Former Division II Star RJ Gunn Ready to Contribute for Duquesne

It’s not too often that you see a player make the leap from Division II to Division I in college basketball.

This offseason, when Keith Dambrot revamped Duquesne’s roster, he chose to look to the Division II level for some help. There, he may have found a hidden gem in RJ Gunn.

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Gunn is a 6-foot-7, 230-pound force on the inside, who has the ability to handle the ball and create shots for himself on the outside as well. He comes to Duquesne as a graduate student after playing four years at Lenoir Rhyne. There, he played in 93 games, starting 78 of them, and scored 1,183 points total. In his last two seasons for the Bears, he scored in double figures in 41 out of 44 games, averaging 19.9 points per game as a junior and 16.6 as a senior.

A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Gunn is one of the most powerful guys on the Duquesne roster, and is ready to prove that he belongs on the division one level.

“RJ, RJ Gunn,” said Jackie Johnson, when asked who the biggest sleeper on Duquesne’s roster is. “Big, strong, can shoot it, stretches the floor, can get to the rack, he’s a sleeper for sure.”

RJ Gunn during Duquesne practice, 9-21-21//George Michalowski

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Throughout practice, Gunn was grabbing rebounds, hustling down the floor, and using his strong frame to gain advantages on offense and defense. When watching him play, you are not going to be surprised that he can use his physicality inside. However, it’s his shooting ability that surprised the most. The big lefty will be one of the best shooters on this roster this season, which shows how remarkable his skill set really is.

Having scored over 1,000 points at a previous college, Gunn brings some very valuable experience to the table, as well as an underdog mindset coming from Division II.

Dambrot knows what he found in Gunn, and he’s ready to show the league that the Dukes have some real talent this year.