Star North Carolina freshman Caleb Wilson broke his right thumb dunking in practice Thursday and will undergo season-ending surgery, the university announced Friday.

Wilson, the Tar Heels’ leading scorer and rebounder, has missed UNC’s last six games with a fractured left hand, which he sustained against Miami on Feb. 10.

Head coach Hubert Davis told reporters Thursday — before the team practiced, and before Wilson suffered his season-ending injury — that the Atlanta native was progressing well in his rehab and nearing a return to the Tar Heels’ lineup.

Instead, Friday’s news brings a devastating end to one of this season’s best freshman campaigns — one that has all but guaranteed that the 6-foot-10 Wilson will become a top-five pick in this summer’s NBA Draft. The five-star recruit has been UNC’s best player all season, averaging 19.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. Before fracturing his left hand, Wilson paced the nation in dunks while simultaneously leading North Carolina to marquee wins over Duke, Kansas and Kentucky.

And while UNC has responded well in Wilson’s absence, going 5-1 with wins over expected NCAA Tournament teams Louisville and Clemson, Davis’ team now undoubtedly has a much lower ceiling entering the ACC tournament and March Madness.

For Wilson, this latest injury ends a freshman season that has rewritten North Carolina’s record books. Despite only playing 24 games, Wilson broke Tyler Hansbrough’s longstanding program record for the most 20-point games by a freshman, with 17. His per-game scoring average is also the highest by a freshman in UNC history. And depending on how the Tar Heels’ season ends, he may still wind up as the fourth freshman in program history to lead his team in rebounding.

Wilson more than solidified his draft stock before these injuries, looking every bit like the sort of do-it-all forward NBA teams are desperate to find. The Athletic’s draft expert, Sam Vecenie, had Wilson going fourth in his latest mock draft published earlier this week. Assuming he heals in time for the predraft process, there’s no reason to think Wilson will fall out of the top five.

If anything, he’s North Carolina’s best hope to produce an NBA All-Star since the tandem of Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison entered the league in 1998.

However, any future success that comes Wilson’s way won’t help the Tar Heels now, during the most pivotal stretch of their season. North Carolina’s regular-season finale is Saturday at No. 1 Duke, in the rematch of this season’s earlier classic in Chapel Hill, where senior UNC guard Seth Trimble hit a game-winning 3 in the final second.

After that, the Tar Heels begin their postseason charge next Thursday in the ACC tournament as the league’s No. 4 seed.