So we're paying our new men's basketball coach $1m/year. There are plans to renovate and upgrade the Palumbo Center into a state-of-the-art facility at a cost of at least $40-50m. The criticism that Duquesne is spending too much on basketball has already started and will likely intensify. So I'll just leave this from Jay Bilas' column on ESPN.com today. We may never reach this level under Dambrot or any other coach, but good basketball is good business for schools like Duquesne:

At a time when Gonzaga University was struggling financially and enrollment was waning, Monson, behind the great play of Matt Santangelo, Richie Frahm and Casey Calvary, guided Gonzaga to the 1999 Elite Eight, where the Zags lost to eventual champion UConn. That Elite Eight trip was the catalyst for the explosion that has been Gonzaga basketball, one of the great programs in college basketball history. The success of the basketball program brought money and prestige to Gonzaga, and the university is now one of the best and healthiest in the nation.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/19034333/jay-bilas-gives-some-advice-need-know-gonzaga-oregon