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The Duquesne basketball team is playing in its first NCAA Tournament since 1977, and they’ll hit the court in style for an opening round matchup against BYU.
Dukes’ players were each gifted a new pair of sneakers by LeBron James, who shares a close bond with head coach Keith Dambrot.
Dambrot coached James at St. Vincent-St. Mary High in Akron, as well as teammate Dru Joyce, who’s now an associate head coach on the Duquesne staff.
Showing support to his former high school leader, he sent his congratulations to the Dukes upon landing their historic postseason invite. Now, he’s sending a little something more!
LeBron gifted everyone on the Duquesne team a new pair of basketball shoes to don for that battle against BYU.
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“Yessir!! Best of luck, guys!!” King James wrote on his X feed, sending well wishes to the Dukes in Omaha.
How the team got here in the first place is incredible in its own right.
Duquesne wrapped up the regular season at 20-11 and sixth in the A10 standings. They’d then go on to rip off four straight wins, including taking down 24th-ranked Dayton, on their way to a conference tournament championship.
Upon booking that ticket to the Big Dance, Keith Dambrot announced that it would be his final season in college basketball. Going out on top!
The Duquesne basketball team begins its NCAA Tournament journey on Thursday against the Cougars. We’ll see if they can extend Dambrot’s season at least one more game.