UNC’s Caleb Wilson, a member of ‘best freshman class ever,’ to test KU on Friday
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Caleb Wilson will test Kansas Friday, bringing rim pressure and interior scoring.
- KU relies on freshman Darryn Peterson and roster depth to counter UNC attack.
- Coaches frame matchup as marquee early-season test to sustain national interest.
Louisville freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr., the No. 8-ranked player in ESPN.com’s high school recruiting class of 2025, scored a mere 10 points on chilly 2-of-15 shooting in the Cardinals’ 90-82 exhibition loss to Kansas on Oct. 24 in KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville.
On the same night, KU freshman floor general Darryn Peterson scored 26 points in 25 minutes.
Now, in just the second game of the 2025-26 regular season, the Jayhawks will aim to contain yet a second fab freshman — versatile North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson.
Wilson, a 6-foot-10, 215-pound Atlanta native, scored 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting (1-of-1 from 3-point range and 5-of-6 from the line) in UNC’s 94-54 season-opening rout of Central Arkansas. He will start in the frontcourt next to 7-0, 225-pound junior Henri Veesaar in Friday’s nonconference game versus Kansas.
Tipoff is 6 p.m. Central Time at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with a live telecast on ESPN.
“I read something the other day. This may be the best freshman class ever,” KU coach Bill Self said Wednesday at a news conference held in advance of Friday’s game. It’s the Jayhawks’ first game in the Heels’ tradition-rich building, which opened 41 years ago.
“I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s really strong,” Self added of the country’s star-studded group of freshmen/future NBA players.
Self has one of the top first-year players in the country in Peterson, who scored 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting (3-of-7 from 3) in 22 minutes in KU’s 94-51 season-opening victory over Green Bay on Monday at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Caleb’s probably off to as good a start as any freshman in the country,” Self said. “I watched him the other night and Carolina’s got 12 points in the first three minutes of the game and he’s already got four dunks.”
Wilson flushed three slam dunks in the first 2 1/2 minutes of Carolina’s rout of Central Arkansas. Fifth-year North Carolina coach Hubert Davis agreed with a Carolina reporter’s assertion that Wilson might be the school’s most prolific dunker since Brice Johnson, who played at UNC from 2013 to 2016.
“Brice’s bounce was real and his second bounce was even better. And for Caleb, it’s that way,” Davis said after the Central Arkansas game. “Whether it’s offensive rebound, post out of bounds, underneath, in transition, he’s looking to take the rim down and he’s always been that way.
“One of the things we always emphasize is putting pressure on the rim, living in the paint, living on the free throw line and dominating points in the paint. He’s got the length and athleticism to be able to get there,” Davis added.
Back to this year’s freshman class in college basketball … Peterson, Duke’s Cameron Boozer and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa have been mentioned by analysts as the likely top three picks in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Wilson’s size and skill set may ultimately have him in the running for No. 1 overall selection as well.
“I haven’t thought this through, but with the portal and guys obviously going pro as early as they possibly can, the most talented kids in every class will be your freshmen — the most talented kids,” Self said. “And then I wonder if maybe in the past the portal kids have been the headliners of recruiting classes, whereas this year, the freshmen are the headliners of recruiting classes.
“I didn’t mean that you don’t have some great portal guys, but I don’t think they’ve gotten the same hype. So much of how we view things is based on how things start, because it sets the tone for the first part of the season. That’s why, I think with the freshmen all performing at such an elite level, all the talk has gone to them naturally and deservedly so. Whenever you have marquee games and the freshmen are the best player in all those games, obviously that’s going to be what’s talked about the most.”
UNC was led in scoring Monday by Wilson and Veesaar (14.0 points, 10 rebounds), plus guards Kyan Evans (15 points, five assists) and Seth Trimble (12 points, four assists).
This Carolina team, picked to finish third in the preseason ACC poll, has 11 new players off a team that fell to KU, 92-89, in the first game of two-year home-and-home series contested on Nov. 8, 2024 at Allen Fieldhouse. KU has nine new scholarship players in 2025-26.
This figures to be a rugged early-season test for Kansas, which has won five in a row in the all-time series versus the Tar Heels. Self’s teams are 5-0 versus UNC; Davis is 0-2 against KU. Overall, KU leads the all-time series 7-6.
Self said a game like this is “one we have to play, need to play for our sport to at least split a little bit of the attention (with football and all the interest regarding the upcoming 12 team playoff). Granted, all eyes of college athletics fans aren’t going to be on men’s basketball in the way they’re going to be in on it in February and March, in early April, obviously. But we’ve got to keep the interest we get. And this is the way you do it. My opinion is (we need to) play these marquee matchups.”
Self said he will enjoy coaching his first game in such a historic venue which is named after UNC coaching legend/former KU player Dean Smith.
“There have been times in history where they had 10, 11 pros on one team,” Self said of the Heels. “I’ve always been so impressed. I always thought coach Smith was one of the most innovative coaches. That’s thought by everybody, that he’s one of the most innovative coaches our sport has known in that people copied what they did.
“And then, of course, coach (Roy) Williams obviously continued that and actually did a lot of the same things they did at Carolina at Kansas (he was head coach at KU 15 years and UNC 18 and also was an assistant under Smith at UNC), at times even better than the past. Then him going back to Carolina, they won three (national titles under Williams) so it’s an impressive situation. Our programs are so entwined.”
Smith played on KU’s 1957 NCAA title team. Former UNC guard Larry Brown coached KU to a national title in 1988. UNC grad Williams in his 15 years at KU led the Jayhawks to four Final Fours, two appearances in the NCAA title game, and nine conference regular-season titles. UNC of course welcomed back Carolina grad Williams to lead its program in 2003-04.
“Is Carolina really Carolina without Kansas? And is Kansas really Kansas without Carolina? And the answer is no,” Self said. “You can debate that, but that’s a fact. I do think it breeds, brings more attention to this matchup.
“As good as Carolina’s been over time, when you’re that good — year in and year out they were one of the five favorites to win a national championship most every year. We know as well as anybody that there’s a lot of good fortune that goes into actually winning that last game and advancing. But the consistency that they’ve shown over time ... there’s obviously a lot of great programs out there. But when you talk about bluebloods and you’re talking about Kentucky and Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Indiana, St. John’s, you’re talking about the winningest programs ever. Certainly nobody can claim more history to our sport than the aforementioned schools I just talked about.”
After the UNC game, KU will return home to meet Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Tuesday in a 7 p.m. tip.
This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 9:43 AM with the headline "UNC’s Caleb Wilson, a member of ‘best freshman class ever,’ to test KU on Friday."
