Indiana Basketball: Is Caleb Love’s recruitment between these two programs?

Despite having six finalists, Indiana basketball target Caleb Love seems to be trending in a different direction, towards the ACC.

Five-star point guard Caleb Love trimmed his list to six schools a couple of weeks ago, and recently set all five of his official visits. While the Indiana basketball program made the cut and received a visit, two programs seem to be getting all of the love before Love actually makes a visit.

North Carolina is one of them and has the history, the resume, and the success with big name point guards leaving their mark on Carolina basketball, and Love looks to be the next heir of Roy Williams offense.

Love spoke about what Carolina’s message is.

"“They want me to come in right after Cole [Anthony], since they believe Cole is going to be a one and done, they want me to be the same way, just lead that team and be that point guard for them, making plays for others and creating plays for myself.”"

It makes perfect sense for Love to be the replacement to Cole Anthony just as Anthony was to Coby White and White was to Joel Berry…. and so on.

Many recruiting analysts for Rivals and 247Sports believe the Tar Heels are the team to beat in Love’s recruitment and it may not be that close.

Dan McDonald of Rivals chimed in.

"Caleb Love’s recruitment seems to have some conflicting opinions around it. I’ve heard Louisville chatter for him, but there are also some saying North Carolina could be in the driver’s seat. Could Kansas be in a little deeper than most think? They’ll get the last shot at him on a visit assuming he makes it that far. Love’s recruitment will be interesting to follow when he visits those three schools… I’ll take a little bit of a shot in the dark and predict North Carolina wins out here"

Rivals’ Eric Bossi continued.

"Louisville has done a great job early and is in good standing but for now I’m going with Love’s other ACC finalist, North Carolina, as his eventual choice."

The other program? Another ACC power in the Louisville Cardinals.

"“They told me they just want to put the ball in my hands immediately. They feel like they can get me to be a one and done, and they feel like I can lead them to a national championship, so those pieces, they’re trying to build the team around me, and like I said, they’ll put the ball in my hands immediately.”"

Chris Mack had seen a good amount of talented lead guards come through his program at Xavier and now Louisville as well. Edmond Sumner, Trevon Bluiett, Semaj Christon, Mark Lyons, and Tu Holloway are all names that come to mind and Love fits into that mold perfectly.

Recently, Bossi touched on the race between the two ACC programs.

"Louisville has been the most aggressive with him for the longest and Kansas and North Carolina bring blueblood status to the table. … As of today, I think it’s a real close call between them and the two ACC programs."

Corey Evans of Rivals added his input on Love’s recruitment.

"Kansas and North Carolina offer the blueblood landing spot and they are definitely two to watch but no one has recruited Love longer or invested more attention in him than the Cards."

Obviously the fact that Indiana does have a visit set up means they have a chance. But let’s be real, this seems to be a race between two powerhouses in the ACC and Love will ultimately end up at one of those two programs.

Hoosier State of Mind has long predicted Love to end up in Chapel Hill, and everything that continues to pop up about Love’s recruitment seems to echo that.