Pitt guard Damian Dunn will miss at least 6 weeks after thumb surgery
Off to an encouraging start this season, Pitt men’s basketball received some bad news Monday when transfer guard Damian Dunn underwent surgery to repair a right thumb injury and will miss at least six weeks.
Dunn injured his thumb and sprained his left ankle Sunday in the first two minutes of Pitt’s loss to Wisconsin in the Greenbrier Tip-Off championship game.
Dunn was a starter in Pitt’s first seven games, averaging 11.1 points and 2.1 rebounds, shooting 49% from the field and a team-high 52.6% (10 of 19) from beyond the 3-point line. He scored in double figures in the first five games but played only 12 minutes because of foul trouble Friday in the first Greenbrier game against LSU.
In 116 career games at Temple, Houston and Pitt, he has collected 1,366 points, 388 rebounds and 204 assists.
Meanwhile, those questions about which ACC men’s basketball team might be third-best behind Duke and North Carolina received an early — but by no means definitive — answer Monday when the Panthers were ranked 25th in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
No. 10 Duke (4-1), No. 13 North Carolina (3-1) and Pitt (6-1) were the only ACC teams in the Top 25. The Panthers earned a spot in the poll for the first time since Week 17 of the 2022-23 season.
Pitt ranked 27th in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, also released Monday, with 62 voting points, behind No. 25 Mississippi State (86) and No. 26 BYU (70).
The Panthers also rank high in several early-season computer metrics, including KenPom net rating (No. 17), adjusted offensive efficiency (No. 20) and adjusted defensive efficiency (No. 17), plus ESPN’s BPI (No. 25).
Pitt guards Ishmael Leggett and Jaland Lowe have led the team through the first month of the season, with Leggett averaging a team-high 18 points and 6.4 rebounds. Lowe is the only player in the country averaging at least 15 points, six rebounds, 5.5 assists and two steals. So far, Lowe has met three of those standards precisely while averaging 5.7 assists.
Also, forward Cam Corhen has scored in double figures in all seven games and is averaging 13.3 points and 5.6 rebounds while leading the ACC with a 70.7% field-goal percentage.
Pitt is off before visiting Ohio State on Friday and traveling to Mississippi State on Dec. 4.
Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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