Tony Dunkin (born February 16, 1970)
is an American former
college basketball
College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...
standout for
Coastal Carolina University
Coastal Carolina University (CCU or Coastal) is a public university in Conway, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, and later joining the University of South Carolina System as USC Coastal Carolina, ...
. He is the only
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
Division I men's basketball player to be honored as his
conference player of the year all four times.
In 2003–04 he was part of the inaugural 11-person class inducted into the
Big South Conference
The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), ...
Hall of Fame.
[
]
College career
Freshman season
In 1989–90, Dunkin was forced to sit out the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (, ) are the athletic teams that represent Coastal Carolina University. They participate in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA as a member of the Sun Belt Conferen ...
' first five games due to NCAA eligibility rules because he had just transferred from Jacksonville University
Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Located in the city's Arlington (Jacksonville), Arlington district, the school was founded in 1934 as a two-year college and was known as Jacksonvill ...
. In his collegiate debut on December 9, 1989, against Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...
, Dunkin, a forward
Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward.
Forward may also refer to:
People
*Forward (surname)
Sports
* Forward (association football)
* Forward (basketball), including:
** Point forward
** Power forward (basketball)
** Smal ...
, scored 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting.[ He scored a season-high 28 points on February 1, 1990, against Campbell en route to averages of 18.1 points and 6.6 rebounds during his rookie campaign.][ He led the Chanticleers to the Big South regular-season and tournament championships, garnering numerous accolades in the process. He was named the Big South Player of the Year, the first-ever Big South Rookie of the Year, First Team All-Conference and to the All-Tournament Team.][
]
Sophomore season
Dunkin was named a preseason honorable mention All-American by ''Street & Smith's
Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc., was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp magazine, pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting year ...
'' prior to the 1990–91 season.[ He would set new career highs in most statistical categories while helping Coastal Carolina to repeat as regular-season and conference tournament champions. In 28 games played, Dunkin averaged 18.1 points and 7.1 rebounds to become the first Big South player to win back-to-back player of the year awards.][ He also was named First Team All-Conference and the Tournament MVP.
;1991 NCAA Tournament
The Big South was only in its sixth year of existence when Dunkin was a sophomore. As the conference tournament champion, Coastal Carolina was granted a "play-in" game in order to gain an automatic berth into the 1991 NCAA tournament. They defeated ]Jackson State
Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a public historically black research university in Jackson, Mississippi. It is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research ac ...
78–59 and became the Big South's first-ever team in the "Big Dance."[ Coastal Carolina (15th seed) would lose to ]Indiana
Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
(2nd seed) by a score of 69–79. Dunkin was limited to 11 points in the game.
Junior season
In 1991–92, Dunkin was given a second straight preseason All-American nod. Early in the season, the Chanticleers participated in the Great Alaska Shootout
The Great Alaska Shootout is an annual women's college basketball tournament in Anchorage, Alaska that features host University of Alaska Anchorage and three visiting NCAA Division I teams. The four-team tournament resumed in 2022 following a ...
tournament, where Dunkin fell two points shy of setting the tournament's all-time scoring record; his 81 points is second to the record of 83.[ He was named to the All-Tournament Team for his performance. Due to an injury, Dunkin only played in 21 of the team's 33 games, but he led his team in scoring every game he played in and also reached the 20-point mark 15 times. For the season, he averaged 22.5 points and 8.1 rebounds, leading him to a rare third-consecutive conference player of the year selection. At the time, only 15 other Division I men's basketball players had accomplished that feat.][
]
Senior season
Going into his final collegiate season in 1992–93, Dunkin was rated as the ninth-best small forward
The small forward (SF), also known as the three, is one of the five Basketball position, positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than Power forward (basketball), power forwards and Cent ...
in the country by ''NCAA Magazine'', which also tabbed him as one of the "Most Breathtaking Athletes" in college basketball.[ Dunkin averaged 23.7 points per game—the highest of his career—and became the first Big South player to score 2,000 career points (his 2,151 was a record that stood for 14 years, until Larry Blair of ]Liberty
Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...
surpassed the mark in 2007). He earned his fourth Big South Player of the Year award on March 4, 1993, making him the only Division I men's basketball player to ever earn the distinction for all four seasons.[
;1993 NCAA Tournament
Dunkin led Coastal Carolina to another Big South tournament championship in 1992–93, which gave the Chanticleers their second berth into the NCAA Tournament in three years. Coastal Carolina was made the 16th seed in the West Region, which pitted them against 1-seed ]Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
and its fabled Fab Five.[
He was invited to participate in the college Slam Dunk Contest during the Final Four Weekend activities, which made him the first Big South player in the event's history.][
]
Professional career
After college, Dunkin played in the Continental Basketball Association
The Continental Basketball Association (CBA), originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association, was a men's professional basketball m ...
(CBA)[ for the ]Fargo-Moorhead Beez
The Fargo-Moorhead Beez was a professional basketball club based in Fargo, North Dakota that competed in the International Basketball Association (IBA) that began in the 1995-1996 season. They were the 1995-1996 and the 1997-1998 International Ba ...
and in Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
for Danone-Honvéd BT.
Footnotes
References
External links
FIBA Europe profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunkin, Tony
1970 births
Living people
American expatriate basketball people in Hungary
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from South Carolina
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers men's basketball players
Forwards (basketball)
People from Marion County, South Carolina
20th-century American sportsmen