Adelphi University Athletics

Dave Duke was named head coach of the men's basketball program at Adelphi University on April, 29, 2014 by Director of Athletics Danny McCabe, and enters his 11th season at the helm of the Panthers in 2024-25. 

During his tenure at Adelphi, Duke has led a program turnaround, posting six winning seasons and compiling a 133-98 (.576) record since the 2015-16 campaign. Over the past five seasons, the Panthers have earned a regular season championship (2024-25), placed second in the conference standings three times, including the 2023-24 season, and third once. The 2024-25 season was a historic one for Duke as he was named the Northeast 10 Coach of the Year while leading the Panthers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012 as the East Region's No.2 seed. Under Coach Duke’s guidance, the team has produced five CoSIDA Academic All-American awards, the first such awards in the Men’s Basketball program’s history. In addition, Duke has mentored nine players who have earned all-conference honors in the Northeast 10, including Jarnel Rancy, the 2024-25 NE10 Defensive Player of the Year and NCAA blocks leader, Ronnie Silva, who was voted First Team all-conference in 2020 and 2022, and Dayshaun Walton, who was tabbed First Team all-conference in 2024 as well as earning D2CCA all-region, NABC all-district and All-Met honors in 2025. Other all-conference honors players have earned under Coach Duke include six all-rookie selections, two rookie of the year selections and one all-defensive selection. Three of the top seven scorers in Adelphi history have been recruited and coached by Duke, including Silva, the program’s all-time leading scorer.  Coach Duke’s players also hold all-time program records for field goal percentage (Nick Cambio) and Assists (Conor McGuinness) and hold the top three spots in 3-point Field Goals Made in Panther history.

Prior to Adelphi, Duke spent four years at Fordham, where he was Associate Head Coach. He helped the Rams to an appearance in the Atlantic-10 Championship during his final season, and was instrumental in recruiting Atlantic-10 and All-Met Rookie of the Year, Jon Severe and future NBA player, Eric Paschall.

Duke started his basketball coaching career as a graduate assistant at Hofstra University under Naismith Hall of Famer Jay Wright. Duke worked under Wright for one season as a full-time assistant coach before joining Tom Pecora's staff at Hofstra when he took over the helm in 2001. Duke was a part of two NCAA tournaments (2000 and 2001) and four National Invitation Tournaments, including three in a row from 2005-2007, at Hofstra. During the 2005-06 seasons, the Pride tied a then school record with 26 wins and advanced to the NIT quarterfinals.

Duke helped bring in a number of top level recruiting classes at Hofstra, including the program’s all-time leading scorer and three-time Haggerty Award winner and Golden State Warrior draft pick, Charles Jenkins. Duke also recruited Antoine Agudio, Hofstra's 3rd all-time leading scorer, and Loren Stokes, Hofstra’s 5th all-time leading scorer. In addition, Duke coached guards Craig "Speedy" Claxton, who was chosen in the first round of the 2000 NBA Draft and Norman Richardson, who appeared in the NBA with the Washington Wizards, Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers.

In 2003 and 2004, Duke was the head coach of the Long Island's men's open team at the Empire State Games that won consecutive championships -- the first time that Long Island has ever won back-to-back titles in the history of the Empire State Games.

Duke earned his undergraduate degree in 1997 from SUNY Albany where he majored in communications with a minor in education. In the 1997-98 season, he played on the basketball team at nearby New York Institute of Technology.

Duke's Year-by-Year Coaching Record 

Year	-Overall-		-Conference-	-Notes/Postseason-
	W-L	Pct.	W-L
2014-15	6-20	.231	3-17 NE10	-
2015-16	20-9	.690	12-8 NE10	NE10 Quarterfinals
2016-17	18-12	.600	10-10 NE10	NE10 Quarterfinals
2017-18	11-18	.379	7-13 NE10	NE10 First Round
2018-19	19-10	.655	13-7 NE10	NE10 Quarterfinals
2019-20	18-11	.621	11-8 NE10	NE10 Quarterfinals
2020-21	-	-	-	No season due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021-22	17-10	.630	11-7 NE10	NE10 First Round
2022-23	12-17	.414	6-14 NE10	NE10 First Round
2023-24	18-11	.621	14-8 NE10	NE10 Quarterfinals
2024-25	26-8	.765	17-3 NE10	NE10 Semifinals, NCAA East Region Quarterfinals
TOTALS	165-126	.567	104-95 NE10	11 years (10 seasons), 9 NE10 Playoff Appearances, 1 NCAA Tournament Appearance