This run from Duquesne basketball is set to be Keith Dambrot's final one in his 26 seasons as a head coach.
Dambrot announced Monday afternoon he will retire following the Dukes' play in the NCAA Tournament. Duquesne won the Atlantic 10 Tournament and secured its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1977 by beating VCU, 57-51, in the A10 Tournament championship game at the Barclays Center in New York Sunday.
"Last summer I was about 80 percent sure I was going to retire after this year," Dambrot said. "I just felt like it was time. I was going to be 66 next year. I love it, but I felt like I made a lot of sacrifices to get to this point and our family made a lot of sacrifices. I thought the environment had changed, with all the rule changes and things like that. And then I also knew my personality -- my mom was a psychologist, so she kind of made me pretty self-aware as to what kind of person I am and how I operate. I was a Division II, NAIA, high-school coach, so I did a lot of things on my own, so I'm not a great delegator which, by the way, I got much better at this year because I had to. But, I'm a little too high-strung to go too long or I'm going to affect my health.
"So I was about 80 percent sure I was going to retire at the end of the summer. This year, I had decided in the summer. But then when my wife got sick, I think that was the crowning blow for me. So I decided before the season that this was going to be it for me. And so, at this point, this is it for me."
Here is the full video of Monday's press conference, courtesy of Duquesne athletics:
Dambrot guided Duquesne to three seasons of 20 or more wins in his seven as the Dukes' head coach. His tenure began with three seasons that improved upon each other. The Dukes went 21-9 in the 2019-'20 season and were the No. 6-seed in the A10 Tournament, but the second-round games and the rest of the A10 Tournament were canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Duquesne went 9-9 in an abbreviated 2020-'21 season and saw nine departures that offseason, which led to a 6-24 mark in the 2021-'22 season. Dambrot rapidly rebuilt the roster, and no addition was larger than Miami (Ohio) guard Dae Dae Grant via the transfer portal. Led primarily by Grant and Jimmy Clark III, Duquesne improved a 20-13 mark in the 2022-'23 season and set the stage for a once-unprecedented run this season.
The Dukes began A10 play 0-5 but turned their season around by finishing 10-3 within the conference. They went on a four-game winning streak into the A10 Tournament and defeated Saint Louis, Dayton, St. Bonaventure, and VCU to earn their first NCAA Tournament bid in 47 years.
"He accomplished the shining goal that he set out to accomplish when he left that secure job (at Akron) and came to Duquesne," university president Ken Gormley said. "It was just so emotional for me because I saw that key dream was actually happening."
Dambrot is 115-95 in his seven seasons as the Dukes head coach. Overall, between his two years at Central Michigan, 13 seasons at Akron, and his time at Duquesne, Dambrot is 440-268. He guided Akron to three NCAA Tournament appearances and six Mid-American Conference regular-season championships. His 115 wins rank fourth on the Dukes' all-time list.
As for who could replace Dambrot as the Dukes' head coach following this season, he offered a tease of assistant Dru Joyce III as the heir apparent.
"We've been grooming coach Dru to take over," Dambrot said. "I hope he gets the job ... I'm biased. I wouldn't be here without him."
Duquesne will travel to Omaha, Neb., as a No. 11 seed in the East Region of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Their first game will be against No. 6-seed BYU Thursday at 12:40 p.m. at the CHI Health Center. A win would result in a matchup against either No. 3-seed Illinois or No. 14-seed Morehead State Saturday in Omaha.
