Arizona Wildcats Star Guard Finds Comfort in Hobby Away From Basketball
The Arizona Wildcats are adding more pressure to their student-athletes in the coming season with their first foray in the Big 12 conference, a much tougher challenge than they faced during their time in the PAC-12.
While the team is still expected to perform well this year, with the preseason AP Poll having the Wildcats ranked 10th in the nation, the pressure has mounted nonetheless, and the men have turned to other hobbies outside of basketball to find relief.
Arizona's star guard Caleb Love is entering his fifth season of college basketball and has felt pressure from every direction throughout his collegiate career, which started with the North Carolina Tar Heels, a team he was a member of for their runner-up finish for the National Championship, as well as being a part of the roster when they became the first team in the nation to enter the year as the number one team in the AP Poll and miss out on the NCAA Tournament entirely.
Love found stress release in what was originally just supposed to be a team activity last year, but has now turned into something that the guard loves: bowling.
Love has gotten good at the secondary sport, too, with his average sitting around 190, and his career high hitting 233.
The senior told Bruce Pascoe of tuscon.com that it has brought him so much joy, that he has started thinking about getting his own ball.
It has still been somewhat of a team activity, with Love, KJ Lewis, and Jackson Cook bowling together and working to sharpen each other's game while they take a break from the basketball grind.
“It’s just something to take your mind off the game, take your mind away from all the pressure, I guess,” Lewis told Pascoe, “and just to have a regular night with your teammates and guys.”
It is not unheard of for athletes in the Big Four of North American sports to take up bowling as a means to get away from their normal "9-to-5," with Mookie Betts, three-time World Series Champion including just last week with the Los Angeles Dodgers, most notably finding solace in the hobby, so much so that broadcasters always ask him about it when they get a chance.
While the number one goal in any sport at any level is to win championships, taking time away from work is healthy for anyone in any profession, even those who play a sport.
Finding solace in a hobby is a big deal for anyone anywhere, and Caleb Love finding solace in bowling is no different.
