City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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Widener coach Chris Carideo didn’t put the full-court press on recruiting Dominic Dunn coming out of Camden Catholic High School.

It wasn’t because Carideo didn’t appreciate Dunn’s talent. He just thought he wouldn’t be able to get him, expecting Dunn was headed to play at a higher level.

So there was certainly some regret when Dunn ended up at Susquehanna and Carideo watched from afar the last four years (three seasons) as Dunn turned himself into an all-league player and helped the River Hawks win a pair of Landmark Conference titles.

Carideo didn’t make the same mistake when Dunn was looking for a new college home for his graduate year this offseason. Dunn joins a Widener team with championship aspirations he is hoping to help them reach.

“I honestly thought he was going to be higher than Division III, so we weren’t overly aggressive with Dominic,” Carideo recalled. “Then when he ended up going to Susuquehanna, I was a little upset. I was like, ‘We probably should have recruited him harder.’ But it all worked out. He’s here. We’re excited that he’s here.”

Dunn averaged double figures (11.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg) coming off the bench as a freshman for a 16-10 Susquehanna team in 2018-19, earning second team all-conference honors. He was inserted into the starting lineup as a sophomore and averaged 10.1 ppg and 5.1 rpg in eight games before going down with an injury in early December and missing out on the team’s run to the Landmark Conference championship and second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Following a canceled season in 2020-21, Dunn returned as a force in the Landmark in 2021-22. He averaged 14.4 ppg and 5.3 rpg while shooting 42.6 percent from the floor and 39.3 percent from deep to earn first team All-Landmark honors. He helped the River Hawks to a conference title and an NCAA Tournament win.

The class of guys Dunn came in with graduated from Susquehanna after last season, including Landmark Player of the Year Danny Frauenheim, fellow first teamer Lukas Yurasits and conference Defensive Player of the Year Jay Martin, pushing him to find a new college home to finish out his career.

“I just wanted to be closer to home, and I wanted to win,” Dunn said. “That’s the biggest thing I wanted to do. At Susquehanna, I had a fortunate opportunity to win two conference championships. I narrowed down schools who I thought had a chance to win a championship with and that’s the main reason I came to Widener.”

It will take some time to get used to his new teammates after spending such a long time playing with that group.

“I think the way we play (at Widener) offensively and defensively is pretty similar (to Susquehanna),” Dunn said. “It’s just getting to know the guys. When you play with someone for four years, you know them inside and out. Coming here we’ve had about 15 practices and I’m still trying to adjust and see where people like the ball, how things are done. That’s the biggest thing. The guys are great guys. It’s been a great experience so far.”

Widener went 13-14 last season, including a 6-10 mark in the MAC Commonwealth before advancing to the semifinals of the conference tournament. 

The Pride anticipated bringing back four starters in junior forward Matt Daulerio (13.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg), graduate guard Pat Holden (12.4 ppg, 3.3 apg), senior guard/wing Steven Matlack (11.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg) and graduate forward Kenny Lewis (9.7 ppg, 7.2 rpg) and adding Dunn’s talent and experience to push them over the top.

“I was familiar with Dom coming out of high school, followed his career at Susquehanna and knew he was a terrific player,” Carideo said. “I felt for our team, what we really needed was a guy who knew how to win a championship and was talented, which Dominic clearly is. We’re kind of trying to get him to influence the rest of the guys. We think we have good players, and that’s what Dom’s saying, he came because he thinks we have the chance to do that. 

“But we need that championship pedigree. We need guys to push each other in practice and know what it takes to win, end of game stuff. All that stuff’s going to be very important for our team moving forward, and there’s nothing better than having a guy who’s done it twice. He’s really going to help us in that aspect.”

The Pride were picked third in the MAC Commonwealth preseason poll. Some of the optimism took a hit when Daulerio went out for the season with an ACL injury, but Widener is still confident in its championship ambitions for this season.

“We still think in our own little Widener basketball world that we can compete for a championship and we’re going to continue to do that every day.” Carideo said. “We have good guys that come and practice hard everyday. We have talented guys who can score the ball. We’ve gotta establish a defensive identity and our offense has to continue to grow and I think we’ll get there.”

Dunn unofficially made his Widener debut in an exhibition against St. Joe’s on Nov. 4 and did not disappoint, giving a glimpse at what might be in store for his final year of college hoops. He scored 29 points and grabbed eight boards against the DI foe.

He helped Widener to a 2-0 start this weekend at the Widener Tip-Off for Autism Awareness in Chester. Dunn totaled 21 points (8-for-11), five boards and four steals in an 83-51 win over SUNY Geneseo then scored 30 points (13-for-20) and grabbed nine boards in a 69-51 win over Vassar.

“I’m not the biggest, I’m not the fastest. I’m not anything like that,” Dunn said. “But I see the floor from being on the sideline a couple years not playing and then playing. I see the game and I just have the opportunity to see the younger guys on this team who are very talented and give them another view on how to play basketball.”

His goal is to take them where he’s already been, ending his career with a third championship.