Duquesne MBB’s Weathers Receives A-10 Honor

PITTSBURGH — Duquesne redshirt junior forward Marcus Weathers was named as one of six members on the Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball All-Conference Second Team in a vote released by the conference Tuesday afternoon.

Weathers scored 14.3 points a game in the regular season, up 4.3 from a season ago and his 8.1 rebounds, up from 6.4 a season ago rank sixth-best in the Atlantic 10.

Duquesne basketball on Pittsburgh Sports Now is sponsored by The Summit Academy: setting young men on the path to a better future.

On the season, Weathers has five double-doubles and Duquesne has a 4-1 record in those games.

Weathers perhaps had both of his best games of the season against the Saint Louis Billikens scoring a career-high 26 points in a home contest played at Robert Morris’s UPMC Events Center and at Chaifetz Arena, Weathers matched both the accomplishment and the opposition’s physicality.

“He is a better athlete than a year ago and more explosive,” Dambrot stated after the first Saint Louis game. “We’ve done a really good job of getting him the ball down in there. They decided to play small and if you don’t have a center or big, strong forward on him, he’s difficult.”

Weathers was the lone Duquesne player to receive recognition following a season in which the Dukes won 21 games, which is the most in program history since the 2008-09 season, while 11 conference wins breaks the program record of 10 wins set four times, first in 1981.

In terms of major awards, Dayton’s Obi Toppin winning A-10 Player of the Year, Tre Mitchell taking Rookie of the Year and Anthony Grant earning Coach of the Year were unsurprising nods. Richmond’s Jacob Gilyard set a career-high with 95 steals, a mark which also topped the conference and additionally only fouled 52 times in 31 games en route to taking Defensive Player of the Year honors. George Mason’s A.J. Wilson won Most Improved Player and Saint Louis’s Javonte Perkins took Sixth Man of the Year.

Below are all of the awards as voted on by each team’s head coaches:

Player of the Year: Obi Toppin, Dayton
Defensive Player of the Year: Jacob Gilyard, Richmond
Rookie of the Year: Tre Mitchell, Massachusetts
Chris Daniels Co-Most Improved Player: A.J. Wilson, George Mason
Sixth Man of the Year: Javonte Perkins, Saint Louis
Coach of the Year: Anthony Grant, Dayton

All-Conference First Team
Jalen Crutcher, Dayton
Obi Toppin, Dayton
Fatts Russell, Rhode Island
Jacob Gilyard, Richmond
Kyle Lofton, St. Bonaventure
Jordan Goodwin, Saint Louis

All-Conference Second Team
Kellan Grady, Davidson
Marcus Weathers, Duquesne
Tre Mitchell, Massachusetts
Blake Francis, Richmond
Grant Golden, Richmond
Hasahn French, Saint Louis

All-Conference Third Team
Jon Axel Gudmundsson, Davidson
Trey Landers, Dayton
Jeff Dowtin, Rhode Island
Osun Osunniyi, St. Bonaventure
Ryan Daly, Saint Joseph’s
Javonte Perkins, Saint Louis

All-Academic Team
Ryan Mikesell, Dayton
Jeff Dowtin, Rhode Island
Jaren English, St. Bonaventure
Toliver Freeman, Saint Joseph’s
Marcus Santos-Silva, VCU

All-Defensive Team
Fatts Russell, Rhode Island
Jacob Gilyard, Richmond
Osun Osunniyi, St. Bonaventure
Hasahn French, Saint Louis
Jordan Goodwin, Saint Louis

All-Rookie Team
Hyunjung Lee, Davidson
Jamison Battle, George Washington
Tre Mitchell, Massachusetts
Yuri Collins, Saint Louis
Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland, VCU

These awards are solely determined by conference coaches but below is my picks and there will be six per team as that is what the conference did with their selections.