You can't win playing only seven guys.  Looks like another Pitt double digit blowout this Friday.

Well, back to reality; this D is as bad as a Ferry team.  I don't want to hear about being tired as they back doored us the whole first half.  I didn't expect much this year, but the lousy D is hard to stomach.  If MLewis isn't hitting 3's he doesn't give you much offense as Castro is a way better one on one offensive player and then Lewis, like many others, is bad defensively.  Geez, this is hard to take so I couldn't watch game anymore after Cornell got a 10 point lead.

Hey, I didn't say we were good.

We vastly overrated this team. Unless Chas Brown is the second coming of Bruce Atkins, we might not win 10 games. Next year can't get here soon enough. Between this, and how bad Pitt is, the crowd Friday is going to look like an early 70s Condors game.

Tejas_Duke wrote:

You can't win playing only seven guys.  Looks like another Pitt double digit blowout this Friday.

Don't know about a blow out but I'm expecting a low scoring game with a lot of misses by both teams.

Apparently tarin is on crutches. We cannot catch a break.

Basically, it was very poor defense.
Amen

Next year will be better, but year 3 is when we should see a major step up. It's hard to be patient.

Gents if your undermanned I don’t understand the resistance to throwing in a 2/3 zone occasionally to change tempo and give your guys a break.  Of a far greater concern is the total lack of offensive structure. Way to much one on one, the flat out refusal of our guards to share the ball and the continuation of to many 3’s.  Rarely does a Dukes offensive possession consist of more than 2 passes.  Watching Castro, Smith and Lewis giving dribbling exhibitions is getting very old.

The Dome wrote:

Gents if your undermanned I don’t understand the resistance to throwing in a 2/3 zone occasionally to change tempo and give your guys a break. Of a far greater concern is the total lack of offensive structure. Way to much one on one, the flat out refusal of our guards to share the ball and the continuation of to many 3’s. Rarely does a Dukes offensive possession consist of more than 2 passes. Watching Castro, Smith and Lewis giving dribbling exhibitions is getting very old.

I agree on the zone part. When Lewis picked up his second would have been the ideal time to switch to a zone. As far as ball distribution, JRob and Tydus both got a good number of passes down low. JRob's range is 6-7 feet, he is a pure low post player. Tydus might have taken a mid-range shot or two but his game is very similar to JRob's. Back to the basket, a couple of fakes, pushing the defender down. That said, they maybe converted on 1/3 of the opportunities they were given. I do notice a difference from last year. Maybe Pitt will take us lightly?
 

A some thoughts:

- I'm not really sure what people saw in Cornell that made them assume complete cupcake. They had a higher Kenpom rating coming into the game and just beat a Toledo team that is quite a bit better than our Dukes. They spread Duquesne out, forced them to defend one on one, and drew Tydus away from the basket. Crippling, well executed game plan.

- when you are even an average defensive team you can pick your poison against the spread. Sell out to defend the perimeter and leave driving lanes OR pack it in and get exposed from three. Ferry chose the later, but it seems Dambrot favors the former. Either way they are not average.

- a 2/3 zone with Tydus in the middle wouldn't be a bad thing.

- I thought they came out in the first ten minutes of the game and actually looked pretty solid. The first half ended weird. When they finally had some momentum on their side to concede 5 points and give two fouls on one possession was deflating to say the least. They started the second ok, but it sort of all feel apart when Dambrot went with a smaller line up.

- as a fan base we don't appreciate experience enough and what it does to improve a program. Duquesne has a lot of upper classmen, but none have played many minutes with the exception of Smith. Cornell isnt a super veteran team, but you could tell their players just played more. We started two true freshmen, a quasi walk on sophomore, a 5th year senior who played less than 800 minutes in his career prior to this season. Their number 10 played more minutes his first two years than five of the players in our seven man rotation. We wont be very experienced next year either and while I would expect improvements it's not going to be smooth sailing then either.

Last edited by steve19981 (11/27/2017 11:00 pm)

steve19981 wrote:

A some thoughts:

- I'm not really sure what people saw in Cornell that made them assume complete cupcake. They had a higher Kenpom rating coming into the game and just beat a Toledo team that is quite a bit better than our Dukes. They spread Duquesne out, forced them to defend one on one, and drew Tydus away from the basket. Crippling, well executed game plan.

- when you are even an average defensive team you can pick your poison against the spread. Sell out to defend the perimeter and leave driving lanes OR pack it in and get exposed from three. Ferry chose the later, but it seems Dambrot favors the former. Either way they are not average.

- a 2/3 zone with Tydus in the middle wouldn't be a bad thing.

- I thought they came out in the first ten minutes of the game and actually looked pretty solid. The first half ended weird. When they finally had some momentum on their side to concede 5 points and give two fouls on one possession was deflating to say the least. They started the second ok, but it sort of all feel apart when Dambrot went with a smaller line up.

- as a fan base we don't appreciate experience enough and what it does to improve a program. Duquesne has a lot of upper classmen, but none have played many minutes with the exception of Smith. Cornell isnt a super veteran team, but you could tell their players just played more. We started two true freshmen, a quasi walk on sophomore, a 5th year senior who played less than 800 minutes in his career prior to this season. Their number 10 played more minutes his first two years than five of the players in our seven man rotation. We wont be very experienced next year either and while I would expect improvements it's not going to be smooth sailing then either.

 
Thanks for this. I'm seeing a lot of angst among posters and the funniest comment someone had was about how we might have overrated this team. Except for a returning all-conference rookie, what did we have that made us think this team could be better this season? Simply put, Keith Dambrot. But as good as a coach as he is, he can't take five of us and win 20 games.

That's why I like what Steve did (and some others). Look at what's happening, have some optimism about the good things, talk about things we see that we thing need to improve, and continue to root for this program.

Not to sound like a rah-rah, but this is an inexperienced, small, and beat-up team that was lacking depth to start with.

Now two of our most experienced players will miss PT in the future.

Let's not talk about overrating anything, unless it's our own expectations.

PS we shoot like poop right now. We need a night where everything seems to go in, and I hope that night is Friday.

🍽💩Pitt!

Go 🎩!

When the Dukes kept missing the last 6 min of the game, Rene stepped up and started hitting three's and those awkward drives that he somehow scored on.

This makes me wonder why he never got to play the last three years.

I still think this team will improve throughout the year, JRob had a few flashes last night but then the defense of Cornell stepped up on him.

Have faith, better days will be coming.