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University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: DALTON T. WAINSCOTT
Lucas: The Record Book
November 19, 2025 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
One of the most important documents in Carolina Basketball history is getting a workout this season.
By Adam Lucas
The Carolina Basketball record book is 532 pages long and weighs almost three pounds.
It has everything. I mean it—everything.
I opened it to three completely random pages just to see what I could learn:
The Carolina player with the highest career field goal percentage in the ACC Tournament is Isaiah Hicks, who shot 62.8 percent on 51 attempts in his four-year career (page 486).
The Tar Heels beat the socks off Hanes Hosiery, 75-58, in the third game of the 1950-51 season (page 306).
The only player in NCAA basketball history with 1,000 points, 1,000 assists and 500 rebounds is Ed Cota. Bonus fact from that same page: Cota also holds the ACC record for most games played—it's 138—without fouling out (page 152).
Very few days pass during the basketball season without consulting the Big Book of Facts for some erstwhile nugget or stat. The treasured document is largely the work of basketball communications maestro Steve Kirschner, but it has seen critical contributions from Jody Zeugner, who is also known as the long-time Tar Heel Sports Network statistician.
It's a safe bet that very, very few programs have the level of historical data that is available about Carolina Basketball. At one point, the program had the box scores from 1955 to the present. But that left out over 40 years of history, so Zeugner took it upon himself to pore through thousands of newspapers in an effort to find the missing decades. By now, he's located all but about 30 games, and he's entered every score, basket and player into an Excel spreadsheet that he updates after every Carolina game.
And just five games into this season, he's already been very busy.
Start with the team accomplishments. Tuesday's win over Navy was an important one. Not because it marked the second 5-0 start in the Hubert Davis era, although it did (page 321). But because it trimmed one of the most unlikely categories in the entire 532 pages: the lopsided series record against Navy…in favor of Navy.
It's true. The Midshipmen came into the night 14-6 against the Tar Heels. That makes them one of just ten programs nationwide (page 325) that have played multiple games against Carolina and have a winning record. The others are Army (3-0 against UNC), George Washington (6-4), Indiana (10-6), Iowa (4-1), Georgetown (5-4, so circle Dec. 7 on your calendar), Ole Miss (2-1), NYU (10-7) and West Virginia (5-0).
It was also the 2,400th victory in program history (page 87), making Carolina one of only three college programs (Kentucky and Kansas are the other two) to reach that mark. If all goes well, they'll crack 500 wins at the Smith Center this season, as they're currently at 494 victories in the building (page 191). It's not out of the realm of possibility that Carolina could finish this season with almost three times the number of wins in the Smith Center as the Heels posted in Carmichael—that total was "only" 170.
Again, you take it a little for granted that all of these numbers are available just by flipping through a few—OK, fine, maybe more than a few—pages. That's mostly a credit to Kirschner and Zeugner, who cared enough about the history of the program to preserve it in an accessible fashion.
Which enables us to marvel over players like Caleb Wilson. Watching him score 23 points to go with his 12 rebounds against Navy gave you the sense that you were seeing something you've very rarely seen for the Tar Heels.
Because of the Big Book of Facts, there are numbers to back up that feeling.
This is amazing:
Wilson now ranks tied for fifth in the history of Carolina Basketball in points through the first five games of a UNC career. The freshman has 103, tied with Bob McAdoo. The only players ahead of them: Lennie Rosenbluth, who leads the category with an incredible 151 points in five games. Larry Miller, Rashad McCants and Cole Anthony also outscored Wilson.
But wait: what about rebounds? Through the first five games of a Carolina career, Wilson is tied for sixth in Tar Heel history with 50 boards. The leader is Rosenbluth with 82. The only players in the top six on both lists--out of everyone who has ever played for Carolina--are Rosenbluth, Miller and Wilson. You already know this if you're reading this story, but Rosenbluth and Miller are all-time Carolina greats. Wilson isn't yet, but he's keeping company with them. And yes, we're watching one of the greatest beginnings to a Tar Heel career we've ever seen.
By the way: Wilson also ranks second all-time in field goal percentage through the first five games of a Carolina career. Bobby Jones made 73.5 percent of his shots, while Wilson is hitting 67.3 percent, partially because he has discovered that dunking is a very high-percentage way to score.
With nine rejections, Wilson is second in blocks through five games of a UNC career. One of the players ahead of him in a four-way tie is fellow newcomer Henri Veesaar, who has ten. Those ten tie him with Sam Perkins, Sean May and Rasheed Wallace.
There are a combined 13 former players on the lists referenced in the above four paragraphs. All but two of them (Anthony and Quigg) have their jerseys in the Smith Center rafters.
If Wilson is able to continue his pace and at least contend for a similar honor, it would make him only the second number-eight ever honored (Jim Jordan from 1946 was the other) at Carolina.
It would mean he'd become the 55th player in Tar Heel history to reach the rafters, the first to earn recognition as a freshman since Tyler Hansbrough, and the first native of Georgia to do it since Al Wood.
Oh, and it would also mean Kirschner and Zeugner would need to update page 281.
The Carolina Basketball record book is 532 pages long and weighs almost three pounds.
It has everything. I mean it—everything.
I opened it to three completely random pages just to see what I could learn:
The Carolina player with the highest career field goal percentage in the ACC Tournament is Isaiah Hicks, who shot 62.8 percent on 51 attempts in his four-year career (page 486).
The Tar Heels beat the socks off Hanes Hosiery, 75-58, in the third game of the 1950-51 season (page 306).
The only player in NCAA basketball history with 1,000 points, 1,000 assists and 500 rebounds is Ed Cota. Bonus fact from that same page: Cota also holds the ACC record for most games played—it's 138—without fouling out (page 152).
Very few days pass during the basketball season without consulting the Big Book of Facts for some erstwhile nugget or stat. The treasured document is largely the work of basketball communications maestro Steve Kirschner, but it has seen critical contributions from Jody Zeugner, who is also known as the long-time Tar Heel Sports Network statistician.
It's a safe bet that very, very few programs have the level of historical data that is available about Carolina Basketball. At one point, the program had the box scores from 1955 to the present. But that left out over 40 years of history, so Zeugner took it upon himself to pore through thousands of newspapers in an effort to find the missing decades. By now, he's located all but about 30 games, and he's entered every score, basket and player into an Excel spreadsheet that he updates after every Carolina game.
And just five games into this season, he's already been very busy.
Start with the team accomplishments. Tuesday's win over Navy was an important one. Not because it marked the second 5-0 start in the Hubert Davis era, although it did (page 321). But because it trimmed one of the most unlikely categories in the entire 532 pages: the lopsided series record against Navy…in favor of Navy.
It's true. The Midshipmen came into the night 14-6 against the Tar Heels. That makes them one of just ten programs nationwide (page 325) that have played multiple games against Carolina and have a winning record. The others are Army (3-0 against UNC), George Washington (6-4), Indiana (10-6), Iowa (4-1), Georgetown (5-4, so circle Dec. 7 on your calendar), Ole Miss (2-1), NYU (10-7) and West Virginia (5-0).
It was also the 2,400th victory in program history (page 87), making Carolina one of only three college programs (Kentucky and Kansas are the other two) to reach that mark. If all goes well, they'll crack 500 wins at the Smith Center this season, as they're currently at 494 victories in the building (page 191). It's not out of the realm of possibility that Carolina could finish this season with almost three times the number of wins in the Smith Center as the Heels posted in Carmichael—that total was "only" 170.
Again, you take it a little for granted that all of these numbers are available just by flipping through a few—OK, fine, maybe more than a few—pages. That's mostly a credit to Kirschner and Zeugner, who cared enough about the history of the program to preserve it in an accessible fashion.
Which enables us to marvel over players like Caleb Wilson. Watching him score 23 points to go with his 12 rebounds against Navy gave you the sense that you were seeing something you've very rarely seen for the Tar Heels.
Because of the Big Book of Facts, there are numbers to back up that feeling.
This is amazing:
Wilson now ranks tied for fifth in the history of Carolina Basketball in points through the first five games of a UNC career. The freshman has 103, tied with Bob McAdoo. The only players ahead of them: Lennie Rosenbluth, who leads the category with an incredible 151 points in five games. Larry Miller, Rashad McCants and Cole Anthony also outscored Wilson.
But wait: what about rebounds? Through the first five games of a Carolina career, Wilson is tied for sixth in Tar Heel history with 50 boards. The leader is Rosenbluth with 82. The only players in the top six on both lists--out of everyone who has ever played for Carolina--are Rosenbluth, Miller and Wilson. You already know this if you're reading this story, but Rosenbluth and Miller are all-time Carolina greats. Wilson isn't yet, but he's keeping company with them. And yes, we're watching one of the greatest beginnings to a Tar Heel career we've ever seen.
By the way: Wilson also ranks second all-time in field goal percentage through the first five games of a Carolina career. Bobby Jones made 73.5 percent of his shots, while Wilson is hitting 67.3 percent, partially because he has discovered that dunking is a very high-percentage way to score.
With nine rejections, Wilson is second in blocks through five games of a UNC career. One of the players ahead of him in a four-way tie is fellow newcomer Henri Veesaar, who has ten. Those ten tie him with Sam Perkins, Sean May and Rasheed Wallace.
There are a combined 13 former players on the lists referenced in the above four paragraphs. All but two of them (Anthony and Quigg) have their jerseys in the Smith Center rafters.
If Wilson is able to continue his pace and at least contend for a similar honor, it would make him only the second number-eight ever honored (Jim Jordan from 1946 was the other) at Carolina.
It would mean he'd become the 55th player in Tar Heel history to reach the rafters, the first to earn recognition as a freshman since Tyler Hansbrough, and the first native of Georgia to do it since Al Wood.
Oh, and it would also mean Kirschner and Zeugner would need to update page 281.
Players Mentioned
C
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballHubert Davis Post-Navy Press Conference
Wednesday, November 19
UNC Men's Basketball: Wilson, Tar Heels Soar Over Navy, 73-61
Wednesday, November 19
Carolina Insider: Rapid Reactions pres. by Modelo – Men’s Basketball vs. Navy – November 18, 2025
Tuesday, November 18
MBB: Wilson, Tar Heels Soar Over Navy, 73-61
Tuesday, November 18