Caleb Love Is Transferring To Michigan
In the second transfer pickup of the day, Michigan Men's Basketball has gotten a pledge from former UNC guard Caleb Love:
go rewrite your story kid…🙏🏽〽️ pic.twitter.com/bsUglz55GW
— Caleb Love (@caleb2love) April 7, 2023
Love was a 5* recruit back in the class of 2020, a 6'3" guard who was the #14 national prospect and the #2 PG in the 24/7 composite. His career for the Tar Heels was a mixed bag, a three year starter who scored plenty of points but was never efficient at doing so. Love's career FG% is just 36.0% and the past two seasons he attempted an average of 14.3 field goals per game. For reference, Hunter Dickinson led Michigan with 12.8 FGA per game this season. Love had the ball in his hands a lot, put up a lot of shots, but not all that many actually went in. That's demonstrated in a 98.9 ORTG on 25.8 USG this past season, per Bart Torvik. After shooting 34.8% and 38.0% from two(!) over Love's first two seasons due to a love of long twos and pull-ups, he upped that number to 45.5% in 2022-23. The downside was his 3PT clip crashed from an acceptable 36.0% as a sophomore to 29.9% as a junior. A version of Love that shoots 45.5% from two *and* 36.0% from three could be a dynamite player given his athleticism to slash to the rim.
Sethcharts for Love's last two years:
| Sophomore | Junior |
|---|---|
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Beyond just the shooting clip, the results were a rollercoaster too, as Love averaged 18.8 PPG during UNC's run to the title game last year, but that included a 5 point game against Baylor and a 30 point game against UCLA and a 28 point game against Duke. He was generally seen as a hero of that run, but also a scapegoat behind UNC's stunning fall from pre-season #1 to a team that missed the NCAA's this season. The raw talent and name-brand made Love one of the most highly touted names in the portal, ranking 10th on 24/7's list of the top portal targets, and there is a lot to like about him. There's also a lot to dislike. The hope should be that in a new situation with a new coaching staff that Love gets a fresh lease on life and puts it all together.
Love comes to Michigan having played three seasons at UNC, meaning he's got a fourth year + a possible COVID shirt to play in Ann Arbor. With the addition of Tray Jackson this morning, Michigan is now up to 13 players on the roster for the upcoming season. For now, they are at the scholarship limit but as is well known, in the NIL era there are easy ways to cut around that. Making Jace Howard a walk-on is the easiest option, before we get into the presumed NIL package type deals that the football team has been using. That leaves space for Joey Baker to come back, if his waiver is granted (doesn't seem likely right now), or additional pickups in the portal.
Matt D will get a full scouting post up sometime later. There is no content after the jump.
Welcome, Mr. Love!
Good start to the weekend. What’s next, Juwan?
On paper, these new additions sound great. But the challenge for Juwan and staff with so many new faces will be to mold this group into a cohesive, winning team. It will certainly put his coaching skills to the test.
Call me a pessimist but on paper these additions are meh. A bench player on seton hall and a ball hog with a horrific ortg. I'll be hoping for the best and cheering them on regardless but they are miles away from Max Abmas and last year's Shannon. I'd say trust the coaches but the next time Juwan builds a good roster will be the first.
Really wish Hunter was coming back. A front court of Jackson, Reed and Dickinson is some real height and a back court of Dug and Love could be very interesting. Baker and Burnett off the bench. Not all that bad if they can figure out how to play as a team.
I gotta be honest, I'm a big disagree on that first part. I'm so checked out on Hunter.
Same. Grateful for all he has done , but I’m fine with it.
now if he decides to come back, which I heard could happen, wouldn’t be super upset about that. Especially with these guys coming in
Y'all are nuts to be so down on Hunter. It's not his fault he was surrounded by (mostly) nothing. If he came/comes back he'd still be our best player by a large distance.
He was surrounded by two NBA draft picks this year … and last … and the year before.
Lol. All drafted based on their potential not their production. Who you are in 5 years has no bearing on how good you were on the court here.
No, the team can't compete running through Hunter.
I bet you see a much more watchable scheme next year
Thanks, but good luck elsewhere, time for a new direction.
You still haven’t seen enough of the no perimeter players basketball?
Dug , love, Jackson and baker can all shoot. We didn’t use Reed and Dickinson together often enough. Them w another near 7’ would finally get us rebounds we need.
So you think it’s just a wild coincidence that no one plays like that? That no good team at any level of basketball has a coach who could figure out just be taller than everyone else if it actually worked?
Did we not play better w reed and Dickinson in? Jackson is a stretch 4 that can shoot the 3 and is 6’10”.
kk
Well you’ve convinced me. You’re the only one who’s got it all figured out, it’s a conspiracy that no one does that. It’s not because defense is part of the game, it’s the Illuminati.
You just don’t get it. Too smart for your own good. Of course, defense matters that’s on the coaches and players to make it a priority which bielien did in his last years. Team has not followed that under Howard.
Fully agree. I really appreciate what he did for us and have no hate, but I'm done with him and ready to move forward, though it'll be challenging since Juwan could easily fall back on him when needed. It'll really show us his coaching chops.
Seems obvious that there was a culture problem with the team last year, and I suspect that it's equal parts Hunter and Jett to blame - and, well, Juwan, of course. But with Hunter being the elder statesman, I attribute it more to him, as he was supposed to be the leader. I suspect that Juwan gave Jett too much leeway, which affected the entire team, but it seems Hunter was pouty and immature in responding to it. Perhaps a more mature center with a similar skillset could've worked through those issues better and worked to make the team gel, rather than being divisive. I really don't know for sure, though, as this is all speculation based on observation.
I loved Jett's game along with Hunter's, but I'm glad they're both gone. I want culture guys over anything else, like Beilein's teams - even if we're not winning as much, but just to see them play up to their abilities.
I have no idea what to expect next season, but I'm optimistic and will remain pro-Juwan (as long as there's no more Maryland/Wisconsin incidents, and he's looked improved there). Looking forward to what he can do with this new crew next season. And always, GO BLUE!
Transfer portal season still feels very weird to me
I've been lukewarm on Love since he played at UNC but he's absolutely a gunner who can fill it up. Get a good version of that for a year and this team will be competitive.
My sense on the composition of the team right now is that it'll be about as good as last season's - it'll be far more perimeter focused offensively but (probably) a bit better defensively. It might be a year where the team goes 19-11 and sneaks into the play in game or such. Obviously a long off-season to go but I am happy to at least see Howard and co. make moves early so they can get the team going.
A 5 star still in college after 3 years? Sounds like someone who will be focused this coming year. >80% career on free throws.
A 6'3" 5 star version of Mike Smith? Yeah why not!
Really nice pickup. Here's to hoping Love just became disinterested in playing for Hubert Davis and this fresh start with Michigan will ignite his inner 5-star. Same goes for Burnett. Love is really quick and can beat guys off the dribble and drive the hoop. Something that we haven't had much of the last couple seasons.
Very happy about this. I'd much rather we have some five-star and four-star pieces to deal with than have no talent at all. Now we get to see how good of a coach Juwan really is.
I see you Juwan!! Good shit and welcome Mr. Love.
""Michigan is now up to 13 players on the roster for the upcoming season."
Is this not counting Baker already then? Or someone else?
Dug, Llewellyn, Love, Burnett, Washington, Jace, YoYo, Baker, Jackson, TWill, Glenn, Tschetter, Reed, Kante is 14.
Where am I messing up?
I didn't count Baker because it is not a sure thing he is back until we hear from the NCAA
Gotcha. In my head and former experience im counting him until we know he's for sure gone since there's more to do if you have to account for him than if you don't.
I wouldn’t count him. I hope he wins his appeal, but by the letter of the rule he burned his redshirt as a freshman. We have to hope the NCAA is charitable to us.
Baker is technically not on the team until his waiver gets approved
Are we sure Admissions will let him in?
BINGO!
Dang I go to meetings for a couple hours and we all of a sudden have a roster.
To the Juwan complainers... Burnett and Love were 5 star recruits high on board.
And Yo Yo comin...
Does it matter that they were 5 star players if 3 years into college they still don't look like 5 stars?
I feel like I'm in bizarro world. I've been defending Juwan all year while everyone trashes him and now he gets 2 busts and a seton hall backup in the portal and everyone's team Juwan again? We need everyoneon this new roster to take giant leaps forward to not be a bottom half of the B1G team next year while all the transfers are old so not likely to improve. Hell, the seton hall backup (not a 5 star) looks the best of the bunch.
I hope that happens too but not exactly exciting at this point to be be rooting for a long shot.
This is a good take. I haven't given up on Juwan either because CBB isn't about recruiting and keeping a player for 4 years anymore. This whole environment is crazy and all about how the coaches adjusts accordingly. This will dictate success for a given year. This year's tournament isn't an anomaly it will be the norm going forward.
My question is: with Llewelyn coming back, and Burnett and Love coming in, (plus The Prez), the backcourt is suddenly really crowded. Can any of these guys play the 3?
That's just four guards for two guard spots, a starter and a backup for each. That's not crowded at all; it's exactly what you want.
Plus Dug. It's 5 guys for 2 spots, one of whom is (or should be) the locked in starting PG. It just seems like we have a gaping hole at the 3 and 4 and we're overloading on guys for the backcourt...unless at least one of these dudes projects to play the 3.
No, you need at least 4 guards on the roster. We have had such bad guard depth the last couple of years, that at least we won't be relying on guys playing 37 minutes a game now.
Right, but now we have 5. And it just seems like if you have limited transfer spots, and big needs at the 3 and 4, that you don't want to overdo it in the backcourt.
So, like, it's great to have all this guard depth now. But who is going to start at the 3? That spot seems really thin.
I like this dude better than the dude from Bama.
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