Ron Everhart, whose specialty is rebuilding downtrodden basketball programs, appears to be on schedule at Duquesne.

The Dukes, 10-3 for their best start since 1979-80, are following the pattern of his teams at McNeese State and Northeastern, which both made huge strides with winning records his second season there. But the circumstances at Duquesne have been far different than at his first two jobs as a head coach.

Not only did he have to piece together almost an entire new team because so many players transferred upon his arrival, Everhart had to hold together his players and the Duquesne basketball community when five of the Dukes were wounded in a shooting on campus after a dance in September 2006, nearly two months before he coached his first game.

"They had to go through as tough a year as I've ever had, emotionally and basketball-wise," Everhart said. "But [the shootings] accelerated the process of creating a bonding, a trust in each other and gave us some sense of cohesiveness right away."

Recruiting enough players to field a team was much easier than regrouping his players, who were deeply affected by the shootings. When five of Danny Nee's players left school -- Ronnie Thomas, Chauncey Duke, Sean McKeon, DeVario Hudson and Brian Kelly -- Everhart had little time to recruit a lot of players. Only Kieron Achara and Aaron Jackson remained from Nee's 3-24 team.

"Those two stepped up and were leaders," Everhart said. "There weren't a lot of holdovers, and a lot of obstacles had to be overcome. You have to change the mind-set, that's the whole key. You need to bring in players who embrace hard work, not be afraid of it. Young guys do want discipline, and it's up to the coaches to help them go into adulthood.

"The one common thing when you take over a program that hasn't had a lot of success is that first group of guys has to embrace the concept of team and accountability and get on the same page."

Everhart brought in five junior-college transfers, a graduate student, three freshmen and two transfers. Junior-college transfers Stuard Baldonado (lower back and elbow) and Sam Ashaolu (head) sat out last season after being shot.

Baldonado was suspended by Duquesne this fall after two arrests involving drugs and a domestic charge in Florida and has since left school. Ashaolu sat out last season while he recuperated and is attending classes but most likely won't ever play basketball at Duquesne.

The two transfers, center Shawn James (Northeastern) and point guard Kojo Mensah (Siena), sat out last year when Everhart revitalized the Dukes in midseason with a two-platoon substitution system every couple of minutes that resulted in a 10-19 record.

"Those guys already had the mind-set of what it takes they learned from where they had been," Everhart said. "They came from winning programs and expected to win at Duquesne."

Two freshmen from that team transferred: Robert Mitchell (Seton Hall), the Atlantic 10 Conference freshman of the year, and Scott Grote (Wright State).

In 2007 Duquesne became the second team to receive the United States Basketball Writers Association Most Courageous Award, which honors "a player, coach, official or administrator who has demonstrated extraordinary courage reflecting honor on the sport of amateur basketball."

With James and Mensah and three freshmen joining the returnees, Duquesne has emerged as a surprise team in the A-10 and takes a four-game win streak into its league opener tomorrow against Fordham at Palumbo Center.

Barring an unforeseen collapse, Duquesne is on pace for its first winning season since 1993-94.

Everhart, who took over a McNeese State program that had five consecutive losing seasons before his arrival, went from 11-16 his first year to 15-12 his second. He was named the Southland Conference coach of the year in 2000-01, when the Cowboys won their first outright conference title in 26 years. His teams led the conference in scoring twice.

At Northeastern, Everhart inherited a program that had averaged 8.7 wins in the six years before he got there. After going 7-21 his first season, the Huskies improved to 16-15 the next year. He was the America East Conference coach of the year in 2004-05 and his teams were the highest-scoring in the conference four times.

Duquesne tops the Atlantic 10 Conference with an average of 88.2 points per game.

"You're never going to see one of my teams slow it down," said Everhart, 45, who has a 194-194 record in 13-plus seasons as a head coach. "My teams are always going to play up-tempo. I expect my teams to always play hard and leave nothing on the court."

That's the way Everhart did it at McNeese State and Northeastern. And that's the way he's doing it at Duquesne.