On Wednesday afternoon, a breaking news alert informed the Duquesne men's basketball team as to when their season would begin. Now, with just over two months until the opening tipoff on November 25, the Dukes are still waiting to find out where they will play their home games.
In March of 2019, the University began construction on what will soon be their new home court: the UPMC Cooper Field House. The original goal was to have everything complete for the start of the 2020 season. However, the coronavirus pandemic forced those plans to change.
“The time table on the project has been a moving target considering the covid situation," Mike Scerbo, Associate Athletic Director for Sport and Facilities Operations, told DK Pittsburgh Sports. "We did have a six week shutdown back in March 2020 when the Governor issued his stay at home order. So the project did have a delay there."
Scerbo says progress has been going well since construction resumed. Due to the delay, the school will need another month before it can provide any definitive date as to when the facility will be open.
"Right now our main focus is to complete the project properly so it is everything that we expected it to be when we open," Scerbo said. “It’s highly unlikely that we will be playing at home on November 25th.”
The facility is named after Duquesne basketball great Chuck Cooper, who in 1950 became the first ever African-American player to be selected in the NBA draft. Cooper played seven seasons in the NBA. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Sept. 2019.
The building that will display his last name will be located in the same spot as the Dukes previous venue, the AJ Palumbo Center.
“This project is beyond a general renovation but it’s not a demolition and rebuild," Scerbo said. "My analogy has been that we are keeping the bones of the building and all of the facility around the bones is being redone.”
Until the project is finished, the Dukes will be in a position similar to last season. The team will be forced to play their home games on other local campuses or at other venues for a few months. Last season, that meant LaRoche College, Robert Morris University and PPG Paints Arena.
We will not know if Duquesne will use those venues once again until their official schedule comes out. Scerbo says the athletic department is still working on the Dukes non-conference schedule. The goal is to have all schedule completed in four weeks.
Until then, the Dukes will continue to practice, knowing there will be a season, waiting to find out when and where it will kick off.
