Inside the Dukes: Preparing For Conference Play

Duquesne came back from a Las Vegas setback against Santa Clara, but the outcome of Saturday afternoon’s 95-47 triumph over Cleary was quite decisive and that the team did not waver.

“Coming into a game like this, we didn’t want to take our opponent lightly,” Duquesne senior guard Jimmy Clark III stated. “I feel like this was more of a mindset game heading into the next game. It wasn’t really about what we did out on the floor, but how we went about it. This game I thought we had the right mindset and handled business.”

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Indeed, Duquesne emptied its bench and led wire-to-wire as now it is on to preparing for Atlantic 10 play which in the next week will feature road travel to Massachusetts and Loyola Chicago.

Duquesne did make two lineup changes with David Dixon and Fousseyni Drame being in the starting five and Chabi Barre and Andrei Savrasov being taken out.

Dambrot explained the rationale as similar to why Savrasov stayed in the lineup earlier. Drame had not played that well the previous couple of games after a good start and it was an effort to reward and jumpstart him a bit.

With Dixon, it came down to Dambrot’s opinion that he arguably has been the better player to this point and that it was a good time to swap it up.

Ultimately these changes, the first to the starting five this season, were good for the team too and that sacrifices have to be willing to be made for the good of the group.

As A-10 play approaches, Dambrot believes his team can certainly be better with consistency defensively, on the ball, sharing the ball and establishing that low-block presence.

Still, the slate, which still has a Jan. 31 home game against Chicago State, has shown that Duquesne can play with any of its opponents and that could make the Dukes a tough outcome March.

The non-conference schedule was good for us, we played some pretty good teams overall and went about them the right way. Certain areas we need to critique and work on, but I know we’ll be fine.

MAHORCIC PROVIDES CRUCIAL BOOST

This was Mahoric’s second game back as he played nearly five minutes in Las Vegas, but this was the first time he got to play in front of Duquesne fans in a home contest.

Mahorcic was held to seven minutes as his stamina continues to build, but it was quite the first impression with 15 points and five fouls drawn in seven minutes.

“It was a big game for me in the sense of getting back out there, playing more how the game stretch goes and getting ready for the conference,” he explained. “It meant a lot having another game under my legs, that was my conditioning, you guys see I’m already tired.”

Through it all it was clear Mahorcic was having a fun time on the floor. His interactions with teammate Tre Williams following multiple and-ones led to a smile and even saw him turn to some of the courtside fans, appreciating their applauding his efforts.

“Tre’s that guy man,” remarked Mahorcic. “He’s always trying to hype people up.”

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That Mahorcic is on the court at all is a revelation and a credit to both his rehab work and the efforts set by Associate Athletic Director / Sports Medicine and Performance John Henderson.

“He’s not in very good shape yet but he’s someone you can throw the ball to,” Dambrot explained. “That will bode well for us if he can get in shape quicker. I’m happy for him, he gets tired quick but he’s a monster. He’s a strong and tough dude.”

“HE’S NOT A FRIEND, HE’S FAMILY”

Dambrot was looking to find a game this time of year and when he picked up the phone, Carl Thomas was on the other end.

Thomas was the assistant to the head coach at Duquesne for five years before going home to help take care of his family and also be the first-ever bench boss in Cleary’s history.

It was a unique game for both parties as Dambrot had Thomas as a player and coach, Anthony Ivey’s brother played in Akron before going professionally, Carter Thomas, former assistant Charles Thomas’s son played, and Jaylen Cole-Williams was a walk-on for Duquesne.

For Carl Thomas, he already had the opportunity to return to Pittsburgh when his team faced Point Park, but the opportunity to return to his second home was too good to pass up.

“It’s just family so getting to come back, never thought I would be able to come back and play Duquesne,” Thomas reminisced. “When I had the opportunity, it didn’t matter if I was getting my butt kicked or whatever, but the chance to come back to this gym and my assistant coach joked ‘man they show a lot of love for you here’. I put everything I had in here for coach. I love what he’s doing with the guys, and I wanted to see it up close myself. I’m glad I held him under 100 today but I wanted to see it myself because I like what I see on film. What I saw in person did just as much justice.”

Dambrot called losing both Thomas brothers big losses which people did not realize and he has known both since they were 17.

When Charles departed the Duquesne bench for Saint Louis, Carl was Dambrot’s first call for the position, a clear sign of the respect both sides have for each other and how deep their bond truly was.

There still was some gamesmanship of sort between the two as Thomas knew Dambrot stood for the entire game and decided he would do the same.

“He’ll see on the film but his influence… I found we played coach’s zone he hates to play, call it 20 when we were here,” said Thomas. “At the end of the game I ran Knicks, ran Knicks handoff, ran Marcus Weathers’ play, everything coach did here I took a piece with to Cleary.”

Really it just came down to him enjoying the moment while building his Cleary program.

Thomas’s return to Duquesne also saw former director of basketball operations Steve McNees, former guard Noah Buono and recently retired SID Dave Saba in attendance among others.

Following the victory, Thomas hugged each player down the Duquesne line for at least two seconds as he again reminded Dambrot of the one time during his Eastern Michigan days when the latter did not give him his tradition embrace following Akron coming up on the losing end.

“That’s real stuff. I told those guys I love them,” Thomas concluded. “I came up here five times and watched eight games.”