### With Caleb Love’s Shocking Return, North Carolina Will Bring Back Four Starters from the 2022 National Runner-Up Squad
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — In a move that stunned college basketball on Wednesday night, Arizona transfer Caleb Love announced he is withdrawing from the 2023 NBA Draft and returning to North Carolina for his senior season. The decision means Hubert Davis will have four of the five starters from the 2022 national championship game roster back in Carolina blue for 2023-24: All-American center Armando Bacot, consensus first-team All-American guard R.J. Davis, defensive stalwart Leaky Black, and now Love, the explosive shot-maker who hit the go-ahead three against Duke in the 2022 Final Four.
Love’s announcement, delivered via a hype video on his social media accounts featuring clips of his game-winning shots against Baylor, UCLA, and Duke, ended weeks of speculation. “Carolina ain’t done with me yet,” Love captioned the post. “One more ride. Let’s finish what we started.”
The move instantly transforms North Carolina from a team projected in the preseason top 15 into the undisputed favorite to win the 2024 national championship. KenPom’s early projections immediately vaulted UNC to No. 1 overall, and DraftKings installed the Tar Heels as +800 title favorites, ahead of Kansas (+900) and Duke (+1000).
For the first time in program history, North Carolina will return four starters from a team that played in the national title game. The only previous teams to return that much experience from a championship-game appearance were UCLA’s 1967-68 and 1971-72 squads under John Wooden and Kentucky’s 1996-97 team that repeated as champions.
“Having four guys who have been on that stage, who know what it feels like to cut down nets in the Final Four and also know the pain of coming up six points short in the championship, that’s invaluable,” coach Hubert Davis said Thursday morning at the Smith Center. “This isn’t a rebuild. This is unfinished business.”
The core that shocked the world in 2022 is now older, wiser, and hungry.
Armando Bacot, who announced his own return in April, will enter his fifth season as the most decorated rebounder in Carolina history. The 6-11 big man has already grabbed more rebounds than any player in ACC history and needs just 367 points to become UNC’s first 2,000-point/2,000-rebound player ever.
R.J. Davis, fresh off a junior season in which he averaged 20.3 points and earned first-team All-America honors, withdrew his name from the draft in late May after receiving second-round feedback. Davis has said repeatedly that his goal is to bring a title to Chapel Hill before he leaves.
Leaky Black, the ultimate glue guy who guarded 1 through 5 in the 2022 tournament run, used his COVID year to return for a fifth season. The 6-9 forward signed with an agent after the season but maintained his college eligibility and opted to run it back rather than chase an uncertain two-way contract.
And now Caleb Love, the lightning rod whose clutch shooting and swagger defined the 2022 tournament, completes the circle.
Love’s 2022-23 season at Arizona was solid but not spectacular: 16.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, but 37.8% from the field and 30.1% from three. After declaring for the draft in April, he received late-second-round to undrafted grades from NBA teams. Sources close to the situation say Love felt he had “unfinished business” at North Carolina and believed another year in Chapel Hill — with better spacing, familiar coaching, and a clear lead-guard role — would better showcase his skills for the 2024 draft.
The reunion wasn’t always a certainty. Love’s relationship with some members of the staff and fan base grew strained after a difficult sophomore regular season in 2021-22. But the magic of the March run — 28 points against UCLA, the dagger against Duke, 28 more against Kansas in the title game — never faded.
“People forget Caleb was the leading scorer on a team that went from unranked in February to the national championship game,” one ACC assistant coach said. “With a year of maturity, better shooting around him, and the chip on his shoulder? He’s going to be a different animal.”
The supporting cast only adds to the optimism. Five-star freshmen Elliot Cadeau and Simeon Wilcher give UNC one of the nation’s best backcourt depth charts. Transfers Cormac Ryan (Notre Dame) and Harrison Ingram (Stanford) bring shooting and versatility. Paxson Wojcik and Jae’Lyn Withers round out a roster with no obvious holes.
Most importantly, the chemistry is already there. Bacot, Davis, Black, and Love have played 127 games together — more than most college teams play in four years combined.
“We know exactly who we are,” R.J. Davis said Thursday. “We know what it takes. Last time we shocked everybody. This time, everybody’s expecting it. That’s even better.”
The schedule is brutal — Duke twice, Kentucky in Atlanta, UConn in New York, Tennessee, Arkansas, and the usual ACC gauntlet — but Carolina will be favored in nearly every game.
For a fan base that watched Roy Williams retire, watched the program miss the tournament in 2021, then watched Hubert Davis take them to within one win of a title in year one, this feels like destiny.
Four starters. One goal. One more ride.
As Caleb Love said in his video, echoing the words he used a year ago before transferring: “The story ain’t over.”
In Chapel Hill, they believe the final chapter will end with nets coming down in Phoenix next April.
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