Water always settles to its level. Middle of the pack team. No postseason.

Lots of good points by all and let me add my two cents:

*KD has said you first need to win the ones you are supposed to win and yesterday was one we should have won.  Iron Duke, I'm with you, WTF is going on here, makes me wonder.

*Foul shooting - Now we know how the St. Louis fans must feel when their team is in a tight game.  Good Lord that was piss poor.  Anyone notice how many times Weathers barely hit the front of the rim??  Fatigue setting in?

*Talent - We need more of it; our outside shooting is not good and we don't seem to have a go to guy as the Professor pointed out.  I like the balance when we are on, but you still need someone who wants the rock in crunch time and can deliver.  Maceo is our best freshman recruit in quite a while and when his shot becomes more consistent he will be a really, really good player.  SC has the talent as well, but his proclamation about being the "best PG in the A-10" is not accurate.  Problem is that we don't have enough talent  to pressure our guards to feel they could ride the pine extensively.  I believe that will change next year with Jett and Acuilo (name) coming in.  On paper it looks to me that this incoming class is KD's best.

*Coach & Staff - I am with CLK somewhat on coach taking some responsibility here.  First, tell Baylee you are playing within 8' of the basket and that is it offensively.  He doesn't shoot consistently enough (like many others) for him to have a green light from out in 3 point land. They mentioned on the broadcast yesterday that KD has had the same staff for many, many years.  Well here is a proposition, maybe that is not a good thing.  Sometimes change, and it doesn't need to be wholesale, is a good thing.  Look how UMass got Tre Mitchell, the GMan told me that they brought on his HS Coach and sometimes that is what it takes.  Bring in a kid that can recruit.

*Freshman Embarrassment - We just got schooled gents by two frighin freshman, one of who had his first start of the year.  Are you frighin kidding me! Mitchell went around Steele and Rotroff like they had cement shoes.  GMan is right about lack of lateral quickness across the board.  Other teams guards seem to get around us regularly. 

*Attitude & Leadership - I too am sick of MH and TDM losing control and always chirping at the mouth.  Coach needs to reign those two in before it rubs off on all the others.  We have several juniors, but where is the leadership???!!!!  Something is missing here.  It is a talent question and a leadership question.  Panic at the disco when we go down by 7 or 10.

*I expect a strong performance against Dayton as the team will be fired up.  It's either that or a Dayton blow-out.  We don't have the mental toughness to be up for lesser teams and know that you stick the blade in and turn.  We come out flat and can't reverse it.  Dukes won't have that problem with Dayton I suspect.

Ok, enough of my rant.  Good day boys.
     
 

Professor, the GMan is a recognized resource for BBall intel!!!!  LOL  Iron Duke, what say you about this goonch theory?

I just can't bring myself to consider physical fatigue as a factor in the team's recent woes. There have been about a half dozen breaks between games of 5-10 days each, no significant amount of games have been lost to injury among the top 10 scholarship players,& Sin is the only player averaging even a mildly concerning amount of minutes.

On the mental side, Maceo's loss & the musical home courts are the only obvious potential reasons for psychological drain. Winning 80% of your games is not generally considered stressful.

Maturity & mental toughness are simply lacking.

Ironduke, you watched that game again???  Now THAT is toughness!!!

Hopefully this is just a blip on the radar; and the team will come out and compete hard against a loaded Dayton team.  Duquesne has always played tough games against Dayton; and I expect the same on Wednesday.  You beat Dayton and nobody remembers UMASS!

levon1975 wrote:

Hopefully this is just a blip on the radar; and the team will come out and compete hard against a loaded Dayton team. Duquesne has always played tough games against Dayton; and I expect the same on Wednesday. You beat Dayton and nobody remembers UMASS!

This says it all. We've got them on our home floor where we beat them two years ago. We also gave them everything they could take at their place last year. We're fading badly, but we're still on the bubble for the NIT because the committees consider the season as a whole, not just trends. Currently, we are the seventh team out of the NIT going purely by NET rankings that the committee uses. We've got to get this turned around now and Dayton is a great opportunity. They are loaded, but if we play the way we had been earlier in the season I truly believe we can compete with them.

We fought our way into receiving votes in the AP poll. Those will be gone this week, but a win over Dayton could get us right back where we were. Then the UMass game would be brought up as a bad loss that can be countered by a huge win like Dayton rather then the fourth subpar effort in a row. Every year there are teams that underachieve, but show up against top teams. I'd really rather not be an underachieving team; but if they are on the bubble the big win always gets brought up as a reason they shouldn't be left out because they could do it again in the tournament.

One more thought. Been a Lakers fan since the 60’s. Kobe was the primo shooting guard. With the game on the line you wanted the ball in his hands. That’s what we need.

Where has James Ellis been?   Did whatever he do at St Joes get him removed from road trips?  Didnt see him on bench vs URI or Umass.  Maybe he chopped off the yellow hair and I didnt recognize him????

March 29, 2017 - Cleveland.com:

“While it's easier to reach the NCAA Tournament in the Atlantic-10 than the MAC, it's much harder to win in the regular season. The talent level is higher, the programs stronger. Some of the players who helped him win big at Akron won't do the same at Duquesne.”
Pressurecooker,  I agree that he hasn’t forgotten how to coach.  I still have hope!  What is my concern is his lack of control of some of the players on the court.  His buddy Hugs would never put up with this.  On a side note, I have run into a number of people this week telling me they are going to the game.  As I got excited they told me they are all Dayton fans!!  I think we will be outnumbered.  Go Dukes!

Last edited by FAM (1/27/2020 1:29 pm)

Westender wrote:

Given our history over the past 40 years, it's difficult to be optimistic regardless of our record, even with the great record we had entering Conference play this year. But starting Conference play with wins over St. Louis and Davidson gave me some hope that the record was not a mirage. What in the hell has happened since those games? All sports, and I think basketball especially, is affected by matchup dynamics. Does that explain the decline in results?

In fairness, two bad losses against mediocre Conference USA teams (a second-half meltdown against UAB, a bad game from start to finish against Marshall) at the end of the non-conference schedule should have been a warning of what was to come in the A10 schedule. This team can be very good, has more potential than Keith's first two Duquesne teams, but won't be good every single game. If the 3s aren't falling, if the defensive intensity and resulting turnovers aren't there, it will struggle against even weak competition. We're seeing that now. Hopefully the tide shifts again and we're able to get some more big wins. But they're not good enough or deep enough to have much of a margin for error at this point. 

pressurecooker wrote:

Keith Dambrot has not forgotten how to coach. This team has talent needs that were hidden during the soft pre-conference schedule and which are now manifest during conference games. This is still a work in progress. Enjoy the ride. 

I do think there is a lack of athleticism in the front court, outside of Weathers, who is a little undersized, to compete with some of the more talented A10 front courts, but I do think that there is some coaching work that could be done on the offensive side of the ball, Hard to defend as well when you miss shots and they get in transition. If the Dukes don't hit their outside shots, and the opponent has decent size or scheme for the paint, the team seems a little lost. 

Also - hard to argue against coaching being at least part of the issue when the team was competitive the last two games, only to get blown out when the opposing coach had halftime to make adjustments.

Norm Nixon..Aaron Jackson