UNC Basketball: Love puts together “best game as a Tar Heel”

After the UNC basketball program’s win over Virginia Tech, head coach Hubert Davis had some high praise for sophomore guard Caleb Love.

When the UNC basketball program is playing good basketball, there’s usually a correlation to be made with Caleb Love’s individual performance.

Simply put: this year’s Tar Heels squad is a much better team when Caleb Love is on his game.

On Saturday afternoon on the road against Virginia Tech in a must-win game for North Carolina, Love was more than ready for the occasion.

The sophomore guard got off to a blazing hot start, making four of his first five shots, including two of his three attempts from beyond the arc. Not only was he on fire shooting the ball, but had five assists through the first 20 minutes of play, as he was very active and helped make up for the lack of offensive production from big man Armando Bacot.

Although North Carolina wasn’t as hot offensively in the second half, Love still provided some much-needed offense for the Tar Heels. With his team holding a late lead, Virginia Tech was forced to foul. With the game essentially on the line, it was Love who was called upon to make some important free throws, a challenge that he was certainly ready for.

Love drained all six of his free throw attempts over the final minute of play en route to a game-high 21 points. He also finished with a career-high seven assists while also only turning over the basketball twice.

After the game, Davis was asked about Love’s performance, one for which the Tar Heels head coach gave some very high praise.

Davis believes that this was Love’s best game as a member of the UNC basketball program. Given his strong offensive output (shooting 50 percent from the floor while making smart ballhandling decisions) along with the intensity and energy throughout, we think we can all agree with Davis that it ranks among one of the best outings we’ve seen from Love since he arrived in Chapel Hill.

For his strong effort against the Hokies, Caleb Love is once again our “Tar Heel of the Game.” We’ll have to see if Love can duplicate his efforts on Monday night as the UNC basketball program will host Louisville at the Dean Smith Center.

Continue to follow the Keeping It Heel team for all the latest news and updates regarding Caleb Love and the rest of the UNC basketball program.