Keith Dambrot pushes, prods Duquesne toward 'big prizes'

Keith Dambrot senses something special percolating on the fourth floor of the Power Center on Duquesne’s campus.

Every day at practice, he pushes his Duquesne team as hard as he can — even beyond, he hopes, the limit of its potential.

Because that is what it might take as the regular season ends and the postseason begins in the Atlantic 10.

“We don’t want little prizes,” he said. “We want big prizes.”

And if he hurts some feelings with his pushing and prodding along the way, so be it.

“If they’re mad at me, they’re mad at me,” he said.

Dambrot has led the Dukes to the their sixth-best season in 70 years, their 21-8 record tied with the 1953 Dukes, who included in their lineup his father, Sid.

Maybe it is a bit personal, too.

While concluding preparations for the final regular-season game against Richmond on Friday at PPG Paints Arena, Dambrot disputed a reporter’s suggestion he was hard on his players earlier this week.

“I don’t really think I was rough on them,” he said. “I was a lamb compared to how I used to be.”

Indeed, LeBron James, who played for Dambrot at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron two decades ago, once called him “ruthless.”

“I figured at the time he just hated me,” James is quoted in Duquesne’s weekly game notes. He added this disclaimer: “I’m lucky he was doing it.”

I SWEAR I FREAKING LOVE THIS GUY SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! RAW and REAL https://t.co/vZnT3htoQV

— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 3, 2020

The Dukes roster comprises six regulars who have played multiple seasons under Dambrot. He knows them. They know him. They know how to talk to each other.

“You have to have relationships in order to tell them the truth,” Dambrot said. “Even if you do nowadays, they don’t like it. We’re all on the same ship. My job is to make sure they get what they deserve out of this, not to make sure I tell them how great they are.”

Junior center Michael Hughes, who is ninth in nation with 2.8 blocks per game, has known Dambrot since he was 18. He is 22.

When his coach yells, Hughes knows not to take it personally.

“Somebody’s got to be tough,” said Hughes, who played for Dambrot’s 27-9 team at Akron in 2016-17. “We’re down to the last couple games. It’s all out of passion, coming from him. I know he means good by whatever he does. If he’s going to get on me, he’s going to get on me. It’s just another day at the office.”

Hughes (6-foot-8, 240 pounds) was not highly recruited coming from Kansas City, Mo.

“Everyone doubted me,” said Hughes, who once weighed 285. “There was one person who believed in me, and that was coach Dambrot. I saw passion. I saw family.”

After transferring to Duquesne, Hughes went to work. He had two surgeries to repair fractures in both shins and lost 40 pounds, dropping his body fat from 24 to 10%.

“People were hesitant,” he said, “but obviously coach Dambrot knows what he sees.”

Hughes’ loyalty for Dambrot is surpassed only by assistants Terry Weigand, Rick McFadden and Charles Thomas, who played for him at Tiffin, Akron and Eastern Michigan and followed him to Duquesne.

“Not only are they coaching staff members, they’re my best friends,” Dambrot said. “They can tell me my breath stinks. They can tell me if I’m messing something up, and I really don’t take it personally because we’re family.

“Charles used to live with me. I had Terry (as a player) when I was 25. I’ve known a lot of these guys longer than I’ve known my wife.”

When Dambrot worked his players hard at practice Monday, it was nothing James hadn’t seen. That’s why he used 12 exclamation points in a tweet to his 45 million followers that included a video of Dambrot telling reporters, “Now, I’m going to be unfriendly.”

Yet, the team responded the next night with the overtime victory at VCU. Since losing three in a row in late January, Duquesne has won six of nine.

“Anytime you get hit in the mouth, you can react two different ways,” he said. “You can put the white flag up and continue to get hit in the mouth or you can get up off the mat and fight and swing and duck and take body blows.

“Our team has shown when our backs are against the wall, we’re pretty good.”

With a long way to go.

“Everyone can be better,” he said, “even the 61-year-old coach.”