PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – After a couple of years of waiting, Duquesne basketball is finally able to play a home game. The Dukes host Dayton Tuesday night at 9 in the refurbished and renamed on campus Palumbo Center.
Honoring the first African-American ever drafted in the NBA and calling it the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse after Chuck Cooper, is not the only change.
“The thing that is really exciting about this place is I just don’t think they could have done a better job with it,” said head coach Keith Dambrot. “It’s a perfect building for us. Just like Gonzaga is a perfect building for Gonzaga.”
“It’s the perfect size. It’s well done. It’s different. It’s not a cookie-cutter, NBA arena. It’s really a great fan experience. That’s what’s kind of unique about this building it’s not like any other building that any one has seen.”
It can fit an overflow of 4,000 plus with large videos in spots to view the city and regularly hold around 3,500 fans with new luxury boxes and a club area and many of the seats near or on top of the court.
“It’s just angry,” Dambrot elaborated about the arena being unique. “If you can put people in the stands, it’s going to be an angry place. It’s going to be a hard place. That is going to be the next challenge for our program. We need to sell out every night.”
It will only have 50 fans and players families for the inaugural game in accordance with Pennsylvania COVID-19 rules on Tuesday.
The UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse is not yet a completed project with several areas behind-the-scenes areas to finish, including locker rooms. Still much better than having to travel to play at a Division 3 arena.
“We kind of looked like a junior college for two years,” Dambrot said. “No disrespect to the junior college. We didn’t have high-major amenities. It’s nice to be a high-major again.”
It also has a state-of-the-art weight room that is seven times larger than the previous with all updated equipment, some of which players can interface with computers or their phones to keep track of the athlete’s progress.
The facility also has a pair of practice gyms, so the men’s and women’s programs can work simultaneously or have another sport practicing at the same time.
While there are still two phases yet to finish, it shows, finally, visible proof that Duquesne cares about winning. A lot of that credit going to athletic director Dave Harper.
“The biggest thing I can tell you,” Dambrot said of what he’s hearing from the outside. “When the building was being built most people were impressed that Duquesne finally made the commitment. They knew I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t think they were committed. You not leave your hometown where all your friends and family are. With a fairly well established program to come to Duquesne where the last nine coaches have been fired. Unless you think there is strong commitment.”
“I think they respect Duquesne is trying to be good.”