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Inside the Dukes: Dambrot’s Anger Highlights Latest Loss

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Across the court and behind the team bench, everyone heard Duquesne Men’s Basketball Coach Keith Dambrot shouting for a timeout, everyone that was besides official Matt Potter standing next to him.

In any game with under two minutes left, coaches are allowed to spend a timeout, so when David Dixon got tied up in far corner from Jake DiMichele’s inbounds pass, Dambrot tried to do just that.

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While Richmond argued Dixon had both traveled and had his foot go out of bounds, Potter finally blew his whistle, but did not signal anything.

Richmond coach Chris Mooney went ballistic as Potter joined officials Jamie Luckie and Justin Porterfield and discussed the sequence.

When the trio broke their huddle, Potter gathered both coaches and explained that his whistle had been an inadvertent one.

As he explained it, Dambrot pleaded with Potter stating he had called timeout and uttered an expletive since the official had been standing beside him during the tie up.

“Every referee in the country knows in the last two minutes a coach can call a timeout,” Dambrot explained. “I called it twice and he didn’t respond to either one of them. I’ve got a hard time with that. You can’t miss a timeout call; I don’t give a damn. No way. He should be right next to me saying ‘hey if you need the timeout call it.’

“I called it twice and he didn’t react to either one. I don’t know how you can’t check the monitor because he’s at this end, so I don’t know how they know which one happened first. I’m not too happy about it and the biggest problem I have is no accountability for it, just say ‘I might have messed that one up.’ I won’t like it, but I can live with it.”

Dambrot never received an explanation from Potter, who as both went back towards Duquesne’s sideline saw multiple fingers from the Dukes bench boss explaining how many times he called timeout. After that, Luckie attempted to tell him to calm down.

“Evidently he thought the jump ball came before the timeout, but he missed the first time I called timeout, I was right next to his ass,” continued Dambrot. “I don’t know if you’re deaf, but I’m right next to him. The first time he missed it, he should have acknowledged that one. I had to yell it two times and in reality, I like Matt Potter, he’s a good guy, but he messed it up. I don’t know how much money that’s going to cost me, but I don’t give a damn. I know it’s a hard game to referee, but you can’t make mistakes in the last two minutes.”

If that did not already make Dambrot hot under the collar, Kareem Rozier got position and jumped the play but was met by Richmond’s Isaiah Bigelow who tried to establish position as Luckie’s whistle blew. The call went against Duquesne.

It was Rozier’s fourth foul and he jumped into the air out of frustration. Dambrot had to be restrained by associate head coach Dru Joyce III.

“The call on Kareem I thought that was a rotten call too,” Dambrot opined. “He knew the play was coming, he jumped it, the guy initiated the contact, came into him and they called the foul on him, especially after you didn’t give us the timeout. So you went bang, bang… I watched it on tape, he initiated contact and they sent him to the line. I thought there were four right at the end of the game that really didn’t go our way, so I’ve got problems with that.”

Dambrot also felt bad for his team because mistakes were made but for the most part, especially without Dae Dae Grant, the team put forth one of its better performances of the season, an effort he thought was enough to win the game.

Rozier agreed that multiple calls towards the end of the game and he fouled out for the second time in his career.

More so, he felt the team played a good 37 minutes but did not make enough plays at the end.

With 40 seconds left, Jimmy Clark III saw an open three-point shot early in the shot clock of what was then a tie game. Richmond then called a timeout and set up a play for what ended up being the game-winning basket.

At this point, Dambrot knows winning the regular-season conference title is an impossibility and that his team’s efforts should be focused on getting better and better to the point that the Atlantic 10 Championship in March is in play.

“(It’s a) good group of guys in that locker room, supportive,” determined Rozier. “A four-game losing streak is tough, but we have a lot of older guys, so we have to bring it every day in practice. We’ll get there, we’re taking huge steps game by game just not getting wins. We’ll be playing our best end of the season, we’re just on a bad stretch right now.”

A CHANGE OF PACE

With Grant’s absence just 19 of the team’s 57 shots were from three-point range, meaning there was more of a focus on inside play and paint touches.

Duquesne recently has teased getting the ball inside more but there was no choice but to embrace and build upon that Tuesday night.

When the Dukes were at their best offensively, it was through the inside game whether driving the lane or going to work in the paint.

“(It’s) been one of our focuses playing inside out more,” Rozier stated. “We’ve been shooting way too many threes and that’s been a lot of talk, getting the ball in there. The scoring is throughout the whole roster it just came down to making more plays.”

As Rozier offered, there was much more intention in the post and though the results were mixed, it resulted in a better shot selection and less feeling of forcing more shots up.

It is a starting point as Duquesne embraces the inside game as part of its identity.

“(We) have to throw it inside when it matters,” said Dambrot. “(It) just goes to show you sometimes the sum of the parts are the most important thing. How it all blends together. We probably weren’t as talented (without Grant) but probably played one of our better games all the way around. That’s what’s unfortunate about it.”

PSN found out through multiple sources prior to the game that Grant was in concussion protocol and Dambrot confirmed as much explaining he was not doing great and had some struggles with headache issues.

Dambrot is unsure how it happened but considers it might have happened before the walkthrough prior to practice prior to the Dayton game.

Sandy Schall, Coldwell Banker
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