Keith Dambrot laughs when he recalls his journey as a coach, starting in 1981 as a 23-year-old assistant at Akron (his alma mater) before he accepted his first job as a head coach at the age of 25 at Tiffin.

And, now, with his 65th birthday looming, he is entering his seventh season at Duquesne.

“Before I was their friend,” Dambrot said of his players. “Now I’m their grandpa.”

After winning 504 of 797 games as a head coach, Dambrot has no plans to slow down in his fifth decade. Certainly not at practice where he walks among men much younger — and taller — than him, barking instructions.

“I have pretty good juice. You have to kick yourself in the behind every once in a while,” he said.

He understands college athletics have changed over the years, but he accepts that and builds his team while respecting the transfer rules and his players’ name, image and likeness deals.

Above all, he’s a survivor in the competitive business of college basketball.

“You’re not just a ball coach anymore,” he said. “You’re a financial manager, financial advisor, psychologist. It’s all different. I like the practices. I like the nuts and the bolts better than the other.”

Those “nuts and bolts” are underway with the Dukes’ first practices of the preseason. The first game is Nov. 6 against Cleveland State at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

After losing big men Austin Rotroff, R.J. Gunn and Joe Reece, the Dukes will be strong on the front line, but only when David Dixon, Halil Barre and Dusan Mahorcic recover completely from injuries.

• Dixon, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, recently returned to practice. He averaged 4.5 points and 3 rebounds while showing impressive athleticism in 27 games (six starts).

• Barre, another 6-9 sophomore, played in 12 games last season, averaging 2.4 points and rebounds.

• Mahorcic, a 6-10 graduate student, is the team’s most intriguing player after transferring from N.C. State. In 10 games for the Wolfpack before a dislocated knee ended his 2022-23 season, he averaged 8.7 points and 6.6 rebounds and was an ACC top-10 offensive rebounder with an average of 2.6. Dambrot is hopeful Mahorcic will return in December.

“Dusan would have stayed at N.C. State if he had not been hurt,” Dambrot said. “(N.C. State) wanted to win right now. They didn’t want to wait until December or take the risk of whether he can play or not.”

With a month of practices before the first game and long season ahead, Dambrot is willing to wait.

“We have plenty of time to do it,” Dambrot said, “but it slowed us a little bit, especially since we have a bunch of new guys.”

There are 10 players on the roster who were not on the team last year, including six freshmen.

One of the new faces belongs to 6-7 Russian graduate student Andrei Savrasov, who transferred from Georgia Southern after starting his career at Texas Tech. The war and the pandemic have kept Savrasov away from home for four years, but he has adapted well to the U.S. He has 851 points and 477 rebounds in 102 career games and was named to the All-Sun Belt second team last year.

“We lost Gunn, so we were looking for some shooting at that spot and a guy who could rebound the ball,” Dambrot said.

Dambrot also has high hopes for the Drame twins, 6-7 graduate students Hassan and Fousseyni, who transferred from La Salle. They are natives of Mali.

“They’re going to help us,” Dambrot said. “They are hard-playing, winning guys. Anytime you can add somebody that’s been in as many big ballgames as them and how hard they play, I think that really helps you.”

A unique aspect of the team, at least for Dambrot, is a roster with eight players who are natives of foreign nations.

“That’s more international kids than I’ve had in my whole career combined,” he said. “I like it because you learn a lot from other cultures, other people. It’s good education for our guys.”

The Dukes appear to have strong leadership among guards Dae Dae Grant, Jimmy Clark III and Kareem Rozier and forward Tre Williams. Grant (15.5 points) and Clark (12.2) were the team’s leading scorers last season, and Williams averaged 4.5 rebounds and added 31 blocks. Clark, Grant and Rozier were three of the team’s four assist leaders with 83, 81 and 68, respectively. Rozier achieved his total without starting, but he appeared in 32 of 33 games.

After his second 20-victory season (20-13) in six seasons, Dambrot recognizes the difficulty of moving to the next level.

“It’s hard,” he said. “Being competitive is one thing, but then taking the next jump is hard and staying there is hard. Every little thing is difficult.”

But he’s encouraged by the roster depth.

“I think we have enough depth to withstand some things,” he said. “The year we weren’t any good (6-24 in 2021-22), we didn’t have enough depth to withstand the injuries. Last year, we had some injuries and we withstood them. Most of the good teams can play when they’re injured.”

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