Why one UNC player felt ‘disrespected’ & ‘(ticked) off’ playing KU basketball
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Caleb Wilson changed his phone wallpaper for motivation and delivered 24 points.
- UNC outrebounded Kansas 39-27 and outscored the Jayhawks in second-half play.
- Wilson cited All-America snub and rivalry as motivation for performance.
North Carolina freshman men’s basketball forward Caleb Wilson says he changes the background wallpaper on his cell phone before every game to make sure he’s “(ticked).”
For inspiration before Friday night’s Kansas-UNC contest, the 6-foot-10, 215-pound Atlanta native posted a photo of “how he felt” after last April’s McDonald’s All-America game, when West teammate Darryn Peterson put up 14 shots and scored 18 points in 24 minutes to Wilson’s own four shots and three points in 20 minutes.
“It (that picture) was my feeling after the McDonald’s All-America game when I didn’t touch the ball and Darryn Peterson was on my team,” Wilson said.
“Yes,” he responded quickly when asked if Friday’s 87-74 victory over the Jayhawks — during which he scored 24 points with seven rebounds, four assists and four steals — classified as something “personal.”
Peterson, KU’s 6-6 freshman from Canton, Ohio, responded with 22 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals in a losing cause.
“I’ve got a list on my phone and it’s nowhere near done. I’m just going to get after it,” Wilson stated, noting he’s already finished thinking about Peterson and the Jayhawks and has moved on to Tuesday’s home game against Radford.
Wilson arrived on the North Carolina campus as ESPN’s No. 5 rated player in the class of 2025. KU’s Peterson was rated No. 2 overall behind BYU’s AJ Dybantsa. Cameron Boozer, the co-MVP of the McDonald’s game with Peterson, was ranked third and Nate Ament of Tennessee No. 4.
“Me, personally, I feel like I’ve been disrespected in polls and things like that, people telling me I’m not a top-3 freshmen in the ACC, so I’m just going to keep going out here and killing people,” Wilson said.
“I approached the game like I approach every other game — go out there and try my hardest, but it was personal for me. We hadn’t beat them (Jayhawks) in 20 years. I wasn’t even born. So, you know, they beat us in the (2022) national championship and coach (Hubert) Davis was emotional about that. I want to impress my coach. I want to impress the world. I want to let the world know who I am, for sure,” Wilson continued.
KU entered Friday’s game with five straight victories against UNC. The Heels’ last win over KU — before Friday — came in the 2002-03 season.
“It was definitely everybody,” Wilson said of Tar Heels players who were motivated to defeat the Jayhawks. “Me personally, I love this school. I love everything it has to offer. So if I’m going to go out there and play, I’m definitely going to play the hardest, especially when I’ve got something to build off of.”
Guard Seth Trimble, who scored 17 points with eight rebounds Friday, also guarded Peterson. He spoke to UNC’s team about the Heels needing to end the losing streak vs. KU.
“Honestly, he was just telling us it’s personal. That’s all he was saying,” Wilson said. “I felt it even in the warmups, like they (Jayhawks) weren’t going full speed. They were laying the ball up in warmups, like that type of stuff that (ticked) me off.
“Because when I’m warming up to play Kansas, I’m dunking, I’m getting hype, and they’re just over there being nonchalant. So I’m like, ‘Bro, they really think they got us.’ So it’s a lot of stuff, but I kind of already had my (motivation).”
Wilson finished numerous dunks against KU, as did 7-0, 225-pound junior Henri Veesaar, who finished with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting (2-of-5 from 3).
Of Veesaar’s play, KU’s Peterson said: “Obviously a great player on their team. They got the best of us tonight.”
Carolina outrebounded KU 39-27, including 17-12 the second half — one in which UNC outscored KU 58-37.
“We were exposed today in some physical, athletic plays,” KU coach Bill Self said after the Jayhawks fell to 1-1. Carolina improved to 2-0. “We just didn’t rebound the ball. And, you know, that’s what long athletes look like, going after the ball. A lot of long shots meant long rebounds.
“Our offense wasn’t good, but that isn’t what beat us. What beat us was we couldn’t guard anybody, and our ball screen coverage the first half wasn’t bad. Wasn’t bad at all. And then we tried to do the same things to start the second half (with an eight point lead) as we did the last 10 minutes of the first half. And it just wasn’t there.”
Of frosh Wilson, who had seven rebounds, Self said: “How good a looking freshman is he? Wilson dominated us. He drew 10 fouls. When people want to talk about that, he drew 10 fouls on top of being that long and athletic.”
“We’ve got to be more physical,” KU freshman forward Bryson Tiller said.
The Jayhawks will next meet Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
“We’d like to learn from this. It’s a long season. We weren’t going to run the table. This was going to be a really hard game regardless,” Self said. “I think we could have performed a lot better to make it a really close game down the stretch, which it wasn’t. We’ll get better. There were some positive things that happened the first half. And we’ve just got to remember those and correct the things that we didn’t do well.
“We knew coming in here that there were some things that we hope that we could kind of get through a game and not be exposed, but we were exposed today in some physical, athletic plays. And so it’ll be an eye-opener. The tape won’t lie, and we’ll learn a lot from it.”
