Inside the Dukes: Dealer of Hope, Principle In Reality

It was early in the second quarter of Wednesday afternoon’s Duquesne Women’s Basketball Education Day game against Loyola Chicago after the Dukes blitzed the Ramblers, but the most distinguishable sequence was about to play out in front of 3,000 screaming kids.

Reina Green’s three and Raevin Washington’s single offensive rebounds, kept extending the play and the excitement began to build. Something big was about to happen.

The result? Mackenzie Blackford put a corner three-point shot through the bottom of the net. The building erupted, becoming the second largest ovation of the day behind the 67 occurred and Duquesne coach Dan Burt offered his best impression of a Tiger Woods fist bump.

Duquesne would win the rebounding battle, with Green amassing a career high 13 and her first ever double-double adding 11 points.

“I think those rebounds are very important especially down the stretch not letting them get second-chance points,” stated Blackford. “It was crucial and our posts and Reina Green especially having a double-double, very impressive.”

Duquesne had firm control of the game and never let it go, winning 67-55 its first victory since a Dec. 21 City Game triumph over Pitt.

“We’ve been through a lot,” Burt admitted. “The team through this struggle, this adversity has never in any way not shown up to practice without having a positive attitude, optimism and working hard. One victory is not going to make complete success but we’re happy with this one win. Small wins can lead to big win and today was definitely that. They could have easily quit and they haven’t.”

During halftime of Wednesday’s contest, you could see a clear glow within the team, one that had been missing for quite some time.

Bounces had not gone its way; the hard work was not translating into victories and the easy thing to do was to pack it in and let the season play out but never was that an option.

“It shows that we never stopped working hard and never quit,” freshman point guard Alexis Bordas explained. “Every single day coming into practice, we have been working just as hard knowing that we would get a win eventually. We stayed together so it feels great it finally get this win and I know it’s well deserved for how much work we put in.”

It was a perfect combination, a bunch of screaming kids cheering for Duquesne, and a Dukes side hungry for a win and eager to do it together.

Throughout his 19-minute press conference following the win, Burt offered the repeated refrain of being a dealer in hope and principle of reality.

As Burt explains it there is a feeling of being in desperate times without playing desperate. The calendar is getting ever closer to March’s Atlantic 10 Championships, and now it is a race for his Dukes to peak and be playing their best basketball at that optimal time.

While other programs are dropping practice times down to an hour, Duquesne is routinely practicing for two hours and doing so with a fresh feeling. This is not because the offense has changed on multiple occasions, rather because there is a genuine desire to get to that point, that feeling which was present for much of non-conference play.

Burt understands that one win does not bring everything back, there is more work to do, certainly with finding ways to cut down on turnovers among others, but that did not stop him from being proud of his team.

“I know that sounds crazy, not just because they won a game but we’ve had a lot of fans and people stick with us, but there’s some naysayers,” he said. “For the most part our fans know I haven’t forgotten how to coach, in 18 full seasons I’ve only had one losing year and we’re not going to allow what happened affect us for the rest. I’ve always preached that you have to be mentally and physically fresh to get to the end of February and play your best basketball in March. I don’t know if we will be but we’re darn sure going to try and do it with optimism and positivity and a team willing to fight for one another.”

Duquesne still has five opportunities before Henrico, plenty of opportunity to further find itself and establish a clear identity, but what it has learned between 52 days has had plenty of value, something which Bordas hopes can translate to a strong finish to the season.

“I think we’ve learned that we’re a very selfless team, we really do care about each other and want to win for each other,” she cited. “I think that’s evident how through adversity we stuck together and push through this. It shows the type of people that we have starting with the coaches that they didn’t give up on us, and we didn’t give up on each other.”

HE SAID IT

“We really talk about offensive rebounding, and she definitely did that today. A year ago, where we did not really want her to shoot the ball and be a defender, she’s built a lot of confidence to shoot the ball, drive the ball and go off of two feet. She is a kid when we were in the end of October, I wasn’t really happy with her basketball, and she was literally probably the last kid on our roster. She played 34-and-a-half minutes, so for anyone on our roster they can look at Reina and say, ‘well coach doesn’t bury anyone if you’re willing to work really hard and do what we tell you to do.’ She’s self-made. She’s worked really hard to get where she is. She’s five-foot-seven and that kid can jump out of a gym. That kid’s tough, she’s physical and just really happy she’s having success.” – Duquesne coach Dan Burt on Reina Green