The Keith Dambrot era is a wrap.

Duquesne’s outgoing basketball coach already had cast his vote for a successor before his last game Saturday night, but the decision ultimately will come from athletic director Dave Harper.

Or will it?

“Dave’s the boss,” Dambrot said last week during a news conference announcing his retirement ahead of the team’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 47 years.

“He’s the boss, but I’m strong-willed.”

Harper has not commented on a possible replacement. During the news conference, he acknowledged Dambrot’s accomplishments at Duquesne, which include three 20-win seasons.

The Dukes finished the current year one victory shy of tying a single-season record for most wins.

“With all that’s going on,” Harper said, “he deserves this week, the team deserves this week. That’s what it’s about.”

Following Saturday’s season-ending 89-63 loss to Illinois in the NCAA Tournament second round, Duquesne associate head coach Dru Joyce III emerged as the favorite among most observers to take over.

A university athletic department spokesman declined comment.

When asked before the tournament if he would have a say in the hire, Dambrot looked at the 39-year-old Joyce, seated to the right of him several rows from the front.

“Every program I leave,” Dambrot began, his eyes fixed on Joyce but his head tilted toward the crowd. “I try to leave it in a better place. So, uh, I’m sure our next coach … ”

He paused for effect while still looking at Joyce.

“I’m sure our next coach will take it to the next level.”

Joyce, who just completed his second season at Duquesne, played for Dambrot at Akron and before that at nearby St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. Joyce was a high school teammate of LeBron James, and the two remain close.

Joyce’s father, Dru Joyce II, is boys coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary, where the court carries his name.

Duquesne, which won its second Atlantic 10 Tournament championship to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, finished the season 25-12.

On Thursday, the Dukes beat BYU for their first NCAA Tournament win in 55 years, but they ran into an Illinois team with too much firepower.

The 26-point loss was Duquesne’s worst of the season.

“It really didn’t matter what the score was. It’s irrelevant because we’ve set the foundation for great things to come in the future for Duquesne basketball,” Dambrot said. “We’ve laid a good foundation for Duquesne to be a good program in the future.”

Dambrot ends his career with a 529-305 record in 26 seasons, including 441-269 in Division I.

The Dukes will lose at least seven players, including leading scorers Dae Dae Grant (16.4 ppg) and Jimmy Clark III (15.0).

Fousseyni and Hassan Drame, Andrei Savrasov, Dusan Mahorcic and Tre Williams, who missed a portion of the A-10 Tournament and both NCAA Tournament games with a torn labrum, are the other departing Dukes.

“Just being able to say you were going to do something and then see it happen, it was just good to see that,” Clark said. “Especially with these guys.”

With Grant sidelined with a concussion, Duquesne started its A-10 schedule on a bad note, losing five in a row before turning around its season.

The Dukes went 16-4 over the final 20 games, including a nine-game winning streak that ended Saturday.

But the loss did little to dampen Grant’s outlook. He thanked Dambrot for some tough love.

“We had a meeting earlier in the season, and I was basically asked to be coached harder,” Grant said. “I accepted that challenge. Before then, that wasn’t the case, and our relationship wasn’t as balanced. Coach was starting to coach me harder, and our relationship just grew, and I became much more appreciative just to have him as a coach, to be under his wing, to learn more, whether it’s off the court or on the court.

“Things just to make me a better man.”

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