Dec 15, 2019 9 min read

The straightforward and honest approach has always seemed to work for Dan Burt and his basketball life. He admits he wasn’t a successful player at Trinity High School or at West Liberty University, where he was a walk-on.

But his love of basketball persisted and to this day, the passion and excitement for the game has carried Burt to success and happiness. Today, he is the head women’s coach at Duquesne University. He has led the Dukes for seven seasons and owns a 142-69 record. He’s the only coach in the history of Duquesne women’s basketball to lead the team into the NCAA tournament (2013). Burt registered 100 wins in 149 games, the 15th fastest to the milestone in NCAA women’s basketball history.

He has experienced high and lows on the court. He is upbeat, hopeful, optimistic and proud of his players and his program.

“I think for a guy who grew up playing in a barn in Lone Pine to be where I am today is incredible,” Burt said. “My journey has been amazing. I could not ask for a better life. I’m incredibly blessed.”

He also is an outstanding leader and coach.

Most recently, the Duquesne women have been on a roll, winning nine consecutive games after losing the first two this season. The Dukes earned a 72-69 overtime victory over St. Francis Sunday afternoon.

“I was given an eight-year contract (extension), the longest in Division I at the time. That said they believed in me. It’s been amazing. I’ve worked for two amazing athletic directors who have given me and the program the tools to be successful.

“There are not many people in America who have the opportunity to find success at this level in their hometown. I have been and continue to be incredibly lucky to be in this position.”

Burt can be brutally honest. It has come out on occasion during post-game press conferences.

“I hate coach speak,” he said. “I do not like press conferences where coaches speak word soup and not give reporters, who have a job to do, the truth. Sometimes I say things to send a message. I’ve tried to watch that a little more because I am dealing with young people who are not professional players. At the end of the day, when I’m in front of the media, the responsibility falls on me.

“Not that I’m a perfectionist, I just want our players and staff to be successful. I feel we have a niche fan base and they live and die by what happens with our program. It makes our team more human to them. It’s not easy to go in front of the media after a loss and have the right words at that moment. I like to challenge our kids and be direct with them. If they can’t handle that in the recruiting process, it’s someone who wouldn’t do well in our program.”

It hasn’t always been smooth for Burt on the court.

He isn’t shy about his lack of playing success at Trinity and West Liberty. But he listened and learned and kept pursuing a spot in the game he loves.

“I didn’t do very much at Trinity,” Burt said. “I was a kid who had a big mouth. I thought I knew everything. I didn’t know anything. I give a lot of credit to my coaches at Trinity – Gerry Berty and Bob Thornton. They taught me a lot.”

Burt said he gained grit and learned a lot about basketball at the old Park and Dewey playground, competing with and against some rival Wash High Prexies.

“I was there with the Popecks – Chris and Mark – and Ron Moore,” he said of the trio who were, among many others, central figures in an incredible three-year run of WPIAL championships and two PIAA titles for Wash High from 1984-1986.

“My experience at Trinity was not successful from a playing perspective,” Burt added. “But it did help educate a young person who was immature and had a big mouth.”

Berty said that while Burt wasn’t among the gifted players he coached at Trinity, “no one came as close to loving the game” as Burt did.

“Back then, Dan would talk basketball, basketball, basketball,” Berty said. “He talked about college and the NBA. He knew the rosters and the statistics. Almost every time I saw him, he had a basketball in his hands.

“Dan loved going to a gym and practicing by himself. He loved the smell of the gym. He just lived basketball. It is no surprise he ended up coaching.”

While Burt’s love of the game was strong, he wasn’t sure of his place in it after Trinity.

“I thought basketball may be over for me,” Burt said. “When I went to West Liberty, I was not talented enough to play. I saw what I needed to do. I did the laundry there for the team. Then I would practice on my own for two or three hours.”

Burt’s desire and work ethic impressed then Hilltoppers’ Coach Jim Crutchfield to invite him on the team as a walk on.

Crutchfield, one of the winningest coaches in the NCAA led West Liberty to great heights before leaving to coach in Florida at Southeastern Nova a few years ago.

“Jim Crutchfield was very good to me,” Burt said. “I wasn’t very talented as a player, but he gave me confidence to be successful in basketball. Jim is a very good man.”

As a senior, Burt turned to officiating basketball.

“I felt it could be a path for me to remain in basketball,” Burt said. “For a long time in Washington County people only knew me as a referee.

“I was very fortunate to be raised at the Washington YMCA. Frank (Scott) and (Willard) Lock (Hartley) helped a lot of people grow as young men. I learned a lot of responsibility there and from them. They are incredible men to a lot of people. They would take care of you.”

Burt earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from West Liberty in 1993. He was a scholar-athlete award winner.

He first worked at Shepherd College, in Shepherdstown, W.Va., for five years as an admission counselor. He served as an assistant coach with the men’s team there in 1994-95 and was a college referee in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland.

His journey as a coach began in earnest from 1998-2001, when he was an assistant coach for the West Virginia University women’s team. He followed that with assistant coaching jobs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (2001-2004) and Bucknell (2004-2007) women’s teams.

He arrived at Duquesne in 2007 and served as an assistant to Suzie McConnell-Serio for six years before succeeding her when she left to coach at Pitt.

“My dream job was to be the head coach at Carnegie Mellon,” Burt said. “Sometimes in women’s basketball, it’s hard for a man to get the heading coaching job for a women’s team.

“I ended up in some unique situations. I was three years at WVU, three at UNC-Wilmington and three at Bucknell. All were rebuilding situations. I was able to be there and help them all get turned around.

“I just thought about being the best assistant coach I could be. I didn’t have any aspiration (to be a head coach) until Duquesne. It’s been an incredible 13 years here.”

Paul Sroka, a long-time football and basketball referee in the high school and college ranks, said Burt could have been a big-time basketball official if he would have continued his pursuit of the profession. In the end, though, coaching was his true niche.

“I know I gave Danny his first technical foul during a summer league game,” Sroka chuckled. “Dan, as an official, caught my eye right away. He was motivated and he had great potential.

“He was trying to balance officiating and coaching and it could have gone either way. I am very impressed with Dan as a coach and with what he has done at Duquesne. His teams are so well prepared and it’s easy to see how his players develop under his coaching and how well he develops teams. He manages the team and the program in a calm and thoughtful way. His maturation as a coach is a credit to him. His professionalism is admirable. Dan Burt is one of the good guys.”

Burt is married to Kata Katanich-Burt, who received her MBA from Duquesne’s Donahue Graduate School of Business. The couple have two sons – Soma and Milan.

Kata, who is Hungarian, works for Google and it allows the family to travel to Europe often and opened recruiting doors for Burt, who annually boasts a diverse roster that includes a number of players from Europe.

He expect recruits to know the roster will be diverse and their teammates will be from all over the world. The program embraces that approach.

“We really love Central Europe,” Burt said. “When I took the Duquesne job, I wanted kids who were really good students and good players. I wanted diversity for our team. I think we’ve had more international players than any team in Division I. These kids love coming to America to play basketball and to study here, at a place like Duquesne, is like hitting the lottery.”

Burt relishes his time at Duquesne. He credits his father, Dan, for teaching him about people and for being such an influence.

He has overcome a cancer scare and all the pitfalls coaching can bring.

“I’m not the best Xs and Os coach,” Burt said. “I know how to treat and motivate people. A lot of that comes from my dad. It wasn’t a goal to be a coach in Division I basketball. I just wanted to play. The experiences you have as a young person are the reasons you can have success in your life.

“I washed the laundry and pressed the game jerseys at West Liberty. You have to keep working at something to have a chance to be good at it.”