Duquesne Dukes Fan Forum » Game Thread

Rayrich · 1/07/2026 11:00 pm

levon1975 wrote:
Between the Men and Women Duquesne Basketball is an embarrassment this season. It will get a lot worse before it gets better. They just gave up 97-points to a team that dismissed its best player and their coach quit just before the season. VCU who looked great against Duquesne and scored 93, lost at home tonight to St. Louis. The talent level is just inadequate at this point. With guys coming and going every year, I just don’t see how this gets better. Sad to see that they have sunk to pre-Championship futility, and never figured out a way to capitalize on tha A-10 title in 2023-24.

Yep. Joyce isn't the answer obviously. Feel sad for Dixon and Necas although the latter will get a big payday from some power 4 or 5 school next year. The Dukes coaching staff could never figure out how to let the big men finish underneath with authority. Always so timid when going to the hoop. 6-10 dudes afraid of contact? That's BBall 101.

luckymcd · 1/07/2026 11:11 pm

I'm just getting in after a very long hour drive home. I hadn't seen St. Joe's at all this season, but it's pretty apparent how bad they are based on nothing more than how excited, but even more so surprised, their fans were. The coaches were calling for JWill to get on the shooter time and time again. One of them even said at one point "he's just not doing it." I don't know who they were referring too, but Toscano won this game pretty much singlehandedly. I was calling for a shorter bench through most of the non-conference, but at this point I have to wonder if dead legs are to blame for another late game collapse. I was surprised to see Hall get in early, but he was called on a few other times and ended up with more than double the minutes of Max, who made one mistake and was done for the night. I should be used to seeing the Dukes lose in person, but this one was rough. It's even worse with a tough stretch still to come. I'm not giving up on the team yet because there's clearly a lot of talent on the roster, but it's going to take quite a turnaround to make any noise.

Rayrich · 1/07/2026 11:14 pm

Guinyard and Jimmie Wiilliams 3 for 19 from three and Max Edwards get 3 minutes of playing time. Inexcusable Dru Joyce. Totally inept coaching 101.

Rayrich · 1/07/2026 11:29 pm

Can we all get over the Jake DiMichelle love affair already. He committed 4 stupid fouls in key moments in this game. Missed wide open threes, was schooled defensively numerous times and Max Edwards got THREE minutes of playing time. Please explain Mister DRU..

BluffHunter · 1/08/2026 9:08 am

If you quickly read through this thread you’d think many Dukes fans are fed up with Dru to the point they want him gone now… Then you look at it closer to realize it’s 7 comments from Ray.

CLK · 1/08/2026 9:31 am

Another 90 point loss to a mediocre opponent. It looked like a repeat of the Northeastern game
After all these games the Dukes are still struggling with the same issues. Sloppy turnovers, excessive fouling, poor transition defense, general unwillingness or inability to play consistent defense. If the Dukes could ever learn to play defense they could win the A10. Under Dru Joyce III, the Dukes play fast and score a ton (still top-10 nationally in offense), but they're paying for it on the other end. Transition defense, closeouts, and rim protection continue to be issues against A-10 teams that can match their pace or exploit mismatches.It's early January, and the schedule doesn't get easier (Dayton up next at home). If Duquesne wants to climb the A-10 standings fixing the defense—starting with effort in transition and half-court discipline—is non-negotiable. Tough pill after a competitive effort, but the pattern is clear: they can't consistently win shootouts against solid conference foes. So here is the question for the Board; At this point in the season what can Dru do to turn this around? Clearly he has made no progress since the beginning of the season.

townsonkid · 1/08/2026 9:45 am

The whole thing is hard to watch. What a drop since the magical run in 2024. Sad.

Maybe its time to start a preliminary coaching search.

PistolPete · 1/08/2026 10:10 am

Totally inexcusable loss to a bottom of the conference team, but hey, maybe that is where we are. We have pretty much lost any momentum we had from our run to the NCAA two years ago and I don't see it getting better. DJ hiring was reasonably questionable after KD retired and is more so now. He did not have head coaching experience and this is evident as he seems to have no answers and can't this team to play D. I have also never seen so many unforced turnovers. This is another bad loss and there are no consistent performances. Just an inexcusable loss, period, end of story. You watch, it will be back to 200 people in attendance at games if this continues. Harper should have gone in a different direction and not let KD influence his coaching decision. Did we even seriously consider other candidates with head coaching experience? We should have been able to pluck out of a lower league, say Patriot league or its equivalent, a coach from a winning program. Given how long it took us to get to the promised land you don't take a chance on a guy with no head coaching experience.

Styles1229 · 1/08/2026 10:28 am

Rayrich wrote:
Max Edwards gets 3 minutes. Please explain Dru Joyce. Better have a good explanation which we'll never hear of course.

Max is awful on Defense. When he was in there for 3 minutes, he looked lazy and gave up an easy 3 because he couldn’t drag himself to the perimeter to get a hand up. Dru saw the effort and benched him. Most nights, Max only offers a scoring punch and that wasn’t needed. Totally in favor of his benching

Styles1229 · 1/08/2026 10:34 am

NapaDuke wrote:
Several thing hit me watching this game. First, why is Crawford in there instead of Jake. Second, just how did this coach let this get to OT. Then, in OT, no one, on our side can drive to the hoop, except Max, but he's on the bench? DJ just lost to the last place team, which pretty much tells us just how bad this season is going to be. DJ liked being a player, but he had better figure out how to be a coach. This was a winnable game.

Not sure what you are talking about. Jake played 28 minutes and seemingly the entire 2nd half. Crawford played 18

Though I’ve called for more Jake, and still think it’s the best thing moving forward, we was not very good tonight. He wasn’t terrible but he was as much to blame for the defensive issues as anybody. But there were lots of defensive issues. I’ll take is mediocre at best defense for what he brings to the table overall. And I think we saw Jake move into the starting role last night. For better or for worse. Did you see he started the 2nd half with the other starters?

He missed a wide open 3 late that would have really made it hard on St Joes to recover from. Not knocking him, players miss shots - but that’s a spot where he could have really made a difference in the game

Styles1229 · 1/08/2026 10:40 am

luckymcd wrote:
I'm just getting in after a very long hour drive home. I hadn't seen St. Joe's at all this season, but it's pretty apparent how bad they are based on nothing more than how excited, but even more so surprised, their fans were. The coaches were calling for JWill to get on the shooter time and time again. One of them even said at one point "he's just not doing it." I don't know who they were referring too, but Toscano won this game pretty much singlehandedly. I was calling for a shorter bench through most of the non-conference, but at this point I have to wonder if dead legs are to blame for another late game collapse. I was surprised to see Hall get in early, but he was called on a few other times and ended up with more than double the minutes of Max, who made one mistake and was done for the night. I should be used to seeing the Dukes lose in person, but this one was rough. It's even worse with a tough stretch still to come. I'm not giving up on the team yet because there's clearly a lot of talent on the roster, but it's going to take quite a turnaround to make any noise.

I’ll say Max made 2 mistakes. The lazy pass and the lazy defense on the 3. Dru, I believe, knows when Max has decided he wants to play and ascertained quickly he did not. I could be wrong but Max has shown us energy/effort before and it is very clear when he’s not giving it. Scoring wasn’t the problem tonight - I’m surprised posters are complaining about the amount of Max PT. The defense only would have been worse with him in there.

Last edited by Styles1229 (1/08/2026 11:14 am)

Styles1229 · 1/08/2026 10:44 am

Rayrich wrote:
Can we all get over the Jake DiMichelle love affair already. He committed 4 stupid fouls in key moments in this game. Missed wide open threes, was schooled defensively numerous times and Max Edwards got THREE minutes of playing time. Please explain Mister DRU..

I agree with the spirit of this post just not the intensity. The one big foul on Jake though was not a foul at all. The guy just tripped and Jake was following him. That was a big spot and a terrible call.

It does make me rethink my position on Jake over Cam. The Davidson game when we locked down on defense it was Cam the whole 2nd half and OT. This time it was Jake…

Styles1229 · 1/08/2026 10:45 am

BluffHunter wrote:
If you quickly read through this thread you’d think many Dukes fans are fed up with Dru to the point they want him gone now… Then you look at it closer to realize it’s 7 comments from Ray.

😂😂😂😂

Thanks for pointing that out. I was thinking the mob was calling for his head too! Jury still out on Dru in my opinion. Less strategy and coaching, more on rotation of players…

indygjm · 1/08/2026 10:53 am

CLK wrote:
So here is the question for the Board; At this point in the season what can Dru do to turn this around? Clearly he has made no progress since the beginning of the season.

There's no question that DJ lacked head coaching experience when hired. But remember that when the change was made there was concern on this board that players including Necas, DiMichele, and Dixon would potentially leave if an outside coaching hire was made. At the time the belief was that DJ was well liked by the existing core of players and the best choice if an emerging group of talent on that championship team was to remain in place. I agree that he has a long way to go to be a successful in-game coach. One positive is that he has shown the ability to find and attract players with talent. But at the end of day, it's those players who have to step up and make the plays to win games. That last 2 minutes in regulation and the overtime were filled with poor execution.

The season still has a long way to go. Rhode Island is 0-3 and the Bonnies 0-2. Both have experienced coaches with winning histories. To me, talk about coaching change is not for this time. I think CLK's question is more appropriate and merits further discussion.

Styles1229 · 1/08/2026 11:02 am

Can we all agree we have a diamond in the rough with Alex Williams. That dude can ball!

CLK · 1/08/2026 2:41 pm

I posted thos on Twitter
The Dukes had 14 turnovers last night. To put this in perspective, Duquesne Average Turnovers Per Game is 14.2. This ranks 318 in the Country. The national average is roughly 11 with elite teams at roughly 9. This seems to me to be the easiest of Dru's problems to fix.

Duquesne ranks #352 out of approximately 365 teams in personal fouls committed per game. The team is averaging 21.9 personal fouls per game.

On a per-play basis, they rank #344 nationally, with a personal foul occurring on 25.9% of their defensive plays.

There is no way to sugarcoat this, just horribly basketball. It lies solely at the feet of Dru and staff. Even marginal improvement in these categories would have made a difference in last night's game. Got to fix this.

luckymcd · 1/08/2026 5:08 pm

CLK wrote:
Tough pill after a competitive effort, but the pattern is clear: they can't consistently win shootouts against solid conference foes. So here is the question for the Board; At this point in the season what can Dru do to turn this around? Clearly he has made no progress since the beginning of the season.

Great coaches separate themselves from the pack in two ways, making halftime adjustments, and making the right moves in crunch time. If Dru was totally over his head as some posters seem to think, he'd struggle at both. This isn't the case, he's actually made pretty good adjustments at halftime.

Last night we were down 6 at the half and tied the game in the first 2:04 of the second half. Against VCU we were down 12 at halftime and cut the lead to 1 in 6:27. At Davidson we went into the locker room down 3 and took the lead 5:45 into the 2nd half. Against Nevada we were down 7 at the half and cut their lead to 1 in 5:39. This is a pattern of a smart coach seeing what's happening on the floor and making good adjustments to turn it around in the locker room.

Unfortunately, he hasn't figured out how to win games in crunch time. If anybody said this to me even just a few weeks ago I would have said they were crazy, but I think the reason is he isn't trusting the depth enough. I think this year's team has the most talented roster we've had in my time as a Dukes fan (I started at Duquesne in 2000). That's true for not only high-end talent, but depth too. We continue to lose games late, and I think a big reason is the starters are getting tired.

Last night we went up 3 on Dixon's huge 3 pointer with 3:28 left in overtime, but ended up losing by 7. After Max cut the VCU lead to 1 with a 3 at 13:33 the Rams went on a run of their own and won by 13. TG hit a big 3 to put us up 6 against Davidson with 3:34 left in overtime, but they rallied to send it to double OT. Obviously we ended up wining this one, but we looked totally wiped in the overtimes. Dixon's steal and dunk gave us a 2 point lead over Nevada with 1:53 left, but we lost by 3.

By this point in the season I think it's pretty clear who the best players on the team are, but we can't rely on them so heavily. TG has played 39, 37, and 46 minutes in the last 3 games. JWill played 38 last night and 40 against Davidson. He probably would have gotten similar minutes against VCU if he wasn't in foul trouble. The same is true for Dixon, 35 last night, 37 vs. Davidson. He looked like he could have played another 20 last night, but the point remains.

To me, Dru's biggest weakness is substitution patterns. Some guys make one mistake and don't see the floor again. Others can make repeated errors and stay on the floor. More than anything, he needs to figure a way to buy the starters some rest, especially since we have so much depth. In a worst case scenario where the bench players can't handle top competition, slow down the tempo when they're in to at least keep the game close before getting the starters back in.

Last edited by luckymcd (1/08/2026 5:15 pm)

PistolPete · 1/08/2026 5:47 pm

CLK your recent post is right on point and consistent with what I said earlier about TO's and defense. It was just the eye test for me, but you backed it up with stats. We way too often make unforced TO's by trying unnecessary passes or just making lazy passes and also players fail to come to the ball. Defensively we rarely seem to be able to keep the other team from driving to the hoop, hence the fouls. This is a disturbing pattern to put it mildly.
Lucky I also tend to agree with what you say. Halftime adjustments seem to be made, but then we wilt generally at the end due to being too tired or just lacking focus. Guilyard makes his foul shots and we are up by 4 and game probably over. Frankly, it shouldn't even have come down to that. You just can't let a team like St. Joe's score on you like that. Therein was the main problem last night and it was so very, very disappointing. I do think from 1 through 10 or 11 this team has more talented depth than even our 2024 team, but it hasn't translated to wins and that does go to figuring out who plays and when. If this team played consistent defense we could wear teams out with our depth 1-10!!!!

phil95 · 1/08/2026 7:02 pm

The Dukes definitely need to reduce their turnovers. Given the fast pace at which they play, averaging 11 TOs per game or less the rest of the way would make a major impact. The good news is that over the last 8 games, which included 3 overtime periods, they have averaged 12.13. That is a huge improvement over the 16.25 they averaged over the first 8 games, during which they played 1 OT period.

The Dukes' foul shooting has improved from 69.1% for the first 8 games to 73.5% for the last 8 games. 73.5% would be good for 128th place nationally, 69.1% a dismal 273rd. Last year's team ended the season at 65.1%. The lone bad trend regarding FT shooting is that since Hugely has been out, attempts per game have dropped. Jimmie, Dixon, Jake, & Alex are all shooting between 77.8% and 81.8%. Dixon now leads the team in percentage! Max, Necas, & TG are ok but must improve. Cam has taken .875 FTs per game while averaging 24.5 minutes & shooting 57.1%.

The foul situation seems a bit hopeless. The Dukes have improved by committing 2.2 fewer fouls per game over the last 8 games versus the first 8 games, but even if the Dukes reduced their per-game fouls average by 2 fewer fouls the rest of the way, they would still only be the 183rd-ranked team for this stat. Ouch.

CLK · 1/08/2026 8:18 pm

Duquesne lost the game at the free throw line. St. Joe made 22 free throws on a whopping 29 attempt off of Duquesne 23 personal fouls. On the other side, St.Joe only committed 12 fouls and the Dukes made 13 free throws on 15 attempts.

Ironduke81 · 1/08/2026 8:20 pm

Cam as dean Woomer would say in Animal House zero point zero points. Ok Max may not play defense but does this team? Max can score yes Cam is lost. . This week no basketballs. All defense. Football pads boxing out drills. Charging mats players take the hit with football pads. Full court hands behind back chin on chest 3/2 speed. Can’t be;ieve how pathetic this team is defensively. Coach Dru wake up my friend.

FAM · 1/09/2026 8:22 am

The team, the season thus far should be a surprise to no one. We Could be Pitt, who is last in the ACC for men’s and whose women’s team lost to the Dukes for the third year in a row. They have put a lot of money into both.

Dru isn’t going anywhere. Do you think DU has the money to hire a proven excellent coach? Plus, it’s only year 2. He has 5. The offense does well and the defense is poor. My hope is he hires an excellent defensive minded coach next year. As far as this year, it’s not over, but again, we were picked where we deserved to be picked in the A10.

DUQ23 · 1/09/2026 10:39 am

Pump the brakes everyone. This is the same group that called for Coach Dambrot's dismissal when things were rough. You were ready to knight him after the championship run. In an era where patience is limited with big contracts and rev sharing......give Coach Dru a bit more time.

CLK · 1/09/2026 1:21 pm

DUQ23 wrote:
Pump the brakes everyone. This is the same group that called for Coach Dambrot's dismissal when things were rough. You were ready to knight him after the championship run. In an era where patience is limited with big contracts and rev sharing......give Coach Dru a bit more time.

DUQ23, I am not calling for Coach Joyce to be fired. I am casting for him to do better. There is no excuse for the kind of turnover and fouling numbers we are seeing. I am rooting for this team and coach

BluffHunter · 1/09/2026 1:50 pm

CLK wrote:
DUQ23 wrote:
Pump the brakes everyone. This is the same group that called for Coach Dambrot's dismissal when things were rough. You were ready to knight him after the championship run. In an era where patience is limited with big contracts and rev sharing......give Coach Dru a bit more time.
DUQ23, I am not calling for Coach Joyce to be fired. I am casting for him to do better. There is no excuse for the kind of turnover and fouling numbers we are seeing. I am rooting for this team and coach

I highly doubt this was directed at you!