UNC Basketball: Caleb Love returns for sophomore year

If you’ve been going deep into the weeds and needing a paper bag to read into (seriously, why didn’t you read my post on Monday about just taking a second to breath?), the news coming out of the Smith Center this week hasn’t been good. It started with the announcement by Walker Kessler that he’s going to move on from Carolina and enter the transfer portal. It went down even further when Day’Ron Sharpe announced he was headed to the NBA Draft.

Unofficially, though, fans had been hearing rumblings about some severe dissatisfaction in Chapel Hill and some serious upheaval was possible amongst many more Tar Heels. With Sharpe announcing his intention, eyes turned to another possible one-and-done to see what he would do.

On Friday Night, after Sterling Manley also announced his intention to graduate from UNC and use his two years of eligibility elsewhere, you would be right to wonder if there would be any other type of announcement coming. Caleb Love decided to end that speculation:

Love doesn’t have the words saying “I’m coming back for year two” here, but with the UNC and Jordan Branding in the video, it’s a pretty safe assumption that this was a video they approved to go out. That said, it could be a little confusing, and so Caleb’s Dad – no stranger to using Twitter to air some stuff himself – cleared it up.

In a season like no other, it’s possible that no one else will officially announce they are “coming back” since it doesn’t really require anything official. That said, a week ago the Tar Heels were facing a very uncertain offseason, and now they seemingly have pretty clear idea as to what their needs will be going into 2021-22.

Eyes will soon turn to the transfer portal, waiting for official passage of the new rule waiving the one year wait, and seeing who might be a) a good fit for Carolina and b) who the staff has their eye on.

Buckle up, the ride is just beginning.