Post-game presser notes from Adam Lindner:
https://twitter.com/AdamjLindner/status/1333571238904606720

 

BluffHunter wrote:

Econ69 wrote:

Per Dunlap tweet this morning
Effort being made to have Notre Dame 
come to Pgh to play DU.

Dambrot wasn't aware of this post-game... could be a bad rumor
https://twitter.com/JDiPaola_Trib/status/1333561252933738498

Consider the original "source"...
 

DK Sports postgame article:
https://www.dkpittsburghsports.com/2020/11/30/duquesne-littlerock-keith-dambrot-louisville-wade-houston-tipoff-classic-atlantic-ten-ncaa-college-basketball-dkps-nah

This was Little Rock's 3rd game of the season, so they the advantage of real game experience.

FAM wrote:

Not gonna bet against Coach D - he's too good.  But with that said, as we know Richmond already beat Kentucky...the other teams that are ranked ahead of us probably deserve it.  For now, we know why we were ranked where we were...but folks, it was only one game.  Go Dukes!

Very well said. It was clear tonight who was playing their third game and who was playing their first. A disappointing performance for a veteran laden team no doubt, but let's consider everything else you said. Dambrot is an excellent coach, and think about Kentucky. Year after year Kentucky has slow starts and is firing on all cylinders come March. Now obviously Calipari and Kentucky have infinitely more benefit of the doubt than we do. I liked what I saw from the young players tonight though. No one stood out in a starring role, but no one looked in over their heads either. I expect Dambrot will find combinations that work and we'll look back on tonight as nothing more than a disappointing first outing. The turnaround has to start quickly though.

PistolPete wrote:

Some good points by all.  Our first game vs. ALR third game was advantage ALR, but not an excuse.  In KD's post game he talked about energy being in shape and not having time over the summer etc. to get in better shape, but didn't all teams deal with this problem?  This is supposed to be a veteran squad, but as someone pointed out, KD needs to evaluate the production from the 2 and the 3, just not there.  TDM had 7 TO's in the first half and he is a senior, sorry, that doesn't cut it.  Rotroff not quick enough off his feet against agile, long bigs.  Shooting was horrible and defense not much better.  You don't shoot 55% unless you are getting a lot of 3' shots, which they were getting - and our rebounding was not that good.  Hughes does his best, but he is only 6'8" and Marcus is just 6'5", as is Maceo.  Guys, that is not big enough when the other team is pounding you down low.  The freshman will be good, and it is early, but this was not a good performance.  Why not give Jett a chance if TDM, MA and Norman are not hot from the 3?????  I am deeply concerned with this schedule in that we may turn out to be better than last year, but our record may not show it.  Richmond and St. Lou on the road to start the A-10, thanks Commissioner.  KD is right, we need to play and I really hope we get 5 total games before Richmond.

Pistol after watching that game, lack of defense, I would think the Dukes should not have a problem getting games especially against power five schools. 

phil95 wrote:

I think the degree to which these last few Dukes teams rarely seem "ready" to play is troubling. I have only followed KD as a coach for his time at DU so maybe some of the blame for this falls on this specific group of players. 

This group of players has no lack of fiery competitors but doesn't seem to have any identifiable leaders on the court. I thought this last year & today's game did nothing to change my mind.

Having had a rough pre-season & this being their first game vs. their worthy opponents third, losing this game is not a disaster. Cutting the lead to 2 points with 13:24 to go and then never making any kind of meaningful run is. These guys had some quit in them today.

KD has been hinting at his team's poor conditioning & general lack of preparedness in all of his media appearances for the last 3 weeks. His postgame quote about Marcus being away from the team for most of the spring & summer is nothing more than well-crafted excuse-making. This guy turned 23 4 months ago & has been in your program for 4 years. If he doesn't get the Dambrot-way or can't be counted on to keep himself in shape, the coach & the player have both failed.

What exactly has stopped these players from getting in excellent condition over the last month? Jack LaLane, Richard Simmons, John Wooden, & St. Peter couldn't get me in excellent shape in a month's time but, surely the players were at a reasonable degree of conditioning by Halloween.

Every player has off nights & bad games. I try not to jump on individual guys when that is the case. However, as a fifth-year senior, today's version of TDM is the player he is about 60% of the time. It drives me bananas that KD doesn't hold this particular player accountable for his damaging actions be it a lapse in judgement or poor defensive rotations or bad shot selection. I truly do not understand how after TDM's dismal first 30ish minutes & his run-fueling technical, he remains in the game.

I, like all of you, had been looking forward to the season's start for 8.5 months. This sucked!

Phil you make some really good points.  One of our big holes for the past two years has been depth at the point and turnovers from our lead guards. TDM is not the answer.  I was hoping that this year with Bekelja and Acuff we might have a fix.  That may still be the case, but clearly not the case yesterday. 

I am worried about KD.  He seems a little worn out in the last couple of videos I have seen of him.  I know Covid has taken a toll emotionally on many of us, but he does not look well.  Maybe I am wrong, but has anyone else noticed that?  



   
 

Full credit to LR, they're a solid team that will have a very good chance to win their conference. And it was our first game and their third. But still a disappointing performance by the Dukes anyway you want to spin it. We're all expecting or at least hoping that this team will take that next step this year. Yesterday's game looked way too much like the worst of last year's team, minus the contributions of Bayley Steele (with Rotroff and Kelly not offering much to replace him). But the inability to box out on the defensive glass, especially in the first half, the settling for outside jumpers instead of taking it to the basket aggressively, the inability to make 3s no matter how open, all traits of last year's team.

I think we know what we have in Carry, Hughes, Weathers and TDM at this point. I'm not sure they're capable of playing much better. It's players like Austin, Norman, Rotroff and Kelly who will need to step up and raise their level of play this year for us to contend in the A10 rather than being a middle-of-the-pack team. It's just one game, but there was zero indication yesterday that any of those kids looks poised to have a breakout season this year. Just one game, but it matters a bit more this year, because there are only 20 left (Notre Dame notwithstanding) not 30. Other observations, in no particular order:

LR were 26-of-42 inside the arc, almost 62 percent. That's pretty much scoring at will in the paint and from the midrange. I hope it was just a bad matchup, because if the best of the Sun Belt can do that to you, it doesn't bode well for dealing with the A10.

What was wrong with Mike Hughes? He wasn't his normal self by any stretch. Used and abused in the paint by their bigs the whole game, but really didn't seem to be all there. There was one sequence where a LR player missed both FTs, Hughes then proceeded to knock the uncontested rebound out of bounds instead of grabbing it. Another sequence where our fullcourt pressure forced an errant pass that Hughes had a chance to pick off near the timeline. But again a rather halfhearted effort to jump for it and he knocked it out of bounds instead of grabbing it. He was better than Rotroff but that's about the only good thing I can say about his performance.

TDM was an unmitigated disaster in the 3-minute stretch he ran the point with Carry on the bench. If he's not making 3s or forcing turnovers that lead to easy transition buckets, he's not terribly useful.

Was impressed with Baker's energy and length, but he's obviously very raw and underdeveloped. Still seems poised to contribute something this year. Harris looked like he belonged out there and I expect will be the most impactful freshman on this team. I barely noticed Okani in his 6 minutes and Acuff made a basket and had a turnover but was only on the floor for 2 minutes so not much to go on there. Our lights-out 3-point-shooter recruit couldn't get off the bench in a game in which we shot 24 percent from beyond the arc. Was he even in the building? I can't say that I saw him on the sidelines at any point, though with everyone spread out and the limited camera angles offered by the videostream, it was hard to tell. With the junk defenses they were playing, there would have been no shortage of wide-open 3s for him to hit. 

Hats off to their coach. He seemed to have us well scouted, knew our weaknesses and played to them effectively. Spreading us out with the 1-3-1 and forcing the long passes as we came across the timeline, then packing in the zone and daring us to make the 3s. Get used to it. 

Tomorrow's another day and I would expect a better performance with a game under their belts, but the opponent gets better too. Again, get used to it. 

 

Last edited by DennisC91 (12/01/2020 12:38 pm)

I think Dennis 91 touched on some important points above that is that we are still heavily reliant on the initial "transfer" class that KD brought in his first year.  Now I'm told that we have a group of promising freshmen on this team, but we all know that a team that has to rely on unproven true freshmen to play meaningful minutes is probably in for a disappointing season (unless of course you have freshmen like Kentucky!  So we had a few recruiting classes to build depth and some scoring ability to fill in around the initial transfer class; and we have only Sin Carry and Lamar making any meaningful contributions.  Therein lies the problem in my opinion.  By all accounts the remaining transfers have made us a competitive team, able to win 21 games last year, and get some really great wins on the road in the A-10; but failing to fill obvious needs around that solid framework may prevent this team from reaching the goals we envisioned.  Failing to attract a legitimate 6'10" center, a legitimate scoring threat from the 2 and three spots has been disappointing.  I'm sure the coaches gave an effort to attract these complementary players over the last few years, but it just hasn't happened. So at this point we are still an undersized D-1 team, without a knockdown shooter and somewhat inconsistent defensively and on the glass.  It looks like the team will seriously miss Bayley Steele and his "feel" for the game, big frame and ability to battle inside.  So once again the undersized Dukes will need to claw and scrap for every win, and hopefully get some unexpected contributions from an inexperienced bench; probably not what we envisioned three years ago.  

Last edited by levon1975 (12/01/2020 3:32 pm)

CLK wrote:

phil95 wrote:

I think the degree to which these last few Dukes teams rarely seem "ready" to play is troubling. I have only followed KD as a coach for his time at DU so maybe some of the blame for this falls on this specific group of players. 

This group of players has no lack of fiery competitors but doesn't seem to have any identifiable leaders on the court. I thought this last year & today's game did nothing to change my mind.

Having had a rough pre-season & this being their first game vs. their worthy opponents third, losing this game is not a disaster. Cutting the lead to 2 points with 13:24 to go and then never making any kind of meaningful run is. These guys had some quit in them today.

KD has been hinting at his team's poor conditioning & general lack of preparedness in all of his media appearances for the last 3 weeks. His postgame quote about Marcus being away from the team for most of the spring & summer is nothing more than well-crafted excuse-making. This guy turned 23 4 months ago & has been in your program for 4 years. If he doesn't get the Dambrot-way or can't be counted on to keep himself in shape, the coach & the player have both failed.

What exactly has stopped these players from getting in excellent condition over the last month? Jack LaLane, Richard Simmons, John Wooden, & St. Peter couldn't get me in excellent shape in a month's time but, surely the players were at a reasonable degree of conditioning by Halloween.

Every player has off nights & bad games. I try not to jump on individual guys when that is the case. However, as a fifth-year senior, today's version of TDM is the player he is about 60% of the time. It drives me bananas that KD doesn't hold this particular player accountable for his damaging actions be it a lapse in judgement or poor defensive rotations or bad shot selection. I truly do not understand how after TDM's dismal first 30ish minutes & his run-fueling technical, he remains in the game.

I, like all of you, had been looking forward to the season's start for 8.5 months. This sucked!

Phil you make some really good points.  One of our big holes for the past two years has been depth at the point and turnovers from our lead guards. TDM is not the answer.  I was hoping that this year with Bekelja and Acuff we might have a fix.  That may still be the case, but clearly not the case yesterday. 

I am worried about KD.  He seems a little worn out in the last couple of videos I have seen of him.  I know Covid has taken a toll emotionally on many of us, but he does not look well.  Maybe I am wrong, but has anyone else noticed that?  



   
 

I've noticed this too recently CLK, I think coach is starting to get fed up and nervous with what will happen this year. This is his 4th season and he is ready to get results. He is the type of coach that puts his heart and soul into the team and this is the season we have all been waiting for for years. We knew 2021 was the year most of our key pieces are seniors. This year has been looked at like THE year for a long time.

Last edited by BluffHunter (12/01/2020 5:25 pm)

1111 Vickroy wrote:

I'm beating a dead horse but the lack of a guy like Bailey Steele really hurt last night. That being said I did think that Amari Kelly was starting to show a little bit in his freshman season until he got hurt. It was also interesting to see what I had observed on the televised version of the game regarding Marcus weathers who to me looked a little bit out of shape. I thought maybe it was the camera work but it was noted by Dambrot.

I think we will see both Amari and Rotroff take a step up. Kelly played very well his freshman year, his biggest issue was fouling a lot. I also think Rotroff could play exactly like Baylee did for us last year. In his debut game as a freshman he dropped 18 points with I think 2 threes. He has it in him.

Last edited by BluffHunter (12/01/2020 6:59 pm)

DennisC91 wrote:

BluffHunter wrote:

I think we will see both Amari and Rotroff take a step up. Kelly played very well his freshman year, his biggest issue was fouling a lot. I also think Rotroff could play exactly like Baylee did for us last year. In his debut game as a freshman he dropped 18 points with I think 2 threes. He has it in him.

Well that's certainly the hope, but based on Keith's post-game comments, it's fair to wonder if there was really much of an organized off-season program thanks to the pandemic, and they certainly didn't have as many practices, scrimmages as they normally would have, nor will they have as many non-conference games to work out the kinks and figure out the best combinations. So where's that development going to come from exactly? Rotroff and Kelly showed a lot of promise as freshmen but both suffered devastating knee injuries and haven't been the same since. Based on last night's performance, everyone looked to be about where they were last season. Don't think that's gonna cut it this year.
 

I agree, but for now I'm going to give the players the benefit of the doubt. It was only one game, similar to Marshall last year, and it is very early in the season. Our play down low increased in quality from 2019 to 2020, with Hughes and Weathers both making steps and the addition of Baylee but our guard play stayed stagnant... and maybe even regressed. Sin, Lamar, and TDM didn't improve, and we lost Williams Jr. If our guards can't make a step up this year, and be better as juniors than they were as freshmen, then there is a big issue. I don't see that happening and I also see Maceo making a leap as well especially since he had such a rough season personally outside of basketball. Mike and Marcus need to be at least the same players they were last year and our guard play simply needs to improve. If either Kelly or Rotroff make a decent step it will be a huge help with the teams depth. 

Last edited by BluffHunter (12/01/2020 8:59 pm)

BluffHunter wrote:

1111 Vickroy wrote:

I'm beating a dead horse but the lack of a guy like Bailey Steele really hurt last night. That being said I did think that Amari Kelly was starting to show a little bit in his freshman season until he got hurt. It was also interesting to see what I had observed on the televised version of the game regarding Marcus weathers who to me looked a little bit out of shape. I thought maybe it was the camera work but it was noted by Dambrot.

I think we will see both Amari and Rotroff take a step up. Kelly played very well his freshman year, his biggest issue was fouling a lot. I also think Rotroff could play exactly like Baylee did for us last year. In his debut game as a freshman he dropped 18 points with I think 2 threes. He has it in him.

I think it was mentioned in an interview that Amari has been slow to recover from his knee surgery; so that does not bode well for his ability to contribute in this odd, shortened season.  Rotroff isn't Steele at this point, and all of our hopes won't change that.  He was going to struggle from an athletic standpoint before the surgery, and knee surgery hasn't helped that situation.  I'm sure there are some teams that he will match-up with better than the quicker teams, but expecting Rotroff to deliver like Steele is asking a lot.