Ever been to a college basketball practice?

If so, there's much to understand, a strictly controlled whirlwind to take in.

If you pay attention, though, there also is bound to be a glaring disproportion in time allocation for practical game application.

Enter the end-game situational portion of practice.

While a college basketball game has 40 minutes of playing time, it seems that a disproportionate amount of practice time is devoted to what might happen in the final minute of a game.

"From our perspective, the way we need to be prepared in the last minute, the way our kids need to know exactly what to do on both ends of the floor, it is important to spend a lot of time doing it," said Duquesne coach Ron Everhart.

And that preparation time has been applied time and time again this season for the Dukes (11-10, 2-5 Atlantic 10).

Of the 21 games Duquesne has played before tonight's Atlantic 10 game in Philadelphia against Temple (18-4, 6-1), 16 have been decided by 12 points or fewer, two have gone to overtime and three have gone to double-overtime.

Throwing out the 86-50 blowout loss to Xavier, Duquesne's other six league games have been decided by an average of 5.67 points.

For Dukes fans, that means plenty of times this season where they have been a ball of nerves in the final minute.

It is part of the duty of the coaching staff to make sure players don't feel the same way.

Dayton coach Brian Gregory -- whose team beat Duquesne earlier this season in overtime -- was down this same road last season with his team.

"There's a good example: We were 11-5 [in the conference] and our point differential was 1.4 You know what that says? That you better be ready in close situations," Gregory said.

"At one point last year, we were 6-1 [in the conference] and we had won on a full-court driving layup, won another game on a tip-in and won because [George Washington] had six guys on the floor.

"You just never know how it is going to play out at the end. But the more you are prepared for, the more you work on it, the less you can be surprised."

It isn't only Duquesne that has been locked in close games this year.

As of Monday, there were eight teams below the top 5 in the conference that had at least two wins and had absorbed one close loss or more in A-10 play.

"That's just the way this league is," Gregory said. "It seems like there are a lot of teams a couple possessions away from being 5-1 in the conference."

That is why at the end of games, Everhart reverts to something he learned from his high school coach, DeMatha's Morgan Wootten, one of only three high school coaches in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

"He was huge with those situational type things. He couldn't go over them enough," Everhart said of Wootten. "And with our team this year, I see why coach Wootten valued that so much. We have been hot and cold, and we have struggled from the free-throw line and shooting the ball, but you can gain an advantage if you are, at the very least, prepared."

While consequential plays occur from the opening tip to the final horn, it seems as if the biggest moments always save themselves for the end.

"The play at the 10-minute mark is every bit as important and you have to value every single possession," Gregory said. "But the ability to execute at the end of games comes with additional work and practice time. It comes with familiarity and repetition and, honestly, a lot of times it comes with bigger rewards if you can come through in those situations.

"That's what you have to remember, as a player, when you are going over it in practice."

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