Duquesne Preview....

So, the Duquesne Dukes are coming into the venerable House That Roars for a final visit.  This is part of a home-and-home thing we have going with them.

I am sure it is a coincidence, but we are playing a bunch of really young teams with our young team.  Based on the analysis at statsheet.com, Duquesne is the 41st youngest team in D1 (analysis is done by playing time for each player).  (BG is #89).

They were 16-16 last year and looked to be bringing almost everyone back, but Melquan Boldin transferred in the off-season so they returning squad took a little hit from that.

So far this year, they are 1-1, with a non D1 win over Bluefield State, and a road loss to Robert Morris.  Last year, the Dukes beat BG by 11 on New Year's Eve in Pittsburgh, and the season before that (though in the same calendar year), Duquesne beat us by 18 at Anderson.

A few team notes on the Dukes.

• They play upbeat.  Last year they averaged 69.8 possessions per game, which is in the top third of the NCAA.  BG averaged 64, which was 306th out of 347.  You'd like to think that we'd be better equipped to handle that pace with our team this year, but we have had 64 possessions in both of our D1 games, so any idea of us picking up the pace this year is still just an idea.
• In their D1 game this year, they were all about the 3-point shot.  This was not true from their game last year, where they were scored only 22% on 3s, but against Robert Morris, 30 out of 63 points came on treys.  They made 10 3s and only 9 2s.  They shot 35.7% on 3s and 36% on 2s.  See where I am going here?
• They are picked to finish somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic 10.  The A-10 was last year's 6th ranked conference based on RPI.  (The MAC was 16th).
• They had 10 steals in the Robert Morris game.

Their top returning player is Damian Saunders who was all-conference and the A-10 Defensive player of the year.  He is only 6'7" but led the conference in rebounding, blocked shots and steals and also scored 15 a game.  He didn't have a great start against Robert Morris, but he is a senior and someone we will need to play very athletically to keep him minimized.

Bill Clark scored 22 in 25 minutes in the Robert Morris game, and is expected to be a contributor as long as he doesn't get suspended any more.  He hit 5 3s.

Mike Talley played 25 minutes as a freshman, and had 4 assists.  His rep, based on College Basketball Prospectus, is super-quickness.  They have a lot of tallish guys (6'7"-9") but no truly really big men.

Anyone, for a lot of reasons, this is a tough matchup for us.  It will be a nice test for how our new team is  quicker, both in playing uptempo and in defending the perimeter.