Tim Benz: Additions, key retentions have Keith Dambrot optimistic at Duquesne

After a few years of experience, Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot now has a feel for what roster-building is like with college basketball in the NIL/transfer portal era.

“The roster situation is never going to be the same like it used to be 10 years ago. You just have to keep making adjustments and be flexible,” Dambrot said during Tuesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast. “It affects you in a variety of ways. Roster retention, roster turnover. How you coach changes because of that as well. For years at Akron, we had a very old team that we had for three or four years, and now that isn’t the case. Now you just have to coach it more like a G-League team or a junior college team.”

When the Dukes unveiled their roster for 2023-24 last week, much like last year, 10 new names appeared on it. But at least Dambrot can take comfort in two specific areas.

The first is that an established core is back from a team that improved from 6-24 in 2021-22 to 20-13 last year. Three players who started at least 30 games are returning. They are senior forward Tre Williams and the club’s top two scorers in Dae Dae Grant and Jimmy Clark. Four sophomores — Kareem Rozier, Halil Barre, David Dixon and Matúš Hronský — are back as well.

Second, Dambrot recruited a group of big men with loads of experience to replace a wave of departures from the frontcourt. Joe Reece, R.J. Gunn and Austin Rotroff all ended their college careers last spring. So Dambrot signed North Carolina State grad transfer Dusan Mahorcic, former La Salle twin brothers Hassan and Fousseyni Drame, and Georgia Southern grad transfer Andrei Savrasov.

Dambrot seems optimistic about the blend heading into his seventh season on the Bluff.

“Those younger guys take big jumps as they get a little bit older,” Dambrot said. “Then we mix them with some older guys. We have a very old team as well. So we feel like we have a pretty experienced team. It’s just a little inexperienced when it comes to us.”

Two freshmen that could develop quickly within the program are Jakub Necas, a recent signee from the Czech Republic, and Hargrave (Va.) Military Academy product Kailon Nicholls. Dambrot calls Nicholls, a 6-foot, 160-pound guard, “the best-conditioned athlete” the coaching staff has had at Duquesne.

Between the new freshmen and the transfers, Dambrot says the revamped roster should result in better scoring inside and rebounding, plus a more consistent brand of defense.

“We’ve made some improvements,” Dambrot said of this year’s roster. “We’re big and strong. We have a lot of depth in the frontcourt. We feel like we’re pretty experienced in the backcourt. And then we have good versatility. So I feel like — if we could put it all together and we can stay healthy — we can be a pretty formidable team.”

Also, in the podcast, Dambrot discusses some of the challenges with the schedule, health updates on Barre and Hronský, and the path for an expanded role at the point for Rozier.