Kris Dunn starts season with huge game in Providence’s win over Harvard
Here is the thing about Kris Dunn’s monster performance in the season opener for Providence. It could have been so much better.
The junior guard scored a career-best 32 points and with career-best eight steals and also grabbed six rebounds and dished five assists and after leading the Friars to a 76-64 win over Harvard on Saturday he talked about needing to get better in the next game. And there is plenty of reason to believe that can happen.
[Radford shocks Georgetown with late three in double OT]
Dunn, an Associated Press preseason All-America pick, made only three of his first 15 shots, leaving one to wonder what his line will look like in some games this season when he shoots well throughout. He’s a threat for a triple double every night.
Providence’s Kris Dunn is first major-conference player w/ 30 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast, 5 stl in a game since DeAndre Kane on Jan. 7, 2014.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 15, 2015
Following an outing like that to start the season, it won’t take long for opponents to start designing ways to slow down Dunn and get the ball out of his hands, forcing a young collection of talent around him to make plays and win games.Providence coach Ed Cooley said before the season started that this team would be the youngest he has had as a head coach.
But Dunn is a lottery pick and certainly one of the top-five players in the college game and holding him down even with exotic defenses and double teams won’t be possible on a consistent basis. This is a young man who endured two labrum surgeries in the span of 17 months and understands what the game means to him more than most of his peers. He stayed in college when he could have been making millions in the NBA because he wanted to improve as a player before taking that next step.
Watching him is going to be fun this year, unless you’re a fan of any of his opppnents.
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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
