3 Keys For Duquesne MBB In NCAA Tournament Matchup

OMAHA Neb. — As much as Duquesne Men’s Basketball Coach Keith Dambrot appreciated students, student-athletes, the university community and fans showing their support, high fiving and grabbing last-second selfies, he made it very clear Wednesday afternoon that this is a business trip.

“I appreciate all of that stuff, don’t get me wrong but I’m here to win games,” he remarked. “My job is to make sure we don’t just settle for winning the Atlantic 10 tournament and we come in here and play a good basketball game. I’m not too concerned with the peripheral I’ve been that way my whole life, but at this age I can’t really change. I appreciate it all but I’m here for a job and until the job is over, I’m going to try and compete and do the best I can.”

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The first test comes Thursday morning against BYU a quick-tempo team which Dambrot stated displays flashes of both VCU and Richmond.

While the Cougars are known for their offense, the defensive effort is something which naturally caught Dambrot’s eyes.

Given his announcement Monday and having known he was set to retire at season’s end for the last couple of months, Dambrot admitted Wednesday that he has experienced a whirlwind of emotions.

“I looked around the arena many, many times, which I hardly ever do or have ever done,” he said. “I think when you go through some hard times, you start to change your perspective as to what’s important and what isn’t important.”

Dambrot is searching for his first NCAA Tournament win but instead of focusing on that is more resolved to continuing to have his team work hard on a daily basis, while also enjoying the moment.

While a lot has and will continue to be about Dambrot, he has deflected the credit to his team for finding its resolve when it opened Atlantic 10 play 0-5 and while it was unknown how the team was going to develop, eventually the proper niche was found.

“We tried to play a little faster early in the year, and now we kind of pick and choose,” said Dambrot. “I’ve always been a defensive-oriented coach first, but I’ve been an inside-out coach most of my career. This team is not an inside-out team, so it took a while for us to figure out how it all pieced together.”

While Dambort is resolute, the team itself is enjoying a dream fulfilled and the emotions that come with it.

“I feel like this group of guys deserves it after all the adversity and everything we went through this year,” Duquesne’s Jake DiMichele assessed. “It’s been kind of a whirlwind of emotions the last couple of days. I think it works for us in a positive way because it just bonds us closer together, increases our brotherhood.”

When Jimmy Clark III was asked a similar line of questioning, he felt that getting to the NCAA Tournament is the payout the team deserves, coming to the team with different styles and from different programs but ultimately the maturity won out.

Here are three keys for Thursday’s game.

1. Defense– This one is fairly obvious. Duquesne will win or lose this game on the defensive end. The Dukes can withstand scoring lulls but only if the defense remains connected. BYU’s attack when on could be devastating with several different options able to connect from three-point range.

2. Get David Dixon involved– Dixon has been Duquesne’s most consistent post as far as the numbers show but after the Saint Louis game was not really a factor in the Atlantic 10 Championship. If he can make an impact Thursday it will take this team far.

3. Be the best version of yourself– Perhaps this is an addition to key #1, however this time of year is not the time that anything new outside of scouting reports are really implemented. Whichever team is more engaged mentally and physically and does the little things right will win. This past week that was Duquesne and it has to have that desperation and refusal to allow the season to end to get the win.

For those wondering here are the current plus/minus totals for the season.

Dae Dae Grant +183

Fousseyni Drame +179

Jimmy Clark III +137

David Dixon +123

Jake DiMichele +87

Kareem Rozier +48

Dusan Mahorcic +45

Jakub Necas +31

Andrei Savrasov +30

Hassan Drame +21

Kailon Nicholls +8

Ethan Anish +2

Lucas Perusek +1

Andy Barba 0

Sheamus McDermott 0

Tre Williams -1

Chabi Barre -3

Matus Hronsky -65