Cougars to open in opposition to Duquesne’s retiring boss who as soon as coached LeBron

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PROVO — BYU’s first-round opponent in its first NCAA Match in three years has been ready loads longer — by about 44 years — and might be motivated to ship longtime coach Keith Dambrot out a winner.

The coach of Duquesne since 2017 introduced he’ll retire following the 2023-24 season Monday, a day after the Dukes earned their first journey to the NCAA males’s basketball event since 1977 — simply as he promised he would do when he took over this system of his father’s alma mater in 2017.

“I did not wish to cheat (the job),” stated Dambrot, based on the Related Press, whereas surrounded by his gamers, athletic director Dave Harper and college president Ken Gormley. “And I simply felt like I may see myself shedding that edge sooner or later. And that is why I stated, ‘I do not wish to finish like that.’ I am not constructed that means.”

That is why the 64-year-old Dambrot merely stated, “I believe it is time” in revealing a choice he stated he made “80% positive” final summer time that moved to 100% when his spouse Donna was identified with breast most cancers.

Dambrot stated the information convention saying his retirement was deliberate a number of months in the past, however that he did not inform any of his gamers, a roster that options eight nations— together with former Wasatch Academy ahead Matúš Hronský from Slovakia — and prime scorers Dae Dae Grant (16.7 factors per recreation) from Lorain, Ohio, by means of Miami (Ohio) and Jimmy Clark III (15.1 ppg) from Covington, Georgia.

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“My character kind shouldn’t be good to teach into the 70s,” Dambrot advised the AP. “I am too concerned in it. I am nonetheless anxious about the place the fellows are on time for the bus, you recognize? It is simply it is laborious to elucidate, proper? Perhaps. Perhaps somewhat neurotic.”

The Dukes will open the 2024 NCAA males’s basketball event Thursday morning in opposition to sixth-seeded BYU (23-10) on the CHI Well being Middle in Omaha, Nebraska.

“It is an ideal staff; they’re the A-10 champs, and that is no simple feat,” BYU coach Mark Pope stated of Duquesne. “They’ve received eight video games in a row and that is bought to be a top-5 or seven longest successful streak within the nation. That is elite-level basketball. We all know personally how good this Dayton staff is, they usually form of ran them out of the gymnasium within the event. It is an elite-level defensive staff that causes every kind of mayhem with a extremely explosive backcourt.”

Duquesne is aware of what it is getting in in opposition to a battle-tested BYU staff that completed fifth in its first season within the Massive 12. However they don’t seem to be backing down, both.

“It is an encouraging problem for us. We’ll be prepared,” stated Grant, the Dukes’ senior guard. “We’ll go on the market and compete and sit up for the sport. We imagine in ourselves and one another. We have performed high-major groups earlier than. We have performed high-major gamers. Basketball is basketball and March is March. Anyone may be overwhelmed. You simply must imagine in each other.”

At one level, Dambrot was maybe finest often known as the coach of St. Vincent-St. Mary Catholic Excessive Faculty in Akron, Ohio from 1998-2001, the place he mentored a budding superstar named LeBron James from 1998-2001.

After shifting to the collegiate ranks at Akron and successful three Mid-American Convention titles from 2004-2017, Dambrot was efficiently recruited by his father Sid’s alma mater with a seven-year, $7 million contract in 2017 with guarantees of ending the Dukes’ decades-long event drought, based on ESPN.

Underneath his watch, Duquesne additionally invested in its basketball program, opening the brand new UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in 2021 — regardless of a 6-24 staff that welcomed the three,500-seat multipurpose venue in uptown Pittsburgh within the 2021-22 season.

However the veteran coach caught with this system — and the personal Catholic college with an enrollment with simply over 5,000 undergraduate college students caught with him — in bouncing again with a 20-13 report final 12 months. This 12 months’s job was even higher, with a 24-11 general report that included eight consecutive wins capped off by a 57-51 slugfest over VCU within the A-10 title recreation the place the Dukes missed as many as 17-of-18 pictures at one level within the second half.

“We bought in a rock struggle, which might be good for us relatively than a easy, flowing recreation,” Dambrot stated of his staff, which ranks 86th in KenPom and twenty eighth in adjusted defensive effectivity. “We’re among the finest defensive groups within the league, and if it is 57-51 that is good for us. We did a great job defensively the entire event, and I believe that is why we received.”

Thursday’s tipoff is scheduled for 10:40 a.m. MDT on TruTV.

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