After positive covid test, Duquesne postpones game Sunday vs. VCU

Keith Dambrot had every reason to feel sorry for himself and his team Friday when Duquesne postponed its game Sunday against VCU after a player tested positive for the coronavirus.

It’s the second time this season a game was called off due to covid-19 complications, and more may follow. Five were either cancelled or postponed in December.

Then, the Dukes had played only twice – both outside the Atlantic 10 – and did not play again from Dec. 3 until Jan. 2.

Now, Duquesne has won three in a row and four of its past five after opening the new UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse Tuesday night with a rousing victory against Dayton. The Dukes (7-6, 6-5) were poised to put together a productive February.

Although the team’s momentum is interrupted, Dambrot’s intention is to ensure a bad situation doesn’t get worse.

“You can sit there and be `Woe is me, woe is me, woe is me,’ ” he said. “Or, you just look at the positive and keep fighting.

“That’s what I like best about this team so far. We could have cashed in already 65 times and we haven’t.”

Dambrot speculates that the unidentified player was exposed Jan. 30 when Duquesne played Saint Joseph’s at La Roche.

“(Saint Joseph’s) had a couple guys test positive after our game,” he said.

Duquesne’s covid situation is unique, considering only six players, Dambrot and assistant Charles Thompson have not contracted the virus. The others are considered immune for 150 days, Dambrot said, and can practice.

But quarantine measures for the positive player and five others might force Duquesne to postpone its next game Feb. 13 at George Mason.

“The guys who have had contact with (the positive player) will be quarantined at least seven days and can get out of quarantine with three negative tests,” Dambrot said.

“I don’t know what the status of that game (George Mason) will be, depending on what our status is. I’m not sure that game’s a lock at this point. We wouldn’t even have close to our full group.”

At the moment, the Dukes have played more conference games (11) than all but Rhode Island. But games at Richmond and Saint Louis were postponed Dec. 19 and 30 and have not been rescheduled. The George Mason game would make four.

There are upcoming gaps in Duquesne’s schedule – the last week of this month and the 10 days between the final regular-season game and the scheduled start of the Atlantic 10 Tournament on March 10.

Dambrot is skeptical, but willing to make concessions.

“I don’t see how we’re getting 18 (conference games) in,” he said. “I don’t mind playing three games in a week, four games in a week. We’re better off playing than practicing.

“We may end up playing George Washington six times. Who knows?”

Dambrot hopes his team can maintain its edge. Saint Louis was 7-1 before its covid outbreak. The Billikens have played two games since Dec. 23, and lost them both.

“Young people are pretty resilient. At least, they are not going into this with a three-game losing streak,” he said. “It should be better than the last time they went into it.

But he admitted, “The timing’s not great.”

“We started to play pretty decent basketball and we have to figure out a way to continue to do it. We played ourselves into basketball shape. Mike Hughes and Marcus Weathers are really starting to play at the level they did last year, and maybe even better.

“As long as those guys play at a high level, we’re going to be in every game. If we continue to improve at the defensive end, eventually make a 3-ball or two, we’re capable of beating anybody in the league. We just have to make sure we don’t lose our conditioning.

“If we went limping into this thing and had to sit 7-10 days or whatever and had to jump-start them again, that would be (nearly) impossible.”

Meanwhile, the team will practice with as few as six scholarship players for an undetermined length of time.

“Don’t ask me how, but we will somehow,” Dambrot said.

NOTE: Duquesne will participate in the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam next season Nov. 19-22. The Dukes will be joined by Bradley, Brown, Colorado, Colorado State, Creighton, Northeastern and Southern Illinois.

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