Keeping It Heel
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UNC Basketball: Tar Heels’ projected 2022-23 starting lineup

By Blake Cockrum

CHAPEL HILL, NC - FEBRUARY 16: Caleb Love #2, Brady Manek #45, R.J. Davis #4, Armando Bacot #5, and Leaky Black #1 of the North Carolina Tar Heels line up and talk during a game against the Pittsburgh Panthers on February 16, 2022 at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Pittsburgh won 76-67. (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC - FEBRUARY 16: Caleb Love #2, Brady Manek #45, R.J. Davis #4, Armando Bacot #5, and Leaky Black #1 of the North Carolina Tar Heels line up and talk during a game against the Pittsburgh Panthers on February 16, 2022 at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Pittsburgh won 76-67. (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images) /
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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – MARCH 25: Caleb Love #2 of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts in the second half of the game against the UCLA Bruins in the Sweet Sixteen round game of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 25, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

Caleb Love

Caleb Love’s announcement was the last of the quartet and the one that seemed the most likely to not go the Tar Heels’ way. Alas, it did, and North Carolina will now welcome back four of their top five scorers from last season.

While Love wasn’t the Tar Heels’ most consistent player throughout his sophomore season, at times he was most definitely their most dynamic. Five 20-point games over the season’s final month showed us that, including his 30-point outburst against UCLA in the Sweet 16 and the much-needed 28-point performance he gave the Tar Heels in a tight win over Duke in the Final Four.

Love will return to Chapel Hill for his third season of college ball with high expectations from the fans and himself alike. There’s a high probability that this will be Love’s final audition before entering the NBA Draft in the summer of 2023. If he can improve on his numbers this season similarly to what he did from his freshman to sophomore campaigns, then he’ll have almost no reason to remain on campus any longer than that.

He averaged career-highs in points (15.9), rebounds (3.4), assists (3.6), shooting percentage (37.1), three-point percentage (36.0), and free throw shooting (86.3). He showed more consistency over the latter parts of the season as well as a clutch gene that we hadn’t seen before; both could prove invaluable to a deep tournament run next March.

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