With only one senior leaving after this season, the Dartmouth men’s basketball team has a promising outlook for the 2019-20 campaign. For starters, the team will return its entire starting lineup and all but one of its key contributors. Additionally, Trevon Ary-Turner ’21, a transfer from Weber State University, will be eligible to play next season and will be a huge addition to an experienced roster.
Ary-Turner is a guard from Issaquah, Washington, who had a lot of attention from top-tier programs in high school before committing to Weber State. His recruiting process started early, as he got his first few offers in the summer after his freshman year. However, due to a handful of serious injuries, the offers slowed down in his sophomore year.
“I got hurt three or four times,” Ary-Turner said. “I had two level three ankle sprains that kept me out for a while, then I broke my hand right before the playoffs. I didn’t play well my sophomore summer, so a lot of the bigger schools I was talking to moved on.”
Ary-Turner mentioned Boise State University, the University of Washington and Washington State University as three of the top-level schools that were originally recruiting him before moving on due to his injuries. However, during his junior season, he was fully healthy and impressed once again, giving him a handful of solid mid-major schools to choose from.
He ultimately ended up choosing between the University of Idaho, the University of Seattle, Utah State University and Weber State. He settled on Weber State, the alma mater of star Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard. Weber State has appeared in five of the last 20 NCAA tournaments and only lost to top-seeded Arizona by nine points in the second round in 2014.
In his season at Weber State last year, he had a relatively significant role for the 20-11 Wildcats. He scored 3.7 points per game on 10.3 minutes per game, and he shot a stellar 47.9 percent from the field. However, near the end of the season, he began to see his minutes diminish.
“At the beginning of the year, I started and played a lot,” Ary-Turner said. “There were a few times throughout the season where [my playing time fluctuated], and at the end of the year I went back to not playing much.”
After his freshman season, he considered transferring schools. While he wanted to get himself into a place where he could see more playing time, his primary motive was finding a strong academic school.
“I felt like some of the schools I was looking at out of high school were better academic institutions,” he said. “Going to Weber State was very basketball-focused. I thought it would be a smarter idea for me to get to a better [academic] school and also into a good basketball situation.”
He got his transfer release and then reached out to some high-academic institutions that had recruited him out of high school, including Dartmouth, to notify them that he was planning to transfer. While Dartmouth had recruited Ary-Turner out of high school, he didn’t consider the option very seriously because, as is the case with all Ivy League schools, Dartmouth doesn’t give out athletic scholarships.
Former Dartmouth assistant coach Jabari Trotter ’12 primarily recruited him when he was in high school, so Ary-Turner initially reached out to Trotter. Trotter left after the 2017-18 season to coach at the University of Hawaii, but connected him with head coach David McLaughlin and the rest of the staff. After getting in contact with the coaching staff and visiting the school in May 2018, Ary-Turner committed to transfer to Dartmouth soon after.
“We were able to really take the next step quickly since we had a relationship through the recruiting process when he was in high school,” McLaughlin said.
As a transfer, Ary-Turner has not been eligible to play in the 2018-19 season, which he admits has been somewhat frustrating. However, he’s been practicing with the team and training hard in preparation for the 2019-20 season.
“It’s definitely frustrating to not be able to help out where I feel like I could,” Ary-Turner said. “But the coaching staff has done a great job to make sure I’m maximizing this time. I’ve been practicing, lifting with the team, and doing extra lifting with the strength coach aside from what the team does. I’m trying to make sure I’m making strides on what they want me to improve on and what I want to improve on so I’m ready to go come fall.”
McLaughlin lauded Ary-Turner’s approach to this season and is excited for the role he’ll play when he becomes eligible to suit up in games.
“He’s a very seasoned, mature player who brings that approach to practice every day,” McLaughlin said. “I would say he’s taken full advantage of the opportunities to improve in terms of getting in the gym, watching film and getting himself better.”
Given the talent he’s displayed in the past that has had college coaches recruiting him since his freshman year of high school, he should play a significant role in the 2019-20 season.
“He’s a terrific fit for us,” McLaughlin said. “He has a great feel for the game, good range and he can finish around the rim. There’s a lot of qualities he brings to the table that really help the way we want to play.”
Captain James Foye ’20 indicated that Ary-Turner appears capable of filling the void left by the looming departure of the team’s lone senior, Guilien Smith ’19. He also mentioned that having Ary-Turner practice with the team will make his transition to playing in games much more seamless.
“He’s a shooting guard just like Guilien is, so he should fill that role,” Foye said. “Having him practice with the team [this season] is super helpful because he’ll already understand the basics and just focus on the little things and improving with everybody.”
Currently standing at 11-15 and 2-8 in Ivy League play, Dartmouth’s chances of making the Ivy League tournament as one of the conference’s top four teams are slim. However, the encouraging part about the team’s Ivy League season is how close most of its games have been. The team blew out Harvard 81-63 and Columbia 82-66 while losing in two lopsided affairs to Yale (89-68 and 77-59). However, other than that, the team’s other six Ivy League games have all been losses of just five points or fewer.
In other words, given that the team was so close to winning many Ivy League games and will be adding Ary-Turner to its young roster, there’s a lot to look forward to for both Ary-Turner and the team come next winter.
