Shahtaht Duquesne University for Making it to the Dance!
Photo by Daniel O’Neil.
47 years is a long ass time. I am a 28-year-old-man, and 47 years ago my mother wasn’t even alive yet. Yeah, she had me young, but still. You get the point. A lot has happened in the last 47 years. Floyd Mayweather was born 47 years ago. Terry Bradshaw was still the Steelers’ QB 47 years ago. Mike Tomlin was five years old 47 years ago. That was the last time Duquesne University got invited to the NCAA Tournament. Until now!
On Sunday night, the Dukes beat VCU 57-51 in the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship. Not only that, but they will appear in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1977.
Duquesne came into the year with high expectations, before unexpectedly dropping their first five conference games. They quickly cleaned it up, and won 10 of their next 13 conference games, and secured victory in their last four games to take hold of the sixth seed heading into the conference tournament. They went on to win four games in five days to win the Atlantic 10 Championship. They’ll enter the NCAA Tournament on an eight-game win-streak as the No. 11 seed, and they’ll take on the No. 6 seed BYU on Thursday in round one in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Dukes haven’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 1969, so they’ll go into this game fired up and seeking more history. And, as if they didn’t already have a ton to play for, Duquesne’s head coach, Keith Dambrot, has already announced his retirement after their run in the tournament. Dambrot, whose wife is currently battling breast cancer, is ready to call it a career, but is hoping to add to the Dambrot lore that lives on the Duquesne campus on his way out. Keith Dambrot is known, mostly, for his time as the coach of the St. Vincent - St. Mary High School basketball team when they had some popular kid named LeBron James playing for them. He went on to coach at his alma mater, University of Akron, for 13 years before taking over as the head coach of the Dukes in 2017. Hopefully, he’s able to make some more magic happen on Thursday. Congratulations to Coach Dambrot on an AWESOME career.
In a year when the Pitt Panthers are on the outside looking in, it’s a fun time to be a Duke! Congratulations to all my Duquesne University people, and I’ll be rooting alongside you on Thursday!
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