My prediction is 27 wins
11-1 OOC 
11-7 Conference
3 Tournament wins to win the  A10 Tourney
230 points in A10 Tourney 
2 NCAA Tourney wins

Last edited by CLK (10/09/2019 9:14 am)

Wow, CLK.  I hope your right.  I do not mean my prediction to be negative but considering no Palumbo, a very misleading degree of OOC difficulty, recognizing the fact that the conference returns 57 of a possible 70 who started at seasons end for each team, and, finally, loss of Frankie, concerns with Big Mike, injury status of Rotroff, Miller, Kelly, and where Sincere is . . .
    OOC.          9-3
    A10.          10-8
    A10 tourn.   2-1
    CBI.            2-1

Total.  23-13
Points 250

OOC 11-1
A-10 11-7
A-10 Tournament 1-1
A-10 Tournament points 145
No post-season (no NCAA or NIT, no interest in CBI)
Total 23-9

Regular Season for Now: 21 - 9

Not doing the conference until I see if we get to one.


FAM

Last edited by FAM (10/09/2019 5:49 pm)

Judge Jack McVay Jr wrote:

Love it CLK and VBC and I am optimistic too but I think I am closer to scduke and 25 wins 1 in hopefully NIT but maybe CBI and 222 points tie break

The A10 is loaded this year. If we have 24 wins at the end of the A10 Tournament, we'll make the NIT with ease. We only had 21 wins (21-12 when we got the invite) when we made it under Ron. 25 wins with one of them coming in the NIT would mean 24 wins after Brooklyn. The worst record we could have after Brooklyn with 24 wins, and not winning the A10 is 24-9 after losing the A10 Championship Game. That would not only get us into the NIT, we'd have a decent seed to boot. A loss in the semis would mean we'd have to have won 23 games in the regular season, and would leave us at 24-8. At that point, we'd be getting discussed as a bubble team, although I think we'd fall short. A loss in the quarterfinals would mean we'd have to win 24 during the regular season, and would leave us with a 24-7 record. (all of this assumes a top 4 finish, which gets us the double bye in Brooklyn, add a loss to my figures if we don't get the double bye, 12-6 got the 4th spot last year)
As for my prediction: 10-2 OOC. We don't play a single road game. If we can't win 10 games vs that slate, we're not one of the better teams in the A10.
11-7 in the A10, and 1-1 in Brooklyn for a 22-10 record, the most wins since 1962 (although the 61-62 team played fewer games, making it's 22 wins a bit more impressive).
Brooklyn points: 160
 

I am for the rest of my life rooting  for Duquesne and no matter what happens ,I am grateful for the renewed
committment by Gormley and the hiring of Dambrot .I never thought Duquesne would ever spend that kind of money to renovate basketball facilities ,pay the money for a basketball coach and the infrastructure to build
 a champion,but look around and  for this I am truly thankful.GO BLUFFITES

8-4 ooc
10-8 conference
1-1  a10 tourn
prediction  19-13

130 points in tourney

Not just because of the non-funded McKeesport stay (I point out that the city doesn't even pass the spell-check function), I'm not entering a prediction.  

I do believe the program will take a big step forward regardless of the expected A-10 improvement and the lack of a true home court.

stew wrote:

What record would the Dukes need to make the Big Dance?I am like all you guys,starving for NCAA bid
and a NIT invite would be nice and show progress but from this day going forward anything less than a
Big Dance invite is somewhat disappointing.If the Dukes win 25 games this season should warrant
a invite? A10 is a pretty good conference and if  Dukes get wins against VCU,Dayton,St.Bona it should  
make us being given serious consideration by the committee.Yes? No?I dont know.
 

Looking to repeat picking exact OOC and A10 record (sorry, could not resist):

9-3 ooc
11-7 conference
2-1  a10 tourn
224 pts

I think next season is when the Dukes make the move to top 4 in A10. Program will make progress this year, but top A10 teams return almost everyone.  Among others, key factors will be Carry and Hughes health, how much improvement from Rotroff and Kelly? I think we're going to be very pleased with freshmen class.  Steele a great pickup while the young bigs mature.

I have a thought. Playing in a constantly moving area of setting might toughen this team up.

CLK wrote:

My prediction is 27 wins
11-1 OOC 
11-7 Conference
3 Tournament wins to win the  A10 Tourney
230 points in A10 Tourney 
2 NCAA Tourney wins

I'm in, I agree, this is do-able, or quite frankly, just a little-bit better. Both great coaching and great players, and Williams weak defense is gone. (More swing points are made on defense to determine a game than is ever appreciated, and Williams played weak defense, if at all.
 

I think FAM, CLK and VBC may prove prophetic.

I'm writing this partly on behalf of Duquesne's long-suffering fans, but in larger part because I think it may actually happen.

While we won't enjoy a true home court advantage this year — an unfortunate factor that could play to our advantage in making this team tougher —  I think the 2019-20 Blue Ribbon College Basketball preview issue had it right in saying:

Despite the Dukes status as nomads, they've got a chance to make history.  They've got a chance to put an end to the program's NCAA tournament drought.

The pieces are in place — Coach Dambrot has assembled a team with one of the longest wingspans in college basketball and enough talent to do something miraculous — and if this team can gel quickly we could be off to our best start since 1968-69 when the Dukes went 9-0 before losing to hot-handed Pete Maravich and LSU 94-91 in the All-College Tournament in Oklahoma City.  Pistol Pete scored a blistering 53 points in that upset victory.

While I would be thrilled if we go 11-1 against OOC competition, there's a chance — a real chance — that we could jump out to a perfect 12-0 start.  It could happen.  I hope to attend a couple of those games.  As a Floridian, I plan to make the four-hour trip to St. Petersburg to watch the Dukes in the St. Pete Shootout shortly before Christmas.

Moreover, I think the Dukes will be surprisingly competitive in the A-10 and could still be in the hunt for the regular season title when we travel to VCU on March 3.  I predict a 13-5 finish in the conference.

The future is now.

This is our moment to return from exile and reestablish our program in the upper echelon of college basketball — the place we've all longed for these past forty or so years — and a place Duquesne's long-suffering fans so richly deserve.

C'mon guys, this could be our year!

Last edited by IronDukes12 (10/26/2019 6:28 am)