Of all the compliments Duquesne men's basketball coach Ron Everhart received during last season, when his team constructed 21 wins, the one that hit him hardest came from -- of all people -- a football coach.

"Frank Beamer said something to me that was pretty special," Everhart said of the Virginia Tech football coach with more than 200 wins.

"After our NIT game, [a 116-108, double-overtime loss at Virginia Tech] coach Beamer came into our locker room and said, of all the teams that played at Virginia Tech last year, we played harder and as tough as anyone that came through that arena.

"To hear something from someone like that? That was very, very nice."

Compliments are nice, but those words will also serve as a springboard of sorts into this season -- a season that began with practice Friday and will get under way with a home exhibition contest Nov. 7 against La Roche College.

That team that played hard and tough last season, played for the Atlantic 10 championship and ventured into the postseason for the first time since 1994 has become something else this year -- vastly more experienced.

Last year, Duquesne entered the season as the youngest team in Division I -- suiting up eight scholarship freshmen.

"From a unity standpoint, and an experience standpoint, it is so much different now," said the only senior on this year's team, guard Jason Duty. "As last year went on, we started to grow up, we started to gain a lot of confidence in what we could do.

"I think this year is different because we head into it, right from the beginning with more confidence as a team, because we played together last year."

Indeed, almost all of them have played together, but there is one gaping hole. Duquesne must find a way to offset the graduation of Aaron Jackson, a first-team all-conference performer who scored 19.3 points per game last season.

The burden must be picked up by junior forward Damian Saunders (13.1 ppg, 7.6 rebounds per game) and swingman Bill Clark (12.9 ppg, 5.0 rpg), both of whom are returning starters along with Duty.

There is, though, a thought traveling through this team -- one that talk of how far the program has come needs to be ignored in a sense.

"As a program, everyone knows we have handled adversity in the past, but how can we handle prosperity?" Everhart asked. "That is the whole thing. We have to understand that, in reality, we haven't done anything yet.

"It is always nice to think that you have the ability, and I think that we proved that last year, that our ability has improved.

"But, if we don't keep a workmanlike approach to practice, if we don't understand things like team chemistry and sacrificing for the guy next to you, last year will be just a good year, and it won't be something we build off of."

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NOTES -- The Duquesne athletic department will host Fan Fest at 10 a.m. Saturday at the A.J. Palumbo Center. The event will feature scrimmages by the men's and women's teams, ceremonies to unveil the 2009 NIT and WNIT banners and contests for fans. ... Tickets for the Dec. 2 Pitt-Duquesne men's game at Mellon Arena are available through Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.com or 412-323-1919).

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