LSU just wasn’t the right fit for former Lady Tiger basketball player Ayana Dunning.Dunning was a forward/center at LSU as a freshman during the 2008-09 season and played in 23 games with nine starts. But by the end of the year, she was not happy playing basketball at LSU and transferred to West Virginia.”When you’re doing something like basketball that takes up so much of your time and so many long hours, it’s hard to continue wanting to wake up every morning and do that if you’re not happy,” Dunning said. “[LSU] wasn’t the place I wanted to be.”Dunning said she has no regrets from the year she spent at LSU, and she occasionally communicates with her former teammates through Facebook.”Initially when I was recruited, it was by coach Pokey [Chatman],” she said. “I got along well with her and her staff. Once I found out she left and another coach was coming in, I didn’t think much would change … but you try stuff, and you learn.”LSU coach Van Chancellor said he has not communicated with Dunning since she transferred in April.”Usually it’s like when you waive a player in pro ball,” Chancellor said. “They’re not calling you wishing you good luck in the world. When a player leaves your program, they leave. It would be like divorcing a woman. If I divorced a woman, I don’t think we’re going to be talking.”Dunning said she felt at home immediately at West Virginia as soon as she moved into her apartment. West Virginia women’s basketball coach Mike Carey helped Dunning and her family transport items up to her fourth-floor room.”[Carey] helped my dad bring up really heavy boxes my mom and I couldn’t carry,” Dunning said. “My mom fell in love with the program then. She knew they would take good care of me when she saw him hands-on with his players.”Ayana Dunning’s mother, Charlotte, said it is a relief to see her daughter happy with her college experience.”She told me the other day, ‘I like basketball again,'” Charlotte Dunning said. “I don’t hear that sadness in her voice when she calls … Thank God for second chances.”Charlotte Dunning said the women’s basketball coaches at West Virginia routinely keep in touch with her through e-mail and text messaging about how Ayana is adjusting.”She has a more personable and more comfortable relationship with her coaches,” Charlotte Dunning said. “That’s something we didn’t get at LSU — that random communication from coaches about how she’s doing.”Ayana Dunning said she is an inherently shy person, but she and her Mountaineers teammates have become “like a big family” off the court.”When I got here, we all clicked so well,” she said. “I’m the cook of the team. On Sunday nights sometimes my teammates will come over, and I’ll cook for them.”Ayana Dunning is not eligible to play for West Virginia or travel with the team this season, but she can practice until the NCAA tournament in March.”There is a school for every person, and I really feel like West Virginia is the fit for me,” she said. “It took me a year to get there, but I’m glad I’m here.”——————Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]