Keith Dambrot’s plans to keep Duquesne players engaged steps into national spotlight Friday vs. Dayton
Share this post:
In 29 seasons coaching college and high school basketball, Duquesne’s Keith Dambrot has tried many ways to assure his players they matter.
• Like most coaches, Dambrot, 65, likes to keep a line of communication open between his office and the locker room.
• Or, he might plan something similar to what occurred Wednesday in a brief, pre-practice ceremony where sophomore forward David Dixon was given a cape and crowned “King For A Day” after recording 19 points, seven rebounds two steals and a block in a loss Saturday at Loyola Chicago.
• Another durable method of keeping players engaged has been employing sports psychologist Dr. Joe Carr, who has been a guiding force in the life and careers of several professional athletes, including Allen Iverson, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. Dambrot said Carr has helped his players at Akron and Duquesne for more than 20 years. He meets regularly with the Dukes, and Dambrot said players do most of the talking.
”We get a lot of clarity to base our program and our brotherhood around,” senior guard Dae Dae Grant said. “We continue to connect with each other, figure each other out, our background and our stories. Things you went through, childhood traumas.”
The idea, Grant said, is to acquire “more of a deeper understanding of each other and where we came from.”
Simply put: “Sticking together,” he said.
“If you’re connected and cohesive and make sacrifices and care about winning,” Dambrot said, “you’ll play a little bit better.”
The Dukes (9-5, 0-2) will need all the connectivity they can find Friday when Dayton (12-2, 2-0), possibly the best team in the Atlantic 10, pays a visit to UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. The game will be televised on ESPN2, and Duquesne officials believe it may be the program’s first home sellout in 12 years.
Grant said the players remain upbeat, despite a two-game road losing streak against UMass and Loyola Chicago to open the conference season.
“We’re more hungry than defeated or down,” he said. “We’re not looking at it, ‘Oh, it’s a big televised game, a whole bunch of fans.’ We’re looking at it as a home game. We need to protect home court, get a conference (victory) against a really good team.”
Dambrot has built a roster that has experience, with seven seniors or graduate students. The trick is finding the right mix after starting guards Grant (18.6 points per game) and Jimmy Clark III (16.2). They have been the Dukes’ most consistent performers, but they also combined to shoot 30.6% (19 of 62) in the two losses.
“We just had these spurts where we just haven’t played very well,” Dambrot said. “We haven’t been as cohesive and as connected as we would have liked. Part of it is just not knowing who’s going to play. It’s been hard because we have guys who haven’t really separated. Quite frankly, it starts at the top. We have to do better with them, and our best players have to do better. Other guys have to create more opportunities for them.
“At some point, you have to produce in order to play. That’s kind of where we’re at right now.”
Duquesne has played a difficult schedule, losing to Princeton (No. 26 in the NCAA Net rankings), UMass (No. 80), Santa Clara (No. 106), Loyola Chicago (No. 139) and Nebraska (No. 46). Scores against common opponents may not mean much, especially comparing conference and nonconference games. But the Dukes lost at Nebraska of the Big Ten, 89-79. No. 1 Purdue, a conference foe, ventured onto the same court Tuesday night and left an 88-72 loser.
“We haven’t lost to a bad team yet,” Dambrot said. “We didn’t play particularly well at UMass. To the 11-minute mark, decent, and then we just died on the vine. Some of it is just understanding what you have to do to win games.”
Perhaps getting some players healthy will help as the season progresses through the winter months. N.C. State transfer Dusan Mahorcic (6-foot-10, 235 pounds) might make a difference when he is fully recovered from a knee injury. He’s played in three games for only 17 minutes.
“He’s cleared, but he’s not really completely healthy,” Dambrot said. “We have to see what he can do. I still think he’s a couple weeks from really being able to move and do the things he’s capable of.”
Also, Tre Williams has played in only seven games because of a thumb injury.
Dambrot said the first six games of his team’s A-10 schedule is top-heavy with the best teams, including Richmond, Saint Joseph’s and St. Bonaventure.
“I think we’ll get better,” he said. “We, potentially, can play with almost any team in this league on any given night. We have to become more consistent.”
Dambrot wants his team to approach Dayton with what he calls “humbled arrogance.”
“We have to respect them,” he said, “but we can’t respect them so much that we don’t compete.”