Former Shenango star coming home
Steve McNees finally has arrived on the Duquesne University basketball scene, just about a decade later than originally planned.
“It’s definitely ironic that I’m here now,” he said.
Indeed. McNees sat in an office at Duquesne’s Palumbo Center recently, talking about the excitement that surges through him as part of new coach Keith Dambrot’s staff. McNees is an assistant coach/director of basketball operations at Duquesne, the same title he held under Dambrot at the University of Akron the past three years. McNees also played for Dambrot at Akron.
McNees, 29, is a former WPIAL star player at Shenango High School in New Castle, a terrific point guard who always wore his hair on the wild side, wore a headband when he played and wore out defenses. He is the 20th-leading scorer in WPIAL history (2,192 points). Look at the Post-Gazette Fabulous 5 photo of 2006 and there is McNees, standing next to DeJuan Blair, D.J. Kennedy, Herb Pope and Lance Jeter.
Now McNees has come back to Western Pennsylvania, to Duquesne, to coach and hopefully revitalize a program, something he once wanted to do as a player. Back in the fall of 2005, McNees signed with Duquesne in the NCAA early signing period. But when coach Danny Nee was fired after the 2005-06 season, McNees decided to look elsewhere. He was released from his letter of intent and signed with Dambrot and Akron, which had recruited him all along. McNees enjoyed a nice career for the Zips, becoming the starting point guard on an Akron team that made the NCAA tournament.
Dambrot enjoyed plenty of success at Akron, and when he got the Duquesne job, he brought his entire staff with him. C’mon home, Steve McNees.
“I tried to leave a lot of my personal feelings out of the discussions when we were deciding as a staff whether to come to Duquesne,” said McNees. “But my family isn’t far away from Pittsburgh, my sister just had a baby, I have friends who work Downtown.
“About 10 years ago, I wanted to help make this place a winner. Now I’m back at it and, needless to say, I’m very excited to be back.”
Coaching is what McNees has wanted to do as long as he can remember. He played for his father, Bill McNees, at Shenango, and son acknowledges he wanted to someday be just like dad.
“I wanted to be a physical education teacher and coach high school basketball,” said Steve McNees.
But after a year or so at Akron, young McNees realized he loved the college basketball scene and wanted to become a college coach — but only after he tried professional basketball overseas. That didn’t last long, though. McNees signed with a team in Austria and left for pro ball in August 2011. He was back home a month later.
“I realized that life wasn’t for me,” said McNees. “It was not easy to put my hoop shoes down, but I was not putting the ball down. I knew I wanted to coach.”
McNees went back to Akron and Dambrot took him as a volunteer assistant for a season. McNees did any task for the Zips, large or small. He then was a graduate assistant for a year, followed by another year as a volunteer assistant. Then he became an assistant coach/ director of basketball operations.
The DOBO is different from college to college, but McNees is involved in everything from watching player academics to making travel schedules and running camps. And there is coaching also.
“The nice thing with coach Dambrot is, because I played for him, he lets me have a very strong voice in basketball things, too,” said McNees.
McNees’ ultimate goal is to someday be like Dambrot — a college head coach
“I’ve had the luxury of being able to be choosy,” said McNees. “We had a lot of stability at Akron and we won. A lot of people start bouncing around early, trying to climb the ladder. I’ve been patient and I’ll continue to be patient. I think you have to be careful, but ultimately, I want to be a head coach.”