PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – His team made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nearly 50 years last season, Duquesne and head coach Keith Dambrot were one of the big stories of March Madness. He’s still the talk of the NCAA Tournament in Cleveland on Thursday even after he retired.
After getting his start as an assistant at California University of Pennsylvania, now Marquette head coach Shaka Smart came to Akron. Where he worked for Dambrot.
“I was actually telling one of the kids my best Keith Dambrot stories, which is my very first day on the job, he took me to meet a young 18-year-old kid and helped Keith put him through a workout,” Smart recalled. “That kid ended up being a pretty good player.”
Speaking of Akron native LeBron James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Smart was 26, met his wife and said Dambrot gave him an opportunity.
“I just didn't know what I didn't know and I had some people that believed in me and gave me an opportunity that I didn't even really probably deserve yet. But I just grew a lot.”
“I've got a list as long as Santa Claus's list in terms of the things he taught me. He's probably the guy I've been closest with of anyone that I've ever worked with.”
He said Dambrot treated him like a brother from the first day they met. Smart said he’s never been around someone that was so sharing and giving. It’s the closest he’s ever been with a head coach with other stops at Clemson and Florida.
“It was so much fun,” Smart said. “The biggest thing he taught me, actually, is he would always call people when they were down, like, other coaches after they got let go or people that were going through tough things, and he would always tell me, like, well, everybody calls you when things are going well, but you've got to make sure you check in on people when things are not going as well. He just had a way about that.”
Smart said the second biggest lesson from Dambrot he called the most profound thing ever in coaching. Spending time. Dambrot would harp on that over and over again. You need to be around the players.
“It was every day going to lunch where the guys are going to lunch,” Smart recalled. “It was every day finding them, spending time with them. He was very, very hard on them in practice, very hard. So he had a rule. We all had to spend 10 minutes in the locker room with the players after practice repairing some of the relationships because those practices were crazy.”
“He taught me a lot.”
Dru memory
Dru Joyce took over for Dambrot as head coach at Duquesne this season, before that he played for Dambrot and Smart at Akron. Joyce created a lasting impression.
“Dru Joyce was the first player to ever curse me out as a coach, so I'm a coach and he's a player,” Smart said. “I'll never forget it.”
He added he believes Joyce has a bright future with the Dukes.