Duquesne players look to serve coach Keith Dambrot some more 'gravy' with his 500th win

In a way, the ultimate compliment to Keith Dambrot as he approaches 500 college basketball coaching victories came from one of his peers in the Atlantic 10, LaSalle head coach Fran Dunphy.

“To be perfectly honest, I’m surprised he doesn’t have it already because of all the great work that he has done,” Dunphy said Tuesday. “He’s a terrific guy and a terrific basketball coach. It’s very challenging to coach against him. He has done a great job. I’m very happy for him. He’s a good man and has worked hard in our profession for a lot of years.”

Actually, perhaps Dunphy’s next comment was an even greater compliment — coming from one coach to another.

When asked what he thinks of when he envisions a typical Dambrot-coached team, Dunphy replied, “A pain in the butt to play against.”

Dambrot is sitting on 499 career wins. He can reach that 500-victory milestone with a win Wednesday night at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse against George Mason (7 p.m.).

“It’s a very special accomplishment for him,” forward Tre Williams said. “A lot of guys don’t get that done in their careers. It just shows how great of a coach he is. And how he pushes his players to be great. It’s going to be a very special moment.”

Dambrot is now in his 25th season as a head coach. Whenever his Dukes do get their next victory, he’ll become the 27th active coach to reach 500 wins. However, Dambrot will be in even more select company — which includes Dunphy — when you narrow that list a bit more.

According to Duquesne’s media relations department, Dunphy is just one of seven active coaches to total 500 wins without the benefit of coaching in one of the high-major (Power 5 and Big East) conferences. Dambrot may soon become the eighth. The others are:

• Mark Few (Gonzaga, 677)

• Greg Kampe (Oakland, 672)

• Lennie Acuff (Lipscomb, 619)

• Fran Dunphy (LaSalle, 590)

• Scott Nagy (Wright State, 555)

• Ron Cottrell (Houston Christian, 514)

• Randy Bennett (St. Mary’s-Calif., 501)

“The advantage that the high majors have is (per year) of their 13 non-league games, there are probably 10 or 11 straight Ws on (their schedules),” Dambrot said. “For us, we had a lot of pick ‘em games on our schedule this year. Like UC Santa Barbara, Indiana State, Colgate and New Mexico State. We’ve played a lot of teams that are the same as us over the years. The key is winning at home.”

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To Dambrot’s point, the Dukes played 11 pre-conference home games this season and won nine of them. In the midst of his sixth season at Duquesne, Dambrot has 86 wins against 79 losses. He went 305-139 during 13 years at Akron. Prior to leading the Zips, Dambrot won 40 games in two years at Tiffin (NAIA), 48 games in two years at Ashland (D-II) and 20 games in two years at Central Michigan.

“I’ve always had good players. I’ve always realized that this was about the players and not the coach,” Dambrot said.

One of those players is center Austin Rotroff. He has played at Duquesne since 2018-19, Dambrot’s second year on the Bluff.

“It’d be really special for me to see that,” Rotroff said of the prospect of contributing to Dambrot’s 500th win. “It’ll be a testament to how good he is as a coach and how much work he has put in in his career.”

Two reasons stand out to Dambrot as to why he has managed to stay afloat in coaching since he took over the Tiffin program in 1984. At 64 years old, Dambrot believes it’s always been important to stand by a “simplistic” mentality of embracing different styles of basketball depending on the rosters he may have from year to year.

“I’ve had every type of team imaginable,” Dambrot said. “At Ashland, I had teams that averaged 99 points a game and forced 29 turnovers and didn’t have anyone bigger than 6-foot-6. I’ve had teams at Akron where we had two seven-footers and small, little guards. And I’ve had teams here that have all been different. That’s the beauty of being a small college/high school coach. You learn how to coach a variety of different ways.”

Dambrot also credits a degree of tenacity as to why he’s lasted so long in the profession. After a 20-34 record at Central Michigan, Dambrot was relieved of duties amid a controversy surrounding inappropriate racial language (despite support from some of his players) and an ensuing wrongful termination lawsuit. From there, Dambrot went on to coach some summer league ball and eventually LeBron James at St. Vincent–St. Mary High School in Akron.

That was the springboard to getting him back into the college ranks at Akron.

“After Central Michigan, I could’ve surrendered,” Dambrot recalled. “Once I got into (coaching), I liked it. Then I was a head coach at 25. Then after Central Michigan, I thought I’d never coach again. So it just goes to show you, … it’s just funny how life works.”

At 64, Dambrot now sees milestones such as 500 coaching wins as a bonus.

“Anything I get now is gravy. Even on the bad days, it’s gravy,” Dambrot said. “I get mad at myself when I get down on or depressed because, rightfully, maybe I never would’ve coached again. So how can you get depressed? Now I get the opportunity to compete and do the things I like.”

Gravy is best when it is served hot. And Duquesne is coming off a 93-67 win over George Washington on Saturday.

One more ladle full of gravy for Dambrot to reach win No. 500 in front of the home crowd Wednesday night would be well deserved.