North Carolina Recruit D’Marco Dunn Remaining Committed to Tar Heels ‘For Now’ Despite Roy Williams' Retirement

Dunn is one of just two players North Carolina has signed from the 2021 class.

Not in his wildest dreams could D’Marco Dunn have imagined that a phone call from North Carolina assistant coach Steve Robinson would serve as his alarm clock on Thursday morning.

He’d have even less chance of guessing why?

“He told me that Coach (Roy) Williams was retiring, and I just couldn’t believe it,” said Dunn, a combo guard at Westover (Fayetteville, N.C.), who signed with the Tar Heels in November. “Wow, I had no idea. It’s just crazy.”

On Thursday, the school announced that Williams, who led North Carolina to three NCAA championships, would retire after 33 seasons, 18 at North Carolina, and 903 wins.

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“My initial reaction was like ‘What the heck!” Dunn said. “I thought about everything he was talking to me about, the season they had this year, why he might leave, a whole lot of stuff.”

Dunn said Robinson urged him not to rush any decisions and reassured him that “things would end up OK” regarding Williams’ replacement.

“Coach Rob assumed that they would keep things in the Carolina family,” said Dunn, who averaged 24 points a game this season for Westover. “But he didn’t really have any concrete details. I don’t think we would stray too far from the family though.”

Dunn said that after the shock began to subside, he, naturally, transitioned into thinking about what Williams’ departure would mean for him, and whether to consider other options or stay put.

Last September, Dunn picked the Tar Heels over Arizona, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Clemson, Georgia and Texas.

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“I thought about my top seven and what I would do if I decided to go to another school,” Dunn said. “It’s a lot to consider. Right now, they’re still my No. 1 option. I want to see who comes in and how they see me fitting in. It’s a business so I have to think of it that way.”

Dunn and Kinston (N.C.) wing Dontrez Styles form the Tar Heels’ class for 2021 thus far.

Styles said he was also remaining committed to North Carolina “as of right now.”

“For now, I’m just going to stay with them and see who the next coach will be,” Dunn said. “Then I’ll go from there.”