Duquesne on brink of winning season

PITTSBURGH -- The Duquesne Dukes don't list it as a goal on their locker room chalkboard. If they discuss it, they do so only when notepads or cameras aren't around.

Regardless, one of the nation's worst Division I basketball programs since the early 1980s is one victory away from its first winning season in 14 years and only its second in 21 years.

Certainly, it would be a modest accomplishment for most schools. Considering how far Duquesne's program has come in only two seasons, from a 3-24 record in 2005-06 and the on-campus shootings of five players 17 months ago, the feat would be a giant one.

Even if the Dukes (15-7) seemingly aren't paying much attention to it.

"It's one of those things that you might look back on in hindsight, after the season is over, and say, 'That's a good thing,"' coach Ron Everhart said Tuesday. "But our guys right now, the worst thing in world would be to think they're satisfied with a winning season. We're trying to position ourselves in the league (Atlantic 10) race."

That's something few Dukes teams of recent vintage have discussed in mid-February: the conference race. The Dukes are 5-4 in league playing going into tonight's game at Dayton (16-6, 4-5).

Not many in Pittsburgh thought the Dukes' rebuilding project would be nearly this far along during Everhart's second season, with four wins in their last six games.

Fittingly, Duquesne's modest surge of late has been led by guard Aaron Jackson, one of only two remaining players from that 3-24 team of 2005-06 and one of the players shot in September 2006.