After most wins I am real happy but  the loss to Davidson still hurts and the possibility of finishing seventh,
is just ridiculous. Dukes just terrible rebounding and defending around the basket  against quality players.
UMASS had their way with us in 2nd half.Doesnt bode well against Fordham.

Stew you are on the money we were out rebounded 41-28 and our smaller guards were badly exposed. The cover for that were 21 turnovers by UMass, our 12 steals and 22 assists. The two headed monster of Brewer/ Rozier had a decent night last night but in half of Brewers playing time McGriff nearly equaled his stats. 

Fordham took Brewer out of the game by using a bigger guard to harass him while bring the ball up court. I’m anxious to see what adjustments Dambrot is going to make to change that. They also have a power forward in Moore who like Kante tonight had his way inside. 

Grammy I like the plan!

grammudder wrote:

Dome;
I believe the adjustment will be to move Jimmy Clark to the point and have either "smurf guard" act as a 2-guard playing the right wing with Dae Dae on the left with our "bigs" on the blocks or elbows.  Clark responded with three very nice 3-pointers while playing the point. As a supplemental plan, Q  can be used as a point guard.  Coach has plenty of options  because of the team depth.  Umass tried a 1-2-2 trap press with little success last night. Coach's use of RJ and Austin Rotroff negated that effort by Umass along with negating their use of rough house tactics.  That is what I saw and liked.

Good idea, and get Brewer to shoot more 3's. It seems like he never misses.

The Dome wrote:

Stew you are on the money we were out rebounded 41-28 and our smaller guards were badly exposed. The cover for that were 21 turnovers by UMass, our 12 steals and 22 assists. The two headed monster of Brewer/ Rozier had a decent night last night but in half of Brewers playing time McGriff nearly equaled his stats. 

Fordham took Brewer out of the game by using a bigger guard to harass him while bring the ball up court. I’m anxious to see what adjustments Dambrot is going to make to change that. They also have a power forward in Moore who like Kante tonight had his way inside. 

1.  Dambrot needs to stop the dribble penetration which allows the other team to crash the boards.
2.  Gunn needs to pick up his game.  One rebound in 20 minutes doesn't cut it. He is a liability when he is not scoring.

 

KD is a coach that defies a lot of conventional wisdom by riding guys he trusts rather than those that are obviously giving a better performance in a given game. I have always had a love/hate relationship with this methodology because it seems to be successful a fair amount of the time but maddeningly unsuccessful other times.

For me, Gunn is the poster boy for this phenomenon. His shooting last night was bad, as was his interior defense & rebounding in a game that the Dukes struggled to master the lane. Yet, the Dukes were successful in holding off a spirited run & closed out the game with relative ease. Go figure.

While KD's assertion that Gunn's injury last season had a profound effect on the team's fortunes was/is clearly nonsense, RJ has proven to be a decent A-10 rotational player. Despite his poor shooting in the last 2 games, I still have a feeling that Gunn has a game or 2 left in him where he shoots the lights out making the Dukes near impossible to guard. Just a hunch.

2 of the real signs of progress for this season are the A/TO ratio & assist totals for the team. Rozier, Dae Dae, & Tevin are the obvious standouts in this department but, the fact that Reese & Williams both have positive ratios is such a great indicator of a team that is committed to sharing the ball efficiently. Q & Clark are also pretty impressive in this regard given their respective experience levels & playing styles. Check out the change from last season to this for Williams to get a sense of the progress made. Kudos to the coaching staff for this huge culture change!

I find it bizarre that Dae Dae, Rozier, Brewer, Gunn, & Q all have poor overall shooting percentages but good to outstanding 3PT shooting percentages. Better finishing in the lane is a real need for next season.

Gotta beat Fordham! This might not even yield a double bye but I think it would mark an awesome conclusion to a strong overall & conference season. The Davidson loss really sucked. This is an opportunity to show that that was not who this team is going into the conference tournament & next season!

With everything that's been said on this board over the season, both complementary and not so much, it's great to be playing a meaningful final game of the season!! GO DUKES!!

BTW, Saturday's game at Rose Hill is sold out. Don't see any tickets on the main resale sites either. If you're planning to go, I hope you got your tickets in advance. Prior to last year's 1-point loss there, Dukes had won 6 in a row and 8 of 9 at Rose Hill. Place will be rocking on Saturday though. Too bad it's not on national TV. Instead the A10 Saturday tripleheader on USA has Bonaventure-UMass in that slot. Brilliant. 

DennisC91 wrote:

BTW, Saturday's game at Rose Hill is sold out. Don't see any tickets on the main resale sites either. If you're planning to go, I hope you got your tickets in advance. Prior to last year's 1-point loss there, Dukes had won 6 in a row and 8 of 9 at Rose Hill. Place will be rocking on Saturday though. Too bad it's not on national TV. Instead the A10 Saturday tripleheader on USA has Bonaventure-UMass in that slot. Brilliant. 

They could change the national game though, don't you think?

 Coach has a couple days to figure out how to have success against Fordham's defensive scheme. Mason coach mentioned after his game with Fordham that is a scheme that you don't see with other teams. Dambrot explained after last game with Fordham what they were doing so hopefully he has a better plan on how to combat it.

Unfortunately both Fordham and ourselves were picked as conference bottom dwellers!  The A-10 is an absolute joke in comparison to non power 5 conferences. The league has very little juice with their TV partners. 

The Dome wrote:

Unfortunately both Fordham and ourselves were picked as conference bottom dwellers!  The A-10 is an absolute joke in comparison to non power 5 conferences. The league has very little juice with their TV partners. 

The power conferences are no better in predicting how a team will perform in season compared to its preseason ranking. Examples this year, North Carolina rated #1 in preseason AP pool and presently 7th in their conference. Duke rated 7th Ap now 5th in ACC. Kentucky 4th overall in AP presently 3rd in conference several games back of Alabama. Consequently Alabama not even rated but top team in SEC. Arkansas rated 10th in AP pool and 9th in conference. Creighton was selected 9th overall in AP and sitting at fourth in Big East. That is half of the preseason top ten that are performing miserably. Consequently there are many teams performing better than what the preseason pools suggested. It is not just the Atlantic 10 that is upside down. Pitt in the ACC is another example. Although the A 10 is and has been down for the last few years, I’m elated in the position the Dukes have placed themselves to date.

Motor wrote:

These TV games are set up months ahead of time. They are based upon last year’s results for Winning teams and those winners are probably the ones getting most games. Unlike the NFL who has the monster bucks to dictate changes this would be great to see but it’s not happening now.
When next years TV game contracts are negotiated Duquesne and Fordham will probably get their fair share of those based on this year’s results.
Let’s just win this one.
Go Duke’s

All true. But I don't think it would really be that hard to make the switch. It's not like they'd have to re-route a massive production crew, I'm pretty sure they mostly use local contractors in this day and age, no? Would just be a matter of re-assigning the announcers. I swear I recall in my own college years (late '80s-early '90s) they would routinely add new TV games to the schedule as the season went on. Oh well, their loss. I'm sure the half-empty Mullins Center in middle-of-nowhere western Mass. will look good on national TV vs. a jam-packed, rocking Rose Hill Gym in the nation's biggest media market.