Dru Joyce III has only been the head coach of the Duquesne men’s basketball program since March 2024, but he already knows his team has made a memory that will last a lifetime.
The Dukes were in Philadelphia for a game against Saint Joseph’s on Jan. 29. The timing couldn’t have been better, as one of Joyce’s longtime friends was in town for a game against the NBA’s 76ers — LeBron James and his Los Angeles Lakers. Joyce was so excited to introduce his team to his former high school teammate, and the squad got the chance to share some time with James and watched the basketball legend score 31 points in a loss.
Duquesne may not have come out with a win, either, but it’s something Joyce won’t forget anytime soon.
“They looked like 8-year-old kids,” Joyce said. “But man, the smiles on their faces. The time they had, whether they've had experiences like that or not ... they're gonna forget some games here. They're not gonna forget that. That's a special thing, and it was a lot of fun.”
Joyce got into coaching for moments like that — moments that share the joy of not only the sport, but each other's company. Moments like his father, Dru Joyce II, and brother, Cameron, watching Joyce lead his first ever practice or the players being adamant they celebrate Joyce’s birthday.
Those moments — and many others — are what makes the low points worth it, and Joyce is very familiar with the low points. His approach to coaching hasn’t wavered. He’s just learned a lot along the way.
If you watched Joyce early in the season, he was in what he called “attack mode.” He wanted to invoke a change of culture and mindset at Duquesne after taking over for longtime coach Keith Dambrot, who retired after a 22-year career. The best way to do that was to be on his athletes — in a positive manner, of course — but even Joyce can admit it was probably a bit too much.
“That's what I thought was needed at the time,” Joyce said. “I don't feel like I was wrong in doing so, but I think now isn't the time necessary for that. I still need to be sharp, and I'm still going to hold guys accountable, but I think we're at a point in the season where there's a level of trust.”
That trust didn’t build up overnight, and a rough start to the season couldn’t have helped.
No coach ever wants to start the season off 0-6, especially not when you’re a brand new coach, but that’s the situation Joyce found himself in.
It would’ve been easy for Joyce to start questioning himself. The public definitely did.
Duquesne was coming off its first NCAA tournament appearance in 50 years and was dropping game after game. But what the outside struggled to remember was it was a brand new team — only two starters returned, and one was dealing with a nagging injury. Adding in the seven new guys as well as a new coach meant it was going to take some time to work out the kinks.
That’s what kept Joyce going.
“My thought process was, get your shovel out,” Joyce said. “Keep going to work. Keep digging, keep going, keep going until you figure it out. Winning is a tough thing. It's hard to do. It's not easy to win. I already know that. I didn't think about how I'm taking over a program and how hard it is to do this. I think I sat there and said 1,000 times, ‘I'm gonna go to work. I'm gonna get to work, and we gotta figure it out. That's all I can do. I don’t think I can do anything else but that.’”
When the Dukes finally did get their first win of the season against Old Dominion on Nov. 26, you would’ve thought the team won the lottery. The players were elated to give Joyce his first win as a head coach.
Joyce didn’t think about it as a personal celebration. He was more excited for his players, especially ones who hadn’t seen a win in a while, such as Eli Wilborn. The sophomore transfer from Saint Francis hadn’t won a game since February 10, 2024, making it 12 straight losses for Wilborn going back to last season.
It was a sense of relief for Joyce because he could see the weight lifted off Wilborn’s shoulders, and it put things in perspective for the new coach.
“It’s like, ‘I go to a new place, and we start off 0-6. Is this who I am?’” Joyce said. “’Do I just go to losing programs? What does winning look like?’ You start to question it all. Not just him, that's just an example, but other guys as well, too. They came here to win. Getting that first one was I just wanted them to feel like, ‘Oh, it is okay. We can do it here.’”
By the time conference play rolled around, it was almost like a different team. The Dukes started as a team that didn’t have a ton of fight — they weren’t chasing rebounds and were hanging their heads. Suddenly they looked fluid offensively, shots were falling and the defense was locked in.
The change was a combination of Joyce settling into his role and the team jelling together.
Joyce is the first to admit that management is probably the area of coaching where he’s grown the most. It’s a challenge to manage so many personalities on top of the values he wanted to instill, holding them to high expectations.
Then there’s in-game management, whether that was new starting lineups, figuring out when to sub, when to call a timeout or even just which play to call. Now, Joyce has grown confident.
It helped that his group is very team-centric. Forward David Dixon approached Joyce about moving to the bench after starting the first chunk of games. It led to an improvement in Dixon’s game. Joyce realized that utilizing both Kareem Rozier and Tre Dinkins III at the point guard spot — sometimes together, other times swapping places — was going to allow for better ball movement.
The pieces started to fall together. Duquesne started Atlantic 10 play 4-1, and while it entered the weekend at .500 in-conference, there’s nothing but optimism coming from Joyce.
“It's not an exact science,” Joyce said. “That's the cool part about the game. With experience and reps, you just continue to get better. If you don't, the game will pass you by. That's my goal. No different than the player that, Year 1, he was a rookie and was good. His second year, he was better, and his third year, he keeps improving. I don't think it should go any differently.
“I don't want to be great then I come back next year and I'm all over the place, and I didn't learn anything from my mistakes. I just want to continue to grow, continue to get better.”
First Published: February 1, 2025, 11:05 a.m.
Updated: February 1, 2025, 6:58 p.m.
