were in Jersey. After the last 40 years, we're lucky that the three regional P5 teams are still willing to play us somewhere other than their home courts. Winning big will solve these problems to some degree. As for the margin of victory, don't you think the walk-ons deserved a chance to play a bit? They work hard, only to see very little court time. Was keeping the starters in to beat this team by 50, more important than giving these young men a rare chance to see some extended playing time?

There is not the perfect winning margin when playing at team like this.  It is also difficult to have that increased intensity.  The wining margin was fine.  As far as the press, that is what this type of game is for.  Friday will be a little step up, let's see how they do then.
 

And the liberal substitutions probably didn't help either. I am more concerned with some of the individual things like good free throw percentages as opposed to whether we won by 30 or 60

currentstudent wrote:

WEB wrote:

currentstudent wrote:

Take aways 
- That DII was Horrid. Some high school programs looked better. Hard to tell if dukes did things right or if they were just playing a terrible team.
-Castro showed his ability to get to the rim but couldn't finish and struggled from the FT line
-Sanders should get a bunch of playing time, everything we needed in a player
- Mason is still god
-DC had some turnovers and defensive misses 
- Speaking of Defense, our Man Defensive muuuuch better than Zone 
- Jackson will be the most interesting story line for me this season 
- Also worried about that pressed that seemed to fluster the dukes 
- Come on Powell, thats not what we need in this program 

Can you elaborate?

Happy to, so I think he is the player we know least about. He seemed very good coming out of high school and he too had to sit out a year. I believe that he is the player that can either sink or swim here. I see upside with him. If he plays well, I think hes the 3 guard that we need after swaggy J.
 

Who is swaggy J? Jones?. No way Jackson starts at the 3 next year, steel is way better than Jackson.  Jackson launched one at the buzzer yesterday.... Cmon

I think Rene will play better with time and against better competition.  He didn't seem particularly interested out there last night.  I liked what I saw of Josh Steel, as a nice backup to Jeremiah at the three spot.  It was hard to take much away from Jackson's performance since he played mostly with the walk-ons, so unless things change he probably won't be in the 8-9 man rotation when it is settled.
My main concern is still with the 4 and 5 spots.  Sanders will obviously need to play more minutes and not foul so much (5 fouls in 12 min) in order to contribute.  He can be a lion on the boards.  He goes after rebounds like nobody I have seen at Duquesne in recent memory.  He needs much work on his post-up game, and didn't really attempt any short jump shots, so his offense will need to come off rebounds and layups or dunks.  At one point he was banging people around in the paint like they were bowling pins.  You hate to temper his aggressiveness at this point, so you'll probably live with the fouls until he gets a better feel for what he can get away with.  Without Ty available Sanders is the only viable backup at the five, so fouls will be a major issue with he and Darius both prone to collecting fouls quickly.
LG seems a bit lost on offense, and other than a nice follow on a rebound, didn't seem to be a large part of the offense.Since the team has much better three point shooters, I don't see where his points originate. He needs to develop his game as a role player, and be willing to bang on the boards, run the court, and play better defense. 
 
As mentioned in another post I think Jordan showed some improvement, but has a long way to go. There were far too many lapses where guys just went around him to the basket. His energy level is still inconsistent.  He needs to bring it on every play while he is on the floor. His offense is probably ahead of his defense, but he was playing against a very small lineup, so those nice lob passes for layups may not work against bigger players. 
Darius had a nice game last night, but again, see above regarding the competition.  He did seem to have better stamina than the last two years, and definitely caught the ball better.  His free throw shooting was perfect, so it will just be a matter of delivering in a similar manner against bigger and better players.