Love defies selfish rap with smooth transition to Arizona
Arizona’s Caleb Love arrived from North Carolina with a reputation. He was selfish, a bad teammate, took too many bad shots.
As is the case with most social media hyperbole, perception didn’t meet reality once Love put on a Wildcats uniform.
“Everybody had these preconceived notions about the kid coming out of Carolina and it couldn’t have been further from the truth,” Arizona associate head coach Jack Murphy said. “He’s been an amazing teammate, an amazing competitor and a great learner.”
The Wildcats are in the Sweet 16 for the second time in three years under coach Tommy Lloyd, facing Clemson in Los Angeles on Thursday. An Arizona victory and one by North Carolina against Alabama would pit Love against his former team in the Elite Eight.
Love has been a huge part of Arizona’s success.
The 6-foot-4 guard leads the Wildcats with 18.1 points per game while averaging 4.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He was named the Pac-12 player of the year and a third-team Associated Press AllAmerican after leading Arizona to the Pac-12 regular-season title.
Love also has given Arizona something that was missing the past couple of years: someone who doesn’t wilt when the game is on the line.
A year ago, Arizona found itself in a tight game against Princeton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. With no go-to player, the Wildcats couldn’t come up with the big plays down the stretch and were bounced from the bracket as a No. 2 seed, quickly extinguishing what was expected to be a deep March run.
That won’t be the case in crunch time this year.
“You want to play in these moments, these bigtime games,” Love said.
At North Carolina, he scored 30 points against UCLA in the 2022 Sweet 16 and followed that by scoring 22 of his 28 in the second half against rival Duke in the Final Four, sending the Tar Heels into the championship game.
“He’s not afraid of the moment,” Murphy said. “At the end of the day, he’s a winner. He doesn’t shy away from it”