Fordham and GW going into triple Overtime. 102-102.

Duquesne exposed.The front line is horrible,lots of depth but no consistent offensive threat.Too much pressure on Grant and Clark to produce points and Clark seems to be regressing with his outside shot.
Rozier too small, a defensive liability and not a consistent 3 point threat.Just dissappointed.

I’m not going to overreact to this terrible loss. Seems we always lose in Amherst. My takeaways:

1. Clark and Grant can be neutralized by a good coach. They tried to “take over” the game when nothing else was working and UMass executed an effective defense to not allow it. KD could not counter.

2. The Drames disappointed. I was surprised by everyone’s excitement when they came here because they didn’t even start on one of the worst teams in the A-10 last year but I assumed more knowledgeable basketball fans knew better than me. They impressed me in non-con games but clearly they can’t score in the A-10. They need to stick to doing the dirty work and let the others score.

3. Reffing was fair but bad. No one wants to watch that game. Players need to recognize the game is being called that way and adapt but the refs also need to relax a little and let them play.  Jimmy seems to have gotten it under control but Kareem and Dixon just foul when they get beat on a play. 

4. I was really surprised that after 12 warm ups the offense looked hat out of sync. I’ve never been strong reading the Xs and Os of the game but it was clear even to me that they had a better game plan.  They knew Jimmy and Dae Dae were our meal ticket and they, for the most part, shut them down.  We had no answer to their press and they gave our guards no room to work. There was never enough time to get set. They did that all game and KD had no answer. Disappointing.

I think we will be OK.  Welcome to A-10 play.

So, if you are going to get blown out and suck, better to do it in the first game of conference play on an away court...and I'm being serious.  I didn't expect them to go undefeated this year so I'm going to say it was only one game.  They now have about 23 things to work on....  Let's see how the next game goes.
Go Dukes!

This shouldnt happen(blown out) when you have seven 5th yr players.   I mean, c'mon, what are we doing here?   Their 2 best players, one sat most of the night with foul trouble and the other took 2 blows to the head, looked woozy, and yet still came back in and schooled them.   
Time to move beyond the Drame experience.
I can also see why KD never plays zone, that was pathetic.   Another reason not to get into foul trouble.

This team is going nowhere playing the same rotation at the 3-4-5 spots.  Necas needs to get as much time as possible at the 3-4.  He’ll have his moments and make mistakes, but he has potential to become a solid player.  Guys in their 5th or 6th year aren’t suddenly going to improve miraculously.  Play Necas!

FAM wrote:

Coach D said this would happen...folks unhappy with playing time.  I imagine either the game last night...or if they lose the next one, he will get so angry that he will not worry about playing time and just go with what he thinks.  But because they are deep, albeit not excellent players deep, this will be a continuous problem all year in terms of folks not happy because they aren't playing.  I don't remember this team being this deep in his 7 years.  So, he and coach Dru need to figure it out.

Last year, Duquesne destroyed VCU at home. After that beating VCU cleaned up its act and went on to win the A10 tournament. There is too much talent on this Duquesne team to fold. The Dukes can do the same this year but need to get it together.

The Dukes need to clean up their transition defense. Way too many easy baskets in transition last night.

The Dukes also need to do a better job stopping the dribble penetration. The Umass guards, especially their point guard just ate us up.

We need to have better play at the point. I am not one who will point fingers at any particular player, as I see this as a coaching problem. 

Finally, FAM, I absolutely agree with this, it seems to me that Dambrot is trying too hard to make everybody happy.  What were the words of the Ricky Nelson song..."you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself".  Dambrot needs to ask himself what he wants if this is his last season.  Does he want to win a championship, or just be an also ran but a nice guy?  Dambrot needs to play his best players, and if he doesn't know who they are by now we are in trouble.  The players also have to ask themselves what do they want? Guys who want to play have to step up and earn it. They are entitled to nothing, and the coaches need to make sure they understand that. Based on last night's play, there are only a couple of guys who earned it.  I am not giving up on this season or team but would be lying if I said I am not pissed at the coaches. Not because they lost, but how they lost.
 

Is there a post-game press conference available to watch for last night's game?

Thanks but I was hoping to hear what KD's thoughts were.

https://triblive.com/sports/diggins-scores-16-as-massachusetts-downs-duquesne-80-61/

This was an embarrassing loss; shattering our high expectations for the year and it was a conference loss.  Glad it is still early in the conference to turn this around.  The Dukes haven't played a solid game since Marshall; and the Santa Clara game was arguably the Dukes worst loss of the year.

And we are now exposed at the 4 and 5 positions; and at the 3 when the Dukes play 2 guards. It's on video so more coaches are going to exploit the shortcomings unless the coaching staff figures this out now.

The 4 position should not be a weakness; you have to play Savrasov the bulk of the minutes.  He is fundamentally sound, plays good defense, can take the ball strongly to the basket, is a good passer, etc.

Dixon has way too much talent to put up two abysmal performances and stat lines vs. Santa Clara and UMass.  In the UMass game, the only numbers in his stat line in 10 minutes were 4 personal fouls and 1 turnover.  Nothing else.

As most of you have figured out by now, I am a huge proponent of advanced stats.  I especially like to review them after I have watched a game to support/question what my eyes have seen.  Take a look at the advanced box score from the UMass game and pay attention to the BPM (Box Plus or Minus) stat.  It confirms what many have commented in this thread about some individual performances or lack thereof.

Advanced Stat Box Score - Customizable College Basketball Tempo Free Stats - T-Rank (barttorvik.com)
About Box Plus/Minus (BPM) | Basketball-Reference.com



 

phil95 wrote:

I couldn't agree more about Savrasov.

I do not think that Rozier should be benched. However, I do think he should be playing quite a bit less unless he happens to be having a great game. Even when that is the case, I think he should top out at 25 or so minutes per game so that a player can be established at the 3.
I won't go into the details as to why I feel this way about Kareem because that seems to piss posters off but, rest assured, I believe that in order for this team to thrive, Rozier will have to & is capable of making a strong contribution.

Realistically, the only candidates I see for that 3 spot are Nekas & Hronsky. Unfortunately, neither one of them has the requisite experience to be an immediate solution. Do other posters have ideas about who else could be an effective 3?

F.Drame is versatile and re watching the UMass game, first half, he was effective. In a 2 guard offense, he (not all game) would seem to be a good fit. I haven't seen Hronsky get enough playing time this year to make a guess what he is capable of.