Duquesne’s Keith Dambrot to retire after 7 seasons of sharing AD Dave Harper’s vision for program
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In March 2017, Dave Harper set out on a solo journey, seeking to hire a coach for the struggling men’s basketball program at Duquesne.
“A man on an island,” he said. “I was trying to sell a job where the perception was coaches go to die.”
Yet, after 17 months on the job as Duquesne’s athletic director, Harper had a vision for the program and a coach he was targeting.
For three weeks, Harper spoke with Keith Dambrot about becoming Duquesne’s next coach.
Dambrot was interested in Harper’s pitch because his father, Sid, was a star at Duquesne in the 1950s. It was important for the son to honor the father’s legacy.
Dambrot was reluctant to leave a secure job as coach at Akron, where he had achieved plenty of success over 13 years. Akron is his hometown where he and his wife, Donna, raised two children and where the family was entrenched.
Finally, Dambrot decided to accept Harper’s offer. “Now, all I have to do is convince my wife,” Dambrot told him.
Harper waited patiently for an answer, and when it came in the affirmative the next day at home, he remembers throwing his cell phone in triumph.
“I said, ‘We got him.’ I remember high-fiving my sons, high-fiving my wife.”
Stunned, Harper’s family wanted to know why he was so ecstatic.
“I said, ‘He’s not afraid. He’s going to attack a challenge,’ ” Harper said Monday afternoon on the day Dambrot announced he will retire at the end of the season after seven years with the Dukes and 26 as a collegiate head coach.
“We both looked each other in the eye and (said) we’re going to try to do something that hasn’t been done.
“Guess what? Keith, this team, the staff, everybody did that.”
For the first time in 47 years, Duquesne is going to the NCAA Tournament. The Dukes, who won the Atlantic 10 Tournament on Sunday, will meet BYU on Thursday in Omaha, Neb.
“There are two words I could think of: thank you,” Harper said Monday, looking to his left where Dambrot was seated.
Harper’s coaching search wasn’t the first time Duquesne had approached Dambrot about becoming the coach of its most visible program.
“At least on one other occasion, I didn’t come because I really didn’t think the university was really all-in to supporting the program at the highest level so they could be successful,” Dambrot said.
But he accepted Harper’s offer because he sensed the necessary support.
“And I can tell you that we did (get it). Unwavering support from the top,” he said.
Why retire now?
“I just thought it was the right time,” said Dambrot, 65. “I didn’t want to leave when I didn’t love it. I still love it, so you might as well leave while you still love it, rather than when you’re dreading going to work.
“I knew all along I wasn’t going to coach until I was 70,” he said, mentioning he thought about retiring after the 6-24 season two years ago. “My personality type is not good to coach into the 70s. I’m too involved. I’m still worried about if guys are on time for the bus.”
President Ken Gormley said he’s so sorry to see his coach retire, but he understands.
“We were eager to have Keith do what he does so beautifully as long as he wants to,” Gormley said. “This was ultimately a decision about family.
“There’s a saying in politics, ‘Get out while you’re on top. Get out while they love you,’ and Keith is certainly doing that.
“Keith has always viewed this as a calling more than a job. Keith was truly born to be a leader of the Duquesne Dukes.”
Because his father played there, Dambrot knows the history of the basketball program.
“Duquesne started, in the national championship game (the 1954 NIT), three African Americans and two Jews at a Catholic institution,” he said. “That tells you all you need to know about this university. My dad was always proud of that.
“That’s why I came. I thought it was the perfect situation for me, especially if I wanted to put myself through anguish, challenge myself.”
Dambrot has always loved a challenge, but his respect for the coaching profession is one reason he’s retiring.
“I spent my whole life at this job, and it’s important to me. I tried not to cheat the job,” he said. “I’ve prided myself on being the first one in the office, working hard, trying to outwork everybody. I could see myself losing that edge at some point. I don’t want to end like that. I’m not built that way.”
Dambrot said he was “about 80% sure” last summer that he would retire at the end of this season. Then, when Donna was diagnosed with breast cancer (she is recovering well after surgery in January), Dambrot decided it was time to spend more time at home.
“I love it, but I made a lot of sacrifices to get to this point. My family made a lot of sacrifices,” he said.
In any event, this season might have been Dambrot’s last for a variety of reasons.
“It’s been a tough seven years. Covid. Two years out of the building (when Duquesne had no home games while the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse was under construction). Quite honestly, if I would have known we would have been two years out of the building, I probably would have stayed at Akron,” he said, drawing a laugh from a room full of supporters.
“The rule changes. The portal. The immediate eligibility (of transfers). My dad’s death (prior to the 2022-2023 season). Having to reboot it twice. We thought we had it turned around the first time after 21 wins (in 2019-2020). We had to turn it around again.”
Dambrot said he acquired his coaching philosophy from his mother, Faye, a psychologist and Carnegie Tech graduate.
“It’s just like raising a family,” he said. “Sometimes, you have to hard-love them and sometimes you have to massage them. You have to understand that everybody’s different, but you have to treat everybody fairly.
“Try to treat them like they’re your own children. If you don’t, you’re cheating them. It’s hard because if you lose good players in this business, sometimes it’s hard to recover. By the same token, you’re not going to win if you don’t hold them to a high standard.”
Dambrot is leaving the program on an upward trajectory. The Dukes (24-11) will take an eight-game winning streak into the BYU game after a third season of 20 or more victories under Dambrot. He has a 115-95 record at Duquesne among his 528 all-time victories, including time at Akron, Tiffin, Ashland and Central Michigan. Four years ago, he tied Dudey Moore, the man who coached his father, for the most victories (56) in their first three seasons.
The 24 victories this season are the most at Duquesne since the Dukes won 26 in 1953-1954, Sid Dambrot’s senior season.
Harper had no comment on his next coaching search, but Dambrot offered a suggestion.
“We’ve been kind of grooming (associate) coach Dru (Joyce) to take over for me,” he said.
Joyce and LeBron James played for Dambrot at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Ohio, and Dambrot also coached Joyce at Akron.
“Hopefully, he gets the job, but obviously I’m biased,” Dambrot said. “The program wouldn’t miss a beat if he gets the job. There would be very little (player) turnover. We’ve got some good young kids in that room. With the way things are now, if coach Dru didn’t get the job, that portal becomes a problem.”
Dambrot doesn’t know what he’ll do in retirement, but he is looking forward to spending more time with Donna and his daughter, Alysse, and son, Robby. “I don’t have any hobbies,” he said.
But he did make Donna one promise: “I’m sure as (heck) not going to do anything around the house.”
Keith Dambrot, a life well-lived, a calling well -served. pic.twitter.com/msHOK8pkq8
— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) March 19, 2024
The Last Dance.
After 26 years as a head coach, Keith Dambrot will retire at the end of the season. pic.twitter.com/PE3AsJfDoP
— Duquesne Basketball (@DuqMBB) March 18, 2024
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