Come Monday night, North Carolina and Hubert Davis have quite the battle on their hands, as the No. 16 Tar Heels are set to host Pat Kelsey and No. 21 Louisville. There will be no Caleb Wilson for this one, as he's still rehabbing his injured left hand.
Zayden High has provided a spark that Hubert Davis has looked for all season long
However, in Saturday's win over Syracuse, North Carolina was able to welcome back Henri Veesaar, who was dealing with a lower extremity injury. He scored a team-high 19 points, which proved to be huge in the victory. With the short turnaround for Louisville, is he at risk of not playing? Not a chance, as he made it more than clear after the win against the Orange that he'll be ready to rock:
With the two-day turnaround before Louisville visits #UNC, Henri Veesaar told us after the game he feels good to go for Monday.
— Noah Weiskopf (@NoahWeiskopf) February 21, 2026
Henri Veesaar Injury Update: UNC big man will be good to go vs. Louisville
The fact that Veesaar quickly told the media he'll be ready to rock was obviously a great sign. On the official injury report, the Arizona transfer was listed as probable after previously being listed as questionable leading up to the game vs. Syracuse.
On Friday, Veesaar was able to get in a limited practice session, which gave us all a hint that he was going to be back sooner rather than later. His impact in the most-recent win was head-turning and now he'll have to be at his best once again to take on Louisville.
Leading up to tip-off in Chapel Hill, North Carolina is the underdog by 2.5 points according to the FanDuel sportsbook despite being the home team. This tells us that Vegas thinks UNC may have its hands full against a hungry Cardinals side.
In addition to Veesaar, there's no question that Seth Trimble, Zayden High, Jarin Stevenson and others will need to be at their best for the Heels to pull off a bit of an upset. Veesaar will be counted on from start to finish and while he may still be a little banged up, he's also ready to fight through some pain to help his team work to get the job done.