Duquesne Basketball overcoming early adversity to succeed on the court

After preseason expectations not being high on Duquesne Basketball, the depth and experience shown are proving many wrong early on.

A year ago, Duquesne Basketball was a team with a whole bunch of new pieces and no clue how they were going to look. In the first few games, there were some close losses to mid-major teams but freshmen guards, Primo Spears and Jackie Johnson provided some optimism. Unfortunately, a 17-game losing streak to end the season and both guards transferring out led Coach Keith Dambrot to build all over.

Throughout the offseason, the Dukes were busy, landing a bunch of newcomers. The two biggest names of the group were Tevin Brewer and Dae Dae Grant, a pair of transfers from Florida International and Miami (OH) respectively. Both put up big numbers at their previous spots and were the projected starting guards on the roster.

But after Brewer was sidelined with an emergency appendectomy, it was Grant that took over as the lead guard. In the opening season blowout of Montana, the senior guard had 25 points on a perfect 8/8 from the field. In three of the five games so far, Grant has put up 24+ points, including 26 in the one-point win over North Florida on Monday.

Brewer has been more slowly brought back into the fold. In four games, he’s producing just 6.5 ppg and 3.8 apg. But even without the scoring, it’s clear that he’s a stabilizing force for them at the point. Against the Ospreys, Brewer had one made field goal in the first 39 minutes and 50 seconds but his second one couldn’t come at a better time.

The guards have played big roles on the season so far but to be clear, it’s been a group effort. They’ve played as many as 12 guys in games when fully healthy, a far cry from last year’s roster that was depleted, especially in the frontcourt. But now, they’re facing that same dilemma inside, playing the North Florida game without three veteran rotation players, including starting center Joe Reece. He’s out, along with forwards RJ Gunn and Kevin Easley, all of whom are out for multiple weeks.

Had this happened last season, the Dukes would be losing games against teams like Colgate and North Florida, who can score at a high level. But so can Duquesne. While Grant is the lone double-digit scorer (18.4 ppg), there is a whopping 10 others so far averaging at least 5.0 ppg. And the outside is Kareem Rozier, a freshman point guard that has earned backup minutes behind Brewer. They’ve managed well without the bigs, still ranking out there as one of the best offensive-rebounding teams in the country.

Duquesne was picked dead last in Atlantic 10 preseason polls but if you’ve watched Rhode Island, George Mason, George Washington, and even newcomer Loyola-Chicago, you know that’s not going to be the case. But what’s the ceiling for this team? We’ll find out soon enough, with eight straight home games to round out the non-conference. According to KenPom, they’ll be favored in each of them.

It’s one thing to be the plucky underdog that catches opponents by surprise but going forward, it’s now expected that the Dukes will win most of these games. And if they do, then the top tier of the conference could be obtainable once the others return.