Duquesne’s Dambrot retiring after NCAA tourney

Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff WriterMar 18, 2024, 12:47 PM ET

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• Basketball recruiting insider.
• Signed up with ESPN in 2014.
• Graduate of University of Delaware.Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot, who just led his team to the NCAA competition, revealed Monday that he prepares to retire at the end of the season.Dambrot, who was likewise LeBron James ‘high school coach, assisted the Dukes to four wins in 5 days at the Atlantic 10 tournament last week, making Duquesne its very first NCAA competition appearance because 1977. The Dukes made an 11-seed and will deal with BYU on Thursday.”I didn’t want to cheat [the task], “Dambrot said, with the Atlantic 10 trophy the Dukes won Sunday standing nearby. “And I just seemed like I might see myself losing that edge at some time. Which’s why I stated, ‘I don’t want to end like that.’I’m not developed that method.”This month will mark completion of a 40-year coaching career, with 22 of those coming as a Department I head coach.Dambrot, 65, has actually invested the previous seven seasons at Duquesne, leading the group to three 20-win seasons. He had formerly been the coach at Akron, where he assisted the

  Zips to five regular-season department titles and 3 NCAA tournament appearances, leaving as the winningest coach in program history.He was also the Central Michigan coach for two seasons in the early 1990s. As a Department I head coach, he is 440-268 general– with at least one game left to go.”My personality type is not good to

  coach into the 70s,”Dambrot stated.”I’m too associated with it.

  I’m still fretted about where the guys are on time for the bus, you

  understand? It’s just, it’s tough to explain, right? Maybe. Maybe a little unstable. “Dambrot is likewise understood for his 2 years as James’ high school coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. The two have stayed close since then, with Duquesne ending up being the first school to provide James ‘boy Bryce a college scholarship in 2022. Among LeBron James ‘high school teammates, Dru Joyce III, went on to play for Dambrot at Akron and is now an assistant coach under him at Duquesne.On Sunday, James published a message on X(formerly Twitter)congratulating Dambrot, Joyce and Duquesne on reaching the NCAA tournament.YESSIRRR!! Punch that to the Huge Dance @DuqMBB!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Love you Coach Dambrot & @CoachDruJoyce– LeBron James (@KingJames) March 17, 2024 Dambrot has actually consistently minimized his role in James’development. Possibly, but his direct, no-nonsense technique discovered a way to cut through the noise and regularly turn a lineup filled with players of varying abilities into a team.He led

  Akron to 3 Mid-American Conference titles between 2004 and 2017

  before joining the program his daddy, Sid, assisted turn into a nationwide power in the early 1950s. The Dukes had approached Dambrot before, only for him to state no. Duquesne athletic director Dave Harper took a various method in 2017, worrying to Dambrot that the school was finally all set to make the monetary commitment required for Duquesne to compete in one of the much better mid-major conferences in the country.Harper wasn’t kidding. The gleaming UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse opened in February 2021, although the momentum Dambrot felt he was constructing slowed during an unpleasant 6-24 season in 2021-22 that left him wondering whether it was time to move on.Instead, he remained. The Dukes got better to go 20-13 last season. Their triumph over VCU on Sunday– a game in which Duquesne won despite a stretch in the 2nd half in which it missed 17 of 18 shots– increased the Dukes ‘win overall this season to 24, their highest considering that Sid Dambrot was tearing down set shots from the outdoors in 1954. Sid Dambrot died in October 2021 at age 90 and was buried in

  his Duquesne sweatshirt. Over the weekend, Sid Dambrot’s child did just as he had actually pledged when he took over a team that had actually had brilliant and progressive splendor days in the 1940s-50s however had actually then seen those get lost amidst years of losing and anonymity.” Folks, these are the brand-new splendor days of Duquesne, “president Ken Gormley said.Sometime over the next few weeks, Keith Dambrot will head into retirement, confident he is leaving the Dukes in far much better shape than he discovered them, potentially with Joyce taking control of. “It’s a good feeling, “Dambrot stated. “It’s a great location. It’s got good resources. And we simply have to keep believing that it can get back to what it utilized to

  be.”Info from The Associated Press was used in this report.