Body not even cold yet.
Dayton still going on.

Dambrot has done a great job for the Dukes, 10-8, 11-7 and 7-7 in league play the last years, until this season.

Also won 16 games then 19 games then 21 games, peaking at 21-9 in March 2020.  

Fantastic job at Akron for many, many years too.

GW though appears to be trending up, whereas things look down-trending for the Dukes

GW0509 wrote:

Losing to Duquesne would be more of an indictment on the team than a 30 point loss to Dayton.  Duquesne is objectively awful and Dambrot is probably going to get fired. 

Remember when people where mad that we didn't hire him?

This is really a big problem.  I understand that the notion of firing Dambrot is a speculative one at this point but it's a ridiculous one IMO.  The guy was very successful at Akron, and was 18 games over .500 at Duquesne before the season started.  Three of the Dukes' best players left the program close to or upon his arrival and he still turned them into a winning program.  There has admittedly been a mass exodus of Dambrot's recruits which has resulted in this rather poor season.  Now, if there's some justifiable factor that caused all these players to leave, then maybe you cut ties with him for that reason.  But if you're thinking about getting rid of him because shit has hit the fan during this one season, I would start by asking who the better coaching option is to take over?  At the very least, you owe it to this guy to bring in a new class or two and see if he can build things back up. (Staying away from Build Back Better.)  

I had mentioned in another thread that Feb. 24 is a logical day for a make-up game.  Am wondering if this is also a possibility:  The Conference is waiting to make sure as best it can that GW is not in the bottom 4.  Should that be the case, then SBU comes to DC early and makes up the game on Tuesday, March 8 with both teams not playing in the tournament until the 10th at the earliest.  I don't think this would happen if we were in the bottom 4 and if this is unknown until the final regular season weekend, they probably could not pull it off.  With SBU being the favorite, I would think it would be in their best interests to play the game.

jf wrote:

Whatever happens, we need to have a good OOC record in the future, like GW used to and successful teams do, especially given the teams we played and lost to in recent years.
   We can't wait until midleague play to find ourselves, unless we plan on winning the A-10 tournament regularly. Need to be ready as any other normal team on Day 1. Next year should be postseason play and not the CBI.

I agree with the first part of this, that JC and staff need to get rid of their low major mindset of completely disregarding results in the OOC but I have to laugh at “next year should be postseason play and not the CBI” given that it typically requires us to field one of our all-time teams to sniff a non-CBI post season. 2015-2016 had three NBA players on it and we only barely made the NIT as a 4 seed. We all know how it ended but that team nearly ended up in the CBI.


In order to make the NIT next year we probably need to win 23+ games and win 13-14 games in conference. I mean, I’m all for lofty goals but that is a tough standard to place on any team in the A-10.

The only way I see that happening is keeping the core of Bishop, Bamisile, and Freeman intact and then adding two “Mo Creeks” in the front court.

Last edited by GW0509 (2/14/2022 1:20 pm)

Duquesne Dukes

Date/Time: Wednesday February 16th @ 7:30 PM ET at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (formerly AJ Palumbo Center) in Pittsburgh, PA. The arena seats 3,500 people. This game was originally scheduled to be played on 1/5.
TV: ESPN+
Preseason Ranks: 181st (KenPom), 211th (Bart Torvik), 161st (CBS), 158th (SI)
2020-21 Record: 9-9, 7-7 (9th in A10)
2021-22 Projected Record: 8-21, 3-14 (14th in A10)

Coach: Keith Dambrot, 65-47 in four seasons at Duquesne. Prior to arriving in Pittsburgh, Dambrot spent 15 seasons as head coach in the MAC. 13 of those were spent coaching his hometown team/alma mater Akron Zips, where he had a ton of success. He won 71% of conference games, and the Zips made a postseason tournament 10 out of 13 seasons. On the surface, one would think it's crazy that Dambrot would leave his NE Ohio roots when he was a consistent winner, but it's worth noting that only 3 of those 10 postseason appearances were at the big dance. He had to settle for the NIT despite Akron finishing first in the MAC in his last two years coaching there. Such is life in one-bid leagues. I don't blame Dambrot for departing for the A10 where he would have a chance at an at-large bid and the regular season success wouldn't be wasted. Before Akron, Dambrot spent two seasons at Central Michigan and four additional years coaching at the D2 level at Ashland and Tiffin. In between, he coached three years at St. Vincent-St. Mary's HS (LeBron's school) and was an assistant for three years at another MAC school, Eastern Michigan. His dad Sid played at Duquesne in the 50s when the Dukes were #1 in the nation which likely played a big role in him deciding to coach there. Interestingly, Dambrot actually played baseball at Akron and not basketball - he was a third baseman.

Head-to-Head: 52-32. We split the two meetings that took place during the 2020-21 season. Due to COVID, these games were played back-to-back on the second and third of January (and both were played at home). The statistics from CBB last season showed that it was very tough to sweep a team in a back-to-back game scenario which added to the overall wildness that was last season. One team would be blown out in game 1 only to come out on top in game 2. That was the case during our Duquesne series. Game 1 was pretty much all Duquesne as they won 75-63. Bishop (21 points), Battle (17 points), and Moyer (14 points, 11 rebounds) accounted for the majority of points. Game 2 was a whole different story. We came out firing with 44 first half points, but Duquesne stormed a second half comeback. Ultimately, Bishop's three made the difference. There might have been a slight push off to get Bishop more space on that play, but we'll just ignore that. Unsurprisingly, the same three players finished in double figures: Battle (29 points, 6 made threes, 7 rebounds), Bishop (16 points, 7 assists), and Moyer (14 points, 15 rebounds). Man it would have been big had Matt returned for the extra COVID year looking back now but glad to see that he's doing well professionally.

Offensive Efficiency: 245th (KenPom), 224th (Bart Torvik)
Defensive Efficiency: 258th (KenPom), 257th (Bart Torvik)
Pace: 268th (KenPom), 260th (Bart Torvik)
Returning Minutes: 33% (327th in country)

Key Returning Players:
None. Is that the first time I've said that in a preview this season? Yikes! Probably explains a lot of their struggles this year.

Key Losses:
Marcus Weathers (Transferred to SMU; Overland Park, KS) 15.3 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.5 APG; 48% FG, 31% 3-PT, 64% FT

Michael Hughes (Graduated; Kansas City, MO) 10.8 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1 SPG, 1.6 BPG; 51% FG, 18% 3-PT, 63% FT

Tavian Dunn-Martin (Transferred to Florida Gulf Coast; Huntington, WV) 10.2 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1 SPG; 35% FG, 30% 3-PT, 76% FT

Chad Baker-Mazara (Transferred to San Diego State; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) 9.5 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 1.1 APG, 1 SPG; 44% FG, 42% 3-PT, 81% FT

Sincere Carry (Transferred to Kent State; Solon, OH) 9 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1.6 SPG; 37% FG, 33% 3-PT, 52% FT - of course we still ended up seeing him anyways when we played the Golden Flashes earlier this year and he had 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists against us. The Dukes surely could have used him this year.

Comments:
It was another steady but unspectacular campaign for the Dukes in 2020-21. Given the state of GW basketball since Dambrot took over at Duquesne, I'm sure all of us would take four straight seasons avoiding the pillow fight, even if Dambrot's teams have been high floor/low ceiling. To be fair, I'm not sure any coach could get Duquesne to the top of the league. Despite the historical success, the Dukes have won 10+ games in conference just three times in the past 20 years. Dambrot has accounted for two of those three in his four years and he also has one 20+ win season at Duquesne, something that has only been done one other time in the past 40 years. The ultimate goal of course is to always reach the NCAA tournament, but Duquesne hasn't done that since the 1976-77 season. All of this is to say despite the tough season so far, this is my long-winded way of saying Dambrot should be given another year to prove himself. I'm not sure who would do a better job at Duquesne right now.

Given the A10 was the second hardest hit conference by COVID last season (after the MAAC) it shouldn't be a surprise that Duquesne was hit pretty hard and missed a number of games last season. The Dukes played only two games OOC, which ended up being the only two games they played until January (starting with the doubleheader against us). Despite that, Duquesne played strongly in conference, going a respectable 7-7 against a reasonably tough slate that featured a win against Dayton on Groundhog Day.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure a .500 conference finish was the best ending for the trio of Duquesne seniors (Marcus Weathers, Michael Hughes, and Tavian Dunn-Martin). While COVID afforded all seniors to return for an extra year, it was interesting that none of the three elected to come back to Duquesne this year. Two of them are still playing college basketball - Weathers reunited with his brother at SMU, trying to get the Mustangs an at-large bid (they are currently on the bubble but the Houston win certainly helped recently), while Dunn-Martin is the floor general for the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, a team that certainly has enough firepower to be a dark horse in the Atlantic Sun tournament.

Anyways, it was reportedly a mutual decision between Dambrot and the senior trio to move on, but I wonder if there was something more to that. Duquesne returned the fewest minutes of any team in the A10 this year. It's one thing for the seniors to move on, but losing other key pieces in Chad Baker-Mazara, Sincere Carry, and Lamar Norman (Western Michigan) is another. Journeyman Ryan Murphy also moved on. Even the once promising Maceo Austin left the team after taking a brief hiatus last season. GW is no stranger to roster turnover, but we've never had a season recently where we lost our top six scorers. That's a pretty big reset. Michael Hughes recently tweeted this, which definitely suggests something happened last season, but I'm not sure what.

Duquesne went 5-7 OOC this season playing a below average schedule. They suffered a four game losing streak early on. Three of those (Hofstra, Weber State, Colorado) are at least reasonably strong teams in their respective conferences, but the Dukes also fell to Northeastern, a team that is really struggling this year (surprising to me because they are usually pretty decent). A win against Bradley on a neutral site has aged pretty well, as well as their final game OOC contest against UC Irvine, a squad that is always a factor in the Big West. Unfortunately, leading up to that strong performance against UCI, Duquesne went 1-3 against Bowling Green, Marshall, DePaul, and New Hampshire who all rate similarly to us and are pretty mediocre overall. They won their first conference game against UMass, but have since lost 10 in a row. Outside a 1 point loss to Fordham, they haven't been particularly competitive in the other games. They seem to perform a bit better on the road than at home.

The only players who remained after the mass exodus were both freshmen last year in Tyson Acuff and Toby Okani (along with the infrequently used Mike Bekelja, Carry's bro). Okani showed promise as a versatile wing who could stretch the floor on offense and crash the glass on defense, while Acuff struggled a bit more after being thrust into a bigger role with the number of aforementioned defections mid-year. Both players are fixtures in the rotation this year but their efficiencies have switched this season. While Okani is shooting under 40% from the floor, Acuff leads the team in three point percentage at 45% with 22 made triples on the season. Both players contribute on the glass but don't do much else.

Dambrot went to work in the transfer portal to replace some of the lost production from last season and brought in Leon Ayers III (Mercer), Kevin Easley Jr. (TCU/Chattanooga), and Tre Williams (Indiana State). Ayers is one of those "high volume" scorers who isn't particularly efficient, but he adds complementary playmaking, rebounding, and strong on-ball defense. He is also the best free throw shooter on the team at 85%. Easley may be the most versatile player on the team. He can play several positions on the court and is the best rebounder on the team. Easley leads the team in three pointers made (30) at a 38% clip. He struggled in his lone season in the Big 12 but his stats this year more closely resemble his production in the SoCon. Williams is also a strong rebounder who can finish down low despite being undersized. He isn't afraid to shoot the three, but is only 7/43 on the year so we should be able to sag off him if he is lurking along the perimeter on offense. Duquesne doesn't block a lot of shots, but Williams ranks 5th in the league at 2.3 bpg. He is their worst free throw shooter at 55% which will be key should the game remain close down the stretch.

Duquesne has also been getting nice contributions from true freshmen Amir 'Primo' Spears and Jackie Johnson III. Spears leads the team in scoring in his first season of college basketball at 11.7 ppg. He has done a great job despite being asked to do a lot right away. Spears leads the team in assists at 2.8 apg but can struggle with turnovers (to be expected). He doubles as a strong defender as well, leading the team in steals. It always sucks when players get robbed from the A10 awards. Since Duquesne will likely finish at the bottom of the league, Spears will likely not get a lot of attention but he's done a great job so far and probably should get a spot on the all-freshman team. If he can improve his efficiency shooting, that's a great building block for Dambrot to build around. That may happen by default if Duquesne can add some more talent around him. Johnson has played more off the ball this season. He is a good shooter from distance at 38% and has made 28 on the year while converting 80% of his free throw attempts. Between Acuff, Johnson, and Easley, Duquesne does have a few guys capable of lighting it up from behind the arc.

Since forward Austin Rotroff suffered a foot injury a month ago (he is out 4-6 weeks) Mounir Hima has seen some action in his place. Hima is raw offensively but Duquesne fans are hoping to see him get more playing time down the stretch as one of the taller players on the team. Williams has done a good job defensively, but it has to be tough playing Okani, Easley, and Williams for significant stretches down low when all are undersized. If there was ever a game to get Hunter/Noel more involved, it would be this one from a height advantage alone.

Nothing is a sure thing, but as others have said this is the kind of game we need to win to improve our chances of avoiding the play-in game in a month. Hope the team comes out with better energy/focus than we did against Dayton and Ricky can build off Saturday's performance. Let's leave the isolation ball to the Dukes, who are far and away the worst passing team in conference. The next worst passing team in conference, Fordham, has averaged 4(!) more assists than the Dukes. That is the mark of a young team trying to find its way.

Projected Score: Duquesne 70, GW 66. 34% chance to win (Bart Torvik). ESPN gives us a 38.1% chance to even our record at 6-6 in A10 play. The Dukes open as a four point home favorite.
 

Free Quebec wrote:

The team needs to compete hard on defense and share the ball while being aggressive on offense. Would very much like to see us shake off the Dayton game and really clamp down on Duquesne.

The rare bright lights from the last game were some good minutes from Brown and Lindo. We need to resist early 3's as the game starts and have all the players play with more energy. Guys need to leave it on the floor.

The loses that we have suffer are displaying our lacking effort to go to the offensive glass. Against the Dukes, our bigs have  to get early touches in the offense flow and they must resist an instinct to put up an immediate shot!! We need to take away the Dukes' legs. The goal should be to have consistent scoring possessions in the 2nd half. The wins that we have pulled off this season in league play are against the bottom teams and we get the W through consistent effort. The 3's are because we have worn out the opponents. That is why a steady diet of Adams, Lindy and Brown in the first half will set us up for a better result. IMHO.

Last edited by russianthistle (2/16/2022 10:10 am)

We're playing a team that is 1-10 in conference, 5-17 overall--and we're the underdog?
Says a lot about where we are. Let's hope we climb out of this.

Starting 5
Freeman
Bishop 
Bamisile
Samuels
Dean

we look significantly better than them. In the first 6 minutes Freeman has blown by his man for a layup 4 times (missed 1 of them)