Dave Mackall stories

Back in Pittsburgh again, John Hugley IV was having a ball Friday night at Duquesne’s UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. “Big John” was putting on a show. “We want to excite the crowd and feed off their energy. It rolls both ways,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III said after the Dukes beat...

The sequel to an unbelievable men’s basketball season at Robert Morris finally got underway Tuesday night for the Colonials with a tough Midwest assignment. As expected, the new-look Colonials, a year removed from their first Horizon League championship, failed Iowa’s challenging test, falling behind quickly and losing 101-69 at Carver-Hawkeye...

As college basketball mismatches go, this one was typical: A heavily favored team bullies its outmanned visitors and the home faithful leave giddy. But unlike a year ago, when the Duquesne Dukes opened with a new lineup and failed to live up to their reasonably high expectations, this revamped group...

Dru Joyce III is well aware of the struggles Duquesne faced in his first season as a Division I head basketball coach after the Dukes’ miraculous run to a long-awaited return to the NCAA Tournament a year earlier. For example, that ugly 0-6 start stands out. A new team dominated...

Can he do it again? Will ultra-persistent coach Andy Toole succeed in inducing another fresh roster of basketball players to bond at Robert Morris and make a run at back-to-back Horizon League championships? “We’ll see how it all plays out,” Toole said last week while putting the finishing touches on...

John Gaillot searched for the words. In the moment Friday night, all the Freeport football coach could think of was the sweet playoff victory his team just finished off at home against Beaver. Never mind that the eighth-seeded Yellowjackets earned a date with unbeaten and top-seeded Avonworth in the WPIAL...

Even without one of the Atlantic 10’s biggest big men for much of Saturday’s exhibition men’s basketball game, Duquesne impressed. Tarence Guinyard and Jimmie Williams, a pair of first-year Dukes, scored 21 points apiece and Duquesne survived the loss of John Hugley IV to a first-half ejection to come away...

Even without its biggest big man for much of Saturday’s exhibition men’s basketball game, Duquesne impressed. Tarence Guinyard and Jimmie Williams, a pair of first-year Dukes, scored 21 points apiece and the Dukes survived the loss of John Hugley IV to a first-half ejection to come away with an 83-81...

Lou Berry was in demand, but what he really wanted at the time was his phone. “I need to find it,” the University Prep football coach said in a frantic moment during the midst of a chaotic celebration at Cupples Stadium on Saturday, where the Wildcats dethroned three-time City League...

For John Ruane, all that remained was taking care of his seniors on Penn-Trafford’s senior night. Make no mistake, the Warriors’ longtime football coach adores every one of them. “It’s a big goal, obviously, to get them into the lineup. We have some great kids,” Ruane said. “And they’re absolutely...

Transfer portal? What transfer portal? Since the advent seven years ago of the application, database and compliance tool that regulates player movement from one school to the next, seemingly everyone is on the move in the revised NCAA. Not David Dixon. Although five of the Duquesne senior forward’s teammates landed...

Bill Ament stood facing his players on the sideline and flashed a wide grin. “We’re practicing tomorrow, you know?” the Shaler girls soccer coach said firmly. With that, he offered a nod and a wink while hoping for a favorable response. Indeed, his Titans players made no effort to hide...

As he watched his football team stumble, fumble and bumble its way through most of the first quarter Friday night, Penn-Trafford coach John Ruane perhaps was figuring on a tougher test from visiting Armstrong. Turns out Ruane’s fretting was a bit premature. “We thought we had a slow start tonight,...

It went quiet for a time at Greensburg’s Offutt Field on Friday night when Derry lineman Aiden Piper lay still on the turf. “From what I know, he’s stable and moving his legs,” senior Trojans lineman Dylan Pitzer said after Derry raced past Greensburg Salem, 43-28, to end a three-game...

It seems like only yesterday that Jeff Capel sat alongside ultimate Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski as Duke’s associate head coach. Where did the time go? Already, as Capel enters his eighth season in Oakland, his tenure at Pitt is the second longest among current ACC men’s basketball coaches...

After a boisterous celebration by players and fans, the Kiski Area football team gathered for a final word. Indeed, with the dust still settling Friday night from a 34-13 Class 5A Big East Conference victory over visiting Latrobe, first-year Cavaliers coach Colyn Haugh joined the huddle and was brief. “It’s...

What will they do for an encore? Following a year in which both Robert Morris basketball programs finally captured the attention of Horizon League fanatics, the Colonials are tasked with — shall we say? — keeping the ball bouncing. “Every group is different,” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said Wednesday...

They play hoops in college basketball’s mainstream. You know them. They’re the big boys. We’re talking mainly of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC. Certainly in Pittsburgh, it’s no secret Duquesne plays second fiddle. The Dukes routinely operate in obscurity in the lightly regarded Atlantic 10....

The Duquesne basketball teams will kick off their 2025-26 seasons looking to earn a measure of respect after both were swept aside Tuesday in voting for the top teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference. So, too, were their players ignored. Flanked on Tuesday by sophomore guard Mackenzie Blackford at the...

A pair of WPIAL Class 3A football teams continued to streak in opposite directions Friday night as Freeport stayed unbeaten, and Valley remained without a victory. The Yellowjackets settled matters early, scoring all their points in the first quarter of a 42-7 victory to ensure a running clock in the...

A pair of high school seniors appear headed to Duquesne next season to play men’s basketball for the Dukes. Separate Instagram posts indicate that 6-foot-4 guard Jackson Williams, from Geneva (Ohio) Spire Academy, and 6-11 Greek-born center Dimitrios Ntapsis, from Ontario (Calif.) Veritas Academy, have become Duquesne coach Dru Joyce...

Gateway coach Don Holl doesn’t quite understand how his Gators football team is doing it, but he’s not about to question the process of back-to-back wins without the team’s star quarterback. With freshman Mayson Mitchell filling in for injured starter Elvis Koutsakis Jr., Gateway continued to rally Friday night from...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s disdain for Pitt was evident at virtually every corner before, during and after Saturday’s Backyard Brawl, where an overflow crowd of mainly WVU fans crammed into Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium to witness a classic comeback victory by the Mountaineers. Think Pitt’s home at...

It has become a fierce football rivalry when Latrobe and Franklin Regional meet. The latest encounter Friday night — a 13-7 Latrobe victory in the Class 5A Big East Conference opener — followed the script. “Every year since I’ve been the coach at Latrobe, it’s been the same kind of...

From the start, Hempfield took control. Kiski Area had no chance. Indeed, the Spartans rolled to a 43-10 victory Friday night at home. Deron Hunter returned the opening kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, Dominic Detruf threw four touchdown passes — two to Jack Kopas — and Class 6A No....