Duquesne will face difficult early test against Kentucky at Rupp Arena
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Duquesne men’s basketball coach Keith Dambrot wants to expose the Dukes to the best possible competition he can find, and he found a tough one for their second game of the season.
The Dukes will travel to Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 11 to play the Kentucky Wildcats, coached by Moon native John Calipari. The game will be part of a multi-team, round-robin event that will conclude with Duquesne playing home games at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on Nov. 14 against South Carolina State and Nov. 21 against North Florida.
Kentucky finished last season with a 26-8 record (14-4 in the SEC) and ranked No. 7 in the final Associated Press poll. The Wildcats earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament before a first-round upset to No. 15 St. Peter’s.
This will be the third meeting between Duquesne and Kentucky and the first since Nov. 20, 2016. Dambrot’s sixth season at Duquesne will feature 10 players who weren’t on the roster last season.
The Dukes and Atlantic Sun Conference member North Florida will meet for the first time. The Ospreys are led by 14-year coach Matthew Driscoll, a Bellevue native who attended Northgate High School, graduated from Slippery Rock and also served as head coach at La Roche University from 1993-97. He’s been ASUN coach of the year three times.
North Florida has two scheduled trips into Pittsburgh this year. The Ospreys will play Pitt on Dec. 17 at the Petersen Events Center.
South Carolina State is in its first season under former West Virginia assistant Erik Martin. The team was 15-16 and finished fifth in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in 2021-22.
Duquesne will face 13 teams from 13 conferences in non-league play. The list includes the Atlantic Sun, Big East (DePaul), Big Sky (Montana, the opener Nov. 8), Big South (Winthrop), Big West (UC Santa Barbara), Conference USA (Marshall), Mid-American (Ball State), Mid-Eastern Athletic, Missouri Valley (Indiana State), Patriot (Colgate), SEC, Southwestern Athletic (Alabama State) and Western Athletic (New Mexico State).
Duquesne will play seven nonconference games before the end of November.