Atlantic 10 Basketballl: 3 takeaways from Duquesne’s win over VCU
By Tyler Cronin
On Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, Duquesne moved to 2-1 in Atlantic 10 play with a 79-70 win over VCU, dropping the Rams to 1-1. Jimmy “Tre” Clark III had a career night with 26 pts, 6 rebs and 5 stls for his first career triple nickel against his former team, while Dae Dae Grant and RJ Gunn combined to make 7 threes as the Dukes went 11-25 from deep. For VCU, the offense was heavily powered by their starting forwards, getting most of their early production from Jamir Watkins (18 pts) and being carried in the 2nd half by Brandon Johns Jr (22 pts, 6 rebs).
This is only January but this game could turn out to be significant in two months, with a wide-open Top 4 in the A-10 and both teams clearly in the top half of the league, it’s absolutely in the realm of possibility that Duquesne could need the tiebreaker that they just clinched over VCU by winning the teams’ only meeting. Eight days into the conference play, the A-10 is already down to just two undefeated teams (3-0 Dayton and 2-0 St Bonaventure) and the Dukes and Rams figure to both be major factors in the ensuing nine weeks of chaos. Their meeting gives us a few clues as to how the rest of their respective seasons could go.
1. Duquesne Should Now Be A Top 4 Favorite
The Dukes have never received the coveted double-bye since the A-10 expanded the conference tournament to its current format in 2014 and haven’t finished in the Top 5 since getting the 4th seed in 2011. But for the second time in Keith Dambrot’s tenure, Duquesne is positioned to compete at the top of the conference (the other was a 6th place finish in 2020). There’s not too much separation right now between the Dukes and the six other teams that are currently jockeying to be the biggest threat to the sudden heavy favorite in Dayton.
Duquesne really leaned into its strengths against VCU, shooting 11-25 from 3, collecting 15 offensive rebounds, and holding the Rams to 17-38 shooting from the field. They even continued to win the turnover battle, committing just 14 against VCU’s HAVOC, which forces 17.7 per game, despite a half dozen being due to their own sloppiness.
The Dukes have the second-best offense in the A-10 per Kenpom, thanks to the outside shooting, rebounding, and taking care of the ball and that unit is more reliable than any that their remaining opponents boast, save for Saint Louis’ offense. It’s this end of the floor that led Duquesne to a 10-3 start, albeit not against the best competition, but it’s the continued growth of their defense that has sealed their last two wins and sets them up to be one of the league’s best.
Coming off of a game in which they held Rhode Island to 26 second-half points and held the Rams two stars, Brayon Freeman and Ish Leggett, to 20 combined points, Duquesne kept it going, with Coach Keith Dambrot saying the “the first half defensively was the best we’ve played all year.” By all indications, it’s basically an average unit nationally, forcing a lot of turnovers and defending the rim well, while getting torched from three. But the Dukes have managed to have great defensive halves in their biggest games, including the aforementioned two, a 21-point first half for Depaul and twice keeping UC Santa Barbara (winners of seven straight since) under 30.
The win over VCU was Duquesne’s most impressive of the season and the first game that will really dictate their final spot in the standings. It showed a lot of important things, that the Dukes will continue to make threes and take care of the ball against the best teams, while the defense just continues to play better as the season goes on. Their strengths are more impressive than most A-10 teams and their weaknesses are certainly less of a detractor than their competitors, which should solidify the Dukes among the best in the conference.