The best way to learn is often by doing, a sentiment Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III would likely concur with.
Joyce heads into his second season as a head coach with 32 valuable games of experience in charge of a program he had previously worked with as an assistant coach. But there’s more to running a program than diagramming plays or making substitutions.
All the other stuff --- the conversations after practice, the choices of who to recruit, the trial-and-error knowledge of figuring out what suits an individual coach or player --- matters, too.
“It’s great to be past Year 1 and into Year 2,” Joyce said. “You always get asked what it's like sitting in the seat on the right when you’re an assistant coach, and you don’t really know until you get in that seat. You can’t predict the moments, and you have no idea no matter how much you prepared.”
Now through more than a full year, Joyce has a better sense of
everything that goes into being a head coach. That’s to be expected of anyone. But he’s also set to benefit from a decent amount of carryover from a team that finished in the middle of the Atlantic 10 pack despite a forgettable opening few weeks of the season.
Duquesne has two starters back and five players who averaged at least five points last season. In another era, it might not seem like much. But it’s a good sign for the relationship-driven approach Joyce believes is vital to his program’s health and reflects what he values.
“I don’t want to just build a team; I want to build a program,” Joyce said. “I don’t want to continually have guys come through the program for one season. That will still happen at some point, and that’s OK. We accept those players as well. But I want guys to really understand they can do everything and they can accomplish everything here at Duquesne University in our program.”
Just two seasons ago, Duquesne won the Atlantic 10 Championship to earn its first NCAA berth since 1977. That’s a fresh memory in Pittsburgh, proof of concept the Dukes have the program framework in place to make a title push in March.
And based on the early returns, they might have the individual pieces as well.
“I think this group is highly competitive and has poured into each other from Day One,” Joyce said. “I think that’s one of the toughest things to do, is to build a connection within your team. It can’t only come from the staff. We do have to drive our standard and our message, but you need guys who believe and buy in.”
A look at the Dukes
Coach: Dru Joyce III, second season at Duquesne, 13-19 with the Dukes and overall.
Last year: The Dukes were a streaky bunch in Joyce’s debut season, losing six in a row to start his tenure before climbing back to .500 at 9-9 in mid-January. Duquesne then dropped five in a row before a surge that culminated with an upset of eventual Atlantic 10 Co-Regular Season Champion George Mason on March 1. The Dukes ended the year on a three-game slide, including a second-round loss to St. Bonaventure in the A-10 Championship, to finish 13-19 overall and 8-10 in the conference.
They’ll miss: Top scorer Tre Dinkins III (12.9 ppg) transferred to George Washington after just one season with the Dukes. The Duquesne backcourt also saw Jahsean Corbett (8.3 ppg) and Kareem Rozier (6.7 ppg, 3.09 assist-to-turnover ratio) depart at season’s end.
Impact returners: Redshirt senior guard Cam Crawford (8.6 ppg, Atlantic 10-best .431 3FG%) and junior forward Jakub Necas (6.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg) both started more than 20 games last season.
But for a long-running presence, look no further than senior forward David Dixon, who ranks fifth in school history with 129 blocks and heads into his fourth season with the Dukes.
“Me and Dave, our relationship goes back to my time as an assistant coach, so it’s been really special because sometimes as an assistant coach you have a different relationship with the player that maybe the head coach can’t have because he has to concentrate on so many different things,” Joyce said. “I spent a lot of time with Dave those first two years. I’m really blessed we have a certain level of trust that he wants to be here.”
Newcomers of note: The 6-foot-10 John Hugley IV’s career has come full circle, at least geographically. He played his first three seasons at Pittsburgh, including a career year when he averaged 14.8 points and 7.9 rebounds in 2021-22.
But he missed most of the following season with a knee injury to qualify for a medical hardship waiver, then played roles off the bench for Oklahoma and Xavier the last two seasons. Now he’ll look to wrap up his college years back in the Steel City.
“He’s had a lot of experiences over his college career and going into his last hurrah, he has unbelievable focus,” Joyce said. “He’s wanted to be a leader and he’s working harder at it than ever before to make sure that as he goes out in his last year that he gives it everything he has.”
Reasons to be optimistic: Last year’s poor start did a serious number on the Dukes’ offensive efficiency rankings. Yet a dive into Duquesne’s Atlantic 10-only stats reveals it ranks fifth in the league in KenPom.com’s adjusted offensive efficiency metric.
What that ultimately means is Duquesne was probably a bit better than it was perceived to be at that end. Nonetheless, improvement at that end was a definite priority for Joyce heading into his second season.
“We’ve had our struggles offensively, and that was a huge thing for me to accept and also try to build a better version of our offense,” Joyce said. “I’m not going to give away any hints or anything like that, but I think we’ll make some improvements in that area.”
X factor: Duquesne gets three players back from injuries that cost them some or all of last season. Redshirt sophomore guard Jake DeMichele dealt with plantar fasciitis and then a stress fracture, but averaged 10.9 points in the seven games he played. Meanwhile, guard Brandon Hall (torn ACL) and forward Alex Williams (foot) missed the entire year.
Their contributions this year won’t be a bonus, since the Dukes are counting on them. But they will provide something different once they return to action.
“They are getting their rhythm back,” Joyce said. “You miss that amount of time just trying to find your comfort level, your strength and your confidence in a lot of ways. They’re each in those elements and it’ll be interesting how they feel when the game arrives because practice is one thing; the game is another element. I think it’ll be a lot of emotion for all three of those young men when they finally have their chance to step back on the court.”
Circle the date: The Dukes make their annual trip back to Joyce’s hometown of Akron when they meet Northeastern on Nov. 22 at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. It will be Duquesne’s seventh game in Akron since 2018.
Bottom line: The Dukes’ continuity should help as they delve a year further into Joyce’s tenure. Duquesne still has to blend some important pieces with the holdovers who contributed last year, but there’s enough in place to make a run at 20 victories and a spot in the top third of the Atlantic 10.
Patrick Stevens is a veteran college basketball writer that has worked for The Washington Post, Syracuse Media Group and The Washington Times. He has written selected pieces for the Atlantic 10 since 2013.