Ray is pretty impressive,does a great job and still loves the game and  always the pro behind the mike.

BTW,
A friend sent a picture of Ron Eberhart doing color on a High School TV game last night.  I think it was a Butler HS game.  He would be an upgrade on Duquesne TV games!

I have to disagree with you on Hall's defense. He is a very willing & energetic defender, but he appears not to know what he is doing at this level. He is consistently out of position, is struggling with responsibilities on reads/rotations, & frequently has his head turned the wrong way.

It didn't make a huge difference against today's inferior, shorthanded opponent. Even so, he gave up 2 of Loyola's 3 first-half 3s as a 1-on-1 defender. He also lost his man for 2 more wide-open 3's that would have been trouble versus stronger competition.

I think Hall will become a much better defender over time. This is his first year playing D-1, he had to take more than a year off due to injury, & he's logged a grand total of 108 minutes in 14 games; 20 of those today. It is appropriate that he looks like a freshman on defense. My point is that the Dukes are bad on defense & it makes no sense to me to put a player with shaky technique & very limited experience in a starting lineup desperate for improvement on that end of the court.

duq.dog wrote:

Did what was needed. I liked the Hall move. He plays solid defense. Glad to see Dru make an abrupt change in the lineup. He also got jipped on that charge call and continuation on the and 1.
Hugley is working his way into unplayable territory. 

Solid post. Stay warm.

S.R.M. wrote:

Took a long weekend trip to Chicago for the game today. Loyola has a nice gym and the crowd had a lot of energy for a bad team. TG and Jimmy played very good as expected and Necas was much more assertive on offense. I like Hall getting more minutes in lieu of Cam. It was very evident that coach is frustrated with Max's decision making and he had a very quick hook after Max threw up a contested three early in the shot clock and then followed that up with a turnover on the next possession. We need Hughley to figure it out because we are extremely thin after Necas and Dixon in the front court. Overall it was a great game to attend and a nice win over a team that is struggling. This team has the talent to compete in the A10 but we need to figure out our rotation.

Dukes still need to fill the huge void at the #3 spot. I thought Max played well. However after I’ll advised 3 Dru benched him. In fairness to Coach Dru we don’t know what goes on in practice as well as buying into the game scheme. If Max can enter Coach Drus approval the 3 spot  void can be filled. 6 weeks until the A10 tournament and HUGLEY needs to drop 20 lbs & get into playing shape. Hey trainers I am serious Zepbound would do this in 4 weeks. We need the big guy for the February & March run. Go Dukes.

Ironduke81 wrote:

Dukes still need to fill the huge void at the #3 spot. I thought Max played well. However after I’ll advised 3 Dru benched him. In fairness to Coach Dru we don’t know what goes on in practice as well as buying into the game scheme. If Max can enter Coach Drus approval the 3 spot  void can be filled. 6 weeks until the A10 tournament and HUGLEY needs to drop 20 lbs & get into playing shape. Hey trainers I am serious Zepbound would do this in 4 weeks. We need the big guy for the February & March run. Go Dukes.

The 3 spot is a disaster that I didn’t see coming. Cam, Max, Alex, Jake and now Hall have failed badly in conference, particularly on the offensive side. Puts way too much pressure on TG and JWill, and allows the defense to pack the paint. Somebody needs to step up.

levon1975 wrote:

BTW,
A friend sent a picture of Ron Eberhart doing color on a High School TV game last night. I think it was a Butler HS game. He would be an upgrade on Duquesne TV games!

You are right: https://22thepoint.com/sports/high-school-hoops/former-duquesne-head-coach-everhart-named-high-school-hoops-color-commentator Looks like he just started. I don't know if he's any good, or if he'd be interested, but he obviously loves basketball. Basically anybody would be an upgrade over Ellis Cannon. I haven't hear Buono on radio, but I thought he was pretty good the few times he was on TV. At least he knows the game. Ellis doesn't do play-by-play and he doesn't analyze anything. He just likes to hear himself talk. It's a shame Benz has been stuck with him for so long because I think Tim does a good job and deserves a much better partner.

duq.dog wrote:

Did what was needed. I liked the Hall move. He plays solid defense. Glad to see Dru make an abrupt change in the lineup. He also got jipped on that charge call and continuation on the and 1.
Hugley is working his way into unplayable territory. 

Yeah Hall got totally got screwed on that euro step and one. At least that ref did the same when a Loyola player did the same. Hall plays defense for sure. Glad he's getting a chance. Think we need him down the stretch.

luckymcd wrote:

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

The 3 spot is a disaster that I didn’t see coming. Cam, Max, Alex, Jake and now Hall have failed badly in conference, particularly on the offensive side. Puts way too much pressure on TG and JWill, and allows the defense to pack the paint. Somebody needs to step up.

It really is a shame. Coming into the season I would have thought they'd lock up two starting spots between the five of them. Instead they're struggling to fill one. They've all shown flashes, but have also all had more off nights than on. I was really hoping Cam had refound his form against Fordham, but that doesn't look to be the case. I'd say Max has been the best, but he looks to be in Dru's doghouse and whatever he said to the bench today to get the T certainly won't help. We look to be in good shape at the other four spots. If we could find some someone to fill the 3 we'd be in great shape going down the stretch.

During these wintry days, I decided to take a deep dive into some advanced stats to see if they can provide any insight.  JWill, Guinyard, Dixon and Necas have been our 4 best players; I think we can agree on that.  It's the lack of the 5th player that is preventing the Dukes from competing in the top third of the A10.  Let's take a look at the performance so far in the conference games only using advanced stats from TeamRankings.com.  These are a little more nuanced than the +/- that I have posted on occasion.

Through 7 A10 Conference Games (highlighted in red are the 5 players in question)

Game Score — Game Score was created by John Hollinger to give a rough measure of a player's productivity for a single game.  The scale is similar to that of points scored, (40 is an outstanding performance, 10 is an average performance, etc.).
The formula is PTS + 0.4 * FG - 0.7 * FGA - 0.4*(FTA - FT) + 0.7 * ORB + 0.3 * DRB + STL + 0.7 * AST + 0.7 * BLK - 0.4 * PF - TOV.  Here are the average Game Scores for the Dukes:
JWill 14.671
Guinyard 13.271
Dixon 9.929
Necas 7.586
AWill 5.157
Hugley 2.825
Edwards 2.529
DiMichael 1.786
Crawford 1.386
Milosevic 0.440
Hall -0.275
Aekins - 2.200

Efficiency — This is the classic NBA Efficiency formula, pretty straight forward.
The formula is EFF = PTS + REB + AST + STL + BLK - (FGA - FGM) - (FTA - FRM) -TO.  Here are the average EFF per game for the Dukes:
JWill 19.14
Guinyard 17.14
Dixon 16.71
Necas 11.14
AWill 7.14
Hugley 5.00
Edwards 3.86
DiMichael 3.00
Crawford 2.57
Milosevic 1.20
Hall 0.75
Aekins - 2.20

WIN Shares — TeamRankings does not publish the formula, but based on their methodology across sports, WIN is a cumulative metric derived from player offensive and defensive efficiency contributions, Team strength, Game leverage and minutes played. The interpretation is a higher WIN = more total value added toward team victories.
Dixon 9.429
JWill 8.643
Guinyard 6.357
Necas 5.786
AWill 2.500
Hugley 1.375
Edwards 1.071
DiMichael 0.143
Crawford 0.071
Milosevic -0.300
Hall -0.500
Aekins - 3.000

It's pretty evident with our eyeballs backed up with these stats that Cam, Max and Jake have been underperforming and dragging this team down. Alex Williams may end up being the answer, but he needs to find consistent focus on both ends of the court (especially when his shot is not falling). No easy answer on this; one of these guys needs to quickly step up.

I'm going with DiMichele. 

With that said, I think the larger question is: Who compliments who the best? I think DiMichele is at his best when he is the 5th best guy on the floor for them. A spot where he is the clear "glue" guy like we saw two years ago. 

I would also keep one of Necas and Dixon on the court at all times (Barring Dixon foul trouble). If Necas is out, I am bringing in Williams. If Dixon is out, I am bringing Hugley in. I would also be interested in seeing some time with Necas at the "5". 

Edwards needs to come in and be a lead scoring option. At a minimum, coming in when one of Guinyard and JWill are out or both.

Round out the rotation with Hall if you need some stops. Pair him with Edwards potentially? Maybe CC if the others are off but I see him being the odd man out at this point.

This team has 4 studs, need to find a way to get the other 6 confident in their roles. 

Thanks for posting this Phoenix. You are really skilled in analytics. I am not sure I fully understand this analysis. Does it include a players ability to play one on one defense?  With the platoon style point against speaks more about the team on the floor than a specific player.

In any event, I like Jake as the best option right now. He seems to be the smarter player and while he may get beat on defense sometimes he at least understands his assignment and is not always lost on defense like one player. Moreover on offense he isn't selfish and cares more about the team and takes good shots, even if they are not falling right now. He also provides movements on offense and sets screens. He doesn't just stand in the corner and wait to get the ball to hoist up three.

If we had a better back up for Necas at the 4 I would play Alex more.

I don't want to waste anymore time hoping that guys that are unwilling or unable to play defense, and are selfish offense,  will suddenly see the light. Two years of hoping they will understand is enough. Play the guys that care.

CLK wrote:

Thanks for posting this Phoenix. You are really skilled in analytics. I am not sure I fully understand this analysis. Does it include a players ability to play one on one defense? With the platoon style point against speaks more about the team on the floor than a specific player.

In any event, I like Jake as the best option right now. He seems to be the smarter player and while he may get beat on defense sometimes he at least understands his assignment and is not always lost on defense like one player. Moreover on offense he isn't selfish and cares more about the team and takes good shots, even if they are not falling right now. He also provides movements on offense and sets screens. He doesn't just stand in the corner and wait to get the ball to hoist up three.

If we had a better back up for Necas at the 4 I would play Alex more.

I don't want to waste anymore time hoping that guys that are unwilling or unable to play defense, and are selfish offense, will suddenly see the light. Two years of hoping they will understand is enough. Play the guys that care.

CLK, the Efficiency stat is pretty much just a numerical value derived from the box score, a counting stat for an individual player.  The Game Score starts to place some weighted values into the box score stats, but still overall a counting stat for an individual player.

Team stats start to really apply when you get into the WIN Shares; the TEAM Offensive and Defensive Efficiencies start to play a big role in these analytics.  The calculations are based on the number of points your team scores and gives up every 100 possessions when an individual player is on the floor.  Right now, the average D-1 efficiency is 109.4 points scored for every 100 possessions (average possessions per game is 67.3, resulting in an average of 73.6 points scored per team).

The Dukes in conference through 7 games have an offensive efficiency of 107.1 (7th in the conference) and a defensive efficiency of 107.3 (6th in the conference).
I broke this down further info the efficiencies when various lineups are on the court.  For reference, the Dukes have played 295 minutes of A-10 basketball through these 7 games.
=== The 4 player group of Guinyard, JWill, Necas and Dixon have played together 119 minutes.  When on the floor, the Dukes offensive efficiency was 115.4 and the defensive efficiency was 102.3.

Let's add in the 5th player wo see the impact:
---> Crawford played 84 minutes with this group - Dukes offensive efficiency was 119.1 and the defensive efficiency was 98.8
---> Hall played 17 minutes with this group - Dukes offensive efficiency was 105.5 and the defensive efficiency was 77.1
---> DiMichael played 10 minutes with this group - Dukes offensive efficiency was 114.3 and the defensive efficiency was 154.4
---> AWill played 5 minutes with this group - Dukes offensive efficiency was 92.3 and the defensive efficiency was 92.3
---> Edwards played 4 minutes with this group - Dukes offensive efficiency was 115.5 and the defensive efficiency was 138.6

The sample size is pretty small, but there are some pretty good indicators (backed up by what my eyes have seen and also by +/- numbers).  This team really needs for Cam to bust out of his offensive slump; if he can contribute offensively the way that he did at Fordham, there is a good chance that the Dukes ccould finish 5th or 6th in the conference.
 

applecorps, you pretty much summed it up.  One thing that was a big surprise to me is that the core 4 are only on the court together 40% of the time (119 minutes out of 295).  I think that needs to be ramped up a bit.  If you take out the minutes together at the start of the game and second half, they are being underutilized together.  Dru needs to make sure that this doesn't get lost in all of his substitution shuffle.