OMAHA, Neb. -- Duquesne's return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1977 will tip off at 12:40 p.m. Thursday against BYU at the CHI Health Center.
The 11th-seeded Dukes earned the Atlantic 10's automatic bid by winning the conference's tournament Sunday in New York. Keith Dambrot's return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since he guided Akron to the dance in 2013 will be his final run as a head coach, as he announced Monday he is retiring following this run.
But, how long will that run last? Should Duquesne become the nation's next "Cinderella" team, it will have to get through the East Region's sixth-seeded Cougars first.
Here is how the teams stack up:
GUARDS
• Duquesne: Dae Dae Grant, Jimmy Clark III, Jake DiMichele, Kareem Rozier, Kailon Nicholls, Ethan Anish, Seamus McDermott, Lucas Perusek.
Since transferring over from Miami (Ohio) prior to the start of last season, the senior Grant has been Duquesne's best scorer. He finished fifth in the A10 with 16.7 points per game, and his 80 3-pointers made tied for sixth in the conference this season. Grant has made 93.8% of his free throws, which ranks fifth in all of Division I.
Clark's 15.1 points per game finished 11th in the conference, and his 65 3s made sit behind Grant for the team lead. The senior is the only Dukes player who has started in all 35 games this season. Both Grant and Clark were named to the All-A10 second team, and Clark earned a nod to the A10's All-Defensive team.
DiMichele, a true freshman and McKees Rocks native, entered the starting lineup Jan. 16 and has been a constant for the Dukes since. He logged at least 32 minutes in all of Duquesne's A10 Tournament games, and he made 9 of 13 3-pointers in the A10 Tournament. The true sophomore Rozier started 20 games before the calendar flipped to February, but started just one game after that point. He has proven steady as a backup point guard and has logged at least 20 minutes of playing time off of the bench eight times since February 1.
• BYU: Jaxson Robinson, Trevin Knell, Spencer Johnson, Richie Saunders, Dallin Hall, Dawson Baker, Trey Stewart, Jared McGregor, Tanner Hayhurst.
The 6-foot-7 Robinson was named the Big 12's Sixth Man of the Year after scoring 13.8 points per game. He has started just six games, but is second on the team with 26 minutes played per game. He scored 18 points while making 6 of 18 attempts from the field in BYU's loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 Tournament.
The 6-foot-5 Knell averages 10.9 points and has made 39.0% of his 3-pointers this season, though he dealt with an ankle injury in January. Robinson has made 75 3s, and Knell is behind him with 67. Johnson (6-foot-5) is BYU's leading rebounder with 6.0 per game, and he is its fourth-leading scorer at 10.3 points per game.
Hall (6-foot-4) averages a team-high 29.1 minutes per game and has posted 9.0 points per game. The true freshman Saunders (6-foot-5) rounds out the Cougars' deep backcourt. He averages 9.8 points and is shooting 36.7% from 3.
FORWARDS/CENTERS
• Duquesne: David Dixon, Fousseyni Drame, Andrei Savrasov, Dusan Mahorcic, Tre Williams, Hassan Drame, Jakub Necas, Halil Barre, Matúš Hronský, Andy Barba.
Fousseyni Drame scored six points and grabbed 12 rebounds in Duquesne's A10 Tournament championship game win over VCU. Dixon had six points and seven rebounds in 21 bench minutes. Mahorcic had six points and five rebounds in 17 minutes as a starter. Necas filled in for the injured Williams and provided eight points while making 2 of 3 3s in 19 minutes against the Rams.
The point here is this: Dambrot is not shy to continuously rotate his bigs throughout a game. Williams' 19 starts are the most among any frontcourt member. Mahorcic follows with 15 starts. Dixon averages 19.6 minutes per game but has started in just six of 35 games. Look for Fousseyni Drame and Dixon to eat up the bulk of the minutes in the frontcourt.
Williams could miss Thursday's game with a lingering shoulder injury, and that could open the door for more playing time for Necas.
• BYU: Fousseyni Traore, Noah Waterman, Aly Khalifa, Atiki Ally Atiki, Marcus Adams, Townsend Tripple.
What are the odds that each team's best big in this game share the first name of "Fousseyni?"
Seriously speaking, the 6-foot-6 Traore efficiently averages 10.9 points in just 18 minutes per game. He shoots 64.7% from the field, which would lead the Big 12 by 4.1 percentage points if it qualified. That efficiency goes along with his 5.3 rebounds per game and his 0.8 blocks per game. This season, he missed six weeks, including all of December, with a hamstring injury.
The 6-foot-11 Waterman posts 9.7 points and 5.9 rebounds while logging 24.4 minutes per game. He led all Cougars starters with eight points in their Big 12 Tournament loss to Texas Tech. The 6-foot-11 Khalifa started against Texas Tech but played in just eight minutes in the first half as he left with an ankle injury. He is expected to be ready to play Thursday. He has also missed multiple games this season with a knee injury.
HEAD COACH
• Duquesne: Keith Dambrot
Dambrot is 115-95 in his seven seasons as the Dukes head coach. Between his years at Central Michigan, Akron, and Duquesne, Dambrot is 440-268. He guided Akron to three NCAA Tournament appearances and six Mid-American Conference regular-season championships in 13 seasons, and his final act before retiring is bringing the Dukes to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 47 years.
His 115 wins rank fourth on the Dukes' all-time list. He has guided Duquesne to three seasons of 20 or more wins. The Dukes went 21-9 in the 2019-'20 season and were the No. 6-seed in the A10 Tournament, but the second-round games and the rest of the A10 Tournament were canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• BYU: Mark Pope
Pope is 187-107 in between his nine seasons as a Division I head coach. He guided Utah Valley to two 20-win seasons out of his four on its bench before being hired by BYU prior to the 2019-'20 season.
His five-year tenure at BYU has been widely successful, and it continued while the Cougars transitioned from the West Coast Conference to the Big 12 prior to the start of this season. BYU has won 20 or more games in four of Pope's five seasons, with the exception being a 19-win season last year.
Pope took BYU to the 2021 NCAA Tournament, where they lost as a No. 6-seed to No. 11-seed UCLA in the first round. UCLA went to the Final Four in that NCAA Tournament.
TEAM METRICS
• Overall record: DUQ 24-11, BYU 23-10
• NCAA NET ranking: DUQ 80, BYU 12.
• Quadrant 1 record: DUQ 2-3, BYU 6-8.
• KenPom ranking: DUQ 86, BYU 16.
• Strength of schedule: DUQ 97th, BYU 52nd.
• Points scored per 100 possessions: DUQ 106.9, BYU 120.5.
• Points allowed per 100 possessions: DUQ 97.5, BYU 99.5.
• Points scored per game: DUQ 70.8, BYU 81.8.
• Points allowed per game: DUQ 66.0, BYU 69.9.
• Field-goal percentage: DUQ 43.7%, BYU 46.2%.
• 3-point percentage: DUQ 34.0%, BYU 34.8%.
• Rebounds per game: DUQ 35.2, BYU 39.6.
• Assists per game: DUQ 13.4, BYU 18.6.
• Turnovers per game: DUQ 11.8, BYU 10.7.
• Steals per game: DUQ 7.6, BYU 5.9.
• Blocks per game: DUQ 4.3, BYU 3.0.
