14/17 from foul line.   

But 16 pt diff in paint scoring. 

0 fast break points?   Is that accurate?

Once our guys started playing good defense, they came back.  IDK what it will take for them all to realize their defense triggers their offense. 

Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships. 

Get back at it Friday.   Nothing is over, just getting started.  Win the next 2 and we’re all joyous!

Last edited by townsonkid (11/15/2023 9:44 pm)

I am very confident that this is going to be a successful season for the Dukes. I am also very confident that there will not be a storybook late-season run through the A-10  & NCAA tournaments with KD at the helm. 

He has gotten the players here & should be commended for doing so but, there are just too many coaches out there at equal or better programs that will out-coach him in individual games for the Dukes to string together 6 or 7 wins in March. 

Every one of KD's DU teams has been short on preparation, high basketball IQ, cogent substitution patterns, & discipline. This one is no exception. This being the case, a team would need to be significantly more talented than I think DU is capable of putting on the floor at this stage of development to overcome the preparation & in-game coaching deficiencies of this coach.

I find it telling that in 7 recruiting classes we have not seen one player sign with Duquesne that is similar to any of Princeton's 5 starters. Why is it that the coaching staffs at  Princeton, Davidson, Richmond, Marshall, Loyola, etc... can get these players but KD & crew cannot? 

I am 100% sincere when I write that this is going to be fun & rewarding season to be a Dukes fan. I am going to enjoy it.

I forgot to add that these ARE NOT the same old Dukes. These guys are more talented, experienced, & together than any team at this school for at least a dozen years.

Wildwood13 wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

Wildwood13 wrote:

After a timeout, is that the best play the Dukes could come up with at the 30 second mark ?

We got Jimmy Clark iso'd at the free throw line.  I'll take that 10 times out of 10.  Clark made the wrong decision, but he makes the right decision more times than not.  If we're going to go down, I'd gladly go down with the ball in his hands.

Unbelievable effort and resilience from the Dukes tonight.  This arena has been built beautifully, but I'm still waiting for that home cooking to kick in.  We cannot get a good whistle, in first halves especially.  But even in the second, every time we got close, there were those three striped gentlemen to nip our runs in the bud.  But our Dukes never quit, I really like this team.  When all the pieces fall into place, we are going to be very scary.  A one day prep for that Princeton offense is nearly impossible, but we looked as prepared as any Dukes team I've watched against it.  Great effort Dukes, that was a fun one.  Heartbreaking, but fun.

A play with no screens and a player getting double teamed with no options is your thought of a good play. Then to blame the referees, really ? Then to say one day to prepare for an opponent? Nothing but excuses from you. Are they improved, most definitely. Henderson was my choice of coach eight years ago. Dukes only led for 34 seconds of a home court game to a team equal to them. If that’s your idea of success in a seventh season than my hats off to you.

Why would we screen when Princeton was hard hedging screens all game?  Nobody in the country can guard Clark 1on1.  Why would we bring a second defender for them?  And sure those can be seen as excuses, or factors that contribute to the resiliency of these Dukes.  I am speaking to the latter.  As to the result of the game, we certainly had chances to win it through all of it.  We just didn't make enough plays to get over the hump.  That's basketball.

Inside scoring is nonexistent.  We had a shot, but no O from our bigs.  Don’t know what to say. The kid from Memphis was a high get, bad knee.  Nice size, hard playing, but can’t throw it in the ocean.  Coaching against Duquesne, I wouldn’t waste time defending any of them. .  So open on the roll, but it’s a sure turnover.  A real issue moving forward. And I love Duquesne.

CityDuke wrote:

Wildwood13 wrote:

CityDuke wrote:

We got Jimmy Clark iso'd at the free throw line.  I'll take that 10 times out of 10.  Clark made the wrong decision, but he makes the right decision more times than not.  If we're going to go down, I'd gladly go down with the ball in his hands.

Unbelievable effort and resilience from the Dukes tonight.  This arena has been built beautifully, but I'm still waiting for that home cooking to kick in.  We cannot get a good whistle, in first halves especially.  But even in the second, every time we got close, there were those three striped gentlemen to nip our runs in the bud.  But our Dukes never quit, I really like this team.  When all the pieces fall into place, we are going to be very scary.  A one day prep for that Princeton offense is nearly impossible, but we looked as prepared as any Dukes team I've watched against it.  Great effort Dukes, that was a fun one.  Heartbreaking, but fun.

A play with no screens and a player getting double teamed with no options is your thought of a good play. Then to blame the referees, really ? Then to say one day to prepare for an opponent? Nothing but excuses from you. Are they improved, most definitely. Henderson was my choice of coach eight years ago. Dukes only led for 34 seconds of a home court game to a team equal to them. If that’s your idea of success in a seventh season than my hats off to you.

Why would we screen when Princeton was hard hedging screens all game?  Nobody in the country can guard Clark 1on1.  Why would we bring a second defender for them?  And sure those can be seen as excuses, or factors that contribute to the resiliency of these Dukes.  I am speaking to the latter.  As to the result of the game, we certainly had chances to win it through all of it.  We just didn't make enough plays to get over the hump.  That's basketball.

First he could not beat that man one on one, when he lost the ball momentarily he got double teamed and turned it over. If he would have received a screen and got double teamed then he would know where the screener would be open for a clear shot. That’s basketball!!

The Dukes played a very well coached and talented team and played mostly even all night. Second half with our bigs inside, getting fouled had a big effect, but we could have had Princeton in big foul trouble if we kept it up. Still, our defense had Princeton commit shot clock violations quite a few times, but our 3's just didn't drop in like Princeton's did. It came down to the last play and we came up short. Could have gone either way. It was that close.

Does anybody think we should have called a timeout when we got the steal with 9 seconds left?  Ultimately, the look Drame got was as good as could be hoped for but I want a TO there. 

We really missed Tre tonight. Inside misses were frustrating. Dixon really showed me something tonight though. He is a scrapper.  I am not discouraged by this performance.  The bigs just couldn’t get a shot to fall all night. That won’t happen often. They made the plays to get good looks, just couldn’t finish.  With Tre back soon and Mahorcic on the way we’ll only improve there. Our guard play is outstanding. I’m optimistic.

I think sometimes those unscripted plays result in points moreoften than the drawn up plays personally.  Gives the defense less time to setup and prepare.

Here’s the link to Dave Mackall’s article.
https://triblive.com/sports/duquesne-handed-1st-loss-of-season-as-princeton-hangs-on/

I think Drame was indecisive both in not going more aggressively at the defender to force a call & in not pursuing a better angle for banking that in. He rushed a bit.

Phoenix is right; the defense was spot on. Drame was challenged enough to affect the shot without giving the refs a chance to call a foul.

Having written that, it was a good/correct pass by Clark resulting in a high percentage shot to win the game. Given how the majority of the game went, that was a heck of an opportunity. That defensive play to get the ball back was pretty spectacular given the circumstances.

This was a pivotal game, and one that you need to win at home.  The team made a furious comeback, but missed the short game-winner.  That happens, so someone has to win and lose! I give the guys credit for clamping down on Princeton and causing 4-5 shot-clock violations throughout the game.  Defensive intensity was great in the last 5-minutes.  Shooting however cost DU the game.
It occurred to me how much the officiating changed in this game in the mid-second half until the end.  In the first half it was just a plethora of little ticky-tacky touch fouls (mostly on Duquesne) that took F. Drame and Jimmy Clark off the court.  They seemed to try and compensate early second-half by hitting Princeton with some minor touch fouls, but in the last five minutes of the game, it was like a hockey game in which the NHL refs famously “swallow their whistles”.  It got pretty rough, which helped the Dukes in their comeback.  It was just alarming the differences in how the game was called from half-to-half. 
It was a strange mix of officials.  The short guy doesn’t make a lot of calls, but when he does, he usually makes the worst decisions.  He often made crazy calls from a distance, despite the fact that the plays occurred directly in front of another ref.  As a former official, you don’t like getting shown-up on calls by a guy on the other side of the court!  I’ll bet nobody wants to work with this guy, and I hate to see him work a Dukes game.  I would not be surprised if he was assigned to ensure the “correct”outcome of games.