March 8, 2010

The players have embraced the opportunity with optimism and exuberance.

"It's tournament time," they've been saying. "It's Dukes time."

It was last season.

That was when a 9-7 No. 7 seed took care of 10th-seeded UMass, second-seeded Rhode Island and third-seeded Dayton during an Atlantic 10 Tournament run that took Duquesne all the way to the championship game against Temple and, eventually, to the NIT.

That Duquesne team was 18-11 overall, but the biggest difference between that Duquesne team and this year's 16-14, 7-9 entry into the A-10 tourney is that Duquesne team had Aaron Jackson.

In some respects, the entire 2009-10 season has been about trying to replace Jackson.

In some respects, it still is.

In Jackson, the 2008-09 Dukes had at their disposal a senior leader who could provide scoring, and ability to drive and dish and make scoring available to his teammates, and a defensive stopper with an "unwavering mindset" at that end of the floor.

"I don't know that we have that mentality or skill set," this season, Everhart said. "We've been doing it all by committee a little bit."

The good news is the committee, headed by Damian Saunders, Bill Clark and Melquan Bolding, has yet to consistently unleash its full potential on the rest of the A-10.

Tuesday night's opening-round game against St. Bonaventure would be an ideal time to start.

Saunders has thrived in Jackson's absence, and was named first-team All-Atlantic 10 and the conference Defensive Player of the Year this week.

After finishing 11th in the conference in scoring (14.9 points per game), tied for first in rebounding (11.4), first in steals (2.8), first in blocks (3.1), first in offensive rebounds (4.5) and third in minutes played (36.6), he had a compelling argument for Player of the Year honors.

Clark saw a decline in his accuracy this season, both overall (from .493 percent to .411) and from beyond the three-point arc (.398 to .277) while enduring a lengthy shooting slump, but still managed to increase his output (from 12.9 points per game to 14.1). And it could be argued that he's a more complete player now without Jackson around to set the table.

And Bolding had his season derailed in the opener against Nicholls State, suffering a wrist injury that required surgery, and subsequently endured a bout with strep throat. He only recently has been recognized as a player who is healthy, in shape and finally confident once again in his surgically-repaired wrist.

Everhart referenced to these three after the La Salle game in mid-February as "three all-league players."

What he meant was all three are all-league caliber when they're on their game. Worse committees have been formed.

This one still has the capability to turn an inconsistent season into something special.

It'll take better decision-making, not just from Saunders, Clark and Bolding but from all the Dukes. It'll take better free-throw shooting. And it'll take finding a way to overcome the lack of "a true blue inside game where we can come down and throw it inside and expect to score baskets in post-up situations," Everhart said.

It'll also take this year's Dukes taking a page from last year's Dukes and buying into the philosophy that in tournament play just about anything's possible.

That appears to be the least of Everhart's concerns heading into the St. Bonaventure game.

"We have our share of shortcomings, but they're good kids who have worked extremely hard," Everhart said. "We gotta believe we're going to continue to get better.

"As long as we're breathing we'll fight like hell."

Why wouldn't they?

After all, it's tournament time.

That's also come to be recognized as Dukes time in the eye of the beholder and the believer.