I'll never understand why he chose to leave Akron the way he did - ripping fans, the JAR, emptying the cupboards of the program, etc. He had a roller coaster career at Akron, but ultimately peaked 9 years in and declined during his remaining years at the helm of the Zips. Never really sniffed a tourney win, only won 3 MAC tournaments despite 8 or 9 trips, and had a slew of program issues with Diggs, Harney, Treadwell, Abreu, etc. He failed to recruit Larry Nance Jr to boot. It doesn't help that during the peak and decline of the program in his final years as our coach, we witnessed Ohio & Buffalo go on runs in the NCAA Tourney that he never accomplished, and chose to make excuses (see the opening sentence). The shine of the Dambrot era wore off real quick for me. I appreciate where he took Akron from where the program was when he started, but that's about it.
I've actively rooted against Dambrot since he arrived at Duquesne. With all that being said, this year is a little different given everything he has gone through. With the passing of his dad and his wife being diagnosed with cancer, the human in me isn't upset to see him have some success right now.