Welcome to the Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Tipoff for the 2018-19 Season. Today, we feature the Duquesne Dukes.
Duquesne (Predicted A-10 Finish: 1st)
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The only coach ever to lead Duquesne to the NCAA Tournament plans to be back there again in 2019.
The Dukes are stacked, returning 90 percent of their scoring and rebounding from last year’s 25-8 team. Coach Dan Burt is ecstatic about the addition of 6-2 center Laia Sole, whom he calls “arguably the greatest offensive player I’ve coached in 22 years.” And the icing on the cake? The A-10 championship quarterfinals, semifinals and final will be on his campus.
“There is the potential for us to be very, very good,” he said. “We have to stay healthy in the post. We have to be able to share the ball.”
He anticipates Nina Aho and Libby Bazelak as both capable point guards who can focus on distributing over scoring given the weapons this team has.
“We have a lot of depth at guard; any of them can start,” he said.
Burt wants Duquesne to be a regular in the NCAA Tournament. Two years ago they got there and advanced to a second-round game with a defeat of Seton Hall. Hard to see them not in the field of 64 in 2019.
Coach: Dan Burt, 6th season at Duquesne and overall, 114-54
Last year: 25-8, 13-3 (lost to Saint Louis 71-65 in the quarterfinals of the A-10 championship; advanced to third round of WNIT before falling to St. John’s).
They’ll miss: Finnish forward Helmi Tulonen, who turned professional after one season at Duquesne.
Impact returners: 5-4 senior guard Chassidy Omogrosso, 17.3 ppg; a first-team All-Conference selection who started every game and set a program single-season high with 92 3-pointers, which was first in the conference; 5-10 redshirt sophomore guard Nina Aho, who sat out last year with injury, is healthy again. The point guard played 34 games as a freshman. 5-10 senior guard Julijana Vojinovic; 6-3 senior guard/forward Kadri-Ann Lass, the top shot blocker in the A-10 last year and ninth nationally; 5-9 sophomore guard Libby Bazelak, started four games and scored a career-high 14 against UConn last season
Newbies of note: 6-2 redshirt sophomore forward Laia Sole, 9.4 ppg, shot 46 percent from the field; the America East Sixth Player of the Year two years ago at Maine,
Reasons to be optimistic: Burt dubs Sole unstoppable, noting she can use multiple moves and shoots the hook with both hands. Sole, whose sister, Judith, played at Duquesne, opens up options on the perimeter for a team that already shoots well from there. Omogrosso, Vojinovic and Lass all shot better than 40 percent from 3 last year.
“She is the best passer I’ve coached, the best true center I’ve had passing the ball,” Burt said of Sole.
X-factor: With all that experience, expectations are sky-high for this group, which will need to stay focused and fresh the whole way to be successful. Burt has built in two days of extra rest in both October and November; let’s see how the Dukes respond to having the target on their backs.
Circle the date(s): The Dukes open the season in the Lone Star state on Nov. 6 at TCU and two days later play at Texas. Those are early tests but winning one or both could help the Dukes if they need to rely on an at-large bid to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Bottom line: Hard to believe that with all the talent returning and the promise of Sole, Duquesne won’t be in the A-10 championship mix.