Who is Henri Veesaar, and how will he help the UNC basketball team this upcoming season?
North Carolina’s season is just under a month away. As we gain insight from how the team is shaping up for the 2025-2026 season, we will take a minute to spotlight all of the players who will don the Carolina Blue this season. Here is what we know about Arizona transfer Henri Veesaar and who he will be to Hubert Davis this season.
Henri Veesaar Bio
Position: Center
Height: 7-foot-0
Weight: 225 pounds
Number: 13
Hometown: Tallinn, Estonia
High School: Real Madrid Youth Academy
Henri Veesaar 2024-2025 review
Henri Veesaar took the court for the Arizona Wildcats last season. He averaged just 2.4 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 0.4 blocks per game as a freshman, seeing just 7.1 minutes per game. Stepping into a rotational role in the 2024-2025 season, Veesaar averaged 9.4 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game. He shot 59.3% from the field and 32.7% from three, averaging just 20.8 minutes per game, starting just five games.
Projected role for 2025-2026
Henri Veesaar is the epitome of what the Tar Heels were lacking last season to be great. He will not only be the team’s best rim protector after averaging 1.1 blocks per game last season, but he will also be the post presence that keeps the guards and forwards honest down low.
Veesaar will start at the five position and play the majority of the game, seeing rotation with guys like Jarin Stevenson and Zayden High. However, I expect Veesaar to be the biggest force inside for Hubert Davis.
Henri Veesaar Scouting Report
Here is the scouting report on Henri Veesaar from Adam Finkelstein of 247Sports:
Veesaar is a skilled 7-footer from Estonia who spent three years at Arizona, but missed the entire 2023-24 season with an elbow injury. After adding 35 pounds of muscle to his frame, he was able to step in and produce extremely productive minutes when Motiejus Krivas went down this season. He finished second in the Big 12 in both two-point field goal percentage (70%) and offensive rating (133.7). He was also hugely impactful as an offensive rebounder and rim protector. The increased physicality in his game allowed him to put much more pressure on the rim as both a roller and rim-runner, sometimes even as a lob threat.
He has soft hands, can quickly finish with both, and has polished footwork to match. In addition to being a heady screener, he’s a good passer and can play out of high-low action or dribble hand-offs. Veesaar has a developing face-up touch and knocked down 33% of his threes this year, averaging over an attempt per game. Defensively, he may not be super bouncy, but he’s become a much more emphatic shot-blocker who now aggressively challenges shots at the rim, but could still do a better job as a defensive rebounder.
Henri Veesaar 2025-26 bold prediction
The ceiling for Veesaar is higher this year than it was with Arizona last season. The Tar Heels are the AP No. 25-ranked team in the preseason poll and a large part because of the transformed front court. I would anticipate Veesaar stepping up his defense stats, even getting to over 2.0 blocks per game.
In addition to his defensive increase, Veesaar will average a double-double this season for North Carolina, surpassing career highs in every statistical category for the junior center.