Duquesne men's basketball head coach Keith Dambrot has confirmed to DK Pittsburgh Sports that the Dukes will compete in a four team season tipoff tournament in Indianapolis.
Jon Rothstein was the first with the report:
Sources: Duquesne will join Cincinnati and Loyola-Chicago in an early-season MTE in Indianapolis. Event is still searching for a fourth team.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) November 6, 2020
Dambrot says Duquesne will play its first two games of the season in Indy, before heading to Louisville to compete in the Wade Houston Tipoff Classic. The multi team event (MTE) in Indy as of now consists of the Dukes, Cincinnati and Loyola-Chicago. Colorado State was originally planned to be the fourth team in the event but backed out for reasons unknown.
Duquesne will play two games in Indianapolis, with the first being on Nov. 25, the opening night of college basketball season. At this time, Duquesne knows only one of its two opponents in Indy, which is Cincinnati. There is no word on if the Bearcats will be Duquesne's opening day opponent.
"This really just fit in with what we wanted to do," Dambrot was telling me. "We looked at other alternatives and the dates didn't work so we felt like playing Cincinnati and Loyola was a good start for us."
Following the long wait to find out who their conference opponents will be, the Dukes now have a pretty clear look at what their early schedule looks like. While this might be exciting for fans, Dambrot says his team has maintained the same level of high focus since its had since returning to campus.
"We're just trying to be the best we can," Dambrot said. "Every single day we are looking to improve. We just want to be ready for the opener."
Both teams connected to the Indianapolis MTE start the season ranked higher than Duquesne. The preseason KenPom rankings, which were released earlier this week, have Loyola-Chicago at 47 and Cincinnati at 59. The Dukes open the year ranked 83, good for sixth best in the Atlantic 10.
The road will get a bit easier for Duquesne once it arrives in the Louisville. Each of the three opponents the Dukes will face at the KFC! Yum Center - UNC Greensboro (93), Winthrop (115), and Little Rock (132) - are found beneath them in the rankings.
