To DC's point above: Would say with Darren, Max and Dinkins, it is kind of how deep they get in the doghouse.
With the Darren and Max you knew they weren't returning after they weren't starting (or doghouse).Max's issue seemed to be a good part emotion. But when he was with us, could have started the rest of the year. from a basketball perspective. Emotion another thing. But don't recall we did a lot better with him not in the lineup.
Darren took a lot less money to stay with us. He took the demotion (post-injury) with his usual grace.
A real fine gent when he was here--and we could have used him greatly this year. He just had 14 points and 7 rebounds to help Rutgers power past Maryland.
   Tre Dinkins is not a plus defensively. But offensively, he can shoot and make crazy shots sometimes when we really need 3 point shooting. Can shoot us in--and out of games. You cringe at some of the shots, but some of them go in. Scored 24 points against Dayton--and then only played 5 minutes against them the next month. Not a long term solution even season-wise, but sometimes a quick fix.
    Feels like Christian Jones came on in the latter part of the season. Was great defensively and packed some offensive punch. He's not a pure point (not having one is a problem) but overall a fine player. Corner 3s really at key times this season. So far, he hasn't had the breakout we might think. Even though we are lucky to have CJ now and in the coming seasons.
   Luke Hunger showed good footwork and potential, but didn't always light it up early in the season. But a switch was turned on when Castro was out. Really stepped up. His performances were incredible.
Staff may be responsible for his development or it was motivational after being given a start and playing time--or a combination. Still, Dayton shows we need to find a more effective how to play him with Castro as the twin towers, given both their skills. Could get Hunger the ball more. Castro's free throw shooting is needless to say disappointing, while his game is generally great--and he is a terrific find.
   The point is we seem to in recent years have players who plateau or we may not be using effectively. This presumably happens with every team.
      But some of our brightest finds seem to dim a bit when they should be glowing more. 
   
   

Last edited by jf (3/02/2026 8:47 pm)

Max appears to be in Joyce's doghouse as well. Doesn't seem to be a coincidence. He didn't appear in any games in February and hasn't been listed on any of Duquesne's injury reports. I guess neither team won the Dinkins-Edwards trade.

I'm curious what the intended role was for Tre coming into the year. He's just not a good defender, although to his credit I've at least seen him try on that end compared to when Max was here. For some reason though there's been many times where he ends up on the other team's big man in the paint which results in a free bucket for the other team because GW switches everything on defense. I get that because of defense, Tre's minutes are inconsistent but I still find myself thinking that he should still have a larger role than he currently does given his shooting ability. When he dribbles too much it can be a problem. It's also an issue when he tries to drive to the basket because he usually gets caught halfway and becomes unsure of where to go with the ball. If Dinkins could play more without the ball in his hands it would certainly help. I feel like he could at least be used as a spot-up threat, if nothing else. He's a good shooter - when the ball found him in the corner against La Salle he knocked down a corner three in the first half. I feel like those opportunities are there for him without having to do too much on the ball trying to create his own shot all the time.
 

DC Native wrote:

Caputo always seems to have one player that gets stuck in his dog house. Two years ago it was Max, last year it was Darren, and this year it's Dinkins. Who knows why...

Nobody likes to be made to feel as if they overpaid.

Absent a reason we don't know about, it is odd that Dinkins only played 5 minutes when we could
have used a heat check from him. He can hit big 3s cold. He can also miss them and take bad shots.
Not saying run with him excessively unless his scoring overcomes his often liabilities on defense. And he should not be running the offense with the ball in his hands, as noted by DMV.
      But might have been worth a try to say let him take a couple of shots. Believe Dinkins took none after scoring 24 points and playing I recall over 30 minutes against the same team.
    One reason: he had scored 24 points against the same team.
DMV in addition to his great previews, noted above Dinkin's drive to the basket wind up stuck and
he doesn't know what to do (a big problem for us with numerous other players as well). Wonder if he
and others are stymied by the fact they know they could get in trouble for taking shots that aren't
3 pointers or layups? Maybe that's why we have our classic play where someone overdribbles
into trouble--and frantically looks to unload the ball, often ending in less than ideal consequences.
   And layups, unlike what one would expect, don't seem to be our thing. If there was
a stat on missing easy layups, feels like anyway, that we could lead the NCAA. 
  Coach knows a lot about basketball but can't monitor everything during the game. The coaching staff is also analytics reliant which to put it politely, has brought less than expected results this year.
 

Last edited by jf (3/03/2026 5:27 pm)

GWRising wrote:

jf wrote:

Absent a reason we don't know about, it is odd that Dinkins only played 5 minutes when we could
have used a heat check from him. He can hit big 3s cold. He can also miss them and take bad shots.
Not saying run with him excessively unless his scoring overcomes his often liabilities on defense. And he should not be running the offense with the ball in his hands, as noted by DMV.
      But might have been worth a try to say let him take a couple of shots. Believe Dinkins took none after scoring 24 points and playing I recall over 30 minutes against the same team.
    One reason: he had scored 24 points against the same team.
DMV in addition to his great previews, noted above Dinkin's drive to the basket wind up stuck and
he doesn't know what to do (a big problem for us with numerous other players as well). Wonder if he
and others are stymied by the fact they know they could get in trouble for taking shots that aren't
3 pointers or layups? Maybe that's why we have our classic play where someone overdribbles
into trouble--and frantically looks to unload the ball, often ending in less than ideal consequences.
   And layups, unlike what one would expect, don't seem to be our thing. If there was
a stat on missing easy layups, feels like anyway, that we could lead the NCAA. 
  Coach knows a lot about basketball but can't monitor everything during the game. The coaching staff is also analytics reliant which to put it politely, has brought less than expected results this year.
 

 There is nothing "odd" about Dinkins not playing much. To be honest, he is a poor defender, not a great ball handler or passer, and can easily be scouted out (don't let him shoot open threes - i.e. no help off of him). The only reason he is playing is because we need bodies. He can't take a couple of shots because they aren't there for him to take. He's lucky we have 7-8 healthy bodies and no other options. CC has no choice but to play him some and hope somebody didn't read or remember the scout.

There’s some truth to what you say, but its also an over simplification. As other posters have pointed out, he scored 24 against Dayton in the first game, and they had plenty of tape on and even experience playing against him since he played for Duquesne last year. Dinkins had plenty of other good games earlier this year, too. BTW, Caputo also had tape on and experience scouting him, so if he is so one dimensional, why did he bring him here? It seems to me that Dinkins was a big part of Caputo’s plans this year and it didn’t work out. Despite his deficiencies, its still not clear to me why. All of our players, especially the guards, seem to have deficiencies to me.

As the person who had the audacity to suggest why Tre (and Garrett too) were not on the floor during GW's final possession, allow me to reiterate my position since this discussion has become so badly distorted.  This is not about why Tre isn't playing more or if he's in a doghouse or anything like this.  

15 seconds left in the game and GW is down by one coming out of a timeout.  The strategy was to take the ball down low where there would hopefully be a decent chance of Wu converting but even if this wasn't the case, drawing a foul.  Wu was playing well down the stretch but he's only a 70% FT shooter.  Slim grabbed the rebound but at 2-10 for the night, GW should clearly not have wanted him at the line.  Tre is 34-41 at the line this season.  Garrett is 117-138 for his college career.  You need one point to tie and two to probably win.

This is not about critiquing either of their respective games.  Tre's defense has absolutely nothing to do with this scenario.  His ballhandling is more relevant.  However, do you really believe that there's a better chance that Tre or Garrett drives to the basket and turns the ball over or that they get fouled?  They just need to get fouled and both are outstanding free throw shooters.  What made matters worse is that Jean had just fouled out and was replaced by Christian, a much worse foul shooter who was also experiencing an off night.

None of this is meant to lobby for much more playing time for Tre.  However, this was a situation where the best foul shooters really needed to be in the game.  That's all there is to this.