I feel for Cam - hopefully he’s able to turn the page.  The last minute of that game was great theater. Trey is a baller man. It was his defense that caused the Dayton player to step out of bounds.  His 3 pointer to cut it to two was clutch. His defense that caused the final turnover. And the final play?  Most times nobody is even able to get a shot that clean with that little time left but he did and damn if it didn’t almost fall.  I was really impressed with the fight in this team. They do not quit. Dayton is not an easy place to play and the Dukes played their hearts out and almost won. 

Necas can’t turn the ball over in that spot late.  He just can’t. The crafty, experienced, Key could see Necas was not protecting the ball and he pounced. That was a great play by him but Necas has to be stronger on the ball.  Necas played hard all day and contributed greatly but that error was almost as big as Cam’s. There’s really nothing to say about Cam’s mistake.  I can’t expect the coach’s to be reminding the players “if we get a steal and a basket it will be tied so don’t foul”.   You have to think it was assumed understood. Cam made a nice play to trap the Dayton player and then score the tying basket. The place was going crazy - he’s probably never been in that type of environment before - and he made a mistake. I’d love to know what he thought though. Did he think his basket only cut it to one?  There was a timeout before the inbounds. You’d think he’d have had to look at the score.

BluffHunter wrote:

Just got back to Pittsburgh. 8 hours of driving in a day for a 1 point loss. Ugh.

I know the feeling, BluffHunter. Did that same thing about 15 years ago when the Dukes had a chance to win it in regulation when the Dukes down 1 point went to the line with 3 seconds left to shoot 3 FT’s. Made the first, missed the next two; game goes to OT and Dayton wins by 6. Long ride home in grey, dismal weather.

Good for you to make the trip; Dayton Arena has always been one of the basketball meccas for me.

What is Anthony Grant whining about?  At the end of the game, it sure looked like some words were exchanged with Dru.

https://x.com/a10talk/status/1890895441060925948

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

What is Anthony Grant whining about?  At the end of the game, it sure looked like some words were exchanged with Dru.

https://x.com/a10talk/status/1890895441060925948

I don’t know what he was so angry about. Dayton fans can’t decide whether it was about the steal on the inbound to tie it up or Dinkins “push-off” on the final shot. Grant definitely looked to have something to say to Dru. After thinking about it my thoughts are that Grant was on a B line to the officials after the buzzer enraged and Joyce just got in the crossfire trying to shake his hand like coaches are supposed to after the game or something along those lines.

luckymcd wrote:

I don’t know specifically what he’s complaining about, but the officiating was awful. It certainly didn’t cost us the game (in fact it probably favored us if anything), but it was terrible. Just as Cam should know the score late, Grant should know the situation(and even moreso since he’s a coach). I credit him for quoting the Bible while representing a Catholic institution, but there’s a time and a place for complaining; and immediately after winning a tightly contested game is not it.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is the regular season is meaningless for us again. At this point it’s all about preparing for the tournament. So I’ll echo Napa and say this was a good game for us. Whether their record shows it or not Dayton is one of the best teams in the conference. We proved we could beat them even if we didn’t actually do it. It didn’t take a perfect game either. The shooting might have been on (at least early), but this was far from our A game.

His actions after this game is so much motivation for the Dukes when we meet this team on a neutral court in DC. I can make this a bit more clear. In Ohio, the Joyce name is basketball. This  coach just disrespected not just any coach but the coaching family of Ohio?  I would not be supprised that Lebron might be court side at the tourney to see DJ run over this team. Dru didn't get to DU to be a loser. We will win the A-10 this year because of Dru.  That's my take on this season. He recruited the best, and he took his time mixing the best, but at crunch time, he will be the master chest man. Coaching and recruiting mean nothing unless they embrace each other. Dru is a winner, Crawford  went to the sideline and Dru  embraced him and showed him he did everything to be the best.  I will take that kind of coaching any day to that crap head Dayton coach.   We have a real winning coach, Dayton doesn't.

Last edited by NapaDuke (2/17/2025 8:47 am)

luckymcd wrote:

I don't know about most of what you said Napa, but I do love the way Dru handled the situation. Cam obviously knew what he did and the gravity of it. Berating him at that point would serve no purpose. Embracing him ensures he'll give everything he's got for this coach and this team. I'm not saying he hasn't been to this point, but I think Cam will be a better player, Dru a better coach, and the Dukes a better team because of this game.

 It does sound like I rambled on a bit, but I had just watched his interview after the game. He didn't give any credit to our team  or our coach for  making a game out of it. He instead  went on that the refs made it a close game and they  favored our team? . No class.

Last thing I’ll say about officiating.  When Necas got called for a foul after Key stole the ball, that was a ticky tack foul at best. I slowed the play down and it took me 2 times to see Necas’ hand make contact with Key’s after the ball was headed out of bounds.  I don’t want to watch it again to see who the ball was out of bounds off of but if it was Key then Grant has nothing to complain about officiating.  That was a giant moment in the game and they got 2 FTs out of it.  If it was off Key it’s Dukes ball. No foul needed to be called there. So even though Grant didn’t get the last call, he got that one which was gigantic.  But, as I said before, the Dukes got their share of calls as well