UNC’s Caleb Love won’t play for Michigan, returns to transfer portal, reports say
Former UNC shooting guard Caleb Love is returning to the transfer portal and will not be playing for the University of Michigan after all, according to numerous reports.
Love has decommitted from Michigan, according to reporter Joe Tipton, who writes for recruiting website On3.com.
The Michigan Insider, which is part of CBS Sports, adds he won’t be attending Michigan due to “an admissions issue.”
Love announced in late March he would not be returning to the University of North Carolina after the Tar Heels’ disappointing finish to the 2022-23 season.
On April 7, he announced he would be playing for coach Juwan Howard and the Wolverines.
Earlier this month, he confirmed his intentions to play in Ann Arbor by tweeting, “Yes, I will play for Michigan next year! Stay tuned! Go Blue.”
That tweet plus any social media announcing his intentions have been deleted. He has not responded to the reports about decommitting from Michigan.
Love was among four starters from the Tar Heels’ 2022 run to the Final Four who returned to coach Hubert Davis’ team last offseason, with visions of repeating that run.
Instead, the Tar Heels struggled in conference play, and become the first team to miss the tournament entirely since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams and North Carolina began the season ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25.
Following the season, two other linchpin players from the Heels’ run — Armando Bacot and RJ Davis — announced they’d be back for one more season. Love went the other way.
“I’ve taken some time with my family to reevaluate what’s best for me to continue to grow as a player, and I’ve decided to enter the transfer portal to continue my journey,” he wrote on March 27.
Caleb Love at UNC
Carolina fans came to develop a bit of a love/hate relationship with the 6-foot-4 guard from St. Louis. Despite Love’s shooting percentage from 3-point range dropped this season — down to 29.9 percent after shooting 36.0 percent as a sophomore — his percentage of shots taken increased to 28.4 percent according to Ken Pomeroy.
He made several big shots last season — including a long 3-pointer in regulation to force an overtime win over Syracuse, and the 3-pointer over 7-footer Mark Williams to seal their Final Four win against Duke.
But when those types of shots didn’t fall this season, like in regulation of their quadruple overtime loss to Alabama, he became an easy target for why the Heels were failing to live up to expectations.
Love started 96 games for UNC over three seasons. This past season, Love average 16.7 points per game on 37.8% shooting to lead the Tar Heels.
In 2021-22, Love averaged 15.9 points per game to help lead North Carolina to a berth in the national title game against Kansas. In the NCAA Tournament in 2022, Love average 18.8 points per game, including a 28-point performance against rival Duke in the teams’ national semifinal.
Love was the sixth UNC player to enter the transfer portal. Puff Johnson, Will Shaver, Tyler Nickel, Dontrez Styles and Justin McKoy also entered the portal.
Justin Pelletier and C.L. Brown contributed to this story.
This story was originally published May 17, 2023 at 8:13 PM.