After much speculation, former UNC player Caleb Love announces his next move

Let’s try this again. Former UNC shooting guard Caleb Love has announced — again — where he’ll play next year after leaving UNC.

Tuesday, Love announced he’ll be heading to the University of Arizona.

“I now present to you… ‘Savage Mode 2’ #BearDown,” he tweeted.

Earlier this month, Love decommitted from the University of Michigan and returned to the transfer portal, multiple outlets reported.

The Michigan Insider, which is part of CBS Sports, added at the time he wouldn’t be attending Michigan due to “an admissions issue.” Several news outlets reported that Love encountered issues transferring his credits from UNC to Michigan.

Rumors about his next step began to intensify with Sports Illustrated reporting that he was considering Arizona, Texas and Gonzaga.

The 6-foot-4 guard from St. Louis announced in late March he would not be returning to the University of North Carolina after the Tar Heels’ disappointing finish to the 2022-23 season.

On April 7, he announced he would be playing for coach Juwan Howard and the Wolverines.

Love was among four starters from the Tar Heels’ 2022 run to the Final Four who returned to coach Hubert Davis’ team last offseason, with visions of repeating that run.

Instead, the Tar Heels struggled in conference play, and become the first team to miss the tournament entirely since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams and North Carolina began the season ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25.

Following the season, two other linchpin players from the Heels’ run — Armando Bacot and RJ Davis — announced they’d be back for one more season. Love went the other way.

“I’ve taken some time with my family to reevaluate what’s best for me to continue to grow as a player, and I’ve decided to enter the transfer portal to continue my journey,” he wrote on March 27.

Caleb Love at UNC

Love’s shooting percentage from 3-point range dropped this season — down to 29.9 percent after shooting 36.0 percent as a sophomore — but his percentage of shots taken increased to 28.4 percent, according to Ken Pomeroy.

He made several big shots last season — including a long 3-pointer in regulation to force an overtime win over Syracuse, and the 3-pointer over 7-footer Mark Williams to seal their Final Four win against Duke.

But when those types of shots didn’t fall this season, like in regulation of their quadruple overtime loss to Alabama, he became an easy target for why the Heels were failing to live up to expectations.

Love started 96 games for UNC over three seasons. This past season, Love average 16.7 points per game on 37.8% shooting to lead the Tar Heels.

In 2021-22, Love averaged 15.9 points per game to help lead North Carolina to a berth in the national title game against Kansas. In the NCAA Tournament in 2022, Love average 18.8 points per game, including a 28-point performance against rival Duke in the teams’ national semifinal.

Love was the sixth UNC player to enter the transfer portal. Puff Johnson, Will Shaver, Tyler Nickel, Dontrez Styles and Justin McKoy also entered the portal.

Justin Pelletier and C.L. Brown contributed to this story.