Mike DeCourcy talks huge night for Duquesne, Pitt hoops; Ben Roethlisberger; Super Bowl

Tim Benz | Wednesday, January 22, 2020 6:42 a.m.

A composite photo of Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger, University of Pittsburgh head coach Jeff Capel, and Duquesne head coach Keith Dambrot.

It’s a big night for Western Pennsylvania college basketball on Wednesday.

Pitt plays host to Boston College at 9 p.m. Duquesne visits Rhode Island at 7 p.m. And Penn State visits Michigan at 7 p.m.

So we turn to college basketball expert Mike DeCourcy from The Sporting News and the Big Ten Network to talk some hoops in our Wednesday podcast.

An alum of the Pittsburgh Press, DeCourcy used to cover the Dukes. So he expressed a particular amount of passion about their 15-2 start.

And about those who are trying to water it down.

ICYMI: Our former beat writer ⁦@tsnmike⁩ offered his thoughts on B1G Basketball & Beyond.#GoDukes | #A10MBB#MakingNewMemories pic.twitter.com/mXtaiJeRcV

— Duquesne Basketball (@DuqMBB) January 20, 2020

So we examine DeCourcy’s view of Duquesne, how many teams might get into the NCAA Tournament from the Atlantic 10, and the impact Keith Dambrot has had on the program.

We also talk about Pitt’s place in the struggling ACC. The conference is terrible this year. The Panthers have managed to stay afloat in it with a 3-4 record. How much further can Jeff Capel push this team this year?

While the ACC may come up much shorter on bids to the tournament, the Big Ten may scoop up all of them. DeCourcy tells us how deep the conference may go with teams into March Madness.

Then we get into some Super Bowl predictions, Ben Roethlisberger talk and the state of NFL quarterbacking.

Listen: Tim Benz and Mike DeCourcy talk about the Duquesne and Pitt basketball programs