Marvin Williams-Dunn has committed to Ouachita Baptist University on a four-year basketball scholarship.
The athletic point guard had originally committed to Utah State Eastern Junior College but when the coaching structure at USE changed, Marvin and his family began to review their options.
Ouachita Baptist University Tigers Head Coach Dennis Nutt was quick off the mark.
Not only does Coach Nutt have 20-years of coaching experience to draw on when assessing the capabilities of young athletes but the former guard played collegiately at Texas Christian University, played in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks and had a spell with the famous Real Madrid club in Spain.
Nutt is excited to have Marvin join the Tigers basketball programme.
“Marvin will bring immediate help at the point guard position. He has competed on a very high level in New Zealand which will benefit him greatly. Our staff was really impressed with his confidence as well as his skill set. He has a chance to be a special player in our system.
“We can’t wait to get him on campus,” he added.
The Tigers play in the NCAA Division II Great American Conference. Nutt has taken the team to two Conference Tournament Championships (2013 and 2016) and also a Regular Season Championship in 2015.
Marvin has enjoyed an outstanding junior career playing for the Rosmini College Premier team in all five of his high school years – he holds the unofficial all-time games played record at the college. Rosmini appeared in three consecutive Schick Nationals Grand-Finals in his final three years at the school, playing a pivotal role in the their back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018.
He played his age group representative basketball for Waitakere West, Auckland and Harbour, gaining New Zealand National selection on a number of occasions.
In 2018 he played at the FIBA Asian U16 Championships in China. Later that year he captained New Zealand at the FIBA U17 World Cup in Argentina, leading the team in assists (2.9apg) and was also the second highest points scorer tallying 7.9 points per game.
In 2019 Marvin played for NZ U18 Men at the FIBA 3×3 Asia Cup in Malaysia and earlier that year led the Rosmini team to a highly respectable sixth place at the ISF Basketball World Schools Championship in Greece.
“Ouachita approached me last year but I had already committed to Utah State at that time. But when the situation changed at Utah earlier in the year Coach Nutt messaged me again and things happened pretty quickly after that,” said Marvin.
Asked whether he was up to the challenge of NCAA basketball Marvin’s response was emphatic.
“Always.”
“I’m looking forward to playing for and learning from Coach Nutt. He’s an experienced coach, who’s played in the NBA so it will be a fantastic opportunity for me.”
Marvin is hoping to make a suitable impression when he links up with his new teammates.
“A number of last year’s players were seniors so there will be minutes up for grabs so I’m going in with the opportunity to work hard and earn court time in my freshman season.”
Ouachita Baptist University is in Arkadelphia, Arkansas and Marvin will be headed that way in August.
“The campus is not too big, it’s besides the Ouichita River and the surrounding area looks similar to New Zealand.”
Understandably Marvin is thankful for the help that he has received.
“My parents (Audrey and Channon) have played the biggest part in my development so I need to thank them. I would also like to thank Matt Lacey for helping me with the recruitment process and of course I’m grateful to the coaching staff at Ouichita for the opportunity.”
“It’s really exciting, a dream, I’m looking forward to being a Tiger!”
Marvin is the latest Rosmini alum to sign a four-year US basketball scholarship, following William Heather (2018) and Kruz Perrott-Hunt (2019) who play at Dallas Baptist University and the University of South Dakota respectively.
Everyone who knows Marvin will wish him well and know he will be a great ambassador for New Zealand.
LACEY LOWDOWN 