Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot, who just led his team to the NCAA tournament, announced Monday that he plans to retire at the end of the season.
Dambrot, who was also LeBron James' high school coach, guided the Dukes to four wins in five days at the Atlantic 10 tournament last week, earning Duquesne its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1977. The Dukes earned an 11-seed and will face BYU on Thursday.
"I didn't want to cheat [the job]," Dambrot said, with the Atlantic 10 trophy the Dukes won Sunday standing nearby. "And I just felt like I could see myself losing that edge at some point. And that's why I said, 'I don't want to end like that.' I'm not built that way."
This month will mark the end of a 40-year coaching career, with 22 of those coming as a Division I head coach.
Dambrot, 65, has spent the past seven seasons at Duquesne, leading the team to three 20-win seasons. He had previously been the coach at Akron, where he guided the Zips to five regular-season division titles and three NCAA tournament appearances, leaving as the winningest coach in program history.
He was also the Central Michigan coach for two seasons in the early 1990s.
As a Division I head coach, he is 440-268 overall -- with at least one game left to go.
"My personality type is not good to coach into the 70s," Dambrot said. "I'm too involved in it. I'm still worried about where the guys are on time for the bus, you know? It's just, it's hard to explain, right? Maybe. Maybe a little neurotic."
Dambrot is also known for his two years as James' high school coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. The two have remained close since then, with Duquesne becoming the first school to offer James' son Bryce a college scholarship in 2022. One of LeBron James' high school teammates, Dru Joyce III, went on to play for Dambrot at Akron and is now an assistant coach under him at Duquesne.
On Sunday, James posted a message on X (formerly Twitter) congratulating Dambrot, Joyce and Duquesne on reaching the NCAA tournament.
YESSIRRR!! Punch that 🎟️ to the Big Dance @DuqMBB!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Love you Coach Dambrot & @CoachDruJoyce 🤎🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 17, 2024
Dambrot has repeatedly downplayed his role in James' development. Maybe, but his direct, no-nonsense approach found a way to cut through the noise and consistently turn a roster filled with players of varying abilities into a team.
He led Akron to three Mid-American Conference titles between 2004 and 2017 before joining the program his father, Sid, helped turn into a national power in the early 1950s.
The Dukes had approached Dambrot before, only for him to say no. Duquesne athletic director Dave Harper took a different approach in 2017, stressing to Dambrot that the school was finally ready to make the financial commitment needed for Duquesne to compete in one of the better mid-major conferences in the country.
Harper wasn't kidding. The sparkling UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse opened in February 2021, although the momentum Dambrot felt he was building slowed during a miserable 6-24 season in 2021-22 that left him wondering whether it was time to move on.
Instead, he stayed. The Dukes bounced back to go 20-13 last season. Their triumph over VCU on Sunday -- a game in which Duquesne won despite a stretch in the second half in which it missed 17 of 18 shots -- boosted the Dukes' win total this season to 24, their highest since Sid Dambrot was knocking down set shots from the outside in 1954.
Sid Dambrot died in October 2021 at age 90 and was buried in his Duquesne sweater. Over the weekend, Sid Dambrot's son did just as he had pledged when he took over a team that had had brilliant and progressive glory days in the 1940s-50s but had then seen those get lost amid decades of losing and anonymity.
"Folks, these are the new glory days of Duquesne," president Ken Gormley said.
Sometime over the next few weeks, Keith Dambrot will head into retirement, confident he is leaving the Dukes in far better shape than he found them, potentially with Joyce taking over.
"It's a good feeling," Dambrot said. "It's a good place. It's got good resources. And we just have to keep believing that it can get back to what it used to be."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.