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PrintWednesday night stung.
Deep and pointed, this sting was sharp as could be.
What made Duquesne's 92-80 loss at St. Bonaventure hurt most was not what it did within the confines of that 40-minute game, but, rather, what it did in terms of a much bigger scope.
• Game: Duquesne (15-14, 6-9 Atlantic 10) vs. Fordham (2-25, 0-15), noon, today, Palumbo Center.
• Radio; Internet: KQV-AM (1410); GoDuquesne.com.
• Duquesne: Is 10-4 at home. ... Enters the game in a tie for ninth in the conference with George Washington (16-12, 6-9) one game behind eighth-place St. Bonaventure (14-14, 7-8). An eighth-place finish secures a home game for the Atlantic 10 Championship first round, which is scheduled for campus sites Tuesday. Duquesne still has a shot at eighth spot, but needs a win and some help.
• Fordham: Has lost 20 games in a row, is 0-14 on the road. ... Jared Grasso took over as coach Dec. 3, replacing Dereck Whittenberg. ... Grasso, 29, is the youngest coach in NCAA Division I. ... Rams will be trying to avoid becoming the first team to go through Atlantic 10 regular season without a victory since St. Bonaventure was 0-14 in an eight-team A-10 in 1992-93.
• Hidden stat: Duquesne 6-foot-7 junior F Damian Saunders began the week leading the nation in steals per game. No one over 6-6 has led NCAA Division I in steals.
With a win, the Dukes (15-14, 6-9 Atlantic 10) would have had an inside track on the eighth seed in the conference and a home game in the first-round of the conference tournament which begins next week.
Instead, Duquesne plays against conference bottom-dweller Fordham (2-25, 0-15) at noon today at the Palumbo Center in the regular-season finale with an outside chance to still earn a home game in the first round of the tournament.
But the Dukes would need to sneak in the back door to do so.
Duquesne needs to beat Fordham, then must get help from other teams to earn that home game.
So how does Dukes coach Ron Everhart handle this matchup against a Fordham team that many consider among the worst in the league's history?
How does Everhart view this game?
How does he motivate his team after the Dukes dropped two consecutive games -- at Saint Louis and at St. Bonaventure -- after mustering three consecutive wins?
His message for the players was simple.
"Strap it up and play," Everhart said matter-of-factly just after the loss at St. Bonaventure.
It seems that would be the only option, a directive handed down from Everhart no matter what happened in the past.
It doesn't matter if you are standout Damian Saunders, and you had 17 points and 12 rebounds against the Bonnies in what seemed like a solid performance, you have just one option against Fordham -- just strap it up and play.
What was obvious in the immediate aftermath of the loss to St. Bonaventure was that there wasn't going to be much tolerance for sulking, Everhart wasn't going to endure much in the way of guys letting the loss linger with them.
"We've got guys in our locker room feeling sorry for themselves," Everhart said, just moments after watching the Bonnies' win.
"[Those guys] don't need to play on Friday. We are 15-14 and all we need to do is go play [against Fordham].
"That's the only thing left to do, and then we will figure out what we are doing for the tournament and get ready for that."
If the Dukes are going to be able to make any kind of tournament run -- home game or not -- they must take care of the basketball with more proficiency.
Against St. Bonaventure, Duquesne turned it over 20 times and yielded 36 rebounds, including a few key offensive ones by Bonnies star Andrew Nicholson in the late stretches.
In addition, the Dukes let two things creep up and bite them that have been damaging all season -- they shot just 4 for 18 from 3-point range and 14 for 24 from the free-throw line.
Everhart knows the improvement must come quickly.
"All we are doing is trying to compete every day and get better," Everhart said.
"Unfortunately, we are doing some things that aren't allowing us to do that."
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