Game Day Essentials: Game #6 vs Duquesne

Duquesne

Head Coach: Keith Dambrot (7th year)
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Conference: A-10
Nickname: Dukes
Mascot:  The Duke
Last time out: Defeated Rider
Clothes not to wear: Blue, Detroit Tiger's baseball cap

Opening Line: Nebraska by 7.5

Nota bene:  

• It's pronounced 'Doo-Cane'. It's a French thing.
• Duquesne's 83 KenPom ranking puts them at approximately the same level as Indiana (81)
• Nebraska looking to start 6-0 for the first time since 2008-09
• Danny Nee coached at Duquesne from 2001-2006
• Nebraska has put together an on campus, non-bracketed Multi-Team Event (MTE) with Rider, Stony Brook, and Duquesne where each team will play each other.  The purpose of this is that in order to play 31 games, you need to play in a MTE else the most regular season games you can play is 29. It's silly but it's how college basketball works. In the past few years Nebraska has travelled around Thanksgiving but this year opted to host their own event, which is what other fine institutions do as well. (The "Blue Devil Challenge" is Duke, Bucknell, La Salle, and Southern Indiana). 
• Nebraska is 1-2 all-time vs Duquesne. This is their first meeting since 1971
• The full name of the school is "Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit" and the school is named for French General Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville.

Player to watch: Dae Dae Grant

The 6'2" SG leads the Dukes in scoring at over 20 points per game and is a 3 level scorer.  Last time out shot 6-12 from 3 vs Rider. Also a great FT shooter.

Player to watch: Jimmy "Tre" Clark III

Clark is dangerous on both sides of the ball as he earned A-10 defensive honors last season after leading the A-10 in steals and steal rate.  On offense he's an ok 3pt shooter but a deadly mid-range shooter, hitting from over 50% over the last 2 seasons.

Others to watch

Fousseyni and Hassan Drame came to Duquesne from LaSalle last season but they're more well known from the St Peters team that made the run to the Elite 8. Fousseyni plays the majority of the minutes of the twin brothers from Bali and is the Duke's leading rebounder. Starting PG Kareem Rozier is small at 5'9" but is shooting at over 40% from 3 for his career and 47.6% from deep this season. Tre Williams-out is arguably the best all-around post player the Dukes have but is likely to miss this game with a thumb injury. Likely backup center Dusan Mahorcic-out has to play a minute with a knee injury. 6'9" 220 post Halil Barre and 6'9" 215# David Dixon are rim protecting, rebounding types at the post. Russian stretch 4 Andrei Savrasov can shoot from outside and will play at small ball center at times. Freshman Czech stretch 4 Jakub Necas has put up good defensive numbers in limited time and will shoot 3s.

UNL Game Notes

Roster/infirmary report

Out indefinitely 

5   Ahron Ulis     6-3    190 lbs    Junior - Likely out for the season
15  Blaise Keita     6-11    257 lbs    Junior - Ongoing ankle injury recovery

Questionable

2    Ramel Lloyd Jr.             6-6    210 lbs    RS Freshman

Possible starters for Nebraska

10    Jamarques Lawrence  6-3    183 lbs    Sophomore

30   Keisei Tominaga           6-2    179 lbs    Senior
3     Brice Williams               6-7    213 lbs    Junior
53   Josiah Allick                 6-8    231 lbs    Senior
51    Rienk Mast                 6-10    248 lbs    Junior

Bench

4   Juwan Gary                   6-6    221 lbs    Junior

0    C.J. Wilcher                  6-5    214 lbs    Junior

9    Jarron Coleman            6-5    213 lbs    Senior
1    Sam Hoiberg                 6-0    183 lbs    Sophomore
11    Eli Rice                         6-8    213 lbs    Freshman
21    Matar Diop                 6-10    213 lbs    Freshman
31    Cale Jacobsen            6-4    200 lbs    RS Freshman
35    Henry Burt                  6-7    216 lbs    RS Freshman
24    Jeffrey Grace III         6-3    197 lbs    Sophomore 

The Skinny: 

With all due respect to Oregon St, Nebraska faces their first true test in a team like Duquesne as Keith Dambrot has built one of his aggressive 3pt shooting teams with eyes on winning the A-10 and making the NCAA tourney.  Up until this point Nebraska has been running their post-doubling, shooter scrambling defense against fairly poor 3pt shooting teams.  Will Nebraska modify their defense against an opponent that isn't much of a threat outside and profiles to shoot early and often from 3?

Duquesne's man-to-man defenders will be able to stick with the guards but the Huskers will feast inside without double-teams. Expect Nebraska to be successful moving the ball around and struggle if they start with hero ball. The biggest advantage the Huskers should have tonight will likely be second-chance points as this Duquesne team profiles as one that prefers to fast break over securing defensive rebounds. If this game turns into foul fest that will be an advantage for a deeper Nebraska team.

Look for Nebraska's defense to be tested tonight as they look to win the Cornhusker Classic

Prediction: Nebraska 79 - Duquesne 70