Duquesne adds graduate assistant to active roster

Duquesne’s basketball season starts in less than a month, but Keith Dambrot is still putting the finishing touches on his team.

With a scholarship available, Duquesne has added Davis Larson, who until recently was a graduate assistant on Dambrot’s staff, to the active roster for the upcoming season.

Larson, a 6-foot-5 guard/forward from Sheboygan, Wis., came to Duquesne over the summer after starting three seasons at Division II Hillsdale (Mich.) College.

“We kind of took a page from the South Carolina football playbook,” said Dambrot, referring to Gamecocks quarterback Zeb Noland who made the move from GA to the active roster in August. “We hadn’t considered Davis as a player until we had an injury to Austin Rotroff (stress fracture/foot) and that triggered the thought process for us. We had a scholarship available and thought he’d be a good fit.

“Davis played for an outstanding program at Hillsdale, under coach (John) Tharp. He has won everywhere he’s been dating back to high school. Based on his time here, we already knew that he’s a student of the game. As a player he is very intelligent with diversified skills that can help us.”

Rotroff will return this season, but not before opener Nov. 9 against Rider at the Cooper Fieldhouse.

Larson, a three-time All-Great Midwest Athletic Conference player, scored 991 points in 105 games and shot 51.1% from the field (43.3% from beyond the 3-point arc) at Hillsdale. He scored in double digits in 49 of his final 74 games. He helped Hillsdale (21-3) advance to the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Final last season.

He is working toward his master’s in leadership at Duquesne.