Keith Dambrot will retire at the end of the season after spending the past seven years as the head coach at Duquesne. The Dukes won the A-10 Tournament over the weekend to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1977.
Dambrot’s wife, Donna, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and Dambrot had stated that while he was already pretty sure this was going to be his last year, that made it certain. The 65-year-old has been coaching college basketball since 1984, with a brief break coaching high school basketball in his native Akron, Ohio. He served as the head coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary’s HS from 1998-2001, where he coached LeBron James during his freshman and sophomore years – the Irish won the state championship both seasons.
Dambrot, 65, left SVSM in 2001 to take over the Akron Zips‘ program, coaching there for 13 years. He won 305 games, six MAC regular season titles and three MAC Tournaments, going to three NCAA Tournaments and five NITs. He was named MAC Coach of the Year three times.
The Dukes earned an 11-seed and will face 6-seed BYU in their Round of 64 game on Thursday in Omaha.
credit to Duquesne Athletics for the image