By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Fans who enter the Reilly Center early when St. Bonaventure is set to face Duquesne may be surprised to see Dukes head coach Keith Dambrot already seated in the bench area, arms folded, observing pregame warmups. Few bench bosses leave the locker room before the national anthem is about to begin, but the 63-year-old makes the shootaround and layup lines a game-to-game ritual.
Dambrot, saddled with a 1-10 conference record and two defeats away from a 20-loss season, could be toeing the Reilly Center sidelines for the last time on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPNU). Duquesne recently sprang for a $45 million renovation of its arena, now called the UPMC Cooper Field House, but just lost by 21 in that building to a sub-.500 George Washington team on Wednesday, extending its losing streak to 11.
Dambrot, who is 1-9 against Bonaventure since arriving at Duquesne from Akron, is still under contract until 2024 but is just two years removed from a 21-win campaign. Predecessor Jim Ferry was fired after his fifth season, while Jim Satalin was the program’s last coach to make it past Year Six; Satalin’s tenure spanned from 1982-89.
The Dukes have been outscored 579-454 since Bona visited on Jan. 21, losing all but one game by double-digits. They made just 21 of their 76 field goal attempts against GW, one of just three Division I teams to take 75 or more shots but make fewer than 30 percent of them this season.
“Duquesne’s young,” Bona coach Mark Schmidt acknowledged, “but really talented. And when they’re making shots, they’re really good. We had a tough game down at Duquesne… so our guys understand how good they are. You can’t overlook anybody.”
The Bonnies are expected to win, potentially handily, but Schmidt’s comments were prompted by Duquesne outscoring his team 34-31 in the second half in Pittsburgh. Primo Spears scored 10 points and added four assists in the period as Duquesne opened on a 17-9 run to cut SBU’s lead to just three points.
Bonaventure never led by more than 11 points in the second half, but Osun Osunniyi controlled the paint: 21 points and 17 rebounds, including 13 offensive boards, in a performance too dominant for Duquesne to overcome.
Despite shooting 45 percent, the Bonnies scored fewer points in that 64-56 victory than they have in any win this season. Kyle Lofton and Dom Welch did not find much success, combining to make just four of their 16 attempts in their lowest output (nine points) in any game they’ve played together this season.
Bona registered its eighth-lowest effective field goal percentage (47.6 percent) of the year against the second-worst shooting defense in the A-10. Schmidt said his team needs to “do everything better” in the rematch of the home-and-home series.
“We’ve gotta execute better on offense. We’ve gotta shoot the ball better than we did down there,” Schmidt noted. “We’ve gotta keep them out of the paint; they got to the paint too easily. Offensive rebounding, they had 19 offensive rebounds. There was a lot of negatives, and we’ve gotta play that much better if we’re gonna win tomorrow.
“It’s all facets.”
SBU can overtake fourth place in the league standings with a win and Saint Louis loss at Davidson’s Belk Arena. With just five regular season games remaining (multiple sources tell Pickin’ Splinters the COVID-postponed game at George Washington University will not be rescheduled), each matchup is under a microscope.
The Bonnies’ last defeat against their longest-running rival was Feb. 26, 2020, an overtime loss in which Lofton and Osunniyi both missed potential game-winners in the waning seconds of regulation. That contest, coupled with a loss at La Salle, contributed to a deciding regular season finale in St. Louis to determine which team secured the last double-bye for the league tournament, had there been one.
SBU has two games remaining against the other teams in the top six of the conference standings. Richmond has four, while Saint Louis and VCU each have three and Davidson and Dayton play two apiece.
“It’s coming to an end; we’ve got five games. This is the most important time of the year,” Schmidt allowed. “This is the time when you want to be playing well… one game at a time, one possession at a time; you can go all the way down. … Every year at this time, there’s a sense of urgency. You don’t have time to make up for mistakes.
“We’ve gotta be playing well, and when we’re playing well we’ve gotta just continue to play well. We’ve won four in a row, but we’ve got five more games to go.”
Trust this coach. The man knows what hes doing. I kept saying that if anyone can turn this season around, its Mark Schmidt — and hes done it. He will get whatever his team has out of them. That doesnt guarantee anything in terms of hows far they go. But were seen t what he can do for 15 seasons now. And hopefully 15 more. Theres no one better for this program.