How freshman Maceo Austin sets the tone for Duquesne men’s basketball
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There are a variety of reasons Duquesne will carry a 13-2 record into George Washington on Saturday.
Among them:
• Six players average at least nine points, led by junior forward Marcus Weathers (14.4), who is converting 60.6% of his shots.
• Point guard Sincere Carry willingly guards the other team’s best player, making him special in coach Keith Dambrot’s eyes. “He might be the most dominant defensive guard in the country when he wants to be,” Dambrot said. “When you can do that, that differentiates you from everybody else.”
• Center Mike Hughes is 10th in the nation with 46 blocks.
Dambrot agrees with all of those reasons, but one other might top them all.
“Maceo Austin is the biggest reason,” he said.
That’s a remarkable statement to make about a 190-pound freshman who is sixth on the team in scoring (9.4) and makes fewer than one-third of his 3-pointers. But Dambrot stands by his statement.
“He just connects people,” the coach said. “When we go bad, he’s the one to rally them. He’s never in a bad mood. He’s like an old soul. He’s one of my favorite guys that I’ve had.”
Dambrot has known about Austin’s character traits for a long time. He recruited him at Kennedy Catholic, where Austin helped the team, including West Virginia’s Oscar Tshiebwe, win four consecutive state championships. Three at the Class A level, where the tiny school in Hermitage belongs, and one at 6A.
Austin unwittingly drove home the point with a well-timed text message to his coach after the loss to Marshall on Dec. 29, the Dukes’ second in a row after starting the season 10-0.
“He texts me and tells me to hang in there,” Dambrot said. “You don’t get that (often).”
Then, the 61-year-old coach gave Austin the highest praise of all:
“I can coach about 15 more years if I had more guys like him,” he said.
Actually, Duquesne’s coach is not looking past Saturday and the game at George Washington (6-9, 0-2). A victory would give the Dukes a 4-0 conference record for only the second time in 43 Atlantic 10 seasons.
Dambrot is not surprised by his team’s success.
“You never know how it’s going to play out,” he said, “with injuries and how you progress, how you blend and whether you win close games. But I thought we were capable of winning all those games.”
On paper before the season, this didn’t look like one of Duquesne’s best teams. Leading scorer Eric Williams transferred, and guard Frankie Hughes and 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Amari Kelly suffered season-ending injuries. Plus, the Dukes have no home court while UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse is being renovated.
“Some people would say (with all the personnel losses) that you’re a little depleted,” Dambrot said. “Even (6-10 sophomore Austin) Rotroff isn’t 100% yet (knee surgery).
“You have to have good ability, but you also have to have a team mentality to have a good team.”
Does Duquesne have the proper mental makeup to continue its run of success?
“We have 15 games left. We’ll find out, right?” Dambrot said. “You know how fragile things are. You can go good and, all of sudden, you get smacked in the mouth. And then, how do you recover from it?
“No question, we’re better now than we were after those two losses. Now, can we go to George Washington and play a good, solid game on the road?
“Obviously, in this league, there are still a lot of doubters. People really don’t know if this is the new Duquesne or is it the same, old Duquesne?
“I don’t think it’s the same, old Duquesne. Now, can we finish the job?”