Keith Dambrot noncommittal on future as Duquesne enters home finale
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As the Duquesne basketball team prepares for its regular-season finale against George Washington on Saturday, head coach Keith Dambrot is not yet ready to say if it will be his last home game as the leader of the Dukes’ program.
Dambrot is 65 years old and has won 523 NCAA games — 110 at Duquesne. This is the last year of Dambrot’s contract. He took over the program in 2017-18. Dambrot revealed earlier this season that his wife, Donna, is battling breast cancer.
“I’m in good health, and my work ethic is still strong,” Dambrot said during his coach’s show on Fox Sports Radio Pittsburgh on Thursday night. “I still have a chip on my shoulder to achieve the goals that I came here to achieve.
“I’ve got some extenuating circumstances, obviously with my wife’s sickness. So we’re gonna sit down as a family with the doctors and see where she’s at. Then we’ll make a decision that’s in the interest of everyone.”
Dambrot said his wife is doing well but has a “long haul” ahead.
“She’s not going to give into it,” he said. “The doctors at UPMC have been phenomenal. We’re in good shape right now. But you’ve just got to stay the course. We have 13 more infusions to go once every three weeks. She’s a good teammate. You can’t be a coach’s wife for 35 years and not be an unbelievable person.”
Should Dambrot retire at the end of the season, it’s his belief that his returning players and his assistant coaches could continue Duquesne’s winning ways. At 19-11 right now, they’ll finish .500 or better in six of Dambrot’s seven seasons. The Dukes had gone five years in a row at .500 or below prior to his arrival.
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“Dru Joyce III and Rick McFadden and Terry Weigand, those guys are capable of being head coaches,” Dambrot said.
“I’ve had good assistant coaches in the past that have done pretty well. I’ve got two in the top (17) right now in Shaka Smart (Marquette, No. 8) and Lamont Paris (South Carolina, No. 17). Jeff Boals (Ohio) will be the next one.”
David Dixon, one of Duquesne’s returning players next year, doesn’t want to see Dambrot leave but understands the circumstances his coach is facing.
“Coach D is one of the greatest coaches I’ve ever known,” Dixon said on the show. “I’m thankful that he gave me a chance to play college basketball. If he were to go, I’d be really sad. I hope that he stays. I hope that I still get to have him as a coach. But I’m just happy to know him as a person.”
Graduating senior Dae Dae Grant has played his final two years of college basketball at Duquesne after a transfer from Miami-Ohio.
“We’ve built an unbelievable relationship,” Grant said. “It means the most because he put guys in front of me that I’m going to have a relationship with the rest of my life. I will have a relationship with the coaching staff and him as well. Just all the other things that play a part of playing in his legacy. … It was just a blessing.”
If the Dukes win Saturday or claim a victory in the Atlantic 10 tournament, it would be Dambrot’s third 20-win season on the Bluff. No Dukes coach has had more than one such campaign since Red Manning retired with four in 1974.