Lucas: Off They Go

By Adam Lucas

Finally, practice has begun.

But really it had already begun.

Carolina's 2025-26 basketball practices officially started Monday afternoon and continued with a Tuesday afternoon session. They looked remarkably similar to the pre-preseason workouts allowed by the NCAA that had been conducted over the last several weeks. In reality, practice is almost a year-round activity at this point for college basketball.

But it's still nice to see the Tar Heels back on the court with a clock officially counting towards next Saturday's Blue-White game and the regular season opener on Nov. 3 against Central Arkansas at the Smith Center.

The team that makes a public debut next Saturday (tip-off will be one hour after the conclusion of the football game) will have plenty of new faces. The roster includes 11 new names. Hopefully, you've been enjoying the wave of features on each new player that begins each Friday. Those features include social media spotlights and a guest spot on the Carolina Insider. This coming weekend's subject of the avalanche of coverage is freshman Derek Dixon.

Notes: In watching the newcomers, the amount of game-changing things Caleb Wilson does around the rim is noticeable. He finishes lob passes. He changes shots defensively. He gets off the floor quickly to get offensive rebounds. Those are impact plays that Carolina wasn't equipped to make last year, and Wilson will benefit even more when the Tar Heels have seven-footer Henri Veesaar on the floor to occupy the opponent's true big man. Wilson's versatility makes him a matchup problem…One of the very few returnees, James Brown, drew praise from Hubert Davis on Monday when he aggressively drove to the basket and finished with a two-handed dunk. "Welcome to the party, JB!" the head coach exclaimed…

Davis stopped a fast break drill on Tuesday just 17 seconds into the period. "We're not having this," he said. "No one is communicating. No one is talking." He sent everyone back to their original spots and restored the original time to the clock. When play resumed, it was noticeably more noisy in the Smith Center…Carolina also held a brief scrimmage-type situation on Tuesday. Keeping in mind that it was one very small snapshot of the preseason and much like a stock, future performance is not guaranteed, highlights included a few big plays from Wilson, the expected stellar contributions from Seth Trimble, and some of Zayden High's best minutes of the fall…Head coach Hubert Davis and several staff members wore Montross Day of Service shirts at Tuesday's practice. Tar Heel players spent part of Tuesday packing emergency toiletry kits for the Me Fine Foundation. More on the Montross Day of Service, which honors the birthday of Eric Montross and expanded significantly this year, on Thursday...

Interestingly, given his success around the rim, Wilson says one of his most reliable moves takes him away from the basket. "If I had to have a basket, it would probably be a post fade," he said. "But Sean May has been working on the jump hook with me. If you see that come out of the bag this year, just know I've been working on it."…The summer connections made between the current team and alums are always interesting to watch develop. Jonathan Powell mentioned Cam Johnson as a summer influence on him. "We spoke after we played against each other this summer," Powell said. "He said he saw a lot of him in me. He told me to keep going, stay in the gym, and create my own path."

Players Mentioned

James Brown

Derek Dixon

Zayden High

Jonathan Powell

Seth Trimble

Henri Veesaar

Caleb Wilson

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