PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – In the first-round matchup with BYU, Duquesne was facing one of the best scoring teams in the nation, Saturday’s opponent, Illinois, is even better.
The Illini score at 84.4 points a game, while they will shoot the three, the difference between them is Illinois is more physical. They are top 10 in rebounding and have the third best scorer in Division 1, 6’6” senior Terrence Shannon, Junior.
“Terrence Shannon is a big challenge,” said Duquesne head coach Keith Dambrot. “Explosive athlete. Unbelievable going to the rim in the open court. Good three ball shooter. Good toughness, good motor.”
”Reminds me of LeBron in the open court. Thankfully not quite as good as LeBron, but pretty good.”
So what is Duquesne to do in his 11-seed versus a three-seed matchup?
“We've got to put our dukes up and guard,” said Duquesne’s David Dixon. “Keep them below 60.”
It’s a phrased used often in promoting Duquesne athletics. ‘Put up your Dukes’. The basketball team has really embraced the fighting mentality. Dambrot used boxing analogies after the NCAA Tournament win over the Cougars saying they were ‘wobbled’ and ‘had cuts under and over their eyes’, but kept fighting.
“We have come so far so now we're able to take shots, take blows from teams and recover,” said Duquesne’s Kareem Rozier. “With all of the great leadership from the older guys and myself, I think we'll be able to recover from any shot that they throw at us.”
“In the A-10 Tournament we've taken punches,” Dixon said. “We've been down in
games after being up by a lot. It's all about staying the course, keeping steady, don't let anything get you out of whack. If we do that and play the game we know how to play, we'll be fine.”
Dambrot said they would have to grind it out again. They can’t allow the game to get into the 80s and 90s where Illinois lived 24 times this season. Not that he believes they can’t win this, even against the Big 10 Tournament champions.
“We're certainly good enough to compete with them, and we're good enough to win the game if we do the things that we need to do to win,” Dambrot said. “You
know, I think we surprised BYU a little bit with our toughness. I think we surprised them with our defensive intensity.”
“I don't think they played a game that low-scoring most of the year, and so hopefully we can surprise Illinois a little bit as well.”
That would surprise Illinois if they don’t score a number of points. They haven’t been held under 70 points since January 14 and 11 times scored 90 or more points. Meanwhile, in the last nine games the Dukes allowed only one team over 70 points and they did win that game. They held BYU to 67 points.
“We have prepared ourselves for that transition offense,” Rozier said. “I think if we can stop them in transition, we'll be in pretty good shape. Keeping the game in the low 60s, that's what we do.”
“I'm very excited, and I think we have a good chance of beating them as long as we play our game.”
And more history, it had been since 1969 that Duquesne won a game in the NCAA Tournament. It had been since 1977 when last appearing and the school has never won a second-round NCAA Tournament game.
Who’s to stay they can’t do it, no one thought they’d even be dancing.