Another rough one tonight.  The team has the cohesion of an intramural team.  This could be a long season.

I agree with the consensus about Jake.  My thought is run the offense through him.  He's a scorer and can do it many ways.  Force the other teams to stop him and let that open up opportunities for the rest of the team.  Right now this half court offense just ain't getting it done.

DiMichele highlights:
https://x.com/michalowskicbb/status/1859067101404655746?s=46

FAM wrote:

very disappointed in Dixon...had a dunk and was too timid to go to the hoop. this team has multiple issues and poor defense is one of them...

I was shocked when Dixon rolled to the hoop nicely, received a pass and appeared to be in clean for a dunk, but chose to kick it out to the corner for another long-range miss.  Another missed opportunity!  Likewise when the Dukes were on a roll thanks to some outstanding plays by Jake, they got called for a foul.  The shooter missed but the Dukes allowed an offensive rebound off a foul shot followed by a mother offensive rebound off a miss, then another 2-shot foul that was converted by Milwaukee.  Things just continued to break down after that series of mishaps.  Rozier also took a very bad three off the dribble for no apparent reason to further kill the Dukes comeback!
The team looks like a bunch of spare parts with little continuity at the moment.

Last edited by levon1975 (11/20/2024 12:02 am)

Im shifting my attention to womens basketball asDukes travel to Kent State.I get to see a team that might be
really good plus I love their passion and get to watch the second best player in history in Megan. Love the Paul Westhead style of play.Very entertaining.

It's hard to watch these games after last year's run.  They can't rebound, defend against the three, or create turnovers.  The offense looks out of sync.  The entire team just looks slow.  How many times has someone been out of position when the other team takes a three?  I remember one play from last night when a Duquesne player lost the ball, fell onto the court, and stayed there watching before making a slow effort to get to his feet and chase down the play which resulted in another Panther score.  Is it possible the pre-game practices are too intense and this is stealing the legs from the players?  I seem to remember that KD eased up on these a bit at one point during last year's season.
 

PSN Article and post game interviews

https://pittsburghsportsnow.com/2024/11/19/duquesne-mbb-falls-to-0-4-with-home-loss/

S.R.M. wrote:

Just a complete lack of production from the post players. Have any of them been in double figures all year? On top of no offensive production they are getting beat badly on the glass. I expected a big step up from Dixon and Necas and they have both regressed. Dinkins and DeMichele are the only two guys that brought any game tonight. At 0-4 against 4 bad teams it is tough to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Dambrot brought this team out of the dark ages and I really don't want to go back but this team is starting to give me Darelle Porter/Danny Nee vibes. At this point we are looking like the worst team in the A-10.

I think we can just view these early games as preseason games where the outcome doesn’t
matter. I doubt Duquesne would ever receive an at large bid anyway so A-10 conference is all that matters. I could stomach all 3 previous losses because they weren’t “bad” teams but last night was disheartening.  It’s a shame that Jake had to AGAIN prove himself to this coaching staff but clearly he had to and empirically he did.  He should start at the 2 or 3 for the rest of the season.  He was by far the best player on the court last night.  He was creative, explosive, and consistently made the right play. Dinkins looked good, hopefully he builds on that.  Rozier seems unable to consistently run a fast break or make creative plays at the point. He slows things down on offense and is too often a mismatch on defense.  I’m very disappointed DRU is using him this way when last year the team clearly took a big step forward when he played a more suitable back up role.  Sadly there are still too many question marks on this team and the biggest one is head coach. A trip to the islands might be just what they need to figure things out.  I still believe but after 4 games I wish I knew more about what we have.  Cam Crawford is still unknown to me but, he could be the X factor.  For now I can’t consider him - but here is my best 5 to start:

Dinkins
DiMichelle
Hronsky
Corbett (terrible last night, especially on D, but he can score)
Wilborn.

CLK wrote:

I am looking for Jake to have a big night.  He was hurt and didn't practice for 2 months before the season started.  I love this kid; he is a hard-nosed Pittsburgh kid.  G Dukes!

CLK, your call was right on.  Jake is almost back to full game strength; he did play all 20 minutes of the second half.  You could see that he was pretty gassed with 6 or 7 minutes left in the game, but I think Dru realized you could not take him off of the court.  It also looks like he has some good chemistry when Tre Dinkins is running the point.  I can see Tre and Jake starting, with Kareem coming off of the bench.

I don't particularly like the +/- stat in the box score, but it was pretty telling in last night's game.  Only 3 Dukes were in positive territory:  DiMichele +17.7, Dinkins +9.3 and Hronsky +0.2 (BTW, Hronsky at the top of the zone defense was effective slowing down Milwaukee; I liked the strategy and the defensive change).
Now, on the very negative side....  Crawford  -18.8, Corbett -18.1, Rozier -17.8, Edwards -11.5

It's evident that Edwards, Corbett and (now that we have seen) Crawford are really struggling to fit in and find their roles.  Rozier playing 36 minutes is almost coaching malpractice (I understand it; up to last night, we didn't know if Dinkins could run the point and Jake wasn't fully back).  

Finally, here are the bad offensive ratings from the game last night (100 is average):  Rozier 58, Corbett 71, Crawford 71, Dixon 79, Edwards 81 and Necas 93.  On the positive side, Wilborn 181, DiMichele 162, Dinkins 143 and Hronsky 100.

Milwaukee vs. Duquesne Box Score (Men), November 19, 2024 | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com
 

Iron Duke and Rayrich and others are on point.  This is a frighin joke losing to a team like this and now sitting at 0-4.  How many times do we have to say that Rozier is not a starting A-10 PG.  He is a great kid, but what haven't we learned Dru!!! When they finally started Clark at PG last year and gave Rozier the 10-15 a game we blossomed.  We should have recruited another PG, but I think Dinkins should be starting and is simply a better player.  I like Wilborn and DiMichele needs to be starting, clearly obvious.  None of the other transfers outside of Wilborn and Dinkins have showed me anything over 4 games.  Necas is in a funk, but maybe that is related to who he is playing with.  I liked when he was out there with Hronsky and Dixon, who also is in a funk, as Necas and and Hronsky at least know how to work the ball around.  Necas and Dixon need to play and just play better though.  The offense looks completely discombobulated and the D.....well, I can't count how many shots Milwaukee was able to get within 2 feet of the basket!  That one sequence that someone mentioned off a foul shot by Milwaukee was shocking - no boxing out and they get multiple rebounds and then get fouled a second time.  For the love of God, what is going on here!! We have ruined the momentum coming off our best season in 40 years!!!  

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

PistolPete wrote:

Iron Duke and Rayrich and others are on point.  This is a frighin joke losing to a team like this and now sitting at 0-4.  How many times do we have to say that Rozier is not a starting A-10 PG.  He is a great kid, but what haven't we learned Dru!!! When they finally started Clark at PG last year and gave Rozier the 10-15 a game we blossomed.  We should have recruited another PG, but I think Dinkins should be starting and is simply a better player.  I like Wilborn and DiMichele needs to be starting, clearly obvious.  None of the other transfers outside of Wilborn and Dinkins have showed me anything over 4 games.  Necas is in a funk, but maybe that is related to who he is playing with.  I liked when he was out there with Hronsky and Dixon, who also is in a funk, as Necas and and Hronsky at least know how to work the ball around.  Necas and Dixon need to play and just play better though.  The offense looks completely discombobulated and the D.....well, I can't count how many shots Milwaukee was able to get within 2 feet of the basket!  That one sequence that someone mentioned off a foul shot by Milwaukee was shocking - no boxing out and they get multiple rebounds and then get fouled a second time.  For the love of God, what is going on here!! We have ruined the momentum coming off our best season in 40 years!!!  

Good points, PistolPete.  Heading into the Cayman tourney, here is what my rotation would be based on what we have seen so far in the 4 games (I don't have the luxury of watching practice, but I suspect that it is not significantly different than what we have seen).
Starters:  Dinkins, DiMichele, Hronsky, Necas and Dixon.
Top guard substitution:  Rozier
Top center substitution:  Wilborn
 At the 3/4 positions, give playing time to whoever earns it by being solid defensively and shares the ball. Make Edwards, Corbett and Crawford compete to earn their playing time.  Edwards is a much, much better player than what we have seen so far.  Corbett is a scrapper but gets lost defensively way too much (reminds me a little bit of Foussenyi Drame's struggles in the first half of the season last year). I'm not sold on Crawford; he looks a little soft and over his head a bit. 1 or 2 of these guys hopefully would step up to this challenge.

That is my starting line up. Jake at the 2 will make things happen like a combo guard  that would take some presser of of Dinkins.  Last years players were lock down defense, but have yet to play as a starting unit. That is something NO ONE expected. We paid to see our team play, but at this point, we are watching first year transfers and a bench point guard playing? No one expected this. That trophy was earned by the very players that have been treated like bench players so far this season. That includes Dixon at just 16 minutes last game. After a 0-4 start, lets start playing the real Dukes. If that sounds harsh, just look at our record. It's not harsh, it's the truth.

Last edited by NapaDuke (11/21/2024 10:41 am)

levon1975 wrote:

I think we are seeing some revisionist history being practiced on this board.  First -off the concern with Jake being shortchanged on minutes, is kind ridiculous since he clearly stated that he missed a month and a half of practice prior to the season, and was not in playing shape when the season started.  So you can conclude that his minutes would have been limited until his legs and wind could handle more playing time. 

Furthermore the comparisons to defense being a priority during the Dambrot  years are misguided in my opinion.  I recall the Dambrot Dukes being victims of more than one fifty-point halves where there was literally no defense being played. Recall the Marshall visit to The Coop two years ago.  The first half was a layup drill for Marshall.  The Dukes were also largely helpless defensively in the New Mexico State game the same year.  There were also games where the Dukes basically fouled nearly every defensive trip in the second-half of losses. 
I think we all want to remember how well the Dukes played down the stretch last year, and tend to forget that there were many rough times through the other six years. 
Let’s give this team and Coach the same consideration that we gave the previous teams under KD.

Dambrot’s Dukes averaged 69 points against over his 7 seasons. Any time you hold a team under 70, that is very good in college basketball and gives yourself a chance to win.

Our Dukes last year held opponents to just 66 ppg. That defense is why we won so many games even when our offense struggled. Bonnies at home and VCU in championship come to mind.

Posters aren’t revising history, we just want to see that same defensive prowess from this year’s Dukes. I think they are capable of it! I still believe.

levon1975 wrote:

That’s my point.  You are comparing stats compiled over seven years with four games in season one!  As I mentioned Dambrot’s teams were downright awful at times during those years, but the stats evened out over a seven year stretch.  Let’s not forget the team that went 6 and 24.  Do you think they played great defense?

And to add to this, the larger point I believe is that it took KD’s ‘23/‘24 Dukes almost 20 games to get to the point where they were a shutdown defense.  I’m disappointed in a lot so far but I am confident that Dru, who was supposedly the guy behind the defensive turnaround last year, will get these guys there this year. We’ve actually seen glimpses. Against Princeton and against Milwaukee at times the defense was great. They just need to all buy in and put it together for 40 minutes. I believe that is likely

It is the offense that needs to find an identity…

CityDuke wrote:

levon1975 wrote:

I think we are seeing some revisionist history being practiced on this board.  First -off the concern with Jake being shortchanged on minutes, is kind ridiculous since he clearly stated that he missed a month and a half of practice prior to the season, and was not in playing shape when the season started.  So you can conclude that his minutes would have been limited until his legs and wind could handle more playing time. 

Furthermore the comparisons to defense being a priority during the Dambrot  years are misguided in my opinion.  I recall the Dambrot Dukes being victims of more than one fifty-point halves where there was literally no defense being played. Recall the Marshall visit to The Coop two years ago.  The first half was a layup drill for Marshall.  The Dukes were also largely helpless defensively in the New Mexico State game the same year.  There were also games where the Dukes basically fouled nearly every defensive trip in the second-half of losses. 
I think we all want to remember how well the Dukes played down the stretch last year, and tend to forget that there were many rough times through the other six years. 
Let’s give this team and Coach the same consideration that we gave the previous teams under KD.

Dambrot’s Dukes averaged 69 points against over his 7 seasons. Any time you hold a team under 70, that is very good in college basketball and gives yourself a chance to win.

Our Dukes last year held opponents to just 66 ppg. That defense is why we won so many games even when our offense struggled. Bonnies at home and VCU in championship come to mind.

Posters aren’t revising history, we just want to see that same defensive prowess from this year’s Dukes. I think they are capable of it! I still believe.

Statistics are odd.  Was KD a very good defensive coach?

Dukes yearly defensive rating Dambrot era out of 362 teams
17-18 through 23-24
-146
-136
-96
-89
-302
-162
-59

I’d say he was a decent defensive coach but if you take away last season probably not even.  I might side with revisionist history on this one