Next Up: Dartmouth
And away we go!
Date 11/6 || Time 9 p.m. || Venue Cameron Indoor Stadium || Video ACCN
Duke faces Dartmouth on Monday for the season opener in Year II of the Scheyer era.
Dartmouth is a program with a significant history, but as people used to say about Duke’s glorious football history, that was a long time ago (Duke has started to write newer football history more recently).
Dartmouth was the national runner-up in 1942 and 1944, but one should note that that was during World War II and most young men were fighting the Axis Powers.
Dartmouth made the Elite Eight in 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1958. Its last tourney appearance was in 1959.
The last winning season for Dartmouth was in 1998-99, when Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon and Shane Battier helped propel Duke to a championship game of its own, which the Blue Devils lost to UConn.
The current coach, David McLaughlin, had some solid success at Stonehill. Trivia: Georgetown coach Ed Cooley attended Stonehill.
We always try to take the most optimistic case for opponents and for Dartmouth this is it. McLaughlin clearly knew what he was doing at Stonehill. The Big Green has had some struggles in the Ivy League, but today’s Ivy League is not like it used to be. The pandemic disrupted things, but Yale, Princeton, Penn and Tommy Amaker’s Harvard, among others, have made the Ivy League much, much tougher. In recent years - well, last year for one when Princeton knocked off Arizona - that league has been a real challenge in the NCAA tournament.
Dartmouth is likely to start 6-4 junior Ryan Cornish, 6-5 senior Jaren Johnson, 6-8 junior Duskan Neskovic, 6-6 junior Cade Haskins and 6-3 senior Izaiah Robinson.
Cornish and Neskovic are the only double-figure scorers back. Cornish put up 12.5 while Neskovic averaged 12.2.
Haskins played 21.5 mpg and averaged 5.4 ppg. Robinson pulled 19.7 minutes and averaged 4.8 ppg while Johnson got 18.9 minutes and put up 4.5 points.
We’ve traditionally looked at height and teams like Dartmouth don’t always have a lot. However, Farleigh Dickinson taught us last spring that height can be overrated. That was the smallest team in the tournament field and they knocked off Purdue, and the Boilermakers were absolutely massive. How did they do it?
They just ran circles around the bigger Boilermakers. Purdue never knew what hit them.
We’re not saying Dartmouth can do that Monday night. We’re just saying Farleigh Dickinson opened our eyes to the possibility.
That said, only a gambler with a high risk tolerance would bet on Dartmouth in this game. Duke will have superior coaching, more talent and the Blue Devils are playing at home in Basketball Paradise.
But Stephen A. Austin did it. Wagner did it back in the early K days. It could happen - but realistically, Duke would have to cooperate in their own demise and we don’t see it happening.
There aren’t very many links yet for this game but we’ll add them as we see them.