ALTOONA, Pa. -- Few college basketball programs in the country hit the transfer portal harder than Duquesne, which will have a very different looking roster when it opens the season Tuesday night at home against Rider.
Tipoff is 7 p.m., and it will be the first time fans will be allowed to watch Duquesne inside the sparkling new UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. The 3,500-seat venue opened on Feb. 2, and the team played two games there last season, but fans were not allowed to attend because of COVID.
The game can be streamed live on ESPN+, with Tim Benz and Ellis Cannon on the call. It will air on 104.7 FM, with Ray Goss and Jarrett Durham on the call.
The Dukes added five transfers who have combined to score 4,695 points during their college careers. That is sixth-highest point total in the country for transfers joining a new program. Minnesota, by the way, is tops on that list after bringing in a whopping 11 transfers who have scored 6,681 points.
Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot had to hit the portal hard after losing 10 of the top 12 scorers from last season, with those players combining for 85 percent of the team's points.
Here's a look at the five newcomers, their career scoring totals and where they came from:
- Jr. G Leon Ayers III -- 1,550 points, at Henry Ford JUCO and Mercer
- Sr. F Rodney Gunn Jr. -- 1,183 points at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne
- Sr. F Davis Larson -- 991 points at Division II Hillsdale
- So. F Kevin Easley Jr. -- 528 points at Chattanooga and TCU
- So. F Tre Williams -- 443 points at Indiana State
Larson is an interesting story because he initially came to Duquesne to be a graduate assistant coach but instead will be a member of the team.
Dambrot is in his fifth season at Duquesne and has gone 65-47, including 9-9 overall last season and 7-7 in the Atlantic 10. He has the second-most career wins (478) of any coach in the A-10. Davidson's Bob McKillop is first with 607.
The Dukes were picked to finish 11th in the 14-team league this year in the preseason poll. Here's the order of finish from that poll:
1. St. Bonaventure (all 28 first-place votes)
2. Richmond
3. Saint Louis
4. VCU
5. Dayton
6. Davidson
7. Rhode Island
8. George Mason
9. UMass
10. St. Joseph's
11. Duquesne
12. La Salle
13. George Washington
14. Fordham
GIGER'S TAKE ON DUKES
Dambrot is a good coach who has done well at Duquesne, but this season will be a very interesting challenge having to replace just about all of the scoring. All programs are having to count on transfers to some degree, although most aren't to the extent that Duquesne will be doing this season.
The key for all college coaches who hit the portal heavily will be meshing all of the transfers together into a cohesive unit. That can take time, so the non-conference portion of the season will be a learning experience for everyone. When you're adding nearly 5,000 points of scoring, it means you're bringing in guys who are used to doing things a certain way, and now you've got to convince everyone to do things your way.
That sort of thing can be easy to do if you're winning, because everyone gets on board with the common goal. But if you start losing games, the danger with having a bunch of new players is that not everyone always gets on the same page. That type of thing could be an issue across all of college basketball in the transfer portal era, so it just won't be a Duquesne thing. Then again, as pointed out above, most programs aren't relying so heavily on transfers to do so much of the heavy lifting.
The Atlantic 10 is always challenging, and Duquesne getting picked 11th is probably about right given all the uncertainty with how the team will come together. If all these new players pan out and meet or exceed expectations collectively, the Dukes could be a surprising team in the league. If the team struggles early and doesn't put it all together come conference time, it could be a tough year.
