It was a poor night for Denver men’s basketball (6-12, 0-3) in their first home conference game of the 2024-25 season. Denver was shorthanded again, made too many turnovers and their porous defense was thoroughly exploited by the visiting Fighting Hawks. Overall, there was little positive to report from the lopsided 95-70 blowout.
DU starting point guard DeAndre Craig was out of the lineup with a concussion. Denver’s offense was out of synch for most of the game and DU turned the ball over ten times in the first half to fall into a fifteen-point deficit, 51-36, at halftime. The Fighting Hawks converted many of those turnovers into fast break points (18) in the first 20 minutes.
The second half was all Fighting Hawks as the visitors got 34 points from their bench along with 48 points in the paint. North Dakota went to the line 21 times to 9 for Denver in the half and the officiating was inconsistent and poor all night long. Unfortunately, even good officiating would not have bailed out Denver on this frosty January night.
North Dakota shredded Denver on 51.6% shooting from the field with 48 of their 90 points in the paint. DU did start 7’0″ Abdula Fanta Kabba for the first time and he played 19 minutes with 10 rebounds and 4 points – but it was clear he is still getting used to game speed after a long injury. Nicholas Shogbonyo had a rare off night while picking up the slack from an injured Craig with only 3 points and 5 turnovers. Josh Lee led the scoring for Denver with 12, Sebastian Akins with 11 and Isaiah Addo-Ankrah with 11 points in defeat.
Next up is a chance for redemption on Saturday, January 11th at 1:00 pm MT at Hamilton Gym.
North Dakota is a good team they played Alabama close right to end of the game. So probably should have been expected
any chance we’ll see Craig back on saturday?
The atmosphere for men’s basketball is horrible. No pep band, high school gym and no energy. I guess we need to get ready for a high school pep band for any future Frozen Fours.
North Dakota was 6-11 coming into yesterday, same as DU.
Getting drilled by 25 points on the home court to start the home league season isn’t going to bring more fans to Hamilton.
I was hoping to see progress this year, but I am worried we may not see it, due to a lack of sufficient depth and/or defensive skills.
In the transfer portal age, I don’t know that an isolated mid-major can compete. If you take a chance on an unheralded high school kid and he blossoms in his sophomore year, he’ll be gone before his junior year. It’s coming down to the big conferences and “everyone else” in D1. DU hoops seems to be in a drain spiral. Nothing against the team, but I don’t know that I’d pay to see them play. Feels hopeless.
The issue is DU’s ability or inability to compete against peer mid-majors (Summit League) with the same headwinds. Why can’t DU compete? I don’t know the answer but it is a head scratcher.