Missouri makes final cut for Caleb Love

And then two were left.

On Wednesday morning, CBC point guard Caleb Love’s recruitment entered the final stages with a flurry of news.

First, Evan Daniels of 247Sports reported that the five-star prospect has nixed upcoming visits to Louisville and Kansas – effectively leaving Missouri and North Carolina in the mix. Within an hour, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello reported a decision will come within the next week. And finally, Jake Weingarten noted that Love will not host any more in-home sit downs.

To anyone closely tracking the process, none of this is particularly surprising.

A day ago, recruiting analysts began formally entering the predictions and reached a consensus: the Tar Heels are the team to beat. Those prognostications came after Love took an official visit to Chapel Hill last weekend. Meanwhile, the nation’s No. 21 prospect also took a visit to Columbia earlier this month, one that saw MU seemingly move up the pecking order.

As we have written, none of this should catch you off guard. We even talked in depth on the last night’s edition of Dive Cuts, which is available for your listening pleasure.

What was worth monitoring was how long Love and his camp would keep their deliberations going. While MU passed Louisville, taking an official visit would have been an indicator that Love was still open to pitches. And the more time that passed, in theory, presented MU coach Cuonzo Martin and his staff with more opportunities to reiterate their case for why he belongs in Columbia—at least in person.

With the timeline being accelerated, it usually implies the momentum is with the last school to receive a visit. With the Tar Heels long considered the team to beat, it could appear the writing is on the wall.

As we’ve said many times, nothing is certain when it comes to recruiting, so now we wait.