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Atlantic 10 Basketballl: 3 takeaways from Duquesne’s win over VCU

By Tyler Cronin

Nov 11, 2022; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; The Duquesne Dukes celebrate a three point basket during the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 11, 2022; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; The Duquesne Dukes celebrate a three point basket during the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports /
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Adrian “Ace” Baldwin Jr. #1 of the VCU Rams (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images)
Adrian “Ace” Baldwin Jr. #1 of the VCU Rams (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images) /

2. VCU’s One-Dimensional Offense

Duquesne Coach Keith Dambrot had a comment in his press conference that perfectly summed up VCU’s offense this season, “What makes them go is Ace Baldwin, if you look at the stats their assist to turnover number are bad other than him, so what we did is we tried to stay at him. If you cut the head off, the body has struggles.”  Well, the Dukes successfully cut the head off and VCU couldn’t adapt.  The Rams had just one assist on seven made baskets in the first half.  What was most noticeable is the lack of open threes that VCU was able to create, and save for a few in the closing minutes, an open look for David Shriver out of a timeout was just about the only great look the Rams got all night.

VCU was only able to get to 70 points because of great isolation play from Jamir Watkins and Brandon Johns Jr (40 combined) and that tells the story of their entire season, as a great individual performance is needed nightly for the Rams to score at a respectable rate.  Duquesne taking away all of the open threes isn’t any different that what many opponents have been able to do all year but is very concerning considering that it’s normally the Dukes’ primary weakness (opponents are 36.8%).

This season’s VCU squad bears a lot of resemblance to the Rams’ 2020 team which was a prime at-large contender earlier in the year but finished the year with a 2-8 stretch.  Both teams are still good defensively (Kenpom Top 50) but are weaker than normal (Rams have been Top 15 in three of Rhoades’ six years).  The 2020 team was actually much better offensively than this years’, which is now the worst on that end for Rhoades at VCU or Rice, but both teams have no flow and are super dependent on individuals (Marcus Evans/Bones Hyland in ’20, Ace Baldwin/Jamir Watkins in ’23) to carry the team.

The red flags are flying in heavy wind after this game, with VCU at risk of falling to the middle of the pack.

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