Duquesne Coaches Visits Ohio 3-Star Forward Ben Roderick

Keith Dambrot has a recruiting philosophy of not getting caught shorthanded.

The meaning behind that is, in today’s age of college basketball of players continually transferring seemingly out of nowhere, he’ll continue to recruit despite not actually having a scholarship available.

Duquesne basketball on Pittsburgh Sports Now is sponsored by The Summit Academy: setting young men on the path to a better future.

That’s the situation he’s currently facing.

At this point, Duquesne’s lone 2019 commitment is Kennedy Catholic star guard Maceo Austin. However, things can and often change, so Dambrot and his staff were in Ohio meeting with a talented senior.

Three members of the staff went to visit 2019 three-star forward Ben Roderick (6-foot-5, 185 pounds) from Powell, Ohio. 247 Sports rates Roderick as one of the top 10 seniors in the state and a top 220 national recruit.

OHIO'S PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Some of our chat with @LHSAthleticDept @BenRoderick15, on his remarkable senior season, his recovery from a serious knee injury & leading his team to next week's @OHSAASports state Final Four. Also… he's tall. pic.twitter.com/74Q89pFGc7

— Jerod Smalley (@JerodNBC4) March 17, 2019

“Actually, they first start recruiting me at the Ohio state tournament, Coach Dambrot was there,” Roderick said to PSN. “Afterwards, he texted me and told me I had a great game and wanted to see if I was interested in Duquesne and I said yeah.”

That text resulted in Dambrot and two members of his staff traveling yesterday to personally talk with Roderick.

”They talked a lot with me about player development and how they believe they could take my game to the next level and even the pro level which was very eye-opening to me,” said Roderick.

“We also talked about life after basketball because it doesn’t last forever and how they have a lot of connections in Pittsburgh with professional sports teams such as the Penguins, the Steelers and others. They also mentioned how Coach Dambrot has a lot of networking including to the greatest player of all-time, LeBron (James).”

It was Roderick’s first at-length conversation with Dambrot and as most recruits do, he left very impressed.

“He’s a great coach and a great person. His resume speaks for itself and he puts guys in the league, which caught my eye,” Roderick said. “He’s a coach that pushes players so they develop and I like that because I want to be the best player possible.”

I’m back. pic.twitter.com/V115tYKdu4

— Ben Roderick (@BenRoderick15) October 3, 2018

Roderick describes his strengths as being a three-level scorer and is someone that doesn’t force the action and lets the game come to him which allows him to get his teammates involved. In college, he believes he’s able to play either the two, three or four spot and can guard multiple positions.

Roderick currently holds offers from Akron, Bowling Green, Ohio, St. Bonaventure, and Toledo. Technically, he doesn’t have a Duquesne offer, but that appears to just be a formality.

“Coach Dambrot knows my AAU coach really well and I’m going to speak to my family about taking a visit there so I can learn what Duquesne is really about and we can go from there.”