Caleb Love might not have left North Carolina on the best of terms, but despite being cast in the role of villain by some for his role in the chemistry issues that led to the Tar Heels missing the 2023 NCAA Tournament, the hero of the previous year’s surprise Final Four run still has a soft spot in his heart for his former school.
It showed last spring when his friend and Arizona teammate Henri Veesaar came to him for advice after entering the NCAA’s transfer portal. Given an opportunity to stick it to North Carolina, Love instead took the high road, and his endorsement of coach Hubert Davis and the culture at UNC played a major role in Veesaar’s decision to come to Chapel Hill for the 2025-26 season.
“It had a lot of influence,” Veesaar said. “I’m very close with Caleb and just from last year, I asked him what he thought about this program, how his relationships were with the coaches, how he saw me fit into this program and everything he said checked all the boxes for me. He said it was a great place to be and they were definitely going to push me to get better. That’s all I could ask for.”
As good a fit as UNC appears to be for Veesaar, the versatile 7-foot junior center from Estonia may be even more perfectly suited to take the court in his new team’s trademark Alexander Julian argyle.
Last year’s Tar Heels were uncharacteristically small, with only two players taller than 6-foot-9 – stretch-four Jalen Washington and seldom used freshman James Brown. That lack of size became UNC’s Achilles’ “Heel,” especially on the glass where it ranked seventh in the ACC in total rebounds and 15th in offensive rebounds with a margin of just plus-2.9.
To put that into perspective, the Tar Heels had finished first in the conference in total rebounds in 19 of the previous 21 seasons, placing second in the other two. Their rebounding margin was the program’s lowest since the disastrous 2001-02 season, when they finished 8-20 under Matt Doherty. “Last year we were really small and it hurt us in regards to getting second-chance points, which has always been a staple of Carolina basketball,” Davis told HoopsHQ earlier this summer.“It hurt us rebounding the basketball on the defensive side, too. So getting bigger was a huge goal for us and I think we’ve achieved that.”
With the return of Brown, the reinstatement of Zayden High from suspension, 5-star freshman Caleb Wilson and three transfers, UNC’s roster now features six players that are 6-foot-10 or taller. Of that group, Veesaar is clearly the cream of the crop.
Among the highest-rated big men in this year’s portal class, the former Arizona Wildcat who came up in Real Madrid’s youth program is a proven rebounder and shot blocker with the touch to finish around the rim. He’s also an excellent screener with the added threat of stepping out onto the perimeter and making three-pointers. “He really knows how to play,” Davis said. “He’s going to be out there a lot and rightfully so. He’s going to be a huge piece for us this year.”
Hubert Davis Isn't Concerned About Pressure
Expectations are high at North Carolina. Hubert Davis fully embraces it.
Veesaar returned from an elbow injury that caused him to redshirt in 2023-24 to become a key contributor to Arizona’s run to the Sweet Sixteen last March. He finished with 13 points, 6 rebounds and a block against Duke in his final game with the Wildcats and averaged 9.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for the season, primarily off the bench. Those numbers project to increase exponentially in an expanded role as a starter with the Tar Heels.
Statistics, however, don’t factor into the expectation for either the player or his coach. Veesaar said that Davis is only interested in him becoming “the best version (of himself) for North Carolina and for us to win most of our games.”
“You have to give 100-percent effort and always be detailed in your approach,” Veesaar said. “That’s what he requires from all his players. But what I think he really liked about me is how I can alter and block shots. That’s what I think we were missing a little bit last year.”
As for the rest of his contribution to the Tar Heels, Veesaar sees his potential role following a blueprint set by former UNC big man Armando Bacot, who along with his old Arizona teammate Love helped raise the most recent Final Four banner to the Smith Center rafters. “He was an amazing player here, obviously,” Veesaar said of Bacot, UNC’s all-time leading rebounder and third-leading career scorer. “We’ve watched a couple clips of him and how he plays. As a team, we’ve watched a lot of the past teams’ rebounding. Harrison Ingram and Armando Bacot were both phenomenal at it, defensively and offensively so it’s kind of what you have to pick up on and see what they’re doing.”
While Veesaar has learned a lot about the history and culture of UNC basketball from word of mouth and video study, he knows that nothing he’s seen or heard can adequately prepare him for what he’s about to experience as he begins the next chapter of his basketball journey. He got a feel for what to expect the first time he set foot in Smith Center on the only official visit he took after entering the portal. “Seeing the campus, seeing the fans here, it just felt different,” he said. “It’s an amazing place to play basketball. … The thing that stuck out most to me are the (remnants of the) Final Four floors that are in the gym from the years that they won it and how big the gym is. I can’t imagine playing in front of 22,000 people and I’m very excited to do it.”
