Duquesne MBB Prepares For GW Road Test

After last week’s victory over Saint Josephs, Duquesne Men’s Basketball Coach Dru Joyce III mentioned that a Jake DiMichele return to the court was coming in the not-too-distant future.

DiMichele has been dealing with a foot injury since the Cayman Islands Classic and originally suffered the discomfort a couple of weeks before the season.

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During Monday’s practice, DiMichele and Jakub Necas, who departed last Wednesday’s contest late in the first half, were on the court making contributions.

“I’m very excited for him and happy that he’s finally back,” junior guard Kareem Rozier said of DiMichele’s impending return. “We’ve missed him, and I told him in practice we’ve been holding it down for him. It’s a blessing for him to get through the injury that he got through. We can use him, we need him.”

While that does not guarantee that either or both will play against George Washington come Wednesday night, it was an encouraging sign for each.

This has certainly been a benefit to having a week between games.

“You want to get rest but you also want to be sharp,” explained Joyce. “I think film work is important and then just correcting anything that you think you need to fix, and that’s been important to us when we’ve had these stretches before. You want to have some good energy, so being able to practice hard but get some rest is a balance you try to figure out.”

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Duquesne has not had many chances to prove itself on the road but lost both thus far to DePaul and Davidson respectively.

After a positive start, the DePaul game got out of hand. With the Davidson game, Duquesne was in the game until the final minute, when the Dukes needed another shot or two to fall.

Joyce explained that winning on the road is the next step, because it has yet to happen, though he also cautioned it is not an end-all.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be the step that can propel us in any direction because you always have to take one game at a time but for us we just want to go to this next game at George Washington and show some improvement and consistent effort with our style of play,” he maintained.

Last year’s team had that moment when it won at St. Bonaventure and from that point on, it understood what it took to win on the road, which became pivotal comes the crucial George Mason and VCU road trip towards the end of the regular season. Those two games are widely considered the biggest turning points of the season.

“The road is something you have to embrace but also a chance for your team to bond and come together because it’s you against that arena,” Joyce further examined. “It’s a beautiful thing when you do get a win. I think there’s been some growth. You just have to monitor the growth, understand where your team is and we’re at a place now where we’re capable of winning on the road.”

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