Arizona'a Caleb Love named one of 10 Wooden Award All-Americans

Arizona’s Caleb Love was named to the Wooden Award All-American team Tuesday, making the Wildcats’ senior guard a consensus pick as one of the top 15 players in college basketball this season.

The Wooden Award put 10 players on its All-American team while also naming five of them a finalist for its Player of the Year award: Purdue’s Zach Edey, North Carolina’s RJ Davis, Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, UConn’s Tristen Newton and Houston’s Jamal Shead.

The other four players to join Love as Wooden All-Americans but not finalists included Kansas' Hunter Dickinson, Duke’s Kyle Filipowski, Marquette’s Tyler Kolek and San Diego State’s Jaedon LeDee.

Named the Pac-12 Player of the Year last month, Love was became a second-team All-American of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the United States Basketball Writers Association. In addition, he was one of 10 Naismith Trophy semifinalists, equivalent to another second-team honor.

The Associated Press and Sporting News named Love a third-team All-American earlier this month, meaning Love was just shy of officially becoming a consensus All-American. The NCAA recognizes only consensus first and second team All-Americans.

It was the third straight season the Wildcats have had a player represented in major all-American balloting, with Azuolas Tubelis becoming a consensus second-team pick last season and Bennedict Mathurin doing the same in 2021-22.

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A senior transfer from North Carolina, Love wound up leading Arizona (27-9) in scoring with an average of 18.0 points per game.

Love shot 41.3% overall and 33.2% from 3-point range, though he shot just 20% (10 for 50) from long range over the Wildcats’ final six games — including an 0 for 9 effort in UA’s 77-72 season-ending loss to Clemson in the Sweet 16 last Thursday.

After the Clemson game, Love thanked UA coach Tommy Lloyd and his teammates for their support.

“I’m just grateful for my teammates and my coaches for accepting me, giving me the opportunity of a lifetime when I was kind of in a down spot,” Love said. “I love all these guys. I love my teammates. I love my coaches. I wouldn’t want to be on another team. These guys uplifted me all year. They put confidence in me.”

Winning the Pac-12 Player of the Year honor qualified Love for Arizona’s Ring of Honor. He is expected to be honored in a future season with a banner unfurled in the McKale Center rafters.

Love has one year of college eligibility remaining but said after the Clemson game he hadn’t decided what he will do. ESPN ranked Love the No. 96 available NBA Draft prospect last week but has since dropped him from its top 100.