Transfer Love can't wait to hit the court with Arizona
Call it a sign. Say it was meant to be.
Koi Love doesn’t care.
She’s just over the moon that she is an Arizona Wildcat and gets to play for Adia Barnes.
Love, who announced that she was transferring from Vanderbilt to Arizona on Wednesday on Twitter, said “It’s a perfect match.”
The seeds were planted a month ago when Love filled out her NCAA Tournament bracket. She picked Arizona to advance to the national championship game. She was one of the few outside of the Arizona fan base and the team that the Wildcats could go that far
“I go with teams who I think have the most heart and who are going to play the hardest,” Love said.
“I think that when it comes down, especially the last couple games in the championship — the Elite Eight, Final Four — it’s about who lays the best together and who’s willing to do what their coaches tell them to do.
“I feel like Arizona was that best team … I think the run that they had was deserved, because they do exactly that.”
When Love put her name in the transfer portal, she received a call from Arizona right away, just a few days before the Wildcats played UConn in the Final Four. Love even said to Barnes that she should be “focusing on the game” and not talking to her in that moment. Yet, Barnes was persistent.
“She (Barnes) wanted me, she wanted me to come here and basically slip right in and that’s the plan,” Love said. “It was surreal. It was very humbling. I’m so grateful and just excited.”
As this past year didn’t count against a player’s eligibility, Love will have three years to play at UA.
The six-foot sophomore forward nearly averaged a double-double (20.8 points and 9.5 rebounds per game) in Vanderbilt’s shortened season. After only eight games the program shut down because of COVID-19 related issues, injuries and season opt outs.
Love scored 32 points against Kentucky and 29 points against VCU, while grabbing 76 rebounds and 20 steals for the season.
As a freshman in 2019-20 she was named to the All-SEC freshman team and was on the first-year SEC Academic Honor Roll. In her career, she is shooting 47% from the field.
Love describes her overall game as dominating. She can score on all three levels which makes her a matchup problem for opponents. And she plays defense, where it all starts for Arizona.
Love said that her knack for rebounding is just natural. Although, her dad, Freddie Hamilton, would say “It’s a gift.”
“Even when I was younger, and I was smaller than a lot of players, I was always able to go get rebounds,” Love said. “I think what clicked for me when I was older is that ‘hey, if you go get the rebound, you can just go dribble it up the court.’
“I’ll do anything for my team. Scoring, rebounding, passing anything defense, that’s absolutely … whatever it takes to win the game, I’m doing it.”
Once she finishes up her semester, the Florida native, will head to Oakland to work on her game with her dad and a basketball trainer using the plan she is getting from the Wildcats next week. She will be in Tucson in July when the rest of the Wildcats come back for summer training.
Love is the oldest sibling — younger sister Tyra Hamilton is 18 and brother KP Love is 11 — and the only one who plays basketball.
Her dad was the one who sparked her interest in basketball. She was a cheerleader and he kept asking her “Why do you want to cheer for people when you can just be the one they’re cheering for?”
He asked her to try basketball and she really didn’t want to because at the YCMA it was “only boys and dirty. I wasn’t really feeling it. But I went to the one practice and I never looked back,” Love said.
“I love basketball so much. I can even talk about it all day. I everything about it. Just the hard work; the sweat; being able to go out there and know that you can do anything with the ball; winning; being around people; meeting new people; going different place; playing for something that’s bigger than you,” Love said.
And that’s what brought her to Arizona. That and an instant connection with Barnes during that very first conversation. Love said, “she stole me away.”
“Coach Adia’s spirit for the game was so magnetic. … I felt like I already went there,” Love said. “I love Coach Adia. She is so poised.
“She never gets flustered no matter what part of the game it is, no matter the runs that the other team you’re making, or even her team is making.
“I love that. I think that having a calm coach on the sideline, being able to look over and knowing that your coach is going to have your back no matter what type of shots you take, or anything like that. think that is so comforting as a player. That’s another thing that drew me there.
“And just how hard they play. I talked to Coach Adia, she was just like, ‘my girls play hard, and they’ll do whatever is asked of them.’ As a player I know that the only type of coach that have gotten that type of play out of me are coaches that I really loved and truly respect. …
“Really, honestly, as soon as she offered me that was the only school I was thinking about since then. … I can’t wait to be there and leave my legacy. I think the next three years are going to be very fun and just as lit as this one has been.”