Arizona guard Caleb Love has been through it all.
Heading into Thursday night’s East Regional semifinal against Duke – a quite familiar opponent – Love has come almost full circle. Love started his career as a hot-shot five-star freshman at North Carolina in Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams’ final season. Four years and many ups-and-downs later, Love faces Duke for the 10th time in a game he must win to keep his college basketball career alive.
Duke is just one part of the story, though. For Love, Thursday’s matchup represents a chance for him to show how he has grown since his tumultuous exit from North Carolina. The past two seasons at Arizona have been Love’s most productive and consistent of his career. But there remains a nagging narrative.
Love has had success against Duke in the past. He has averaged 15.8 points against the Blue Devils in those previous nine games, and three times has scored at least 22.
What accounts for that success?
“I just think that me not being afraid of the moment and me trying to impose my will,” he said.
But few expect Love and Arizona to beat Duke on Thursday night. “This Duke team – they’re physical, they’re long, they’re athletic and things like that,” Love said. “We’ve got to play mind games and things like that to create advantages for ourselves on both ends of the floor.”
Love arrived at North Carolina as one of the most acclaimed players in the 2020 signing class after playing at Christian Brothers College High in St. Louis for coach Justin Tatum, the father of NBA star Jayson Tatum. In his first season in Chapel Hill, Love averaged 10.5 points and 3.6 assists in 28 minutes a game, and was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team.
As a sophomore, Love became a star. In Hubert Davis’ first season as coach of the Tar Heels, Love averaged 15.9 points, 3.6 assists, 3.4 rebounds and shot 36 percent from three-point range. He also helped lead North Carolina to the national championship game by etching his name into Tar Heels lore with a 28-point performance in a semifinal win over Duke, ending Mike Krzyzewski’s coaching career.
But Love struggled in the championship game loss to Kansas. His performance – 13 points on 5-of-24 shooting, with four turnovers – would become a key part of the narrative that Love has had to deal with since: That he is an inconsistent, all-or-nothing, perhaps even selfish player.
The Top 50 Players in the Portal
UPDATED April 24, 2025: Boogie Fland was a last-minute addition to the portal before it closed on Tuesday. And he enters our updated Top 50 rankings.
Jai Lucas Cut an Early Exit From Duke. Now He’s Building Fast at Miami.
The 36-year-old assistant left Durham before the start of the postseason. His recruiting haul for the Hurricanes includes a freshman who backed out of his commitment to the Blue Devils.
That narrative got louder during Love’s junior season. While his scoring average increased to 16.8 points per game, his assist average dropped to under three per game and his three-point percentage dipped under 30 percent. To make things worse, North Carolina had a disastrous season. The preseason No. 1 Tar Heels failed to make the NCAA Tournament and declined an invitation to play in the NIT. And there were rumblings of chemistry issues on the team involving Love and fellow guard RJ Davis.
The situation became untenable for Love and the Tar Heels, and he decided to transfer.
At first, Love announced he was transferring to Michigan. But after there was an issue with the admissions process, Love had to look elsewhere. Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd jumped in and things moved quickly.
“I thought it was such a good fit. I thought he was going to commit without visiting,” Lloyd said Wednesday. Love and his family did visit and he committed soon after.
That decision has turned out to be a good one. Last season, Love averaged 18 points, the highest average of his career, while also posting career-highs in field goal percentage and rebounds and a career-low turnover rate. He was named Pac-12 Player of the Year as well as an Associated Press third-team All-American.
Arizona won the Pac-12 regular season title and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. But the narrative cropped back up in a big way following a regional semifinal loss to Clemson. Love scored 13 points and was 5-of-18 from the field, including a dreadful 0-of-9 from three-point range.
This season, Love’s fifth as a collegian, he has been good again. He’s averaging 16.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists, and was named first-team All-Big 12.
“It’s been an awesome experience and it’s something I would do 100 times over again,” Lloyd said about coaching Love. “He’s an awesome person. I have not seen many 22-, 23-year-olds that have had to endure what he’s had to endure in his life and he continues to show up every day.
“And I’ve never had a bad experience with him with attitude, body language, talking back, anything like that. That’s the real Caleb Love. I get to know the real Caleb Love. You guys know a perception of what Caleb Love is in what you see on the court. I think a lot of the assessments of him are unfair, but that’s the reality he has to live and he’s handled it really well.”
The ebbs and flows of Love’s career to date are not lost on him.
“It’s definitely been a journey. My journey has been a lot of adversity, a lot of ups-and-downs and everything in between,” he said Wednesday. “But I think it’s made me who I am as a person and a player. I’ve grown so much over the course of my college career – not only on the court, but off the court. I’ve learned so much and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
On the court, it is clear Love has improved his overall game over the past two seasons. The numbers point to it and his coaches can see it.
“Listen, Caleb is really a dynamic player,” Lloyd said. “I think people maybe get focused on his shooting or his efficiency sometimes. But the guy has been really good in playing in pick-and-rolls and making plays. He can make all the passes.
“I just think he’s become more well-rounded over time and I think the thing that’s probably picked up the most is his playmaking, something we really emphasized and are comfortable teaching how to do. I’m comfortable when the ball is in his hands. Not that I expect perfection, but I know he has the ability to make things happen.”
Duke coach Jon Scheyer, who has seen a lot of Love, notices the improvement in Love’s game.
“I think just his game has grown, I think just with the job Tommy has done, the way they play up-tempo. He’s the same player in terms of how he scores and all that. He’s just better at everything,” Scheyer said. “But I mentioned the passing. I think that’s been noticeable.”
Love is coming off one of the best performances of his career, a 29-point, 9-rebound, 4-assist effort in Arizona’s second-round victory over Oregon. Can he follow it up with a similar performance against a Duke team that is long, athletic, deep and is ranked fourth in defensive adjusted efficiency, per KenPom.com?
Those writing his narrative are waiting to see.
