Five-star guard Caleb Love: ‘I’m headed to North Carolina’

ByEVAN DANIELS 30 minutes ago

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Five-star recruit Caleb Love verbally committed to North Carolina on Tuesday, he tells 247Sports.

“I’m headed to North Carolina and the reason I picked them was when I went on my visit, it felt like a family culture, from start to finish, from when I got there to when I left,” Love said. “I just felt like it was home.”

Love, a standout at Saint Louis (Mo.) Christian Brothers, picked UNC over Missouri, Kansas, and Louisville. Love took official visits to Missouri on Sept. 6 and North Carolina on Sept. 20. Love’s visit to North Carolina’s campus was the turning point in his college recruitment.

“Honestly when I left the visit I knew that was home,” Love said. “My mom and my dad told me to sleep on it for a couple of days just to make sure and then that’s when I was like, ‘yeah, that’s the place for me.’”

What made Chapel Hill feel like home?

“It was really the coaches, coach Roy [Williams], just meeting with him throughout the day, just meeting with him and talking with him,” Love explained.

Love, a 6-foot-3 point guard, said he built a strong rapport with Williams, and he said he was drawn to his approach and how honest he was with him during the process.

“He was just real to me,” Love said. “He doesn’t lie about anything. He said, ‘If you’re true you don’t have to remember what you said.’ That was one of the pieces, he’s obviously a Hall of Fame coach and just his pitch to me was me coming in and being that lead guard. He showed me a lot of film on Coby White and he said he sees a lot of him in me and that I can come in and step in and lead them to a national championship.”

Love is regarded as the No. 21 overall prospect and the No. 4 point guard in the 247Sports Composite Rankings. Playing for Brad Beal Elite in the Nike EYBL, Love averaged 15.8 points, 5.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds a game.

“Just me being a leader, me being that lead guard, obviously point guards are leaders so me just stepping in and being that playmaker for our team whether that’s scoring, passing, rebounding, whatever I got to do to get our team to win, that’s what I’m going to do,” Love said about his future role at UNC. “Me just being that playmaking guard and making decisions for our team.”

North Carolina is putting together what could be its best class of the past decade. The addition of Love to Walker Kessler and Day’Ron Sharpe gives them three five-star prospects, and they are still actively pursuing a host of others.

“I’m working on Ziaire Williams and Bryce Thompson,” Love said. “I believe we can have the number one recruiting class in the country for sure.”

“I’m definitely working on Cade,” he added. “I got to have him.”

UNC’s class now ranks No. 3 overall in the 247Sports Composite Rankings, which would be their highest recruiting class ranking since 2009.