The Bills over Duq by 13

[ARon]

It would be so refreshing if the Billikens could not let Weathers look like a Wooden award contender for a change.

[AnkielBreakers]

When you look at the height of these guys, it is hard to understand how they gave us problems last year: 

hughes 6’8”

weathers 6’5”

dunn-marten 5’8”

I don’t think these guys will be a problem for Linssen or Hargrove off of the bench. I think Dunn-Marten would hate to be guarded by any of our guards, and will have nightmares of Thatch. We will see.

[HoosierPal]

Now we hear from Stu that the Dukes will be coming in with only 4 practices since their shut down.  Brutal.....

[slu72]

7 hours ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

I don't care the score or the margin of victory in this one.

We need to beat Duquesne, period, any way, any (legal) how.

 

Agree Dambrot had our number last year. Time to take down the Duke of Earl. 

[Billikenbooster]

37 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Agree Dambrot had our number last year. Time to take down the Duke of Earl. 

Destroy the Dukes

[Taj79]

Duquesne doesn’t have the depth per se to foul unequivocally.  I guess you could Hack-a-Has with Rotroff and Kelly and lose little but one of those two on the floor with Michael Hughes limits the Duquesne offensive options.  But it could happen.  
 

Again, I’d run waves of defenders at Carry.  Make him work his ass off.

[NH]

Carry is a good player on both sides of the ball. He probably won't score 20+ against us, but he can control the tempo of the game; agreed with Taj we need to harass him with Yuri, Goodwin, and Jacobs. We had nothing for Weathers last year. Personally I'd like to see Fred get some time on Weathers, I think he matches up well defensively. I'd rather not have Has get in foul trouble guarding him. Not worried about Dunn-Martin. If he gets hot that is a shame, but he's not one of their best players. The Pitt transfer could be an x-factor, but I candidly know nothing about him. 

Our games last year came down to three things, IMO: 1) we didn't shoot the ball well, 2) we didn't create extra opportunities via rebounding margin that we often do, 3) we couldn't guard Weathers. There's not much we can do about the first one except rely on the fact that we're better offensively this season. 2 and 3 are in our control, so I'll be keeping an eye on those as keys to the game.

[RUBillsFan]

8 minutes ago, NH said:

The Pitt transfer could be an x-factor, but I candidly know nothing about him. 

I could very well end up eating my words on this one, but Ryan Murphy (Pitt transfer) doesn't scare me.  Sure shooters can get inexplicably hot and certainly adding another shooter on the floor can give everyone else room to operate.

Murphy doesn't appear to be a great shooter.  https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/ryan-murphy-3.html

He got hype as leading an ACC team in 3s last season, but that was with 42 total on 127 attempts (33%).  He shot 40% in a smaller role for Charlotte back in 2018.  He looks to  me like another guy similar to Dunn-Martin whose only offensive weapon is a 3 pointer (more 3s than 2s taken / 40% on 2s) and he isn't a great shooter in terms of efficiency.  Stats say he isn't great at drawing fouls, rebounding or making plays for others.

[RUBillsFan]

1 hour ago, Taj79 said:

Duquesne doesn’t have the depth per se to foul unequivocally.  I guess you could Hack-a-Has with Rotroff and Kelly and lose little but one of those two on the floor with Michael Hughes limits the Duquesne offensive options.  But it could happen.  
 

Again, I’d run waves of defenders at Carry.  Make him work his ass off.

Duq has been starting Rotroff and brining Hughes off the bench.  I wonder if that is based on keeping Hughes out of early foul trouble .

[The Wiz]

Last year we lost to Duq twice....both times by 14 pts...both times Weathers scored 26 pts....both times, we were close in the 2nd half and then faded in the final 5-10 mins.

Here is what is different....We have depth... fading should not be a problem this year....Duq hasn't played a game in a month and has only had a few practices during that time...If there is a fading problem ...it will be a Duq issue.  Our extra depth also gives us more ways to defend Weathers.

If things happen in a "normal" fashion ....we win by 13pts....that is quite a flip ....27 pts turnaround from last year.  We can't let Weathers score 26 pts again. If he does then the spread will start to wither.

[An A-10 fan]

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  I copied and pasted because i think you need a subscription to read it as an attachment.

NUBYJAS WILBORN

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[email protected]

 

 

DEC 29, 2020

 

12:51 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the perverse positives to come from the pandemic in 2020 is that it’s forcing all of us the re-evaluate the structures and systems that define college sports.

Duquesne men’s basketball coach Keith Dambrot is trying to prepare his team to play a game against a good Saint Louis team on Wednesday. The task of playing the 7-1 Billikens is difficult enough under normal circumstances, but it gets tougher now that Duquesne hasn’t played a game in three weeks. At least 10 players have tested positive for COVID-19 since the last game on December 2, and the team didn’t have full practices from Dec. 12-26. They resumed on Saturday.

Dambrot spoke to reporters via Zoom on Monday in advance of Wednesday’s game. He spoke candidly in a way only a 62-year-old man who has spent over 20 years in his profession with a bit of security can.

Duquesne wants to win. You don’t spend money on an arena and hire a man like Dambrot unless winning is imperative. However, playing a sport requiring heavy breathing, sweating, and close contact when coronavirus thrives on people being bereft of social distancing changes a season’s goals.

“If we have no catastrophic events,” Dambrot said when asked how he will know if the season was worth playing. “If these kids stay healthy. If we don’t have any issues with, God forbid, someone having a severe issue or somebody being hospitalized.”

LeBron James an exceptionally accomplished athlete with 18 years of professional basketball success. He has access to the best coaching in the world, and yet James still leans on his high school coach Dambrot for advice. Dambrot can’t be that guy if he isn’t confident. However, asking young men to make the sacrifices required has Dambrot questioning the validity of playing while the pandemic wages war on the world.

“They are amateurs. They don’t make what professionals make, and there’s a lot of risks,” Dambrot said. “I don’t if the answer is we should play, or we shouldn’t play. I don’t know if we did the right thing or the wrong thing. It feels kind of funny. It does.”

The Dukes are expected to have a tough time on Wednesday. Asking a team to play a formidable opponent without proper prep is unfair. It makes little sense for the Dukes to get on an airplane and risk more exposure to the deadly virus. However, sports sometimes don’t make sense. Dambrot knows there won’t be any empathy for him or his team.

“I know it’s going to be a two-week process to get our team to where we want to get them,” Dambrot said. “I get paid to win games, regardless of the circumstances. Nobody cares.

“All they care about at the end of the year is who won that game and who won that game and what their record is. We just have to put our big-boy pants on and compete.”

Loving sports at times feels like a one-sided relationship. Every bit of logic says your team will break your heart again. It isn’t smart to allow them back in your life. We accept the sadness for the rare moments of glory. However, what happens when a passionate pursuit could cost you your life? Or at least make you immensely sick?

“You look in their eyes, and you can see they’ve been sick,” Dambrot said when describing the anguish of seeing his players struggle. “It’s not like anything I’ve seen before. It takes them two, three, four days to even resemble themselves out there.

“I look in their faces, and you can actually tell that they’ve been sick. That’s the hard part. But everybody at some point is going to go through it, to some extent.”

Dambrot told reporters that he’s anticipating every player on the roster to be available on Wednesday. They’ll hopefully continue to test negative. 

The Dukes could use more time to gel with grad transfer Ryan Murphy. A seasoned player like Murphy is usually a godsend for programs like Duquesne. However, it will be hard for him to contribute to the offense against a good opponent with so few practices.

But Dambrot knows the game will happen regardless of the obstacles. The game has to happen because the NCAA has told the world it can’t survive without a season. There wasn’t a Final Four last year, which created massive financial losses. Understandably, the NCAA doesn’t want to fail. However, is it worth it for the unpaid athletes and the men who are supposed to be father figures?

Dambrot is questioning all of it while also trying to prepare for a game that will be difficult to win on Wednesday.

“We just have to get back on the horse that threw us off,” Dambrot said. “This isn’t going to be a quick fix. We’re going to have to work to get better. We’re certainly not going to play our best basketball.”

Dambrot knows his team won’t be good for a while. Typically, a coach would never say it on record. 2020 isn’t typical, though. Maybe if enough people say the quiet part out loud, somebody will listen.

Dambrot did his part on Monday.

“I know I’m not too comfortable,” Dambrot said. “I know there are parts of the game we’re not going to be very good at. We can only do so much every single day. I’m just trying to get them in shape and feeling good about themselves.”

Nubyjas Wilborn: [email protected] and Twitter @nwilborn19.

First Published December 29, 2020, 12:51pm

[billikenfan05]

18 minutes ago, An A-10 fan said:

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  I copied and pasted because i think you need a subscription to read it as an attachment.

NUBYJAS WILBORN

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[email protected]

 

 

DEC 29, 2020

 

12:51 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the perverse positives to come from the pandemic in 2020 is that it’s forcing all of us the re-evaluate the structures and systems that define college sports.

Duquesne men’s basketball coach Keith Dambrot is trying to prepare his team to play a game against a good Saint Louis team on Wednesday. The task of playing the 7-1 Billikens is difficult enough under normal circumstances, but it gets tougher now that Duquesne hasn’t played a game in three weeks. At least 10 players have tested positive for COVID-19 since the last game on December 2, and the team didn’t have full practices from Dec. 12-26. They resumed on Saturday.

Dambrot spoke to reporters via Zoom on Monday in advance of Wednesday’s game. He spoke candidly in a way only a 62-year-old man who has spent over 20 years in his profession with a bit of security can.

Duquesne wants to win. You don’t spend money on an arena and hire a man like Dambrot unless winning is imperative. However, playing a sport requiring heavy breathing, sweating, and close contact when coronavirus thrives on people being bereft of social distancing changes a season’s goals.

“If we have no catastrophic events,” Dambrot said when asked how he will know if the season was worth playing. “If these kids stay healthy. If we don’t have any issues with, God forbid, someone having a severe issue or somebody being hospitalized.”

LeBron James an exceptionally accomplished athlete with 18 years of professional basketball success. He has access to the best coaching in the world, and yet James still leans on his high school coach Dambrot for advice. Dambrot can’t be that guy if he isn’t confident. However, asking young men to make the sacrifices required has Dambrot questioning the validity of playing while the pandemic wages war on the world.

“They are amateurs. They don’t make what professionals make, and there’s a lot of risks,” Dambrot said. “I don’t if the answer is we should play, or we shouldn’t play. I don’t know if we did the right thing or the wrong thing. It feels kind of funny. It does.”

The Dukes are expected to have a tough time on Wednesday. Asking a team to play a formidable opponent without proper prep is unfair. It makes little sense for the Dukes to get on an airplane and risk more exposure to the deadly virus. However, sports sometimes don’t make sense. Dambrot knows there won’t be any empathy for him or his team.

“I know it’s going to be a two-week process to get our team to where we want to get them,” Dambrot said. “I get paid to win games, regardless of the circumstances. Nobody cares.

“All they care about at the end of the year is who won that game and who won that game and what their record is. We just have to put our big-boy pants on and compete.”

Loving sports at times feels like a one-sided relationship. Every bit of logic says your team will break your heart again. It isn’t smart to allow them back in your life. We accept the sadness for the rare moments of glory. However, what happens when a passionate pursuit could cost you your life? Or at least make you immensely sick?

“You look in their eyes, and you can see they’ve been sick,” Dambrot said when describing the anguish of seeing his players struggle. “It’s not like anything I’ve seen before. It takes them two, three, four days to even resemble themselves out there.

“I look in their faces, and you can actually tell that they’ve been sick. That’s the hard part. But everybody at some point is going to go through it, to some extent.”

Dambrot told reporters that he’s anticipating every player on the roster to be available on Wednesday. They’ll hopefully continue to test negative. 

The Dukes could use more time to gel with grad transfer Ryan Murphy. A seasoned player like Murphy is usually a godsend for programs like Duquesne. However, it will be hard for him to contribute to the offense against a good opponent with so few practices.

But Dambrot knows the game will happen regardless of the obstacles. The game has to happen because the NCAA has told the world it can’t survive without a season. There wasn’t a Final Four last year, which created massive financial losses. Understandably, the NCAA doesn’t want to fail. However, is it worth it for the unpaid athletes and the men who are supposed to be father figures?

Dambrot is questioning all of it while also trying to prepare for a game that will be difficult to win on Wednesday.

“We just have to get back on the horse that threw us off,” Dambrot said. “This isn’t going to be a quick fix. We’re going to have to work to get better. We’re certainly not going to play our best basketball.”

Dambrot knows his team won’t be good for a while. Typically, a coach would never say it on record. 2020 isn’t typical, though. Maybe if enough people say the quiet part out loud, somebody will listen.

Dambrot did his part on Monday.

“I know I’m not too comfortable,” Dambrot said. “I know there are parts of the game we’re not going to be very good at. We can only do so much every single day. I’m just trying to get them in shape and feeling good about themselves.”

Nubyjas Wilborn: [email protected] and Twitter @nwilborn19.

First Published December 29, 2020, 12:51pm

Why doesn’t he just ask his adult male players if they want to play. All these coaches wax philosophical on playing through a pandemic but nobody seems to actually care what the players think. Dambrot stinks and the fact that LeBron is talked about in an article so unnecessarily is further proof that Dambrot has been riding James’ success since he left High School. 

[NH]

48 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Why doesn’t he just ask his adult male players if they want to play. All these coaches wax philosophical on playing through a pandemic but nobody seems to actually care what the players think. Dambrot stinks and the fact that LeBron is talked about in an article so unnecessarily is further proof that Dambrot has been riding James’ success since he left High School. 

I heard your guy Mark Titus make the point that it’s not as simple as just asking the players whether they want to play. Football teams don’t ask players whether they want to play when there is lightening, they make that decision for them. Dambrot decided he’d rather have the players be with their families for Christmas than practicing/quarantining, so it’s not like he’s just making excuses, he’s actually doing what he thinks is best even if it could hurt on court performance. 
 

I say that all to say I do sympathize with coaches as I think this is a tough predicament. That said, they get paid a ton of money to deal with tough situations so it is what it is.

[billiken_roy]

all i know it has been 10 years since dukes have been over 500 and won 19 games.   i like the guy.   he has performed well.   and i think it speaks volumes the likes of lebron as egotistical as he is still seeks him out for discussion and advice.   

 

[Taj79]

I've got a funny feeling that Duquesne ain't showing up tomorrow night at all. 

Ten players tested positive since December 2?  What have they been doing?  I don't care that its Duquesne or St. Joe's or even us .... isn't contact tracing supposed to be in place to identify who went where and might have caught it from whom and then maybe passed it on to so-and-so.  Did they wear masks?  Did they social distance?  Just what happened is what has me curious ........ not to lay blame or place fault, but to try and figure it out.  The POS governor here in PA has been ballistic since day one and he got it!!!  How did that happen?  Ditto the double whammy our ladies' program has been subjected to.  I feel the medical community, no matter how great in this country, seems to have failed big time since we are now into month ten or eleven of this crap.

[Cowboy]

-I think there is a bit, perhaps a lot, of Dambrot hoping the Bills read this and are not prepared for the game

[billikenfan05]

17 minutes ago, NH said:

I heard your guy Mark Titus make the point that it’s not as simple as just asking the players whether they want to play. Football teams don’t ask players whether they want to play when there is lightening, they make that decision for them. Dambrot decided he’d rather have the players be with their families for Christmas than practicing/quarantining, so it’s not like he’s just making excuses, he’s actually doing what he thinks is best even if it could hurt on court performance. 
 

I say that all to say I do sympathize with coaches as I think this is a tough predicament. That said, they get paid a ton of money to deal with tough situations so it is what it is.

lightning cancels or stalls a single game. We’re discussing a whole season here. We’re talking about a young person’s potential future. The players are likely safer on campus in these bubbles with physicians and trainers testing them every other day than they are on their own without basketball and structure. 

[3star_recruit]

28 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

lightning cancels or stalls a single game. We’re discussing a whole season here. We’re talking about a young person’s potential future. The players are likely safer on campus in these bubbles with physicians and trainers testing them every other day than they are on their own without basketball and structure. 

There is no good universal answer which is why the NCAA is giving the kids a mulligan.  If this season doesn't work out, they can always come back next year.

[Old guy]

The Vegas spread for this game is 9.5 pts favoring SLU.

[Billiken Rich]

Does anyone else think Dambrot comes off as a whiner in that piece?

[ACE]

1 hour ago, Taj79 said:

I've got a funny feeling that Duquesne ain't showing up tomorrow night at all. 

Ten players tested positive since December 2?  What have they been doing?  I don't care that its Duquesne or St. Joe's or even us .... isn't contact tracing supposed to be in place to identify who went where and might have caught it from whom and then maybe passed it on to so-and-so.  Did they wear masks?  Did they social distance?  Just what happened is what has me curious ........ not to lay blame or place fault, but to try and figure it out.  The POS governor here in PA has been ballistic since day one and he got it!!!  How did that happen?  Ditto the double whammy our ladies' program has been subjected to.  I feel the medical community, no matter how great in this country, seems to have failed big time since we are now into month ten or eleven of this crap.

So it’s the medical community that you put most of the blame on  They haven’t been perfect, but I don’t recall any of them saying irresponsible things like “it’s going to disappear, and I will be right.”

[White Pelican]

3 hours ago, Taj79 said:

I've got a funny feeling that Duquesne ain't showing up tomorrow night at all. 

Ten players tested positive since December 2?  What have they been doing?  I don't care that its Duquesne or St. Joe's or even us .... isn't contact tracing supposed to be in place to identify who went where and might have caught it from whom and then maybe passed it on to so-and-so.  Did they wear masks?  Did they social distance?  Just what happened is what has me curious ........ not to lay blame or place fault, but to try and figure it out.  The POS governor here in PA has been ballistic since day one and he got it!!!  How did that happen?  Ditto the double whammy our ladies' program has been subjected to.  I feel the medical community, no matter how great in this country, seems to have failed big time since we are now into month ten or eleven of this crap.

Yeah, it's the medical community. Jesus Christ.

[Taj79]

Understanding that reading comprehension has never been a strong suite of this board ......

Where it came from and who screwed the pooch on this was not the issue here.  What I have issue with again is the world's most advanced medical communities being completely in the dark on the virus' capabilities and proper mitigation methods.  I'd probably be more satisfied if guys and gals like Fauci and Birx threw their hands up and said "I don't know" as opposed to what they think might or might not happen.  China hasn't reported a single new case in Wuhan province for over 200 days according to the news last night.  Not that I believe that.  Sweden seemed to have large success with herd immunity.  Do I believe that?  I don't know there just doesn't seemed to be a real solid clue from any corner of the medical world and that's what frustrates and confuses me most.

[billiken_roy]

sigh..........

[wgstl]

So anyway, I'm excited for the game.