When the basketball season opens Nov. 25, Duquesne will begin a quest to prove that Atlantic 10 coaches and media members underestimated its basketball team for the fourth consecutive year.

The Dukes were picked to finish fifth in a poll of men’s basketball coaches and media, but Duquesne has exceeded its preseason prognostication in each of its first three seasons under coach Keith Dambrot.

Fifth place is the highest the Dukes have appeared in the poll since the 2010 team was picked tied for fifth.

The Dukes return five starters from last year’s 21-9 team. They were picked to finish behind favorite Richmond (19 first-place votes), Saint Louis (seven), Dayton (two) and St. Bonaventure.

Duquesne was picked to finish eighth last year, but set a school record for A-10 victories (11) and finished tied for fifth. In Dambrot’s first season, the Dukes were picked last and ended up tied for 10th. In 2018-19, Duquesne ended up sixth after a preseason prediction of 11th.

Senior Marcus Weathers and junior Sincere Carry were named to the preseason second and third all-conference teams, respectively. That recognition marks the first time since 2010, when juniors Damian Saunders (second team) and Bill Clark (third team) were honored, that Duquesne placed two players on the A-10 Preseason All-Conference Team.

Weathers, who has scored a team-high 1,048 career points, led the Dukes in scoring (14.3 points per game) and rebounding (8.1) and was named Second Team All Atlantic 10 last year.

Carry, entering his third season as starting point guard, has averaged 5.5 assists per game for his career, the best by a Duquesne player since Norm Nixon (1974-77). Carry averaged 12.2 points and 5.3 assists per game in 2019-20.

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