Even with a late-season burst from Ven-Allen Lubin, the North Carolina Tar Heels have a massive need they need to address at center for their 2025-2026 season.
Outside of Lubin, center production was sparse. Jalen Washington enjoyed a few solid games here and there, but nothing fans want to see from a second-string center. I actually really liked what I saw from Ty Claude in limited minutes, but he’s more of a power forward at 6’7″. James Brown rarely played, despite the incoming hype about his commitment.
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Sunshine may very well be on the horizon for UNC, though, which is hosting a transfer portal center from a storied basketball program, that made the Sweet 16 in March.
According to InsideCarolina, Arizona Wildcats center Henri Veesaar, a 7-footer who experienced a massive increase in playing time from his freshman season, is expected to visit North Carolina on Wednesday, April 2.
We’re writing this story on April 1 and – no – this is not an April Fool’s Joke. The Tar Heels are actually hosting an uber-tall center for a visit.
“We’ve got to get bigger,” UNC head coach Hubert Davis said on his radio show earlier this week. “We just do. From A to Z, we just do. And we talked about the physicality of Ole Miss (in the NCAA Tournament) and their positional size was bigger than us. And pretty much that’s the way we were the whole season. So that’s one of the things that we’re definitely going to address is, we’ve got to get bigger. In terms of that physicality, you have to have a presence, you have to be bigger. And that’s what we’re addressing.”
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Thought Veesaar only started five of Arizona’s 37 games and averaged just under 21 minutes per game, he set career highs with 9.4 points and five rebounds per content. Veesaar helped the Wildcats nearly knock off Duke in a 100-93 loss during the Sweet 16 – scoring 13 points (7-of-8 on free throws), pulling down six rebounds and blocking one shot.
Claude, Jae’Lyn Withers and Jalen Washington are all gone, so a Veesaar commitment is greatly needed. We don’t want to see North Carolina strike out this year, like how it did in the 2024 offseason.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: Arizona’s Henri Veesaar visiting UNC basketball program on April 2
