Dukes creeping toward 1st place, but tough games on the horizon
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Nearly halfway into the Atlantic 10 season, Duquesne finds itself among four teams bunched at the top of the standings, all separated by no more than a game.
If coach Keith Dambrot had time to look (unlikely), he might have shrugged his shoulders and resumed preparations for Saturday’s game at Dayton for perhaps the Dukes’ toughest road game of the season.
He’s not unhappy sitting in a tie with Dayton for third place in the A-10, but he was hired more than a year ago to want and expect more.
“I told our guys ‘What are we messing around for? Do you guys want to win championships, or do you want to be good?’ ” he said.
“I didn’t come here just to be good.”
He made those comments after the Dukes (15-6, 6-2) erased an 19-point deficit to defeat Rhode Island, 75-72, Wednesday night.
The program has taken strides in two seasons under Dambrot. With 10 games remaining before the conference tournament, Duquesne is just one victory short of last season’s total.
With games against Dayton and first-place George Mason yet to be played and the Dukes already owning a loss to second-place Davidson, Dambrot knows so much more will be required for the Dukes to climb into first.
“There’s no reason we can’t win a championship,” he said. “We just have to get better. We’re just good enough right now, but we should be better than that.”
His message to his players: “Quit making excuses that you’re freshmen and sophomores and can’t win right now. Just play a little harder, play a little bit better together. Believe in yourselves and practice harder, and it will be amazing what happens.”
Dayton (14-7, 10-2) will give Duquesne, perhaps, its toughest road test of the season. The Flyers play in the 13,435-seat UD Arena, where they are 10-2 this season. They also play an imposing nonconference schedule and only lost to No. 3 Virginia, 66-59, in Paradise Island, Bahamas, over the Thanksgiving holiday.
The game will be the Dukes’ first away from home since Jan. 20 and only their sixth outside Palumbo Center this season (2-3).
Dambrot is hoping to see more people at Palumbo for the next home game Wednesday against St. Bonaventure.
“I thought the fans really helped us win,” he said after a crowd of 2,345 watched the Rhode Island game on the coldest night of the winter. “I wish there were 3,000 more of them. But they’re loud. I give some of those old people a lot of credit. They yell.”
Even sophomore guard Frankie Hughes noticed while scoring 20 points for the second game in a row.
Said Hughes: “This place is starting to get loud, don’t you think?”
Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review
staff writer. You can contact Jerry at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via
Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.