‘Step by step’ for Joyce

When Dru Joyce III walked into his introductory press conference on Monday, he was hand in hand with his family. His wife, Lanae, was on one side with his older daughter, Alivia, and son, Kanin, with her. Joyce held the hand of 2-year-old Averie. His father, Dru Joyce II; mother, Carolyn; and mother-in-law also came to support Duquesne’s new head coach.

He greeted the people in the Africa room in Duquesne’s student union but was clearly in dad mode as he got his family situated. Only once each person was in their seat did Joyce step back and take a deep breath.

After president Ken Gormley and athletic director Dave Harper introduced Joyce, he took the podium. Joyce fiddled with his notecards, struggling to get them out of his suit pocket. He looked at his wife, smiled and began with his thank yous.

“I’m gonna get my first win here today,” Joyce said. “I don’t know if I’ll win the press conference or who judges that, but we want to get a win at home. That’s very important. So first person I want to thank is my beautiful wife.”

He continued to thank a litany of people from his father to little Averie to long-time friend LeBron James. Joyce was clear it was his relationships that got him to where he is and it will be a pivotal point of his coaching career.

“These young men are dropped off at Duquesne,” Joyce said. “We take on the responsibility of being that family and being someone that’s going to be there to guide them. That responsibility doesn’t sound too much different than parenting to me. It sounds very, very similar. And I say this isn’t transactional. ... It’s important to pour into the life of these young men because I know what that means. The experience that I’ve had, a village of people that have shared that same support with me.”

Joyce grew up in the gym watching his father coach. Joyce II currently serves as the head basketball coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School — Joyce III’s alma mater. He’s also the head of Northeast Ohio Basketball Association and the founder of the Dru Joyce Classic, one of the top youth AAU basketball tournaments in the United States.

Even as a child, Joyce III was paying attention to his father’s approach to leading. He’d take notes on everything from zone defense to how to be a good husband one day. He said by age 12 or 13, he knew he’d be a coach.

One of his biggest influences came from former Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot. The pair’s relationship began back in 1999 when Joyce III was the point guard for Dambrot’s St. Vincent-St. Mary High School team.

He’d follow Dambrot to Akron to play collegiately, and in 2022, when Dambrot was at Duquesne, Joyce III followed, too — this time as an associate head coach.

“Just the discipline of showing up every day with enthusiasm and energy,” Joyce said. “I think you can take that into any walk of life that you do. That was one of the biggest lessons I learned from him. After knowing him from the age of 12, seeing him run and jump all over the place with a bunch of 10-, 11-, 12-year-olds, to see him in his final season, bring that same energy — he couldn’t jump as high or run as fast, but he still managed to find a way.”

That translates directly to one of the three pillars for Duquesne in the Joyce era — enthusiasm.

Dambrot, 65, welcomed that energy, and it allowed Joyce to have the freedom to step in and make adjustments, even in game.

One of the moments from which Harper realized Joyce had the potential to be the next head coach came on the road against Rhode Island. The Rams started to gain momentum when, all of a sudden, the Dukes defense switched up.

“Somebody convinced coach Dambrot to play something other than man-to-man, which is a miracle in and of itself,” Harper said. “It stopped Rhode Island from getting downhill, preserving our lead. I ran up to [assistant coach] Rick McFadden. I said Rick, ‘Whose call was that?’ And he said it was Dru’s, and so that was just the beginning of things that we saw.”

When Joyce officially was offered the job on Thursday morning, he asked if one of his friends could be part of the announcement. He called James to share the news and ask him if he’d post the report on X.

James had fun with it, stating he was “the unquestioned source.” It was a full-circle way for the two to celebrate each other’s success. Joyce and James go way back, starting in high school where they were teammates at St. Vincent-St. Mary.

“It’s a friendship that goes way beyond the tweet,” Joyce said. “We’re gonna be honest with each other. We’re gonna motivate and push each other. We still continue to do this to this day. Our loyalty to each other has been a huge part in each of our lives. That’s not something that’s easy to find. You don’t want to replace anything like that. That’s just been a special relationship.”

That’s the foundation of another key part of Joyce’s culture for Duquesne — integrity. He wants his team to be focused on the right things. He wants players to want to fight for each other, a brotherhood similar to the one they used en route to the NCAA tournament this past season.

Recruiting is already a challenge, but with Joyce’s emphasis on good-character guys, it can be a bit harder to find someone that will fit. He’s already had his first recruiting call as head coach and is looking to fill some holes from last season’s squad.

The Dukes lost leading scorers Dae Dae Grant and Jimmy Clark III, in addition to Tre Williams and four graduate transfers. If no one enters the transfer portal, Duquesne retains a starter in Jake DiMichele, as well as key off-the-bench players like point guard Kareem Rozier and big man David Dixon. All three were in attendance at Joyce’s press conference, as were Jakub Necas and the Drame brothers, Fousseyni and Hassan.

“We’ve built something special, like very, very special,” Rozier said. “I feel as though we don’t win this past season unless we’re tight-knit like we were. Being able to fight through and live through adversity like we did, that’s where family comes from. Whatever happens, whoever they bring in, I just hope that they are ready to be embedded in that.”

The final aspect Joyce wants to emphasize at the helm is discipline. One of the reasons Harper wanted Joyce as head coach was that he isn’t afraid to try for the level of success Duquesne reached this year.

Which sometimes means morning practices even after the season is over.

But that is infused with his focus on not only his immediate family but the Duquesne family, as well. It’s been important for Joyce to integrate his children into the day to day of being a coach. Kanin was present for almost every press conference while the team was playing in Omaha, Neb.

Lanae Joyce joked that Kanin already bought a suit and is joking about being an assistant coach.

“He’s not expensive, so I can hire him,” Joyce said. “I can hire him as a contracted employee, but he’s invested. I love that about him. He is in full support of me and Duquesne. He loves the sport. He loves the idea of a team and he’s super competitive.”

Of course, Kanin can’t actually sit on the bench during games, but Joyce’s emphasis on bridging his two families has been huge.

“You want to have a coach that you don’t just see as a coach,” DiMichele said. “You see him as a dad. You kind of almost look at him as someone that’s just a mentor. You’re seeing the way he interacts with his kids. It kind of puts him in a different light for us, allows us to get a glimpse into what he’s like in his personal life.”

As Joyce made the hour and 45 minute drive in from Akron — his wife was quick to say they’d be moving soon — he sat in silence. Only in the last 15 minutes did he turn the music on. Whitney Houston’s “Step by Step” came on the radio.

A fitting song as Joyce officially starts his new role.

“It just reminds me of the journey that I’m about to go on, that we’re about to go on,” Joyce said. “The chorus went, ‘Step by step, day by day, brick by brick.’ That’s how we’ll grow. That’s how it will continue to grow. This is going to be difficult to do once again and to repeat, but we will. We will hold a trophy again. We will cut down nets and we’re going to raise another banner.”

Abby Schnable: aschnable@post-gazette.com and @AbbySchnable on X