By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Caleb Wilson knew what was coming, and he met it with poise.
Georgetown swarmed him with second defenders, shaded help when he got the ball, and tested his patience in crowds. He answered with 20 points and 14 rebounds in North Carolina’s 81–61 win, but the bigger victory was in how he read the floor and trusted the offense.
Wilson said the best counter started with calm.
“I just try not to force stuff,” said Wilson, who has done that at times in recent games. “Just play the game, find who’s open, tell my teammates to get in a position where I can see them, and just let it happen.”
He added that vision has been a point of growth.
“I have to be able to see what’s going on around me, something I had to get used to, especially going against people who are bigger,” Wilson said. “But usually, I can just shoot. I really still can. But just knowing I could get somebody else a better shot.”
The plan matched Coach Hubert Davis’ blueprint.
Davis emphasized how UNC wants defenses to bend inside first and have the ball go out to shooters. Davis said that Wilson’s passing is a release valve when teams send help.
“One of the things that he’s elite at is passing the basketball,” Davis said. “He can find guys. When they put two on the ball, he becomes a playmaker, and he’s really instinctive, and he knows where his teammates are and gets the ball to where it needs to be.”
Wilson said the process of adapting to double teams doesn’t end when the game does. He watches plenty of video, and says that his research isn’t just about his reads but also anticipating patterns.
“Just knowing I could get somebody else a better shot,” he said, adding that he studies how defenders rotate and where the next pass should go.
The conversations about dealing with the extra attention extend beyond Chapel Hill, getting advice from NBA players and his father.
What advice did he get? “I can’t tell you,” Wilson said with a smile.
That preparation is why Davis trusts Wilson’s instincts when the traps come.
“He makes great decisions,” Davis said. “When they put two on the ball, he becomes a playmaker, and he’s really instinctive, and he knows where his teammates are and gets the ball to where it needs to be.”
One of the players he studies is Kobe Bryant, one of his hoops idols.
“He’s my favorite player, just his game and also just his mentality and his work ethic,” Wilson said. “I watch a lot of Kobe, and I feel like it’s going to be really important for me, because he faced double teams, and he had to figure out how to work through them.”
The other part of the solution is front-court mate Henri Veesaar and the chemistry that they continue to develop.
Every time the Hoyas shaded toward Wilson, Veesaar said there was a domino effect. It sometimes leaves a smaller player guarding him, making rebounding and passing to an open perimeter shooter easier.
“I think Caleb really showed his improvement of reading the game and not going for a tough shot, but rather skipping the ball and opens up so much for us,” Veesaar said. “I felt like today he was very efficient.”
Davis liked the way the Wilson and Veesaar are handling the traps, passing it out to the perimeter and making the extra pass, but had advice for Wilson in the second half.
“I said, ‘Look, you don’t have to force it. Just throw it back out. We’ll throw it right back into you, because we love the ball in his hands,’ ” Davis remembers telling Wilson.
When Veesaar puts up double-doubles as well (18 points and a career-high 15 rebounds against the Hoyas), the calculus for defenders changes.
“It gives me a lot,” Wilson said. “They’re going to focus on me every game, and I feel like they’re going to have to start focusing on both of us, and that’ll make it better for both of us as we play alongside each other.”
Davis views the growing comfort against double teams as part of a larger identity rooted in toughness. On a night when Georgetown’s help kept finding Wilson, Carolina countered with patience, precision and trust in the star who showed he can beat extra attention without forcing the issue.
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications
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