PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – “They just won’t let me retire. I’m trying to retire, but we keep winning games. They are going to make me an old man.”
What Duquesne head coach Keith Dambrot said with a smile at a podium in Omaha, Nebraska after the Dukes won the program’s first NCAA Tournament game since before the moon landing, a 71-67 victory over sixth-seeded BYU.
The Dukes beat St. Joe’s in the first round in 1969 and had lost in the first round in 1971 and 1977.
Thursday’s victory showed off the defense, holding the Cougars 14 points under its season average.
“The score said exactly why we won,” Dambrot said Thursday. “We made them work for everything they got. A tribute to our guys. It’s a tribute to our league. The great coaches in our league got us prepared for this game.”
Duquesne got out to a 9-0 lead and would never trail in the game, although BYU worked it back to even with 1:48 to go in the second half, but the Dukes made their free throws and protected the ball.
“We got out of the gates good which was important to us,” Dambrot said. “Our toughness is on display. If you are a tough team both mentally and physically, you have a chance to win. These guys toughness over the year has really improved which has made us a good basketball team.”
Starting conference play 0-5 and in the process losing a couple of heartbreakers toughed the Dukes. Dambrot said if you look back at the last eight weeks, they’ve been in a million of those type of games.
“I thought we did an unbelievable job of taking their punches and punching back,” Dambrot said. “They wobbled us for sure. We were wobbly-legged. We had a cut under our eye, over our eye. We just kept fighting back.”
“Nothing has come easy for this group. We’ve had to do it the hard way. We were running uphill all year just to get to .500 in the league. The more times you are put into those positions, the more you respond. It says how tough these guys are.”
“It’s very gratifying and exciting,” said senior Dae Dae Grant. “We want to keep it going. We are not satisfied.”
No, they won’t let Dambrot retire. They want more history. Duquesne basketball fans haven’t partied like this since 1969.