Pitt Associate Head Coach Breaks Down Damian Dunn’s Impact

Damian Dunn knew that he wanted to come to Pitt soon after entering the transfer portal.

After passing up on the Panthers to go to Houston a year prior, this time around, Dunn quickly chose to visit Pitt and committed shortly thereafter. He has been in the Steel City for months now, getting acclimated to the team and making an impact on and off the court.

On Tuesday, Pitt’s team social media page posted a video of associate head coach Milan Brown providing insight into what Dunn will bring to the squad this upcoming season.

“His physicality at the guard position is tremendous for us,” Brown said. “He gets through screens, he can fight over top of ball screens, he rebounds the basketball on both ends. Dame’s impact on the team has already shown up just because of the wealth of knowledge that he has about the game. His physicality is going to be big for us, it’s similar to what JB gave us two years ago. Just a physical guard who can make plays inside and out.”

Pitt basketball guards Damian Dunn, Jaland Lowe, Brandin “Beebah” Cummings, and Ishmael Leggett pose for a photo with associate head coach Milan Brown at the Pitt Vs. Kent State football game.

Dunn averaged just six points per game last year for Houston. So why is it fair to think his production will increase at Pitt?

The overarching positive with Dunn is that he played for a great program under a respected coach in Kelvin Sampson. In his lone season with the Cougars, he had ten games in double-digit scoring, and nine games with at least two three pointers. Dunn played more than 25 minutes in a single game just three times throughout the season, and still delivered those numbers. He played in a loaded back court, and still found a way to produce at a high level when given the opportunity.

In his senior season at Temple, Dunn thrived in transition as well. He hit 15 of his 30 shots in transition in the 2022-23 campaign, and averaged 1.255 points per possession in transition (83rd percentile). Following timeouts, Dunn was oftentimes the featured player in Temple’s playbook. According to Synergy, after time outs, Dunn ranked in the 66th percentile in points per possession with 0.939. In those situations, he hit 40% of his shot attempts.

Dunn scored the majority of his points via “spot up” opportunities. On those opportunities, Dun shot 37% from the field.

His second-most points came as the ball handler in pick-and-roll situations. In those opportunities, Dunn hit 32 of his 70 attempts – a 46% mark. For comparison, last year, Bub Carrington rated “excellent” in the same category, shooting 45% from the field as the ball handler in pick-and-roll situations. Carrington rated higher than Temple-senior-year Dunn because of his volume – the Baltimore native hit 69 of his 152 attempts in P&R settings.

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