Dunn stepping up, transferring to Pitt
Mary Dunn has plenty to show for her time with the women’s basketball program at Youngstown State University. There’s 1,299 points, 540 rebounds, 91 blocked shots, a bucket full of all-conference awards for both on-court and in-classroom performance, a 30-point game and even a knee surgery that repaired a torn meniscus.
But the one thing she didn’t have was the answer to a question that had been nagging at Dunn, a Washington resident and Trinity High School graduate. How would Dunn play if she was at a higher level of basketball than the mid-major Horizon League?
Dunn will find out next season because she will be transferring to Pitt. She announced on Twitter last Friday that she will be joining the Panthers as a graduate transfer. A 6-3 forward, Dunn will have one season of eligibility remaining.
“The biggest thing was, and I had a great career and I’m grateful for the opportunity I had at Youngstown State, but I knew that I would love to play at a higher level, so I had to take that chance,” Dunn said.
So Dunn entered the transfer portal March 12. The inboxes for her email and social media accounts might never be the same.
That first day Dunn was in the transfer portal, she was contacted by 15 schools. And the contacts came in a variety of ways. First it was through email. Then it came though social media. Some coaches went through the YSU coaching staff to contact Dunn. Some even went through an AAU coach to get Dunn’s phone number.
Pitt head coach Lance White, who will be entering his fourth season at Pitt, called Dunn’s cell phone and extended her an offer to join the Panthers.
The interest continued to build and Dunn eventually received “about 30 offers from Division I schools.” Even several top-notch Division II programs contacted Dunn, but she was looking up the competition ladder, not down.
She found that Pitt had plenty to offer and the closeness to Washington was appealing, as was the opportunity to step up a rung and play in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“I proved that I could be a dominant force playing in the Horizon League, and I want to see what I can do playing against a higher level of competition,” she said.
“My parents came to all my games at Youngstown State, and now their drive will be less than half the travel time. They’ll go from driving an hour and 40 minutes to maybe 40 minutes. It will be awesome to be so close to home. People from my hometown can come see me play. I’m super excited about that.”
If they saw her play at Youngstown State, then they would have seen Dunn become one of the top players in the Horizon League. This past season, she averaged 16.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Dunn shot 52% from the field and 78% from the free-throw line. All of that came after missing most of the 2019-20 season because of a knee injury that limited her to only four games. She was granted a redshirt season because of the injury.
She leaves as the No. 12 scorer in Youngstown State history.
Pitt is coming off a 5-14 season that included a 3-12 mark in ACC play.
“I played against Pitt, but I haven’t played against many of Pitt’s current players,” Dunn said. “The last time I played against Pitt was three years ago.”
Dunn is a communications and sociology major at YSU and is working toward her masters degree in professional communications. She plans to begin work on a Ph.D while attending Pitt.