These pre-season rankings mean little until the games are played.  If anything, the #9 ranking eliminates any outside pressure to play up to expectations and it gives Dan the opportunity to coach and mold a team.  

With so many unknowns, the question for me will be:  Will the coaches try to fit the players into Duquesne's familiar offensive and defensive schemes or will they rebuild the offense and defense around the players' collective talents?

To give you another perspective, until (2) years ago, Stanford was a big, but methodical team.  The team was successful, but played slow.  They are still big, but the talent on the team is now so athletic and mobile and multi-dimensional, Hall of Fame Coach Tara Vanderveer ditched the old patterns and the team is now playing a fast version of the Princeton offense and a quick, aggressive defense.

I think this is a great opportunity for Dan to mold the play around the talent.  Looking forward to seeing what happens in the first few games.