By ASSOCIATED PRESS

PITTSBURGH - Duquesne's unexpected dash to the AAtlantic 10 tournament finals earned the Dukes their first postseason appearance in 15 years.

The Dukes (21-12), who pulled off upsets of Rhode Island and Dayton before losing to Temple in the conference finals Saturday, will play Virginia Tech (18-14) in a first-round NIT game Wednesday night in Blacksburg.

It's a homecoming for coach Ron Everhart, who was a senior co-captain while playing at Virginia Tech from 1981-85.

"The bus won't get lost, that's for sure," Everhart said.

A coincidence? It almost certainly isn't.

"It's so funny when I got the phone call and my daughter (Gianna) yelled out, 'Daddy, daddy what happened?'" he recalled. "I said we're playing in NIT on TV on Wednesday night, and it's at Virginia Tech. And she said, 'Oh, they did that on purpose' ? andd that's a 10-year-old saying that."

The postseason appearance is a surprise for the Dukes, who were picked to finish 12th in the 14-team Atlantic 10 before the season started. Despite a roster filled with eight freshmen, they put together the school's first 20-win season in 28 years and, led by senior guard Aaron Jackson, won three games in three days to reach the A10 championship game.

None of these Dukes players had won a game in the Atlantic 10 tournament until this season.

"Just having a chance to play in the postseason is an honor and a privilege for our guys," Everhart said. "To be able to do it at your alma mater, that's as good as it gets."

The Dukes' tournament run came only three seasons after they had one of the worst major-college records in the nation, going 3-24 in 2005-06. The season after that, five players, including Jackson, were shot following an on-campus party. Last season, the Dukes bounced back for their first winning season (17-13) since 1993-94.

The Dukes haven’t in postseason play since 1994.