Welcome to SHOO-SHOO, RAH-RAH! The Duquesne Dukes Basketball Fan Message Board!
One of America's Great Message Boards - Any Inappropriate Posts Will Be Deleted!
A couple of plays that sum up the year, Meg steals a pass and has a breakaway layup and misses and Fatoue Pouye following the play, grabs the rebound and misses the putback Following a timeout with less than :30 left in the third quarter, Duquesne comes out and turns the ball over, St. Joe's comes down and buries a wide-open three to close out the quarter and a 21-point lead. Last edited by DU90 (3/03/2022 7:08 pm) DU:; For once we're in ALMOST Complete Agreement (sadly) You are CORRECT in the Scholarship Numbers -- Presently four are available -- If it is ANY consolation due to that "Free Year" that was given last year teams have to "cram that 14 player limit into 5 years as opposed to 4" So there could be more players than normal available. Look at the situation the guys are in -- They HAVE to Hope players will depart to try to add. Agree with you about shooters as you can't have enough good shooters that can stretch the floor and put pressure on the defense to defend the perimeter. This naturally opens up the inside and I've seen a lot of improvement from Precious to know that she can be one of the best post players to come to Duquesne. Last edited by DU90 (3/03/2022 10:34 pm) Thank you for your assessment DU90. I am not sold on Serafimoska either. She simply us not strong enough. Last edited by A83 (3/04/2022 1:40 pm) A83
CONGRATULATIONS COACH DRU JOYCE III
Offline
Disappointing end to a disappointing season
I said following the loss to St. Joe's Saturday, we would see if the coaches learned anything. Given the outcome, clearly we didn't learn much. St. Joe's didn't do anything different from what they did on Saturday. On offense, they moved the ball very efficiently and ran productive sets that led to easy baskets and open shots. On defense, they just played straight up m2m defense and forcing us to be more efficient on offense, which we couldn't overcome and every shot was contested.
I suggest the staff study the game films from the past two games with St. Joe's and implement the flex offense that they run. We couldn't defend against it. It requires discipline to run, but there is no reason why this team can't effectively run this offense as it will open up the inside for Johnson and Hamilton and lead to open looks for Meyers.
This is a video of how the offense should be run and if you watched the game, you saw St. Joe's execute it to perfection: and it was highly effective in the 4th quarter when we were trying to come back. Goal is to pass and screen to lead to the best possible open shot.
Our offense is too predictable, we just seem to pass the ball around the perimeter without a sense of purpose. Precious Johnson had a great second half and showed that she has the potential to be one of the best post players in the league. Pairing her up with another power forward next year will pay dividends. There is nobody on the roster today who can fill that role, as Hamilton is more suited to the small forward.
Best bet is to bring in a transfer that has the size and athleticism, similar to Pouye. We have two players coming in that are both guards and really need to bring in someone with size and strength to help inside. It will be very interesting to see who we are able to bring in next season, as we do appear to have a couple of open scholarships left now that Bazelak, Bovell, Bragg, Kalin, Pouye and Sole are exiting the program. With two scholarships accounted for, it would seem that we may have 4 to give.
Duquesne's record over the past 2 years is 16-28 and 10-17 in conference play. There must be dramatic improvement next year or the program risks falling to the depths of where the Pitt women's team is right now. And let's not forget that we lost to them on our home floor this year.
Offline
Re: Disappointing end to a disappointing season
Although I've never seen Lauren play -- Lauren and Fatou were added this year Ny and Lindsay departed-- Hoping the fact that Lauren was able to play significant amount of minutes in a better league is a positive indication of her abilitites. if nothing else that was a positive management in the portal.
The team NEEDS MORE shooters -- Hopefully Lauren, Olivia, Reilly and Dea (as well as any players that join the program between now and next season fit the bill). I DO believe there is a place for a "Halle Type" while not being an offensive force - can at least guard different types of players on the opposition. She probably took more charges than anyone - and came up with more loose balls than anyone (Megan gets steals) She is a Non-Scorer and you can have ONE on the floor -- having TWO invites scoring droughts.
My TWO main needs would be "an athletic wing player "similar to Fatou (as you mentioned) and a competent post player to back up/split time with Precious -- I'm not ready to give up on Snezhana yet. I'm not deluding myself into thinking we can get a TERRIFIC Post player -- those are few and far between.
Let me share this nugget with you about the portal -- Early in the year a local gal signed with Point Park -- she played 4 games at Alderson Broddas (sp) averaging 5 points per game -- and was a guard - While NOT the type of player DU would recruit - she said within a day and a half 62 schools had contacted her - so you can imagine how much attention a Fatou and/or a Lauren might attract.
And if nothing else - the teams two best returning players (Megan and Tess) both have 3 years of eligibility remaining.
Offline
Re: Disappointing end to a disappointing season
I do think we need more than just "shooters" as we need to improve our offense. We do a terrible job of setting screens. I don't know if we have set plays because it if we do, I don't recognize it. It seems to me that we don't have much of an offensive gameplan. I really want us to make a concerted effort at implementing a strategic offense, such as the flex that St. Joe's runs that can help us become more efficient. We tend to stand around on offense and just pass the ball with no purpose.
From what I recall from her high school days, Lauren is supposed to be a very good deep-shooter and her Xavier bio speaks to this. What I don't know is if she is as solid as a defender as say Halle Bovell. If she can defend she will challenge for starting role.
Olivia Westphal is also supposed to be a strong shooter () who may have a game similar to Tess Myers. If she can knock down 3s but, you can imagine the challenges opposing defenses will have if she and Myers are on the floor at the same time.
Problem is, I believe both suffered ACL injuries this year and as we saw with Halle Bovell, coming back from these injuries is not a guarantee. Reilly Sunday played this season after missing all of last year due to the torn ACL and from what I have heard about her, she is a PG with a scorer's mentality. I think her game may be very similar to Libby's.
I don't know anything about Walker's injuries, but I do know from highlights that I've seen, she is very athletic with good length. I hope she can return to her previous level of success that she had in high school. Here is a highlight video:
I'm not sold on Serafimoska as being anything more then being a player who may give you a minute or two a game. She doesn't seem to have the strength to play at this level down low on defense. From what I did see of her limited playing time, she seemed to be confused and unsure of herself when on the floor. That being said, if the coaching staff can work on her to develop a foul-line jumper and a solid hook shot, she can be an effective role player. I just don't see her being an effective defender and can see her being foul prone.
I really do hope Tess continues to work on her game as it is very clear to me she did a lot of work in the off-season. I want her to add a cross-over dribble, jab-step and a ball-fake to her game this off-season. She had a play in the fourth quarter where the St. Joe's player ran out on her and she used a ball fake and then took a couple of dribbles and hit a mid-range jumper. She is very capable of becoming explosive scorer as teams know they need to guard her on the perimeter behind the 3-pt line, but if she can put the ball on the floor and hit the mid-range jumper, she will become that much harder to guard and the offense will be that much better as it opens up the middle for the bigs.
I saw Myers hit the game winner in the WPIAL Championship game when she was just a sophomore and it was nothing but net.
I love the athleticism of Amaya Hamilton and want her to be more aggressive when she is in the paint, she seems to fade away instead of going up strong to the hoop. I also want her to get familiar with the backboard and take advantage of it - it's there for a reason. I also want her to get her feet set before she shoots on the perimeter. She seems to be a much better shooter when her feet are set.
Saving the best for last: Meg, please add a mid-range floater to your game! It seems she is already aware of this () but not sure why she didn't use it throughout the year.
Everybody needs to work on their foul shooting as we are not a good free throw shooting team. Just as the players have room to improve, so must the coaching staff. •
Thread Starter
Re: Disappointing end to a disappointing season
When Bell was hired as an assistant, I thought it was a curious selection at best. He was brought on for his strong basketball IQ. I can’t speak to that.
The reason I think it was curious because you would want an assistant to have some ties to recruiting women. As a boys high school coach he had none of that. I really thought it would be April Robinson as an assistant. I really don’t get that hire.
Having said that, Burt is on a long leash for me. Disappointing season or not. I totally throw away last year with Covid. And this year he gets a pass from me due to all the injuries.
The comparison to White at Pitt is way off IMO. White is an astonishing 8-59 in ACC conference play and 32-79 in his 4 year tenure at Pitt. Their best player was let go with like 3 games left in the season. They are actually worse than SMS’s Pitt teams. They were actually playing fairly decent in out of conference this season. But they actually got much worse as the season went on.
Offline
Re: Disappointing end to a disappointing season
While I can't state this as definite - I'd like to comment on your raising the possibility of hiring April Robinson (who is arguably the second best player in school history behind Korie) I AM aware that she is presently working as a volunteer at Oakland Catholic -- I AM aware that she worked on Suzie's staff at Pitt.
DU presently has a staff member Karlee McBride - (she has been here one year -- I THINK Women's Basketball may have what was once known as a "restricted earnings/one year position) Stasia King had that role - she is now the Video Coordinator - - When Dan complimented her he made a remark "I'm probably going to lose her because she wants to be more active in coaching" The year before that Connor Richardson served for one year -- It's POSSIBLE that April's Experience at Pitt was IN THAT ROLE -- Why replace KIng with McBride?.
And if McBride leaves -- I would hope Laia could be considered -- I have no idea if Laia intends to return to Spain -- I have no idea if Laia is interested in coaching -- But it could be a positive to have her work with Precious (and any other big) Laia could tell her "You are bigger and stronger than I was -- You can establish position in the post much easier than I could" If you could develop your left hand a little and use it on the glass - you could possibly force the person guarding you to "guess which way she is going" and be more effective.
Perhaps with that Volunteer Role at Oakland- April is just helping out a friend -- I think she is connected with the Head Coach and might not be interested in the travel etc that a coaching position requires - perhaps she has a really solid every day job and is content.
I also was puzzled by the hiring of Bell-- he had spent time with the team at DU while he was following his son who was finishing up his career at Geneva -- I don't think he is involved in recruiting any more than the last offensive coach was -- I don't know how much Cheryl Lea is involved in it either -- I presume Abel does the bulk of it. Boys High School vs Women's College does seem like an ODD fit.
1 of 1