Dru Joyce: Rebounds, Turnovers Cancel Out Duquesne's Intensity

Duquesne Men’s Basketball led for most of the first half in a tough road environment on Saturday, Nov. 15, but ultimately fell 87-77 to the Villanova Wildcats. The Dukes showed plenty of fight even as Villanova began to pull away, cutting the deficit to 69-61 midway through the second half. They couldn’t complete the comeback as foul trouble, turnovers and offensive rebounds plagued them throughout. 

After the game, head coach Dru Joyce III spoke with Pittsburgh Sports Now about what he saw from his team in the losing effort. While he praised their intensity throughout, especially in a tough road environment, Joyce said the turnovers (Duquesne committed 17) and offensive rebounds (they gave up 21 to the Wildcats) proved too much for their effort to cancel out. He cited those areas as the factor that sparked Villanova’s scoring runs and put them in the driver’s seat.

“I liked our fight in certain areas. I thought there were certain stretches of the game, for being on the road, we really played some good basketball. This is a tough atmosphere. Sold out crowd tonight I believe, the fans were on our back,” Joyce said. “It’s an early test. There were some things we passed at — I thought we were very efficient offensively. When we got shots up, we got the ball to the rim. 17 turnovers, 12 in the first half is too many. It just eliminates what we can do. There were some stretches where we had control of the game.”

Defensive Intensity

Villanova head coach Kevin Willard, similarly, praised Duquesne for their defensive effort, saying that watching the Dukes on film wasn’t enough to prepare his team. They needed to see that intensity firsthand in order to understand how to combat it.

“It’s something that we talked about, we saw on film. They’re really good. The first ten minutes of the game, they’re as quick as any team I’ve seen on film,” Willard said. “So sometimes you can show guys on film, and sometimes you just have to go through it.”

Defense is this Duquesne team’s calling card, and although they gave up 87 points, Joyce said he thought they executed their game plan well. However, there were moments where Duquesne did what they needed to do but Villanova made the better play, like when guard Bryce Lindsay nailed a three from downtown as the shot clock expired.

“We went to a zone tonight, four stretch, and we actually played it well. Played them all the way down to the shot clock and they hit two bombs, right. Just situations like that where everything doesn’t go your way,” Joyce said. 

“To play a really good possession and they make one from 25, we get lost in the coverage a little bit and give up another one to Hodge, I believe, at the top of the key… I thought that three broke our zone, kinda broke the rhythm. We had them stagnant, we had them thrown off a little bit, but just gotta finish plays. We didn’t get the right bounces on that one.”

Next Man Up

Joyce briefly alluded to a whistle-happy referee crew, citing an offensive foul on Duquesne where it was his player that lost his footing but Villanova that got the call. However, he made it clear that the Dukes’ next-man-up mentality helps them navigate foul trouble.

“We’ll never be handcuffed. We’ll never be handcuffed. That’s just what it is. I’ve got some guys on this team that are ready to step up in those opportunities, and I thought we did,” Joyce said. “We got Dom Aekins off the bench and he gave us a spark, Stef Van Bussel, he played hard tonight. So when your name is called, we’ve done a good job of being ready. I applaud my guys for that.”