Duquesne Dukes

Duquesne basketball is a proud piece of Pittsburgh's sports history, playing on a bluff overlooking the city's downtown skyline. The Dukes built their name during a golden mid-century era of city college basketball, and the program still carries that old-school, blue-collar identity today. Duquesne was also a pioneer in integrating college basketball, recruiting Black players when many programs would not. Today the Dukes compete in the Atlantic 10, playing home games at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

Duquesne's peak came in the 1950s, when the Dukes won the 1955 National Invitation Tournament, at the time considered on par with the NCAA tournament in prestige, defeating Dayton in the championship game. The Dukes made six NIT appearances between 1950 and 1956, establishing the program as a national power of that era. Duquesne has never won an NCAA championship and had a long postseason drought before returning to the NCAA tournament in the 2020s. The program's 1950s NIT title remains its signature achievement.