Men place hopes on new foundation

After losing both their best offensive and defensive players at the end of last season, the Duquesne men's basketball team is coming back with a new-found depth that will look to drive the team to its fourth-straight postseason appearance.

The Dukes will take the court without standouts Bill Clark and Damian Saunders for the first time since 2006-07, and the two stars will undoubtedly be missed.

In 2010-11, Clark and Saunders accounted for 36.5 percent of the team's points, 37.5 percent of its steals, 27.8 percent of its assists, 39.4 percent of its rebounds and 58.8 percent of its blocks.

Saunders, the only player in NCAA Division I basketball history to record at least 250 career points, blocks, steals and assists, will be particularly difficult to replace, Coach Ron Everhart said.

"You can't [replace Saunders]. You have to do it by committee and you hope your kids get better," Everhart said. "You have to understand how important he was. Damian Saunders is arguably the best stat sheet guy in college basketball history."

While replacing Saunders's presence may seem impossible, the Dukes added four players, all of whom are at least 6-foot-6, to form a deeper front-court than they've had in recent years. Last season, Saunders and Clark played 1,054 and 993 minutes respectively because Duquesne couldn't afford to give the duo much rest due to the team's lack of sufficient bench players.

Now Duquesne has been retooled with 6-foot-6 freshman forward Kadeem Pantophlet, 6-foot-8 freshman forward Mamadou Datt, 6-foot-9 redshirt-freshman center Derrick Martin and 7-foot-1 sophomore transfer Martins Abele, who plays center. Those four will join 6-foot-7 junior forward/center Andre Marhold to form a low-post core that could be an Atlantic 10 force for years to come.

But for this season, Everhart said he's just looking for a way to fit the newcomers into Duquesne's system.

"The big guys integrated into our system better than I anticipated," Everhart said after Duquesne's 101-43 exhibition victory over Millersville on Nov. 1. "Our depth is going to be an asset for us."

Sophomore point guard T.J. McConnell echoed Everhart's sentiments and said that while Saunders and Clark played a large part in Duquesne's success, he believes this Dukes squad can at least match last year's performance.

"Bill and Dame were both good, but we're pretty good, too," McConnell said.

Led by McConnell, Duquesne has one of the A10's most skilled back-courts. The group consisting of Eric Evans, Mike Talley, Sean Johnson, Jerry Jones, B.J. Monteiro, P.J. Torres and McConnell is the heart of Duquesne's aggressive style.

Last season, the Dukes recorded an impressive 317 steals and 571 assists, 177 and 380 of which came from McConnell, Monteiro, Johnson, Evans and Talley.

Johnson said that while the team plays up-tempo, it can adjust its style in order to win a game.

"We try to take it game by game. We're trying to win any way possible," Johnson said. "As a whole, we're going to execute."

Everhart said Talley specifically has a large impact on the game's pace when he is sent on the court.

"[Talley is] our motor. We [get] a lot faster and [get] a lot more aggressive on the defensive end when he's out there," Everhart said.

The A10 coaches picked Duquesne to finish ninth in the conference. Last season, the Dukes were picked to finish eighth, but shocked the conference by finishing fourth with a 19-13, 10-6 record that was deemed a disappointment after an early exit in the conference tournament.

McConnell said he expects the team to prove the critics wrong once again.

"We don't listen to the rankings," McConnell said. "We just go out and do what we do, and that's prove people wrong. We're going to prove people wrong, I'll tell you that much."