The Official Beat the Duquesne Dukes for the 2024 Atlantic 10 Conference Title Thread

WillWeaverRVA said:
Yeah, the biggest con is probably losing too many games we should have won. I understand losing to, say, McNeese or Dayton (at their place), but we had too many headscratchers this season, including the conference championship game.
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Consistency is the toughest thing to develop as a team. It takes lots and lots and lots of reps. I think we'll get there. In all honesty, the fact that we had several close losses is encouraging - we were right there, even with a limited, quickly constructed roster. Yes, it's frustrating in the moment, and yes, I'd much rather we won all those games we lost, particularly the last one, but I am very excited to see what a squad fully built around Odom's coaching style can do (especially if we can have some decent luck with health - unhurt Sean is a very different player, and even recovering Sean is possibly enough to flip some early losses even if Bam was still ineligible).
 
I believe our preseason poll placement at 2nd was voted on before Bam's waiver was denied, and even I believe before Sean's injury was known. Yes, we had both back for league play, but it wasn't as if they had been playing and gelling all along, as would have been the assumption of those voters.
 
mrgeode said:
Consistency is the toughest thing to develop as a team. It takes lots and lots and lots of reps. I think we'll get there. In all honesty, the fact that we had several close losses is encouraging - we were right there, even with a limited, quickly constructed roster. Yes, it's frustrating in the moment, and yes, I'd much rather we won all those games we lost, particularly the last one, but I am very excited to see what a squad fully built around Odom's coaching style can do (especially if we can have some decent luck with health - unhurt Sean is a very different player, and even recovering Sean is possibly enough to flip some early losses even if Bam was still ineligible).
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Well, in my opinion, coach just had his grace period season. Now the clock starts running to build a strong, sustainable foundation that will return us to being consistently in the dance and in position to make some noise once we get there. Overall, I think this was a decent 1st season with a chance to add on to it in the NIT.
 
Mistachill said:
Well, in my opinion, coach just had his grace period season. Now the clock starts running to build a strong, sustainable foundation that will return us to being consistently in the dance and in position to make some noise once we get there. Overall, I think this was a decent 1st season with a chance to add on to it in the NIT.
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Agreed on all counts, except I'd say it was a good first season. Given no-sit transfers, I think Year 3 when you're supposed to have a majority of the pieces you need in place is now Year 2. Based on his Utah State teams' year over year progression, I think we'll be in business. Hope I'm right.
 
mrgeode said:
Agreed on all counts, except I'd say it was a good first season. Given no-sit transfers, I think Year 3 when you're supposed to have a majority of the pieces you need in place is now Year 2. Based on his Utah State teams' year over year progression, I think we'll be in business. Hope I'm right.
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Yeah, I think I said it before, no hot seat talk until year 3.

If we had lost to a top seed in the finals, I might have given it a good season. I think the blown opportunity knocks it down a peg.
 
WillWeaverRVA said:
Yeah, the biggest con is probably losing too many games we should have won. I understand losing to, say, McNeese or Dayton (at their place), but we had too many headscratchers this season, including the conference championship game.
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I wouldn’t throw too much shade on Duquesne. They were the hottest team coming into the A10T. Then they proceeded to take out a NCAAT team in Dayton, SBU who we lost to twice, and followed up by sweeping us. Give credit where credit is due.
 
enonram said:
I wouldn’t throw too much shade on Duquesne. They were the hottest team coming into the A10T. Then they proceeded to take out a NCAAT team in Dayton, SBU who we lost to twice, and followed up by sweeping us. Give credit where credit is due.
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They went 10-8 after losing their first five. That means for nearly 3/4 of the season they were playing really good basketball.
 
Gopher+RamFan said:
10-1 in their last 11 games, they're on a roll. Happy for Dambrot.
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I'm happy for Dambrot too. Probably the only coach I'm kinda OK losing to if we had to lose to somebody.

However, those numbers are great and all that. But watching that game Sunday, Am I the only person who was thoroughly unimpressed by them? Does anybody else think that was a totally winnable game if we brought anything close to a consistent "B" level game (not even our "A" game, just a "B" game)? Heck, if one guy brought his "B" game (Shulga) we probably win the game.

All of those numbers regarding Duquesne's record may make folks not feel so bad about losing to them, and ultimately you have to give teams credit for doing enough to win. Folks are going to have to do a lot better (even a couple of days removed from the game) to convince me that we didn't blow that opportunity. We should've won that game.
 
Mistachill said:
The one big con is we had a very winnable game handed to us to dance, and as has happened way too often in the past, we blew it. The team fought hard to get back in the game, but we dug ourselves in too big a hole in the first half.

The excuse in the past has usually been how Havoc is often a detriment in big games or against really good teams. Now we can't use that excuse anymore. Let's be honest, we have to start finding a way to come up big in big games more often than we have in past years, and that includes early season tournament games against P5 teams.
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All of this adds up. Prior to this year, we played in 11 A10 seasons where 10 of those seasons had an NCAA Tournament. We qualified for the NCAAs in 8 of those 10 years and produced a grand total of 2 NCAA wins. I don't think anyone is asking for an NCAA win EVERY season because that is simply very hard to due, but 3 separate coaches losing 5 NCAA R64 games wasn't fun.

I agree that the style we played for years would wear A10 level teams out and could constantly get us to an A10 title game because we'd wear our opponents our after playing games for multiple straight days.

I'm a believer in Odom and this staff, but I hope this style of play can produce an NCAA win easier (gotta get there first).
 
Mistachill said:
Well, in my opinion, coach just had his grace period season. Now the clock starts running to build a strong, sustainable foundation that will return us to being consistently in the dance and in position to make some noise once we get there. Overall, I think this was a decent 1st season with a chance to add on to it in the NIT.
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Co-sign! Really interested to see how the staff handles roster construction this off-season.
Like I've previously said, you'd be a fool if you didn't think this staff knows that they need a true 5 (or at least a guy that is closer to a 5 than Tobi).
 
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