e-parade

Last year URI scared no one, yet we lost to them on the road.

DukesDan

Duquesne has a few players who could turn it up a notch this year, and at least one player who could completely take a game over in Sean Johnson. He is a little underrated on this board IMO. He had 6 games with more than 19 points last year (19,24,19,25,24,20). He also only played 25 minutes a game, this should increase to 35 or more with the absence of Talley, Evans and McConnell. He averaged 16.5 points before January 19th, and then fell off a bit towards the end of the season and finished averaging 13.5 points. He has been inconsistent at times within the same game and from game to game. If he can overcome this and play consistently, he should be able to keep Duquesne out of the very bottom of the league.

As for guys capable of taking big steps forward, Jerry Jones, Kadeem Pantophlet, Martins Abele, and PJ Torres come to mind.

If Abele can start at center and grab 6 to 7 rebounds and 10 points, this team looks pretty good all of a sudden. There is not a bigger guy in the A10 at 7-1 and 295 lbs and he is a bruiser. Fouling will continue to be a concern, unfortunately. He has really lost his fat though and looks in much better shape then what he did a year ago.

I don't see Duquesne as a team as bad as URI or Fordham last year. Time will tell, and I will eat my words if Duquesne blows big time this season and is a huge RPI killer.

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Duquesne Dukes: 2012 A10 tournament qualifier!!

2012-2013 Locks of the Day TBA
2011-2012 Locks of the Day NIT participant 29-26-0...... .527
2010-2011 Locks of the Day Regular Season Champion 31-20-4 ..... .600

#15 Cooper #11 Green #10 Nixon #12 Ricketts #24 Somerset

WH

Johnson came on strong last year, but his production was defintely tied to the system. I am not sure he is quite as good as his stats suggested.

My read on Johnson is that he's above average shooter who can also take it to the rack pretty well. He improved a lot in both areas. He is an okay passer and should be a better defender than he is. I see him more as a third guard on a good team than a starting guard on a top five A-10 program.

If he shows as much improvement this year as last season, however, he will prove me and a lot of others wrong.

As for the rest of the Dukes, experience and point guard play are huge in this league. No way to get around it. The Dukes lack in both areas and the last time they had a truly good "big" player was James.

steve19981

Point guard won't be much of a concern, but I won't hold it against you and your evaluation of Duquesne since I'm sure you didn't make the trip to Pittsburgh for the Pro-Am this summer. Derrick Colter was solidly the second best PG in the league behind WVU's Jabari Hines. Tra Woodall from Pitt didn't play but Colter outshined highly regarded Panther's recruit and top 10 PG for the class of 2012, James Robinson. While he'll be inconsistent this season like any freshman, Colter is definitely a sleeper. Offensively, I think he'll pick up right where TJ left off, but I have my concerns with defense and how he deals with pressure.

Experience? Well, you've got us there.

njlsufan

Summer league play? Are you serious? I don't think anyone had to travel to Pittsburgh to evaluate a PG in a summer league game. All offense, schoolyard playing. Yeah that'll tell you everything you need to know about a player.

WH

Point play is ALWAYS a concern for a team that does not have a clear and established point with experience. Kellogg struggled at UMass until, voila, he found a point guard to run the offense he wanted to run. This position makes all the difference at any level of basketball.

DukesDan

Colter is inexperienced but is definitely talented. He led his team to a state championship game if I recall correctly. I'm more worried about the point play of the Dukes this year than Steve but I think Colter should be decent. He has talent. Summer league play is a chance to see the player in action with your own eyes from the sideline. The games themselves are as you describe, but Colter showed an ability to distribute well and score at the same level or better than the Pitt and WVU players.

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Duquesne Dukes: 2012 A10 tournament qualifier!!

2012-2013 Locks of the Day TBA
2011-2012 Locks of the Day NIT participant 29-26-0...... .527
2010-2011 Locks of the Day Regular Season Champion 31-20-4 ..... .600

#15 Cooper #11 Green #10 Nixon #12 Ricketts #24 Somerset

Free Quebec

You don't know the half of it, District Baller. A road trip to Olean in January is always brutal, regardless of the talent level on the team. It's actually one of the worst road trips in the country.

It's hard to get to - it's a long bus ride from the nearest airport (Buffalo), it's freezing and usually snowing, there's nothing much around there, and the fans are rabid because there ain't a whole lot of other entertainment around and they are just chomping at the bit for the game to start.

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A Wall St. banker, a tea party guy, and a union guy all sit down a table with 12 cookies.

The Wall St. banker takes 11 cookies, turns to the tea party guy and says, "That union guy wants a piece of your cookie."

DistrictBaller

I can imagine. I'm not looking forward to that one. I'm just hoping that our guys have the mental toughness and focus to win in a place like that.

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"We will wreak havoc on our opponent's psyche and plan of attack."
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steve19981

Yes I'm serious, but it's a pretty serious summer league. My philosophy for evaluating Pro-Am performance is pretty simple. You can learn a lot more about a player's game there than you can with a profile from rivals or accounts from a kid's high school. IMO, you can get decent idea of strengths and how much raw talent a player though weaknesses aren't always obvious. What I saw was an aggressive, quick kid who sees the floor well, while showing some strong ball handling and shooting skills. I saw enough to believe that while he will struggle at times, particularly on defense, PG isn't going to be the black hole people think it will be for Duquesne next year. Am I suggesting he belongs on some of these top 5 lists? Absolutely not. He'll need to earn that in real games. IMO, he looked like a better player than Mike Talley and I think he's a guy we can depend on from day one. We'll all know soon enough.

steve19981

It gets loud in that place and Bona fans are very good ones. I like making the trip up there and the Beef on kummelweck is worth the trip by itself.

Gormin71

"no one"? I disagree. Dayton always fears what Rhode Island might do to us, and they did it again last year, beating us IN OUR OWN HOUSE! Argh! Heck, we've lost 5 straight to Rhode Island! 5 Straight! Quintuple Argh!

Free Quebec

Come to think of it, playing the first game at Bona might be good. If you have to make that trip, you do want it to be when the students are out.

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A Wall St. banker, a tea party guy, and a union guy all sit down a table with 12 cookies.

The Wall St. banker takes 11 cookies, turns to the tea party guy and says, "That union guy wants a piece of your cookie."

Knobby

Normally WH I could not agree more with your points, but you gota think that coment through.

Yes he got a point guard and it saved the guys job. We are good there, but he pulled a complete 180 on what he "wanted" to run. He had the prototypical guard to run that offense in year 1 with C Lowe and that turned into an abominaiton.

I gotta think that DK was smart enough to see that the DDM wasn't going to work whether his job was on the line or not, and the timing of Chaz taking things over was a perfect storm. I really hope this is not a fluke and DK is starting to round things out (in coaching terms).

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Well, we were smaller, but at least we were slower!

Bona Wolf for Pope

If I'm remembering correctly, its the weekend before students come back, so hopefully some of the nuttier ones (that is to say, devoted), will come back early. If not, yeah, it won't be a really accurate test of the environment.

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