Not for everything they had done on the field. Actually for the opposite reason: because he didn’t do anything on the field.
Because instead, he stood by and watched as freshman Caleb Wilson lifted himself up — and then exploded — for one of the highlight-reel, make-your-mother-swear dunks that have defined his early-season success.
Davis told his team to act as if it had been there before. Guys, everyone does this. We’ve seen that play before. But immediately, one by one, all the Tar Heels turned to Davis, all with the same accusing look. At that point, Davis admitted:
“Guys, this is the first time I lied to you,” Davis told his team. ‘I’ve never seen it That for.”
Welcome to the Caleb Wilson Experience, where seemingly every day – every time the 6-foot-4 freshman sensation steps on the court – something amazing things happen. Against Georgetown on Sunday, an 81-61 UNC win that gave the Tar Heels their best start (8-1) since 2017-18, it was death in the midrange, with Wilson continually torching the Hoyas on turnaround jumpers. Against Kansas earlier this season, it turned ordinary offensive rebounds into rattling dunks — enough to steal the spotlight from Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson, the projected No. 1 pick in next summer’s NBA Draft. Against Michigan State, North Carolina’s only loss all season, it was a coast-to-coast transition battle that could easily have been placed in an NBA setting.
Caleb Wilson, everything as usual. 🐏🔥
The UNC newcomer dominated Georgetown with a 20-point, 14-rebound double-double in the Heels’ 81-61 victory.@UNC_Basketball | @GoHeels | #GoHeels pic.twitter.com/pODGbkUuyN
— ACC Digital Network (@theACCDN) December 8, 2025
So yes. Astonishing. And even that feels somewhat inadequate to describe Wilson’s impact.
“I haven’t seen many players like him in college basketball in probably 15 years. I mean, he’s a tremendous talent. I see him being an NBA All-Star in the very near future,” Georgetown coach Ed Cooley said. “Reminds me of Tracy McGrady.”
And Cooley says that after the first game of the season in which Wilson it didn’t have one of his signature dunks. Regardless, Wilson finished Sunday’s game with a game-high 20 points, 14 rebounds, one block and one assist. That just goes to show how far he has come – and how Wilson, less than ten games into his college career, has already moved up to 1A in every scouting report the rest of this season.
Entering Sunday, Wilson led UNC in points (19.3), rebounds (10.1) and steals (1.8) per game, while finishing a close second in blocks behind 7-footer Henri Veesaar. That made him one of only two great players to average at least 19 and 10. The other? Texas Tech star JT Toppin, a reigning All-American and one of the favorites to win the Wooden Award this season.
Only Wilson also quickly put his name in that conversation. The freshman ranks third in KenPom’s player of the year rankings – behind Duke’s Cameron Boozer and Iowa State’s Joshua Jefferson – and according to The Athletics NBA Draft expert Sam Vecenie, Wilson’s early-season excellence puts him in the top five behind the supposed big three of Peterson, Boozer and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa. “If you ask people around the league,” Vecenie wrote in his latest mock draft, “Wilson is pretty clearly the fourth player to emerge.”
So what makes Wilson so excited about his own teammates and head coach, not to mention NBA decision makers?
Well, a little bit of everything.
For starters, as his Division I-leading 28 dunks suggest, Wilson is an athletic freak, capable of punishing rims from yards away with his explosive leaps and length. According to CBB Analytics, as of Sunday, 30.3 percent of Wilson total shots this season have been dunks, of which he has missed only two. (That Wilson hasn’t had a single alley-oop among those 28 is a testament to his ridiculous ability to carve out his own alley.) That athleticism also comes in handy on the glass, where Wilson’s sucker hands and high punting skills combine to create one of the most powerful rebounders in the country. According to KenPom, Wilson has a defensive rebounding percentage in the top 20 of all majors, while also soaking up 11.1 percent of available offensive rebounds.
Caleb Wilson’s athleticism is part of what makes him a force around the basket. (Bob Donnan/Imagn Images)
But it’s Wilson’s skill level that has surprised people across the basketball landscape. Davis regularly has Wilson grab a rebound and go into transition, initiating a foul on himself or others. He also showed refined passing, with four games in his first month of college basketball with at least three assists, including when he had a career-high six against Kentucky in Lexington. And then, as was plain to see on Sunday, there’s his go-to. Are move: the turnaround, midrange jumper.
The one he modeled after his favorite player, Kobe Bryant.
“But it’s different because I’m so much bigger,” Wilson said, grinning. “Or (like) Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant has a good one.”
Five of Wilson’s seven baskets against the Hoyas came in mid-range, three of which were turnaround jumpers.
“His midrange is elite. … There are stats (that say the best shots are) 3s and layups. I like scorers on four levels: guys who can shoot from 3, mid range, get to the bucket and also from the free throw line,” Davis said. “You know what I really like? FGMs: Field Goals made. And from 12 to 15 feet that thing goes in. That’s what I want.
That midrange jumper has been pivotal in Wilson already cementing himself in Tar Heel history, and there appears to be much more to come. Wilson is the first UNC player ever to score more than 20 points in his first two games, a total he has now scored in five of nine games. (He scored in double figures every game, with a “low” of 13 against Radford.)
And while it’s still early, Wilson is on track to etch his name alongside some all-time program greats. Tyler Hansbrough is the only freshman in program history to lead UNC in scoring and rebounding… but nearly a third of the way through the regular season, Wilson is on pace to be second. He appears to be a lock to become the sixth freshman to lead the Tar Heels in scoring, joining the likes of Hansbrough, Harrison Barnes and Cole Anthony. Perhaps even more impressive is that if he leads UNC in rebounds this season — a likely bet even next to Veesaar, who had 15 against Georgetown and averaged 9.2 per game — he will be only the fourth freshman to reach that milestone; Hansbrough, Antawn Jamison and JR Reid are the other three.
Perhaps the wildest statistic of all? No Tar Heel freshman, including Hansbrough, has done that ever averaged a double-double for the season – but Wilson, at least for now, is on track to become the first.
“Some of the shots he made today weren’t (from any) individual training; that’s just because he’s a guy and he can play,” Davis said. “I’ve never seen that before either. So I like to keep seeing things I’ve never seen before, in a good way.”
Now that we’ve laid all this out, it must be said that Wilson is not a perfect candidate. That’s no one. He’s not a threat from three-point range — just 2-for-11 deep on the season — and has had some turnovers recently when teams doubled him for the first time.
But to get through that, Wilson said he recently talked to a few NBA players — “I can’t tell you (who),” Wilson joked after the game — about how to approach double teams and traps.
“I’m just trying not to force things, honestly. That’s just what it’s going to be now,” the freshman added. “Play the game, see who’s open, tell my teammates to get in a position where I can see them and just let it happen.”
The result? Wilson steps out of multiple double plays on Sunday, turning potential dead possessions or giveaways into 4-on-3 advantages for his UNC teammates.
How Wilson continues to handle these situations — and not force shots, as he did at times against Michigan State and Kentucky — will be the next step in his rapid progress. Without being in his oversized shoes, it must be difficult with his physical gifts not to impose on defenses even with two men guarding him. (Unsurprisingly, Wilson commits 7.3 errors per game, according to KenPom, 12th among all majors. A tie of seven against the Hoyas brought his average up. down.)
But either way, as Wilson proved again on Sunday, it’s clear that North Carolina doesn’t just have one of the best freshmen in the country.
It has one of the best players, period.
Someone who, eerily enough, hasn’t reached his sky-high ceiling.
“I’m going to be the focus for every team now that we’re playing,” Wilson said, “so I just have to show more of what I can do.”
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