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Please, Caleb Love is not changing his mind and coming back.
People who follow UNC basketball with fervor deal in rumors and speculation, but some of them simply cannot put the pieces together. The hottest and latest gossip to hit one Tar Heel social media blog is that Love is now coming back for his senior year.
That makes absolutely no sense for any number of reasons, such as:
Caleb is a great kid and finished his sophomore season as the hero with his big shots in March. But he left as the “goat” in many eyes because he took some bad shots as he was racing the shot clock. That was not always Love’s fault, rather the product of a stale offense, yet he got most of the blame. A reboot for both parties seemed like the logical move.
A 180 now is not only illogical, but impossible, due to how Hubert Davis has revamped the roster. There are already new faces who will split the minutes in search of better shots, and Love no longer fits.
He needs to play in a different offense, which Michigan has now that 7-foot Hunter Dickinson has transferred and Jett Howard, the head coach’s son, has entered the NBA draft. The Wolverines will no longer have the inside game Dickinson gave them, and they need to replace lost outside shooting.
And right now, Love is only a borderline pro prospect because of his 30 percent 3-point shooting last season. The NBA is a league where the players getting most of the minutes are guys who can fill it up from the deeper pro arc. In other words, Caleb has to prove he is more than a shot TAKER, but rather a shot MAKER.
Within a new environment, Love can spend all summer regaining his shooting touch and rewrite his chances for the NBA with a great senior season in Ann Arbor, where most fans will welcome him and his game more positively than some Tar Heels would after his uneven three seasons in Chapel Hill.
Yes, he is still in town finishing the spring semester and has been seen most publicly at a Ronald McDonald House event with buddy Armando Bacot. That was probably planned well in advance, and just because he is transferring doesn’t mean he has to forget his friends and good times he had here.
Let him go without silly speculation that might have been valid before Davis and his staff began going in another direction. Right now, Caleb’s best destination is the one he has chosen.
Let him go with the Love and gratitude we owe him and he deserves for hitting some of the biggest shots in Carolina Basketball history.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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