Washington, D.C. – According to a poll of Atlantic 10 head coaches and select members of the media, the Duquesne University men's basketball team has been picked to finish 10th in the conference in 2026-27. The annual poll and preseason all-conference selections were announced Monday at A10 Basketball Media Day, held at The Westin DC Downtown.
 
The Dukes earned 130 points in the poll. Selected as the preseason favorite for the second consecutive year is VCU, which earned 11 first-place votes and 308 points. Saint Louis accumulated 307 points as well as 10 first-place tallies and was picked second, followed by Dayton (279), George Mason (240) and George Washington (207). The Flyers earned a pair of first-place votes.
 
Saint Joseph's (181) was slotted sixth, followed by Fordham (169), Davidson (144), Richmond (138) and the Dukes. Rounding out the poll and selected behind Duquesne is Loyola Chicago (116), Rhode Island (104), La Salle (59) and St. Bonaventure (33).

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Entering his third season at the helm of the Dukes is Dru Joyce III, who welcomes back a pair of starters for 2026-27 in guards Terence Guinyard and Brandon Hall.

Guinyard, a native of Tampa, Fla., was named to the 2026 Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team after averaging 16.6 points per game last season, becoming the first player for Duquesne to earn first team accolades since 2010. Guinyard also produced a team-high 4.7 assists per game and finished second for the Dukes in steals (41). He ranked second in the A10 in scoring, fourth in assists and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.11).
 
Hall, a native of Chicago, Ill., appeared in 27 games last season, including each of the final 14 as a member of the starting lineup. He averaged 3.3 points and 1.3 rebounds per game overall, averages that improved to 5.6 points and 2.0 rebounds as a starter.
 
A total of 10 new student-athletes join the roster for Duquesne in 2026-27, including three guards, three forwards, three wings and a center. Six of the 10 are NCAA Division I transfers, while four more will play their first season of college basketball beginning next month.

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Highlighting the newcomers are wing Yoav Berman, forward Kerem Konan and guards Izaiah Pasha and Josh Smith. Berman spent the last three years at Queens and played all 35 games last season for the Royals, who finished 21-14 (.600) and earned the program's first automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. He finished second Queens in scoring (12.3 ppg) and third in rebounding (3.9 rpg) en route to being named to 2026 Second Team All-ASUN.
 
Pasha, a transfer from Virginia Tech who played behind Neoklis Avdalas, spent his freshman season in 2024-25 at Delaware, where he was named the 2025 Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Rookie of the Year after averaging 11.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists. Smith, meanwhile, was named the 2026 ASUN Sixth Man of the Year at West Georgia after averaging 16.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 28 games.
 
Konan, meanwhile, joins the Dukes from Creighton, logging 252 minutes over the course of 30 games. He averaged 2.8 points and 1.8 rebounds while shooting 60 percent (30-of-50) from the floor, and of his 55 caroms, 27 (49.1 percent) came on the offensive glass. Duquesne should also be bolstered by Stephen Olowoniyi, a transfer from Oregon State who as a junior in 2024-25 at Southern Indiana averaged 13.9 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds in 30 games, and center Ege Demir, who played in 19 games last year at Oregon before suffering a season-ending injury.
 
Arguably one of the biggest keys to the 2026-27 roster for the Dukes is the return of redshirt junior guard Jake DiMichele. The last player from the 2023-24 squad for Duquesne that made a run to the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship and subsequent bid to the NCAA Championship, the Dukes finished 15-6 (.714) with DiMichele as a member of the starting lineup as a true freshman. Having missed an entire calendar year due to injury, DiMichele enters this season with a healthy offseason under his belt. In 62 career games on the Bluff, DiMichele has averaged 5.8 points while shooting 45.5 percent from the field.
 
Duquesne, which has averaged 19.0 wins over the last four years, opens its 2026-27 season Tuesday, Nov. 3, against Purdue Fort Wayne at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. It begins a five-game homestand to open the year for the Dukes, the first time Duquesne will open its season with five consecutive home games in over 50 years. Single-game and season tickets are on sale now, as well as the recently announced Starting Five Mini-Plan.
 
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