Veesaar unleashed. How the UNC Tar Heels’ big man rocked Virginia Tech

Even as the Tar Heels near 30 games on the season, they’re still learning new things about each other. Such is life in the transfer portal era, when yearly roster overhauls are more the norm than the exception.

Case in point: senior guard Elijah Davis discovered just this week that Henri Veesaar has an infatuation with Spanish music — specifically Bad Bunny. It tracks, given Veesaar’s international background and the three seasons he spent in Real Madrid’s youth program before coming to the United States to play college hoops.

So earlier this week, during an early-morning lift, fellow captain Seth Trimble ditched his usual Drake-heavy aux rotation.

“I got some Bad Bunny going for him,” Trimble said with a laugh Saturday. “There’s this one song — ‘Baile Inolvidable’ — that’s my song. He happens to love Bad Bunny, so I was playing that for him, pretty much just to wake his (butt) up. I told him, ‘Let’s go.’”

And Saturday night, despite the 8:30 p.m. tipoff, Veesaar looked fully awake.

The 7-footer poured in a career-high-tying 26 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead No. 18 North Carolina past Virginia Tech, 89-82, at the Smith Center. Trimble added 20 points, while Jonathan Powell provided his best performance of ACC play: 15 points off the bench. The win moved the Tar Heels to 23-6 overall, 11-5 in the ACC, and a perfect 17-0 at home.

And, for Tar Heel fans keeping track (anxiously) at home, the win makes UNC 4-1 without Caleb Wilson, who remains sidelined with a hand injury.

“It’s a lot of people that say that we can’t compete, we can’t beat a lot of teams without Caleb,” Powell said. “So I think just playing with that chip on our shoulder every game, showing everybody that we’re still a team. I mean, our roster is deep. Everybody can go.”

If that’s the narrative externally, the response internally has been accountability.

From ‘unacceptable’ to outstanding

Earlier in the week, Veesaar wasn’t satisfied. Following Monday’s win over Louisville, he called his recent rebounding numbers “unacceptable,” noting he’d pulled down just five boards across two games since returning from a lower-body issue and illness.

“I gotta do a better job,” Veesaar said Monday. “I feel like, just coming back from the little injury, I haven’t been feeling like myself. So I gotta work on that and get back to where I was at before — helping the team win the rebounding battle.”

Saturday suggested he’s getting there.

After a back-and-forth first half that ended in a 44-44 tie — with both teams shooting better than 50 percent — Hubert Davis had what he described as “spirited conversations” in the locker room. He wanted more paint touches. More force. Less settling.

Virginia Tech had dictated tempo early, building an 11-2 edge in fast-break points and pushing Veesaar off his preferred spots on the floor. In the first half, nearly half of Veesaar’s shot attempts came from beyond the arc.

That changed quickly after the break.

Veesaar scored 10 points in the first seven minutes of the second half and finished with 18 after intermission, shooting 8-for-11 from the floor in the final 20 minutes.

“When Henri is going offensively, it opens up everything for us,” Davis said.

Veesaar’s physicality made the difference

Davis noted the difference wasn’t schematic as much as it was physical. In the second half, Veesaar worked harder to catch the ball closer to the rim instead of allowing the Hokies’ defense to push him out.

“I felt like he worked extremely hard to catch the ball closer to the basket,” Davis said. “If they came to double, there’s an easy pitch-out. And for him, just one dribble step and he was already at the rim with his length.”

The performance, as was the case with Trimble’s career-high on Monday, came after some prodding from his teammates.

“We all hold him accountable, because we know how good of a player he is,” Powell said. “For us to win games, we need him.”

That message was delivered at halftime.

“We got on him a little bit,” Powell said. “And then he came out and responded the right way — how we all expect him to respond.”

North Carolina needed that response. Without Wilson, the Tar Heels are asking more of everyone. Trimble followed up his 30-point outing against Louisville with 20 more Saturday. Zayden High added 12 points and went a perfect 8-for-8 from the line. Powell hit four 3-pointers. Kyan Evans took over at point for a struggling Derek Dixon.

The Tar Heels’ bench outscored Virginia Tech’s reserves 32-13.

“I do think we’ve become a group that’s edgier,” Davis said postgame. “We’re finding ways — whether it’s to get a stop, get a rebound, execute on the offensive end, take care of the basketball... the resiliency of this group through a lot of changes this year, the way they’ve reacted and responded, has been fantastic.”

That edge has shown up in different forms. In Trimble attacking the rim. In High playing with hustle and emotion. In Jaydon Young’s late-game scuffle after being pulled to the ground in a tense rebounding battle. In Veesaar demanding deeper catches.

And, apparently, in the weight room aux cord.

Sometimes, growth looks like halftime adjustments and efficient post touches. And sometimes, it looks like a 7-footer from Estonia getting hyped to Bad Bunny while his teammate tells him to wake up.

Nearly 30 games in, the Tar Heels are still figuring out who they are — still learning what buttons to push, what songs to play, what tone to set. That will adjust once again when Wilson returns.

But on Saturday night, at least, the rhythm felt right.

This story was originally published March 1, 2026 at 6:30 AM.