After Sunday’s win over Oregon, Caleb Love told reporters that Arizona will “be ready for ’em when the time comes.” Well, the time is here, as Thursday marks the third time in two seasons these storied programs will face off head to head. After splitting a home-and-home series, which each school stealing a road-win from one another, the Wildcats and Blue Devils are primed for a marquee matchup in Newark, NJ on Thursday. See what Tommy Lloyd, Caleb Love, KJ Lewis, and Trey Townsend said pregame as they preview the Sweet Sixteen matchup between Arizona and Duke.
Tommy Lloyd
Tommy Lloyd on Caleb Love’s recruitment from North Carolina to Arizona:
“You know, it happened really fast, to be honest with you. We were at a position — I liked our pieces coming back, but I just felt like we needed an influx of scoring and shooting.
I talked to Caleb initially, and then a couple days later he committed to Michigan. I think it was just a cordial phone call, it was nice. And then obviously something happened with admissions at Michigan and an opportunity popped up, and we had a lot more clarity of what we needed.
Coach Rob had recruited him at Carolina so there’s a relationship there, and we jumped on a few phone calls, and it went good, and we thought it was going to be a fit on both sides.
I thought it was such a good fit, I thought he was going to commit without visiting. Because I was down in Puerto Vallarta on vacation. It was a tough ending to the season, so my son and I were kind of down there a few days ahead of my wife and our daughters because they were finishing up school.
And obviously family vacations in our business are a big deal, and I remember talking to the Love family, and there was like two days they could visit, and it was right in the middle of the vacation. I’m like, hey, I am down in México on vacation with my family, but there’s an opportunity for you guys to visit if you want, not thinking yeah, we’re good, we’re going to come. Oh, we’d love to visit.
So my wife flew down and right when she landed, I said I’m going back to Tucson for another day. So it was a pretty funny story, but it was awesome trip. Went back, had a great visit with them, and he committed. Listen, it’s been an awesome experience.
I know a lot of people want to talk about Caleb, and I’m obviously more focused on the team all the time. And I understand why they want to talk to him, because it’s an interesting story.
It’s been an awesome experience, and it’s something I would do 100 times over again. And I think if I do it again, I could even do it better and help him out more. He’s an awesome person. I have not seen many 22-, 23-year-olds that have had to endure what he’s had to endure in his life, and he continues to show up every day.
And I’ve never had a bad experience with him with attitude, body language, talking back, anything like that. That’s the real Caleb Love. I get to know the real Caleb Love. You guys know a perception of what Caleb Love is in what you see on the court.
I think a lot of the assessments of him are unfair, but that’s the reality he has to live, and he’s handled it really well.”
Tommy Lloyd on what he looks for when recruiting international players:
“Well, obviously you’re looking for talent and — talent and good character, those two things. Then it’s what you said; you’ve got to figure out if their game is going to translate or be developable over here. Not all of them are.
I’ve had a lot of international players, and it’s worked out for a lot of them. And a few it hasn’t. It’s not like I’ve batted 1,000 on it.
I just always think it’s fun. I think it’s a global game. It’s fun to add that mix into your locker room and have a really diverse culture within your team.
I think strength always lies in diversity, and so I want to create a locker room that has a lot of diversity, and I think it’s a ton of fun.
I think those kids overseas are learning a good style of basketball. If you look at the NBA right now — I don’t know the percentage of players that are international — it’s really high. It’s normal.
To me, what I do is normal. I mean, I’m not a specialist. I’m building normal basketball rosters for high-level teams, and that’s how I’ve always looked at it.”
Tommy Lloyd on balancing Arizona’s explosive play style to be aggressive, but not overly aggressive:
“I mean, I think the way we play is comfortable for us because it’s how we practice every day. We’re not trying to be a perfect team. I’m not trying to be a perfect coach.
But we want to accumulate as many good things as possible, and I think the only way you accumulate as many good things as possible is you’ve got to be aggressive. And when you’re aggressive, you’re going to make some mistakes sometimes, but you’ve got to keep coming. That doesn’t mean that we’re not trying to fine-tune things, or hey, that might a little too tough of a player or too tough of a pass.
To be honest with you guys, I’m not a highlight guy at all. I don’t even sometimes realize, okay, that was a dunk or whatever, that was two points and we’re going back to the other end.
But I also understand that our players — I mean, they’re athletic. They’re talented. They like to do that kind of stuff. It’s just kind of — you’re right, it is a little bit riding a fine line of being aggressive and being overaggressive.
But I think that’s one of the reasons we are successful and hard to play against is because we keep coming.”
Tommy Lloyd on if changes to collegiate athletics, including NIL and the transfer portal, have impacted his coaching:
“Absolutely not. I’m a college basketball coach. Always going to be a college basketball coach. I think that you’re going to find over time that the coaches that continue to be good college basketball coaches and figure out how to navigate this NIL landscape are going to be the most successful.
I think you’re going to find that guys that come here and try to coach them like pros, I don’t think that’s going to work because a lot of them are 18-, 19-years-old. Just because players are making money now, doesn’t mean they’re any better than they were 5, 10, 20 years ago. They’re still the same players and they still need to be developed if they want to get to the next level or be good in college.
NIL is something that on a daily basis we don’t even talk about in our program. I’m literally coaching the same way I have for the last how many years. I understand it’s part of the game. I understand it’s part of getting players to come to your school. But on a day-to-day basis in our culture, they’re treated the same as they ever have been.
And I think that’s important that they are treated that way. You know what, to be a pro is something you have to learn how to do. And there’s lots of guys that think they know or skip steps to be a pro, and they don’t make it. I’m not going to do that to our guys. I’m going to continue to give them the same foundation we always have.”
Tommy Lloyd on Caleb Love’s development:
“Listen, Caleb is really a dynamic player. I think people maybe get focused on his shooting or his efficiency sometimes, but the guy has been really good in playing in pick-and-rolls and making plays. He can make all the passes.
He can finish at the rim, he can hit a floater, he can hit a three, he can hit a three off the dribble. He’s just a really dynamic player. You can play him off the ball in pin-downs, all those things. He can push the ball in the break.
I just think he’s just become more well-rounded over time, and I think the thing that’s probably picked up the most is his play making, something we really emphasized and are comfortable teaching how to do. I’m comfortable when the ball is in his hands. Not that I expect perfection, but I know he has the ability to make things happen.”
Tommy Lloyd pregame on the matchup between Arizona and Duke and November, and keys to Thursday’s game:
“We’ll figure out the keys when the ball goes up. But obviously rebounding is always something that’s important for everybody, not just us.
Obviously we’re a different team than when we played them, and we didn’t play good that game. I’m sure they would say they’re a different team, and I don’t think Duke played that great that game. It’s going to be interesting to see how it looks when we get out there tomorrow.
The rebounding is something we’re always going to emphasize, and we know it’s not going to be easy, but we’re here for it.
The three-point percentage, I mean, like I said, the last five games or so, we’ve shot the ball better than we have all year. I don’t know, maybe it’s these sticky NCAA balls and soft rims. I don’t know. But we seem to be shooting the ball pretty good right now and pretty confidently, and let’s hope that continues tomorrow.”
Tommy Lloyd on no Cinderellas advancing to the Sweet Sixteen this season:
“Well, if you’re 4-5 at one point in the season, does it make you a Cinderella? No? Okay.
Hey, I don’t know. It’s hard. The tournament, it feels like it’s just kind of a little bit different every year. One year there’s three or four teams from maybe non-power conferences that break through, and then this year there doesn’t happen to be really any.
I don’t know if there’s enough sample size yet to say this is NIL driven or just how it broke this year. I don’t know why there would be so much difference from last year to this year and I don’t how many teams made it from last year.
But obviously Trey Townsend was on a team at Oakland that I think they won their first game and lost their second last year. I mean, those stories still happen. But to win this second game is really hard.
Nate, our SID, told me only seven teams have made three out of the past four Sweet 16s, and we’re one of them. It’s really hard to win that second game and get to a Sweet 16. And once you’re here, you’ve got to take a breath and you’ve got to come out and be ready for the next fight.
I don’t have enough higher level view to maybe give you the answer you’re looking for on that. I don’t have a good soundbite on that one. But who knows, next year it could be four teams that make it through. This year there’s none. But it is what it is.”
Tommy Lloyd on if he felt a moment when Arizona’s turnaround clicked, or if it was more gradual:
“It’s always a process. Development is always a process, it’s not an event. I knew we were a good team, and I knew we were going to be good. We just had to get through it.
I never had any doubts that we’d be here right now, and I told myself I don’t even know how many times in my own head, we’re getting to the Sweet 16. No matter how we slice it or dice it, we’re going to get to the Sweet 16 and figure it out from there. So we’re here and we’re excited to try to take the next step.
For me, there never was any doubts. It was just a matter of rolling up our sleeves and getting to the work. But I can’t think of an event that was like, okay — I just always believed because I knew we were good.”
Caleb Love
Caleb Love on his collegiate journey, including beginning his career at North Carolina:
“Yeah, I think it’s definitely been a journey. My journey has been a lot of adversity, a lot of ups and downs, and everything in between.
But I think it’s made me who I am as a person and a player. I’ve grown so much over the course of my college career, not only on the court but off the court. I’ve learned so much, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
But we are here now, and I thank God for keeping me, and I trust in Him that every situation, He’s going to have me covered.”
Caleb Love on his game-winning shot against Duke in the 2022 Final Four:
“I made the shot.
It really has no relevance to this game coming up. I just want to focus on the game plan that we have set. I want my focus to be with this group.”
Caleb Love pregame on the keys for Arizona against Duke:
“Just executing our game plan. The physicality of the game, being unaffected by any outside sources, whether that’s refs or turnovers or anything like that, we’ve just got to play Arizona basketball to the best of our ability. We’ve got to play together. Our offense has got to click and things like that.
Then our defense, I think we’ve grown in that area throughout the whole year, and I think that’s going to separate us.”
Caleb Love pregame on his past success against Duke and the challenges this current Blue Devils team presents for Arizona:
“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. Me being from St. Louis, I’m not afraid of anything, anybody. I think just me channeling that, my inner St. Louis in me.
But this Duke team does — 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.
Like Trey said, we’ve got to match their physicality of the game, and I think we’ll have success if we do that.”
Caleb Love on his postgame interview after the win over Oregon:
“Yeah, I didn’t want to give them no fuel or bulletin board material. I just wanted to focus on what this group got to do and not give them anything that they can feed off of.”
Caleb Love pregame on if he and Arizona are tired of playing Duke:
“No, not at all. It’s the next game. I’m loving the guys that I’m going into battle with. We’ve been so locked in since we got here, since we found out we’ve got to play Duke. We’re not shying away from anything, and we’re not running away from the fact that this is another game and that this is a game that we have to win.”
Caleb Love on Tobe Awaka and Jaden Bradley getting a chance to play closer to home on the East Coast:
“Yeah, for sure. We know that’s a factor, them being close to home. We want to take care of our brothers. They’re going to come out with the ultimate energy, the ultimate excitement playing in front of probably a lot of their family. We want to take care of our brothers by giving it our all and making sure that they win in front of their family.”
KJ Lewis
KJ Lewis pregame on the keys for Arizona against Duke:
“I think just executing the game plan on both sides of the ball. Also being physical and matching their physicality and their rebounding is going to be a big key for the victory. And then obviously taking care of the ball.”
KJ Lewis pregame on Arizona playing Duke in the Sweet Sixteen given the history between the two programs:
“I think Trey hit it right on the head, and Caleb, as well. It’s just another game for us in the way to get to our goal. But obviously we’re super excited for the opportunity, and what happened in the past stays in the past. We’re just looking forward to tomorrow and going out there and playing Arizona basketball.”
Trey Townsend
Trey Townsend on Arizona’s growth from the beginning of the season to now:
“Yeah, I mean, we’ve gone through a lot of adversity throughout the season. Had our ups and downs early on, and I think that’s helped us learn how to finish games and battle through that. It’s easy to kind of fold down when you’re expected to win a lot of games right off the beginning of the season. We didn’t to that.
We were 4-5 at one point, but we were able to turn that around once conference play started. And I give a lot of credit to the Big 12 conference for preparing us for this tournament, as well, just the physicality of everything, and we just never lost faith in our guys. Coach never lost faith in us, and we just believed that we were meant to be here.
I think that’s been showing end of February into March and hopefully onward.”
Trey Townsend pregame on the keys for Arizona against Duke:
“Yeah, basketball is a game of runs, and both teams are going to have highs and both teams are going to have lows. Being able to stay in the middle of that, not get too high and not get too low and understand those runs are going to come for both sides, it’s whichever team can handle that the best. And also executing the game plan and stuff like that.
Basketball as well as a lot of sports is mainly just a thing of runs and just being able to weather the storm and appreciate the highs and execute the game plan.”
Trey Townsend on being a voice and face for the team over the last couple of weeks:
“Yeah, it’s an honor that my coaching staff and my teammates believe in me as a player, but just as a person, as well. I came in here a fifth-year guy just trying to bring a level of leadership, maturity, just being an older guy, especially being in this tournament.
I was fortunate enough to play in it last year with Oakland, so I was able to learn a lot from that experience. And just trying to bring all that to this journey with these guys, just trying to pass the messages along, just trying to enjoy this opportunity and this moment. Because so many teams play their whole season just to get here and don’t even make it.
So the fact we’re here, just appreciate it all and appreciate being with this one team because you’re only going to be with this one team for this one season. I’ve been trying to pass that message along and be as much of a leader I can — you know, whatever I am on the scoring chart or whatever it is, I feel I can bring any sort of leadership and mentorship to the team.”
Trey Townsend pregame on Arizona playing Duke in the Sweet Sixteen given the history between the two programs:
“Yeah, I mean, I kind of relate that back to my last answer. Really having an opportunity to play in this tournament, I look at as a special thing. Obviously two historic programs playing at this stage of the tournament is such a special thing. But I look at it as every single game, no matter who you’re playing, is such a special opportunity. I’m fortunate for that.
Obviously the lights are going to be bright in the game, but as Caleb was saying, it is just the next game. But we understand it’s a special opportunity, and there’s a lot of significance to it.”