Despite covid-related pause, Duquesne's Keith Dambrot contends, 'We don't stink'

Anyone who knows Keith Dambrot might be surprised by how he is approaching the final days before the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

Practices are shorter, about an hour this week as he prepared Duquesne for its first game in 18 days Saturday at Richmond. He might even overlook a misstep or two, with a deferential nod toward the pandemic that has interrupted the progress his players were making.

“Normally, I wouldn’t like some of things I see in practice,” he said, “but nothing’s normal this year. I’m just happy that we come and like each other every day and put time in the gym.”

Duquesne’s second covid-related pause this season — the first lasted from Dec. 3 through Jan. 1 — looks like it has ended, but possible residual effects are what worry Dambrot.

“We’re healthy,” he said, noting the team had its first full practice Monday. “I don’t know if we’re any good after 18 days away, but we’re healthy.”

Haunted by positive covid tests, the Dukes (7-6, 6-5) haven’t played since opening UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on Feb. 2 with a 69-64 victory against Dayton. That was Duquesne’s fourth victory in five games after a bumpy 2-4 start to the A-10 season. Given those two stretches and all the inactivity, it’s difficult to know where the Dukes stand.

“It’s uncharted waters for me,” Dambrot said, “because you can’t see how you’ve progressed because we stopped so many darn times.”

In a normal season, the better teams are rounding out the rough edges so they’re playing their best basketball at tournament time. Duquesne hasn’t had that opportunity.

“It’s been a miserable experience for them. We’ve played 13 games,” Dambrot said.

The Dukes will play 15 games through February. They went into March 2020 with 28 behind them.

Dambrot has been coaching since the mid-1980s, and he has found habits deeply embedded in his approach to coaching are difficult to break.

“This is a really hard year for old people like me,” he said. “We have set ways we like to do things, and those set ways just don’t work right now.

“We didn’t practice more than an hour all week. I don’t know if that’s right, wrong. Playing 13 games on Feb. 19 is ridiculous, mentally. Not having a college experience is ridiculous, mentally.

“We have to make sure we have fun. Believe me, that’s hard for me to say, an old-school guy like me. But the most important thing right now is to go out there and have fun. If we have fun, we’ll win our share of games.”

Meanwhile, the Atlantic 10 is planning to start its tournament March 3, earlier than previously announced, to leave room for possible postponements.

“I don’t think it’s particularly good for us, but it’s good for the league,” Dambrot said. “We have to bite the bullet for the league.”

Duquesne’s first game after the long pause is one of its most difficult. Richmond (11-5, 4-3) played only twice from Jan. 10 to Feb. 13, but the Spiders are third in the conference in scoring (75.9 points per game) and second in field-goal percentage (47.9).

“That’s not the easiest game to come back out of a pause,” Dambrot said. “There’s nothing normal this year. So, what’s the difference?”

He added, “I think we have a better chance to play well in the tournament than we do (Saturday).”

After Richmond, the Dukes will close the regular season with games Wednesday at La Salle and Feb. 27 at home against Rhode Island.

Dambrot said he believes the Dukes can salvage what’s left of the season while entering the A-10 Tournament with hopes of making a run.

“If you feel like you have no chance to win the tournament, then you’d probably just be trying to get through it. But we’ve shown we can play with anybody in this league,” he said.

“If we shoot the ball a little bit better, which I believe we are capable of (the Dukes are 11th with a 41.7 field-goal percentage), and our big guys (seniors Marcus Weathers and Michael Hughes) play at a high level, which we certainly are capable of there, we have a good chance because we’re good defensively.”

The Dukes are third in scoring defense (63.9) and second in shooting percentage allowed (39.9).

“I’m not playing out the string by any means. I’m just doing it in a different way,” he said. “If I thought we stunk, I’d play out the string. But we’ve already proven we don’t stink. We’re better than stink.”

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