For Duquesne Women’s basketball coach Dan Burt, it all started in a tiny barn in Washington, PA.
“Burt’s Barn,” as many people in Washington with a ball in their hands know was a basketball court inside an old barn built by the Burt family that hosted myself and many of other Washington youngsters working on their games.
Burt took a long road from that barn to become one of the more successful rookie collegiate coaches in the nation last season, where Burt was one of just five NCAA Division I first year head coaches to win 20 games. Burt was also named a finalist for the 2014 Spalding Maggie Dixon Division I Rookie Coach of the Year award.
“It really started with the Barn and the Bronson House with my dad Dan and my uncle Harold,” said Burt. “I referenced that during my press conference. That’s really why the position that I’m in. My pride and joy will always be winning the seventh grade Bronson House championship with my dad as the coach and my uncle and cousins on that team. It will always mean something to me and I learned a lot about being a coach from my family.”
Burt took those lessons he learned as a youth and while he played for Trinity High School in Washington, PA. and West Liberty, he initially was known more for being a referee.
It was his experience as a ref that initially got him his first look as a coach.
“A lot of people in Washington knew me as a basketball referee,” said Burt. “I got my start doing games at the YMCA and moved up quickly to doing high level high school and college games.”
Burt still coached a bit during summer camps and still wore the whistle as a referee, which got him noticed by then West Virginia head coach Alexis Basil, who offered him a job on her staff.
“She called me up and said with all your different experiences I would like you to be on my staff,” added Burt. “I thought she meant her camp staff until she said that’s not what I’m talking about. I want you to be on my real staff.”
Burt spent three years at WVU (1998-01) before he left for a job at UNC Wilmington (2001-04) where he stayed until he landed the job as the top assistant at Bucknell (2004-07).
He remained there until Duquesne offered him an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
“I had the chance to come home,” said Burt. “To serve as the top assistant to Suzie (McConnell-Serio) was an honor, but I couldn’t pass up a chance to come home.”
Along Burt’s path to Duquesne, he not only garnered a reputation as a coach who could do some good things with post players, but gained the reputation as one of the country’s top recruiters as well, including having the nation’s 39th ranked recruiting class in 2013 as ranked by Blue Star Basketball.
During Burt’s time as both an assistant and as the head coach at Duquesne, the Dukes have extended their streak of 20-plus win seasons to six, something only 21 teams in women’s basketball can say they have accomplished.
The Dukes have also made the postseason six consecutive years, losing in the second round of last year’s WNIT to Michigan in the second round.
Of Duquesne’s last eight seniors, six of them have gone on to play professionally and all of their seniors have graduated in four years, which speaks a lot to how good of a program that Duquesne has become.
“I think that reputation is something I earned,” said Burt. “I think I learned a lot from all the people around me about how to run a successful program.”
But while most assistant coaches are working hard to become a head coach, that was never the top priority of Burt’s.
That is until Duquesne gave him the opportunity.
“Anytime that you get into coaching, you want to be a head coach,” added Burt. “Duquesne is actually the only head coaching job I interviewed for. Until then I never really made it a priority. I wanted to learn as much as I could about being a head coach up until then. It had to be the right opportunity and Duquesne is home to me. It’s a special place to be. I want to be at Duquesne. I won’t take another coaching job.”
Burt had great success in his first year on the bench, including an impressive run inside the Atlantic-10 Conference in which he became the first rookie head coach to win double digit conference games since 2009.
The Duke 10 A-10 wins were the most any Duquesne team has won since 1983-84.
However with all of the success as a recruiter and a coach, the upcoming season could be a challenge for Burt and the Dukes as a lot of young players are going to get a long look during the 2014-15 campaign.
“That’s the mark of a good program,” added Burt. “When you have freshmen that come in and don’t play right away because you have a ton of talent in front of them. We’ve been that way for a while now, but we just graduated a ton of talent. We are going to be young and inexperienced this year but we are talented and I like our players. We have some kids that are ready for a breakout season. We will find out a lot about ourselves.”
In terms of building a program, Burt has been a big part of helping build the Dukes into a legitimate women’s contender in the Atlantic-10 year in and year out.
One of the biggest signs is that the kids want to be there.
In eight years, Duquesne has had only two kids transfer, which is very impressive considering most programs end up averaging over one transfer per season.
But at the end of the day, Burt knows that while the foundation may be laid at Duquesne, there’s a lot more work to do and more goals to achieve, including going dancing in March for the first time in program history.
“We’ve played in the postseason for six consecutive years, but we have never made the NCAA Tournament,” said Burt. “That’s always the goal right there. We have been squarely on the bubble the past few years and we want to be a tournament team and compete for a championship. There are other goals like continuing the 20-win streak, finding pro opportunities for our seniors and keeping our staff intact.”
With Burt leading the charge, I would bet it won’t take long before the Duquesne women’s basketball team starts achieving those goals.
Photo Credit: Post Gazette
