The Duquesne men’s basketball team is set to begin its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 47 seasons. In coordination with the special occasion, the Dukes received some spectacular gifts from Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.
During a team meeting on Wednesday, Duquesne received new sneakers from James himself ahead of the team’s matchup against BYU.
Appreciate it King 🙏@DuqMBB x @KingJames pic.twitter.com/yTiQFMBno0
— Duquesne Basketball (@DuqMBB) March 20, 2024
The team was clearly over the moon when the gifts arrived and were truly appreciative of the gesture from James.
James has been a big supporter of the Dukes’ program in recent years, and even congratulated them following Sunday’s victory in the Atlantic 10 tournament. That’s because Duquesne head coach Keith Dambrot was James’ coach when he played at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron before being drafted.
This will be Dambrot’s final collegiate season as he plans to retire following this year’s NCAA Tournament run.
Duquesne has had a very impressive season as they put together a 24-11 (10-8 Atlantic 10) record this season. The Dukes won the Atlantic 10 conference tournament this past weekend to earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
The No. 11 seed Dukes will face off with the No. 6 seed Cougars on Thursday with the game set to tip off at 12:40 p.m. ET.