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Carolina’s brand landed Henri Veesaar.
The Tar Heels have had about the same program as Arizona the last two years, when 7-foot Henri Veesaar was a reserve center for the Wildcats.
They both made the NCAA Tournament, but Arizona had better results by advancing to the Sweet 16 before losing to Final Four-bound Duke last season. The Cats went out with a five-point loss to Clemson in the Sweet 16 the year before.
Caleb Love transferred to Arizona in the spring of 2023. Love and R.J. Davis were both conference players of the year in 2024. Love had his best college season in Tucson and the old Pac-12 as Davis was excelling here while also making first team All-American.
They both used their COVID eligibility and didn’t have seasons like the year before, with their personal stats dropping and their teams both finishing with worse records than the year before.
Their coaches?
Tommy Lloyd served 20 seasons under future Hall of Famer Mark Few at Gonzaga. Hubert Davis had nine seasons working for already HOF member Roy Williams. Gonzaga played in two NCAA championship games, losing to Carolina in 2017 and Baylor in 2021. Williams’ third natty came after just missing another the year before.
Veesaar, the presumed starting center alongside freshman power forward Caleb Wilson, played 7 minutes a game as a freshman and 20 minutes as a redshirt sophomore. He averaged 2.4 points his first year and 9.4 last season with 1.1 blocks per game, which Carolina really needs from him.
Davis saw Veesaar as one of the pieces to literally rebound from a subpar season in the paint. The Estonia native said he was sold on his visit, the only one he took. “Seeing the campus, seeing the fans here, the whole city felt like a great place to be and an amazing place to play basketball.”
Seth Trimble, the only returning starter, spent the most time with Veesaar during his visit. Henri had watched Trimble play and loves his speed on the break.
“The way he goes downhill, we’re going to complement each other so great. I will be able to pop and he’s gonna have more room… he’s an amazing passer on the pick and rolls and sees pocket passes. And he can dunk on anyone even if he’s seven feet, the bigs will have to make a decision early and that opens up the passing lanes.”
He said Hubert Davis and staff want him to “go hard on offensive rebounding and [defensively] alter shots and blocks shots,” which Veesaar said is his favorite part of the game.
How much influence was Caleb Love on his decision?
“I am close with Caleb and he said ‘a great place, the coaches are really going to push me to be a better player.’”
Featured image via Associated Press/Lindsey Wasson
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
