While still scoring in bunches, Arizona's Caleb Love is proving more efficient

That's because Caleb Love just keeps scoring.

The Wildcats’ transfer guard from North Carolina scored 53 points over Arizona’s two games last weekend to hit 2,000 points for his four-year college career, including a 20-point outburst in the first half of Arizona’s 91-75 win over Washington on Saturday, earning him the school’s nomination for Pac-12 Player of the Week.

Love didn’t win the weekly award, which went instead to Colorado’s KJ Simpson, but his scoring and the Wildcats’ success make him a top candidate for the Pac-12's Player of the Year award. Having scored 19 or more points in seven of his past nine games, Love is now averaging 21.44 points in conference games, just barely behind Washington’s Keion Brooks (21.53).

Love also leads the Pac-12 in 3-pointers made in conference games, 3.31. He’s 10th in 3-point percentage at 38.8, but that number is still up markedly from the 30.8% he shot from 3 in ACC games last season.

Overall from the field in conference games this season, Love is shooting 45.7%, also up notably from the 35.6% he shot overall in ACC games last season.

So, while Love has attempted 24.3% of Arizona’s field goals in conference games, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd isn’t complaining.

“He can score in bunches and I'm OK with it as long as he’s taking good shots,” Lloyd said. “He needs to take good team shots and his good team shots might be different than another player's good team shots. But for the for the most part, he's doing that and he's growing in that area.”

The first half of Arizona’s win Saturday may have showed how. Love took 10 of UA’s 34 shots — but made six of them, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Moreover, five of Love’s made field goals came off assists, and the other came after he rebounded a miss from center Oumar Ballo and put it back in.

“I’m trying to take great shots that my teammates create for me and that's what they did in the first half,” Love said. “Just taking the great ones, getting to the basket, taking catch-and-shoot 3s.”

Point forward

Another individual number that keeps jumping out for the Wildcats: Assists by wing Pelle Larsson, who had a combined 11 assists and zero turnovers between Arizona’s games with WSU and Washington last weekend.

Larsson now leads the Wildcats in assists (3.9) per Pac-12 game, with a 2.3-1 assist-turnover ratio, while he’s also tied with point guard Kylan Boswell in assists for all games (3.67) this season.

Though he’s more of a do-it-all wing player for Arizona who sometimes even guards big men, Larsson started at point guard late in his freshman season at Utah in 2020-21 and is now considered to have NBA point guard potential, one reason he’s now projected to become a high second-round pick next June.

“I think he's always been a been a willing passer, and he’s been a good passer,” Lloyd said. “I think he's developing into a great passer. In order to be a great passer, you’ve got to be able to see things a step ahead, and then you have to have enough discipline to turn down tough plays and find things a second later.

"I think he's really developing that with his poise. I'm comfortable with him coming off those ball screens.”

Wildcats drop to No. 6

Arizona dropped from No. 4 to No. 6 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday after its home weekend split.

More significantly, the loss placed Arizona in what appears to be a close group of teams below the first three spots, and CBS' updated bracket projection Monday now has the Wildcats as a No. 2 NCAA Tournament seed.

In the computer metrics, UA is rated No. 4 in Kenpom and the NET, while Torvik has the Wildcats at No. 5.

Houston took over the top spot in the AP poll after UConn lost at Creighton and fell to No. 3. Purdue rose from No. 3 to No. 2. Tennessee is fourth, followed by Marquette. The fourth through 11th teams in the poll all have identical 21-6 records.

Among other UA opponents this season, Duke dropped to No. 10 from No. 8 after beating Miami but losing to Wake Forest, Alabama dropped to No. 14 from No. 13 after beating Florida but losing to Kentucky, and WSU rose from No. 21 to No. 19 after beating the Wildcats but losing at ASU.

Both ASU (14-14) and Washington (15-13) were among the vote-getters outside the Top 25. ASU has the 34th-most votes after being ranked No. 9 on a ballot this week. Arizona was No. 6 on that same ballot.

WSU’s Chinyelu Freshman of Week

The Pac-12 honored another Arizona nemesis Monday when Washington State’s Rueben Chinyelu was named its Freshman of the Week.

A center from Nigeria, Chinyelu came off the bench to post his first career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds in WSU’s 77-74 win over Arizona last Thursday. He had four points and three rebounds in the Cougars’ 73=61 loss at ASU on Saturday.

Simpson picked up his first Pac-12 Player of the Week this season and third of his career after scoring 28 points on 67% shooting in Colorado’s 89-65 win over Utah.