NCDS: Bill Barton, Assoc. Head Coach - Duquesne

By: Bill Barton, Assoc. Head Coach - Duquesne

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!  The glamorous life of an assistant coach had me spending most of my turkey day with Kyra Sedgwick - she's the star of The Closer.  I watched a good part of the holiday Closer marathon.  I know what you're thinking... How is it a guy like me is alone on Thanksgiving!  Well, since we spent the four days leading up to Thanksgiving on the road, my wife decided that extended family and the Macy's parade should be in our daughters' future.  Yep, they were in an "Empire State of Mind" (My sources tell me that any time you can reference Jay- Z, you become instantly cooler).

 So, we were off to Mayberry, er, Waynseville, North Carolina.  The Dukes were down there as part of the CBE Tournament, with Western Carolina as our gracious hosts. Waynesville is a very nice town with breath-taking mountain vistas and, well, not much else.  Our managers held a contest to see how many could guess which ‘Carolina' Western was in - big holiday fun! (Shane, one of our managers, was instantly eliminated when he chose West Carolina).   We stayed at the lovely Waynesville Inn and Golf Club - very nice except for two things:  it was late November, and I don't golf.  To top it off, our hosts turned out to be, well, not so gracious.  We lost to a good Western Carolina team on Wednesday night.  They have to be one of the favorites to win the Southern Conference.  So, long ride home... to a turkey sandwich and, of course, Kyra.   However, I did manage to squeeze in the Marquette v. Xavier game (Kyra's cool like that).  Xavier is in our league, and I always root for the A-10 when they are playing out-of-conference games.  However, Marquette has a young man on their team named Lazar Hayward. 

Lazar played for me at Notre Dame Prep School and is one of my all-time favorite players.  It was great to see him play so well.   Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports named him his "Stud of the Night."   Lazar is the undisputed leader of his team and has had a fantastic career in the Big East.   His is one of those recruiting stories that give hope to every high school kid.  Lazar is from Buffalo, and coming out of high school, he had no D-1 scholarship offers.  That's right, none.  So what happened between then, senior year, and now, Big East "Stud" and an NBA prospect?  Simple - hard work!  Yeah, I know, everyone thinks they work hard, but Lazar took it to another level.  He was in the gym all night, every night.  I would like to take credit for his vast improvement, so I do, but truth be told, the kid just kept working and making himself better!  Early in his career at Notre Dame Prep, Lazar was backing up a kid from Florida.  One day, the Florida kid tells me he has a sore leg and he can't play that weekend.  Lazar goes out in his place and scores 30 points on Friday and 40 points on Saturday.  On Monday, Florida comes back to me and tells me he's good to go.  I asked him if he knew who Wally Pipp was?  Of course he didn't.  So I explained to him that I was delighted that he was no longer injured but he now had a new position.  Was there any other choice than to play the guy who gets you 30 points a night?  What could he say?  So Lazar continued to impress and be a leader at Notre Dame.  One other great thing about Lazar - his dad is one of the greatest guys around.  He's the opposite of one of those parents that thinks their kid is the greatest.  So, it really made my day to see Lazar play so well.  It looks like he might work his way right into the NBA... 

...Now back to the Dukes.  We returned home after the Western Carolina loss and had to face a very good Radford team.  They went to the NCAA Tournament last year and are favored to win the Big South Conference again this year.  We needed a win.   Did I mention that we are still without one of our top players, Melquan Bolding.  He fractured his wrist during our first game of the year.  By the way, he had 25 points in that game - most after he got hurt - and was poised to have a breakout year!  He will be out for about 6 weeks.  Ouch!  It is always hard to replace a guy who can get you 20 points on any given night.   B.J. Monteiro has been taking his place in the line-up and has been doing a fantastic job.  On our North Carolina trip, B.J. scored double figures in every game, and against Radford, he really came into his own.  In a close game, B.J. scored 21 points and pulled down 8 rebounds - a great time to get career highs in both.  Of course, I am always happy when the Dukes win, but as an assistant coach, it's especially good to see a kid you helped bring to campus play well, help his team win, all while doing well in school.  I would be lying if I told you I didn't take some pride in that.  B.J.'s like Lazar Hayward - he works hard and he's a great kid. 

Yet, B.J. certainly wasn't a one man show against Radford.  Billy Clark and Eric Evans each scored in double figures.  However, the story of the day may have been Damian Saunders' inspired play.  I have mentioned before how Damian fills up a stat sheet. Well, look at this line: 14 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 6 blocks!  A friend of mine swears that he saw Damian selling t-shirts at half-time.  This, by the way, was all accomplished against Radford's 6'11" Artsiom Parakhouski, a legitimate NBA prospect.  So, we got a much needed win...

The next time I check in we will be getting ready for conference play.  Hopefully, Bolding will be back, but until then, we will need Saunders, Clark, and their new sidekick, Monteiro, to lead us.  We will also need Evans and Jason Duty to be a strong backcourt, and we will need Rodrigo Peggau and Sean Johnson to continue to develop.  

Until next time...