What we learned about UNC basketball from its final preseason exhibition

Caleb Wilson missed the first dunk attempt, but that wasn’t gonna stop him from going up again. The star freshman has said in the past that, if he misses a shot, he simply tells himself the rim moved. Maybe that was what was going through Wilson’s mind when, midway through the first half, he rebounded his own miss, dribbled between his legs, charged toward the basket and hammered home a one-handed slam.

The poster was nasty, no doubt. But it also broke a nearly five-minute field goal drought for the Tar Heels. After Derek Dixon’s three-pointer with 12:21 to play in the first half, North Carolina didn’t manage another field goal until that dunk with 7:41 left in the half.

No. 25 North Carolina men’s basketball closed out its 2025-26 preseason schedule with a 95-53 win over the Division II Winston-Salem State Rams in a Wednesday night exhibition game at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill. The contest offered the second early look at fifth-year coach Hubert Davis’ revamped roster following the team’s 78-76 exhibition loss at No. 8 BYU last week.

Projected top-10 NBA Draft pick Caleb Wilson — coming off a 22-point, 10-rebound performance against BYU — once again led the way for the Tar Heels.

Wilson scored a team-high 23 points and added 10 rebounds. He carried UNC through a sluggish first half with 17 points in the opening period. The rest of the Tar Heels combined for 22 before halftime.

The game offered another tune-up for the Tar Heels but also reaffirmed Davis’ commitment to playing in-state schools in the preseason.

“Every year in exhibition season, we will play a North Carolina school — whether it be Johnson C. Smith or Winston-Salem State,” Davis said last week, “because that’s important to us, and that’s important to the state.”

The Rams brought the fight to the Tar Heels early, cutting the deficit to five points midway through the first half after UNC jumped out to an early lead.

Here’s what we learned about North Carolina on Wednesday night:

Offense stalls early, pushes pace later

With so many new transfers from North Carolina — including Henri Veesaar (Arizona), Jarin Stevenson (Alabama), Kyan Evans (Colorado State), Jonathan Powell (West Virginia) and Jaydon Young (Virginia Tech) — some growing pains are to be expected.

But the sloppiness on offense reached critical mass midway through the first half when North Carolina missed seven straight shots and went over four minutes without a field goal.

“We just came from playing BYU (so) it’s possible we underestimated them,” Wilson said of Winston-Salem State. “But that’ll never happen again.”

Wilson got the Tar Heels back on track with his slam, but the Rams followed that up by engineering a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to five points with five minutes remaining in the first half.

North Carolina got its act together in the second half — scoring 56 in this frame compared to 39 in the first — in part due to getting stops and playing with more pace.

“I thought we were more disciplined defensively in the second half,” Davis said. “We finished possessions with a rebound and that allowed us to get out in transition… it just felt like we were always on the run in the second half — but it always led from us defensively.”

More of the Tar Heels got involved, too, late in the second half. Young hit from behind the arc on three straight possessions, while Zayden High got to the free throw line multiple times and hit a three-pointer — all part of UNC’s 35 bench points.

Jarin Stevenson displays versatility in second half

Stevenson, like most of his teammates, had a quiet first half. But his second-half performance offered a preview of what the Alabama transfer can provide for this UNC team when he’s in attack mode.

The Chapel Hill native seemed to come out of the locker room with a different mentality as he pushed the pace, sank back-to-back three-pointers and attacked the rim. After scoring just one point in the opening half, Stevenson finished with 11 points on an efficient four-of-five shooting performance.

Eight of those points — on two triples and a layup — helped fuel a 20-4 UNC run in the second half.

“I feel like my teammates really picked me up,” Stevenson said. “They swung it when I was open and I was able to knock down the shots… I feel like my teammates really got me going.”

Davis said he was “really happy” about Stevenson’s offensive production in the second half and insisted the team needs to get him more shots.

The junior also showed up on defense. Outside of his two blocks — which were impressive in their own right — he was able to cross-match with guards and disrupt them with his length. Stevenson, who has called himself a “Swiss Army Knife,” oscillated seamlessly between the three and the four in various lineups on Wednesday.

That flexibility should be helpful for the Tar Heels as Davis continues to tinker with his rotation.

“His ability with his size — he really can guard one through five,” Davis said. “So it gives us the versatility on the defensive end to do different things.”

Luka Bogavac still unavailable for UNC

It was hard to tell Luka Bogavac apart from the Tar Heels’ coaching staff on Wednesday night.

That’s because, while his teammates took the court for their second preseason contest, Bogavac dressed out — sporting the same white quarter zip as UNC’s assistant coaches. This is the second straight exhibition game the 22-year-old player from Montenegro has had to miss as the university is processing his transfer from an international school.

The NCAA has cleared Bogovac to play college basketball this upcoming season, but he is waiting on a resolution at UNC.

The program had hoped Bogovac would be available for Wednesday night and maintains optimism that he will be cleared in time for the team’s season opener against Central Arkansas on Monday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.

This story was originally published October 30, 2025 at 6:00 AM.