PITTSBURGH — Following the fourth game of the season for Duquesne men's basketball, Jake DiMichele was critical of his team.

The Dukes were fresh off another loss, and DiMichele, a returning starter, didn't think he and his teammates were playing selflessly enough.

Nothing was going right for the Dukes. The offense was inconsistent. So was the defense. And DiMichele called that all out in their postgame press conference on Nov. 19.

"If that's something that our team could adapt, not caring about your body, just sacrificing everything you got for the greater good of the team," DiMichele said, "I feel like if we all can adapt that mantra and mentality, we're going to be a very hard team to score on."

Fast forward to New Year's Eve, when Jakub Necas had to leave the court with a towel held to his face. With blood trickling down and still a smile on his face, there was no question he was putting it on the line for his team.

It definitely also helped that Duquesne was winning its first conference game of the year. That's just one example of the Dukes' turnaround this season.

Jahsean Corbett was also flying all over the court, risking elbows in the face to grab a rebound in that Dec. 31 game. David Dixon was extending himself trying to steal the ball. Tre Dinkins III got so fired up for his team that he received a technical.

It wasn't exactly what coach Dru Joyce III would've liked, but even he said there's a time and place for that fiery spirit.

"Guys are taking pride," Joyce said. "That's really a huge key. Guys are taking pride, even when they make mistakes. They're pointing at me like I'm not going to let that happen again. They're doing that with their teammates, too. There's a level of responsibility and accountability that's happening on the court, which wasn't there at the beginning of the year, but it's growing and it's progressing, and that's a good sign to see."

It took a bit of time to reach this point, but after starting the season 0-6, the Dukes have now strung together six wins. They are 1-1 to start conference play with a loss to a Davidson squad that has yet to lose at home this season.

Joyce risked upsetting a handful of returning players when he started playing around with the starting lineup and he's now had nine different players as part of the starting five — and not a single starter from last season is in the current lineup.

With DiMichele sidelined with an injury for the past eight games, Dixon asked Joyce to come off the bench, saying he plays better when not in the starting lineup.

It wasn't an instant fix, but he has been more consistent offensively since the move, averaging 7.5 points and 7.0 rebounds over the Dukes' recent four-game winning streak, which ended Saturday.

"Our group understands, at the core of it, that it's standards over feelings," Joyce said. "Starting the game is just a segment of the game. It makes you feel good. It's an honor to start, right? You see your name on the board. I get that there's a privilege. When you check in, your minutes are your minutes, you know that doesn't change, right? Your opportunity is your opportunity. So what are you going to do with it?"

Cam Crawford has taken advantage of his time on the floor, too.

He entered the starting lineup over captain Kareem Rozier, sliding Dinkins over to the point guard spot. It has allowed both to settle more into their roles, but arguably, no one has taken more of a jump than Crawford.

The redshirt junior guard averaged just 3.0 points per game through the first seven contests of the season. Since moving to the starting lineup against Towson on Dec. 14, though, he's averaging 11.4 points per game.

"[My confidence] feels like it's high," Crawford said. "I've been playing a little bit more. My teammates have been believing in me, finding me when I'm open. Coaches have been instilling confidence in me. It's just gonna keep going up the more and more I play and the further we go in the season."

Joyce has always wanted his team's identity to be defense, but Duquesne struggled on that end to start the season — but that hasn't been the case over the past couple of games.

The Dukes held Towson to just 28.3% shooting, the lowest an opponent has shot against them this season.

During the four-game winning streak, Duquesne held opponents to 23.7% shooting overall and 36.5% from 3. This has allowed the Dukes to not just start a winning streak but also set a precedent as the Atlantic 10 conference season continues.

"Our communication [has been] very high," Rozier said. "That's what carried us on the defensive end, being able to talk the whole possession. We had a great spark from our bench. Max [Edwards], everybody coming in, bringing even more energy to the game, to the defensive side. These last couple games, we've been focusing more on that, and everyone has been more successful since being locked in on defense."

But the best result of Duquesne's newfound defensive intensity is what it's also done on the offensive end.

The Dukes don't just have one or two guys running the offense. Corbett leads the team with 10.9 points per game, followed by Dinkins' 10.3, but it's an all-hands-on-deck approach that has helped them shoot 43%.

Three different players led in scoring during the four-game streak. Seven different players scored in double digits during the same period. Only Corbett hit the mark against Davidson, scoring a career-high 29 points. However, Duquesne still held on for just a six-point loss — and that was without two of its best defenders in DiMichele and Necas, the latter missing the game after taking the hit to his head against Rhode Island.

"The key thing that I like, that I want to continue to see, is our ball movement just throughout possessions, trying to find the best shot available," Joyce said. "It takes being unselfish and it takes some patience because as a player, you want to make a play. Our team, our players understand that trying to make the simple play and just taking what's available is the best solution."

Duquesne is only two games into Atlantic 10 play, but if things continue to trend the way they're going, the Dukes will create some chaos against their conference foes.

"The conference is playing unbelievably well as a whole right now," Joyce said. "We have six teams, I believe, in the top 100. It's just going to be a battle each and every night. There's no days off in this conference. You got great coaches and then you got some big-time players. We'll have to be prepared for every game.

"You have to learn. You have to apply it. You have to be ready to move on or the conference will chew you up."

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