GAME 1
Cleveland State (0-0) at Duquesne (0-0)
Monday, Nov. 6, 2023 | 7:00 p.m.
Pittsburgh, Pa. | UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (3,500)
 
Live Stream: ESPN+ with Tim Benz & Ellis Cannon
Radio: 104.7 HD2 / iHeartRadio with Ray Goss ('58) & Jarrett Durham ('71)

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Opening Tip
The Duquesne University men's basketball team opens the 2023-24 season and its 108th season of NCAA basketball Monday, Nov. 6, by hosting Cleveland State for a 7:00 p.m. tip at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. The Dukes, selected fourth in the 2023-24 Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll, return three starters from a 2022-23 squad that finished with an overall record of 20-13 (.606), including a mark of 10-8 (.556) in the A-10. Senior guard Dae Dae Grant, the leading career scorer entering the 2023-24 season in the A-10 with 1,682 career points, was named to the 2023-24 Preseason All-Atlantic 10 First Team, while senior guard Jimmy Clark III earned spots on both the 2023-24 Preseason All-Atlantic 10 Second Team and the 2023-24 Preseason All-Atlantic 10 Defensive Team. Clark III led the A-10 in steals last year with 76, an average of 2.30 per contest. In all, Duquesne returns 58.8 percent (1,454-of-2,472) of its scoring, 50.6 percent (596-of-1,177) of its rebounding and 59 percent (298-of-505) of its assists.
 
Lifting The Lid
- The 2023-24 season marks the 108th year of Duquesne basketball. The Dukes started play in 1913-14 (DU did not field a team in 1944-45-46 due to World War II). Duquesne has compiled an impressive 89-18 (.832) record in season-opening games, including an 84-4 (.955) mark when opening the season at home. The Dukes are also 98-8 (.925) all-time in the first home game of the season. Duquesne has also opened the year at a neutral site just seven times, the last of which came in 2004 at the NABC Classic in Albuquerque, N.M.
 
- Forward Tre Williams enters the 2023-24 season 72 points shy of 1,000 for his career and is one of four Dukes that could eclipse the plateau this season. Twins Fousseyni Drame and Hassan Drame own career totals of 895 and 706 career points, respectively, while forward Andrei Savrasov has scored 851 career points.
 
- Guard Dae Dae Grant looks to score 1,000 points in two seasons with the Dukes after pacing Duquesne last year with 511 points, an average of 15.5 per contest. Grant has scored 1,682 points at the NCAA Division I level. He is also 318 points shy of 2,000 for his career.
 
- Guard Jimmy Clark III scored 404 points in his first season at Duquesne last season and owns 534 career points entering the 2023-24 campaign. Clark III also needs 72 steals to crack the top 10 in program history for thefts, as Andy Sisinni (1981-84) currently ranks 10th with 148.
 
- Duquesne is 33-9 (.786) in non-conference home games under seventh-year head coach Keith Dambrot.
 
- When holding opponents to less than 70 points under head coach Keith Dambrot, Duquesne has posted a record of 56-16 (.778), including an 11-3 (.786) mark last season.
 
- The Dukes have erased a double-digit deficit 20 times under Keith Dambrot, with all 20 occasions coming since 2018-19. Duquesne trailed by double digits in the second half in 11 of those comebacks. Last season, the Dukes erased a 20-4 lead at the 12:19 mark of the first half against Indiana State to earn a 92-86 victory over the Sycamores at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (12/17/22).
 
The Series vs. Cleveland State
The Vikings and Dukes will meet for the fifth time Monday, with the two programs having split the previous four games … Cleveland State is a member of the Horizon League and is located in Cleveland, Ohio … Duquesne earned a 78-71 victory over Cleveland State in the last meeting between the two programs at the A.J. Palumbo Center (11/27/16) as part of the Bluegrass Showcase ... Mike Lewis II scored a career-high 20 points in the win over the Vikings, while Josh Steel added 13 off the bench ... Darius Lewis added a double-double in the win over CSU in the last meeting between the two programs with 13 points and 10 rebounds ... Cleveland State is led by head coach Daniyal Robinson, who led the Vikings to an appearance in the 2023 Horizon League Tournament championship game ... The Vikings finished 21-14 (.600) last season, tying for second in the HL with a mark of 14-6 (.700) with both Northern Kentucky and Milwaukee ... CSU has been picked to finish fourth in the Horizon League in 2023-24 ... Named to the 2023-24 All-Horizon League Preseason Team was senior guard Tristan Enaruna ... Named to the 2023 All-Horizon League First Team, Enaruna averaged 15.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game for the Vikings last season.
 
Head Coach Keith Dambrot
Seventh Year at Duquesne | 26th Year Overall
Keith Dambrot, who built Akron into one of the most successful - and most respected - programs in the Mid-American Conference over 13 seasons, was named head men's basketball coach at Duquesne University on March 28, 2017. The veteran coach wasted no time making an impact on the DU program with 65 wins in his first four seasons. His 91 wins already rank fifth on the Dukes' all-time victory list and his two 20-win seasons - in just six years - are tied for the third-most in program history.
       
Dambrot reached a significant career milestone on Feb. 8, 2023 when he posted his 500th career victory (75-52 over George Mason). He enters the 2023-24 season as one of 28 active Division I coaches with 500 or more wins. More impressively, he is one of nine of the 28 who has never coached at a Power 5/Big East school, joining Mark Few (Gonzaga), Greg Kampe (Oakland), Lennie Acuff (Bellhaven, Berry, Alabama Huntsville, Lipscomb), Fran Dunphy (Penn, Temple, La Salle), Scott Nagy (South Dakota State, Wright State), Ron Cottrell (Houston Christian), Randy Bennett (Saint Mary's, Calif.) and Ron Hunter (IUPUI, Georgia State, Tulane).

In 2023, Dambrot rebuilt a Duquesne team that was coming off a 6-24 season and turned it into a 20-game winner. In the process, he became the first DU coach since Red Manning (1959-74) to produce multiple 20-win teams on the Bluff.
 
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