UNC basketball guard Caleb Love resurfaces on social media to debunk rumors of rift

Even when the Tar Heels were still ranked No. 1 and had won their first five games, Caleb Love’s mother could see what was happening on social media. So, she gave her son some advice: Leave it alone..

“My mom wanted me to do it because it’s just a lot of negativity on there,” Love said. “She just didn’t want anything creeping into my mind that got me off my game or (she) was just trying to take care of my mental state.”

Love shut it down. He hadn’t tweeted anything since Nov. 24, and only posted pictures on Instagram twice in December.

Until Thursday.

Love addressed wild speculation that has been circulating — mostly on social media — by posting a picture on both Twitter and Instagram of himself and R.J. Davis standing beside each other smiling with the caption that included, “laughing at the BS, we locked.”

Davis co-signed the picture by adding it to his Instagram stories and added, “We good over here.”

The rumors of some kind of growing beef with Love and his backcourt teammate Davis quietly began shortly after the Heels’ four-game losing streak that spilled into December. Love addressed that in a one-on-one interview with the News & Observer last week.

“I don’t know where that came from, but nah, there was no beef,” Love said. “Me and R.J. tight as far as teammates, and so every time we step on the floor, we are for each other and we are with each other.”

The rumors picked up steam when Duke students fanned the flames during Saturday’s clash in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The fans’ “cheat sheet” that lists quick facts and suggests insults and other ways to get under an opposing player’s skin referenced a Love-Davis beef that caused a “massive rift in team.” And, of course, once it hit the Internet it was accepted as fact.

The irony is, Love stopped posting on social media to avoid negativity, but appeared to make Thursday’s post on social media to bring a stop to it. In his interview with the N&O, he elaborated on why, during the season, he’s stayed away from social media and those “hiding behind a computer or phone and gets to say whatever.”

UNC coach Hubert Davis said he’s had daily conversations to his team the past two years to, “ignore all sideshow distractions,” a phrase from a Bible verse. The Heels’ three game losing streak has amplified those distractions.

“My communication with them in terms of focusing on what is real and what is right is our preparation, is our practice and our play,” Hubert Davis said. “Anything outside of those three things is of no benefit to us. So those are conversations in the two years that I’ve been head coach I have had with the players pretty much every day and so that message has always been consistent.”

The cure, probably more than anything Love can post, is if Carolina gets back to winning. It’s rare that these kinds of rumors occur on winning teams, and UNC has a pair of big games with ACC leader Clemson traveling to Chapel Hill on Saturday, and No. 19 Miami arriving Monday.

The Heels have yet to beat a team currently ranked in the AP Top 25, and still have only one Quad 1 win in the NCAA Net rankings, one of the tools used for both determining at-large NCAA tournament bids and seeding for the tournament.

Tipoff time + TV channel for Wednesday’s game

The game will start at 2 p.m. Saturday and will air on the ESPN2.

How to stream UNC vs Wake Forest game online

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Game day details: UNC vs Clemson

Teams: UNC Tar Heels vs. Clemson Tigers

Where: Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill

Date: Saturday, Feb. 11

Time: 9 p.m.

TV: ESPN2

Series history: The Tar Heels lead the series 134-23. The Heels won the last meeting 79-77 on Feb. 8, 2022 at Clemson. However, the Tigers won for the first-time ever in 60 games played in Chapel Hill 79-76 in overtime their last trip to the Smith Center on Jan. 11, 2020.