Caleb Love represented everything I love about college basketball
Honoring the Caleb Love Experience
Tremendously talented. Mercurial. Him. Inconsistent.
You could list a thousand words describing Caleb Love and still not capture the concoction of tantalizing ability and hair-pulling frustration. After five productive, decorated, yet up-and-down seasons, the Caleb Love Experience (in college) is officially over.
Some fans might remark that it’s finally over, but Caleb Love represented everything I love about college basketball. He was uber talented. He was entertaining. He cared. He probably won’t make it in the NBA, and that’s ok.
As a UNC fan/grad, one reason I love college basketball is obviously Carolina, and Caleb played a starring role in two of the most iconic UNC wins of recent memory. My reverence for Caleb goes beyond blue argyle, however. Despite his messy breakup with UNC and his role in the floundering 2022-23 season, I still believe he’s the model of success for post-transfer-and-NIL college hoops.
Caleb was uber talented
From day one, Caleb’s talent was apparent. He ranked 14th in the class of 2020 and was a McDonald’s All-American. His high school recruiting profile noted that he’s a “score-first point guard [and] has the ability to put his team on his back as a bucket getter,” and Caleb lived up to that billing.
He scored more than 2,700 points in his career, averaging 15.9 per game. However, the average understates his ability to go nuclear. He notched more than 50 career games with 20+ points and five career games with 30+ points.
His efforts his senior year at Arizona (18 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 3.4 apg) earned him Pac-12 Player of the Year1 and third-team All-American honors2.
Caleb was entertaining
It wasn’t just that Caleb could pour in points. He seemed to relish putting on a show. On fast breaks, he’d throw down dunks as if he were angry at the rim, and if a defender got in the way, Caleb would put them on a poster. He’d nail threes from deep, deep and deeper and walked into the gym ready to chuck a heat check.
Caleb shined on the biggest stages, as well. He averaged 19 ppg in 13 career March Madness games, including outbursts of 28, 29, 30 and 35 points. He hit game-tying and go-ahead 3s against UCLA in the Sweet 16.
But all that pales in comparison to the shot that stamped Caleb into college basketball history. Bitter rivals playing in the Final Four. Coach K’s final season. A one point game with less than 30 seconds left.
The hero-ball bravado and talent to shoot — and make — the shot is emblematic of the (positive) Caleb Love Experience.
For most college basketball fans, that will be the enduring clip of Caleb’s career. But he had a second, equally satisfying moment in the UNC-Duke rivalry: his tongue-out taunt after dishing for Armando Bacot’s sealing dunk to spoil K’s final game in Cameron.
In the most storied rivalry in the sport, Caleb3 left two indelible marks.
Of course, no roller coaster offers only highs. Part of the Caleb’s entertainment value was the downside. You had to tune in because he could either shoot your team into a game…or play them out of one. His bouts of lackadaisical defense, mindless turnovers and inefficient shooting were enough to drive me crazy4.
Even in his last game — scoring 35 points against Duke in the Sweet 16 — he left reminders of his downside. His ill-timed three at the end of the first half allowed Cooper Flagg to extend the lead and kill any Arizona momentum.
While he generally thrived in the biggest moments, his 5-for-24 performance, including a miss on a potentially game-tying three, in the 2022 national title game helped erase UNC’s 15-point halftime lead and title hopes.
Caleb cared
After his final miss in the 2022 championship game, Caleb broke down in tears.
Today, players and coaches maximize for money, so school pride drops down the list of importance. Even after the rumors and dirty laundry following Caleb’s transfer out of UNC, he wrote on his kicks that he’s a Tar Heel for life while notching yet another win against Duke in Cameron. Waving goodbye to the Cameron Crazies was another hilarious, boastful and endearing moment.
After his final game, Caleb’s teammates went out of their way to compliment him. He never felt like a mercenary or someone just showing up to collect a paycheck. Of course, the picture of a sterling college career would historically be four years at a single school, but that’s not the reality of the today’s game. Caleb succeeded at two5 high-profile schools.
I watch college basketball to see talented players who care. Highlight reels, rivalries, storylines, passion. Those are the lifeblood of college basketball, and Caleb Love was a beacon for all of them. NIL and the transfer portal fracture the traditional pillars, but as long as we have players like Caleb Love, college basketball will thrive.
He probably won’t make it in the NBA, and that’s ok
Despite his accomplishments, accolades and undeniable talent, Caleb might not make it in the NBA. That’s less a reflection of his ability and more so a note on difficulty of establishing an NBA career.
Even number 1 recruits have a mixed track record in the NBA.
Draft boards rank Caleb as the 70th best prospect in the upcoming NBA draft. With only 60 draft slots, and tenuous career prospects even for late-first-round and second-round picks, Caleb figures to be a summer and G League player6.
He has the talent to play in the NBA. His high school scouting report lists Terry Rozier as a comparison, which feels accurate. But I think Damian Lillard represents Caleb’s ceiling: the power, the strength, the unlimited range. Caleb is a bucket, but probably not at the NBA level. The flip side is that Caleb’s floor is Dion Waiters. Caleb clearly ascribes to the infamous Waiters quote, “I’d rather go 0-for-30 than 0-for-9, because you go 0-for-9, that means you stopped shooting. That means you lost confidence.”
As Babcock Hoops outlines, he could morph his game to become a more reliable off-ball shooter and lock-down defender, but he’s not quite good enough to be a high-usage scorer in the NBA. As a five-year college player, Caleb is a known entity. Someone like Boogie Fland might progress on the same trajectory that Caleb followed throughout his career; however, young guys like Boogie could also make the leap to an established NBA player, which is why he’s a likely lottery pick.
Regardless of Caleb’s professional career, he’s an outstanding basketball player who’s had an accomplished career. He deserves to be celebrated. Coming from the UNC-Duke rivalry, maybe I’m over-exposed to this type of fan (aka Duke fans online), but I hate fans who use NBA success as the measuring stick for successful college players7. The college and NBA games are worlds apart, and NBA players are undeniably better. But the quirks, warts and volatility of college hoops are what make me love it.
The NBA is too good. Too professional. Too clinical. Too mechanical. It’s basketball optimized. As I said in an post on NET ratings:
It’s not just that the players are so talented, seemingly never missing an open shot. The players and coaches have solved the game in terms of strategy and effort…The incredible feats of athleticism and strategy hardly feel exciting anymore. Just another day at the office.
In terms of the pillars I outlined above, NBA players are otherworldly talented. Across the league, any given night will offer entertaining highlights. However, players only seem to care during the playoffs, and owners have no shame tanking and trotting out unserious lineups. In some ways, the talent overwhelms, so players don’t really need to care. It takes a 50-burger from Steph or another historic 60-point triple-double from Jokic to register8. The bar is so high, we’ve become accustomed to the talent.
To personify the difference, the NBA is Tim Duncan and college basketball is Caleb Love. You never know exactly what you’re going to get, but it’s worth tuning in.
Post Script: Caleb’s UNC Legacy
Rashad McCants is the only other UNC player that seems to parallel Caleb. In many ways, Caleb is like the 80% version of McCants: Rashad was more talented, enjoyed more success (winning a natty), but was also more bombastic. He compared UNC to a prison and has trashed the program in the years since.
Whereas McCants’ post-career antics have tarnished his on-court success, I think the sands of time will smooth out the sharp edges of Caleb’s UNC career. For a program unaccustomed to transfers, Caleb’s departure felt particularly jarring. But as transfers become the norm, we’ll look back on his decision less as a personal affront and more as just the ways things were.
This post helped me sort through five years of Caleb Love. Now that we’re at the end, I mostly feel gratitude, and I’ll forever cherish how Caleb savagely9 ruined Coach K’s farewell tour (twice).
As Jon Rothstein said, Caleb should walk proud today, tomorrow and forever. Caleb Love is a credit to college basketball, and he’s a credit to UNC. I wish Caleb success wherever he goes next, and he’ll always be a Tar Heel for life in my book.
He could be the last Pac-12 POY, which would be a fun trivia fact
For the AP All-American teams
A potentially little-known and little-appreciated subtext to Caleb’s Duke-UNC lore is that he considered Duke his “dream school.” Duke, however, opted for Jeremy Roach in that recruiting class
I can attest that the Caleb Love Experience was almost more fun to enjoy from afar, where I could celebrate his ups without cringing over the downs.
Not counting his brief attempt to transfer to Michigan. Why do UNC guards have such a thing for UMich??
Or, as I wrote in my ELFFFY post, a Euro-league fan favorite
This type of fans seems to think that staying in college means you’re a bad basketball player. As if the sole purpose of college basketball is to provide a stepping stone to the NBA. Endless one-and-dones must have confused them on the actual purpose of college basketball. I get it. Most college players want to play in the NBA. And Duke has undeniably churned out an incredible string of NBA talent, particularly compared to UNC. But they’ve had plenty of busts and have forced out players who would’ve benefitted from staying in college.
I also enjoy college basketball more than the NBA, so I’m glad when talented-but-not-NBA-good players stick around. That does not make them failures. To be particularly petty, here’s a long list of recent Duke recruits who probably should’ve stayed in college. The point isn’t to dunk on these players but to show that Caleb could’ve just as easily made it onto this list, rather than the list of celebrated college basketball players.
Left early, should’ve stayed in college:
DJ Steward: 5-star, top 30 recruit. One-and-done. Has played exactly 0 NBA games
Trevon Duval: 5-star, top 10 recruit. One-and-done. Has played exactly 3 NBA games
Trevor Keels: 5-star, top 25 recruit. One-and-done. Has played exactly 3 NBA games
Frank Jackson: 5-star, top 15 recruit. One-and-done. Stuck around the NBA for 5 seasons (214 career games), now in the Euro league
Vernon Carey: 5-star, top 5 recruit. One-and-done. 37 career NBA games across 3 seasons, now out of the league
Cassius Stanley: 4-star, top 40 recruit. One-and-done. 33 career NBA games across 2 seasons, now out of the league
Matthew Hurt: 5-star, top 15 recruit. Two-and-done. 8 career NBA games
AJ Griffin: 5-star, top 15 recruit. One-and-done. First round draft pick but abruptly retired after 2 seasons. Not really sure what to make of him
Dariq Whitehead: 5-star, top 3 recruit. One-and-done. Has played exactly 2 NBA games
Harry Giles: 5-star, top 2 recruit. One-and-done. Stuck around the NBA for 5 seasons (165 career games)
Top draft picks that haven’t lived up to the hype:
Jahlil Okafor: He’s the best test case to prove that tremendously good basketball players can struggle to stick in the NBA. In the 2000s, Okafor would’ve been an All-Star. But the NBA morphed into switching, spacing and shooting, so Okafor is out of the league. That doesn’t make him a bad basketball player!
Jabari Parker
Marvin Bagley III
Zion Williamson
Those both conveniently happened two days ago
My parting tidbit on Caleb is the Theo John savage saga. After beating Duke in 2021, Caleb posted a caption “Everyone a savage til you face to face with one.” Just another ballsy, stir-the-pot comment. The next year, Duke transfer Theo John clapped back at Caleb after Duke beat UNC. But, of course, Caleb got the last laugh(s)