G4 & G5 | DUQUESNE (1-1, 0-0) at GEORGE WASHINGTON (2-6, 1-0)  
Sat., Dec. 2 • 12:30 pm / Sun. Dec. 3 • 2:00 pm • Washington, D.C. • Smith Center (4,348)

TELEVISION SATURDAY: NBCSN with Ahmed Fareed & Ron Thompson
LIVE STREAM SUNDAY: ESPN+ with Byron Kerr
RADIO: WJAS-AM 1320 / iHeartRadio with Ray Goss ('58) & Jarrett Durham ('71)

Duquesne (1-1, 0-0), which has been idle since Dec. 2, heads to the nation's capital to face George Washington (2-6, 1-0) for back-to-back games on Saturday, Jan. 2 and Sunday, Jan. 3. It is the first time in the 105-year history of the program that Duquesne will play the same team on consecutive days. Saturday's game, which will be televised nationally by NBCSN, will be the Atlantic 10 opener for the Dukes who had Wednesday's game at Saint Louis postponed due to positive COVID-19 test results within the SLU program. Duquesne, which has had its past five games either canceled or postponed, was in St. Louis when notified of the postponement. The Dukes, who did not have a full-team practice from Dec. 3 until Dec. 26 due to positive tests within the program, also had a two-week, COVID-related program pause that ended October 29.

Sunday's game, which will take the place of GW's scheduled appearance in Pittsburgh on Feb. 24, marks the first time since 1987 (vs. Saint Joseph's on Jan. 3 and at West Virginia on Jan. 4) that DU will play regular-season conference games on back-to-back days. The last time DU played an A-10 opponent in back-to-back games was in 2003 when the Dukes concluded the regular season on March 8 with a home game vs. Rhode Island and followed that with a first round A-10 Championship game at Rhody on March 10. The last time Duquesne played the same opponent in consecutive games was in 1953 when DU faced Cincinnati on Jan. 12 at home and Jan. 23 on the road with no game in between. Prior to that, you have to go back to 1942 when the Dukes faced Bradley in back-to-back games on Jan. 10 in Chicago and Jan. 12 in Peoria, Ill.

Duquesne will return to Pittsburgh to face Davidson at La Roche University on Tuesday, Jan. 5 at 7:00 p.m. on CBSSN. The Davidson game will mark DU's latest home opener in 89 years.

Duquesne will be playing its third game in 301 days when it takes the floor on Saturday in D.C. Conversely, with the schedule change, Tuesday's Davidson game will be the Dukes' third in four days.

TRENDING

• DU, which has won four of its past five A-10 road games, is looking to tie the school record for consecutive A-10 road wins (three) set in 2010-11.
• Tavian Dunn-Martin, Michael Hughes & Marcus Weathers graduated in December, giving the Dukes four players with degrees (grad transfer Ryan Murphy is the fourth).
• DU was picked to finish fifth in the A-10 preseason poll. It is the highest the Dukes have appeared in the poll since the 2010 team, which returned four starters from a group that advanced to the 2009 A-10 Championship game, was picked tied for fifth.
• This is also the first time since 2010 (Damian Saunders Second Team and Bill Clark Third Team) that Duquesne has had two players on the A-10 Preseason Team (Marcus Weathers Second Team & Sincere Carry Third Team).
• Weathers led the Dukes in scoring in both meetings with GW last season. The 6-5 senior went 14-of-25 (.560) from the field in  averaging 16.0 ppg. the two wins.
• Michael Hughes ranks 10th among active D-I players in career blocks (159) and 15th in blocks/g. (1.96). Hughes has 17 blocks in four career games vs. GW (4.25 bpg.).
• Sincere Carry's 5.47 assist/g. average is the 11th-best among active D-I players.
• Duquesne will play its first four home games at Division III La Roche University located 10 miles north of campus while renovation work to the on-campus UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse is completed.
• Duquesne's first home game is scheduled for Jan. 5 vs. Davidson, making it DU's latest home opener in 89 years (since Jan. 9, 1931 vs. W.Va. Wesleyan). Duquesne's latest post WWII home opener prior to this season was Dec. 13 in both 1948-49 (vs. Wake Forest) and 1949-50 (vs. New Mexico).  
• DU hasn't played a game on campus since Mar. 9, 2019 (vs. Dayton).

DUKES AND COLONIALS
Series Record: GW leads 52-33
At Pittsburgh: Duquesne leads 21-20
At Washington, DC: GW leads 28-10
Neutral Site: GW leads 4-2
A-10 Regular Season: GW leads 45-28
A-10 Championship: GW leads 4-2
Dambrot vs. GW/at Duquesne: 5-2/5-1

• This is the 86th meeting in a series that dates to Jan. 21, 1932 ... GW leads the series 52-33, including a 45-28 advantage in Atlantic 10 regular season play ... in games played in Washington D.C., GW leads 28-10 ... GW had won four in a row at Smith Center prior to DU's 75-73 win in 2018 ... since then, the Dukes have won three in a row at GW - it is DU's longest road win streak in the series.
• GW (86th meeting) is Duquesne's fourth most-frequent all-time opponent, trailing only St. Bonaventure (124 games), West Virginia (88 games) and Pitt (87 games).
• The Dukes matched their longest series win streak (5) with a 66-61 victory in Washington, D.C. last season. GW returned the favor with a 70-67 win at PPG Paints Arena on Feb. 19.
• Duquesne head coach Keith Dambrot is 5-2 all-time against George Washington (5-1 at Duquesne).

WORTH NOTING

• The Dukes have increased their win total in each of their first three seasons under fourth-year head coach Keith Dambrot. Dambrot, who inherited a 10-22 team (3-15 in the A-10) in 2017-18, posted a 16-16 record in 2018. He followed that by guiding a 2019 team - with a roster that saw 97 percent of its points coming from freshmen and sophomores - to 19 wins (19-13) and a 10-8 Atlantic 10 finish (T6th). DU returns five starters from a team that won a school-record 11 conference games (11-7) on the way to posting the school's third 20-win season (21-9) in the past 48 years in 2020.
• Duquesne returns all five starters - and seven of its top eight scorers - from last year's 21-9 team.
• This is the first time since 1971 & 1972 that DU has had 19 or more wins in back-to-back seasons. The last time Duquesne had three-straight 19+-win seasons was in a four-year span from 1951-52 through 1954-55 (23-4 in 1952, 21-8 in 1953, 26-3 in 1954 and 22-4 in the NIT Championship season of 1955). Dambrot's father, Sid, was a member of the 1952, 1953 & 1954 teams.
• The Dukes, who were picked to finish fifth in the 2020-21 Atlantic 10 preseason poll, have exceeded their preseason A-10 pick in each of their first three seasons under Keith Dambrot:

Year	Pick	Finish
2017-18	14th	t10th (7-11)
2018-19	11th	t6th (10-8)
2019-20	8th	t5th (11-7)
2020-21	5th	TBD

• 2019-20 marked the first time Duquesne produced back-to-back seasons with nine or more Atlantic 10 wins (the Dukes were 10-8 in 2019). It was also just the second time in school history that DU posted back-to-back winning A-10 seasons (1980 & 1981 are the others). The 2020-21 Dukes will be attempting to post three-straight winning conference records for the first time in school history.
• Duquesne has won 17 in a row when holding its opponent under 70 points (1-0 this year). The last team to defeat the Dukes while scoring under 70 was St. Bonaventure, who posted a 68-47 win over DU at the Reilly Center in Olean, N.Y. on Feb. 27, 2019. The Dukes shot a Keith Dambrot Era low .283 (15-of-53) in that game.
• Leading the way for Duquesne are second team All-Atlantic 10 forward 6-5 Sr. Marcus Weathers (14.3, 8.1) and 6-8 Sr. center Michael Hughes (10.3, 6.8, 82 blocks), who form one of the top returning inside tandems in the A-10. Weathers, who entered the season with 1,048 career points, led the Dukes in scoring and rebounding last year while the Hughes, who led the Dukes in steals with 44, finished the season ranked eighth nationally in blocked shots/g. at 2.7. Hughes (.581) and Weathers (.527) entered the season ranked first and sixth on Duquesne's career field goal percentage list.
• Junior point guard 6-1 Sincere Carry (12.2, 3.9, 158 assists), one of the top defensive players in the A-10, is entering his third year as a starter. Carry, a member of the 2019 A-10 All-Rookie Team, has handed out 328 assists in his first two-plus seasons. His 5.5 assists/g. average is on pace to tie all-time great Norm Nixon's career mark.
• Shooting guard 6-3 Jr. Lamar Norman Jr. (6.1. 1.8), who contributed 43 3-pointers in starting 18 times last season and swingman 6-5 So. G Maceo Austin (7.0, 4.0) round out the returning starters.
• DU has the luxury of bringing one of the most explosive 3-point shooters in the A-10 off the bench in 5-8 Sr. G Tavian Dunn-Martin (10.2, 1.8, 74 assists, 71 3-pointers). Dunn-Martin, the 2019 A-10 Sixth Man of the Year, has 125 3-pointers as a Duke (1.9/g) and has hit five or more 3-pointers in a game six times.
• Depth in the frontcourt will be provided by 6-10 Jr. F Austin Rotroff (1.4, 1.1) and 6-9 redshirt So. F Amari Kelly. Kelly, who - like Rotroff - had a season-ending ACL injury in 2019, is back after sitting out last year.
• Newcomers include 6-4 PG Tyson Acuff (Detroit, Mich.), a finalist for 2020 Michigan Mr. Basketball, who led Cass Tech to three Detroit Public School League titles. Six-seven, 225-pound F Andre Harris (Mesa, Ariz.), who was a near double-double performer for national prep power Hillcrest Prep in Phoenix is joined in the frontcourt by a pair of athletic swingmen in 6-7 Toby Okani (Orange, N.J.), from Cushing (Mass.) Academy and Chad Baker (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) who attended SPIRE (Ohio) Academy. Mike Bekelja (Solon, Ohio), who teamed with his brother, Sincere Carry, at Ohio's Solon High School and sharpshooting 6-4 G Jett Roesing (Pittsburgh, Pa.), who converted nearly 48 percent of his 3-point attempts for Washington, Pa. First Love Academy are new to the backcourt. Six-eleven C Mounir Hima (Short Hills, N.J.) from St. Benedict's (N.J.) Prep - who is redshirting - round out the recruiting class. DU added Pitt grad transfer Ryan Murphy, who averaged 7.6 ppg. in 30 games (12 starts) with team-high 42 3-pointers last year, on Dec. 11.
• The Dukes won 10 of 14 home games while playing at three different venues (PPG Paints Arena, D-III La Roche University and Robert Morris University) last season. Duquesne was displaced by season-long renovation work being done to the on-campus UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. In all, Duquesne had to board a bus for 24 of its 30 games in 2020 (La Roche is 10 miles from DU's downtown campus & Robert Morris is an 18-mile one-way trip). The experience will come in handy as construction on the new facility was halted for seven weeks over the summer due to the coronavirus, leaving the 2020-21 opening date to be announced. Duquesne is 37-15 in home games under Dambrot, including a 24-9 mark over the past two seasons. The Dukes are 11-7 in A-10 home games and 10-8 in conference road games over the past two years.

A DU WIN WOULD ...

• Tie the school record for consecutive A-10 road wins at three (DU won its last two A-10 road games - at St. Bonaventure and at VCU - last year). It would also be DU's fifth road A-10 win in its last six tries.
• Be DU's fourth-straight win at GW.