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CHAPEL HILL – Hubert Davis knew a long time ago Caleb Love was going to elevate his game several notches as a sophomore.
The assuredness didn’t come from sitting off in the distance watching Love work, grind, and close in on perfecting any aspects of his game. Davis didn’t even need to see the work. He knew that was already there.
Love was a regular getting up shots early almost every morning, after practice, and on off days. Worth ethic was never the problem with Love, it was his mind.
Cluttered much of his freshman season, one in which the St. Louis native shot just 31.6 percent from the field, including an unpalatable 26.6 percent from three-point range. He averaged 10.5 points and handed out 104 assists against a whopping 91 turnovers.
So, how did Davis know this season would be wholly different for his 6-foot-4 combo guard?
It came from a conversation they had last spring.
“He said, 'I need to come back to college,'” Davis recalled, following UNC’s 80-63 win over Elon, a game in which Love scored 22 points. “He said, 'I've got to mature. I've got to be a better person on the court and off the court if I want to be good here at Carolina and I want to have a chance to be good in the NBA.'
“And for an 18-year-old kid to be able to say that clearly, definitively face-to-face, I thought that was awesome. And when he said that to me, after we met, I went back to the coaches, I said, ‘We've got a player here’”
Nine games into Davis’ first as head coach and Love’s second as the team’s most gifted Tar Heel, he is a player. And then some.
Love leads UNC in scoring at 16.9 points per contest, as the leap from year one to year two has been drastic, and look no further than his shooting as exhibit A.
As a freshman, Love drained four three-pointers in a game once. That came in a 25-point performance when the Heels defeated Duke inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. He has converted four threes in two of UNC’s last three games. More:
Love had 10 games a season ago in which he converted multiple threes, but already has seven in nine contests this season; and four times he hit a trio of threes last season, he has done so three times in just over a month as a sophomore. The dedication to shooting the ball has always been there, but Davis says a difference is in the shots Love attempts.
"I think this year, which is a huge part, is he's taking better shots,” UNC’s coach said. “You can practice all you want, but if you take bad shots, they're still not going to go in consistently. You have to take good shots. I think that's the biggest thing for Caleb, his work ethic has continued to be great but his shot selection is better.”
Love says his improved game very much starts with his mind. Feel right, work right. Clear head, clear play. And so on.
“Basically, it’s just my confidence level,” said Love, who was 7-for-14 from the floor, including 4-for-7 from the perimeter versus the Phoenix. “This offseason, I wanted to make it an emphasis that I’d turned that switch, and worked on that throughout the whole summer. So, when the season ended, I went to work. This offseason, I worked my butt off and that’s exactly what it was.”
Equally noticeable about Love’s game are its other elements.
He has dished out 35 assists versus only 19 turnovers. He averages 4.1 rebounds as opposed to 2.6 last season. Even his steals are up from 1.2 to 1.6 per outing. Intensity, verve, spirit, and infectious energy? All are up by several levels as well.
And look no further than a sequence that actually culminated with him missing a dunk versus Elon as a perfect example.
Eight minutes into the second half, Love was playing defensively off the ball. A pass was intended for Elon’s Zac Ervin, but Love got into the passing lane and deflected the ball toward mid-court. It appeared Ervin would gain control of the ball near the sideline in front of the broadcast table, but Love, who had appeared to overrun the ball, reversed course, darted back to the ball, and tapped it to teammate Anthony Harris while diving onto the floor.
Love immediately headed the other way toward Carolina’s basket. Harris fed the ball right back to him on the left wing. Love squared for a millisecond, drawing out his defender, and then exploded toward the lane near the left baseline before elevating to the rim.
He missed an attempted slam, but the play and its energy, grit, and grace Love displayed had the sophomore version of his game all wrapped into one. But it started on the defensive end and with a mindset that didn’t always reveal itself a year ago.
“I feel like I can bring a spark to the defensive end,” he said, when asked about the sequence. “I said to somebody in another interview, ‘I can be the best defender in the ACC.’ I feel like I can give problems to any guard that I guard, and that’s just where my confidence level is. I feel like anybody that steps in front of me, I’m going to compete and I’m going to give it my all.
“And Coach Davis gives me that confidence as well to guarding one of the best players… He gives me that confidence, so I go out there and compete for him.”
Love also competes for himself. His team goals have regularly rolled off his tongue this season, but he has personal ones, too. Goals and dreams he articulated to his coach way back in the spring.
It was a conversation that set forth Love on a path he is currently blazing.
Four 20-point games, three-pointers from 25 feet, floaters, drives, kickouts, knowing when not to shoot the ball, and rolling up his sleeves on the defensive end mark the first nine games of Love’s second campaign in Carolina blue.
