Duquesne Basketball
After Strong Starts, Pitt and Duquesne Now Searching for W’s
PITTSBURGH — After lots of preseason hype and strong starts to the year for both Pitt and Duquesne this season, both teams are now trying to get back in the win column after rough stretches as of late.
Pitt started the season 9-3 with wins its best early wins coming over Oregon State (157 Kenpom), West Virginia (137), and Purdue Fort Wayne (159). The Panthers beat up on lower levels of competition throughout the beginning of the season, taking down South Carolina State, Canisius, Jacksonville, Florida Gulf Coast, Binghamton, and North Carolina handily in the non-conference slate.
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However, through the Panthers’ first 12 games — they lost all three games to top-100 competition, falling to Missouri, Florida, and Clemson early on.
The trend has continued for Pitt in conference play, as the Panthers have now lost to Syracuse twice (No. 76 Kenpom), North Carolina (No. 6), and Duke (No. 10). The Panthers did take down Louisville on the road, but Kenny Payne’s Cardinals are just 6-10 on the year sitting at No. 192 in KenPom. Com’s rankings.
While Duke and North Carolina are two top-ten teams this year, the Panthers’ losses to Syracuse were both costly to a Pitt team trying to make it back to the NCAA Tournament after last season’s magical run.
No. 7 Duke awaits once again, as the Panthers will now travel down to Durham, North Carolina to face the Blue Devils for a second time this Saturday, Jan. 20, at 8 p.m.
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Duquesne has been a different story than the Panthers, despite also starting 9-3 and struggling as of late.
The Dukes opened the season with wins over Charleston (115), UC Irvine (73), Bradley (81), and others. The three wins listed all came against programs ranked higher than Pitt’s best win (West Virginia) according to Kenpom.com.
After a tight loss to Santa Clara in Las Vegas, Duquesne has since dropped games to UMass and Loyola Chicago on the road, as well as Dayton and Richmond at home. The Richmond loss on Tuesday night, a two-point loss, came without Duquesne leader Dae Dae Grant due to a concussion. Jimmy Clark III and David Dixon scored in double figures for the Dukes, and six others contributed with points as well, including local product Jake DiMichele, who started for the first time in his career.
Duquesne will look to bounce back from the loss on Saturday against Saint Joseph’s at 2:30 p.m. eastern in Philadelphia. That game will be televised on USA.
I’m at a loss for why the shots aren’t going down but regardless … this team is missing a piece (or two). We really need a big body inside that can protect the paint with authority and be someone that you can feed in to when the outside shots aren’t dropping and you need a bucket. Maybe Kante could have been that guy, not sure. Also, we are very “young”. I like this collection of young men and want to see them get better and earn some Ws; however, that may not happen this season. Assuming no one bails, we… Read more »