HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Huntington senior point guard Tavian Dunn-Martin announced Tuesday his commitment to Akron over offers that included UCF, Northern Illinois, East Tennessee State and Maryland-Baltimore County.
“I just liked Akron better and their coach wanted me more,” Dunn-Martin said. “Their coach seemed more interested in me than the other schools did. Akron was where I wanted to go. I was planning on committing before my senior year, so that I could just focus on the season and school.”
Marshall has shown interest but has not extended an offer to the 5-foot-8 Dunn-Martin, who averaged 19 points and five assists per game as a junior.
Dunn-Martin would join an Akron program that has put together 10 straight seasons of 21 or more wins, including three NCAA tournament runs, under coach Keith Dambrot.
“Coach Dambrot has a really good program and I’m excited to be going there,” Dunn-Martin said. “They like to play with two point guards at the same time and they were straight-up with me through the recruiting process.”
Dunn-Martin has been a spark plug for Huntington over the last two seasons, helping forge back-to-back state championships. He scored 23 points on 7-of-18 shooting in last March’s championship win over Parkersburg South.
“Akron knows that I can score, they just want me to focus on defense this upcoming season,” he said. “The past two years have been great. We’re going to come into this season with the same attitude that we have the last couple of years and hopefully win another one.”