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2/28/2021 4:25 pm  #1


Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

That was certainly a nice bounceback win last night against Rhode Island after that abysmal performance against La Salle.  The Dukes will play on Thursday March 4th at 11:00am in the 2nd round of the A10 tourney; as is stands today, the Dukes will face either Dayton or Saint Louis.  If the Dukes win that 1st game, they face St. Bonaventure on Friday March 5th at 11:00am in the quarterfinals. Both games will be televised on NBCSN.

I think the Dukes have a tough road ahead of them, primarily due to the fact that they are simply not playing even marginal team defense since they came back from the last COVID break.

The last 3 games all were in the top 5 worst defensive performances of the year.  They gave up 1.170 points per possession to Richmond, 1.150 PPP to La Salle and 1.054 PPP to Rhode Island (the two other bad performances were the 2nd GW game giving up 1.075 PPP and 1.056 PPP to Little Rock).  During the 3 game stretch before COVID when the Dukes looked really good, they gave up 0.888 PPP to Fordham, 0.758 PPP to Saint Joseph's and 0.923 PPP to Dayton.  The Dukes are 2-6 when giving up more than 1.0 point per possession; to win one of these games you have a great shooting/offensive game - just like last night.

I don't think that the Dukes can count on great shooting, so they must get that defense back on track in the next couple of days if they don't want to be a one and done tourney participant. 
 

 

2/28/2021 5:27 pm  #2


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

^^ This.. 100%^^

Well researched and reasoned

 

2/28/2021 8:33 pm  #3


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Great research Phoenix. I agree with your premise. The hot shooting is great, but we can't expect it continue for four games. We have to get back to the top flight defense we had been playing. Bottom line though is if we are going to win the tournament (pretty much our only chance at any postseason) we will need both. As always our chances in the tournament will be largely dependent on how the bracket sets up for us.

We are good enough now that I think we can beat any team in the conference. We're not good enough that we can run through four teams in a row without having some favorable matchups. The good news is the bracket is looking pretty good for us. With three games left there isn't much that set in stone yet, but we can have a pretty good idea of what the bracket will look like.

Dayton will likely be our first round opponent (only other possibilities are St. Louis or a minute chance of Richmond). We not only beat them in the last game, but dominated them for 35 minutes. Our next opponent would be St. Bonaventure. They are playing really good ball, but we took them to the wire in our last game. If we get a couple bounces that we didn't get in that one, we can certainly beat them too. The next game would likely be Davidson. They have had our number, including a blow out win this year. So that would be really tough. Not that we can't beat them, but we'd have to bring our A+ game to do it. The other possibility (baring a few upsets the only other possibility) would be St. Louis. I haven't seen them this year, but our games with them always seem to be hard fought close battles for 40 minutes. They are very beatable outside St. Louis though. So I think we could beat them. That would put us in the final against likely VCU or Richmond. Both would be very tough games, but you wouldn't expect anything less in a conference championship game. I think we match up better with VCU, but we did just play Richmond tight last week.

Long story short, if tomorrow's games go the way I expect I think the bracket sets up as good as it possibly could for us. As you pointed out, the defense needs to returns. Dambrot's team have always gone as far as the defense took them. Winning the last two games would also require the hot shooting to continue. I'd give us a 50% chance to make the quarters, a 35% chance to make the semis, 15% to make the final, and 10% to win it all. We're far from the favorite, but we're not talking about Dumb and Dumber odds either.

 

3/01/2021 6:28 pm  #4


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Dayton up 12 on Bonnies @nd half.

 

3/01/2021 7:05 pm  #5


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Dayton wins and St. Joes up 9 on Richmond at the half. St. Joes on a roll since Daley came back.

 

3/01/2021 8:09 pm  #6


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

St. Joes holds on for win and SLU crushes UMASS.

 

3/01/2021 8:15 pm  #7


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

So, Dukes first game in the tourney is Richmond?
 

 

3/01/2021 8:19 pm  #8


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

indygjm wrote:

So, Dukes first game in the tourney is Richmond?
 

Yep not sure why since they had a better conference record percentage wise than Dayton. SMH
 

 

3/01/2021 8:23 pm  #9


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Richmond banged up Francis looks out. Gillard broken thumb. Big break thanks to the all time goat of slow fat white guy Ryan Daly. This guy is a winner. Beware of the Hawk. Dukes this is a huge opportunity don’t crap the bed.

 

3/01/2021 8:41 pm  #10


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Ironduke81 wrote:

Richmond banged up Francis looks out. Gillard broken thumb. Big break thanks to the all time goat of slow fat white guy Ryan Daly. This guy is a winner. Beware of the Hawk. Dukes this is a huge opportunity don’t crap the bed.

Daly is my favorite college player. Controls a game.
 

 

3/01/2021 8:49 pm  #11


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Love him. Puts up 30 a game. Upon his return from injury he has taken the Hawks to another level. Golden bad hand Cayo playing well.Francis doubtful.  Dukes should smell blood in the water based on the Spiders current injuries situation. Take them out on their own home court. Go Dukes. Big break thanks to my man Daly.

 

3/01/2021 9:39 pm  #12


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Well, I certainly didn’t expect Richmond to fall into our first game. Here’s the press release and the bracket from the A10.

https://atlantic10.com/news/2021/3/1/st-bonaventure-earns-mens-basketball-regular-season-title-championship-top.aspx

https://atlantic10.com/documents/2021/3/1/21MBB_BracketFINAL.pdf

     Thread Starter
 

3/01/2021 9:41 pm  #13


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

I like this team it’s hard to fully evaluate them since they only played 16 games with two pauses but I’ll take Hughes and weathers over any bigs in the A10. With that being said as a team we need to play to our strength. That means let our bigs go to work and give them a lot of touches when both Mike and Marcus gain confidence on offense they’re even better on defense taking charges and protecting the rim. This could be seen in the Dayton game. Also young kids need to play with composure I really enjoy Chad Bakers energy but he cannot get a T and cannot throw up contested 3s. Work the ball around since a lot of movement inside helps open up some outside shots. Finally make the Spiders shoot contested shots get a hand their face and never put your hands down when guarding the perimeter. They beat us last time by knocking down some late 3s don’t let that happen again.

Last edited by Dukes412 (3/02/2021 12:05 am)

 

3/02/2021 12:14 am  #14


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Rayrich wrote:

indygjm wrote:

So, Dukes first game in the tourney is Richmond?
 

Yep not sure why since they had a better conference record percentage wise than Dayton. SMH
 

Dayton's 9-7 is good for a 56.25 win percentage. Richmond's 6-5 is a 54.5. So those seeds are as they should be. Where the conference screwed up is coming up with the convoluted 60 percent of the median threshold to use the NET rankings and then deciding not to use it when only one team didn't meet it. George Washington's 8 conference games falls below the threshold of 8.1 based on a median of 13.5. So they should be seeded 13th based on their NET ranking. Instead they are seeded 11th based on conference win percentage even though they didn't meet the threshold. 

 

3/02/2021 6:23 am  #15


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

They should play Richmond at VCU rather than at their own gym.  That would provide some level of fairness.

 

3/02/2021 7:42 am  #16


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

levon1975 wrote:

They should play Richmond at VCU rather than at their own gym. That would provide some level of fairness.

The game is at VCU.

 

3/02/2021 8:05 am  #17


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

They can beat any team in the conference. I think the 2 teams that present the biggest challenge are the bonnies n Davidson. Hughes composure is a big key. Btw, noticed a few games back that Baker is a south paw. He shoots a nice pull up jumper from the left corner of the basket.

 

3/02/2021 8:19 am  #18


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

luckymcd wrote:

Rayrich wrote:

indygjm wrote:

So, Dukes first game in the tourney is Richmond?
 

Yep not sure why since they had a better conference record percentage wise than Dayton. SMH
 

Dayton's 9-7 is good for a 56.25 win percentage. Richmond's 6-5 is a 54.5. So those seeds are as they should be. Where the conference screwed up is coming up with the convoluted 60 percent of the median threshold to use the NET rankings and then deciding not to use it when only one team didn't meet it. George Washington's 8 conference games falls below the threshold of 8.1 based on a median of 13.5. So they should be seeded 13th based on their NET ranking. Instead they are seeded 11th based on conference win percentage even though they didn't meet the threshold. 

My bad. For some reason I thought Richmond was 7-5 oh well. Thank you
 

 

3/02/2021 8:32 am  #19


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

 

3/02/2021 9:38 am  #20


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

How good is the A-10 now? The 7 seed beat Ole Miss. The 8 seed beat Kentucky. The 10 seed beat Seton Hall. Winning that tournament would be quite a feat, but I think the Dukes have a chance. The double bye would have helped, but the week off between the semis and finals make a four game run easier. As I've said many times before, there's not a team in the conference the Dukes can't beat. The only question is can they beat four of them in a row? I give them a 10% chance.

 

3/02/2021 9:51 am  #21


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

I'm just happy, and hopefully for more than one, I can watch a game(Thursday) while WFH.   A friday game would also present the same opp, so lets at least win 1, and get 2 games, and make the work week go by quicker.   :-)
If its chalky......Richmond/SBU/SLU/VCU....chances of pulling that off are slim, but we do have a chance.   

 

3/02/2021 10:59 am  #22


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Kind of the start of a new season. My minimum hope here is for a winning record for the season overall. In order for that to happen we need 2 wins in the tourney. Could  happen as could the Dukes winning the whole thing. I agree with luckymcd with the 10% chance of that happening. Maybe a 25-30% chance of getting 2 wins? We can hang with any team in the A-10 or lose to any team depending on which Dukes team shows up and match ups as well. Let's take Richmond!  Go Dukes!

 

3/03/2021 9:51 am  #23


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

As of today total silence from Spider Nation & the local media as to the status of Golden & Francis. Good sign for Duquesne. Over the past 40 years crap like this happened to Duquesne. The tide maybe turning on the bluff.

 

3/03/2021 11:29 am  #24


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Ironduke81 wrote:

As of today total silence from Spider Nation & the local media as to the status of Golden & Francis. Good sign for Duquesne. Over the past 40 years crap like this happened to Duquesne. The tide maybe turning on the bluff.

https://twitter.com/RTDjohnoconnor/status/1367126572650618880?s=20
No. 8 Richmond heads into A-10 tournament Thursday against No. 9 Duquesne with two ailing starters: forward Grant Golden (broken finger) and guard Blake Francis (back, fell against Saint Joseph's Monday).

https://twitter.com/NoahGoldberg10/status/1366875798200868869?s=20
X-Ray on back/hip of @SpiderMBB’s Blake Francis came back negative and he will be a game time decision on Thursday morning, per Chris Mooney Dealing with a back/hip contusion

     Thread Starter
 

3/03/2021 12:41 pm  #25


Re: Thoughts on Dukes chances in the A-10 Tournament

Ironduke81 wrote:

As of today total silence from Spider Nation & the local media as to the status of Golden & Francis. Good sign for Duquesne. Over the past 40 years crap like this happened to Duquesne. The tide maybe turning on the bluff.

I am glad to see the Dukes getting another chance to play Richmond.  I want to see the Dukes crush them, and put a dagger in any post season dreams they may have. Dukes by 12, this time I mean it.  Go all the way Dukes! 
 

 

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