Duquesne Basketball: How Dukes backcourt looks with Tevin Brewer injury

Projected starting point guard Tevin Brewer is out indefinitely for Duquesne Basketball. How do the Dukes recalibrate the rotation before the season starts?

After a rough season with a young group of guards, Duquesne Basketball completely revamped the backcourt in its entirely. The two notable newcomers include guards Dae Dae Grant and Tevin Brewer, who averaged at least 15.0 ppg and 4.0 apg at their previous schools.

The most important player may be Brewer, a 5’8 playmaker from Florida International that put up 15.7 ppg and 5.6 apg and will be responsible for running the offense and making sure there’s a lot more passing going on. As a team, Duquesne ranked in the bottom 10 in the country in total assists, part of the reason why the revamping occurred.

Unfortunately for both the team and the player, Brewer reportedly recently got out of the hospital after suffering complications from an appendectomy. As of now, he’s out indefinitely for the Dukes and it’s unclear if he’ll be ready for November 8th against Montana to start the season. The hope is that it’s not long-term but the point guard position is now wide open for the team to a degree.

There are three other ball-handlers on the roster, with one of them being true freshman Kareem Rozier. It’s not clear if he’s ready for minutes and unlike last season, there are other options available. One would be to slide another projected starter, Grant, to the one and just be the full lead guard. He averaged over 18 ppg last season with Miami (OH) but is more of a scorer than a true facilitator and after last season, Coach Dambrot may prefer to have a real passer run the offense.

That could be another newcomer in Tre Clark, a JUCO transfer who originally started his career at VCU. He’s known for being a quality defender and can play on and off the ball. If he plays more at the one, Grant can be the shooting guard that the Dukes can go with either 6’6 guard Quincy McGriff or 6’7 combo forward Kevin Easley at the wing spot to have some bigger lineups.

There’s enough depth both inside and out to make this work and the most important thing is to stabilize the point guard position while Brewer is out. But certainly, that depth is already being tested.