Here is what they are posting about the Dukes on the Rambler's message board.
Saturday, January 6, 2024 3:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
The Ramblers are seeking their first four-game winning streak since January 2022 when the Duquesne Dukes come to Gentile Arena Saturday afternoon. The Ramblers are coming off a gutsy 80-73 win over Saint Louis on the road, boosting their record to 9-5 and their KenPom ranking to 125. Duquesne lost their conference season opener at UMass Wednesday night, 80-61.
The Ramblers and Dukes have been playing each other since 1929, with the Dukes holding a 12-6 lead in the all-time series. Last year Duquesne beat the Ramblers 72-58 after coming back from a 40-31 Loyola lead at halftime. Four Dukes scored in double figures in that game, while Loyola’s Phil Alston led all scorers with 25 points. No other Rambler had more than 7 points and Loyola committed 18 turnovers and 19 fouls.
Dukes Coach Keith Dambrot is in his seventh season in Pittsburgh, and has already notched twice as many .500 or above conference seasons in his six completed campaigns as in the previous 21 seasons at Duquesne. The Dukes were picked to finish fourth in this year’s preseason poll, and come into the game in Rogers Park with a 9-4 record and a KenPom at 101.
The probable starters for Duquesne are 6’2” senior guard Dae Dae Grant, 6’3” senior guard Jimmy Clark III, 5’9” sophomore point guard Kareem Rozier, 6’7” senior forward Fousseyni Drame, and 6’9” sophomore forward David Dixon. Grant played his first two seasons at Miami OH, and then exploded as an offensive force last year at Duquesne. Grant leads the A-10 in scoring at 19.0 ppg, and adds 3.5 rebounds, and 2.1 assists on average. One of the best there is in the league at getting to the free throw line, Grant knocks them down at a conference best 93.9%.
Clark was a preseason second team selection, and also made the all-defensive team. His first two years were at VCU. This season, he’s averaging 16.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 3.8 apg, and leads the league in steals at 2.3 per game. Rozier has improved his shooting as a sophomore, averaging 7.1 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists; he’s shooting 44.9% on three-point shots and plays the second-most minutes on the team.
The starting frontcourt players are both new to the team. Drame is a grad senior transfer coming over from La Salle. He averages 7.2 points and 6.2 rebounds. He’s more opportunistic on offense than a focal point—his scoring has declined lately, with only 14 points scored in his last four games. The other starting big man is Dixon, who averages 5.3 points and 3.9 rebounds.
The top bench player is actually the third leading scorer, Andrei Savrasov, a 6’7” grad transfer from Georgia Southern, originally from Russia. Savrasov averages 8.1 ppg playing 20 minutes off the bench. Hassan Drame (Fousseyni Drame’s twin brother) is a 6’7” forward averaging 3.4 points and 3.2 rebounds. Niles Notre Dame product Dusan Mahorcic just became eligible in the 2nd semester and previously played at Illinois State, Utah, and NC State (you get to do that, I guess, when you’re 6’10”). Mahorcic averages 6.3 points. Six-nine sophomore forward Halil Barre (2.8 points, 2.9 rebounds) and 6’8” forward Jakub Necas also get playing time.
Duquesne’s guards are really fantastic. Grant and Clark are probably both on the list of the top five guards in the A-10, with Grant maybe the best scoring guard in the conference and Clark the best defender at guard (who also happens to score 16+ points per game). Rozier is a dynamic point guard who gives the Dukes a great outside shot and a speedy complement to the other two backcourt players. But it falls off drastically after that, and if a team can somehow make one or more of the guards sit for longer (as UMass was able to do in their game Wednesday), it will behoove the opposition to do so.
Duquesne’s backcourt isn’t as inept as most think. They are serviceable and experienced, and they’ve got a stockpile of big bodies who concentrate on rebounding and getting in the way of opposing teams’ big men and drives to the hoop. That’s all they worry about—the guards do 70% of the scoring. And they’ve got roughly 25 fouls to play with before the stockpile of bodies thins out.
The big things to watch out for against Duquesne—keep them off the free throw line, where they’re had three games with 31 or more trips to the line and only three games with fewer than 17. Second, keeping their three-point attempts down helps to keep their made threes down—UMass, Princeton, and Nebraska kept their made threes to 6, 7, and 8 respectively. They’re not a great percentage shooting team from three, so if you keep their attempts down it helps. And finally, get some points at the line—in their losses to Santa Clara, Nebraska, and UMass, the opposition got a combined 94 trips to the free throw line (average of 31.3) and they scored an average of 24.3 points from the line. And in their six games so far away from home (road and neutral), their opponents have had 160 trips to the line for an average of 26.7 attempts per game. Use their aggressiveness against them and get to the line and sink those freebies.
PhoenixRising2 wrote: