Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels Land Arizona Transfer Big

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After searching for over a year, the Tar Heels have finally found their big man in the transfer portal.

On Friday afternoon, the Tar Heels landed the commitment of Arizona transfer big man Henri Veesaar. His commitment comes about a day and a half after the team hosted him for an official visit in Chapel Hill back on Wednesday.

Veesar, who entered the transfer portal earlier this week following the conclusion of the Arizona’s season in the Sweet 16, played in 37 games, with five starts this season, and averaged 9.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks, on 59% shooting all while playing just 20.8 minutes per game. He finished with a 133.7 offensive efficiency rating in the Big 12, the second best mark in the conference, and posted a 70.0% field goal percentage from 2-pt range, a number that also ranked the second-best in conference play. His 32.7% 3-pt field goal percentage is nothing to scoff at either, especially with the lack of floor stretching ability that we have seen from the bigs under Hubert Davis.

This is a massive addition for the Tar Heels in multiple ways. This team was in desperate need of a game-changing big and that’s exactly what they got in Veesaar. He can score in a multitude of different ways, he finishes strong inside and he can pass the ball at a pretty high rate for the big man. Defensively, he will provide much more resistance against fellow bigs than Ven-Allen Lubin and Jalen Washington were able to provide this year and he has the ability to protect the rim at a high rate. Veesaar is used to splitting time with others, so if the team wants to use Lubin at the five, he shouldn’t have an issue with it. There is also the possibility that you can play both of those guys at times, something that teams like Florida, Michigan and Michigan State have proved can still be very effective.

With Veesaar wrapped up, the attention now turns to the point guard spot, another position where the Tar Heels need someone badly following the departures of RJ Davis and Elliot Cadeau.