Arizona guard Caleb Love picked up his first Pac-12 Player of the Week award Monday after leading the Wildcats to home victories over Colorado and Utah.
Love, a senior transfer from North Carolina, averaged 19.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in the Wildcats’ home weekend sweep. He shot 59.3% overall while making 4 of 12 3-pointers and dished five assists – including passes to Pelle Larsson and Oumar Ballo against Utah for baskets that made each a 1,000-point college scorer.
Against Colorado, Love also played a role in keeping the Buffs’ leading scorer, K.J. Simpson, to just 5 of 17 shooting with eight turnovers.
Even though he leads the Wildcats in scoring with an average of 17.7 points a game, it was Love’s first weekly Pac-12 honor.
Over the past three seasons at North Carolina, Love was a two-time honorable mention all-ACC pick and twice won the conference’s “Rookie of the Week” award as a freshman in 2020-21 – but never the league’s Player of the Week honors.
The Pac-12 also named USC guard Isaiah Collier its Freshman of the Week after he averaged 19.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists in the Trojans' home sweep of Cal and Stanford.
For the Player of the Week award, Love beat out a competitive field of nominees that included: Cal's Jayson Tyson, who averaged 22.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in the Bears' loss at USC and win at UCLA; ASU's Jose Perez, who averaged 17.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists while playing a key defensive role in the Sun Devils' home wins over Utah and Colorado; and USC's Kobe Johnson, who averaged 17.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists in the Trojans' wins over Cal and Stanford.
VIDEO: During the Arizona men’s basketball team’s 100-81 win at Cal Friday, Dec. 29, 2023, Caleb Love threw down this emphatic “poster” dunk against an overmatched Golden Bears team in Berkeley, Calif. (Courtesy Pac-12 Networks/Arizona Athletics)
