After UNC's brutal loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, all eyes turn toward the future of star freshman Caleb Wilson.
The No. 6 North Carolina Tar Heels suffered a devastating first-round NCAA Tournament exit on Thursday night. At one point, UNC held a 19-point lead over No. 11 VCU, but VCU fought back to knot the game at 75-75 in the waning seconds of regulation. Ultimately, VCU upset UNC, 82-78, in overtime.
Immediately, Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis was buried by an avalanche of criticism. Even Shannon Sharpe called it among "the worst coaching jobs" he'd seen and suggested he should be fired.
The elephant in the room, of course, was the absence of star freshman Caleb Wilson.
Wilson suffered a season-ending broken right thumb during a non-contact practice drill on March 5. North Carolina didn't win any of its remaining three games without Wilson. The 6-foot-10 forward led UNC in points (19.8), rebounds (9.4), steals (1.5), and blocks (1.4) per game in 24 games for the Tar Heels this season.
According to Jake Fischer, some NBA teams "are expected to rate" Wilson as a top-three prospect with the potential to supersede the current consensus top-three prospects: BYU's AJ Dybantsa, Duke's Cameron Boozer, and Kansas' Darryn Peterson.
"I don’t think anyone is taking Wilson No. 1 overall," Fischer wrote. "But I think every team is going to have him above one of those other three guys."
Wilson has a decision to make. It would be shocking for him to return to Chapel Hill for his sophomore season if he's a projected top pick, especially after dealing with injuries this year.
"I haven't decided that, but I love Carolina," Wilson told WRAL's Pat Welter on Wednesday. "It's a great place to play and be at. It's been the most fun year of my life, so it would definitely be hard to say no and go ahead and go to the NBA. So, it's just something that I haven't really come to a true decision with yet."