GAME 1
Purdue Fort Wayne (0-0) vs. Duquesne (0-0)
Tuesday, November 3, 2026 | 7:00 p.m.
Pittsburgh, Pa. | UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (3,500)
Stream: ESPN+ with Tim Benz (pxp) & Ellis Cannon (color)
Radio: 104.7 HD2 | iHeartRadio with Darren Zaslau (pxp) & Ron Everhart (color)
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Opening Tip
- The Duquesne University men's basketball team opens its 2026-27 season and 111th year of NCAA Division I basketball Tuesday, Nov. 3, with a 7:00 p.m. tip at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse against Purdue Fort Wayne.
- The Dukes, selected
10th in the 2026 Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll, return two starters from 2025-26, including fifth-year guards
Tarence Guinyard and
Brandon Hall.
- Led by head coach
Dru Joyce III, who is in his third year at the helm of the program, Duquesne welcomes 10 newcomers to the roster this season, including six transfers and four freshmen. Included among the newcomers are transfer guards
Izaiah Pasha (Virginia Tech) and
Josh Smith (West Georgia).
- Pasha spent his freshman year in 2024-25 at Delaware, winning 2025 Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Rookie of the Year honors, while Smith was tabbed the 2026 ASUN Sixth Man of the Year in his lone season at West Georgia.
- The Dukes should also be bolstered in the frontcourt with the additions of
Yoav Berman (Queens),
Ege Demir (Oregon),
Kerem Konan (Creighton) and
Stephen Olowoniyi (Oregon State). Berman was named 2026 Second Team All-ASUN.
- The six NCAA Division I transfers that will compete for Duquesne in 2026-27 own combined career totals of 2,672 points, 967 rebounds, 446 assists and 185 steals entering the 2026-27 season. The incoming transfer with the most career points is Berman with 720, who has scored five more points than Smith (715). Olowoniyi, meanwhile, owns 380 career rebounds in three seasons at the NCAA Division I level.
- While 10 new players join the roster for 2026-27, a pair of Dukes who sat out the 2025-26 campaign to hone their craft will make their debut for Duquesne this season. Guard
Arness Lawson, the all-time leading scorer at Pickerington North High School, and forward
Frederik Jellum, who played for Denmark in the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 European Qualifiers, will look to become key rotation pieces for Duquesne.
- Only one player on the roster in 2026-27 was a member of the Dukes during the 2023-24 season, when Duquesne made its magical run to the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship and subsequent automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. That season, the Dukes finished 15-6 (.714) with guard
Jake DiMichele as a member of the starting lineup. Having missed an entire calendar year due to injury, DiMichele will enter the 2026-27 after a healthy offseason looking to continue to help Duquesne in various ways. He has played 62 career games on the Bluff and has averaged 5.8 points per game while shooting 45.5 percent (138-for-303) from the field.
- In all, Duquesne returns 27.7 percent (718-of-2,584) of its scoring, 14.6 percent (169-of-1,158) of its rebounding and 37.9 percent (189-of-499) of its assists.
At The Helm – Dru Joyce III was named the 18th head coach in the 110-year history of Duquesne basketball March 28, 2024, and in his third year at the helm in 2025-26. He owns an overall record of 31-34 (.477) in his first head coaching job. Joyce III, a native of Akron, Ohio, spent two seasons as associate head coach for the Dukes under Keith Dambrot from 2022 to 2024, helping guide Duquesne to an overall record of 45-25 (.643), including a 20-16 (.556) mark in the Atlantic 10, during that span. The Dukes made an appearance in the 2023 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) before earning the automatic bid for the A-10 in the 2024 NCAA Championship by winning four games in five days en route to the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship crown in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the Barclays Center. Duquesne, as a No. 11 seed, made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1977 and earned its first victory in the championship since 1969 thanks to a 71-67 win over No. 6 seed BYU in Omaha, Neb., at CHI Health Center Arena. During his four seasons on the coaching staff on the Bluff, the Dukes have averaged 19 wins a season.
Scouting the Mastodons – Member of the Horizon League ... Located in Fort Wayne, Indiana ... Tuesday's 2026-27 season opener marks the first meeting between the two programs ... The Mastodons are one of three opponents the Dukes will be facing for the first time in program history this year, joining Washington State (Nov. 10) and Kansas City (Dec. 5) ... Purdue Fort Wayne is one of two teams that Duquesne will face from the Horizon League, joining Robert Morris (Dec. 9) in a game that will be played at PPG Paints Arena as part of the Hope Gas Backyard Basketball Classic ... Purdue Fort Wayne is led by head coach Jon Coffman, who is in his 13th season and has compiled an overall record of 215-170 (.558) during his tenure ... Coffman has led the Mastodons through a conference change, as for his first six years as head coach PFW was a member of the Summit League before joining the Horizon League for the 2020-21 season (along with Robert Morris) ... Coffman has guided Purdue Fort Wayne to six postseason appearances, including the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) four times as well as spots in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 2016 and the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) in 2022 ... In the 2024 CIT, the Mastodons advanced to the final thanks to road wins over Bowling Green and Tarleton State before falling at Norfolk State, 75-67, in the championship … Purdue Fort Wayne played a pair of exhibition games, including a 92-62 loss to Purdue (Oct. 22) at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind., as well as a 78-70 victory at Ball State (Oct. 28) ... In the win over the Cardinals, Deandre Craig, Jr., was one of four players to reach double figures with a team-high 22 points ... Craig, Jr., shot 7-for-12 from the field, including 4-for-6 from beyond the arc, and 4-for-6 at the free-throw line in the win over Ball State ... Purdue Fort Wayne was picked to finish eighth in the Horizon League this season ... Craig, Jr., was named to the All-Horizon League Preseason First Team for 2026-27 and averaged 14.0 points per game last season.
Geography Lesson – The 2026-27 Duquesne roster features 16 players that represent six states in the United States as well as six different countries internationally. Among the states represented this year are three from Pennsylvania, two each from Florida and Illinois and one from Georgia, Maryland and Ohio. Internationally, countries represented on the 111th roster in Duquesne program history include Australia, Denmark, Greece, Israel, Nigeria and Türkiye.
Defense Wins Championships – Duquesne owns a record of 21-8 (.724) under head coach
Dru Joyce III when holding opponents to under 70 points after a 67-61 victory over Rhode Island (March 12) in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Atlantic 10 Championship, including 9-2 (.818) last year. The Dukes have also won 38 consecutive games dating back to the 2018-19 campaign when holding opponents to under 60 points thanks to a 71-59 victory at Loyola Chicago (Jan. 24) last season that helped Duquesne earn its third Atlantic 10 road win. Included in that stretch is a perfect 26-0 mark in four years Joyce III has been a member of the coaching staff on the Bluff, including two years as associate head coach from 2022 to 2024.
Heat Check – Very few members of the Dukes can heat up the way redshirt senior guard
Tarence Guinyard owns the ability to. Last season against Davidson (Feb. 25), Guinyard scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the second half, marking the sixth time during the 2025-26 campaign he scored at least 15 points after halftime, including five times in Atlantic 10 play. Guinyard's most impressive streak came in an 88-86 win over George Washington (Feb. 7), when he scored 23 of his 27 points after the break, including 16 consecutive points that powered the Dukes to victory. Guinyard also scored 19 of his game-high 23 points in the second half of a 71-59 triumph at Loyola Chicago (Jan. 24) as well as 18 of his season-high 30 points in the second half at Villanova (Nov. 15).
The Snake – A key for the Dukes this season may lie in a familiar name. Redshirt junior guard
Jake DiMichele returns for Duquesne and, after a healthy offseason, will look to continue the upward trajectory he flashed as a sophomore before injury shut his season down. Despite coming off the bench in each of the first seven games of the 2024-25 season prior to injury, DiMichele averaged 10.9 points while shooting 50 percent (29-for-58) from the field. Included among that stretch was a career-high 21 points against Milwaukee in which he scored 19 points in the second half and overall shot 9-of-13 from the floor. As a freshman during the 2023-24 campaign, DiMichele was a member of the starting lineup 21 times, with the Dukes 15-6 (.716) in those contests.
Mr. Smith – It seems as if redshirt senior guard
Tarence Guinyard may have another ying to his yang in 2026-27. As former guard
Jimmie Williams, a 2026 Atlantic 10 All-Conference Third Team pick, transferred to Ohio State last offseason, the Dukes brought in guard
Josh Smith from West Georgia. Like Guinyard last season, Smith scored in double figures 27 times. Also like Guinyard last year, Smith reached the 20-point plateau 11 times. Named the 2026 ASUN Sixth Man of the Year after starting just six of West Georgia's 31 games, Smith has scored 715 points in 64 career NCAA Division I games with N.C. Central (2023-25) and West Georgia (2025-26), an average of 11.2 points per contest.
At The Rim – In an effort to add production to the frontcourt, the Dukes welcome forward
Stephen Olowoniyi. A transfer from Oregon State, Olowoniyi's best season came as a sophomore at Southern Indiana, where in 30 games, including 29 starts, he averaged 13.9 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds per game while converting 59.1 percent (172-for-291) of his shots from the floor. Owning a career 57.1 percent (287-for-503) field goal percentage entering the 2026-27 campaign with Duquesne, Olowoniyi is also active protecing the rim, with 60 career rejections in 70 games, including 33 during his lone season at USI.
Deeper Dig – Junior wing
Yoav Berman showed the ability to score the basketball last season in averaging 12.3 points per game at Queens and helping lead the Royals to their first NCAA Championship appearance in program history, but an underlying facet is his ability to create. Berman dished out 127 assists last year and posted an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.15, which ranked sixth in the ASUN. In addition to ranking ninth in the ASUN in assists per game (3.63) in 2025-26, Berman owns a career scoring average of 10.3 points per game and owns 38 career double-figure scoring efforts.
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