After starting out 4-1 in Atlantic 10 play, it’s been a rough stretch for Duquesne Basketball. They’ve lost four straight games, including a 62-53 home loss to the UMass Minutemen. The Dukes have a crucial game on Wednesday night, taking on Richmond.
The Spiders were co-regular season champions in the Atlantic 10 last year but the new roster has struggled, currently tied for last in the standings at 2-7. Still, with this being on the road, Duquesne could very well lose this game.
Here are the keys to the Dukes ending the losing skid.
1. Slowing down Dusan Neskovic
With the season-ending injury to Delonnie Hunt (more on that in a second), Richmond’s offense has become the worst in the Atlantic 10. That leaves just Neskovic, a transfer forward from Dartmouth, as the lone double-digit scorer on the team with 13.8 ppg. He has five games of 20+ points, and the Dukes have struggled to slow down opposing frontcourt offensive options from going off. If they can prevent that with him, they’ll have a great shot at winning on the road.
2. Who is the top offensive option on the perimeter for Richmond?
Before he got hurt, Hunt was putting up 16.8 ppg and 2.9 apg. Outside of him and Neskovic, no one else is putting up more than 7.5 ppg. There are still a couple of guards that can pose problems for the Dukes in a given game. B. Artis-White (4.3 ppg) had 17 points in a game against GW before, while Apostolos Roumoglou (5.5 ppg and 5.3 rpg) is a 6’7 guard/wing that can rebound, though he’s shooting under 30% from deep. After giving up 32 points to Rahsool Diggins, look for the Dukes’ guards to try to put up a better defensive effort.
3. Better play from the center spot
Duquesne’s three-big rotation at the five-spot was a key part of their early winning ways. But Eli Wilborn and David Dixon have struggled in the extra playing time with (current) starting big man Chabi Barre out with a hamstring injury. Both have been in major foul trouble and, even worse, have struggled to finish inside at the rim.
Duquesne’s shooting will come and go, but getting easy baskets inside can help negate that. This is the ideal bounce-back game for the bigs against a Richmond squad that’s not very imposing inside.