After making a full circle, Arizona's Caleb Love returns home (sort of)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As a kid from St. Louis born to a mother who grew up in Kansas City, Caleb Love knew the question was loaded.

Upon returning to Arizona’s team hotel Wednesday from practice in preparation for a Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal game Thursday, the Wildcats’ standout guard was asked which Missouri city had the best barbeque.

Was it meat slathered in the thick, tomato-based sauces of KC? Or the ribs with a thinner, tangier sauce found in his hometown on the other side of the state?

Love looked up, paused, and grinned.

“I don’t want to get in trouble with my mom,” he said.

Love eventually said “both,” but then let it slip a bit: “I do love Gates barbeque, by the way though.”

That indicated his mom’s homeland probably wins out — Gates is one of the most famed Kansas City BBQ chains — and it maybe wasn’t a surprise. Love actually spent much of his youth visiting relatives in the Kansas City area, hanging out, visiting the Worlds of Fun amusement park and, of course, eating barbeque.

“I spent a lot of time with my grandparents from my mom’s side, just coming up here spending time with family,” Love said. “I kind of came up here for almost every Christmas, Thanksgiving, things like that.

“You know, looking back at those memories, it was fun to be around my little cousins and things like that and just spend time with them.”

Kansas City became a second home of sorts. Now Love is back again, coincidentally this time to begin the final postseason of his five-year college basketball career, having already made a literal full circle outside his home state.

Love has been east to play three seasons at North Carolina, went south to become a Final Four hero at New Orleans in 2022, became the Pac-12 Player of the Year while touring the West last season with Arizona and then spent this season all over the place in the triple-time-zoned Big 12.

He’s played in 168 college games, scored 2,631 points, figuratively said goodbye to the retiring Mike Krzyzewksi in the 2022 Final Four semifinals with 28 points to help North Carolina beat Duke 81-77, then also literally waved goodbye to Duke students when he helped the Wildcats beat the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium earlier last season.

He’s been everywhere, and won in a lot of different places.

Maybe that makes a difference on Thursday.

“Experience is definitely going to help me,” Love said. “It’s going to help this team. We have a lot of guys that’s played in big-time games, big-time moments. A lot of coaches who have been in national championships and Final Fours and things like that. So we’ve got to use that to the best our ability and just be ready to show up every day.”

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The only tricky thing this time is that the Wildcats didn’t know who would be showing up opposite them until late Wednesday night, after Kansas and UCF met in a second-round game for the right to face UA in the quarterfinals.

That was a privilege, having earned a double-bye in the Big 12 tournament, the way UA coach Tommy Lloyd viewed it.

“We were fortunate enough to earn a top-four seed, and I don’t think that needs to go unnoticed,” Lloyd said Wednesday, before the second-round games were played. “I mean, if you’re looking today, Iowa State is playing today, Baylor is playing today, Kansas is playing today.

“You know who’s not playing today? Arizona. I think that says something about this group.”

Besides, Love indicated, it wasn’t much of a problem. He said the focus in practice has been mostly on the Wildcats’ own concepts with some prep and film work for both UCF and Kansas. Love said the Wildcats would watch the UCF-Kansas game live on Wednesday night, while UA is expected to hold a walk-through practice for their specific opponent on Thursday.

“You’ve just got to have the mindset, the awareness that you can be beat by any team, and you can beat any team,” Love said. “Just knowing that going into each and every game, you’ve got to go one for one, win your one for one, and then you go to the next game.

“Whoever we play, I think we have a great plan in place. We’ll be ready.”

Love and most of his teammates have been through the drill many times before. Love has already played in four conference tournaments and 10 NCAA Tournament games, while all UA’s regular rotation players except freshman Carter Bryant have played in conference tournaments.

In addition, Tobe Awaka played in seven NCAA Tournament games with Tennessee, Jaden Bradley played in three for Alabama and Trey Townsend played two with Oakland. The returning Wildcats were part of two Pac-12 Tournaments and three NCAA Tournament games last season, too.

There’s a lot of varying experience, ranging from Love’s last time to Bryant’s first, but Lloyd said he wasn’t necessarily excited about the opportunity for any one player.

“I look at it as our group getting an opportunity to do this together,” Lloyd said. “I’m not very good at slicing it down into those individual things. I’m just excited we’re here. We love playing in knockout tournaments. Obviously, this is a big-time setup and a big-time atmosphere. We’re looking forward to taking advantage of it.”

So is Love. And his mom’s side of the family, of course.

“I’m gonna have a lot of family here,” he said. “It’s gonna be great for them to come see me play, and kind of get that home feel.

“It gives you a little extra motivation to have that many people, for sure. You want to win first and foremost, but you want to play well in front of your family and friends. So I’m definitely excited.”