luckymcd wrote:

I don't mind a game or two against this caliber of competition, especially at this time of year; but if it's even close we're in trouble starting next week.

JD's team has got to show some solid defense and I hope, some aggressive defense too.  This Dukes team needs to win by 20 plus tonight.
 

I am not a betting man, but if I was, the Dukes as 20.5 point favorites seems like a stretch.


Canisius wants to play sloooow, does a very good job of defending the 3pt line, & does a poor job of defending 2s. I want to see the Dukes impose their will by pushing the pace & going to the rack tonight.

phil95 wrote:

I am not a betting man, but if I was, the Dukes as 20.5 point favorites seems like a stretch.


Canisius wants to play sloooow, does a very good job of defending the 3pt line, & does a poor job of defending 2s. I want to see the Dukes impose their will by pushing the pace & going to the rack tonight.

I'm also not a gambler, but I'm seeing the same thing you do. I'll say the Dukes win 78-65, but I hope it's not that close. Go Dukes!

I don't think it is at all unusual for Dru/Duquesne to leave difficult topics unaddressed.

According to Benz, Hugley is not in the building, hasn't practiced, & is not in Pittsburgh.

phil95 wrote:

I don't think it is at all unusual for Dru/Duquesne to leave difficult topics unaddressed.

According to Benz, Hugley is not in the building, hasn't practiced, & is not in Pittsburgh.

They certainly aren't going to bring it up. It’s disappointing (although maybe not surprising) that they haven’t been pushed for details. Arguably your team’s best player isn’t even in uniform and nine days later the only statement is that it was a “coach’s decision.” That’s not normal for even mid-major teams. Is it a basketball decision, or is there something going on off-court? If it’s the latter is it injury or discipline? I won’t be surprised at all if we get more non-answers whenever it is addressed. Usually you can read between the lines with those type of answers though. It shouldn’t take this long.

Dixon had one of his CRAZY dunks that might make the ESPN top 10... 100 plus points.  Curious as to why Aekins did not see action.

Well I'm very happy to have been wrong on my pregame prediction of not covering the spread. The Dukes went out and doubled it. They did exactly what you need to do against lower competition. Set the tone defensively, spread the scoring around, don't ever let the opponent back in the game, and get the walk-ons in late. Hopefully it's not just a matter of playing a bad opponent, but when combined with the Nevada game I don't think it is. Hopefully that prediction is more accurate than my pregame one.

When they showed Billy & his family courtside the handsome graphic that Ellis Cannon enjoyed so much showed someone else's  career stats. I think some of them were Damian Saunders' numbers.

luckymcd wrote:

phil95 wrote:

For those of you watching the live stream, did you notice anything strange about the graphic they put up when Billy Clark was shown with his family courtside?

I didn’t notice anything there. What I did see was the irony of Tim Benz saying “what happened there” on an unrelated topic right as the video feed dropped out very early on.

A couple of non-basketball highlights from tonight thanks to Bill Clark's kids.  

The first came when the cheerleaders promoting Sunday's $1 hot dog deal threw some hot dogs into the crowd and Bill's son got one.  His joy was just incredible!

The second came after the cheerleaders did the t-shirt toss.  Bill's daughter was disappointed that she didn't get a t-shirt then the Lion mascot came over and took off his hat and had Bill's daughter reach into it.  She pulled out a t-shirt and her joyful reaction was even greater than her brother!

Great fun at Cooper Fieldhouse tonight!

phil95 wrote:

When they showed Billy & his family courtside the handsome graphic that Ellis Cannon enjoyed so much showed someone else's career stats. I think some of them were Damian Saunders' numbers.

You've got some eagle eyes Phil! I went back and paused the stream, pulled up the Dukes media guide, and you're right. The first graphic they showed was mostly right. Clark did score 1,628 points, play in 126 games, make 227 3-pointers, have 680 rebounds, and start 100 games. Some of the ranks were off though. His 1,628 points are 8th in Dukes history, not 7th like the graphic showed. The 227 3-pointers 5th, not 3rd. The 100 starts are 11th, not 10th. Credit Tim Benz for having the right numbers, and reading them off accurately, but the production team got them wrong on the graphic.

When they zoomed out and went to a second graphic, almost all of those numbers were wrong. He did average 16.3 points per game his senior year, but not for his career. He never even approached 8 rebounds per game for even a season, much less his career. The third stat had a typo, so I don't even know how wrong it was. It was written as "2.STL" Again he never reached 2 steals per game for even a season, but I suspect it was supposed to refer to assists, the typical third stat. The only number the second graphic got right was that he played in 126 out of 128 games.

I have no idea where the numbers on the second graphic came from. The only one of the 133 players the media guide lists career stats for that averaged 16.3 points per game was Tom Pipkins, but the other numbers don't match Pipkins' career. Dennis Cuff, Damian Saunders (more kudos to you), and Ovie Soko averaged 8.0 rebounds per game, but none of the other numbers match their's except for Saunders averaging 2.2 steals and assists per game (if one of those was what the graphic was supposed to say).

I don't know why you spend the time to put those graphics together if you're just going to get most of the numbers wrong. I credit you for noticing it though. Just add it to the list of blunders the production team has had. I assume I wasn't the only one who missed the first four minutes of the second half on the stream. It went straight from the halftime "commercial break" to Dambrot in the stands to the Dukes inbound at 15:56. 

VBC wrote:

A couple of non-basketball highlights from tonight thanks to Bill Clark's kids.  

The first came when the cheerleaders promoting Sunday's $1 hot dog deal threw some hot dogs into the crowd and Bill's son got one.  His joy was just incredible!

The second came after the cheerleaders did the t-shirt toss.  Bill's daughter was disappointed that she didn't get a t-shirt then the Lion mascot came over and took off his hat and had Bill's daughter reach into it.  She pulled out a t-shirt and her joyful reaction was even greater than her brother!

Great fun at Cooper Fieldhouse tonight!

I didn't notice those since I was only watching the stream, but I did see his young daughter do about five straight cartwheels as the players were walking off the court. It sure looks like she inherited her dad's athleticism. It was great to see one of the best Dukes from my time as a fan back on campus and enjoying some family time around the holidays. 

BluffHunter wrote:

Postgame presser:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ziTBKpLahH0

Thanks for the link BluffHunter. I finally got what I was asking for earlier and he was asked about Hugley. As I mentioned, even a non-answer usually answers some questions. I'm not going to speculate on what exactly happened, but reading between the lines it seems pretty clear something went down off the court between the Boise State and Nevada games. Dru's charisma and rapport with his players really shines in most of his pressers, this one included. The contrast to the one word "no" response to "can you speak to the absence of John Hugley the past two games and why he was not on site today" speaks volumes.

Loved your NET post CLK. Yes, that team was bad!

FYI - all folks who missed CLKs sarcasm, Duquesne’s NCAA net ranking this morning was 170.
They have 0 road wins.

Merry Christmas to All.

Merry Christmas to you and your families. 

Deuce Jones, Joe's top scorer and best player left the team today. A very similar situation to the Hugley saga. Dru/staff need to catch some more flack for this in my opinion. Is he with you or is he not? It's a straight yes or no at this point in the season. A week before conference play. Defense being stronger has to have some correlation with his absence. Dixon can clearly handle the load the rest of the way if he can stay out of foul trouble. Necas need to play 32+ minutes, and Van Bussel needs to improve mightily if they want to be competitive.