Duquesne beating its war drums

I’ve received several e-mails wondering what that pounding sound is that keeps them up at… I’ve received several e-mails wondering what that pounding sound is that keeps them up at night. It’s the war drums thundering from Duquesne’s campus downtown.

The Dukes want a piece of Pitt hoops.

Pitt has won the past six and 25 of the past 28 editions of the City Game, dominating an inferior Duquesne team with size, athleticism and power.

This season, however, Duquesne possesses the talent to compete with the Panthers, and the environment will be heated for today’s contest. Pitt is 2-1 at the Palumbo Center.

After Duquesne’s 76-65 win over Niagara two weeks ago, I asked Duquesne center Shawn James if the Dukes were ready for Pitt.

“Oh yeah,” James said, with bulging eyes, angry eyebrows and a quick change of temperament. “The question is, are they ready for us?”

Well, Pitt will have to be. Duquesne runs you ragged, pressing after made baskets and pushing game tempo whenever possible. Plus, this isn’t Houston Baptist or Buffalo anymore. Still, with a new group of Panthers running the show, Pitt might have the tools to not only handle that kind of tempo, but to excel at it.

Let’s get to the pulse of Panther Nation.

Q: Will Duquesne beat Pitt?

A: Ah, the great prognostication question. It’s too hard to predict what will happen in any sport. In the year of the upset, Duquesne has a chance to continue the trend of tumbling top teams.

Will the Dukes stun this city and college hoops? Who knows? We’ll find out tonight. But the Dukes will make sure everybody knows they are a legitimate team once everything is said and done.

I’m pretty confident Pitt can win this game with its depth, which usually is a weakness of Duquesne’s opponents. The Panthers can’t take the Dukes lightly, though. If they do, Pitt could be on ESPN all over again, this time for the wrong reasons.

Q: How can DeJuan Blair and Tyrell Biggs counter Duquesne’s Kieron Achara and Shawn James?

A: Achara likes to roam around the floor. He can light it up from anywhere. The great thing about Blair and Biggs is that they can both defend on the perimeter, especially Biggs. Pitt has the strength and toughness advantage in the post, but challenging shots might be an area of concern for the Panthers.

Both James and Achara are lanky, almost scrawny big guys. James makes up for his skin-and-bones frame with a great reach. He is the nation’s best shot-blocker. For Blair, using his reach and his big body will be key. He can push around James, but he’s going to have to use the rim as a shield sometimes and throw his weight around, too.

Biggs can extend the big guys out farther on offense than Blair. Biggs has a jumper out to 17 or 18 feet, and that helps him stretch defenses. He is ripped, too, so that will allow him to assert his physicality on Duquesne’s big guys.

Q: Where does Pitt have an advantage against the Dukes?

A: Coaching, guard play and Sam Young. Who is going to guard Young? Duquesne pairs 6-foot-1-inch guard Kojo Mensah with James, who is 6-10. The other pair is 6-4 Aaron Jackson and the 6-10 Achara. The rest of those rotations are lanky players between 6-1 and 6-7.

Neither rotation possesses a hybrid forward capable of guarding Young. Expect Sam to have a big game, as usual. He is too strong for any of the intermediate guards and too fast for any of the power forwards. That matchup problem will exist all year, and it should be exposed tonight.

Also, with all due respect to Ron Everhart, who has turned Duquesne into a competitive program from basically nothing, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon is one of the best coaches in the nation. He can win anywhere, home, neutral or away.

Pitt’s physical guards are simply too talented for Duquesne’s backcourt. Mensah can probably keep up with Levance Fields in terms of speed, but Fields’ bullish style of play will punish Mensah. The length of Gilbert Brown off the bench will pose problems for any of his opponents, and Mike Cook, like Fields, can bully anybody who guards him.

To win this game, Pitt needs its guards to score and its big men to assert themselves. Duquesne is not going to wear down a team of this caliber, and when that’s tossed out, the game’s decision comes down to athleticism, skill and sheer talent. Pitt has more of all of these things.