Ex-North Carolina star Caleb Love reveals his next stop
from Tommy Fradenburg, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
On Twitter on Tuesday , former North Carolina guard Caleb Love announced that he is transferring to Arizona.
I now present to you… “Savage Mode 2” #BearDown????? pic.twitter.com/brS7oXuWV0
— Caleb Love (@caleb2love) May 30, 2023
Love entered the transfer portal on March 27 after the Tar Heels missed the NCAA Tournament. On April 7, he revealed he would transfer to Michigan. He later reaffirmed his commitment in a since-deleted tweet but changed his mind weeks later.
Love, a five-star recruit, played his first three seasons at North Carolina. He made an immediate impact as a freshman, starting 26 of 29 games and averaging 10.5 points on a team that lost in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64 in head coach Roy Williams’ final season.
As a sophomore, Love averaged 15.9 points for a team that made an unlikely run to the Final Four before losing to Kansas in the national title game.
After the championship game, four of “The Iron Five” — Love, Armando Bacot, R.J. Davis and Leaky Black — announced they’d return to North Carolina. Entering the season, the Tar Heels were ranked No. 1, but North Carolina finished 20-13 and failed to make the NCAA Tournament.
Love, who is capable of playing point and shooting guard, will join an Arizona team that earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament but lost to Princeton in one of several Round of 64 upsets.
The Wildcats lost last year’s starting point guard, Kerr Kriisa, who transferred to West Virginia, so Love could slide into that position as a starter.
Head coach Tommy Lloyd should be happy with the addition of Love, who averaged nearly 17 points last season. However, he can’t be happy with Love’s three-point shooting percentage (29.9%) last season.
Love has two years’ eligibility left because the NCAA granted players an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19.
**********Five-star guard Elliot Cadeau reclassifies, will join UNC for 2023-24 season**********
By Max Rego, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
North Carolina’s backcourt is receiving a reinforcement.
Point guard and Tar Heels commit for the class of 2024 Elliot Cadeau told ESPN Tuesday that he is reclassifying to the 2023 class. Cadeau will join North Carolina this summer and said that he has his eyes on the 2024 NBA Draft.
“My goal was always to be one and done,” said the No. 10 prospect in the 2024 ESPN 100. “Reclassing doesn’t change that. It’s definitely my end goal — to be in the draft as soon as possible — but this takes pressure off me to be one and done and gives me the option of staying two years if needed.”
Based on the tape, Cadeau will add serious playmaking punch to head coach Hubert Davis’ third roster. With a quick crossover, deft finishing skills, crafty passing abilities and silky shooting touch, it is no wonder the NBA is top of mind for the Link Academy (Branson, Mo.) product.
He might turn just 19 in September, but Cadeau has a breadth of high-quality experience at the high school, grassroots and national team levels. He led Link Academy to the Geico Nationals title back in April, led the Nike EYBL scene in assists per game at 9.3 and has suited up for Sweden’s U16, U18 and senior teams in the previous three summers. (His mother is Swedish.) Clearly, he is ready for the task in Chapel Hill, N.C.
How he fits alongside North Carolina guard R.J. Davis is a question mark, though. Davis and Caleb Love, who has since transferred to Arizona, struggled to gel throughout much of the 2022-23 season, and with transfers Cormac Ryan, Paxson Wojcik, Harrison Ingram and Jae’Lyn Withers entering the fray, developing chemistry may take time.
Plus, Cadeau and Davis sit at just 6-foot-2 and 6-foot, respectively, which could lead to opposing teams picking on the Tar Heel backcourt. However, there no doubt comes an infusion of talent with Cadeau’s reclassification.