Arizona Wildcats Veteran Guard Makes Preseason Watch List for Prestigious Honor
The Arizona Wildcats have a long history of success on the hardwood, and it looks to grow even further under fourth-year head coach Tommy Lloyd.
Lloyd has helped lead the Wildcats to three NCAA tournaments in as many years, advancing to the Sweet 16 in two of those trips to the dance.
With a career record of 88-20 overall, and 47-13 in conference play, that success does not look to be ending any time soon, even with the team finding a new home in the Big 12 conference after the dissolution of the PAC-12.
Even with the success that the program has had throughout its existence, Arizona has never had a player win the Naismith Men's Player of the Year award.
That could change this season, however, as veteran guard Caleb Love has been named as one of the 50 players on the preseason watch list for the prestigious award.
It is but another in a long list of accolades for the guard, who is also an AP Preseason First-Team All-American, as well as being on the watch list for the Jerry West Award which is presented to the top shooting guard in the country.
Love was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year last season, and was a semi-finalist for the Naismith Player of the Year Award in his first campaign with the Wildcats.
Now in his second year with the program, Love will unquestionably be the leader after the departures of Pelle Larsson and Keshad Johnson for the NBA and the transfers of Kylan Boswell and Oumar Ballo.
The veteran guard is no stranger to success on the court in his own right, as he was a part of the North Carolina Tar Heels team that made it to the National Championship Game in the 2021-22 season, but they then proceeded to become the first team in the history of college basketball to start a year as the preseason AP number one team in the country and miss the NCAA Tournament completely in the 2022-23 campaign.
Love has shown solid levels of production throughout his career, putting up 15.5 points, 3.4 assists, and 3.7 rebounds in 32.7 minutes across 137 games.
Last year, the star tallied 18.0 points, 3.4 assists, and 4.8 rebounds in 32.3 minutes across 36 games, the best performance of his career thus far.
The Arizona men's basketball program and coach Lloyd are hopeful for another step forward in Love's game this season, which would work wonders in getting the guard farther in the consideration for the Naismith Men's Player of the Year Award.
