The key to this game for Duquesne is to keep Grant Huffman out of the lane!  This is easier said than done as the 6’4” guard is very skilled at using a variety of fakes and misdirection to work into the paint and score, or set up teammates for easy baskets.  Huffman plays with an edge and isn’t above getting into some give and take with opponents.  He is clearly the guy that makes Davidson a formidable opponent. 
It looks like Skognan the bruising 6’10” forward may miss another game tonight with foot problems.  He can be very tough around the basket .
As usual against the Wildcats defensively Duquesne needs to defend the backdoor cuts, and they will often use Schulte to trail Huffman down the court and look for kick outs from Huffman when he penetrates.  Davidson also has a tendency to immediately attempt to answer an opponents 3-point play with one of their own.  Finally, if Skogman can’t go, Bailey the 6’10” soph will be a scoring option inside.  He has good instincts and gets good position to score close to the rim, so keeping him under control down low is a priority. 
That’s my take on the Wildcats after watching their Sunday loss at Loyola and my recollection of previous matchups.
As usual, this will be a nail-biter for the Dukes, so expect a tough battle from Davidson who has had success against Duquesne since joining the A-10.

Great stuff. Thanks for posting this.

levon1975 wrote:

The key to this game for Duquesne is to keep Grant Huffman out of the lane!  This is easier said than done as the 6’4” guard is very skilled at using a variety of fakes and misdirection to work into the paint and score, or set up teammates for easy baskets.  Huffman plays with an edge and isn’t above getting into some give and take with opponents.  He is clearly the guy that makes Davidson a formidable opponent. 
It looks like Skognan the bruising 6’10” forward may miss another game tonight with foot problems.  He can be very tough around the basket .
As usual against the Wildcats defensively Duquesne needs to defend the backdoor cuts, and they will often use Schulte to trail Huffman down the court and look for kick outs from Huffman when he penetrates.  Davidson also has a tendency to immediately attempt to answer an opponents 3-point play with one of their own.  Finally, if Skogman can’t go, Bailey the 6’10” soph will be a scoring option inside.  He has good instincts and gets good position to score close to the rim, so keeping him under control down low is a priority. 
That’s my take on the Wildcats after watching their Sunday loss at Loyola and my recollection of previous matchups.
As usual, this will be a nail-biter for the Dukes, so expect a tough battle from Davidson who has had success against Duquesne since joining the A-10.

MUST WIN. KEEP YOUR FOOT ON THE GAS.

Agree that shutting down Huffman will be huge.

Definitely owe Davidson a loss here at the Coop. Hope to be there to see a fairly close (within 10 points) win.
Would like to see more of Dusan tonight. Still don't have a good read on him. Can't really tell if he is still in rehab stage or just a bit slow to match up with quicker bigs. 
GO DUKES!!

El Presidente wrote:

Definitely owe Davidson a loss here at the Coop. Hope to be there to see a fairly close (within 10 points) win.
Would like to see more of Dusan tonight. Still don't have a good read on him. Can't really tell if he is still in rehab stage or just a bit slow to match up with quicker bigs. 
GO DUKES!!

Watched Dusan last year before his brutal injury at NC State. I am not a Doctor but I would opine rehab stage. I am sure Coach Dambrot will mix & match his bigs. I would like to see Savrasov back into the lineup. If you go back to the Dukes box scores beginning from Cleveland State to present he put up nice numbers, scoring, rebounds & steals. In fairness to Coach Dambrot box scores fail to note bad defense such as a failure to switch off a screen leading to an uncontested layup. If anyone on this board is pathetic as me to go on espn review box scores from the beginning to the present Savrasov out performed 1/2 the team. At this stage Coach Dambrot is no doubt balancing playing time based on the recent win streak. Go Dukes

StillatShales wrote:

This came up in the other thread last week, but I am still in the camp of I'm cool with 0 to minimal minutes for Savrasov. And if the last game was the blueprint, no reason to insert him more now just because. I'm also a putz and looked a bunch of box scores across this year, in A10 play he completely vanished, and his play was along the lines of a bull in a China shop in that initial span. It's a different animal as you all know in the A10. But speaking of animals I do want more and more Dusan, the guy is a beast. Even if it's a slow crawl, he could a major factor by the A10 Tourney, IF we can get him back to 100% or close to it. And sorry for the retreads, but I am also a fan of the rotation and number of guys used our last game (10). In theory, I would even like to get that down to 9... but I'll take it. Now we have that "set", leave it that way, and build on it. I'll be there tonight; I was there last year when we "should have" won towards the end of the year. I want this game bad. I challenge the folks on the board to get there if you can. Hide your kids, hide your wife, and get to the Coop. Let's start making that place a tough place to play.

Nice post. I would like to see Dusan make more conventional moves on the post up and pivot instead of acrobatic hook style shots.
 

Last edited by BluffHunter (2/07/2024 4:08 pm)

35 pts in a half to the Hickory Hoosiers.   Yikes!

Grant 1-8
Clark 1-5

Not going to win many like this. Need them to get going!

Let me preface this by saying Clark is my favorite Dukes player since Norm Nixon. But man, him and Grant just did not show up today. Frustrating performance, but good to see Dimichele and Dixon continuing to progress. Got to beat the Bonnies!

Moment of the game: we cut the deficit to 4, Clark steals the ball, gets fouled, and misses the front end of the one and one.

Honorable mention: 6 point game (I think), great defense in the low post by Savrasov, shot airballs directly to Drame, and he drops it right to the Davidson players for a layup.

As bad as we were, we still had chances to win the game. Did we deserve to? Absolutely not.

This might seem like I'm picking on him. Savrasov missed 3 "crucial" FTs towards the end. Where in the past, he's not that bad, was tonight under the bright lights. But agree that Clark missing the front end on the 1 and 1 was the start of the end. Jimmy and Dae Dae combining for 9 points isn't going to win us many games either. Dusan played for his usual 2.5 mins and was done... did he get hurt again? I saw him on the bike a lot and guys patting him on the back. But yes bright spots from Jake and Drame tonight... but this is a bad loss. Favored, at home, and Davison wasn't shooting "that well" to beat us by 13. Sorry not sorry for jumping on this train again but we don't need to play 12 guys! (I know Grant was in foul trouble but still) Even though... I thought Necas played some nice minutes tonight. Regardless, the thing that kind of bugged me towards the end, yes Grant has four fouls, but you don't wait till 2:20 left, and now your down 10 to put him back in. He finally made a three "recently" and even though he was very off tonight... he's really the best chance of making big shots to come back. As soon as the clock went past 5:00 he should have been at the scorers table... I'll even give you at the 4:00 mark. That is on KD, there is waaaaaaay too much tinkering happening this late in the year. I have to watch the post game presser for more thoughts, but this was tough. Now you face two very hard games back to back where you hope to win one. They better shoot FTs until the cows come home before then. In the meantime, as always I stay optimistic, maybe they'll pull an upset one of these next too. I'll keep watching and keep screaming my head off trying to secure victory.

Side note... not that the refs were "awful" but in the second half I saw three shooting fouls, one I actually heard skin slapping from the seats, with no call. Can we just pay Jimmy the Greek to get some refs in here that give us some home calls! Sure seems every away game we play, the opposing team gets them.

Sorry my posts are long. I'm done, I'm just passionate about these guys and this team. Beat the Bonnies Saturday, and I'll forget this game, promise 😁.

One team was prepared, had  a good understanding of how they needed to execute to win this game.  They know how to beat Duquesne.  Duquesne on the other hand looked mostly clueless, couldn’t do anything to  make Davidson uncomfortable on offense or defense.  Three back door cuts for layups in the first half alone tells me that Duquesne didn’t scout well or prepare for Davidson.  One thing everyone knows is that you can’t get caught ball-watching against Davidson, but Duquesne paid no attention.  There was a glaring lack of fundamental basketball compared to a team that knows it must stress fundamentals to win.  This of course is just Deja vu.  It repeats itself every time they lose to Davidson and Richmond.  Now have lost 11of 12 to Davidson! Pathetic

Last edited by levon1975 (2/07/2024 10:21 pm)