While his players danced at center court, second-year head coach Duane Simpkins tearfully embraced his wife, Kirsten. Two years earlier, she had beamed with pride while listening to Simpkins, AU’s 18th head coach, lay out his vision for the program at his inaugural press conference on April 5, 2023.
Just down the street from Sidwell Friends, where he landed his first coaching job in 2005, the DC-area native and three-year starter at the University of Maryland called his shot. He was here to win. It was a stark contrast to the fortunes of the team he inherited, which had just finished 7–11 in the Patriot League.
“Being in the top three in the Patriot League isn’t enough,” Simpkins said at the time. “Our goal is to be the champion of the regular season, to win the Patriot League championship. My ultimate goal isn’t just to get to the NCAA tournament—we want to win games in the NCAA tournament.”
Duane Simpkins: “I caught these guys at a place where they had some legitimate, deep-down frustrations with where their college careers were going. They loved each other so much, they were willing to wait and see whether they could vibe with me.”
Matt Rogers, Kogod/BSBA ’24, MBA ’25, forward and Patriot League tournament MVP: “I loved his plan. Even though he’d just gotten here, he wanted to fix things right away. It’s not that I didn’t think we could ever win here. It’s just that nobody really instilled that confidence like he did.”
Ted Ringelheim, CAS/BA ’68, a season ticket holder for 22 years: “When I went to [Simpkins’s] first press conference, I knew immediately this was going to be a big change.”
Bram Weinstein, SOC/BA ’95, voice of the Washington Commanders and season ticket holder: “Duane Simpkins was the right man at the right time. He had deserved an opportunity like this for many seasons.”
Lincoln Ball, Kogod/BSBA ’24, MS ’25, guard: “It was really exciting the first time he came in the locker room and introduced himself to us. We’d been waiting for a while on a new coach, and he walked in with a big smile on his face. You could tell he was happy to be here. Since then, we’ve spent a lot of hours talking one-on-one.”
Simpkins: “When I got here, I met with every player individually. I had questions for them—what they love about AU, what they’d like to see done differently. Then I asked questions like, ‘What’s your biggest disappointment?’ Through those conversations, I shared my disappointments and things I wished I’d done differently. It gave them a glimpse of who I was. They’re not going to run through a wall for you if they don’t know that you care about them.”
Ball: “Coach Simpkins pushed us to spend a lot of time together outside of hoops because that relationship and that bond carries over to the court. Building deeper connections [makes you] want to play as hard as you can for each other.”
In Simpkins’s first season, the team finished with an improved 10–8 conference record, second in the Patriot League.
Rogers: “As Simp says all the time, we were laying the foundation.”
Simpkins: “We had a taste of success. I thought we had a chance last year. We lost nine games by two possessions or less. We had a taste of success, but by the last four or five games, we were so injured we were playing walk-ons. Because of all the injuries, all of us in the back of our minds were like, ‘What if we were all healthy?’”