Dukes are already family to new coach

Dambrot will undertake the process of rebuilding a team that went 60-97 the past five seasons and hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament in 40 years. The Dukes finished 10-22 this past season and lost in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament.

He knows Duquesne’s history well, calling the names of former coaches and players to memory effortlessly.

And he knows the track record of the past eight Duquesne coaches, all of whom were let go.

“I’m here to tell you I don’t plan to get fired,” Dambrot said.

It’s not arrogance, Dambrot said. It’s a confidence in himself and his players to get the job done, something his dad instilled him.

If Duquesne had any bright spots this past season, it was freshmen Isiaha Mike and Mike Lewis II, who both announced via Twitter that they were pondering a transfer during the two-week coaching search that began March 13 when Jim Ferry was fired. Dambrot is working to recruit new players and also hopes to retain the ones who are considering leaving, he said.

Lewis, who led the team in scoring with 14.1 points per game, attended the news conference and said Dambrot wants him to step up as a leader on the team if he stays.

Lewis likes Dambrot’s personality, he said, and the fact that Dambrot coached LeBron James at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron doesn’t hurt.

“He’s won everywhere he’s been,” Lewis said. “And then him being the cool guy that he is, that’s the one thing that stuck out to me the most. He wants to get to know you as a person and worry about basketball later.”

Replacing Ferry turned out to be easier said than done for Duquesne, with reports of negotiations falling through with coaches such as Monmouth’s King Rice, Michigan State assistant Dane Fife, Ball State’s James Whitford and Dambrot himself.

But the timetable or speculation didn’t matter to Harper, who said Dambrot was his initial target and who got his guy in the end.

“During a process, you have to block everything out and be solely focused on the right person and the right coach,” Harper said.

“There is no time line. The most important thing you do, whether you run a business or whether you’re hiring a coach, you find the right person with the right skills, talents, competitiveness, sense of excellence.”

For Dambrot, it’s about reviving a program he believes can win again, just like it was when his dad played.

Then, trips to the postseason were common.

And the revival can come with or without the potential updates to Palumbo Center.

“I felt like a lot of people were underestimating my dad’s school, and I don’t like the fact that there are no banners in that gym from a long time ago until now,” Dambrot said.

But why did he leave such a successful program as Akron?

He didn’t like the one-bid nature of playing in the Mid-American Conference, and, after 13 seasons, he had started to feel a little “stale and stonewalled.”

The tipping point for Dambrot, he said, was remembering an interaction with his dad about 15 years ago.

His dad, now 86, has a blue sweater with a red “D” on it from his playing days at Duquesne, and told Dambrot it’s what he wants to wear in his casket.

“If he wants to wear his letter sweater into his casket, then I have to resurrect Duquesne basketball before I die,” Dambrot thought.

Or, he said, he will die trying and wear a letter sweater of his own into his casket.