Dambrot faces big challenge
PITTSBURGH — Sid Dambrot spent four years as a player at Duquesne in the 1950s turning the Dukes into a regional and national power.
Over 60 years later, his son Keith is ready to do the same for the Dukes in the Atlantic 10.
Keith Dambrot, the longtime Akron coach, was officially introduced at his father’s alma mater on Thursday, pledging to revive a program that hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 1977 and spent the better part of the last 30 years struggling for relevance.
“It took a long time to make this decision and it took a long time for me,” Dambrot said. “I had to know we were really committed to winning, committed to playing at a championship level, not a middle of the Atlantic 10 level.”
Duquesne’s perennial spot near the bottom of the A-10 hardly deterred Dambrot, who took over a similar rebuilding job at Akron and led the Zips to 305 wins and three NCAA appearances in 13 seasons.
While admitting he left some in Akron stunned by his decision to leave a program he’d turned into one of the most consistent winners in the Mid-American Conference, Dambrot could not resist the chance to do the same at a place so near to his family’s heart.
