2022-23 PROSPECTUS

Click here (PDF) for a comprehensive look at the 2022-23 Dukes.

• Duquesne has added 10 newcomers as it looks to bounce back from last year's 6-24 season.

• Sixth-year head coach Keith Dambrot, who enters the season with the second-most career wins among Atlantic 10 coaches, welcomes back a pair of starters in 6-7 junior forwards Kevin Easley Jr. (10.7, 6.6) and Tre Williams (10.8, 5.7). Easley Jr., a second-year transfer from TCU, scored in double digits a team-high 21 times including a season-best 20 points in DU's season-ending loss to Rhode Island in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Championship. Williams, who came to Duquesne last year from Indiana State, ranked 39th nationally in blocks/g. (2.08) despite missing DU's final four games following a knee injury suffered in the Feb. 23 game vs. Davidson. Both Easley Jr. and Williams averaged over 31 minutes per game in a thin Duquesne frontcourt.

• Dambrot will be looking for a pair of returning grad students, both of whom had their 2021-22 seasons cut short by injury, to contribute in the frontcourt. F Austin Rotroff (2.9, 3.8), who has played in 65 career games with eight starts, shook off a preseason foot injury to play the best basketball of his DU career prior to re-injuring his foot in early January. The injury forced him to the sidelines for the remainder of the season and led to off-season surgery. DU went 0-16 following Rotroff's departure. F R.J. Gunn, a 1,183-point career scorer at D-II Lenoir-Rhyne, missed last season following a preseason ankle injury.

• Duquesne has added four transfers with Division I experience in junior G Dae Dae Grant (1,171 points in three seasons at Miami, Ohio), grad student G Tevin Brewer (760 points in three seasons at FIU), senior F Joe Reece (631 points in three seasons at Old Dominion and one at Bowling Green) and junior G Jimmy "Tre" Clark III who scored 130 points in two seasons at VCU, prior to leading Northwest Florida to a NJCAA National Championship last season. The foursome has 2,692 points in 269 combined games (including 201 starts) of D-I experience.

D-1 EXPERIENCE ADDED

Name	CL	G/GS	Pts
Dae Dae Grant	Jr.	87/84	1,171
Tevin Brewer	Gr.	66/66	760
Joe Reece	Sr.	83/51	631
Jimmy "Tre" Clark III	Jr.	33/0	130
TOTAL		269/201	2,692

• Grant's stats from Miami, Ohio (3 yrs)
• Brewer's stats from FIU (3 yrs)
• Reece's stats from Old Dominion (3 yrs) and Bowling Green (1 yr)
• Clark's stats from VCU (2 yrs)

• In addition to the four D-1 transfers, Dambrot has also brought in Second Team All-American JUCO guard Quincy McGriff. McGriff, a sophomore, led his Salt Lake Community College team to the NJCAA championship game where it lost to fellow newcomer Tre Clark's Northwest Florida team. McGriff, a Los Angeles native, and Clark both earned spots on the NJCAA All-Tournament Team.

• Dambrot also added five freshmen including 5-9 PG Kareem Rozier, who was one of five finalists for Michigan Mr. Basketball and fellow guard Devin Carney, who was a 2,000-point scorer at nearby Butler Area High School. Fellow freshman 6-8 wing Matus Hronsky, who hails from Poruba, Slovakia, comes to the Bluff as a polished 3-point shooter. Six-nine forwards Halil Barre and David Dixon are expected to provide depth in the frontcourt. Barre, who spent time this summer on the Benin National Team, played at Scotland (Pa.) Campus last season, while Dixon, who hails from Memphis, Tenn., played for a highly-successful Speights (Fla.) Academy team in 2021-22.


WORTH NOTING

• Duquesne's 10.0 assists per game last season was the second-lowest average in school history, and ranked 342nd of 350 NCAA D-I programs. That lack of ball movement led to a .403 shooting percentage (the team's lowest since 2000), 65.2 points per game (lowest since 2002) and Keith Dambrot's first losing season since 1992-93. Dambrot took steps to improve that mark with the addition of veteran transfer guards Tevin Brewer (324 career assists at FIU) and Dae Dae Grant (248 career assists at Miami, Ohio), who bring 572 career assists to the Dukes roster. Brewer, who has a 2.1-to-1 career assist-to-turnover ratio (4.9 apg. career), ranked 10th nationally in assist rate (KenPom) and 15th in NCAA assists/g. (5.6) last season. The 5-8 point guard averaged 15.2 ppg. and 5.6 apg. in earning third team All-Conference USA honors last season and is one of just six Division I returnees who averaged over 15 & 5 last season. Grant (17.2 ppg. 4.1 apg.), who was one of 19 players to average over 17.0 points and 4.0 assists/g. last season, led the MAC with a 2.24-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Grant's 561 points last season (1,171 career) were the 10th-highest total in Miami history.

Tevin Brewer (169) and Dae Dae Grant (132) combined for one more assist than the Duquesne TEAM in 2021-22 (301-to-300).  

Player	Ast	TO	Ratio
Tevin Brewer   at FIU	169	84	2.01 - 1
Dae Dae Grant   at Miami, Ohio	132	59	2.24 - 1
Total	301	143	2.10 - 1
Duquesne Team	300	344	0.87 - 1

• Duquesne's frontcourt lost a total of 50 games due to injury last season: R.J. Gunn Jr. (29) Austin Rotroff (17) and Tre Williams (4). Gunn Jr., suffered a preseason ankle injury and managed to play four minutes in the third game of the season before shutting it down. Rotroff had a preseason foot injury that slowed him in the early season and forced him to the sidelines permanently in mid-January with the Dukes sitting at 6-7. Williams (knee) was lost for the last four games of the season.

• DU, which will open the season with a pair of 1,000-point scorers in R.J. Gunn Jr. (1,183 at D-II Lenoir-Rhyne) and Dae Dae Grant (1,171 at Miami, Ohio), could finish the year with as many as five 1,000-point scorers as Kevin Easley Jr. (needs 152), Tevin Brewer (needs 240) and Tre Williams (needs 277) all have a realistic shot at reaching 1,000 in 2022-23. The last time DU had three players with 1,000 points on the floor at the same time was in 1998 (Kevin Price, Mike James and Nick Bosnic). Duquesne has never had four players with 1,000 points on the floor at the same time.

• Duquesne, which had the toughest conference strength of schedule among A-10 teams by a wide margin last season (per KenPom), will face Fordham, Massachusetts, Saint Joseph's and St. Bonaventure twice in 2022-23. It will be the first time since 1994-95 that the Dukes will face UMass twice in the regular season. The last time DU played Saint Joe's twice was in 2000-01. Fordham and St. Bonaventure are carryover two-time opponents from last season. The Dukes, in their second full season at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, will also host Davidson, George Mason, Loyola Chicago, Rhode Island and VCU in league play. DU will travel to Dayton, George Washington, La Salle, Richmond and Saint Louis to complete the conference schedule.


Q&A WITH COACH D
 
Quick thoughts on the 2022-23 Dukes.
"We need to get back to where we were. Back to being a team that can beat anybody in the league on a given night. We're coming from the bottom, but basketball is different sport, you don't need a whole lot of guys turn it around. We did it once and we can do it again.
    "We need to use the experience we've added and translate that into to winning close games. We have to find the right niche for this team.
    "We have to utilize our depth, quickness and shooting ability to make sure its an advantage for us. If we get everyone here we'll have good depth and improved shooting ability in the backcourt. There will be some adjustments to playing in a conference the caliber of the A-10, but I've found that guys who have had success at lower levels have generally come in and done pretty well in this league."

What were you feeling at the conclusion of last season?
    "I'll be honest, last year was humbling. It's a big hit to your ego. It's just something that hasn't happened to me. We had the perfect storm of everything that could go wrong did go wrong. At that point you have a choice. You either fight or put up the white flag. I'm doing what I've done my whole life and that's to keep fighting. I have enough belief that we can turn it around quickly."

What were your immediate goals in the offseason?
    "The first thing that went through my mind was that 'we needed to win in March and April' meaning we had to get out there and get the right players. Guys with the ability to turn the program around again. We knew we had to add experience in the backcourt, improve our toughness level, improve our size, improve our shooting ability and get back to moving the ball at a high level."

Last year, the team averaged 10 assists/g., which ranked 342nd nationally and contributed to both a low shooting percentage and low points per game average. How did you go about addressing this problem?
    "We felt getting older in the backcourt would improve our issues with ball movement. We needed experience and we've added that with Dae Dae Grant, Tevin Brewer and Tre Clark. We've seen - through the performances of Marcus Weathers (Miami, Ohio), Michael Hughes (Akron) and Tavian Dunn-Martin (Akron) - that high-level Mid-American Conference players can be successful in this league. So we expect the same from Dae Dae. Tevin played at a high level in Conference USA and Tre gained two years of A-10 experience when he was at VCU. We're hoping the transition won't be hard for them."

The frontcourt lost 50 games to injury last season, which greatly affected performance. What was done to add depth?
    "We really didn't have any depth in the frontcourt last year. Losing R.J. (Gunn), Austin (Rotroff) and then Tre (Williams) made it feel like we were a junior high team, size-wise at times. Were we a championship-quality team with those guys?, obviously not, but I guarantee we would have been a lot better. Having all three back along with the addition of a veteran like Joe Reece should help us immensely. We were also able add a pair of 6-9 freshmen in David Dixon and Halil Barre who we're hoping to develop."

On progress made this summer.
    "I think we made some improvement. Again, you don't know much until you get to the games. We haven't had everyone in yet [freshmen Halil Barre and Matus Hronsky as well as JC transfer Quincy McGriff reported in late summer], once we do we should have good depth and size. We'll be built more like an Atlantic 10 team. We haven't seen Matus and Quincy yet, so we're missing two big wings, as well as a 6-9 player in Halil. I like what I've seen from our older guards. Tre Clark has made a huge jump since his time at VCU. He's a defensive-minded guy who really benefitted from his National Championship-winning year in junior college."

How has recruiting changed in the past two years?
    "The whole dynamic has changed. I think we took two junior college transfers and four four-year transfers in my 13 years at Akron. We built it on high school guys and stayed old with high school guys. Now you can't really do that, because once they get good there is the possibility of a transfer. You have to run it more like a G-League team than a four-year college. You still have to have a good mix, but there is so much movement now - especially when you add the influence of NIL to the mix - that you have to be flexible."

You've added Dru Joyce to the staff this year. What kind of impact do you expect Dru to have?
    "I've known Dru since he was 12. He's one of the toughest, most competitive leaders that I've been around. He's been a career overachiever who brings a winning mentality to our family, which has been really helpful."

On the Atlantic 10.
    "You turn around and Bob McKillop is gone and Fran Dunphy, Frank Martin and Archie Miller are in. There are a lot of great coaches in the A-10, but we all know it's about the players. You have to do a great job of managing your group, but the guys with the most talent generally win. You have to have talent. If you have talent and get them to play hard as a team, you're going to be at the top of the standings. The thing that's interesting about this league is that everybody is capable of getting pretty talented guys. Its a matter of who can play together the best."

On the addition of Loyola Chicago.
    "They're a great fit for the Atlantic 10. Its a good move for them and its a good move for the league. It doesn't make it any easier. But that's what it is in this league. It's a different battle every night."