Arizona's Caleb Love gets real on facing Duke in March Madness once again
03/26/2025 03:18 PM
The list of players who have played against the Duke Blue Devils as many times as Arizona Wildcats guard Caleb Love has is not a long one. Already, the graduate senior has gone head-to-head with the bluest of college basketball’s blue bloods nine times, and on Thursday March 27th, Love will take the court for a 10th and final meeting against a program that has become intertwined with his own personal legacy.
The Blue Devils and the Wildcats will play for a spot in the 2025 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, but for Caleb Love, this 10th career matchup against Duke means a whole lot more. On one hand, this could potentially be the final game of Love’s collegiate career. He’ll depart having played in 174 games — the third-most in NCAA Division I history — over five college seasons for two teams in three different conferences, and he’s scored more points than all but 25 players in the sport’s history.
But with a win, Love’s career will continue on for at least one more game, and perhaps more importantly, he’ll have officially etched his name into the fabric of college basketball as arguably the greatest Duke-killer to have ever stepped on the hardwood.
Not only is Love totally unfazed by the prospect of facing Duke once again, he’s admittedly fearless heading into the showdown with the betting favorite to win the National Championship.
"I just think that me not being afraid of the moment and me trying to impose my will, kind of like St. Louis swagger to the game," Love told reporters on Wednesday, per Adam Zagoria of NJ.com. "I'm not afraid of anything, anybody. I think just me channeling the inner St. Louis in me. … This Duke team, they're physical, they're long, they're athletic and things like that. We've got to play kind of mind games and things like that to create advantages for ourselves on both ends of the floor.”
The greatest mind game that Caleb Love could play would be simply reminding the Blue Devils of what he’s done in his pressure moments against the Dukies in the past. Like leading the North Carolina Tar Heels to a win in Coach K’s final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, or following that up with a super-clutch performance in the first ever NCAA Tournament matchup between the in-state rivals in the Final Four just one month later.
In total, Love is 5-4 against Duke in his career, with one of those wins coming in his second game as a member of the Arizona Wildcats. The Blue Devils did score a win over Arizona earlier this season, but with the lights even brighter this time around and the Wildcats playing much better than they were in November, you’d have to imagine Duke fans are wary of having to see Caleb Love one more time.
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