Tim Benz: Duquesne looks to stay hot in ‘first’ road game of season
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The Duquesne men’s basketball team hasn’t played a true road game all season.
Then again, they haven’t played a true home game all season either, have they?
The first of those two things will change Wednesday night.
The other won’t change until next season.
Duquesne (12-2) visits St. Joseph’s (3-11) for the school’s first official road game on the season. It’s their third conference game of the year, after winning the first two last week at “home” versus St. Louis and Davidson.
Those games were “home” in the sense that they were in Pittsburgh.
Well, close enough. Moon to be precise.
The Dukes beat the Billikens and Wildcats at Robert Morris’ UPMC Events Center. It’s one of three venues the Dukes are calling home this year as the Palumbo Center is being renovated into the UPMC Chuck Cooper Fieldhouse.
They won all four games scheduled at the Kerr Fitness Center on the campus of La Roche University. They’ve won their only game so far at PPG Paints Arena against Princeton.
The team has also played tournament games in Florida, Cleveland and the Bahamas, as well as a quasi-home game in Akron.
All that leading to a 12-2 record. However, despite all that travel, Dukes players have yet to — well — travel.
At least onto another squad’s home floor.
“We’ve played them all on the road,” Duquesne head coach Keith Dambrot said Tuesday. “We just have to play a solid game. We don’t have to be great. We have to be strong and solid.”
Given the Hawks’ bad record so far, one might think that a visit to Hagan Arena might be the perfect way to start.
Not so says Dambrot.
“St. Joe’s record is misleading. They’ve played Florida in a close game, Villanova in a close game, Dayton to the last five minutes.
“If we played that schedule, we may have a similar record to them. It just tells you how hard basketball is. If they make shots, it’s going to be a hard game.”
One player who has been a steadying influence regardless of location has been junior forward Marcus Weathers. He’s averaged 19.7 points and 8.5 rebounds per game over his last seven contests.
“We’re a team that adapts to any kind of circumstances,” Weathers said. “We have a lot of guys who have a lot of fight in them. So it’s not that big of a deal.
“It feels like just another game for us. Another business trip for us.”
Dambrot’s team is the last school in the country to play its first contest at the visiting school. Facing hostile fans in another building may be a different experience.
If so, his players will have to get used to it quickly. Four of their next five games are on the road. The Dukes must also travel to George Washington, Rhode Island and UMass over the next 17 days.