Duquesne Releases 2006-07 Basketball Schedule

Fourteen home games, including a late-January homestand against traditional Atlantic 10 powers Dayton, Temple and Xavier, highlight the 2006-07 Duquesne University men's basketball schedule released today.

Duquesne schedule

First-year head coach Ron Everhart's Dukes open the season with four home games in a 10-day span starting with Youngstown State on Monday, Nov. 13. UNC Asheville (Nov. 18), Northern Illinois (Nov. 20) and Oakland (Nov. 22) close out the homestand before the Dukes leave the Palumbo Center for the first time for a return game at Northern Illinois on Nov. 25.

The Northern Illinois road game begins a stretch that sees the Dukes at home just once in nearly seven weeks between Nov. 22 and Jan. 10. In all, DU will play eight times on the road during that span with the lone home game on Dec. 9 versus West Virginia.

Following the game at NIU, the Dukes will face local rivals Robert Morris (Dec. 2) and Pittsburgh (Dec. 6) on the road before returning home to take on the Mountaineers. On Dec. 16, DU will head to Niagara before completing the non-conference portion of the schedule at Saint Francis, Pa. (Dec. 22) and Boston College (Dec. 28).

For the seventh consecutive year, Duquesne will open the 16-game Atlantic 10 season on the road with back-to-back games at Saint Joseph's (Jan. 3) and at Saint Louis (Jan. 6) before returning to Pittsburgh for the A-10 home opener vs. La Salle on Jan. 10. The Dukes will then host Fordham in a Sunday afternoon game on Jan. 14 before heading to Amherst, Mass. to face Massachusetts on Jan. 21.

Duquesne closes out January with home games versus perennial A-10 contenders Dayton (Jan. 24), Temple (Jan. 27) and Xavier (Jan. 31).

DU opens the month of February at St. Bonaventure (Feb. 3) for a CSTV game versus the Bonnies. Other February road opponents include La Salle (Feb. 7), Richmond (Feb. 14) and Fordham (Feb. 18), with Rhode Island (Feb. 11), Charlotte (Feb. 21), St. Bonaventure (Feb. 24) and Akron (Feb. 26) set to visit the Palumbo Center.

The Dukes complete the regular season at George Washington on March. 3.

The top 12 conference finishers will qualify for the 31st Atlantic 10 Championship, scheduled for March 7-10 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

2006-07 SCHEDULE QUICK NOTES

• The 14 Atlantic 10 teams compete in one division. Each team faces three opponents twice and the other 10 once in a 16-game schedule. Duquesne's home-and-home opponents for the second straight year are Fordham, La Salle and St. Bonaventure.
• DU will play three 2005-06 NCAA tournament teams and one NIT team in non-conference play. NCAA teams include: at Pittsburgh (Dec. 6), West Virginia (Dec. 9) and at Boston College (Dec. 28). Akron (Feb. 26) played in last year's NIT.
• The Dukes will play Northern Illinois twice in the span of six days in a rare home-and-home non-conference series (Nov. 20 at home & Nov. 25 away). The last time Duquesne played a non-conference home-and-home series was 1968-69 vs. Saint Francis, Pa. The last time DU played a non-conference foe twice in the same year was 1993-94 (Charlotte in a regular-season road game and in the first round of the NIT at the Palumbo Center).
• Saint Francis, Pa. - Duquesne's fourth-most-frequent all-time opponent - is back on the schedule for the first time since 1997-98.
• After opening the season with four consecutive home games, the Dukes will have just one home game (Dec. 9 vs. West Virginia) between Nov. 22 and Jan. 10. It marks just the third time in the past 30 years DU will open with four in a row at home (2003-04 and 1986-87 were the others).
• UNC Asheville and Northern Illinois are first-time opponents for Duquesne.