Caleb Love has another chance to torment Duke in March Madness: ‘Not afraid of anything’
Pervis Ellison still hits Duke fans hard, nearly four decades after keeping Coach K from his first title. Scotty Thurman took the knife in the 1994 national championship game. Richard Hamilton relegated the ’99 Blue Devils team to one of the greatest to never win it all.
Caleb Love handed Duke perhaps its most painful loss of all. And he could soon add another to the list.
In Thursday’s Sweet 16 matchup in Newark, the North Carolina guard turned Arizona star will face Duke for the 10th time in his career.
It will be Love’s first matchup against Duke in the NCAA Tournament since giving the Tar Heels their biggest win of college basketball’s biggest rivalry, ending Mike Krzyzewski’s career at the 2022 Final Four.
After putting up 29 points and nine rebounds in a second-round win against Oregon, Love was asked about the upcoming battle between No. 4 Arizona (24-12) and No. 1 Duke (33-3).
Love gathered his thoughts, building anticipation through silence. He smiled knowingly, biting his tongue and betraying the feelings so clearly written across his face.
“I didn’t want to give them no fuel or bulletin board material,” Love said Wednesday. “I just wanted to focus on what this group’s got to do and not give them anything that they can feed off of.”
He didn’t need to say a word to attract the attention of the opponent or the ire of its fan base.
Love was a freshman when he scored 25 points in a win during his first visit to Cameron Indoor Stadium. He went for 22-5-5 in Coach K’s final game on Duke’s campus.
Then, Love scored 28 points to lead the eighth-seeded Tar Heels to an upset of the top-seeded Blue Devils in the rivals’ only Final Four matchup.
Love, who hit three free throws in the game’s final seconds, made the most devastating shot of the 265 games played in the series, hitting a 3-pointer to put North Carolina up by four with 25 seconds remaining, preventing Krzyzewski from going out on top like John Wooden.
“I just think that me not being afraid of the moment and me trying to impose my will is kind of like St. Louis swagger to the game,” Love said. “I’m not afraid of anything, anybody. I think just me channeling that, my inner St. Louis in me.”
Love, who transferred to Arizona after three seasons in Chapel Hill, picked up his fifth win against Duke last season, leading the Wildcats to a win at Cameron after hitting four clutch free throws and delivering the game-winning assist.
Last season, he was named Pac-12 Player of the Year. This season, he led the Wildcats in scoring (16.8 points), adding 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.2 steals, while earning First Team All-Big 12 honors.
“He can hit shots at any time,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “He’s somebody that’s not afraid. He’s a really good player, so that challenge is there for our guys … I think his game has grown. He’s the same player in terms of how he scores and all that. He’s just better at everything.”
He still believes that every shot will go in, that no shot is a bad shot.
It has allowed him to devastate Duke on multiple occasions. It also cost North Carolina a championship, when Love shot 5 of 24 from the field in the title game against Kansas. It accelerated Arizona’s exit from last year’s NCAA Tournament, when Love shot 5 of 18 in the Sweet 16 loss to Clemson.
It helped Duke secure a 69-55 win at Arizona on Nov. 22, when Love was held to eight points, hitting 3-of-13 shots.
“Listen, Caleb is really a dynamic player,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “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.”
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