Keith Dambrot

Keith Brett Dambrot (born October 26, 1958) is an American former college basketball coach who was most recently the men's basketball head coach of Duquesne University. In his final year, he led them to their first tournament appearance since 1977, and first tournament win since 1969.

During his high school head coaching career, he coached future NBA star LeBron James for two years. During 13 seasons of head coaching at the University of Akron, he had a regular game season 305–139 record and was the winningest coach in the program's history.

He is a three-time Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year. In 2010, he was elected into the Summit County Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2013 he won the Red Auerbach Coach of the Year Award as the country's top Jewish college basketball coach.

Early life Dambrot was born in Akron, Ohio, and is Jewish. Dambrot's mother, Faye, was a psychology professor at the University of Akron while he was growing up. His father Sid Dambrot played on Duquesne Dukes men's basketball teams that were ranked No. 1 in the nation from 1952 to 1954. In college at the University of Akron, he played third base on the Akron Zips baseball team (of which he was captain and MVP) for the school, establishing what at the time was a school record for career hit by pitch, with 28. He sued the university in a wrongful discrimination lawsuit, and all 11 black players on the team joined his lawsuit in support of Dambrot, claiming the university's policy against discriminatory language was too vague. He eventually lost the suit, though the students prevailed in overturning the school's language policy.

St. Vincent-St. Mary High School The incident at Central Michigan essentially blackballed Dambrot from college coaching. Dambrot was only able to coach at the Akron Jewish Community Center and in some summer leagues.

University of Akron Dambrot left St. Vincent-St. Mary in 2001 to return to coaching as an assistant at the collegiate level at his alma mater, the University of Akron. After becoming the head coach of Akron in 2004, Dambrot led the Zips to 19 victories in Dambrot's first season (2004–05). Akron was one of only four schools - along with Duke, Gonzaga, and Kansas - to win 21 or more games in 12 seasons before Dambrot left in 2017. In 2013, he won the Red Auerbach Coach of the Year Award as the country's top Jewish college basketball coach, and was named the MAC Coach of the Year. He won back-to-back Mid-American Conference regular season titles in 2016 and 2017, and coach of the year honors those seasons.

Duquesne University

On March 30, 2017, Dambrot was named the 17th head coach at Duquesne in the school's 101-year history. The Dukes had finished 10-22 the season before he took over as head coach. Duquesne improved to 16-16 while finishing 10th in the Atlantic 10 in its first season under Dambrot. The No. 11–seeded Dukes upset the No. 6–seeded BYU squad 71-67, before falling to Illinois in the second round.

Personal life Dambrot is married to his wife Donna. Their son, Robby Dambrot, is a professional soccer player.

Head coaching record

College