Only 16 victories from 500, Keith Dambrot is approaching his 25th season in coaching and his sixth at Duquesne after signing a seven-year contract in 2017.
Which raises the question: Does he want to sign an extension before the end of the 2023-24 season? No Duquesne coach has held the job for more than seven years since Red Manning served 16 from 1958-59 through 1973-74.
“I’m going to play it day-by-day,” Dambrot said. “If I still like it and I still think I’m doing a good job and they’ll still have me, then I’ll keep coaching. If I don’t like it and I’m not doing a good job, I guess they’ll decide that for me.”
Dambrot, who is two weeks shy of his 64th birthday, took the Duquesne job in 2017, leaving a successful program at Akron where he won 305 games in 13 seasons. He has said many times that he came to Duquesne to help resurrect basketball at the school where his father, Sid, played in the 1950s.
Dambrot compiled a 65-47 record in his first four seasons before hitting hard times in 2021-22, finishing last in the Atlantic 10 (6-24, 1-16). The Dukes’ 21-9 record in 2019-20 was the first 20-victory season at Duquesne in 11 years.
“All I do is I put my nose down every day and I still work hard. I still like the job,” he said.
He added, “I’m not a guy who has to work until I’m 75.”
Dambrot said there have been no recent extension talks with athletic director Dave Harper. “It’s almost ignorant after a 6-24 year to talk about an extension,” he said. “If I earn my keep, I’ll get an extension and if I don’t, I won’t.”
Working with the players and the competition keep the job interesting, he said.
“I feel like I still have a lot to offer, just to make them better people, better students, better players. I like that part of it. I try to treat them like my own children so I have high expectations for them just like I do for my own children.”
