Duquesne opens season Monday, will play three games in five days
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Keith Dambrot welcomes back six players who played at least 25 minutes last season for Duquesne.
That’s a strong base of experience, but if you think that gives Dambrot a cozy feeling, you don’t know Duquesne’s coach and you haven’t been paying attention the past eight months.
In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, the offseason was turned upside-down, the season will start later than usual and the Dukes’ young depth — there are eight freshmen on the roster — may be tested almost immediately.
“Nothing in the spring, very little in the summer, shutdowns in the fall,” Dambrot said Friday, describing Duquesne’s offseason. “We may not get the Real McCoy until the middle of February.”
But it’s past time for the season to begin, and the Dukes hope to get plenty of action starting Monday in the Wade Houston Tipoff Classic at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center.
The Dukes will play Little Rock of the Sun Belt Conference at 4 p.m. Monday, UNC Greensboro of the Southern at 1 p.m. Wednesday and Winthrop of the Big South at 11 a.m. Friday. All three teams won at least 21 games last season and were picked in preseason polls to win their respective conferences.
The Dukes are starting four days later than most teams, which is OK with Dambrot, who is entering his fourth season of a major rebuilding effort.
“Had we played the 25th (of November), I don’t think we would have been quite ready,” he said. “Probably not in as good of condition as I would like right now. But we have cabin fever so we need to play, that’s for sure, before we lose our minds.
“I didn’t think we were really ready because of the (covid) sit-outs we had. I just want to play, just to get out of the practice rut. Until the reality of the hard, wooden seat hits you, you continue to do the same things sometimes.”
Those three nonconference games are the only ones planned so far, but Dambrot hopes to schedule others next month. After the Winthrop game, the Dukes aren’t scheduled to play again until their Atlantic 10 opener Dec. 19 at Richmond.
With UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse under construction — just like it was last year at this time — the first so-called home game is Jan. 5 against Davidson. Duquesne hasn’t announced a venue, but the Dukes played at La Roche, Robert Morris and PPG Paints Arena last season and practiced at the campus recreation center.
It’s not an ideal situation, but the Dukes persevered to finish 2019-20 with a 21-9 record, only the school’s second 20-victory season since 1981.
“I feel like we’re a bunch of underdogs,” senior forward Marcus Weathers said. “We go through a lot of stuff, but the one thing about our team is we just adapt.”
Dambrot is hoping to travel to Louisville with a full, healthy squad. Players receive covid tests three times a week.
“We’re good right now,” Dambrot said before getting results of Friday’s tests. “I don’t know about (Saturday).”