Dec. 8, 2009

By Mike Prisuta - special contributor to Go.Duquesne.com

There was a time, back when Ron Everhart was trying to take Duquesne from three wins to respectability, when the objective was to win by any means necessary.

Those were the days of jacking up threes in 15 seconds or less, of a full-court press designed to create even more opportunities to score, of changing players five at a time like a hockey team to keep fresh bodies on the attack as often as possible.

"We kind of had that `LA Showtime' thing, that let's-run-and-shoot thing, that let's-score-80 thing going," Everhart said. "It was trading points as opposed to trying to shut people down and make them earn everything they get and not gamble so much."

"Showtime" it was, and the scoreboards periodically exploded to the tune of 98 points against Boston College, 93 against Xavier, 96 against Temple, 111 against St. Bonaventure and La Salle, and 102 against Saint Joseph's. And while that was happening school records were being set for three-pointers attempted (722) and three-pointers drained (239).

It was innovative.

It was exciting.

It was unpredictable.

But it was only going to take the Dukes so far.

This season the point totals are paltry by comparison, from 52 at Iowa to 77 at Western Carolina to 71 against Radford to 58 against Pitt and Savannah State.

But the Dukes are 6-2 and the story is how little opponents are scoring and how poorly they've been shooting against Duquesne.

Just one of those, Western Carolina, has shot over 40 percent from the floor against the Dukes, and it took a school-record 17 threes to help get Western Carolina to 45.5 percent.

The overall shooting percentage from the floor against Duquesne is .368, and opponents are averaging just 61.6 points per game.

How significant is that?

In Everhart's first three seasons Duquesne went 1-19 when it failed to score 70 points.

This season the Dukes are 2-1 when scoring under 60.

That's as much a product of a renewed commitment at the defensive end as it is the relative caliber of non-conference opponents.

"We have to be able to play half-court defense," Everhart said. "We're embracing it a little bit, trying to shut people down for a change."

The Dukes' progress as it relates to defensive prowess will be severely tested on Wednesday night at No. 6 West Virginia.

The most encouraging development as Duquesne attempts to embrace defense is that leading scorers Bill Clark (17.4 ppg) and Damian Saunders (15.1) are leading the charge.

"Those two guys have really been exemplary in that area," Everhart said. "It's interesting because they just buy in. It takes a while, but the younger guys see that and they'll buy in, too.

"I think that's what's starting to happen."

Eventually Everhart is hoping defense and rebounding can consistently help jump-start Duquesne's offense the way it did in the second half of the season opener against Nicholls State.

But if and when that happens, it still won't quite be the same.

Offense got the Dukes from three wins to 21 and the NIT.

Defense will get them to the NCAA Tournament and beyond.

And the goal now is to pitch "the basketball equivalent of a shutout" by eliminating easy buckets and making teams work for every score they get, as opposed to scoring as many points as humanly possible and letting the chips and the scoring records fall.

"If we do that," Everhart said, "we'll have a chance against anybody."