Assessing new Texas basketball transfer target, UNC SG D’Marco Dunn

There are quite a few newer targets in the NCAA Transfer Portal that Texas basketball and newly-hired full-time head coach Rodney Terry have shown interest in the last week or so. The newest name we’ve come across that Texas has reportedly shown interest in the portal surfaced this weekend.

Multiple reports (including from The Portal Report on Twitter on May 13) indicate that Texas is interested in the former North Carolina Tar Heels sophomore shooting guard transfer D’Marco Dunn.

Dunn is a player that Terry and the Longhorns are pretty familiar with from his recruitment out of Westover High School in Fayetteville, NC. Terry was actually the first head coach to offer Dunn as a recruit coming out of high school when the former blue-chip guard was a rising junior at Marana High School in Arizona.

Texas and former head coach Shaka Smart also offered Dunn when his recruitment started to blow up during the 2020 offseason.

Texas basketball showing interest in former UNC transfer SG D’Marco Dunn

During his two seasons at UNC, Dunn was a reserve shooting guard that came off the bench in all 50 games he played since the start of the 2021-22 campaign. He played most of his minutes at the two, with some coming on the wing at the three.

Down the stretch last season, Dunn was behind junior combo guard Caleb Love, senior wing Leaky Black, and junior wing Puff Johnson in the backcourt/wing rotation for the Tar Heels.

Last season also saw Dunn crack double-digit minutes per game off the bench for the first time in his two years in Chapel Hill. He averaged just north of 10 minutes off the bench per game, putting up 2.7 points per game, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.2 assists.

Dunn had a breakout showing last season for the Tar Heels in a big win over the ACC foe Louisville Cardinals, where he put up a career-high 14 points, five rebounds, one assist, two steals, and one block off the bench.

That 14-point effort in a win over Louisville on Jan. 14, 2023, was the only game of Dunn’s career where he’s scored in double figures.

Dunn would be a depth guard for Texas with a lot of untapped potential

Although he never got to live up to the four-star billing as a top 100-ranked high school recruit in the nation in the 2021 class, Dunn is still a two-guard with a lot of untapped talent. He didn’t get much of a shot to make an impact on the Tar Heels over the course of the last two seasons, only playing more than 20 minutes off the bench in three games during that span.

If Texas were to hypothetically land a commitment out of the portal from Dunn, he would be viewed as a depth guard/wing that could have a lot of upside with multiple years of eligibility remaining.

Maybe Terry could unlock some of the potential he saw in Dunn when he and the Miners were the first to offer the former blue-chipper out of Arizona. Dunn did show a lot of potential as an upperclassman at Westover High School to be a standout two-way shooting guard at the next level.

Legendary former UNC head coach Roy Williams, who happened to be the one that recruited Dunn to UNC, spoke very highly of the talented two-guard when he signed with the Tar Heels in their 2021 class (per 247Sports).

"“He can really shoot the basketball and has a tremendous work ethic. He’s going to pass a lot of people by who have better ‘ratings’ because of his work ethic. He’s doing that now and will continue to do that in the future. He has a great family behind him and is exactly the kind of young man we want to have in our program.”"

Williams loved the on and off-ball shooting threat that Dunn posed when he signed with UNC out of Westover High School. Dunn has a natural shooting stroke that can threaten opposing defenses from the mid-range and from deep.

He is also an above-average athlete which allows him to create his own shots and make some plays in transition. The above-average physical tools don’t limit Dunn to just being a threat with the ball in his hands, though. He is a very capable and committed off-ball player that can screen and cut to the basket.

All told, there aren’t many areas of Dunn’s game where he looked to be elite. But he was solid in a number of different areas of his game coming out of high school, including his facilitating ability and perimeter defense.

Dunn’s hypothetical fit at Texas

The role that I think Dunn would fill if Texas were to hypothetically bring him in via the portal this offseason is as an off-ball scorer. Texas has plenty of proficient ball handlers, assuming sophomore guard Tyrese Hunter decides to withdraw his name from the 2023 NBA Draft in the near future.

Dunn did shoot better than 40 percent on corner three-point attempts at UNC in the last two seasons, albeit on a pretty limited sample size of around a dozen looks. He also made all six of his field goal attempts off cutting plays in the last two seasons at UNC (per Synergy).

I think Dunn could be a decent contributor in a role off the bench that could see him utilized as a catch-and-shoot threat from the corners along with an off-ball cutting threat that could get some easier looks near the basket.

Let’s take a look at how a hypothetical backcourt/wing rotation could look for the Longhorns with Dunn in the mix next season.

PG-Max Abmas, Tyrese Hunter, TBD/portal player

SG-Tyrese Hunter, D’Marco Dunn, TBD/portal player

SF-Chendall Weaver, Brock Cunningham, D’Marco Dunn*

Terry made it clear this week that he is looking for three more portal players, assuming Hunter does return to Texas next season. Two of the roles the Longhorns are looking to fill are a lengthier wing/forward that could be a starting-caliber player and a lengthier guard that could add more bench depth.

The last of the three spots that Terry and the Longhorns are looking to fill via the portal this offseason should be utilized to add a high-upside player that can help to round out the backcourt/wing rotation. A player like Dunn could be the 10th or 11th scholarship player in the rotation, which would give me confidence in the hypothetical depth Terry would have to head into the 2023-24 season.

I like the idea of Dunn being the second or third two-guard that can also provide some valued scoring depth at the three.

Some of the other schools that are reportedly showing interest in Dunn are the Penn State Nittany Lions, Utah Utes, Arizona Wildcats, Seton Hall Pirates, BYU Cougars, and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, among many others.