I personally believe Duquesne vs St. Bonaventure is one of the most underrated and best future rivalries in the A10. Last season both conference games between the two were extremely entertaining high intensity basketball. With that said, I'm nervous about tomorrow. Mike and Marcus need to find beast mode.

WashPaRick wrote:

Jaren Holmes is 17 for 30 from the 3. We gotta keep somebody in his face.

Shutting down him and Lofton will be a huge challenge for our guards, Okani and Baker are going to have to show us what they're made of. Osunniyi is a force down low too, we need to be taking it to him hard and try and get him in foul trouble. 

FAM wrote:

-For the first year in a few...we didn’t predict what we thought the W-L record would be.  That is a good thing.  This is not a year to do that.  We don’t even know how many games we will play.  Now, over the many years, my anger has come out when we didn’t have a competent coach or AD.     That is gone.
-Now let’s go back to years when we were asked what we hoped for - for our team...  Mine was always the same....First to be competitive and second to get to a tournament frequently, either the NIT or NCAA and it didn’t have to be every year.

- I still believe we are competitive...I don’t feel (like I used to) that there is no way we Can win a game we play.  Can I say we probably will or won’t win, yes, but with DAMBROT I know we always can.  So, my point is we all just need to ride this out.  We all need to remember something that is so simple, our own emotions get in our own way.  We are fans....passionate, but fans - this doesn’t put bread on our table (unless of course you bet all of you bread!).  Think how you feel and triple it times 10.  That is what it is like to coach.  Does anyone think that DAMBROT, the coaches, the AD don’t want to win!!  Coach D. Wants to win more than anything so he is going to do everything he can.  I”m not saying everything is perfect.  But, it starts at the top....and as I said in another thread, our President, AD, and coach are competent and what we need.  Maybe this year won’t turn out well, but our program will still be in good shape.  Go Dukes!

great post.

I know there is a lot of negativity but this team is only playing there seventh game and with the departures it does not make it easy on coach to find a good cohesive starting lineup. I do think the young guards need to be told to get back to our identity from last year and that is feed Marcus and Mike the rock down low. During our wins last year they played a huge factor on the inside even at the start of the Dayton game they looked good feeding Marcus down low. Those two are our leaders but getting them going also opens up shots from outside when the defenders converge down low. I think right now our young players are just going too fast and trying to hit shots that you can get at any moment in the shot clock. Once we get back to feeding the bigs (especially Mike and Marcus) is when we will truly come together as a team in terms of a good offense. We have to attack osunniyi this game and not settle for those long contested jumpers. Get him in foul trouble and continue to feed it down low.

Dukes412 wrote:

I know there is a lot of negativity but this team is only playing there seventh game and with the departures it does not make it easy on coach to find a good cohesive starting lineup. I do think the young guards need to be told to get back to our identity from last year and that is feed Marcus and Mike the rock down low. During our wins last year they played a huge factor on the inside even at the start of the Dayton game they looked good feeding Marcus down low. Those two are our leaders but getting them going also opens up shots from outside when the defenders converge down low. I think right now our young players are just going too fast and trying to hit shots that you can get at any moment in the shot clock. Once we get back to feeding the bigs (especially Mike and Marcus) is when we will truly come together as a team in terms of a good offense. We have to attack osunniyi this game and not settle for those long contested jumpers. Get him in foul trouble and continue to feed it down low.

A very good point. Our best players are big men. We're struggling to shoot from outside. Osunniyi killed us last year. Playing inside-out should be our game plan every game, but is especially important in this matchup.

It was a great win to beat them at Olean last season, I truly felt it was right up there with the win at St. Louis, but really a better win, because of the trouble the Dukes have had beating them in recent years, and the difficulty in playing at that facility.  With that said, I don't like our chances in this year's match-up.  They have advantages in every match-up except for Marcus; including at the 5 where Osunnyi seems to play his best game of the year against Duquesne.  The guard play will be a problem for us the remainder of the season, running with a converted PG and two freshmen at the 1 and 2 spots, they will face some very good guards game after game, and this one is no exception. 
In short, I don't like our chances in this one, and just hope we can avoid a blow-out. 

Good observations Phoenix; Ossuniya isn’t a big offensive threat from the post  in the half-court game; but he has a knack for getting position for offensive rebounds which tend to be a weakness for the Dukes; a lot of this occurs when bigs leave him to help stop a driver; or to attempt a shot-block; we need to occupy all three rebounding positions as often as possible and be physical with him. 
Correct about Marcus; the Bonnie’s bothered him with double-teams at RMU last year; but Marcus sat out a lot because he sprained an ankle in the first 2-minutes of the game.  He gave it the best effort the rest of the game; but clearly had no “Lift” off that ankle.  I think he got better at recognizing and passing out of the double team since then.  It will be a must in this game; as he will again see the double team.

Nothing like putting pressure on Jett; looking for 4-5 threes; but seriously in the Dayton post-game KD mentioned that Jett was looking better in practice; but I think you still need to be prudent about exposing a kid before he is ready and he struggles.  That could set him back for another few weeks.  Ideally, you would like to see some other guys start to score to relieve the pressure for Jett to score immediately; the work him in under a better situation.

Just hope the team bus arrives and returns safely; that is a terrible trip to make in the winter; wouldn’t wish that on my enemies; well maybe a few.

FAM wrote:

-For the first year in a few...we didn’t predict what we thought the W-L record would be.  That is a good thing.  This is not a year to do that.  We don’t even know how many games we will play.  Now, over the many years, my anger has come out when we didn’t have a competent coach or AD.     That is gone.
-Now let’s go back to years when we were asked what we hoped for - for our team...  Mine was always the same....First to be competitive and second to get to a tournament frequently, either the NIT or NCAA and it didn’t have to be every year.

- I still believe we are competitive...I don’t feel (like I used to) that there is no way we Can win a game we play.  Can I say we probably will or won’t win, yes, but with DAMBROT I know we always can.  So, my point is we all just need to ride this out.  We all need to remember something that is so simple, our own emotions get in our own way.  We are fans....passionate, but fans - this doesn’t put bread on our table (unless of course you bet all of you bread!).  Think how you feel and triple it times 10.  That is what it is like to coach.  Does anyone think that DAMBROT, the coaches, the AD don’t want to win!!  Coach D. Wants to win more than anything so he is going to do everything he can.  I”m not saying everything is perfect.  But, it starts at the top....and as I said in another thread, our President, AD, and coach are competent and what we need.  Maybe this year won’t turn out well, but our program will still be in good shape.  Go Dukes!

Nice post FAM!
 

Before tip off... please at least be competitive! Go Dukes! 

What bothered me is some were laughing while kneeling... if they want to kneel, fine. But be respectful. Nuff said.

I guess we should want slower games as we go since our shooting is poor?? Go Dukes.