Let's get some reality here....
a.  The teams Duquesne beat were not very good
b.  The teams that beat us...Kentucky and Marshall were very good and this team was rated around where we were in Ken Pom.
c.  It's a long season and it is early.

This team isn't anything like last year's team...patience my friends.
 

CLK wrote:

The way this team is playing in the past two games has been awful, and it is not just that the competition is better.  I totally agree with what luckymed said in his post in the game day thread.  There is a complete breakdown of fundamentals and it really is like watching last year's team. I don't know why, but there is very little
visible  signs Of coaching happening right now. Dambrot better figure it out quickly. I would encourage you to read luckmed"s post.

Here is a link to Dambrot's post
game interview. In his comments on  rotation here is my suggestion.  Start Brewer assuming he is healthy, with Grant, Clark. Dixon and Reece.  Bring in Rotroff and Williams off the bench but avoid them being in together if possible.  Play McGriff as at the SG or SF not the point. McGriff should get more minutes,and limit Hronsky's minutes as he is not ready. Reduce your rotation to nine guys including Rozier until Gunn returns.  Play these 10 guys. Finally teach them how to play a zone.

https://twitter.com/DuqMBB/status/1602093704961048584?s=20&t=giUl4ek6DRe4jirLKMWVvg

CLK wrote:

CLK wrote:

The way this team is playing in the past two games has been awful, and it is not just that the competition is better.  I totally agree with what luckymed said in his post in the game day thread.  There is a complete breakdown of fundamentals and it really is like watching last year's team. I don't know why, but there is very little
visible  signs Of coaching happening right now. Dambrot better figure it out quickly. I would encourage you to read luckmed"s post.

Here is a link to Dambrot's post
game interview. In his comments on  rotation here is my suggestion.  Start Brewer assuming he is healthy, with Grant, Clark. Dixon and Reece.  Bring in Rotroff and Williams off the bench but avoid them being in together if possible.  Play McGriff as at the SG or SF not the point. McGriff should get more minutes,and limit Hronsky's minutes as he is not ready. Reduce your rotation to nine guys including Rozier until Gunn returns.  Play these 10 guys. Finally teach them how to play a zone.

https://twitter.com/DuqMBB/status/1602093704961048584?s=20&t=giUl4ek6DRe4jirLKMWVvg

There has been plenty of time between the last 3 games in addition to the off-season & preseason practices to successfully implement a solid, half-court, zone scheme. There has also been ample opportunity to get real game reps during the first 6 games of the nonconference slate.

This does not have to be the base defense!

Another poster recently wrote that the defense being played does not look like a KD team. I respectfully disagree. This is exactly what the defense has looked like for 5+ seasons.

KD hasn't made a legitimate attempt at effectively mixing zone in previous years & is never going to. He has been stubborn & foolish about this issue for his entire time at DU. His references to zone defense in his press conferences can only be characterized as BS or delusional. Despite mediocre to crap results, he continues to run the same things with similar results.

For the last 3 games the opposition has taken away the basic actions that made the DU offense so explosive earlier in the season while Dae Dae's heroic shot making has come back down to earth. This has made the poor, predictable team defense played by the Dukes stick out against stronger opponents.

There is absolutely no doubt that,top to bottom, this is KD' deepest, biggest, most talented, & most experienced Dukes team. Why are the defensive shortcomings the same as the previous seasons?

Early in the season Coach D said he was going to press a lot and get them in shape for conference play. I wonder how he feels about this strategy with the injuries affecting how much we press sometimes. He specifically said he wanted to press because they are deep with talent and then everyone would play, therefore making everyone happy. The 10:40 system could be an interesting experiment although I don't think its the answer.

Steele & MHughes are the only players from that 19-20 over 6' 5" with more than 130 total  minutes over the course of 30 games.
While Weathers was very good at several things, that team was always effected defensively due to his being under sized. At 6' 8" MHughes was also undersized for an A-10 center. 
Due to injury & coaches decision, Rotroff played 73 of his total 128 minutes in just six games. In 13 of the 24 games he was available for, he played less than 5 minutes. In the other 3 he had DNPs.
James Ellis only played 11 total minutes

Presuming Barre & Gunn make contributions this year's team has all of these guys that are A-10 size, skill, athleticism, & quality at their respective positions:
-Reece 6' 8"
-Williams 6' 7" with 7' wingspan
-Gunn 6' 7"
-Rotroff 6' 10"
-Dixon 6' 9"
-Barre 6' 9"
-Hronsky 6' 8"
-McGriff 6' 6"
-Clark 6' 3"
-Dae Dae 6' 2"

While Brewer is undersized, he definitely fits the A-10 bill & Rozier makes a real contribution that far outstrips that of Evan Buckley or Ashton Gibbs

Even without Gunn & Barre, this team has more size talent & depth than 19-20's group of contributors that played .
-MHughes, Sin, Ashton Gibbs, Lamar Norman, TDM, Steele, Weathers, & Maceo

 

10:40 is not in Dambrot's DNA, kind of like zone defense.   The coaching limitations might be the downfall of this team.

Last edited by townsonkid (12/13/2022 9:34 am)

Maybe teams do do it, just not the famous ones.   IDK.   IDC really.   Wasnt my suggestion to use it.   Just said Dambrot wont.   Nothing changes really, except the names on the back of the jerseys.   Their defense is terrible.   Fixing that would go a long way to becoming a better team.

townsonkid wrote:

Maybe teams do do it, just not the famous ones.   IDK.   IDC really.   Wasnt my suggestion to use it.   Just said Dambrot wont.   Nothing changes really, except the names on the back of the jerseys.   Their defense is terrible.   Fixing that would go a long way to becoming a better team.

Yes, most top teams play fast and run over half court play. Marshall sure did. It's the samething as 10-40,  just not as apparent as a full 5 man rotation every 4 minutes, but the same effect. RE only ran 10-40 the first 2 years because he took a lot of heat for running that 10 man rotation. Still his teams were running high scoring teams even without using the 10-40 . It's not going to happen with KD. He has the players to do it, but it's not in him to speed up the play.