Inside the Dukes: Made For March?

RICHMOND, VA — With the Duquesne Men’s Basketball Team leading by six points with 1:23 to play, VCU Men’s Basketball Coach Ryan Odom decided to play the long game and made a foul gesture when Tre Williams caught the ball.

Williams a 46.2% free throw shooter this season to that point was being dared to shoot based upon his reputation this season and he sank both shots in front of 7,044 fans, putting the finishing touches on a 69-59 victory Tuesday night at the Siegel Center.

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“Tre was in the gym with us this summer and he was in there by himself getting his work in and reps up throughout the season,” senior guard Dae Dae Grant remarked. “Tre’s got onions for him and that’s what he said when he hit them. ‘Onions’.”

The victory secured Duquesne getting a bye in the Atlantic 10 Championships with one regular season left to play.

After an 0-5 start to the Atlantic 10 schedule, Duquesne stands at 9-8,

“Those guys hung in there,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot stated. “We’ve been running up hill all year trying to get over .500 and they’ve done an unbelievable job. I give our guys a lot of credit, a lot of teams would have collapsed after that start we had.”

Following the contest, the team wasted all of its remaining available water, showering everyone in celebration for its first win at VCU since Mar. 3, 2020.

“If you come into this arena and look at all of those NCAA banners, nobody understands it better than me,” opined Dambrot. “When you can come in here and win, you’ve done something regardless of how they play, whether they’ve got injured guys or whatever. It’s a hard place to play and sold out 500 million times in a row. I’m proud of our guys and our composure when they got on a run. We made plays when it mattered, and we won it on the defensive end again. We had to go out there and out tough them.”

ZONE IMPACTS GAME

In the second half, VCU began to settle into the game. It had not been smooth sailing with Max Shulga ruled out hours before opening tip with back spasms, but coming into half, the Rams made the adjustment.

“We struggled to guard them the first four minutes of the second half, but we went to the zone which really helped us, and it slowed them down, which was key for us,” Dambrot said.

In previous years Dambrot was reluctant to run a zone to the point that it almost resembled a curse word to him.

This year Dambrot has inserted a zone more than ever and it clearly made VCU uncomfortable.

“Some teams can play it and some teams can’t,” he asserted. “This team has a tendency to play it and it’s helped us. We just have to be comfortable with it and make sure that we throw it in there. I thought it was a good change of pace. We played it multiple ways, but I thought we did a good job of it today.”

When VCU figured it out and scored a couple of baskets against it, Dambrot immediately called a timeout to make the adjustment back and the Rams never were able to recover.

“Sometimes you’ve got to save them but sometimes you shouldn’t save them,” determined Dambrot. “I just wanted to try and quell their run and this crowd is so frenzied that if you let them get into it, it becomes difficult. We did some good things, we played good zone.”

ROTATION PULLS THROUGH

By the time eight minutes had elapsed, Duquesne already had utilized 11 players, however it was a matter of effectiveness which proved different.

Each player that entered the game did so fresh and brought something to elevate on-court play.

Jakub Necas had one of several and-one plays which provided a clear boost, Chabi Barre made a nice post move to score a basket, Matus Hronsky provided his most minutes since Jan. 27, Kareem Rozier had multiple back-breaking assists which led to three-point baskets and Fousseyni Drame’s follow and dunk on a third effort led to VCU spending a timeout.

PUT 🔙 SLAM. pic.twitter.com/T1Hnf3sb5k

— Duquesne Basketball (@DuqMBB) March 6, 2024

“Obviously, it’s difficult, like I don’t even know who’s going to play sometimes,” Dambrot admitted. “I do think that Jakub and Matus playing has helped us stay fresh and they’re good players. Jake’s contributions and Kareem coming off the bench now has helped us. We had a funky lineup out there tonight; we played Jakub at the 5 which we haven’t done all year, but we’ll do whatever we have to do to win.”

Why is it starting to come together?

According to Grant it comes down to trust in everyone involved with the team in allowing everyone to utilize their collective strengths on the court.

That has allowed Duquesne to keep going and swinging the pendulum into March where it is playing some of its best basketball with additional room to improve.

“Shoutout to my teammates and our coaching staff, we have it going now, we have it clicking,” he offered. “Most importantly we continue to gel together and keep it rolling. We trust in each other and our work ethic and our staff and what we do each and every game.”

COUNT the basket ☝️ pic.twitter.com/Qs4UunjdMa

— Duquesne Basketball (@DuqMBB) March 6, 2024

THEY SAID IT

“It was really important, and we got it done just really focusing on the defensive end and knowing that if we get stops and lock in on defense that we can and will win and that game win each and every game if we continue to lay our hats and game plan on the defensive end.” – Grant on slowing everything down to get a positive result

“It might not be a worry for you but I’m sitting there at 65-years-old losing my mind. We’re growing up, we’re playing better, making more plays and it was a total team effort. Guys really bought into what they had to do to win.” – Dambrot on his mentality down the stretch Tuesday