Third Season at Duquesne
Sixth Season Overall (on staff from 2020-22)
Ari Stern, who spent the 2020 & 2021 seasons as a graduate assistant and 2022 campaign as Assistant AD/Basketball Administration at Duquesne, rejoined the Dukes' staff in July of 2023.
In his return to the Bluff after spending the 2022-23 campaign as director of basketball operations at the University of Denver, Stern helped the Dukes finish with an overall record of 25-12 (.676) in 2023-24, including a mark of 10-8 (.556) in the Atlantic 10. Duquesne claimed its first Atlantic 10 Championship and automatic bid to the NCAA Championship since 1977 as well as the program's first win in the NCAA Tournament since 1969.
A former four-year player at The College of Wooster, Stern originally came to Duquesne after serving as a player development intern for the Dallas Mavericks in 2018-19. While with the Mavs, Stern collaborated with coaches in helping facilitate practices, individual workouts and game day activities. He also contributed to Dallas’ analytic efforts by assisting with film breakdown.
The Phoenix, Ariz., native has also worked extensively at a number of national and international basketball academies, clinics and camps.
A team captain at Wooster, Stern was part of teams that compiled a 90-30 (.750) record and made four NCAA Division III Championship appearances under head coach Steve Moore, who finished his career ranked fourth on the Division III list with 867 wins.
A graduate of Sunnyslope High School, Stern was one of 10 players named to the statewide All-Academic Boys Basketball Team (Divisions I and II) as a senior. Stern helped the Vikings to the state semifinals twice as they went a combined 57-8 (.877) during his junior and senior years.
Stern graduated magna cum laude with a degree in psychology from Wooster in 2018. As part of his degree requirement, he studied the effects of mindset on athletic performance and persistence for his senior independent study thesis. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society and the NABC Honors Court.
He completed his master’s in leadership at Duquesne in December of 2020.
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