Duquesne coach believes John Calipari does phenomenal coaching job

John Calipari has a fan in Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot knew it was probably too early in the season for his team to really challenge Kentucky — and he was right.

The Wildcats rolled 77-52 Friday night and impressed Dambrot in different ways.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be around a lot of good players. My hat goes off to Kentucky for two reasons. I think one, you know when you get all those McDonald’s All-Americans and you get them to play as hard as they did and share the ball, it says a lot about you as a coach,” the Duquesne coach said.

“But you’re talking about one of the most historic programs in college basketball. I know it better than most because, you know, my uncle played against Kentucky in the NIT in 1950. My dad played at Duquesne when they were number one in the country. So, I know more about the history of Kentucky than most coaches do.

“So, over time, I don’t think there’s been a better program. And again, I think what coach Cal does is phenomenal because it’s not easy to get young people to play that hard and together. They did a really good job.”

Kentucky had a lot of players play well but point guard Sahvir Wheeler — 11 points, 11 assists and six rebounds — probably impressed him the most.

“We knew that if we didn’t guard, we were going to have problems. We did a poor job of guarding the ball, but that’s tribute to him,” the coach said. “He’s a strong, tough, little guy that gets to where he wants to get and then shares the ball.”

“That was probably the key to the game. We just didn’t guard the ball well. And then, when you don’t guard the ball well, with all that shooting they have and then the size inside, you’re scrambling.”