Arizona's Caleb Love's Lasting Impact on the Program

Throughout the years, Arizona basketball has had many transfers come in the program and either shine, or under perform and not living up to expectations of the coaching staff and fan base.

And in the past 15 years, the number of incoming transfers has grown with how the landscape of college sports has changed making it easier for players to find new homes that better suit their individual needs.

Back in the day, it was a rare thing to add a transfer to the roster and sometimes those players would have to sit out a season depending on the school they were going to. An example of that was point guard TJ McConnell, who sat out the 2012-13 season due to NCAA rules.

The following season, McConnell put together an amazing two-year run by helping get the program to back-to-back Elite Eights and establishing the WIldcats as one of the best teams in the West Coast.

Recently, under coach Tommy Lloyd, Arizona saw former transfer addition Caleb Love play his last collegiate game for the program after spending two seasons in Tucson. Now, Love is set to join Portland on a two-way contract making his NBA dream come true.

During those two seasons, Love was one of the most criticized players on the Arizona roster. Hell, he has been one of the most criticized players nationally during his college career dating back to his time with North Carolina.

The critics talked about the high volume of shots Love would take during a game and felt at times he would shoot his team out of a game. And during those two seasons in Tucson, the Wildcat faithful had the same issue with his game and were vocal about it.

Now, did he take bad shots at times and have some of those faults?

Yes, without question.

However, looking at Arizona’s roster, who else was going to take those shots? Who else was going to step up in big moments and take over games?

The answer is no one. Arizona didn’t have another player the last two seasons that could be a consistent scorer and relieve pressure off of Love.

For every missed shot near the end of games where he went a little cold, Love had just as many clutch moments where he caught fire and helped the team battle back despite the odds stacked against them.

AN example of that was when he hit the game tying halfcourt shot against the Cyclones  this past season to send the game into overtime where UA pulled off the 86-75 upset over then-No. 3 Iowa State.

Overall, Love scored 2,704 points while shooting 38% from the field in five seasons between North Carolina and Arizona during his career. While in Tucson, he scored 1,304 points while shooting 40% from the field.

Even in the team’s final game against Duke in the Sweet Sixteen, Love went out fighting and kept Arizona in the game by scoring 35 points and shooting 52% from the field.

To put it in basketball terms. Love is simply a hooper. The man is pure basketball and understands the art of scoring.

The criticism of Love is somewhat understandable. However, without him, Arizona wouldn’t have been able to make back-to-back Sweet Sixteens.

So, looking back, Love was a highly successful transfer for Arizona and its fan base should be grateful that they had him on the team helping them move in the right direction.

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