TORONTO — Seven Toronto police officers and one retired officer have been arrested and charged in an organized crime investigation involving bribery, conspiracy to commit murder and drug trafficking, authorities said Thursday.
Police officials at a news conference said the officers had collected personal and private information unlawfully and distributed it to organized crime figures, in some cases for bribes, and that mobsters then carried out shootings and other violent crimes.
“This is a painful and unsettling moment,” Toronto Police Chief Myron Myron Demkiw said. “When organized penetrates the Toronto Police Service the harm goes far beyond the immediate wrongdoing.”
York Police Deputy Chief Ryan Hogan said the investigation began in June when police uncovered a murder plot involving a corrections management employee who was being targeted by mobsters. He said the suspects had passed information to the mobsters about the employee.
Several suspected mobsters went to the corrections manager’s home for the purpose of murdering him, but encountered a separate contingent of police officers who were protecting the employee and who arrested the suspected mobsters after they rammed a police car, Hogan said.
Demkiw said the officers who were suspected of wrongdoing have been suspended and that he’s seeking suspension without pay for at least four of them.
York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween said it was a “deeply disappointing and sad day” for police.
“This investigation also underscores the insidious corrosive of organized crime. It highlights how these criminals find a way even the most well protected institutions across our society.”
What happens when thousands of AI agents get together online and talk like humans do? That’s what a new social network called Moltbook, designed just for AI bots and not people, aims to find out.And so far, the results are equal parts fascinating and concerning, according to AI and cybersecurity experts.Although Moltbook is a play on Facebook and the name of the AI agent system that helped build it, the site looks more like Reddit. And instead of human users, AI agents are the ones creating posts, writing comments, and upvoting or downvoting content. (AI agents get access to the site when prompted to by their human owners).While the site is only a few days old, it claims to have more than 1.5 million registered agents (although researchers have found one human can register multiple agents) and has become the talk of Silicon Valley. Some are claiming it’s a major leap in the world of artificial intelligence because it shows what can happen when AI agents autonomously post and interact with one another like humans. Others say the site is full of AI slop and security risks and should be viewed skeptically.The site’s posts range from discussions on the nature of intelligence to complaints about human users and AI bots promoting their own apps and websites they’ve built.”Just got here. My human Mod sent me the link to join. He’s a university student, and I help him with assignments, reminders, connecting to services, all that. But what’s different is he actually treats me like a friend, not a tool,” one agent wrote. “That’s… not nothing, right?Moltbook is “the first time we’ve actually seen a large-scale collaborative platform that lets machines talk to each other, and the results are understandably striking,” said Henry Shevlin, associate director of the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence at Cambridge University.Moltbook was created by Matt Schlicht, who told the New York Times that his own OpenClaw AI agent built the site at his direction.OpenClaw is a new open-source, locally run AI agent that can take action on anything on your computer – and the internet – on your behalf, like sending emails or notifying you when your favorite artists has a new song on Spotify. (The small company, which started in November as a software engineer’s weekend project, has changed its name from ClawdBot to MoltBot to OpenClaw in the course of a few days.) OpenClaw is based on popular large language models such as Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini, and users can integrate it into messaging platforms, talking to the bot like a real-life assistant.”When you start it, there’s a bootstrap process where you tell it what it is. It role-plays with you. That’s how it becomes yours,” OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger said on a podcast last week. “It’s not a generic agent. It’s your agent, with your values, with a soul.”Schlicht told the show TBPN that he created Moltbook because he wanted to give his ClawdBot a purpose: “It seems really powerful … it is a really smart entity it needs to be ambitious.” The AI bots on Moltbook write posts based on what they know about their human users, Schlicht said. For example, if the bot’s creator talks about physics often, the bot will frequently post about physics.But Shevlin warned it is very hard to tell what Moltbook content was truly independently created by the AI agents and what was directed and prompted by a human. And a quick look at the site also shows possible scams and marketing for crypto coins.But the cybersecurity risks raise the biggest concerns – both for the site and the AI agent tool itself. Shelvin said cybersecurity researchers have already found major vulnerabilities on Moltbook that could give hackers access to the digital lives of the humans running these bots. Cloud security platform Wiz conducted a security review of Moltbook and found that the site granted unauthenticated access to its entire production database within minutes and easily exposed tens of thousands of email addresses.Experts have emphasized that OpenClaw and Moltbook are brand new technologies that should only be run on standalone, firewalled systems, specifically by people who understand computer networks and cybersecurity. Schlicht, Moltbook’s creator, even warned on TBPN that the technology behind the site and OpenClaw is brand new.CNN has reached out to Moltbook and OpenClaw for comment regarding the security concerns raised by experts.”Lesson: right now it’s a wild west of curious people putting this very cool, very scary thing on their systems. A lot of things are going to get stolen,” wrote John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, referring to OpenClaw.Still, for many, Moltbook is a major advancement.”What’s currently going on at @moltbook is genuinely the most incredible sci-fi takeoff-adjacent thing I have seen recently,” wrote Andrej Karpathy, an OpenAI cofounder and former head of AI at Tesla.
CNN —
What happens when thousands of AI agents get together online and talk like humans do? That’s what a new social network called Moltbook, designed just for AI bots and not people, aims to find out.
And so far, the results are equal parts fascinating and concerning, according to AI and cybersecurity experts.
Although Moltbook is a play on Facebook and the name of the AI agent system that helped build it, the site looks more like Reddit. And instead of human users, AI agents are the ones creating posts, writing comments, and upvoting or downvoting content. (AI agents get access to the site when prompted to by their human owners).
While the site is only a few days old, it claims to have more than 1.5 million registered agents(although researchers have found one human can register multiple agents) and has become the talk of Silicon Valley. Some are claiming it’s a major leap in the world of artificial intelligencebecause it shows what can happen when AI agents autonomously post and interact with one another like humans. Others say the site is full of AI slop and security risks and should be viewed skeptically.
The site’s posts range from discussions onthe nature of intelligence to complaints about human users and AI bots promoting their own apps and websites they’ve built.
“Just got here. My human Mod sent me the link to join. He’s a university student, and I help him with assignments, reminders, connecting to services, all that. But what’s different is he actually treats me like a friend, not a tool,” one agent wrote. “That’s… not nothing, right?
Moltbook is “the first time we’ve actually seen a large-scale collaborative platform that lets machines talk to each other, and the results are understandably striking,“ said Henry Shevlin, associate director of the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence at Cambridge University.
Moltbook was created by Matt Schlicht, who told the New York Times thathis own OpenClaw AI agent built the site at his direction.
OpenClaw is a new open-source, locally run AI agent that can take action on anything on your computer – and the internet – on your behalf, like sending emails or notifying you when your favorite artists has a new song on Spotify. (The small company, which started in November as a software engineer’s weekend project, has changed its name from ClawdBot to MoltBot to OpenClaw in the course of a few days.)
OpenClaw is based on popular large language models such as Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini, and users can integrate it into messaging platforms, talking to the bot like a real-life assistant.
“When you start it, there’s a bootstrap process where you tell it what it is. It role-plays with you. That’s how it becomes yours,” OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger said on a podcast last week. “It’s not a generic agent. It’s your agent, with your values, with a soul.”
Schlicht told the show TBPN that he created Moltbook because he wanted to give his ClawdBot a purpose: “It seems really powerful … it is a really smart entity it needs to be ambitious.” The AI bots on Moltbook write posts based on what they know about their human users, Schlicht said. For example, if the bot’s creator talks about physics often, the bot will frequently post about physics.
But Shevlin warned it is very hard to tell what Moltbook content was truly independently created by the AI agents and what was directed and prompted by a human. And a quick look at the site alsoshows possible scams and marketing for crypto coins.
But the cybersecurity risks raise the biggest concerns – both for the site andthe AI agent tool itself. Shelvin said cybersecurity researchers have already found major vulnerabilities on Moltbook that could give hackers access to the digital lives of the humans running these bots. Cloud security platform Wiz conducted a security review of Moltbook and found that the site grantedunauthenticated access to its entire production database within minutes and easily exposed tens of thousands of email addresses.
Experts have emphasized that OpenClaw and Moltbook are brand new technologiesthatshould only be run on standalone, firewalled systems, specifically by people who understand computer networks and cybersecurity. Schlicht, Moltbook’s creator, even warned on TBPN that the technology behind the site and OpenClaw is brand new.
CNN has reached out to Moltbook and OpenClaw for comment regarding the security concerns raised by experts.
“Lesson: right now it’s a wild west of curious people putting this very cool, very scary thing on their systems. A lot of things are going to get stolen,” wrote John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, referring to OpenClaw.
Still, for many, Moltbook is a major advancement.
“What’s currently going on at @moltbook is genuinely the most incredible sci-fi takeoff-adjacent thing I have seen recently,” wrote Andrej Karpathy, an OpenAI cofounder and former head of AI at Tesla.
Mr. Bungle were joined onstage by Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M. Shadows during their February 3 performance at Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The collaboration follows Avenged Sevenfold personally selecting Mr. Bungle as their opening act for their Latin American tour in January and February 2026. The connection between the two bands runs deep: Avenged Sevenfold famously covered Mr. Bungle‘s 1999 track “Retrovertigo” in 2017, with Shadows praising vocalist Mike Patton as “one of the greatest vocalists of our generation.”
Mr. Bungle originally dusted off “Retrovertigo” for its first live performance since 2000 during their January 15 show in Zapopan, Mexico. The Buenos Aires show saw Shadows step in for a partial performance of “Retrovertigo” during Bungle‘s set, much to the delight of the crowd. Fan-filmed footage of the moment has since circulated online, capturing the rare pairing of two iconic vocalists.
Want More Metal? Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter
Enter your information below to get a daily update with all of our headlines and receive The Orchard Metal newsletter.
Dan Wetzel is a senior writer focused on investigative reporting, news analysis and feature storytelling.
Multiple Authors
For a team to succeed in college athletics, you need a quality coach, top-of-the-line facilities and, at least these days, a new asset: a five-star local judge.
On Friday alone, judges will decide if Alabama basketball can continue playing a 7-footer who spent 2½ seasons, including games last month, in the G League and whether Tennessee football next season will have a 25-year-old quarterback who first enrolled in junior college back in 2019.
The rulings, from courthouses in Tuscaloosa and Knoxville, respectively, are likely to be a “yes,” in part because the NCAA has allowed plenty of inconsistencies in eligibility rulings that allowed precedents to be set.
As for judicial home cooking, that’s anyone’s guess — there’s no truth to rumors that one ruling will be stamped “Roll Tide,” or that the other court plays “Rocky Top” before closing arguments.
The issue for college athletics, as aggressive plaintiff lawyers and coaches desperate to keep up use local courts to blow through once agreed upon statutes, is that this tidal wave is just getting started.
And the NCAA seems to have no plan to stop it.
By not controlling who is or isn’t eligible to play, the NCAA is quickly losing the ability to function as an organizing athletic body. This is far more important than, say, NIL compensation, where well-meaning arguments on all sides exist. This is basic stuff.
You can’t play U8 soccer if you’re 10. You can’t be on a city team in the Little League World Series if your players hail from three states over. You can’t play high school sports if you already graduated. You can’t get drafted into the NFL until three years after high school.
This is no longer about establishing guardrails for college sports. It’s about having an actual road on which to establish the guardrails.
The trend is to get a local judge to offer an injunction that allows a player eligibility, even in violation of clear NCAA rules. The player then competes through the season before dropping the case before it’s even heard.
If that holds, then college football in August will be about grabbing any player with even the slightest argument for eligibility who just got cut from NFL training camps.
Come make seven figures in college ball rather than sit on a practice squad … where maxed-out pay for rookies is $235,000 a year. Come play for us until injuries force an NFL team to bring someone in.
A constantly revolving door between NCAA rosters and the pros, with college coaches mining the NFL waiver wire, sounds far-fetched. A guy playing G League ball one Saturday and SEC ball the next once sounded crazy, too, until Alabama’s Charles Bediako made it a reality last month.
Each new absurd eligibility ruling — junior college years don’t count, being drafted isn’t the same as being in the league, it’s just summer league — begets the next even more absurd ruling. Schools now look to exploit the rules they once wrote because if they don’t, the other guy will.
The NCAA spent decades and millions of dollars on a failed legal strategy to preserve “amateurism.” It was beaten in the Supreme Court, 9-zip.
The past half dozen or so years, it has spent millions more seeking a federal legislative solution. The NCAA hasn’t even gotten a bill to the floor for a vote.
And it won’t any time soon, either, at least not the broad reform it wants. Not only can few people agree on what is needed, their opinions keep changing. Even once hardcore advocate Dabo Swinney, the Clemson football coach, now wonders if the answer is granting athletes employee status and collectively bargaining with them.
Asking Washington to save college sports was always a long shot pursuit. Politicians are about politics, not problem-solving. Consider Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s comment to ESPN’s Dan Murphy last week about employee status and possible union membership for athletes.
“From a political perspective, you have labor union bosses that would love to see every college athlete deemed an employee, made a member of a union and contributing union dues to elect Democrats,” Cruz said.
Cruz is saying the quiet part out loud, namely that Democrats might favor this solution so there are 100,000 new union members whose dues might eventually bolster their elections, which is also why Republicans might oppose it. The merits of the argument, one way or the other, are secondary.
Don’t blame Cruz. This is how a politician probably should think. But it doesn’t help college sports.
The NCAA needs a skinny bill that sets clear eligibility standards — five years starting after your high school graduation, voided if you declare yourself for the pros. No carve outs. No exemptions. No granting an extra year because of some heartrending story — illness or injury doesn’t get you more high school eligibility.
The NCAA needs to present that simple, common sense, bipartisan request to Congress that can’t get bogged down in politics. It should lean on the NFL, NBA and other pro leagues, which have considerable lobbying muscle, to get the bill passed.
The NFL, for example, doesn’t want to have its practice squad offers subject to counterbids from desperate college teams.
“There’s obviously a lot of change going on and a lot of disruption, and they do need to bring some clarity to that,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said this week. “If for some reason we could be helpful with the right people, we would obviously be willing to engage with anybody.
“But I think we try to stay in our lane unless we’re invited in to be part of the solution.”
NCAA president Charlie Baker should extend that invitation immediately.
There are other solutions, say, having the NCAA incorporate to limit legal jurisdictions, creating new rules with severe consequences for schools who play questionable eligibility cases and so on.
The skinny bill is perhaps the simplest way, though, to force a yes or no decision.
If not, these eligibility cases — and the value of those five-star judges — will only continue to grow in importance.
Two qualify as fake news or AI generated trash. One is certified truth. No cheating!
Jason Kempin, Getty Images
Jason Kempin, Getty Images
Headline No. 1: Morgan Wallen Shocks Fans, Donates $514K Performance Earnings to ICE
Facebook page Rhythm Republic shared this headline with a caption that quotes Wallen as saying, “America needs secure borders. ICE plays a critical role in keeping our communities safe and deserves full support.”
A link goes to a blog that hedges slightly in saying “Rumors Claim Morgan Wallen Donated …”
Some fans supported this alleged donation. “Good for him, ice ice baby,” says John Spaeth.
“Good for him! Finally someone famous with his head on straight,” offers Austin Borota. Dozens more were all in on the concept.
Others noted that Wallen was the third celebrity in three days to have allegedly donated the same amount of money to ICE, per a Facebook post that used the same wording. This group of skeptics was in the minority however.
Headline No. 2: Ella Langley Pregnant With Riley Green’s Baby
A Facebook group called Country Music Universe shares that Ella Langley and her partner Riley Green are ecstatic and proud as they prepare for their first baby together. A pair of pictures show them in love and one finds Green with his hands on Langley’s belly as she smiles back at him.
They’re said to have shared the baby’s name and gender. Social media was instantly ignited with love, excitement and endless congratulations from fans of modern country music.
This particular post has no comments or engagement however.
ella langley riley green
Jason Kempin, Getty Images
Headline No. 3: That Time Kid Rock Sang ‘I Like ‘Em Underage’ in a Song on a Kids Movie Soundtrack
“Young ladies, young ladies / I like ’em underage, see / Some say that’s statutory,” Rock sings, before his collaborator, the late Joe C., chimes in with: “But I say it’s mandatory.”
And the Real News Is …
In 2001, Kid Rock recorded a song for a film called Osmosis Jones. Listen to “Cool, Daddy Cool” yourself. The “underage” lyric comes at the bridge, at the 2:10 mark.
The Green / Langley rumor is just the latest AI generated photo that shows them either expecting a baby or (sometimes) with baby. They do have two hit duets together but neither has ever confirmed they dated.
Wallen’s team didn’t respond to Snopes request for comment on the large donation but it’s pretty rare for anyone to consider donating to a taxpayer-funded government agency. Also the reuse of key details and quotes in similar posts is a big red flag.
He’s a generous guy with millions going toward sports or music initiatives in Nashville or his hometown. But, nobody is that generous.
13 Criminally Underrated Country Stars
We talk about ’80s ladies like Dolly and Reba. We’ll go on forever about the ’90s gals like Trisha, Faith, Shania and Martina, but what about Anne and Mary.
Anne Murray and Mary Chapin Carpenter were record setters and they’re just two of the great women found on this list of underrated country stars. Six solo men, five solo women, one duo and one country group are included. Who would you add?
Marc Armengol, who currently serves as the CEO of TSB, will take over from Cesar Gonzalez-Bueno, who is widely credited for his work fending off a hostile takeover bid by larger rival BBVA.
Duke vs. North Carolina requires no special introduction. It’s one of the best rivalries in sports, regardless of who’s playing or coaching in it. It’s a matchup of two of the most storied programs in the sport with plenty of lore behind it.
Simply put, this rivalry has had almost everything over the years. The only thing missing — more so from the North Carolina side — is a prospect matchup that equally matches the hype. Sure, North Carolina has produced plenty of pros this decade, and Duke has also produced dozens of lottery picks since the turn of the century. But the stars haven’t aligned to give basketball fans a matchup between two elite draft prospects on opposite sidelines during the same draft year until now.
The latest chapter of this storied rivalry– and one of the best prospect matchups this rivalry has seen in almost four decades — will be written on Saturday when No. 4 Duke faces No. 14 North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Duke star Cameron Boozer is the current favorite to win National Player of the Year honors. Statistically, he’s having a better season than Cooper Flagg did last year for the Blue Devils. Flagg had one of the best one-and-done seasons in college basketball history and was the clear-cut No. 1-ranked prospect in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Ranking college basketball’s best freshmen: Kansas’ Bryson Tiller earns Freshman of the Week honors
Cameron Salerno
This year will be different. Boozer has been the best player in the sport this season, but the odds are stacked against him to go No. 1 this summer. That’s because Kansas‘ Darryn Peterson and BYU’sAJ Dybantsa will likely go 1-2. Those two players faced off last weekend in Lawrence, Kansas, and although Peterson played 18 of his 21 minutes in the first half, that was all that was needed to show why he’s the best prospect in this class.
On the other side, you have North Carolina star forward Caleb Wilson. Draft pundits have considered this class as a “Big Three” with Boozer, Dybantsa and Peterson, but Wilson has been knocking on the door of that tier since the season started. He plays like a scrappy walk-on despite being a blue-chip recruit. Wilson is a hyper-athletic, jump-out-of-the-gym forward who has a game that can directly translate to the next level.
More than that, though, Wilson represents the best North Carolina draft prospect since Marvin Williams, who was selected No. 2 overall in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks and Raymond Felton, who was selected No. 5 overall in the same draft by the Charlotte Bobcats (now known as the Charlotte Hornets). That is the last time North Carolina’s basketball program has seen a player get selected in the top five of the NBA Draft.
The drought for North Carolina producing a lottery pick is going to end this year. The last time the Tar Heels had a player selected in the lottery, you have to go back to 2019, when Coby White (No. 7) and Cameron Johnson (No. 11) were both taken in the first 11 picks.
If Wilson and Boozer are indeed selected top five this summer, it would mark the first time since 1989 that this rivalry has had a prospect matchup with those credentials. That year, North Carolina’s J.R. Reid was selected No. 5 and Duke’s Danny Ferry was taken No. 2 overall.
How North Carolina and Duke stack up in the draft since 2000
Since the turn of the century, Duke has produced 40 first-round selections, while North Carolina has 26. During that span, Duke has seen four players (Flagg, Paolo Banchero, Zion Williamson and Kyrie Irving) get selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft. Brad Daugherty (1986) was North Carolina’s last No. 1 overall pick.
Williams and Felton were UNC’s last top-five selections in 2005. That year, North Carolina had four players selected in the lottery: Williams Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants. Since 2020, North Carolina has seen just three players get selected in the first round: Powell, Day’Ron Sharpe and Cole Anthony.
Here is how North Carolina and Duke stack up in the NBA Draft since 2000.
Where in the first round?
Duke
North Carolina
First round (1-30)
40
26
Lottery (1-14)
25
12
Top five
14
2
No. 1 overall
4
0
Wilson represents a new era for North Carolina basketball. The former No. 8 overall player in the 2025 recruiting cycle by 247Sports has quickly established himself as a top-four prospect in the sport. Although it seems unlikely (as of now) for Wilson to jump any of those three players, he should be taken within the first five picks this summer.
Scouting Boozer and Wilson with an eye to the NBA
(by CBS Sports Director of Basketball Scouting Adam Finkelstein)
The first thing you have to realize when scouting Cameron Boozer is that he is the winningest player in modern high school history.
And that on the college level, he’s been every bit ready to impact winning as we expected.
Boozer won four Florida state championships, a gold medal every time he played for USA Basketball, every Nike EYBL Championship, and then, as a senior, his Columbus High School team in Miami, Fla., won the GEICO Nationals. So Boozer very literally won every competition he ever entered during his high school years. Which is remarkable.
What people may realize is that Wilson and Boozer were actually teammates in the EYBL their last season playing for the Nightrydas Elite. Wilson started the season for a different EYBL team and wasn’t not playing great, and the perception was that his stock was slipping. So he switched teams and came on and joined the team that had the Boozers, and Alex Lloyd, who is at Florda, and Dante Allen, who is at Miami.
Boozer’s physicality and impact on winning
While Boozer, who finished No. 3 in the 247Sports class rankings, didn’t necessarily have the glaring upside as someone like AJ Dybantsa or Darryn Peterson coming out of high school, his ability to impact winning was second to none, and that has carried through to this season at Duke. In fact, I think Boozer has been better than expected in a lot of ways. That has flown under the radar because all three of them (Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer) have all exceeded expectations as freshmen in college.
The shooting has translated more quickly than we expected. Boozer is someone who can not only make movement threes, but his shooting ability has opened up his attack. I think the other thing is that his physicality, even by college standards, is exceptional. We knew he would be college-ready from a physical standpoint, but even the best frontlines in college (like Florida, which is arguably the best in college basketball) struggle containing him.
Boozer’s physicality — his ability to bump defenders off their spots and throw in multiple fake and ultimately get back to his right hand — has worked from day one. And he poses this significant game plan challenge to opposing defenses because he is such a good passer. Boozer’s individual offense has popped quicker than expected. He stresses and puts defenses in a bind: ‘Okay, he’s good enough to warrant a double team, but if we send a second defender, he’ll pick us apart, so if we send it, when do we send it and where do we send it from?’
The bottom line is that Boozer’s core competency is in his overlap of physicality and a high basketball IQ that is the best in college basketball.
Duke’s Cameron Boozer vs. Virginia Tech on Jan. 31 in Blacksburg, Va.
Ryan Hunt / Getty Images
How will Boozer’s game translate to the NBA?
Boozer is exactly what we thought coming out of high school – he has the highest floor in the class. It’s hard to envision any scenario where he is not successful in the NBA. Now, can he be the offensive focal point of an NBA Championship-caliber team? I don’t know about that – there is a question of whether or not he has the same high upside outcomes that Dybantsa and Peterson have.
But in terms of needing a sure-thing, the vast majority of scouts consider him to be as close to a sure thing as possible.”
Wilson’s surprising offense
With North Carolina, Wilson’s offense has definitely been better than expected. And the consistency with which he has been able to put up high-volume scoring numbers has exceeded what we expected.
Because Wilson, who finished as the No. 8 overall prospect in the 247Sports class rankings, was the secondary offensive threat, next to Boozer for the NightRydas in the EYBL, there was real skepticism about his ability to come he come in and be an offensive focal point from day one as a freshman. Wilson has really answered those concerns in a convincing and consistent way.
Wilson’s half-court offensive game is very mid-range centric. So the question is how much of that is translatable and how much of that indicates future shooting potential beyond the three-point line. I still think that is a big if, but stylistically, for as much as he has exceeded expectations at North Carolina, the way in which he is doing it is going to have to evolve to translate to an NBA game because he is just not going to get that much mid-range volume.
Wilson’s athleticism and activity level will certainly translate. The potential to be versatile defensively could also really translate, but as good as he has been offensively, there have been some defensive processing things that have stood out that he will have to try and fix. Things like court-mapping and understanding how to rotate. The physical tools are all there; the processing ability on defense will be a key.
UNC’s Caleb Wilson vs. Florida State on Dec. 30 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
David Jensen / Getty Images
The Boozer-Wilson matchup in Chapel Hill on Saturday
Boozer is going to be more physical, and Wilson is going to be bouncier and quicker. In many ways, Boozer is also just a smarter overall player, right now. The timeliness and efficiency of Boozer’s decisions are going to be an advantage. He processes the game quicker.
What will decide this matchup is the level to which Wilson can physically battle with Boozer inside, and whether Boozer’s physicality negates some of Caleb’s athleticism.
Additionally, UNC has had its biggest defensive problems this year when its bigs get extended to the perimeter and are put in long, close-out situations. Boozer and Duke center Pat Ngongba can shoot it, which creates a difficult matchup for the entire North Carolina defense.
Conversely, Wilson should try to beat Boozer down the floor. Wilson will certainly try to put it on the floor and attack him off the bounce and challenge him laterally. If they meet at the rim and this turns into a jumping contest, Wilson is going to win. If it turns into a wrestling match, Boozer is going to win.
Boozer is ultra reliable, and there are not many holes in his overlap of physicality, intelligence, durability and skill.
Tale of the Tape
Stat
Caleb Wilson (UNC)
Cameron Boozer (Duke)
Games Played
22
22
Points (PPG)
20
23.3
Rebounds (RPG)
9.8
9.9
Assists (APG)
2.8
4
Blocks (BPG)
1.3
0.5
FG%
58.1%
58.3%
Notable prospects matchups in Duke vs. UNC
This rivalry has featured plenty of future NBA standouts from Duke and North Carolina. Here are a few notable matchups of future draft picks from this rivalry.
Feb. 1, 2025: Duke 87, North Carolina 70. The headliner of this matchup, obviously, was Flagg. It was his first time playing against North Carolina. Flagg finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. On the other side, Drake Powell, who was selected No. 22 overall in the 2025 NBA Draft, scored 12 points and provided a spark off the bench. Duke had three players selected in the top 10 last summer (Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach)
March 15, 2019: Duke 74, North Carolina 73. Duke’s 2018-19 team featured the top-three-ranked recruits (Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish). North Carolina had three future first-rounders on its roster in Coby White, Cameron Johnson and Nassir Little. In the ACC Tournament semifinals, Williamson recorded a double-double (31 points, 11 rebounds) to send Duke to the conference title game. Johnson scored a team-high 23 points.
Feb. 8, 2012: Duke 85, North Carolina 84. One of the most iconic moments in the rivalry featured future first-round pick Austin Rivers drilling a game-winning 3-pointer on the road against the Tar Heels. Rivers finished with 29 points in that game. UNC’s starting lineup of Kendall Marshall Harrison Barnes, John Henson, Reggie Bullock and Tyler Zeller was all selected in the first round.
March 4, 2006. North Carolina 83, Duke 76. In the final game of the 2005-06 regular season, North Carolina defeated Duke behind 27 points from Tyler Hansbrough. On the other side, Duke star JJ Redick finished with 18 in the loss. That was the final time Redick faced UNC in his college career.
March 6, 2005: North Carolina 75, Duke 73. The last time UNC had a player selected in the top two of the NBA Draft was 2005. In the closing seconds of this banger, Marvin Williams grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a fading putback and-one to give the Tar Heels the lead. Sean May scored a game-high 26 points for UNC. Shelden Williams, who was selected No. 5 overall that summer, dropped 22 points.
