March is already madness for North Carolina — and not the good kind.
Caleb Wilson, the Tar Heels’ top scorer, broke his right thumb in a non-contact drill during practice on Thursday and underwent season-ending surgery, Shams Charania reported on Friday.
The injury immediately threw some panic toward the freshman forward’s status for the eventual NBA draft, as he is expected to compete for the No. 1 pick in June. However, he is expected to be cleared during the NBA pre-draft process.
Still, it’s a tough pill for North Carolina to swallow as it expected to have the young star back in the lineup for a run in the NCAA Tournament later this month.
Whether the Tar Heels can now make a deep run is in question.
Wilson had missed six games since he injured his left, non-shooting hand during a loss to Miami on Feb. 10. Earlier this week, head coach Hubert Davis said Wilson shed his cast and had been doing noncontact work, including dribbling and shooting.
On Thursday, Davis predicted Wilson could return to the court on Saturday against Duke.
“He has been doing individual workouts, and since we played on Tuesday, we didn’t have practice yesterday,” Davis said. “We’ll practice today. He’ll do more today. But other than that, I don’t have any other additional information.”
The Atlanta native’s collegiate career is now seemingly over.
Standing at 6-foot-9, 216 pounds, Wilson had a heck of a freshman campaign. He averaged nearly a double-double per game — 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds — while shooting at a 57.8 percent clip from the field across 24 games.
He also added 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks.
Without him during the season, the Tar Heels (24-6 overall) have gone 5-1.
Duke (28-2) could expose their weaknesses without the phenom on Saturday.
Just a game before he was injured, Wilson scored 23 points in a thrilling 71-68 win over the ACC-leading Devils.
North Carolina is already locked into the No. 4 seed at next week’s conference tournament. The team is set to play the winner of No. 5 Clemson vs. Virginia Tech/Wake Forest on Thursday.