UD’s Final Push Continues with Duquesne

Here’s the good news for Flyer fans, UD has been in the Top 5 among all A-10 teams for the entire season, in terms of FG% defense.  The bad news is they’ve also had season long struggles to make shots consistently, which has resulted in them being in the conference’s Bottom 5 for FG% offense.

However, on Wednesday night against Charlotte, they not only played their usual lock-down defense, (holding the Niners to 35% FG and 21% from the arc), the Flyers also put together their best “overall” shooting performance of any game thus far this season (shooting 50%FG, 47%3FG, 80%FT).  In shooting with such stellar efficiency, they picked up a “much needed” win, especially on the road, to now get back to the 500. mark in conference play.

Now, maybe you’re thinking, well it’s Charlotte (now 2-9 in the conference), so UD is suppose to win, right? Well, keep in mind over the last two weeks, Charlotte has handed Xavier their only A-10 loss thus far, lost to GW by 6 at home, and lost to Rhode Island by only 1 point on the road.  Also throw in the fact Dayton had never won at Halton Arena, before Wednesday night and lastly the Flyers were coming off two consecutive double-digits losses, in which their FG% average was only 36%.  Ok, so, I’ll stop trying to sell you on Charlotte being a “good win” for the Flyers and stick with a “much needed” win.

Looking ahead, as UD started the A-10 season with 3 of their first 4 games on the road, they’ll now finish the A-10 season with 3 of their final 4 at home sweet home, UD Arena (inclusive of a 3 game home stand). To set the “home sweet home” stage, UD is 75-9 at UD Arena over the last 4 years.  The 75 victories are tied for the six most home victories in the NCAA, since the 2006-2007 season.  That means only Kansas(87), Ohio State(81), Pittsburgh(80), Florida & Syracuse(77), have won more home games then UD, during that stretch. 

The first of the three home games will be against my surname, the Dukes of Duquesne tomorrow evening. Next up for the Flyers, will be the 2nd of the annual grudge matches with XU, and then wrap-up “home” regular season conference play with St. Louis.  With Duquesne in the hunt for the A-10 regular season title and after they beat up on UD by 18 pts, several weeks ago in PA, the Flyers can now exact some revenge on their home court.  In their first match-up, DU outrebounded Dayton 42-34 (UD’s the top rebounding team in the A-10  & ranked 18^th nationally). DU forced UD into 20 turnovers (UD averages 12.8 on the season), which led to 22 points off TO’s and DU shooting 50% from the field (UD FG% defense is 40.8%). And lastly DU shot 28 FTs compared to UD’s paltry 9FT attempts. 

So, therein lies the keys to the game for UD… Win the Battle of the Boards, Limit TO’s to 12 or less, Attack DU’s pressure for high quality shots & create more FT’s opportunities then DU (DU has attempted more FTs then any other A-10 team), oh and lastly, MAKE SHOTS!  Now, while this is asking a lot, if UD is able to execute on these keys and pick up another “much needed” win, just maybe this could be the launching pad for a strong regular season finish, and great momentum for a deep run in the A-10 tourney and beyond.

 

Changing of The Guard

(Courtesy Erik Schelkun/Elsestar Images)

He’s probably the most heralded perimeter recruit in UD basketball history since Johnny Davis.  He’s a hometown basketball success story, that decided to stay in the neighborhood for college, and he would be replacing a championship caliber point guard.   These are just a few of the pressures Juwan Staten would face in selecting UD as his new home for the next 4 years. 

Sidebar: Well, I’m sure some folks may be asking “who is the championship caliber point guard Staten would be replacing?  Surely, Derrick isn’t referring to London Warren”?  Yes indeed, I am referring to London Warren.  The fact remains, London Warren (not forgetting about Rob Lowery) led the UD Flyers to a NIT Championship last year.  Of course, Chris Wright, Chris Johnson, Marcus Johnson, etc…received all the headlines and those headlines are/were certainly well deserved.  However, as you digest and really understand the run Dayton made in the post season last year, you quickly see Warren was a big catalyst to their success.  As  the adage goes, offense wins games but it’s defense that wins championships, and Warren was the start of it all for UD, in terms of the first line of defensive pressure last year (more to come on this subject in future posts but getting back to Staten).

Staten is now nine games into his freshman campaign and he not only leads the team and the A-10 conference in assists per game, but his 6.7 assist per outing ranks eighth in nation among all players and is the highest per game assist average among freshmen in the nation (including Duke’s freshman point guard sensation Kyrie Irving).   Staten also owns a little better than a 2-to-1 assist to turnover ratio, which is difficult to achieve, even for your most seasoned point guard.  Personally, I think that assist to turnover ratio will do nothing but improve to 2.5 or better by season’s end, as he becomes even more comfortable with the college game.  

Overall, I think Staten is doing a terrific job controlling and running Dayton’s offense.  He distributes the ball, and has excellent court awareness.   Now, Staten is also a point guard that can score the basketball, as evident by his 8.3 points/game.  But, in my opinion, here in lies the challenge for him and is probably the biggest adjustment he’ll need to continue to improve upon (other than applying a bit more defensive pressure to opposing guards), and that is, knowing when to pass & when to be aggressive in looking for his shot.  Many, many years go as a high school player, I was a “scoring point guard”, and I recall how difficult it was to learn how to “pick my spots” when I suited up in a college uniform.   

Dayton has had very limited open court opportunities thus far, this year but when those few opportunities have come and gone, there’s been a few occasions I’ve noticed Chris Wright talking to his young point guard afterwards, to let him know he was open for a lob at the rim or a bounce pass (think of how many alley-oop dunks Wright has had over the last 3 years, Warren never had to think about shot, it was always find Chris at the rim in transition). 

In averaging 6.7 assist/game, it’s abundantly obvious Staten is finding the open man, but as he develops an even greater sense of when to pass and when to shoot, expect his assists to rise to one or two more per game and also expect a reduction in his 3 TO’s per game (hence to 2.5 AST/TO ratio improvement mentioned above).

Now, stepping back nearly six years ago, before all the hype and expectations surrounding Juwan, I was talking with my former UD teammate Alex Robertson. He was telling me about this 7th grader that was pretty good. Alex’s comment was something along these lines, ”Derrick, there’s this kid where I teach, that can really ”GO”.   My response was, Alex are you saying he can GO, because he’s only a 7th grader and he’s pretty good for a 7th grader?  Alex’s response was, NO, this kid can flat-out GO,GO!!  I knew exactly what GO, GO meant (he was special).  Alex went on to say, he understands the game as a 7th grader, even better than many H.S. and college players and he’s also lightning in a bottle! That kid was Juwan Staten.

Fast forward five years or so and Staten becomes one of the best high schooler & point guards in the country.  I saw him play only once in H.S., and thought to myself, Alex was right, this kid can GO, GO!!  So, for the balance of this season and the next three seasons, I’ll enjoy knowing that UD basketball is in good hands.  And as Staten continues to make the ”necessary adjustments” (and possibly rewrites UD record books for assists) don’t be surprised if he leads UD to another championship of some kind.

- Derrick Dukes