Caleb Love was the last of the four starters from North Carolina’s basketball team that could return next season to actually announce he is coming back, and it is a part the Tar Heels absolutely need to achieve their clear goal of winning the national championship.
The key here is that everything about winning a title at UNC and being a part of the program’s lore, has grown on Love, which is an important part of the process that led him to this decision.
He could have made basketball his profession and sole focus, but he wanted another year of the structure that is college hoops, the opportunity it affords him to improve, the camaraderie with his guys on the team, and to be further embedded into the fabric of UNC basketball and its deep and rich history.
A 6-foot-4 native of St. Louis, Love finished the season averaging 15.9 points per contest while shooting 37.1 percent from the floor, including 36 percent from beyond the arc. He converted 86.3 percent of his free throws. In addition, Love was second on the team averaging 5.6 assists (he had 139 on the season, RJ Davis had 142), he also had 37 steals and blocked nine shots.
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He displayed a need to have the ball at crunch time, and he usually came through. Love is unfazed by the biggest moments, and he is also undeterred by his own personal struggles during the course of games, as he so often exemplified this past season.
“One of the many things I love about Caleb is he wants to be on the biggest stage,” UNC Coach Hubert Davis said. “And so, I've been a part of a number of, like, in terms of the atmosphere, big-time atmospheres as a player and as a coach. Last night it was right there. And that's where Caleb wants to be. And there's very few players that want to be on that stage all the time. And Caleb does.
“The other thing is, he has an unbelievable ability to move on to the next play, next possession. So, I think he air-balled in the second half. And then he came down and shot that ball over Mark Williams. He could turn the ball over and next day make a really great pass. His ability to move on to the next play is brilliant.”
Syracuse at home, versus UCLA in the Sweet 16, and versus Duke in the national semifinals in which Love did just that, and without his late surges, the Tar Heels likely would have lost each of those games. But they didn’t.
So, here are 5 Reasons Caleb Love made the right decision:
Gotta Get Better For The Team
When on, few players in college basketball are as striking or magnificent than Love. His game at times reveals a supremely full package. A long-ball game, a mid-range game, pull-up game, gloater and runner game, getting-to-the-rim game, improved finishing game, and drawing-fouls-and-getting-to-the-free-throw-line game.
Love did all of those things when taking over games. But the flip side was he at times either came close to shooting the Tar Heels out of games, and perhaps even did on a couple of occasions.
Olay, so that is part of his process, which he is allowed as a developing competitor. And it’s part of Carolina’s, because an improved Love and a more consistent Love means the Tar Heels will be a major contender to win the national championship next April.
Consider these numbers:
Carolina’s Top 4 Scorers In Its 29 Wins
Caleb Love 17.4
Armando Bacot 17.0
Brady Manek 15.8
RJ Davis 13.8
Carolina’s Top 4 Scorers In Its 10 Losses
Armando Bacot 14.1
Brady Manek 13.1
RJ Davis 12.7
Caleb Love 11.7
So, if Love is near or at the high-end stuff much more often, UNC is going to win a ton of games next season.
Gotta Get Better For the NBA
Looking at where he is projected with respect to the NBA Draft in June offers plenty of reasons Love chose to return, but the reality is a lot of guys bolt well before they are ready for myriad reasons, notably they think they’re better than the league’s brass believes, they get awful advice from people close to them, they think they can develop better when their only focus is hoops, or they just don’t want to go to school anymore.
There is a path to the NBA for guys like Love as a two-year UNC player, but it is much more challenging than if they allow their games to grow a tad more in college. Love will do that over the next 12 months.
He must refine all aspects of his game, but the number one thing he must do for the sake of the team’s quest for a title and his for a spot in the first-round of the 2023 NBA Draft is to trim off the bad stuff, which would make him more consistent. And then the other goals – team and personal – will fall into place.
Laundry In The Rafters
Armando Bacot openly speaks about having his jersey hanging in the rafters when he is done at UNC, something that has become increasingly important to the rising senior. Love has been at UNC just two seasons, and those discussions haven’t yet taken place, but he is certainly poised to make a push to get his jersey up there, too. Let’s look back into history to draw a possible scenario that could take place next winter and early spring:
Remember in 2008, UNC junior forward Tyler Hansbrough was the dude in college basketball. National Player of the Year, on track to become the ACC’s all-time leading scorer and UNC’s all-time rebounder, both of which he achieved the following year. His jersey number 50 is retired, and Hansbrough is the most accomplished Carolina player of all time.
But junior point guard Ty Lawson passed him by sometime in January of 2009 and ended up winning the ACC Player of the Year, and led the Tar Heels to the national championship. A scenario in which Love passes by Bacot sometime next winter and does something similar as Lawson is very real. And if it happens, he will most certainly have his jersey in the rafters.
Possible Fan Favorite? (Great Story)
We all like great stories, and Love’s improved play, and penchant for being at his best in the biggest moments, turned him from a player that regularly frustrated many Carolina fans into one they absolutely adored. Still frustrated at times, but his on was so on that UNC fans started falling in – cheap writing line here – love with him.
But he was just getting started in March and early April. He is now part of the lore forever and gave the Carolina program and its legion of passionate supporters something nobody can ever take away, and that was the shot over Duke’s Mark Williams essentially sealing the Heels’ win over Duke in Coach K’s last ever game.
Love, that moment, and that historic win will always be linked together. But he can do more. This story isn’t over, and it could blossom in a manner that will make scribes enjoy chronicling it to the very end.
Ask any Carolina fan that wasn’t sure what they thought about Love four months ago what they think about him now, and then revisit the topic in 12 months. This could be an easy story to write.
NIL
The impact of NIL on college basketball, especially at programs like North Carolina, is very real and is a great thing. The kids are making money off of their names now, which is terrific, and they now have reasons to return to school. Love is a wonderful example of this.
Perhaps Love would be off to the pro ranks if NIL wasn’t a thing, and who could blame him. If he’s going to enter into a situation where he is learning the game at the next level and getting paid for it, why do it for what some people consider “free” in college?
It hasn’t been for “free” for a long time, but there isn’t any point in getting into those details at this time. What does matter, and had to play a role here, is that Love is going to make a lot of cash – he has already made a lot of money - and rightfully so.
In fact, Love likely will make more money at UNC over the next year than he would have with a two-way contract with an NBA team. So, this is fantastic for him and the entire UNC program and fan base. NIL is here to stay, and enticing Love to return is an example of why the rule was implemented.
