Pittsburgh, Pa. – A total of 10 home games at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse,
participation in the seventh annual Sunshine Slam as well as the first
Hope Gas Backyard Basketball Classic and the annual neutral site game at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio, highlight the 2026 non-conference schedule for the Duquesne University men's basketball team, announced Monday.
The Dukes will open their 111th season of NCAA Division I basketball and third year under head coach
Dru Joyce III Tuesday, Nov. 3, against Purdue Fort Wayne at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. The Dukes and Mastodons have never met in program history on the hardwood, and Duquesne owns a record of 91-19 (.827) all-time in season openers, including an 86-5 (.945) mark when opening the year at home.
The season opener against Purdue Fort Wayne begins a five-game homestand for the Dukes, their longest homestand since a six-game stretch at the A.J. Palumbo Center during the non-conference portion of its 2017-18 schedule. Duquesne will also host Central State (Nov. 7), Washington State (Nov. 10), Binghamton (Nov. 14) and Howard (Nov. 18), with the final game of the homestand against the Bison the first of three contests for the Dukes in the Sunshine Slam.
The stretch to open the 2026-27 campaign marks the first time Duquesne opens a season with five consecutive home games in over 50 years. During the 1975-76 season, the Dukes went 4-1 (.800) to open the year, which included a pair of games at the Civic Arena in the final Steel Bowl, a tournament that began in 1952 before moving to the uptown arena in 1966. In the final Steel Bowl, a tournament that lasted 24 years, Duquesne defeated Pitt, 75-74, Dec. 5, 1975, before dropping an 86-83 decision to UNLV Dec. 6, 1975, in a pair of games in which the Dukes were designated the home team.
During the 1971-72 campaign, a year in which the Dukes finished with an overall record of 20-5 (.800) under Red Manning, Duquesne opened the year with nine consecutive home games. The Dukes finished 8-1 (.889) during that span, winning each of their first eight games of the homestand. Duquesne also won both games of the Steel Bowl during that stretch, defeating Wake Forest and Pitt, before losing the finale of the homestand to Eastern Michigan Jan. 11, 1972, 70-69.
Duquesne travels for the first time during the 2026-27 season to Daytona Beach, Fla., to take on Wyoming (Nov. 22) and High Point (Nov. 24) at the Ocean Center to close out the Sunshine Slam before returning home to host South Carolina State (Nov. 28). A pair of neutral site games follow, including the Morgan & Morgan Classic in Akron, Ohio, against Kansas City Saturday, Dec. 5, at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. Duquesne and Robert Morris will renew its local rivalry Wednesday, Dec. 9, as part of the Hope Gas Backyard Basketball Classic at PPG Paints Arena, which was announced at a press conference at the venue last week.
Rounding out the non-conference portion of the schedule for the Dukes is a four-game homestand at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. The Dukes will host Canisius (Dec. 12), Delaware (Dec. 15), Niagara (Dec. 20) and Cleary (Dec. 27) prior to the start of Atlantic 10 action.
The Atlantic 10 released
conference pairings earlier this summer, with the Dukes facing Dayton, Davidson, Loyola Chicago, Rhode Island and St. Bonaventure twice during the 2026-27 season. A full Atlantic 10 schedule will be announced at a later date.
Deposits for
season tickets for the 2026-27 season are now being accepted. Fans wishing to renew, upgrade or purchase season tickets for the first time can use this
link to lock in seats. Tickets for the seventh annual
Sunshine Slam are also on sale, while the general on-sale for the Hope Gas Backyard Basketball Classic begins 10:00 a.m. Friday, Sept. 25, via Ticketmaster.
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