Arizona’s Newest Star: Caleb Love
Caleb Love announced on Tuesday that he will be taking his talents to Tucson, Arizona–home of the Arizona Wildcats.
After three seasons at UNC, averaging 14 points an outing, Caleb Love decided it was time to “rewrite his story.” Almost immediately after entering the transfer portal for the first time in March, Love started receiving offers from highly touted schools. Michigan, Indiana, and his home state school, the University of Missouri, all reached out to him in hopes of landing the former top-ten recruit.
After visits to various Power 6 schools, Love narrowed it down to Michigan and Missouri. These two schools were the finalists for obvious reasons. Michigan is coming off its worst year since the 2014-15 season when they finished at .500 under John Beilein. To make things worse, Michigan was losing talent at a rapid rate. Leading scorer and rebounder Hunter Dickinson entering the transfer portal. 6-foot-8 Freshman guard Jett Howard entered the NBA Draft, joining his teammate Kobe Bufkin. As you can tell, the Wolverines were in dire need of a new star.
The Michigan Dilemma
However, before Love could get acclimated to Ann Arbor, the college Gods struck down with great might. Love did not have the proper amount of credits necessary to transfer into Michigan. According to Michigan’s transfer rules, “the more credits there are to bring over, the less likely they all get kept, depending on the transcript.” Consequently, he entered his name back into the transfer portal.
Love’s future was put back into question. The same schools who pursued Love in his first transfer stint continued to do so the second time around. Indiana, Missouri, and Louisville were all contenders. These three teams’ eagerness for Love is foreshadowed by their recruitment of him when he was in high school. They were all included in his top 6 in 2020 when he ultimately selected UNC. Guess who else was in that top 6? Arizona, baby.
Many thought it had to be Missouri. Love is a St. Louis kid who is looking to liken his image and his name. What better team to do it with than a rising team like Missouri. Under first-year head coach Dennis Gates, Mizzou was looking to rebuild after a dismal 12-21 year in 2022. They fired their coach Cuonzo Martin and amped up their attempts to get the public hyped. It culminated in a 25-10 season and a trip to March Madness. However, this was not enough to persuade the hometown kid to join the Tigers.
There was a third team shadowing Love–Texas. In fact, many believed Texas was the closest to acquiring Love from the portal. According to Eric Bossi of 247Sports, “Texas seems to have been involved the longest while Arizona was right on their heels.” (May 24) Perhaps a turnoff for Love would be Texas’s addition of former Oral Roberts guard-and two time March Madness standout- Max Abmas. Averaging 22 PPG in 2023, Abmas would be taking away valuable minutes and attention away from Love.
Why Arizona?
Love’s commitment to Arizona is not a win-win–yet. Arizona lost its offensive weapon in Ąžuolas Tubelis to the NBA and lost guard Kerr Kriisa to the transfer portal. Second-year coach Tommy Lloyd infiltrated the portal and found players like former Alabama guard Jaden Bradley and former San Diego State forward Keshad Johnson. Many would say gaining Love is the icing on the cake. However, Love has proven to be very inconsistent during his time in Chapel Hill. His 3P% went from 26 percent his freshman year to 36 percent his sophomore year and then back down to 30 percent this year. There is no predicting how Love will shoot from downtown this year, especially with a new team.
I would have to think there is an enormous NIL deal involved with this transfer. Per On3, Caleb Love ranks 8th in NIL cash among all current college basketball players. He has an annual value of 736k which will most likely grow with his recent commitment. Arizona’s athletes have racked up about 1.3 million in NIL deals–a number that is intriguing to any student-athlete.
Love will return to the Hickory State to face Duke at Cameron Indoor next season. He will get one last opportunity to silence the Cameron Crazies, much like he did during his time wearing Carolina Blue.
