We mix in a little college basketball for the podcast Tuesday as we talk to Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot.
The Dukes are living a bit of a nomadic life this year, bouncing around to various venues as the new UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse is renovated. The non-conference schedule was released last week. And Dambrot’s team will play games at La Roche University and PPG Paints Arena and at sites in Cleveland, Akron, Florida, and the Bahamas.
So it’ll be quite the whirlwind for the club as it prepares for the Atlantic-10 schedule. The first game of the season is Tuesday, Nov. 5 against Princeton at PPG Paints Arena at 6 p.m., preceding a women’s game against Kent State.
The Dukes will face seven teams that posted at least 20 wins last year: Lamar, Lipscomb, Loyola Marymount, UAB, Austin Peay, Radford, and Marshall.
Duquesne is returning over 75 percent of its scoring from a team that led the Atlantic 10 with a 73.5 points-per-game average. Seven of DU’s top-eight point producers from last season are back. All but two of DU’s 1,295 points in conference play last season (99.8%) were scored by freshmen and sophomores.
One significant loss is Eric Williams. He transferred to Oregon. His departure could be offset by the impact of a freshman, Kennedy Catholic star guard Maceo Austin. Austin is one of six new faces who will attempt to get Duquesne back above the 20-win plateau itself, after going 19-13 a season ago.
Dambrot gets into all those topics, the offseason travel for the club, plus health updates on Sincere Carry, Austin Rotroff, and Amari Kelly.
