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Duquesne finds its Tre Dinkins replacement in UT-Martin transfer guard Tarence Guinyard

ByTristan Freeman|
Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier (2) runs around UT Martin guard Tarence Guinyard (1) during an NCAA basketball game between the Tennessee Volunteers and UT Martin Skyhawks at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. Mandatory Credit: Angelina Alcantar/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier (2) runs around UT Martin guard Tarence Guinyard (1) during an NCAA basketball game between the Tennessee Volunteers and UT Martin Skyhawks at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. Mandatory Credit: Angelina Alcantar/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images | News Sentinel-Imagn Images

The guard position is Duquesne Basketball's one current weakness. The Dukes have lost key ball-handlers Tre Dinkins and Kareem Rozier to the transfer portal. Maximus Edwards has also left the Dukes’ backcourt, which also lost its top-scoring perimeter players. 

The team has landed Jimmie Williams, a 6’5 guard from South Florida who averaged 7.5 ppg this past season. But he’s an off-guard, meaning that the program still needed a proven D-1 ball-handler to start next season, likely. This week, they found one in Tarence Guinyard.

The 6’2 junior guard led UT-Martin in scoring this past season with 16.3 ppg, along with 4.7 rpg and 2.3 apg. The All-OVC playmaker shot 44% from the field and 33% from deep on nearly five attempts a game. Guinyard also was in the top-20 in the conference in steals (1.3 a game), top-10 in free throw percentage (74%), and No. 2 in free throw attempted and made (142/191). 

Guinyard had eight games of at least 20 points, including a trio of 31-point efforts. The lead guard also had 26 points and 12 rebounds in a win over Tennessee Tech. His high free throw rate is a big plus, but the three-point streakiness is a concern, as if you remove his top two games from beyond the arc, he went just 38/133 (29%) through 30 games. 

Before UT-Martin, Guinyard was at Florida State College at Jacksonville, where he was one of the top individual scorers. He averaged 20+ points in both years and was a JUCO all-star before moving up to the D-1 ranks. After proving he can still score at a higher level, he’s now at Duquesne as the likely lead guard.

While Guinyard isn’t the kind of elite distributor that a typical A-10 point guard is, he’s a needed scoring option on the perimeter to improve Duquesne’s all-around offense. It also helps that the team will have some spacing options surrounding him to make it easier to get to the basket next season. We’ll see if there’s another guard to join both Guinyard and Williams for the 2025-26 campaign.

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