Michael Anthony Hughes II (born February 1, 1998) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for

MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg Riesen Ludwigsburg ( en, Giants Ludwigsburg), for sponsorship reasons MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, is a professional basketball club that is based in Ludwigsburg, Germany. The club currently plays in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the first tier of ...

of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

(BBL) and the

Basketball Champions League The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the top-level competition organised by FIBA Europe, therefore the champion participates in the FIBA Intercontin ...

(BCL). He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Akron Zips Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

and the

Duquesne Dukes The Duquesne Dukes are the athletic teams of Duquesne University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Dukes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Football and bowling, however ...

Early life and high school career

Hughes joined his first basketball league at the age of five. He attended Liberty High School in

Liberty, Missouri Liberty is a city in and the county seat of Clay County, Missouri, United States and is a suburb of Kansas City, located in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 30,167. Liberty is home to Willi ...

during his freshman year. Due to redistricting, Hughes transferred to

Liberty North High School Liberty North High School (LNHS) is a four-year high school located in Liberty, Missouri, United States. As of 2021, its enrollment is over 2,000 (following a rapid increase in the 2013–14 school year, when 9th graders were placed in high schoo ...

for his sophomore season. As a sophomore, he averaged 12.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Hughes averaged 14.4 points, 12 rebounds, and 4.7 blocks per game as a junior, while shooting 59.7 percent. He earned Suburban Middle Seven All-Conference first-team honors as well as all-district accolades after helping guide Liberty North to a fifth-consecutive district championship. As a senior, Hughes averaged 22 points and 15 rebounds per game. He set school records for rebounds (979) and blocks (349) during his career. He committed to playing college basketball for

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

College career

Hughes averaged 1.8 points and 1.2 rebounds per game as a freshman at Akron. Following the season, he transferred to Duquesne, following coach

Keith Dambrot Keith Brett Dambrot (born October 26, 1958) is an American college basketball coach and the current men's basketball head coach of Duquesne University. During his high school head coaching career, he coached future NBA star LeBron James for two ye ...

who was hired there. Hughes underwent surgery in the summer for stress fractures in his shins. During his redshirt season, he focused on dieting and conditioning, eventually losing 45 pounds. As a sophomore, Hughes averaged 11.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game, which was second in the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

. On December 4, 2019, he scored a career-high 23 points to go with 11 rebounds in a 71–58 win against VMI. During his junior season, Hughes was a strong defensive presence but struggled with foul trouble. He averaged 10.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 2.7 blocks per game. As a senior, Hughes averaged 10.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. He finished as the program’s all-time leader in career field goal percentage, making 56.2 percent of his shot attempts, as well as fourth on Duquesne’s all-time blocks list with 177.

Professional career

On August 15, 2021, Hughes signed his first professional contract with

BC Vienna Basketball Club Vienna, for sponsorship reasons BC GGMT Vienna, is an Austrian professional basketball club based in Vienna. It plays in the Austrian Basketball Superliga and has won the Austrian championship one time, in 2013. History The team w ...

of the

Austrian Basketball Superliga The Austrian Basketball Superliga (English: Basketball Super League) is the highest tier basketball league in Austria. Established in 2019, it replaced the Austrian Basketball Bundesliga (ABL) as the first level competition in the country. The win ...

. On July 14, 2023, Hughes signed a one-year deal with CBet Jonava of the

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

(LKL).

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

, 20 , , 1 , , 7.3 , , .458 , , – , , .650 , , 1.2 , , .4 , , .3 , , .5 , , 1.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Duquesne , style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Duquesne , 29 , , 28 , , 24.2 , , .589 , , .286 , , .594 , , 6.5 , , .9 , , .9 , , 2.3 , , 11.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Duquesne , 30 , , 28 , , 24.5 , , .573 , , .278 , , .649 , , 6.8 , , 1.6 , , 1.5 , , 2.7 , , 10.3 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Duquesne , 18 , , 16 , , 26.9 , , .510 , , .176 , , .633 , , 7.9 , , 2.1 , , 1.0 , , 1.6 , , 10.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 97 , , 73 , , 21.3 , , .557 , , .238 , , .622 , , 5.8 , , 1.2 , , 1.0 , , 1.9 , , 8.9

Personal life

Hughes is the fourth of six children born to Robbie-Joe and Michael Hughes I. His father died in 2003, while competing in a men's basketball league at Longview Community College. According to an autopsy, he had an enlarged heart. Following his father's death, Hughes became close with his older brother Tony. In February 2006, his mother discovered Tony dead in his room from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 19. The loss of his older brother turned Michael into a selfish and angry player on the court, until his coaches found a way to curb his negative behavior. Hughes developed a love for reading.

References

External links

Duquesne Dukes bioAkron Zips bioRealGM profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Michael 1998 births Living people Akron Zips men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Austria American expatriate basketball people in Hungary American expatriate basketball people in Lithuania American men's basketball players Basketball players from Missouri Centers (basketball) Duquesne Dukes men's basketball players People from Liberty, Missouri Riesen Ludwigsburg players