Duquesne Basketball: Transfer pickup Joe Reece adds offense to the frontcourt

Joe Reece was one of the top offensive frontcourt players left in the transfer portal. Can he be the missing piece for Duquesne Basketball inside?

It’s been a complete rebuilding job for Duquesne Basketball this offseason. After losing seven players to the transfer portal, the Dukes landed nine newcomers, including a few freshmen, Junior College, and D-I transfers.

All of the attention has been on the backcourt moves, most notably, Tevin Brewer and Dae Dae Grant. The completely revamped perimeter gives the Duke’s optimism that last season’s 6-24 record was an outlier. Of course, the frontcourt also needed work, considering that at the end of last season, they were playing just one true big on the court (Mounir Hima) after so many injuries and lack of overall depth.

That depth has been improved greatly. Forwards Tre Williams, RJ Gunn, and Kevin Easley Jr. are returning, along with center Austin Rotroff. And Abdou-Halil Barre and David Dixon are part of the incoming recruiting class. It’s a good group with size and versatility but not a ton of offensive firepower. That changed this past week with the addition of one more player to the roster.

Joe Reece is a 6’8 forward that started his first three seasons at Old Dominion before transferring to Bowling Green this past year. In 23 games (18 starts), Reece posted career-highs of 12.2 ppg and 5.1 rpg at around 20 mpg. He was consistently a double-digit scorer in the first half of the season, including outings of 19 points versus Robert Morris, 20 points, 10 rebounds against Miami (OH), and another 20 points versus Eastern Michigan.

Duquesne got an up-close look at Reece last season as well, going for 15 points and 12 rebounds in 26 minutes in Bowling Green’s road win at the Dukes. The forward ultimately was dismissed from the Falcons’ program and has been in the portal for a few months but now joins the Atlantic 10 team looking to build back up from the bottom.

The addition of Reece gives Duquesne several potential options from a lineup perspective. He played the five at Bowling Green and can have Tre Williams or Kevin Easley at the four-spot. Or, he can be the power forward and allow either Rotroff or the freshmen with long wingspans to be at the center. There’s now plenty of size and Reece can give the team double-digit production inside.

On paper, this is a balanced lineup offensively that should allow the team to avoid the mega droughts that occurred this past season. Joe Reece alone won’t tip the scales in the A-10 but he rounds up what’s been a very good offseason for Duquesne Basketball.