Chas Brown played one year of D-1 basketball in a low level conference, JRob barely played over three years, until last year Rene Castro was little used sub with some success but not much. Smith seemed to play hurt in his first years here, Lewis played a lot but was not keyed on constantly as he is this year.

They have five to go plus tournament, let's hope they bounce back and have some success closing out 17-18 season, ditto Lets Go Dukes!

president wrote:

We do have 2 Freshmen  starting for the Dukes. It is more of a grind for those kids than for  seniors in general I would  believe. Even our upper classmen have not played a full season like this one before for the most part. Who, outside of Mike Lewis, has really played this many minutes before? Anyone? Maybe there is something to the running out of gas theory. Anyway...Go Dukes!

It is a grind for every team, not just the Dukes.  Every team has freshman and other players with limited experience this year.  According to KenPom DU is better off than most A10 team.

https://twitter.com/Steven_Wright_/status/964231109126053894
 

president wrote:

CLK wrote:

president wrote:

We do have 2 Freshmen  starting for the Dukes. It is more of a grind for those kids than for  seniors in general I would  believe. Even our upper classmen have not played a full season like this one before for the most part. Who, outside of Mike Lewis, has really played this many minutes before? Anyone? Maybe there is something to the running out of gas theory. Anyway...Go Dukes!

It is a grind for every team, not just the Dukes.  Every team has freshman and other players with limited experience this year.  According to KenPom DU is better off than most A10 team.

https://twitter.com/Steven_Wright_/status/964231109126053894

The only other explanation that I can offer is that we simply played a terrible game not really showing up for whatever reason. KD really called himself out on this one so possibly just an all around bad effort on everyone's part. If that's the case, no reason the team won't bounce back in the remaining 5 games!
 

 

Pres that appears to be what Coach Dambrot feels.  He has gone back to basics.

https://twitter.com/sarah_k_spence/status/964550586849988610
 

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

CLK wrote:

president wrote:

We do have 2 Freshmen  starting for the Dukes. It is more of a grind for those kids than for  seniors in general I would  believe. Even our upper classmen have not played a full season like this one before for the most part. Who, outside of Mike Lewis, has really played this many minutes before? Anyone? Maybe there is something to the running out of gas theory. Anyway...Go Dukes!

It is a grind for every team, not just the Dukes.  Every team has freshman and other players with limited experience this year.  According to KenPom DU is better off than most A10 team.

https://twitter.com/Steven_Wright_/status/964231109126053894
 

CLK, there is no such stat in KenPom for conference play. I don’t trust this tweet.
From KenPom for the entire season:
Experience: Dukes #226 - 1.57 years
(A10 teams with less experience - Saint Louis, UMass, Dayton, George Mason and Richmond)

To me, the experience stat leaves room for interpretation. For example, according to this stat, our center position is loaded with experience, with JRob and Chas being seniors. We know that is not the case. And certainly doesn’t translate into a strength due to experience at that position.

Don't know, but it appears that Dambrot and the team are not buying fatigue as an excuse and going back to basics.  Hopefully the Dukes will get back on track today.  Go Dukes!

http://triblive.com/sports/-topstories/13313295-85/duquesnes-mike-lewis-on-slump-we-got-a-little-hollywood
 

Tejas_Duke wrote:

O wins  (20%):  This really pains me to write this, but the Fordham game showed that the team may be tiring and that coaches may be figuring out Dambrot's style and responding.  

​1 Wins (40%):  They should manage to win one at home. My guess is St. Louis, who caught them on a really bad night a month or so ago.

​2 Wins (30%):   Two home wins or steal a road win.  Put a gun to my head and I will say  Win at home against St. Louis and beat UMass at the end of the season.

​3 Wins (5%):  Win two at home and steal one on the road.

​4 wins (4%):  This is a grinder of finish.  

​5 Wins  (1%):  This would be amazing if it were to happen.  To be honest I just can't take it off the board, as I believe it is zero, but I will take anybody's action at 100-1.

Pretty much agree with this. SLU just suspended another player, so our chances in that game have gone up. UMass isn't very good, but it's a road game. I'd love to win tonight and get ahead of the curve. My primary goal is a winning season, and the CBI. A 20 win season would be my next goal, along with winning the CBI. After that is the pie in the sky dream of winning the A10. First things first, let's lock up that unexpected winning season.

I do think that a winning season needs to be paramount in our thinking. Two more regular season wins would ensure that. Tonight would be a great win number !. Need tough D and handle the press. LETS GO DUKES!!!

I don’t know if any of you watched the Bonnies beat R.I.  Last night, R.I. Had a chance to win it at the end but not this time.  All I was thinking when watching that game is we “almost” beat both of them but didn’t.  Come on Duquesne, let’s pull this one out tonight!!!

Jwsa6 wrote:

Them losing the last four games is simply a "market correction."  Like I pointed out earlier in the year, anything over six conference wins would be miraculous for this team.  They have been playing with essentially a 7-8 man rotation all season.  This is a very, very tired team and anyone can see that.  Dambrot should get all the credit in the world.  He had them play really tough games against URI and St. Bonaventure.  Having said that, I think those losses also took a mental toll on the team.  I really believe that they peaked too early in the season and against opponents that were either average or below-average.  As I also said earlier in the season, let's not put the cart before the horse here.  We have one win this year in the top 150 of RPI.  ONE!!!!!!!  I am almost certain we had more top 100 wins last year under Ferry.  Let's be serious here and assume we make the NIT next year.  We would need, at the very least, 7-9 top 100 wins.  Do we really believe that is going to happen next year considering the non-conference schedule we play?  I still think we have to make it through next season to even sniff the NIT in the following year.  I like Dambrot a lot.  I really, really do, however I think we all need to be a little bit more realistic.

They're not likely to play the same type of schedule they did this year. The league mandates that you play an ooc schedule that fits your abilities. Scrub teams play a scrub schedule. contenders play a tougher schedule. Our schedule won't be murderers row, but it'll be upgraded.