Duquesne's Keith Dambrot irked at snub of ace shot blocker Michael Hughes

Keith Dambrot walked toward a small group of reporters and cameramen Wednesday morning with a purposeful stride and something he wanted to say.

No one plays defense better than Dambrot when he decides it’s time to defend his players.

His frustration was clear and, perhaps, has been building during his three seasons as Duquesne’s coach.

The Atlantic 10 released its all-conference awards Tuesday, and only junior center Marcus Weathers (second team) was honored.

Junior center Michael Hughes, the only player in the conference to lead his team in blocked shots (82) and steals (44), was left off the six-man all-defensive team in a vote of conference coaches.

He leads the A-10 in blocks in conference games (49) and is eighth in the nation for the season, collecting at least four in nine games and at least one in all but two.

“I don’t understand,” Dambrot began, “how you can’t be on an all-conference defensive team when you’re the No. 1 shot blocker in the league and you’re (tied sixth) in the conference in steals (30 in conference games) and eighth in the country in blocks.

“To me, that’s just total disrespect. I don’t know what people are looking at. They act like he guards no one when he’s not blocking shots. That’s wrong, and I’m going to fight for my guys.

“I know for sure he should be on the all-conference team and probably fighting for player of the year, defensively.”

Dambrot believes the Dukes are fighting a negative perception after decades of mediocrity (or worse). Duquesne (21-9) hasn’t won a game in the A-10 Tournament since 2015

“We have to earn our stuff every single day,” he said.

Dambrot didn’t mention any of the five players who were named to the team, but he probably knows that one of them — St. Bonaventure’s Osun Osuniyi — has 24 fewer blocks than Hughes and is averaging fewer than one steal per game.

“No disrespect to who’s on the team,” he said, “but (they’re) not better than (Hughes).”

Dambrot was feeling a bit feisty Wednesday after putting his team through what he termed the best practice of the week. It was a 35-minute session that concluded a few hours before the Dukes boarded a charter flight for the Atlantic 10 Tournament at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Duquesne (21-9) plays Fordham (9-22), a 72-52 winner Wednesday against George Washington in a first-round game. Tipoff is at 8:30 p.m. Thursday. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Atlantic 10 Commissioner Bernadette McGlade announced Wednesday night that the remaining games of the tournament Thursday through Sunday will be played with only media, essential personnel and familes/guests in attendance.

“The first game’s hard,” Dambrot said. “Once we get past the first game, I think we’ll be pretty good. If we get by the first game, I think we’ll give Rhode Island (in a Friday quarterfinal) all they want.”

Duquesne defeated Fordham twice during the season but by a total margin of only seven points.

“They play a different style of defense,” Weathers said. “It’s really hard to get a gauge on what kind of defensive set they’re in. They slow the game down to a grittier pace.”

Said Dambrot: “Fordham’s feisty. They’re a little bit harder to get the ball inside on. They do a really good job of keeping it out of the post.”

“No disrespect to Rhode Island, either. They got a lot better history than us. We’re not going to be scared, I can guarantee that.”

The Dukes must win four games in four days to secure the championship and the automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament that goes with it.

To that end, the Dukes did most of their preparation at home.

“We haven’t done well when we went too early,” Dambrot said. “We’re planning to play four games, so we decided since we’re playing an 8:30 game to treat it like a regular road game.”

Dambrot has said all season he believes his team, seeded sixth in the tournament, can be competitive with any team in the conference. It is a feeling supported by two victories against No. 4 Saint Louis, winning at No. 5 St. Bonaventure and putting a scare into No. 1 Dayton — the No. 3 team in the country — before losing 73-69.

“I feel like we’re ready. I’ll let you know at 10:30 (Thursday) night,” Dambrot said. “I know we’re going to try hard. That’s all we can do is try our best, hopefully we get what we deserve.

“We put a lot of time into this. Our guys deserve to have a little bit of a March moment.”