Keith Dambrot hoping to ‘protect’ his Duquesne team from distractions about his future ahead of A-10 tournament play
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There was nothing out of the ordinary about Saturday’s postgame press conference for Duquesne basketball coach Keith Dambrot. It was a pretty basic Q&A about the events that led to his team’s 67-65 win over George Washington.
But by the end of the press conference, Dambrot did seem a bit surprised by one thing: Nobody brought up the prospect of his potential retirement.
“Anything else? Nobody else is going to ask me about me anymore … thank God,” Dambrot said with a grin.
One reporter quipped, “I was about to …”
“No comment,” Dambrot laughed as he cut off the question.
At least Dambrot can joke amid the anxiety of his decision-making process. The 65-year-old has acknowledged that this season could be his last. After 26 years in college basketball, Dambrot is considering walking away, in part due to the fact that he wants to spend more time with his wife, Donna, who is battling breast cancer.
While Dambrot isn’t wild about the speculation, he understands it’s part of the turf.
“I know you have a job to do,” Dambrot said to the media. “So I’m always going to try to help. But you also have to understand I’ve got to put my team first. So, as honest as I am, I’m not always truthful. Most of the time, I’m truthful. But in this regard, I’m not always truthful. So you aren’t always going to get a straight answer from me on that one. It’s only right. I’ve got to protect my team.”
Presumably, what Dambrot feels he is protecting his team from is speculation about the future of the program heading into its most important games of the season. The Dukes open Atlantic 10 tournament play against the Saint Louis Billikens at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Should the Dukes win it all in Brooklyn, they’d gain their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1977.
With 20 victories already, if they should win one or two in New York, that could also secure a spot in the NIT.
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Making a public decision on his future now could prove to be an unnecessary distraction for the players. Any public declaration of retirement could stir unwanted emotional pressure on the players to win one for their coach on the way out the door.
Ever since he took over the program seven years ago, Dambrot has always placed a premium on eventually getting the Dukes back into the NCAA Tournament. It was a personal mission of sorts, as Dambrot’s father, Sid, was a player on the 1954 Duquesne team that made it to the NIT championship game.
However, the players are already well aware of Dambrot’s difficult decision. They want to send him out on as good of a note as possible if, in fact, this is his last postseason run.
“Sending him off on a great note, that would mean so much to me, as it would to him, “ said leading scorer Dae Dae Grant. “I don’t know (about Dambrot’s decision). We’re just continuing to stride out this season and keep playing games for him. That would do so much for me that it’s hard to explain with words.”
Another layer of “protection” Dambrot is trying to provide by keeping his retirement conversation as tamped down as possible is specifically for Grant and the other six seniors and grad students who are leaving the program after the season. Dambrot wants to protect their final moments on the court so those players don’t have to feel like their experiences in tournament play are being lived for anyone else but themselves.
“I never want to make it about me. That’s why I haven’t told anybody what I want to do, although I have it in my mind what I’m going to do,” Dambrot said during his Tuesday coach’s show on SportsNet Pittsburgh.
If that decision is eventually retirement, it’s coming on the heels of Duquesne’s third 20-win season in his seven-year tenure. That’s a feat that hasn’t been accomplished by one Duquesne coach since Red Manning in the 1960s and early ‘70s.
“Basketball is his getaway,” point guard Kareem Rozier said of Dambrot before a game last month. “He is going through a lot right now. But coach is doing a great job holding it together, making sure to lead us continuously in the right direction, as well as taking care of his wife.”
An encouraging piece of news for Dambrot is that Donna is feeling well enough to make the trip out to Brooklyn for the tournament. She’ll be in attendance for what could be some of her husband’s final games on the sidelines.
Or the wins that catapult his team to potentially its biggest accomplishment in nearly half a century.