Duquesne has had a lot of struggles over the past four-plus decades. The program was once a winner, but has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1977, and among other things has become a coaching graveyard. They have endured 28 losing seasons – that’s two-thirds of the seasons since then.
Plenty of coaches – and solid basketball people – have tried to get the program going. Ron Everhart actually had some measures of success, getting them into postseason play, but the NCAA Tournament wasn’t one of those tournaments and that eventually led to him being the eighth head coach to be shown the door since that last NCAA Tournament appearance. Jim Ferry succeeded him, another solid basketball guy who can coach, as he did at LIU beforehand, but he went 60-97 in five years.
Now Keith Dambrot, who coached LeBron James before coaching at Akron, is trying his hand. He had a .500 season to start, then went 19-13 last year. In his third season, the Dukes are now 8-0 after annihilating Columbia 90-54.
To be clear, the Dukes have not done this against very good opposition, and they have yet to leave home. Their best win is over either Lipscomb or Indiana State, and Princeton is not as bad as their 1-6 record, but they are still 1-6. In other words, there are no resume wins, so their 8-0 mark is nice but not exactly a sign that they’re about to be a No. 1 seed in March.
But you have to walk before you can run, and the Dukes have been getting there. Their confidence must be very high from racking up the wins. Although they won’t go on the road, they will get challenge a little more in their remaining non-conference games, as Big South contender Radford, Ohio Valley contender Austin Peay, and UAB and Marshall from Conference USA won’t be easy outs.
After all of that will be the Atlantic 10 slate, and the conference has had a solid run overall thus far. There is strength at the top, and the conference is certainly better in terms of depth than a year ago. That means there will be a noticeable jump in the quality of competition come January, so we will learn a lot more about this team quickly at that point. Having more confidence is one way to attack that, and if nothing else, the Dukes look like they will have a chance to put forth another rare winning season this time around while trying to build something bigger and better. Still, while Dambrot is above .500 in his tenure, the Dukes are 17-19 in Atlantic 10 play in his two years, so conference play will be a different beast for them.
An end to the NCAA Tournament drought would be top all of it. But progress doesn’t always come in big steps, so another winning season isn’t a bad way to go en route to the ultimate goal.
Side Dishes
Iowa put forth a nice effort to pull away from Minnesota 72-52 in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes shot nearly 43 percent, including 10-21 from long range, and held the Golden Gophers below 37 percent, including a 6-25 showing from deep. They got a very balanced effort from their starters, including Jordan Bohannon, who didn’t score but had 10 assists without a turnover in just 25 minutes.
In the other two games on the night, South Dakota pulled away from Alabama State 73-59 and Alcorn State blew out NAIA member Rust 108-62.
News out of Western Kentucky is a big blow to the Hilltoppers’ potential for the season, as big man Charles Bassey will miss the rest of the season due to a tibial plateau fracture, which he suffered in Saturday night’s overtime win over Arkansas. Bassey was putting up big numbers and looked like a sure Conference USA Player of the Year candidate, and since he declared for the NBA Draft before opting to return last year, it’s fair to wonder if he has played his last game in Bowling Green. This won’t help his stock any, but he wouldn’t be the first player to become risk-averse following a serious injury.
NC State issued its response to the NCAA’s notice of allegations, and the school is questioning whether there is really evidence that former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola actually issued the $40,000 payment they say went to former assistant coach Orlando Early and ultimately to former guard Dennis Smith Jr.’s father through another intermediary. The NCAA has charged the school with two Level I violations, which also include Early providing 44 complimentary tickets to NC State ment’s basketball games to Shawn Farmer, who was Smith’s trainer, and 106 more to Smith’s family and friends. The school’s response also attacked Gassnola’s credibility. They could appear before the NCAA committee on infractions in the spring.
Finally, we pause for a moment to think about a more serious subject: life. Pete Frates, who has been connected with ALS as much as anyone, succumbed to the dreaded disease yesterday at age 34. He left us way too young, but his battle with the disease brought more attention to it and the work to get more research done. Frates was a baseball player at Boston College, a school that was also touched by this when former media relations director Dick Kelley battled the disease before succumbing as well. Currently, college basketball is also touched by this at San Diego State, where Mark Fisher, son of former head coach Steve Fisher and currently the assistant to the head coach, has battled the disease for a decade. We extend our condolences to Pete Frates’ family and friends and continue to pray that a cure for this dreaded disease is found one day.
Tonight’s Menu
The Jimmy V Classic highlights a busier night of action after the light night that Monday night was.
- In the first game at Madison Square Garden, Texas Tech takes on Louisville (7 p.m.), then Indiana looks to bounce back from their first loss of the season as they take on UConn (9 p.m.)
- A Big Ten game is on tap as Maryland visits Penn State (7 p.m.)
- A good local rivalry game is Hofstra hosting Stony Brook (7 p.m.)
- A Big 5 matchup is on tap as Saint Joseph’s visits Temple (7 p.m.)
- In another solid test for both teams, Baylor hosts Butler (9 p.m.)
- A quietly good matchup later on is Northern Iowa visiting Colorado (9 p.m.)
- An intriguing matchup at that time is BYU hosting Nevada (9 p.m.)
