Duquesne men’s basketball coach Keith Dambrot was always a believer in Tavian Dunn-Martin.
Despite Dunn-Martin’s success at Huntington High School, the diminutive point guard didn’t draw major Division I interest, likely for that very reason.
“Most people would tell you there weren’t many people that really believed in him, but I believed in him,” Dambrot said. “I thought he was a good player. I thought people shied away because of his size.”
Dunn-Martin began his college career playing for Dambrot at Akron in 2016-2017. He averaged four points in more than 10 minutes per game for a 27-win team.
Before the next season, Dambrot accepted the job at Duquesne — and Dunn-Martin didn’t take long deciding to join him in Pittsburgh.
After sitting out the 2017-2018 season for transfer rules, Dunn-Martin was the Atlantic 10 Conference Sixth Man of the Year as a sophomore. The 5-foot-8, 155-pound Dunn-Martin averaged 7.8 points per game and was second on the team with 81 assists. Dunn-Martin also made 47 3-pointers and was one of the nation’s top free throw shooters at 88.2 percent.
As a junior, Dunn-Martin has continued to play a prominent role for Duquesne, one of college basketball’s surprise teams at 12-2 overall.
Dunn-Martin has started 12 games and is fourth on the Dukes with an average of 9.6 points, including a team-best 29 3s. He hasn’t fallen off any at the charity stripe and has made 27-of-31 attempts (87 percent).
“There’s been a lot of ups and downs, but altogether this was a good move for me,” Dunn-Martin said. “(Coach Dambrot) is my guy. We get along well. Some days the ball hasn’t gone down and some days it has, but all around it’s been a good move.”
Dunn-Martin helped guide Huntington High to Class AAA state championships in 2014 and 2015. He committed to Akron prior to his senior season, which ended with the Highlanders’ runner-up finish and Dunn-Martin garnering the Bill Evans Award as the state’s top player.
Still, Dunn-Martin didn’t draw interest from Power 5 schools.
Yet Dambrot, known as a high-level recruiter, believed Dunn-Martin’s offensive arsenal translated to the next level.
“He still has some things to work on, but he’s an explosive scorer,” Dambrot said.
Dambrot compiled a school-record 305 wins over 13 seasons at Akron. Prior to that, he coached LeBron James as a freshman and sophomore at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. The Dukes won 35 games in Dambrot’s first two seasons and a 20-plus win season is well within reach this year.
“I’m comfortable with him,” Dunn-Martin said. “He believes in me. He’s probably one of my biggest fans and he makes the game a lot easier.”
Although Dunn-Martin is shooting 34.5 percent from the field, much of that can be attributed to 84 of his 113 field goal attempts coming from 3-point range.
He has enjoyed a pair of breakout games this season — a 25-point effort in a win over Columbia, and last week’s 21-point performance in a victory over St. Louis to start A-10 play. Dunn-Martin also scored a game-high 22 points in a 78-70 exhibition loss at West Virginia.
In all three instances, Dunn-Martin finished with five 3-pointers.
“I feel like my game is to get everyone involved and my time will come,” Dunn-Martin said. “When I have an open shot, I shoot it. The guys want me to shoot a lot. I try to get everyone going and score at the same time.”