Duquesne Reloading for Another Run
Last season's Cinderella team from the A10 is reloading for yet another successful run with first-year head coach Dru Joyce at the helm.
After a Cinderella run through the Atlantic 10 tournament and a first round NCAA Tournament win against BYU, head coach Keith Dambrot retired and associate head coach Dru Joyce III took over. Now, with the portal closing this week, Duquesne is positioning themselves for another strong season in 2024-2025.
Here’s Duquesne’s additions thus far:
Tre Dinkins (Junior) - Canisius
15.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1 steal per game
Cameron Crawford (Sophomore) - Marshall
8.2 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists per game
Jahsean Corbett (Junior) - Chicago State
15.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists per game
Alex Williams (Sophomore) - Furman
13.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1 assist per game
Only two players have entered the transfer portal from Duquesne:
Andy Barba (Junior) - TBD
1.2 points, 0.6 rebounds per game (5 games, 3.6 minutes)
Kailon Nicholls (Freshman) - TBD
1 point, 0.6 rebounds, 0.9 assists per game (9 games, 6.4 minutes)
The following players are out of eligibility:
Dae Dae Grant
16.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1 steal per game
Tre Williams
3.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 0.6 assists per game
Hassan Drame
3.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 0.5 assists per game
Fousseyni Drame
6.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists per game
Andrei Savrasov
5.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists per game
Dusan Mahorcic
4.5 points, 2 rebounds, 0.5 assists per game
Jimmy Clark III
15 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.4 steals per game
Looking at the portal, Duquesne hasn’t been hit hard, however, they were an older team. Many players graduated and/or are out of eligibility, thus, they are going to have a lot of new faces on the team next season.
Obviously, losing Dae Dae Grant and Jimmy Clark are the two largest losses. However, they lost some crucial rotation pieces in the Drame brothers, Andrei, Tre, and Dusan as well.
Hitting the portal hard was going to be key for Joyce and so far, it’s working. Tre Dinkins was highly sought after following an impressive second year at Canisius. Dinkins shot 41% overall and 36.5% from three, to go with an impressive 15.4/2.7/3.6/1 stat line. Dinkins had some monster games, including a 30 point performance against Rider. Against tougher competition, he posted 17 points against Syracuse, 15 points against Pitt, and 25 points against High Point. It’s very clear that Dinkins is a scoring machine that will help fill the void of Grant and Clark.
Jahsean Corbett is similar, a scoring machine, however, his 6’7 body gives him an advantage as a skilled rebounder as well. In fact, one of his best games of the season came against Duquesne where he posted 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 assists. Against Northwestern in Chicago State’s first AP Top 25 win in school history, Corbett finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. Out of 32 games on the season, he finished with less than double digit points just six times and posted four double-doubles and one triple-double.
Cameron Crawford transferred to Marshall this season after a Freshman campaign at Indiana State. Crawford showed signs of a skilled scorer, posting 23 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists against South Alabama and 20 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists against Duquesne. In just 17.6 minutes per game, he averaged 8.2/2.4/1.4 per game, which is very impressive. He’s got great size for a guard at 6’5, but I’m sure the Dukes would like to see him improve on his 3pt shooting where he averaged just 31.5%. The skill is there for Crawford and he’ll be a crucial piece to Joyce’s rotation.
Alex Williams is yet another skilled scorer that the Dukes have added. Williams shot 43.8% overall and 39.9% from beyond the arc. Williams disappeared in the last six games of the season, but prior to that he was averaging 15.7 points per game in the previous 19 games. Some of his best performances included a 23 point, 7 rebound, 2 assist game against Tulane, and 26 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists against The Citadel. Williams obviously has the talent to score, so this was an excellent pick-up by the Dukes.
Duquesne also previously picked up a commitment from JUCO transfer Brandon Hall out of Howard College and high school senior Dom Aekins. Aekins will most likely come in with a limited roll, at 5’8 he is rather undersized and only had one other offer from Youngstown State. Hall averaged 16.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 18 games for Howard College. He originally was a member of ETSU as a Freshman, but he ultimately did not play and transferred to Howard College. Hall had offers from UIC, Tarleton State, Saint Peter’s, and Duquesne.
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