Dru Joyce's phone conversations with the coach he replaced at Duquesne aren't just about basketball

He said he places the call “a few times a week,” but first-year Duquesne basketball coach Dru Joyce III makes sure conversations with Keith Dambrot center on more than basketball.

“I can drill him with questions, but I really just want to know how he’s doing,” Joyce said of the man he played for, coached with and ultimately replaced at Duquesne. “I’m not the only one who’s going through a transition. He is as well. It would be very one-sided of me to only talk about what I’m going through. Our conversations are more about how we’re both doing.”

Joyce played for Dambrot at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron and later at the University of Akron. But he’s known him since before he was 12.

“The greatest thing that we have is our relationship has long been bigger than basketball,” Joyce said. “For me, it’s about how he’s doing, what’s he up to and how is Donna doing (Dambrot’s wife, a cancer patient). She’s doing better. We still got more fighting to do.”

Joyce met Dambrot nearly 30 years ago, when the now-retired coach ran a Sunday night basketball camp in Akron. Participants paid $1. Joyce and his buddy, NBA mega-star LeBron James, attended.

“I would drag (James) along, get him to go sometimes, early on,” Joyce said.

Joyce refuses to credit his coaxing for putting James on his billion-dollar (according to Forbes) career path. Yet he admits with a chuckle, “I like to connect the dots sometimes.”

What most impressed Joyce about Dambrot in those early days was how he approached kids in that camp.

“You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference if he was coaching his college basketball team or coaching sixth- and seventh-graders,” Joyce said. “He brought that type of energy and intensity to the environment.”

Joyce said he’s not trying to “live up to what (Dambrot) did” during a coaching career that began in 1984.

“I just feel thankful that I had a chance to not only play for him but work with him (at Duquesne),” he said. “Just learn a lot, experience a lot through the lens of a point guard playing for him, but also as an assistant coach.

“I’ve been involved in the game of basketball for a very long time, and it’s all been a learning process. I’ve been a student of the game, and I’ll continue to be a student of the game.

“I talked before about being able to live out a dream (as a head coach in college basketball). Not everyone is fortunate to do so. I’m blessed to be in this situation. I just want to make sure that I pour into every moment, every chance that I get. I don’t take anything for granted.”

Joyce said the most important task for him is to know his players.

“In order to coach them to the best of my ability, I have to know exactly who that person is,” he said. “And, once I figure that out and once I grow accustomed to who they are, I’ll know how to interact with them and give them what they need.”