When Healthy, Wilson-Veesaar Tandem May Take Carolina To All-ACC Heights
By David Glenn
There was a time, decades ago, when North Carolina regularly placed two players on the five-man, first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference squad.
Mainly, that was because coach Frank McGuire turned the Tar Heels into an NCAA champion (1957) and a regular ACC contender in the 1950s, before coach Dean Smith created the most consistently successful program in college basketball history over the next four decades.
Sometimes, the dynamic duos are locked into Carolina fans’ minds as an eternal, word-association pairing, such as Batman and Robin.
Jordan and Perkins. Stackhouse and Wallace. Carter and Jamison.
Carolina’s long and spectacular list of first-team All-ACC tandems (see full list below) also reflected something beyond the program’s direct control — the size of the ACC.
An eight- or nine-team league, by definition, has only 40-45 regular starters, and just a small percentage of those are worthy of all-conference consideration. Now that the ACC has become an 18-team monstrosity, there are a lot more quality candidates, but there are still only five first-team All-ACC spots.
As a result, no program regularly places two players on the All-ACC first team anymore. (UNC has done it only once since 2012.) In fact, in each of the past five seasons, the five first-team members have represented five different ACC schools.
(photo via Todd Melet)
There’s a possibility that will change this year, and UNC — thanks to freshman forward Caleb Wilson and junior center Henri Veesaar — appears to be the only program with a realistic chance to do it.
The first two spots on this year’s ballot are no-brainers.
F Cameron Boozer, Fr., Duke Stats: 33 mpg, 23 ppg, 10 rpg, 58% FG, 77% FT, 41% threes, 111/62 ATO, 47 steals, 16 blocks
A 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward, Boozer is the heavy favorite for ACC Player of the Year and National Player of the Year. He’s the ACC’s leading scorer and top rebounder, which is a heck of a starting point, but his value to the #1 Blue Devils extends far beyond that of a traditional big man. He also is an outstanding 3-point shooter, an intelligent defender and a brilliant passer (his four assists per game lead the Devils) who plays with a calm, consistent, unflappable confidence rarely seen among first-year college players.
F Caleb Wilson, Fr., UNC Stats: 31 mpg, 20 ppg, 9 rpg, 58% FG, 71% FT, 26% threes, 64/47 ATO, 36 steals, 33 blocks
A 6-10, 215-pound forward, Wilson has a few important things in common with legendary UNC big man Tyler Hansbrough, the program’s only previous freshman to earn All-America honors: toughness, intensity, relentlessness, fearlessness and, of course, high-level productivity. Stunningly, Wilson (17) already has surpassed Hansbrough’s record for most 20-point games by a Carolina freshman. If Wilson can sustain (or slightly improve) his sensational averages of 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds per game after his return from injury, he even will finish above the Tar Heels’ current freshman record-holders in those categories — Hansbrough (18.9 ppg in 2006) and Antawn Jamison (9.6 rpg in 1996), who authored two of the other greatest rookie seasons in program history.
The other three spots on the All-ACC first team are more difficult to predict, but elite players on top-tier teams generally are viewed as strong candidates, and both second-place Virginia and third-place Miami also have clear-cut stars with extremely impressive resumes.
F Malik Reneau, Sr., Miami Stats: 29 mpg, 20 ppg, 7 rpg, 57% FG, 78% FT, 36% threes, 60/78 ATO, 24 steals, 22 blocks
This is one of the happiest homecoming stories in all of college basketball. Reneau grew up in Miami, but he lived about four hours from home (at Montverde Academy, near Orlando) for the latter half of his high school career, and he spent the first three years of his college eligibility at Indiana. A two-year starter and consistently productive player for the Hoosiers in the Big Ten, Reneau has become a superstar in the ACC for the Hurricanes, posting career-best averages in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, 3-point accuracy, steals and blocked shots.
F Thijs De Ridder, Fr., Virginia Stats: 28 mpg, 16 ppg, 6 rpg, 52% FG, 70% FT, 33% threes, 44/52 ATO, 26 steals, 12 blocks
While it’s highly unusual to have a 23-year-old freshman, De Ridder is the best player on one of the ACC’s best teams, and that typically makes you a candidate for first-team All-ACC honors, much less the league’s All-Freshman team. A 6-9, 238-pound forward from Belgium, De Ridder personifies both college basketball’s tidal wave of international imports and the longer-standing prototype of European big men. He can beat his defender off the dribble, in the post or from 3-point land.
Underlining the difficulty of any team placing multiple players in the ACC’s top five, there are plenty of other outstanding All-ACC candidates this season.
NC State guard Quadir Copeland has been a highly efficient scorer (14 ppg), superb distributor (nearly 7 apg), intense defender and senior leader for an NCAA Tournament-caliber team. SMU guard Boopie Miller is a rare combination of scoring (19 ppg) and passing ability (7 apg leads ACC) for another squad likely to end up in the Big Dance. Stanford guard Ebuka Okorie (22 ppg) and Wake Forest guard Juke Harris (21 ppg) are big-time scorers who rank behind only Boozer on the ACC leaderboard in that category. Center Patrick Ngongba and guard Isaiah Evans are additional standouts for the #1 Blue Devils.
UNC’s Veesaar definitely has earned his way into that mix, too. An intense competitor and highly productive big man at both ends of the floor, he and Wilson are the only two ACC players who have consistently ranked among the league’s top 10 in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and blocked shots this season.
C Henri Veesaar, r-Jr., UNC Stats: 31 mpg, 16 ppg, 9 rpg, 61% FG, 62% FT, 43% threes, 49/40 ATO, 16 steals, 32 blocks
After rarely starting during his three years at Arizona, Veesaar has become the best example of fifth-year UNC coach Hubert Davis signing and developing a transfer who truly blossomed under his tutelage. During his three years with the Wildcats, Veesaar started only five games. During his first four months in a Carolina uniform, Veesaar has started all but two contests (lower-body issue), helped his new team to a top-15 national ranking, developed into a high-impact, two-way, heavy-minutes big man, and entered the conversation as a potential first-round NBA draft pick.
Importantly, Veesaar has been an essential part of nearly all of Carolina’s biggest victories this season, including those over Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State, Duke and Louisville. Just as one example, the Tar Heels outscored the Cardinals by 16 points when Veesaar was on the floor Monday night, whereas the Cards outscored the Heels by 13 points when Veesaar was on the bench. That’s not mere coincidence.
While perhaps it’s unlikely that the “Wilson and Veesaar” phrase will become entrenched in Carolina fans’ permanent vernacular, and it’s far from a certainty that they’ll join the legendary list below during next month’s All-ACC voting, there’s no doubt that the players have earned a special place somewhere among UNC’s other most memorable frontcourt tandems.
Two UNC Players On All-ACC First Team (1954-2025)
1957—F Lennie Rosenbluth, G Tommy Kearns
1958—F Pete Brennan, G Tommy Kearns
1959—G York Larese, F Doug Moe
1960—G York Larese, F Lee Shaffer
1961—G York Larese, F Doug Moe
1963—F Billy Cunningham, G Larry Brown
1967—F Larry Miller, G Bob Lewis
1968—F Larry Miller, G Charlie Scott
1969—G Charlie Scott, F Bill Bunting
1972—F Bob McAdoo, F Dennis Wuycik
1976—F Mitch Kupchak, G Phil Ford
1977—G Phil Ford, G Walter Davis
1978—G Phil Ford, F Mike O’Koren
1982—F James Worthy, C Sam Perkins
1983—G Michael Jordan, C Sam Perkins
1984—G Michael Jordan, C Sam Perkins
1987—G Kenny Smith, F Joe Wolf
1993—C Eric Montross, F George Lynch
1995—G/F Jerry Stackhouse, F Rasheed Wallace
1998—F Antawn Jamison, G/F Vince Carter
2005—C Sean May, G Raymond Felton
2009—F Tyler Hansbrough, G Ty Lawson
2012—C Tyler Zeller, F John Henson, G/F Harrison Barnes
2018—F Luke Maye, G Joel Berry II
David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.
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