Fan or no fan -- you have to feel sad when a member of the family leaves. And Keith Dambrot is a member of the Akron family, with deep roots in the community and University. The long-time basketball head coach is heading east, to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, for a reported seven year, seven million dollar deal.

Dambrot led the Zips to their winningest season in history, but fell to Kent State in the MAC title game; that loss scrubbed any hopes of a March Madness berth. Akron went two rounds before falling in the NIT.

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(University of Akron) Earlier tonight, The University of Akron was informed that current men's basketball Coach Keith Dambrot has accepted the position as head basketball coach at Duquesne University.

The University has issued the following statement from UA Athletic Director Larry Williams and it is being shared with you at this time:

"We are very grateful for the enormous contributions that Coach Keith Dambrot has made to our excellent men's basketball program. His hard work with our student-athletes combined with their dedication to going the extra mile have brought great success to The University of Akron – including the winningest season in UA history – and we value his role in making that happen. He and the Dambrot family will always be a part of The University of Akron family, and we wish him well as he moves along.

We will immediately launch a national search for our new basketball coach and we reaffirm our commitment to building our basketball program and all of Akron Athletics into a nationally recognized program across the board. In addition to finding a new coach, we are working to be in a position to upgrade the James A. Rhodes Arena and we will need to rely on support from the community to achieve that goal."