Caleb Love Showing Growth in the Summer League

Throughout his time in college basketball that spans from 2020 to 2025, lead guard Caleb Love played for two powerhouse programs in North Carolina and Arizona where he established himself as a scoring machine that wasn’t afraid of the big moment.

During his three years with North Carolina and two years with Arizona, Love finished with 2,762 points becoming the 31st player in college hoops history to record over 2,700 points. He scored those points while shooting 40% from the field and 34% from the 3-point line.

While in college, Love led the Tar Heels to a National Title game appearance and took the Wildcats to back-to-back Sweet Sixteen games. However, he was unable to win the title falling just short to Kansas with UNC.

Most think of Love as a high-volume scorer that takes bad shots throughout the game. But, another way to look at it is that he is a pure hooper.

Love has never been scared of the big moments and was asked to do a lot with the ball in his hands at both UNC and UA.

However, while at Arizona, head coach Tommy Lloyd made it clear that he was challenging Love to be a better overall player, meaning he wanted to see more on the defensive side of the court.

In two seasons with Arizona, Love hauled in 87 steals helping on the defensive side of the court. And besides steal, he managed to become a solid on-ball defender under Lloyd.

Now, all those things Love worked on from defense, ball movement and decision making are starting to show in his summer league games.

Although he is shooting a low percentage still, Love has been able to be a solid rebounder and has a solid assist to turnover ratio.

In one game, Love recorded a double-double with 17 points, 12 rebounds and managed to collect five assists and two steals to his one turnover.

Throughout the summer league season, Love has been able to show energy on the defensive side of the court and has been able to do more than just score the ball.

His efforts are starting to get noticed around the league and Love is setting himself up to potentially see time at the NBA level this upcoming season.