North Carolina freshman Caleb Wilson’s dislike of Duke goes beyond the historic rivalry between the two blue-blood schools.
Wilson has emerged as one of the best freshmen in a loaded 2025 college recruiting class. The 19-year-old has averaged 20.0 points and 9.8 assists on 58.1% shooting across 22 games for the Tar Heels, guiding them to an 18-4 record ahead of their rivalry matchup against Duke on Saturday at Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.
During a recent interview with Andscape’s Marc Spears, Wilson shared that he has beef with Duke that began before he ever put on a North Carolina jersey.
“Duke offered me and they just stopped talking to me,” Wilson told Spears. “You know how coaches keep in contact with you? They never kept it going. And then, funny backstory, my guy Acaden Lewis who plays for Villanova — he’s a really good player, too; that’s my guy — he went on to visit Duke. I never visited and I have never been to Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“And I asked him how his Duke visit was. [Lewis] told me that the Duke coaches just didn’t think I was going to be a good player or a good fit for their program. He told me that and that sticks with me to this day. You think about all the other guys recruited over me, all the other guys you recruited. When I play you, that’s [what I will remember] going into the game.”
Wilson added that he takes “personal” offense to such slights, and plays with added motivation when pitted against peers who were recruited over him.
Instead of recruiting Wilson, Duke focused on landing twins Cameron and Cayden Boozer. The Blue Devils also recruited four-star prospect Sebastian Wilkins and five-star prospects Nikolas Khamenia and Dame Sarr to form the number-one freshman class in the country.
Cameron Boozer has been just as tantalizing a frontcourt player as Wilson, but one can only imagine how Duke would look had they paired them together. Many consider Wilson a lock for the fourth pick in the coming NBA draft, just behind Cameron Boozer.
The two square off Saturday in a game that Wilson has had circled around his calendar for quite some time.
