Tim Benz: Dukes changing perception of the Duquesne jersey and the players in them

OMAHA, Neb. — Duquesne basketball twins Fousseyni and Hassan Drame prefer to put a different twist on an old sports cliche.

“As my brother always says: ‘It’s not about the name on the front of the jersey. It is about who is actually on the team,’ ” Fousseyni Drame said after Duquesne’s 71-67 NCAA Tournament victory over Brigham Young on Thursday.

OK. That doesn’t quite sing quite like Kurt Russell in the movie “Miracle” hollering, “When you pull on that jersey, the name on the front is a helluva lot more important than the one on the back!”

But I get Drame’s point.

For nearly half a century, if you looked at a bunch of players in Duquesne jerseys, you never had to take them seriously as NCAA Tournament contenders. Now, though, this group of guys wearing those jerseys is one win away from the Sweet 16.

“When people do a little research about who is on the team, if you take us individually from 1 to 15 on our team, you are really going to be, like, ‘Wow, I’m not surprised,’ ” Drame said.

A day before his Dukes beat BYU in the school’s first NCAA Tournament matchup since 1977, point guard Kareem Rozier pushed the envelope even further.

“I think we can win this thing. We’ve got just as much talent as everyone else does,” Rozier said.

Maybe that came off as hyperbole, or false bravado or just a willful public expression of confidence at the time. But now, after beating the highest-scoring team from what is perceived to be the best conference (Big 12) in the country, Rozier’s words sound a bit more convincing.

“I think that’s what they are most definitely saying after their brackets are busted,” Rozier said after the win. “We shocked the world. But we’re not done shocking the world.”

For as surprising as the win over BYU might have been to bracketologists, a victory over Illinois on Saturday in the second round would be even more stunning. The Illini are the No. 3 seed in the East Region. They are 27-8 and finished second in the Big Ten, with a No. 10 ranking heading into the NCAA Tournament.

Many projected Illinois to be the stiffest challenge to defending national champion Connecticut in the East Region. For as good of an offense as BYU has at 81.8 points per game (20th in the country), Illinois is even better at 84.9 points per game (ninth in the country).

Coach Brad Underwood’s team put on a real offensive display Thursday in Game 2 in Omaha, shooting 54.2% en route to an 85-69 victory over Morehead State.

“To me, that was not an upset. That was not shocking,” Underwood said of Duquesne’s win. “We’ve got to match that nasty and that grit.”

To Underwood’s point, at the other end of the court for the Illini, they rank 11th of the 14 teams in the Big Ten when it comes to points allowed per game at 73.8.

When the Dukes get to 70 points they usually win. In fact, when Duquesne has gotten to 70 points first in a game, it is 12-0 this season and 31 for its last 31 overall.

“Grind ’em out. That’s what we are doing. We’re locking up,” Rozier said. “That team (BYU) wanted it in the 80s, and it wasn’t in the 80s.”

But if it has to be in the 80s, the Dukes have done that on occasion, too, winning seven games with 81 points or more on the scoreboard.

Should that happen in an upset of Illinois, plenty more folks will think differently about that name on the front of the Duquesne jerseys, as well as knowing much more about the players wearing them.