In the days leading up to the start of the 2018-19 men's basketball season, the Atlantic10.com will profile two teams a day, leading up to tip-off on Tuesday, Nov. 6. Today's previews, written by Patrick Stevens, includes Duquesne and La Salle.
DUQUESNE DUKES
Schedule | Roster | Coach Dambrot on A-10 Live at Media Day
In a sense, this will be the second time Keith Dambrot enters his first season as the coach at Duquesne.
Of the 10 players to start a game last year, only three are back this season. One of those is junior forward Kellon Taylor, who will join the team when his duties with the Dukes’ football team are complete.
Duquesne adds five transfers and seven freshmen to a mix that includes holdovers Mike Lewis II and Eric Williams Jr.
“For us, it’s almost like a new first year because we only have two and a half guys back if you count the football player that we’ll get halfway through the year,” Dambrot said. “The transfers were important for us because it gave us credibility recruiting-wise, which allowed us then to recruit the freshmen. I prefer freshmen to build a program, but I had to do what I had to do that first year.”
The Dukes were one of the surprise teams in the Atlantic 10 through the end of January, holding a 15-8 overall record and a 6-3 mark at the midpoint of conference play before wearing down.
“I was disappointed how it ended. At the time, I felt like we just didn’t quite get it done,” Dambrot said. “Then I look back and I think we played out of minds for five or six weeks where we played about as good as we could play.”
With the addition of so many reinforcements, Duquesne is much better equipped to push deep into the season.
A look at the Dukes:
Coach: Keith Dambrot, second season at Duquesne, 16-16 at Duquesne and 429-225 in 20 seasons overall
Last year: The Dukes went 16-16 overall and tied for 10th in the Atlantic 10 with a 7-11 mark in league play. Duquesne earned the No. 10 seed in the A-10 tournament and lost in the second round to Richmond.
They’ll miss: Only three regulars return from last year’s rotation. Among the notable departures are 6-2 guard Rene Castro-Caneddy (13.3 points per game, 2.8 rebounds per game), the only Duke to start all 32 games last season; 6-2 guard Tarin Smith (12.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg), who transferred as a graduate student; and 6-8 Tydus Verhoeven, who led the A-10 in blocked shots with 71.
Impact returners: The two starters who return were responsible for much of Duquesne’s success last season. Eric Williams Jr. (14.3 ppg, 8.8 rpg) attacked the glass in impressive fashion for a 6-6 freshman, and he’s a second team all-conference pick in the preseason.
“Eric can be as good as he wants to be,” Dambrot said. “It’s all maturity. He just has to mature and understand the responsibility of being a great player.”
The Dukes also have 6-1 junior Mike Lewis II (14.4 ppg, 2.3 rpg) back. He’s already seventh in school history in 3-pointers made (152) and is Duquesne’s first player to lead the team in scoring as a freshman and a sophomore since Wayne Smith (1999-2000).
Newbies of note: Dambrot was willing to take a short-term hit in flexibility if it meant getting the rebuild right the first time. That meant investing five scholarships in Division I transfers last season.
That group is eligible now, and should contribute immediately. The group includes 5-8 sophomore Tavian Dunn-Martin (Akron), 6-4 sophomore Frankie Hughes (Missouri), 6-5 sophomore Marcus Weathers (Miami, Ohio) and 6-8 sophomore Michael Hughes (Akron).
“Those transfers are going to play,” Dambrot said. “Which one, how much, that’s still yet to be determined.”
Reasons to be optimistic:
There’s three prongs to Duquesne’s roster, and they all should provide improvement over a season ago.
There’s the main returnees in Lewis and Williams, who both provide substantial scoring punch. That answers an important question even before the season begins.
There’s the group of transfers, all of whom have Division I experience. All of them are likely to play, with Weathers a good bet to see significant action at power forward. Dambrot said Michael Hughes is the furthest along of the Dukes’ big men.
Then there are the freshmen, who will need to contribute in some measure. It’s a group Dambrot plans to build around, and he’s especially optimistic about Solon, Ohio, product Sincere Carry.
“He’s been one of the best freshmen I’ve ever had,” Dambrot said. “Toughness-wise, ballhandling. I think he sticks out. Brandon Wade’s been just as good. And [Austin] Rotroff has done a terrific job inside. He has a chance to be a really good player as he gains weight. Amari Kelly’s coming. We’re going to play at least four freshmen, and maybe more than that.”
X factor: 6-5 junior Kellon Taylor has played nearly a full season in Dambrot’s season and brings unquestioned toughness to the Dukes’ rotation. He also plays in the frontcourt, an area where Duquesne lacks experience.
“He’s bright, he’s tough, he can guard,” Dambrot said. “He’s going to be an important piece for us because it allows our younger, bigger kids to develop.”
Circle the date(s): Duquesne will face a pair of in-state foes in nonconference play just around the corner at PPG Paints Arena. The Dukes have their annual City Game against Pittsburgh on Nov. 30, and Penn State makes a trip to the Steel City on Dec. 19.
Dambrot also makes a return to Akron when the Dukes face defending Big South Conference champion Radford on Nov. 17 at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School --- best known as the alma mater of LeBron James where Dambrot coached the future NBA hall of famer for two years.
Bottom line: Last year’s undermanned roster acquitted itself well, and Dambrot is a proven coach. A deeper roster should make the Dukes even more dangerous this winter, and a move into the top half of the conference isn’t out of the question.
LA SALLE
Schedule | Roster | Coach Howard on A-10 Live at Media Day
Ashley Howard’s commute got a little bit longer in the spring. After a stint at Villanova, where he was an assistant on two national title teams in the last three seasons, he accepted his first head coaching job at La Salle.
Howard is a Philly guy, through and through. He played at Drexel, then spent four years as an assistant at La Salle starting at age 23 (“I almost feel like I went to La Salle to a certain degree,” he said). Eventually, he returned to his alma mater, went to Xavier, then boomeranged back to Philly and a spot on Jay Wright’s staff.
Now he has a program of his own, one eager to return to prominence both in the Atlantic 10 and a city that loves basketball.
“It’s been an awesome experience, just because the La Salle community has embraced me,” Howard said. “The administration has been great. There’s still a lot of faculty and staff that are left over from La Salle from when I was an assistant. So it’s really like I’m coming home.”
The Explorers haven’t reached the NCAA tournament since 2013, and that’s also the last time they finished with a winning record in the Atlantic 10. Howard hopes to lay the foundation for a turnaround this year in his hometown.
“When you’re an assistant, you can kind of recruit everybody and make a ton of suggestions,” Howard said. “Now as the head coach, I have to make decisions. The fact that I’m home and I didn’t have to move and there’s a lot of relationships that are built in definitely made my transition a lot easier.
A look at the Explorers:
Coach: Ashley Howard, first season at La Salle
Last year: La Salle was 13-19 overall and tied for 10th in the Atlantic 10 at 7-11. The Explorers fell in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament, dropping a 69-67 decision to Massachusetts.
They’ll miss: The big loss is B.J. Johnson, who led La Salle in scoring in back-to-back seasons. He averaged 20.8 points and 8.3 rebounds as a senior. The Explorers will have a fresh look in the frontcourt since Tony Washington (7.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg) is also gone and pursuing a career in the Netherlands.
Impact returners: In many ways, 6-0 graduate student Pookie Powell is Howard’s most significant recruit for his first season. Powell (16.9 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 4.3 apg) could have departed as a graduate transfer after receiving a sixth year of eligibility but opted to remain at La Salle.
“Pookie torched us twice when I was at Villanova, so he was a guy I was coming in with a great deal of respect for,” Howard said. “The thing I respect the most about Pookie is that he made the decision that he wanted to come back. That just says a lot about his character.”
Isiah Deas, a 6-6 junior guard, nearly tripled his scoring to 9.5 points per outing last season and will aim to become a more efficient presence with his role likely to expand this season.
Newbies of note: Expect Powell to team with Marquette transfer Traci Carter as part of one of the league’s most dangerous backcourts. The 6-1 Carter played two seasons with the Golden Eagles and averaged 4.6 assists as a freshman.
Like Carter, 6-3 wing David Beatty is another Philadelphia native who transferred home. Unlike Carter, he didn’t have to sit out a year thanks to an NCAA waiver. He averaged 3.0 points for South Carolina last year and has three years of eligibility remaining.
La Salle will look to a pair of 6-8 freshmen --- Ed Croswell and Jared Kimbrough --- to help fortify the frontcourt.
Reasons to be optimistic:
Howard isn’t coming in blind, having faced players like Powell, Deas and Carter in recent years.
But it’s also a fresh start that has the potential to breathe new life into the Explorers.
“It’s a clean slate,” Howard said. “New mindset, new expectations and our guys are doing their best right now to adhere to those expectations.”
Howard said players have been receptive to the coaching staff and is excited with what sort of path La Salle can take this season. In many ways, the Explorers are a wild card, and Carter’s impact in particular figures to be significant.
The next few months is about more than just this season. It will be pivotal for Howard to lay out what he wants from the program moving forward.
“Success this year is being committed to becoming the best team we can be,” Howard said. “Once we get to March, we’ll see what that looks like. Right now, I don’t think it’s smart to say we have to win X amount of games and that equates to success. It’s our first year here and we’re establishing the culture here of what we want to be moving forward.
X factor: It will be curious to see how much progress 6-10 sophomore Miles Brookins makes after he averaged 3.8 points and shot 59.7 percent from the floor last year. With the departures of Johnson and Washington, there’s playing time to be had in the post.
Circle the date(s): Thanks to the wonders of the annual round robin among the Philly teams, Howard will see his old team less than a month into his head coaching career. The Explorers will meet Villanova at the Palestra on Dec. 1, one of six games they will play against Philadelphia opponents. La Salle will also visit Temple in its Nov. 6 opener, play host to Drexel (Nov. 17) and Penn (Dec. 8) and play its customary home-and-home with A-10 rival Saint Joseph’s (Feb. 5 and March 2).
Bottom line: La Salle’s strength will likely be in the backcourt, with Powell (a second team preseason all-conference selection), Carter and Deas a group capable of making life tough for opponents on any night. Howard has some work to do, but the Explorers could make some progress in the standings this year.ee